Books often start with a ‘catch’—something to start readers feeling eager for more. Charles Williams’ War in Heaven, for example, begins with: “The telephone rang without result, since there was no one in the room but the corpse.” Decades ago, students were often required to memorize the opening lines of Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best »
Turtles lay a hundred eggs, cover them with sand, wish them luck, and head back to sea. Heartless reptiles. We humans tend to prefer warm-blooded, warm-hearted animals (such as bears, chimps, and penguins) that nurture their young and even appear to love them. Do you sometimes feel that God is heartless? Sure, He rescued us, showing grace when we were »
After fighting in World War I, George Stadsklev went to Bible college to become a missionary. He married another Norwegian-American, Mable Hansen, and they soon sailed to Africa. Two of their five children died there as they ministered among the Baoulé people of the Ivory Coast. In 1941, missionaries there had to flee the Nazi occupation. After seeing his wife »
“If there were a god, it would be nice and tame, and it would fit neatly into this little ‘god box’ here, which (in my brilliance) I have designed. I have examined the box, and it’s empty. Plus I have a PhD, so trust me: God does not exist.” With numerous insults and blasphemies thrown in, this is basically »
Hunting elk, I spend most days sitting on a log near where four game trails intersect. An hour before dawn, a flashlight guides me through a mile of dark timber to that log before I turn it off and silently wait for daylight. Even at full moon, night in that forest is so dark I might as well be underground. »
David Wood liked kung fu and communism, and he hated America and Christianity, so China seemed like a logical destination. But he was hugely disappointed — nobody he met in China knew kung fu or believed in communism anymore. And the only other foreigners in town were American Christians! To make matters worse, he liked us. In four years, David and »
This book in my series of ‘Books About God’ may seem to be less about God Himself than about something He has made, but what He has made — especially Heaven — tells us a lot about His character. One of Scripture’s comforting teachings is that the sting of death is reduced by believing God’s many promises to us about »
Suppose that, after Jacob had worked 14 hard years for Rachel’s hand (Gen. 29), Rachel told him, “Okay, Jake, you get fifteen minutes of my attention each day, as long as you don’t wake me up too early.” Or suppose that, after Jesus died for us, we said, “Thanks, Lord. You can have Sunday mornings, plus the time »
In addition to Eva’s December birthday, our family observes May 21 as Eva’s “gotcha day.” On May 21, 1997, two years of frustrating paperwork and waiting ended, and our family of three finally became four. That’s also when I began paying much more attention to what the Bible says about God adopting us. Theologians write whole books »
During a Bible study several years ago, I heard a phrase I dislike. Struggling to explain a difficult verse, a friend said, “I like to think of God as...” ARRRGH! No—I wouldn’t say it was actually evil to say this; still, this common expression is galling (and often misleading), because what we ‘like to think’ about God is »