What are the chances that churches could devote 50% of their budgets for missions? Some prove that it is possible to grow from giving beyond themselves to see the gospel embedded in places where it currently has little influence.
Parents can too easily experience continual frustration and marital conflict because of their children’s lack of obedience. Homes lack joy. Instead, they are filled with angry voices and aggravated cries, as parents try their best to do a job they have no training for and few (if any) healthy role models.
"Perspective turns pressure into praise, problems into possibilities, and pain into purpose, and sometimes the only difference between misery and ministry is the way you look at it." Evangelist J.John finds gratitude in a harrowing trip to Australia.
Have you ever been in a conversation with someone who doesn’t know Jesus and felt that familiar tension build inside you, the pressure to say the right thing, a sense of insecurity creeping in? Sometimes a well placed question can open up gospel opportunities, here's an evangelism resource that can help you overcome such insecurity.
Years after she lived through unspeakable violence, young Ruth’s smile emerges free from trauma but she still bears some physical effects of a people facing continuous threats from tribal, economic, and religious opposition to their presence on the land. Yet hope remains as the people trust in Jesus as their deliverer.
Good gospel-focused translation should bring us closer to each other and closer to Jesus. When done well, it transforms lives like the lives of Rita and her daughter while watching The Chosen. As a result, Rita has gone on to serve with Come and See. This is her story of gospel transformation.
For the most part, churches have not developed a robust theology of intercultural engagement. Instead, churches in multi-cultural contexts resist the influence of cultural newcomers by sanctifying their pre-existing dominance. In doing so, great opportunities for spiritual growth are missed.
It is a remarkable thing to be human, to be made from God’s breath and in God’s image. In each human being you see the fingerprints of both the divine and the demonic. Put together our worst and our best tendencies, and everything in the middle, and we appear as confusing creatures.
How should followers of Jesus respond in a time of political turmoil and cultural fragmentation, when the loudest voices often drown out the wisest? We don't need to guess. God has revealed what the Lord requires of us, and Jesus demonstrated the practicalities of it. God's people must keep justice, loving mercy, and humility at the forefront of our ethics as a compass to guide us.
South Africa celebrates Pride Month during October even as persecution of homosexuals is rising in other African states. This should be of concern for Christians as freedom of belief has long been a commitment of Protestant Christians. It doesn’t mean Christians must agree with differing beliefs, but it does mean that we must support the human right of others to hold, practice, and celebrate their beliefs as we have the right to hold, practice, and celebrate ours.
When God calls us out from our homes, we go as strangers to lands that are strange to us. Yet, God goes ahead of us and stays with us, challenging us to always trust in him. Here is the experience of one young woman who has been challenged to use her gifts for the sake of the gospel and a better world.
Gratitude is powerful medicine. It is like oxygen for the soul. We don’t thrive without it. We are hard-wired to say "thank you". Psychologists now confirm what scripture has always taught: grateful people are happier, healthier and more hopeful. In contexts of rising conflict, gratitude is a healthier way forward. Ask the Holy Spirit to form that fruit in you for your benefit and those around you.
