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An illustration from Dr. James Merritt

In the olden times of imprisonment for debt, it would have been quite correct for you to step into the cell of a debtor and say to him, “I have freed you,” if you had paid his debts and obtained an order for his discharge. But he is still in prison! Yes, but you really liberated him as soon as you paid…

I saw the other day a remarkable picture, which I shall use as an illustration of the way of salvation by faith in Jesus. An offender had committed a crime for which he must die, but it was in the olden time when churches were considered to be sanctuaries in which criminals might hide themselves and…

You may have seen a deep mountain lake that has been filled to the brim by innumerable streamlets from all the hillsides round about. Here comes a torrent gushing down, and there trickles from the moss that has overgrown the rock a little drip, drip, drip, which falls perpetually. Great and small tributaries…

If your house were on fire, you would rejoice to hear that the fire engines were coming down the street. You would feel an absolute certainty that they were coming to you, because your house was in a blaze if no one’s else might be. If there were appointed today a commissioner for the relief of such…

Who among us can tell all the perils of this mortal life? I remember reading a work in which there were collected together numerous instances of the simple means by which men have died, such as the swallowing of a fruit stone, or the sticking of a small bone in the throat, the breathing of some invisible…

A researcher at the Oxford Library in Britain uncovered a fragment of lost wisdom from a 12th century French poem in the binding of another book. Tamara Atkins was researching the reuse of book during the 12th century when she found a fragment from a poem, entitled, “Siege d’Orange” The poem tells the…

An unusual pair of glasses rescued from a landfill in New Zealand turned out to be more than 300 hundred years old and were worth more than the finders imagined. The Tip Shop is a store operated by the city council of Wellington and often auctions unusual items rescued from the trash. The glasses were…

In the aftermath Natural Disasters, people often asked "where is God?" Many people think that God is absent or has left them because of the devastation. One response to that has to do with action rather than talking. The Southern Baptist Disaster Relief teams respond with urgency to the affected areas…

When Southwest Airlines changed to a lighter, more durable, eco-friendly faux leather seat to reduce the weight of their planes and save fuel, they found that had an unusual problem. They had about 43 acres of used leather from the old seats and did not want it to go into a landfill. Instead of throwing…

Joel Sweeney of River Falls, Wisconsin had a drinking problem. He has eight drunk-driving infractions. He was in near death accidents three times. After spending three years in jail he decided to get sober. Since 2013 he has been the town’s designated driver. He gives free rides to people as they leave…

In his weekly editorial for the magazine, The Week, William Falk tells about a show on the Food Network called Restaurant Impossible. In each episode of the program, chef and restaurateur Robert Irvine accepts an invitation to revive a dying family restaurant somewhere in Smalltown, America. Irvine critiques…

Amsterdam has such a big problem with bicycles being thrown into the city’s canals that it is a full time job fishing them out to redeem them. Every day a crew patrols the canals in a boat with a large claw attached. They dredge the bottom of the canal pulling in the bikes and other items that wind up…

A new initiative in Egypt allows residents to redeem their trash for extra cash. Many Egyptians stood in line in the capital city of Cairo carrying bags of old books, plastic water bottles, and other recyclable materials to exchange for extra money. The country was seeking a way to reduce huge piles…

One group in today’s culture that is not tolerated is those who are ex-homosexual. Former homosexual Christopher Doyle of Voice of the Voiceless told the crowd: “Anti-ex-gay extremists say that I do not exist—that we don’t exist.” When planning an evening reception they received enough email and phone…

In 2013, an unknown arsonist set fire to the Palmetto Presbyterian Church. Fortunately, the damage was limited to some soot on the exterior of the building and damage to the church’s Gothic mahogany doors. While authorities search for the person responsible, church members are celebrating a transformation.…

Orlando was an 11-year-old Arizona boy who had spent years in a Mexican orphanage before winding up in foster care in Phoenix, AZ. When he joined Jodi Kacz’s reading intervention class the teacher took a shine to Orlando. Kacz had a heart problem that kept her from having her own children but when she…

Danny Duchene had been in prison for twenty years serving a double life sentence when he first read Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose Driven Life. The book changed Duchene’s life and led to the beginning of a “Purpose Driven Church” group in the prison, and the introduction of the Celebrate Recovery program,…

In 1950, a B-36 bomber carrying a training nuclear weapon crashed in the ocean off the western coast of Canada. The crew jettisoned the bomb before bailing out themselves. For over 60 years the Mark 4 bomb lay undiscovered on the ocean floor. That all changed when Sean Smyrichinsky may have inadvertently…

Three weeks into the 2013 New Year, 33% of Americans admitted they’ve already broken or cheated on their New Year’s resolutions. This demonstrates the near impossibility of turning over a new leaf. Making a life change that puts one on a heavenward path is especially tough. In fact, it is impossible.…

Engineers from the Colorado School of Mines have found a new way to get minerals. Rather than dig them out of the ground, the researchers are finding resources in the trash. So far, the project has been able to turn left-over banana peels, eggshells, and rice husks into crystal-clear glass. The process…

In Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, Eric Metaxas writes, “The authority of a servant leader, as opposed to the authoritarianism of the mis-leader, came from God and was a leadership of serving those below oneself.” —Jim L. Wilson Metaxas, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, 269. Mark 10:42–45…

Russell Moore and his wife adopted two sons from Russia and when the legal process was finally over and they went to pick them up from the orphanage the transition proved to be harder than they had expected. Their new sons had never been outside. They had never even ridden in a car. As they pulled away…

Ken Myers is the author of All God’s Children & Blue Sued Shoes as well as the host and producer of the Mars hill Audio Journal. In a recent interview with Marvin Olasky of World Magazine he talks of America’s cultural heart attack. Myers says, “We believe in nothingness—that is, we believe that anterior…