I have a friend whose parents believed that if they bought life insurance, they would die the next day. They had a fatalistic attitude: prepare for death and you will die imminently; don’t prepare and you will live a long healthy life. The result of their philosophy was predictable: when they died, their children had no insurance money to cover the funeral. I’ve seen this attitude many times in my years of ministry, and later in this newsletter, I’ve chosen to give some Christian advice about death, dying and funerals to help others overcome it.
Imagine, if you will, a highway that connects Baghdad with Cairo and Jerusalem; a highway without tolls and borders! Imagine Israel leading the world in religious observance, without rivalry from any nation on earth. People could spend their money on personal and social projects, without a dime going toward defense!
A dream, you say? No, not a dream, but a future reality predicted by Isaiah the prophet. As you read his predictions, keep in mind that much of present-day Iraq is the ancient land of Assyria: “In that day there will be a highway from Egypt …
Sharing the Free Gift that Matters this Christmas… and a story to encourage you
“We don’t have gifts here. We have no money and there is nothing to buy in the stores. The best we can do is get together for a meal and sing carols—and make sure that the neighbors don’t hear us.”
How different Christmas is for my friend Victor Krutkow, whom Rebecca and I visited in Belarus several years ago! But in many countries of the world, whole populations will neither give nor receive Christmas presents.
Many Americans will also not give gifts this year—for lack of …
So, what do we do when our candidate—the one we believe God wanted us to vote for—does not get elected to office? Worse, what if someone we believe will actually harm our country is elected in a landslide?
What now?
Actually, as believers we can take heart, for our hope lies beyond the political process. The real battle in this nation is not political, nor even moral. Back behind the so-called “culture wars” is a theological battle that rages, for the most part, undetected by the human eye. For example, the reason we have …
We’ve sung the words a thousand times: “O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant… O come let us adore Him.” We envy the shepherds who actually saw the baby Jesus, and returned with a message of joy that pierced the midnight air. We can’t join them in Bethlehem, but thankfully, we can adore Jesus right where we are, for today He is at the right hand of the Father. That’s why the invitation is to all of us—“O come let us adore Him.”
But how do we “adore Him?”
“This people honor me with their lips, but their heart …
Someone has said that people live their lives “crucified between two thieves—the regrets of yesterday and the anxieties of tomorrow.”
The word worry means ‘to be torn in two.’ And that is exactly what anxiety does—it tears us apart. Our bodies might obediently go in one direction, but our minds are somewhere else. The result is that we live with tension; we cannot sleep and we cannot enjoy the present moment. Worry causes us to work against ourselves and hinders our fellowship with God.
Don’t you wish that you could worry say, from 8:00 pm …
On the one hand, we belong to the kingdom of heaven with all of the rights and privileges enjoyed by God’s sons and daughters. On the other hand, we are to be salt and light in this world. How much time should we give to each kingdom? Or, better, can we serve the kingdom of God even when actively involved in the kingdom of man?
We face a year in which politics will dominate the news. Many will line up behind one party or another, based …
You may be acquainted with my book Hitler’s Cross, in which I attempt to answer two questions: how could Nazism have arisen in Germany, a country that prided itself in its freedoms? And, why was Hitler not condemned by the pastors of Germany with a unified and consistent voice? Of course, I also paid tribute to those who did courageously stand against Hitler’s agenda.
I have taken this study a step further in my new book, When a Nation Forgets God: 7 Lessons We Must Learn from Nazi Germany. Parallels between Nazi Germany and the …
I hope you enjoy this edition of the Moody Church Radio News. We want to keep you up to date on God’s blessing on your ministry through Moody Church Radio. Many friends have written, asking about our broadcasts, or wanting to know more about The Moody Church. These pages are sent to you with the prayer that our relationship with you will be strengthened, and that you will be free to contact us if we can be of help to you in some way.
As we begin with a new administration in Washington, …
Early this year (2007) I attended a conference in New York on the topic of Islam that included speakers from Africa, Europe, and Australia. The task before us was ominous: what should we do about radical Islam and its intention to destroy the church? Speakers from Africa gave statistics and described the burning of churches, the killing of families, and seizing of property. Representatives from Europe reported on intimidation and threats, and yes, killings too. Europe clearly remembers the “cartoon crisis” when innocent people were killed in the violence. Because the percentage of Muslims in …
