The Jehovah’s Witnesses (Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society) began at a study with Charles Taze Russell in 1879, and now boasts 7.5 million adherents. Their magazine, Awake, has a circulation of more than 20,000,000 in over 130 languages. Russell proved himself a false prophet by declaring that 1914 would be the end of the […]
We might think it goes without saying—”It is for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Gal 5:1, BSB)—but the Spirit thinks it needs to be said. This story about Grady, behind prison bars, reminds us that we’re no longer enslaved by our old ways; we’re freed to be God’s agents of supernatural change. […]
“O the sweet rest that’s prepared for the faithful Will be His blest and final, ‘Well done.’” —L.E. Campbell They broke camp at their rendezvous site by “the river of Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem” (Ezra 8:31). Rather than ask the king for help, they had requested a security […]
CHRIST the CURSED ONE: “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’” (Gal 3:13). We were sitting in a restaurant in Jerusalem when approached by a Jewish physician. “May I sit with you,” she asked. […]
“Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know” (Jer 33:3). Henry Bosch, long-time editor of Our Daily Bread, recounted the story of a Christian pilot whose plane had been hit by anti-aircraft fire and was plummeting towards the ocean. “Immediately I began to […]
One evening, Abigail Luffe was accosted on her way home. “What’s in your bag, lady?” Abigail held up her Bible: “I will give you this, the most valuable thing I possess, for it says, ‘For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever…’” Paralyzed with fright, she lost the […]
I was a daydreamer. Watching a construction crew outside the school window, I could build a castle in the sky in the time it took them to lay a few bricks. Thus, the most common words of affirmation from my teacher were, “Pay attention!” I WAS paying attention—just about different things. As I matured, I […]
Commentators differ on the dollar value of the treasure to be transported, but all agree it was a lot! The four-month journey that lay before Ezra and his companions would not be easy. Marauders hid in the hills, waiting to rob the unsuspecting. And they were transporting a king’s ransom, “the silver, the gold, and the […]
CHRIST the DAYSPRING: “The Dayspring from on high has visited us; to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace” (Lk 1:78-79). Zacharias, filled with the Spirit, prophesied these beautiful words concerning the coming Redeemer. The world was a very dark […]