


It was the morning of Good Friday, almost 2000 years after Jesus was on trial. My father and other organization members had gone to the courthouse. I lived with my family in Central Asia, and for months our whole team had faced investigation from the government, court summons, attempts to sneak out of the country…

Devotional Day 17 But are you willing to acknowledge, you foolish person, that faith without works is useless? Was our father Abraham not justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected;…

Devotional Day 15 If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality you are committing sin and are convicted by the Law as violators. For whoever keeps the whole law, yet stumbles in one point, has…

The trail started out very clearly trodden, even though blanketed with a recent layer of leaves. Every so often a white, spray-painted mark on a tree would confirm that we were still on track, even after climbing over tree trunks that lay across the path and sloshing through pools of mud (some subtly concealed until…
There is something special about Thanksgiving: It is a holiday reminding us of something to do, not only on one day but throughout the year. It is like other holidays in that it is based on the remembrance of an earlier event, but the name itself is based on an action: giving thanks. Recently I’ve…

Devotional Day 12 If anyone thinks of himself to be religious, yet does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by…
There is no suffering that He himself did not endure, we are told in scripture again and again. The apostle Paul reminds us in Hebrews 2:14-18, that Jesus shared in our humanity and chose to share our experiences of life, so that he could break the power of the Devil and provide a way of salvation. That Jesus became one of us so that he could identify with us and help us, is the heart of the gospel message. Thanks, Emily, for reminding us that love is expressed in many and varied ways, with none more poignant than the love Jesus displayed when he died on the cross.