I remember feeling unwelcome in my family as the youngest and only girl of five children. I was named by and after my father, who wanted a fifth boy—that’s how I got the name Toni. As a child, I hungered for loving words and hugs from my parents, but I didn’t receive any. Instead, at […]
“There’s no sign of the morning coming. You’ve been left on your own, Like a rainbow in the dark, Just a rainbow in the dark.” I turned my boom box up a notch and danced around my room playing air guitar and banging my head to the heavy metal rhythms. I could relate to the […]
Go ahead, Mark, you had one an hour ago. You might as well have another one now. You can’t possibly make your life any more miserable. I leaned against the garage workbench in our house. The late morning sun brightened the open entrance to the garage. Songs of chirping sparrows filled the air. While peace […]
Leave Judea now? Just when throngs were coming to be baptized in preparation for Messiah’s coming kingdom? The disciples of Jesus discussed the sudden news, their voices tinged with disappointment and perplexity. “John, you’re close to the Master. Has He mentioned where we’re going next?” James, John’s brother, probed. “He only stated that we had […]
It was a cool, crisp October morning when I set out from my mountain home on a journey that I intended to be my last. I began my travels that morning in 1998 with a determination to end my life. My plan had been well laid. Nothing on Earth could dissuade me from completing it. […]
Not all the wisdom and skill of man can produce life in the smallest object in nature. It is only through the life which God Himself has imparted that either plant or animal can live. So it is only through the life from God that spiritual life is begotten in the hearts of men. Unless […]
Wanna go for a drive, Karen?” Harry asked late one night as he switched off the television set. I watched from under my bedroom door as Momma put out her cigarette and replied, “Okay, just let me put my shoes on.” Harry grabbed his keys, and they headed together for the door. That was my […]
In many ways, I had an idyllic childhood. My memories of growing up with my two brothers and a sister are happy ones. Even though my dad was a busy pastor, he always prioritized time with his family. After high school, while studying nursing at a Christian college, I met Kevin Powell, a young theology […]
An Angel in Uniform
During the communist regime in Bulgaria, a Christian, Mr. Dimitrov, worked secretly to produce as many Christian books as possible. Pastor Marinov did the translations and Dimitrov set the print. The work was slow and risky. Although they played loud communist music to muffle the noise of their typewriters, the state […]
A Roman citizen by birth, Saul was nevertheless a Jew by descent and had been educated in Jerusalem by the most eminent of the rabbis. “Of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin,” Saul was “a Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the […]