A Stranger in the House of God
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Do We Really Need Another Book on Prayer?
Most books about prayer either assume that I dont want to pray or that I dont know how. Neither is really the case. My problem lies elsewhere. I dont like the way God treats me when I pray.Dr. John Koessler is an award-winning writer and retired facult
Other Words: Four More Cries from the Cross
Jesus' last words were those of a victor, not a victim. They are the words of one who knows he is death's master.Dr. John Koessler is an award-winning writer and retired faculty emeritus of Moody Bible Institute. John writes the Practical Theolo
Three Prayers from the Cross
Some have called Jesus' seven statements from the cross his last words. Among these seven sayings are three prayers. Jesus' three prayers from the cross help us to place the suffering of Christ in a larger context.
Pass Me Not
Several years ago, at the Bible college where I taught, news reached the campus that a revival had broken out among the students of another school. It was much like the recent event at Asbury Universi
A Season of Ghosts: Christmas, Nostalgia, & “The Weight of Glory”
In Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol, the first spirit to visit Ebenezer Scrooge is the ghost of Christmas past. Scrooge notes the spirits small stature and asks, Long Past? No. Your past, the ghost replies. Dickens is on to something here because t
Eternity Shut in a Span
December is the season when tinsel-haloed angels draped in bedsheets announce the birth of Christ to bathrobe-clad shepherds on the church stage. There is a kind of charm in the way we tell the nativi
Holy Days, Holidays, & Christmas
Christmas was important to me even before I called myself a Christian, though admittedly, this was mainly for non-religious reasons. Ive long suspected that I have always loved Christmas more than any other holiday, not because of its spirituality but be
Imagine There’s a Heaven
Heaven has fallen on hard times. In Christian thinking, looking forward to heaven is no longer fashionable. Jeffrey Burton Russell observes in his book Paradise Mislaid, "Heaven has been shut away in a closet by the dominant intellectual trends of th
Cold Easter
It's getting to look a lot like Easter. Which, frankly, isn't saying that much. Between Christmas and Easter, it's plain to see which holiday is the favored child of the church calendar. If Christmas is warm, Easter is cold. As it approache
The Trouble with Meme Activism: Sometimes to Speak is Not to Speak
Sometimes to Speak is Not to Speak