Ministry > DanielParker
IN-3 Ways God Teaches Us All to Be Mothers
Ihave a friend who talks to animals, plants, and even inanimate things with so much love and delight. Amused, I asked her what inspires her to converse with things that can’t talk back to her. She said, “I feel like I’m a mother to all the world. I want to take care of every single thing, nourishing it and helping…
IN-A Call to All Women This Mother’s Day
Ihave a lot to be thankful for this Mother’s Day. I have two children whom I love dearly, and a husband who always plans something to make me feel special, so I truly couldn’t ask for more.
However, I have come to realize, both through personal pain and the pain of others, that while many of us joyfully celebrate being a…
IN-The Church We Need
The church we need is one that gives us a taste of what it would have been like to walk the dusty roads of Israel with the church’s Founder. While we will never find a church as perfect as He was, and while there is no such thing as a church where members walk on water, we need to find…
Day 6 - A friend in need
Read: Job 2:1-13
They sat on the ground with him for seven days and nights. No one said a word to Job, for they saw that his suffering was too great for words (v.13).
Some dear friends of mine lost their little boy, Raphael, to death after just 8 weeks of life. Although my heart broke for them and I longed…
Day 5 - Life from barren places
Read: Luke 1:1-17
[Zechariah and Elizabeth] had no children because Elizabeth was unable to conceive, and they were both very old (v.7).
My wife and I have numerous friends who’ve struggled to have a baby. They’ve endured multiple trips to doctors, different kinds of infertility procedures and the grief of losing children to miscarriages. It’s obvious how painful this has been for…
Day 4 - Everlasting Love
Read: Jeremiah 31:1-14
I have loved you . . . with an everlasting love (v.3).
A friend died unexpectedly, leaving behind his wife and several children. I talked with his widow (also a dear friend) just a few days after his death. She was heartbroken, but also amazed that God had already used her husband’s death to inspire two individuals to…
Day 3 - Into the dark unknown
Read: Job 4:12-15
Fear gripped me, and my bones trembled (v.14).
At the outset of World War II, a man—who would eventually rescue 669 children from Nazi slaughter—helped two Jewish boys secure passage on a train escaping Czechoslovakia. After the war, the boys received a final letter from their parents who had died in a concentration camp.
Here are a few lines: The…
Day 2 - Crying for us all
Read: Jeremiah 3:12-22
“My wayward children,” says the Lord, “come back to me, and I will heal your wayward hearts” (v.22).
During the American Civil War, General Stonewall Jackson befriended a little girl at a home where he wintered. Five year old Janie Corbin adored Jackson so much that she wore a piece of gold braid in her hair, taken from…
IN- GETTING OVER GRIEF
A friend recently went through a long and extended period of mourning after the loss of his beloved wife of 42 years. During his wife’s extended illness, and subsequent loss many people who really loved him stood by him unable to find words of comfort. After a certain amount of time had passed, I asked him one day about how…
Day 1 - Seasons of Grief
Read: Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance (v.4).
Last year I received two pieces of extremely sad news within a few hours. First came the news that a dear friend died of a sudden heart attack. Steve, who was only 60 years old, was a good man…
Conclusion-There Is Hope
When you hear the hard news,
there are two diverging roads from which to choose.
One’s despair, but don’t go there. There is hope.
All of us will face the chilling, bitter winds of life. The lyrics above are from a song I wrote that reflects on my journey as a five-time cancer survivor. There are no easy answers when tragic events and…
Nail-Scarred Hands
Like me, you may know exactly when you received certain wounds that left scars. A small scar on my wrist is the result of a fellow middle-school band member plowing me over in his haste. Another on my elbow is from the time a driver mistook the gas pedal for the brakes and slammed into our van. And a third…
Known by God
“Who is this stranger?” A college student in Georgia (USA) asked that question when a fellow student texted him saying a DNA test showed they could be brothers. Separated by adoption almost twenty years earlier, the young man texted a reply in which he asked what name the other student had been given at birth. He immediately answered, “Tyler.” Replied…
Detective Work
In 1986, Sir David Suchet, the English actor known for playing detective Hercule Poirot, began a quest to understand the resurrection of Jesus. Wondering what would happen after he died, he began reading the book of Romans. After twenty years of careful consideration, he committed fully to believing in Jesus.
“Without the resurrection there is no faith,” Suchet concluded, echoing Paul’s…
As Spring Follows Winter
Standing trial for the “crime” of writing about his nation’s unprovoked invasion of another, the journalist made his final statement. Yet he didn’t defend himself. Instead, he spoke boldly. “The day will come when the darkness over our country will dissipate,” he said, “when at the official level it will be recognized that two times two is still four; when…
