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Pointing To God
God bless our homeland, Ghana” is the first line of Ghana’s national anthem. Other African anthems include: “O Uganda, may God uphold thee,” “Lord, bless our nation” (South Africa), and “O God of creation, direct our noble cause” (Nigeria). Using the anthems as prayers, founding fathers called on God to bless their land and its people. Many national anthems in Africa and others from around the world point to God as Creator and Provider. Other lines of anthems call for reconciliation, transformation, and hope for a people often divided along ethnic, political, and social lines.
You Had To Act
A US congressman, John Lewis, was 23 years old when he participated in the historic 1963 civil rights “March on Washington” led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Half a century later, journalist Bill Moyers asked Lewis how he was affected by Dr. King’s I Have A Dream speech that day. Mr. Lewis replied, “You couldn’t leave after hearing him speak and go back to business as usual. You had to do something, you had to act. You had to move. You had to go out and spread the good news.”
Leaving It Behind
In the year or so after our teenage son got his driver’s license and started carrying a wallet, we got several calls from people who had found it somewhere. We cautioned him to be more careful and not leave it behind.
How to Make Decisions That Please God [Part Two]
“Many, through wishing to be great, have failed to be good.” —Charles Spurgeon Ambition, goal setting, and practical use of our time are good things, but we shouldn’t develop tunnel vision and lose sight of others in the process. There’s a well-known story of a seminary that secretly conducted a […]
How our very brokenness is what makes us candidates for serving the Lord!
Ever feel like all the flaws in your family history make you ineligible for God’s work? Maybe you’ve heard God’s call for your life, but don’t feel qualified to accept. A “best of” conversation coming up.
How to Make Decisions that Please God [Part One]
We should always seek God’s will, wisdom, and guidance. Yet when He seems to be silent for the sake of letting us grow, there are some practical tips I’ve learned that help us not only to make good choices, but also enable us to be at peace with them instead […]
Do Something Different This Christmas!
What is the best Christmas gift you have ever received? For children, it could be the latest toy or game that they have been bugging their parents for. For youth, perhaps new clothes, new shoes, or even the latest handphone they have been eyeing. For adults, maybe […]
Another Hero Of Christmas
For most of my life, I missed the importance of Joseph in the Christmas story. But after I became a husband and father myself, I had a greater appreciation for Joseph’s tender character. Even before he knew how Mary had become pregnant, he decided that he wasn’t going to embarrass or punish her for what seemed to be infidelity (Matt. 1:19).
Our Life Is A Primer
The New England Primer was published in the late 1600s. Throughout the colonies that would later become the United States, the book became a widely used resource.
Waiting for God’s Timing
Any single lady will eventually come to a point in life where she questions whether the guy she is dating is the one she wants as her life partner. The same is true for guys. Unless you have the gift of celibacy, there will always be this aching desire within you […]
5 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Go on Mission Trips
I am a full-time missionary. But I wasn’t always one. To serve full-time in the mission field was perhaps the hardest decision I have ever made in my life. You must be wondering why I would be writing about reasons to not go on mission trips when I am […]
Clean The Closet
To this day I can still hear my mother telling me to go and clean up my room. Dutifully, I would go to my room to start the process, only to get distracted by reading the comic book that I was supposed to put neatly in the stack. But soon the distraction was interrupted by my mother warning that she would be up in 5 minutes to inspect the room. Unable to effectively clean the room in that time, I would proceed to hide everything I didn’t know what to do with in the closet, make the bed, and then…
The Right Foundation
I’ve got bad news for you,” said the builder, who was renovating an old house I had inherited. “When we started to convert the back half of the garage for your office, we found that the walls had almost no foundation. We will have to demolish them, dig proper foundations, and start again.”
How God wants to use us to further His kingdom
It’s hard to believe that a perfect God would use imperfect people to accomplish His plans. But it’s true!
Why I Left Comfort and Stability for Cambodia
In June this year, I made the decision to move from arguably the most beautiful place on earth, New Zealand, to hot, dusty, Cambodia. (Some background information about me—I’m 22 years old and I hold a bachelors degree.) I’m currently juggling multiple […]