Len has a question that can’t wait till the group has settled round the table. “Why did God make beings that were capable of rebelling against Him?” Silence. Suzy sits down beside her husband and speaks quietly, but firmly. “I think the answer has to do with the Kingdom principle of freedom. If they couldn’t choose to obey or not obey, they would have been puppets, not free beings.”
Read MoreAs Luke’s car winds slowly up the mountain road to Salento, I revel in the beauty of the green countryside. Everything sparkles in the sunshine after the recent heavy rains. If this is so beautiful, what must it have been like before sin entered our world?
Read MoreWhen we meet together for our second Broken Cisterns study session, Len boasts that he has read the whole study book. His smiling face is a contrast to the bitter and twisted expression he wore the previous week. It appears he has found the treasure he has been searching for.
Read MoreThe sixties were the hey day for the hippy movement. Peace n’ love. Flower-power brought a surge of freedom, and dizzy with this new found freedom, they laughed in the face of authority and blatantly broke the rules. Deliriously happy, they invented crazy strategies to conquer their world.
The group that sits round the table with us is a far cry from that flowery freedom. The hippies have aged. Drug and alcohol use have left their mark. Wrinkles distort their flamboyant tattoos and their long flowing hair is now a boring grey, or in the case of the majority, simply not there.
Read MoreSandy slipped her hand into her coat pocket and fingered her boarding pass. Apart from the ticket she’d been gifted, this was her most precious possession. From her seat in the departure lounge she glanced around at her fellow passengers.
Read MoreLast week I received an email from a lady who was born with a very bad squint and used to cry herself to sleep some nights; she hated having school photos taken. Many things seemed to emphasize that she was second rate to others. Imagine how discouraged she felt when she came across Leviticus 21, "For no man who has a blemish... or a defect in his eye... or has been emasculated... shall come near to his God." This also left her feeling second rate. I am writing today to someone who is discouraged. You feel rejected because you are different.
Read MoreWhen I wrote this poem back in 1990 my heart was bursting with gratitude. My sister and I revelled in the freedom our parents had given us to obey without restraint what God had led us to do… live and work as missionaries in Colombia. They had sent us out with their blessing in 1979.
Read MoreGreetings from Colombia! I’m sharing this story with you from my book, It’s All About Him, which is packed with the real-life adventures of my sister, Anita, and I who have been missionaries in Armenia for over 40 years…
Minnie’s eyes clouded over. She could make neither head nor tail of the black squiggles on the white board. And she didn’t want to. She sat through the remainder of the discipleship class completely detached. I was sitting in on the class and saw when we lost her. I knew why. Minnie was illiterate.
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