In his book Let the Nations Be Glad!, John Piper tells the story of Joseph, a Maasai warrior who found Jesus Christ one day on a hot, dusty African road. As Joseph was walking along, someone shared the gospel with him. Then and there, he accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior. The power of […]

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Maybe your life has been just one steady climb, rung by rung, up the ladder of success. Maybe the soundtrack of your life is filled with only happy songs. But maybe that doesn’t adequately describe your journey. Maybe, you’ve experienced your share of ups and downs. You’ve been blessed and you’re grateful. But, frankly, sometimes […]

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I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever; with my mouth will I make known Your faithfulness to all generations (Psalm 89:1). Years before my birth, God began weaving the fabric of my life with vibrant threads of prayer. Without those threads, I would never have been born. In 1929, Nicolai Siemens, the […]

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Have you ever played on a teeter-totter? It was something many playgrounds had when I was a kid. With one person on each end of the long board that was balanced in the middle, the teeter-totter went up and down. Just maybe with equal weight on each end, you could balance in the middle. To […]

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One of the great wonders of my childhood was my dad taking me almost everywhere he went. Several times he took me overnight to the fire station for his entire twenty-four-hour shift. Shopping? I went with him. Camping, hiking, swimming, scuba diving, movies, side carpenter jobs — I would go too. Baseball games, to the […]

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For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known (1 Corinthians 13:12, NKJV). It was late afternoon, and I sat in front of my computer screen, frustrated. I had spent most of the day in my office trying […]

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God’s children are given precious promises about the future. We’re promised an eternal place (John 14:2-4), pearly gates and streets of gold (Revelation 21:21), a crystal-clear river coming from the throne of God (22:1), fruit-bearing trees with leaves of healing (v. 2), family reunions (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18), and, most anticipated, dwelling with God Almighty in a new […]

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On lazy summer days of childhood, I loved nothing better than to grab a book and a blanket and retire to the backyard to read. Oftentimes, I would simply watch the clouds, fascinated by the many faces portrayed there as my imagination soared, unearthing other treasures that kept changing shape and size overhead. Imagination! Such […]

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The longest single narrative in the book of Genesis, and in the entire Pentateuch, isn’t about Noah or Jacob or Joseph, or even Abraham. It’s about Rebekah (chapter 24). Why would this narrative be about a young woman instead of one of the patriarchs? Let’s investigate. Facing a choice In this account, Rebekah is a […]

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Priscilla showed up at my front door after sundown one July evening. Her pumpkin-round face and piercing black eyes were framed in shiny black hair parted in the middle and hugging her cheeks. The timid high school sophomore clutched a notebook to her chest, and a shoulder bag hung from her elbow. My pupil was […]

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At ten years old, our youngest complained about a group leader who talked too much. I encouraged him to be tolerant, pointing out that some people talk more than others and we need to wait patiently for our turn to speak. My son replied, “But everybody should have a period sitting on their tongue. Mr. […]

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Greetings BA Readers, This is my last “First Word” of 2023. I thank the Lord for His blessings this year, and I thank you for your continued support. According to Crosswalk.com, the two most searched Bible verses are John 3:16 and Jeremiah 29:11. I bet you can quote the first one, but do you know […]

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