Throw the Challenge Flag
By Dix Winston In 1999 the NFL instituted the red challenge flag, allowing a coach to challenge certain calls made by the officiating team. Once the flag is thrown, the referee reviews the video replay from a number of different camera angles. If there is indisputable visual evidence, the ruling on the field will be […]
Happy Hanukkah? Should Christians Be Happy About Hanukkah?
By Dix Winston Hanukkah, also called the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish festival celebrating the time when Israel gained independence from Greece and, beginning on the 25th of Chislev, the subsequent rededication of the temple. This year, Hanukkah will be celebrated December 7-15. The temple had to be rededicated because Antiochus Epiphanes had […]
Gulnaz Comes to Faith in Christ
By Nancy Rempel* *All names in this story are pseudonyms except for Billy Graham and the apostle Paul. Maybe it’s all up to us to be persuasive and winsome enough. To be clever super-saints—Billy Graham and the apostle Paul all rolled into one—before we can lead someone to Christ. Maybe God waits for us to […]
God Sent Forth His Son
By Philippe R. Sterling During the Christmas season, we mostly reflect on the announcements of Jesus’ birth recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. However, we may also reflect on the wonderful aspects of the birth of Jesus described in Galatians 4:4-5. In that passage, the Apostle Paul stated: But when the fullness of […]
Christmas Facts or Fictions?
By Marcia Hornok Did Mary ride a donkey to Bethlehem? Did an innkeeper reject Mary and Joseph? Was Jesus born the night they arrived? Did a multitude of angels sing? Did a special star guide the wise men all the way from the Orient to Israel? Did anyone kneel at the manger? Does Santa Claus […]
Do You Believe in Santa? Jesus?
By Mike Lii During this time of year, children are often asked, “Do you believe in Santa?” It is interesting to note that when it comes to answering this question, people have nowhere near the level of confusion or over-analysis that they have about answering the question: “Do you believe in Jesus?” Most interpret the […]
Weakness
By Nancy Rempel Part I Just before midnight on September 30, 1994, a baby, one month premature, slipped out of an unwed Muslim girl in Peshawar, Pakistan. Wide-eyed with fear, 15-year-old Jan Bibi delivered her tiny boy in silence. The victim of a revenge rape, Jan Bibi was running, hiding, and dodging death. Six months […]
Free Grace and Ultra-Dispensationalism
By Laurence M. Vance “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15). One characteristic of conservative Evangelicals and Baptists who are not adherents of Reformed theology is that they are Dispensationalists. This is especially true of Free Grace believers. […]
Distant Cousins Compared
By Marcia Hornok What could Ishmael–Abraham’s son by Sarah’s servant Hagar–and Abraham’s great-grandson, Joseph, possibly have in common? Since the Holy Spirit’s verbal inspiration is intentional, even small details are purposeful and, in this case, can show similarities between Ishmael and Joseph. AGE SEVENTEEN God wants us to know Joseph’s age when he was exiled […]
Does It Really Depend on Me?
By Mike Lii Back when I was in high school, my church produced a video designed to encourage evangelism. The concluding scene of that video is burned into my memory. A young man was shown in tears and in relative darkness in order to represent his being in hell. He was looking at his friend—a […]