READ: ROMANS 10:14-15; EPHESIANS 2:10; 2 TIMOTHY 4:2 In the year 1838, near Gainesville, Alabama, a girl named Maria Fearing was born into slavery. While she was still a kid, she heard her white master talking about the children in Africa who had never heard the gospel. This fact stuck in Maria’s mind for the [...]

READ: PSALM 90; 98; GALATIANS 6:14 Isaac Watts (1674-1748) is considered the father of English hymn-writing. Today, many of his hymns are sung, known, and loved. But that wasn’t always the case. In fact, while he was alive, Isaac Watts was considered by some to be a disturber and perhaps even a heretic! Isaac Watts [...]

READ: 2 CORINTHIANS 2:12-17 A child and a spoil of war. Forced to live with the enemy, far from home. Then, as a young woman, a war prize again, forced to serve the nation’s most powerful leader. Finally, exiled to an island for her Christian faith. This was the life of Julia Ota, who lived [...]

READ: MATTHEW 5:38-42; MARK 15:33-37; PHILIPPIANS 2:1-11 I was reading about different ways Christians have prayed throughout history, and I came across something that struck me. Christians in the early church used several different poses to pray, and each pose was connected to a different type of prayer: lying face-down on the ground was often [...]

READ: LUKE 22:19-20; ACTS 2:42-47; 1 CORINTHIANS 11:23-26 Jesus has a habit of taking something ordinary and making it incredible. Take bread and wine, for example. During Jesus’s life on earth, bread and wine were normal, everyday foods. They would be present at virtually every meal, and people of virtually any income level could afford [...]

When we see injustice in the world, what should motivate us to act? As Christians, we believe God loves every person. God revealed His love forus on the cross—the place where Jesus gave up His life. Jesus suffered moreinjustice than anyone, and His self-sacrificing love is what motivates usto show that same love to others. [...]