People like to ask, “What kind of a God lets little children suffer?” Really they are asking, “What kind of a God lets children suffer before they are even old enough to know the comfort of faith?”
Category Archives: Stories and Excerpts
The Prey Overcomes the Predator: A Missionary Parable
When you read a great book, you can’t wait to share it with everyone. Such a book is “The Unmistakable Hand of God” by Roy Comrie. Roy is one of the great missionaries, and missionary encouragers, of our time.
The Pen and the Inkstand — by Hans Christian Andersen
Here’s one of my favorite parables by Hans Christian Andersen, as translated by Jean Hersholt:
No Guts, No Glory: The Passionate Disciple
“God has made me his target; his archers surround me.” (Job 16:12)
In Renaissance art one of the most commonly portrayed martyrdoms was that of St. Sebastian. The sight of this great lover of God with his body riddled with bloodied arrows is a shocking one, as the artists intended it to be. Yet how much more shocking it is to state, as Job does, that God Himself is the cruel archer who so tortures His own saints to death.
G.K. Chesterton the Prophet
Dale Ahlquist has written an excellent one-volume introduction to G.K. Chesterton called The Apostle of Common Sense. Here’s just an excerpt on GKC as prophet:Continue reading
Pass It On: Joy Wants to Fill the World
“We write this to make our joy complete.” ~1 John 1:4
Like John in this verse, I too wrote a book—called Champagne for the Soul—with the motive of completing my joy by sharing it. Happiness, oddly enough, can be a lonely business, because so few people share one’s joy.
Binding Arbitration: The Surprising Answer to Job’s Prayer
If only there were someone to arbitrate between us,
to lay his hand upon us both,
someone to remove God’s rod from me,
so that his terror would frighten me no more. (Job 9:33-4)
Gabriel’s Annunciation
My Christmas story this year is an excerpt from my current project, a novel about angels. Usually we view the Annunciation from Mary’s point of view. But how would the angel Gabriel have experienced it? Read on.
The Great Light of Christmas
Christmas, I confess, is my favorite time of year. And I say this despite the fact that it is also the most painful.
How To Stop Fighting With Your Spouse: Part 5
For many years as a Christian, occasionally the thought would cross my mind, I’m tired of always being hitched to God. How would it be if I didn’t have to worry about Him but could just do things on my own? Natrually I’d try to banish this thought, but sometimes it would linger a little longer than you might expect in a believer who truly loved his Lord.