When Should I Fast?
By Warren Mueller
I have wrestled with the question of when and how to fast. I must confess that I have fasted very little and have struggled with my motives in fasting. For example, I do not believe it is right to think that God owes me something because I am fasting and praying and thereby am adding extra effort to my prayers by fasting. He is sovereign God and I am but an imperfect creature. Therefore, I believe the Holy Spirit must move you to want to fast about something rather than think: "I will do this so that God will answer my prayer." I have been told that fasting is not for God but to help us focus on Him and draw us closer to Him. What pleases Him is what I must do.
Our Vanishing Heritage
By Ed Crumley
A Youtube video of Jay Leno interviewing people on the street came attached to an email sent to me by a friend. Jay asked them simple questions that anyone with a 4th or 5th grade education should know. Questions like: “Name two of the Founding Fathers. In what country would you find the Panama Canal?”, and “Who was the first man on the moon?” The answers were astonishing: “Founding fathers of what?”; “I have no clue,” and “Louis Armstrong?” The audience got good laughs out of all of the interviews, but a more thoughtful look at those answers should bring sadness or even fear to the hearts of viewers.
The Cave
By William King
As we topped the mountain in Birmingham, It looked as though something was wrong. The whole city looked yellow. From growing up here, I knew this sky color very well. The steel mills had released sulfur into the air. The sun shining through it made it appear yellow. My fiancé remarked, “I would never live here.”
Japanese Schindler
By Bob Kaku
The Academy Award-winning movie, Schindler’s List (1993), made Americans aware of the heroic and self-sacrificing actions of the German industrialist, Oskar Schindler, who saved the lives of over a thousand Polish Jews during World War II. Lesser known are the similar exploits of another man, a Japanese diplomat named Chiune Sugihara.
Would You Know Jesus?
By R. J. Gunter
Did you know that Dolly Parton once entered a Parton lookalike contest and came in second place? The famous silent film actor, Charlie Chaplin, entered a Chaplin lookalike contest and came in third. How could that happen? Can an impressionist be more real to us than the real person? Maybe we often have an impression in our mind of what a person is supposed to be like that doesn’t match the reality.
