(The statistical information in this article is from the book “Whisper” by Mark Batterson) In the early years of the Head Start program, a study was conducted involving sixteen hundred children who were tested in a wide variety of categories, including divergent thinking. Convergent thinking is the ability to correctly answer a question that doesn’t require creativity, just analytical...
No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. 1 Corinthians 10:13 Ron Boyd-MacMillan tells the story of a missionary to Tibet at the time of the Communist takeover in China. He was imprisoned on the charge of...
Once when visiting Czechoslovakia in the 1980’s, I delivered a Bible to an elderly pastor. He had not seen a Bible in years. He smelled it, kissed it with trembling lips, cradled it, and then with great reverence, opened it. Then he turned to me and said, “Let me tell you of my wounds.” And he poured out his trials for God, which included seven beatings by the secret police and the awful...
When people are asked to explain their experience of revival, they struggle to say what they have experienced. The following is an account of the revival of a non-Christian, William Stead. At the time, Stead was the editor of the famous Paul Mall Gazette. He was believed by many to be the most powerful man in Britain at the time. He visited the South Wales Revival (1904-05), and The London...
Lead poisoning may have helped to destroy the Roman Empire. Lead poisoning most probably afflicted the majority of Roman emperors, including for instance Claudius, Caligula, and Nero, who drank wine flavoured with syrup made in lead pots. Lead poisoning causes gout, but also lead to organ, tissue, and brain problems—severe symptoms that affected so many emperors that it is likely that it...
‘Red lights’ for the Church – The ‘Prosperity Gospel’ Source: unknown William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, who lived in the last century, made this interesting remark: “One of the greatest dangers for the Church in the 21st Century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration...
In the honour-shame culture of the Middle East, if a woman is raped, it brings shame upon the family, and they have a duty to kill her. In 2014, ISIS invaded villages in northern Iraq and took thousands of Yazidi and Christian women as sex slaves. But as ISIS fell apart more recently, those women were able to escape. They could not go home because they would be killed. One Yazidi man had five...
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling: The first Harry Potter book was turned down by multiple publishers, including Penguin and HarperCollins. Animal Farm by George Orwell: If T.S. Eliot had had his way, Animal Farm would never have seen the light of day. As the head of publisher Faber and Faber, Eliot called the manuscript “unconvincing.” Chicken Soup for...
His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog. There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death...
The Brooklyn Bridge, which links Brooklyn to Manhattan Island, is one of the most famous bridges in the world. Today there are many bridges across the globe surpass Brooklyn Bridge in engineering features, but in 1883 it was unthinkable. Bridge-building experts throughout the world told the designer, a creative engineer by the name of John Roebling, that his idea wouldn’t work. Roebling...