GLEANINGS:
WORLD – Global craziness! A call not to be silent!
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IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD INDEED!
The title of that old 1963 movie is so appropriate today! Again and again it’s observed that so many people – and the world itself – are dashing madly somewhere but where? (more…)
Erica Grace, ex-missionary to South America, reminds us of a great truth!Chris and I were nearly half way between two cities in Bolivia, Sucre and Cochabamba, when our worst nightmare came true.
Winding our way around the high Andes Mountains, on very narrow roads, we came face to face with a huge lumber truck, full beyond capacity. It was coming down the same narrow road at full speed!
It was as if Psalm 73:19 – ‘In the blink of an eye, disaster! A blind curve in the dark, and – nightmare!’ – had become a reality! (more…)
Robert and Maureen McQuillan share a terrific little anecdote… A great biblical truth for Christians, particularly those in ministry, is conveyed in this old story. A well-known tale, it’s been handed down over the years, even Googled … just don’t miss the point!
The two wolves within
One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about life and a battle that goes on inside people. (more…)
I was struck when I misspelled the word ‘definitely’ the other day and the auto-correct tried to get me to use ‘defiantly!’
The difference between these two words is immense – definitely ‘being certain of something’ and defiantly ‘being resistant of something.’
Certainty and resistance
There’s a lesson here: As we walk the Christian path often these two words meet in our journey. Having faith means that we can be… (more…)
Erica Grace, author and ex-missionary to South America, cuts to the chase!A couple came to see my husband Chris and me to discuss a ‘disturbing’ trend in their church.
They said they were extremely worried their pastor had the wrong priorities: He was constantly raising money for missions and making donations to missions’ projects and such.
We kept waiting for the ‘problem’ to appear but the more they spoke the wider we smiled. Why? Well, to us it sounded that this couple’s church was a great one – so what was the problem? (more…)
Mark Ellis (left) and Vivian Chou share a great testimony…Perhaps it was a riptide, but Sister Mei also had a vision of a malevolent hand pulling her out to sea in southern China.
While she enjoyed the beach for the first time in her life, Mei worried about hardships she faced and her prospects for the future. She was divorced – abandoned by her husband. And she was on vacation at Sanya Beach with her boyfriend, a married man.
Feeling totally hopeless
‘I had never seen the ocean before,’ she told the U.S. Center for World Mission, currently known as Frontier Ventures. ‘For some reason, I felt that if I could see the ocean, a lot of my questions could be answered. My husband left me after I gave birth. On the third day, he came to the hospital for the last time. He just disappeared. It really hurt me. That’s how I started to take my life in the wrong direction.’ (more…)
What impacted Jeff Struecker most was not the thousands of hostile Somalis swarming his Humvee, nor the hailstorm of bullets and RPGs as he attempted to rescue fellow Rangers in the ill-fated 1993 raid of Mogadishu made famous by the movie Black Hawk Down.
What impacted him most was the next October morning back at base when his buddies one by one asked him about death and the afterlife. (more…)
Robert and Maureen McQuillan share…February already! If God were to judge our 2016 life achievements by a row of 12 candles that had been lit in anticipation, he’d be reminding us that one is already snuffed out and we’ve only eleven more before the year is gone.
It’s the proverbial case of tempus fugit (line 284 of book 3 of Virgil’s Georgics, where it appears as fugit inreparabile tempus: ‘It escapes, irretrievable time’). We usually say ‘time is on the wing!’ (more…)
Maureen McQuillan reflects that it’s that time when we recall the events of the first two chapters of both Matthew and Luke regarding the incarnation. Many came looking for the one destined to be the Saviour of the world. Doubtlessly those who discovered the babe of Bethlehem were overwhelmed and wondered in their heart how his future would develop as he grew up and what would happen to the child. (more…)
Mike Shreve, Special to the ASSIST, shares good advice…Last month many worldwide grieved with the people of Paris who suffered such a tragedy last week at the hands of Muslim extremists. I believe that attacking ISIS militarily is right and should have been done in greater fury long ago.
However, I would urge Christians everywhere to also respond to Muslim-related terrorism a completely different way. (more…)
Connecting with You! 