Proof The Bible Is True

Amy Jung of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, didn’t plan on adopting a cat. She only went to the Door County Humane Society on February 8 with her son, Ethan, to play with the animals.   But one feline caught her eye. A hefty orange-and-white furball, lying on a counter. Amy asked an employee about the cat. Pudding was 8 1/2 years old and had two previous owners, a family who gave him up because their son was allergic and an older woman who had passed away.   Read More: How an Adopted Cat Saved His New Owner’s Life – Guideposts

In northeast Scotland, where I live, the Gulf Stream brings warmth to what would otherwise be a frigid climate—but it can also cause high winds. One day the weather service reported gusts topping 100 miles an hour. I almost blew away when I left for work that morning.   Fortunately, I would be spending most of my day inside at my new job assisting John, a mortgage and financial services broker. I sat at my desk, looking out the large front window, awed by the sheer power of Mother Nature. Were the brick chimneys of the old houses around us [More]

There’s one good thing about being on the road Christmas Day, I thought, driving from my parents’ house in Richmond, Virginia, back to Charlotte, North Carolina. No traffic. I’d barely seen another car on the interstate all day.   Most people were home with their families. But not me. I was a policewoman, new enough on the force that I didn’t get a choice of shifts. I’d managed to score time off Christmas Eve, but I had to be back on duty tonight.   My sergeant made it clear: “Be here for roll call before the midnight shift.” It was a four-hour [More]

I was rummaging through my attic for the Christmas decorations when I saw it. The tree. Not a real tree of course, but an artificial one I bought the year before. It stood about 18-inches tall and had it all—glimmering ornaments, fiber optic branch tips that emitted a hypnotic array of blue, pink, green and gold sparkling lights, and a gold base that rotated the entire tree while playing Christmas carols. At least that’s what was it was supposed to do. It might as well be called a lemon tree—it never worked. I’d almost completely forgotten about it.   My [More]

My wife Angela and our children were deep in slumber when I arose before dawn and walked down to the lake behind our vacation cabin at Lake Mohawk. I began pulling weeds, one of my favorite ways to unwind — quiet and simple compared to my job as a cardiologist. This was just what I needed, a two-week getaway from the stress of 14-hour days, seeing 45-60 patients, with few breaks in-between.   Unfortunately, on the drive down the night before, a disagreement had started our vacation off on a bad note. My mind was running in overdrive as I [More]

Today’s hard economic times remind me of the time 20 years ago when our own finances were tight. My husband, Steve, and I woke up that crisp fall morning in 1990 knowing exactly how broke we were. Our finances were in worse shape than the hobbyhorse lying on its side on our front lawn, broken loose from its springs.   We had no money in the bank, no cash in our pockets, not much food in the house and we were out of diapers for our baby. I added up everything we needed in my head. Diapers—about ten dollars. Baby [More]

Family tells us a Stallings man is doing well after receiving a kidney from an Indian Land woman who until recently he’d never met.   It turned out the woman, who is also doing well, was such a perfect match for him, it’s as if she’s his sister — even though they’re not related at all.   David Ensley of Stallings has suffered from polycystic kidney disease since 2001.  Things took a turn for the worse in 2009 when his kidney failed.  He needs a new one or he says he will eventually die.   But finding a donor proved difficult.  His siblings were [More]

Money slipped under the door of a man struggling to support his family brings about a Christmas miracle.   When you’re a freelance cameraman like I am, you can’t always pick and choose your assignments. Often, you accept work not out of any particular affinity you have for the subject but because you have bills to pay and a family to feed.   Sometimes, though, you’re fortunate enough to land an assignment that you can really get into and feel passionate about, even learn from. You pray for jobs like that. Well, I do anyway.   That’s why I was [More]

I’ve always enjoyed rummage sales, antique shops, flea markets, and garage sales. Whenever I go to one, my eyes inevitably drift over to the jewelry. Not because I need any fancy things, but because I’m “looking” for a bracelet that had been given to me by my parents when I was a young lady. It was a beautiful gold link bracelet with delicately carved pink flowers. For years, I wore it for dressy occasions—before I lost it. Of course, I never saw anything that quite compared, but I could hope, couldn’t I?   Recently, my husband Roger and I were [More]

From Genesis to Revelation, pages of my beloved leather-bound Bible fell to the floor every time I opened it. The once camel-colored leather was worn and faded. It broke my heart to see it in such sad shape. The NIV Thompson Chain-Reference Bible, red-letter edition, was a gift from my husband, Rick. It had lasted through his teen years and Bible College, where we’d met and he’d given it to me. I used it for Bible study, teaching Sunday school and reading daily devotions. I didn’t want to replace it, but 17 years of wear and tear had taken their [More]

Margretha had been terrified of storms for years, ever since a strong one caused a large tree to fall on her home. After a record-setting month of severe storms in Mississippi, she was on edge. She’d slept little in the last few days, worried about the weather reports warning more tornadoes were on the way. “It seemed like I had been saying weather-related prayers almost ceaselessly for the last several weeks,” Margretha says. But they didn’t ease her fears.   Read More: A Mysterious Sight in the Sky – Guideposts

It was one of those dreadful nights we get here in Minnesota in the middle of winter. The moisture in the air gets trapped and a curtain of fog descends all around, mixing with the snow on the ground and the flurries falling from the sky to white out everything. Normally I wouldn’t drive in that kind of weather, but I’d been at a Tupperware party all evening, I was eight months pregnant and I was so exhausted I just wanted to get home already.   I was only on the road for a minute before I regretted my decision [More]

It was August 1969, a hot, humid night in Ban Me Thuot, Vietnam. I was stationed with the US Army as Communications Chief in charge of all radio communications, located inside the Command Post, a four-room reinforced concrete bunker, surrounded by sandbags.   I got undressed and into my bunk, hoping to get a few hours of sleep before I was on duty again. I rolled over and looked at the clock: 11:30 p.m. Seconds later I heard a voice say, “Get up out of bed now and get fully dressed, steel pot, weapon, everything, and go down to the [More]

 I sat in church, the pastor’s words a blur of sound. I knew I should be listening, but instead I wondered what was waiting for me at home. Sunday dinner was the one meal all week when my family sat down together, and that meant facing my father. He’d usually get drunk, and that meant a whole meal of him humiliating me. Especially because of my stutter. I was ten years old, and had done nothing to deserve my father’s scorn.   Even trying to keep my sentences short, I always got caught up on the first few syllables as [More]

I love being an EMT. Nothing makes me prouder than serving the community and helping folks in need. So when the local volunteer fire department asked me to monitor their members at trainings and on fire scenes I didn’t hesitate to say yes.   “We could really use more firefighters,” said a volunteer one day. “The certification class is coming up. Why don’t you take it?”   Helping out was one thing but me? A firefighter? I didn’t think I was strong enough. Plus, I’m afraid of heights! Although it would be nice to be able to help out in a [More]

Bill, bill, another bill, I thought, sorting through the envelopes I’d carried in from the mailbox outside to read to my husband, Bob. Complications of diabetes had robbed him of his eyesight, and now it seemed as if our financial obligations were going to rob us of much more.   Read More: Mysterious Ways: God Will Provide – Guideposts

  Walking the beach alone wasn’t how I wanted to spend that Saturday. I worked hard all week, and I looked forward to the weekends with my family. Unfortunately my grown kids didn’t always want to sit at home with me. I’d hoped by this time in my life I’d have grandkids to visit, but it wasn’t to be.   I strolled slowly up and down, digging my toes into the wet sand. The smell of the salty air and the roar of the surf soothed me. What a delight it would be to have a little companion on my [More]

What a waste of time! I’d been ahead of schedule on my drive from Florida to Virginia for a family reunion, but that was before my impulsive detour to “Trader Jack’s Fireworks and Gifts.” One of those tourist traps off of I-95 in the Carolinas, selling sparklers and multicolored rockets in addition to kitschy shot glasses, snow globes and, of course, Trader Jack’s t-shirts. I didn’t need anything like that, and a quick look around confirmed there were no special finds to be made. I left the store and shook my head. Why had I followed that strange urge?   [More]

The rock was bigger than a watermelon, and when I uncovered it in the field I was plowing that November, it was smudged with black earth. In the spring, I came back with a power scoop to take it away, and the winter rains and snows had washed it clean. I stared. Right on the face of that big, dark boulder, a pink cross stood out, clear as if it had been chiseled.   “Why, that’s the cross of Christ,” I said to myself. “This isn’t going to any rock pile. It’s a holy thing!”   I hauled it up [More]

Spring had arrived, time for my family’s annual vacation, a week on the Chesapeake Bay property we owned 40 miles from Washington, D.C.. It was nothing fancy, just two double-wide trailer homes that were in constant need of repair. But we always had great fun, fishing, crabbing, water skiing, just lolling around. This year though, I worried. We really couldn’t afford it.   Money at home was tight. Had been tight since February, when I was laid off from my job as regional sales manager for an electrical construction company. My wife, Beth, and I have two daughters in college [More]

Ruben Salazar lived in Waco, Texas. Rachel Salazar lived in Bangkok, Thailand. They weren’t related, had no friends in common, and with thousands of miles between them, had no occasion to ever meet. Each didn’t know the other existed.   Until Ruben received an email one day.   It clearly wasn’t meant for him, referring to a biodiversity awareness campaign on the other side of the world. But instead of hitting delete, Ruben scrolled through and discovered the intended recipient’s name and email—the address only slightly different from his own. He forwarded the message to the correct address, with a [More]

I grabbed a stack of envelopes off my desk and stood at the front of my classroom.   It was a perfect May day and I’d planned a fun activity for my sophomore English students—one that would get them engaged and excited. At least I hoped it would.   I had become a teacher to inspire kids, to help them reach their full potential. But I’d been at the high school here in Darien, Georgia, for three years now and no matter what I did, I didn’t feel like I was getting through to my students. Was I making any [More]

It was the day of my family’s big move, from New Wilmington, Pennsylvania a hundred miles south to Stahlstown. My wife, kids and dog went ahead in our car while I drove the rental truck full of our belongings. Driving down the Pennsylvania Turnpike, I got a bit nostalgic. Stahlstown was just a skip away from where I grew up, Charleroi.   My great uncle had been a prominent figure in Charleroi, owner of the Fox Grocery Company, a food wholesaler. Every summer, the company hosted a big picnic at Deems Park for employees and their families—with all the food, [More]

Spring cleaning doesn’t have to happen in the spring.   That’s what I told myself as I looked around my workroom one chilly afternoon. It was looking pretty cluttered. My desk was covered with papers and bits of my many craft projects: yarn, crochet needles, straw, fabric, thread. It needed tidying up, but I could think of a dozen other things I’d rather spend the day doing. It can wait, I told myself.   But as I turned to go, I spotted something on the floor. I looked closer: mice. The evidence was unmistakable. The Dominican Monastery where I live is [More]

The wet breeze from the hotel window where I was staying on a business trip in Copenhagen, Denmark, felt good. I’d opened that window for a reason, and I knew what it was. After two years of sobriety, I was in the middle of a terrible relapse.   Death, I reasoned, would be the ultimate hard stop. It would end all remorse, all regrets, all guilt, all feelings. It would just be over and whatever I left behind would be for the living to deal with. Not me. And whatever the consequences, they certainly seemed preferable to my continued existence. [More]

Back in the mid-1990s, after my husband, Jack, retired, I decided to start a small business. I picked wildflowers and sold them to local florists in neighboring towns.   We lived in a rambling, two-story wood frame house, surrounded by farmland, about five miles from Merrill, Iowa, then our home. Almost everything I picked came from nearby. The cattails came from creek land about a quarter-mile away. I scooped fallen buckeyes by the thousands that dropped from trees in a nearby park. The yarrow came from my neighbors’ pastures. I found the mare’s tails in a swampy field about 10 [More]

“When we do something nice for someone else it opens the door for God to do something nice for us.” Admin   I love everything about making Easter dinner except the Saturday shopping. That day, the supermarket can be as crowded as a department store at Christmas. And this Easter, on top of my regular checklist, I had to buy the ingredients for a delicious new recipe I’d discovered: sliced ham and turkey layered with Swiss cheese and spinach, all wrapped in pastry dough.   Trouble was, my work schedule had left me no time to shop earlier in the week. I’ll get [More]