Proof The Bible Is True

Retirement was a little quieter than I’d planned for, since Covid restrictions kept me at home. One afternoon, finishing up the breakfast dishes, I found myself thinking back on my busy working life as a professor. I’d had a long career and was amazed that my visual memory was so clear. Students I’d taught, colleagues I’d befriended at different schools, the administrators—dozens of faces came to mind. Swimming among them, one came to the forefront, a face I remembered way back from my childhood. I turned off the tap.   My family lived in a tenement apartment over a store in Holyoke, [More]

Hiking and camping weren’t new to me that summer of 2010. I’d been enjoying the great outdoors since my teen years. But now I was leading eight junior high kids through the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia. That was a lot of responsibility.   When I was a teenager, time in the woods meant freedom from my difficult home life. The sights and sounds of nature quieted the condemning voices I’d grown up hearing at home. But I could never completely escape them, especially when others were counting on me.   So far, this camping trip was going great. I used [More]

Whether it’s a squirrel inspiring hope or an injured dove bringing heaven-sent comfort, these critter tales will encourage and entertain you.   Read More: 5 Heartwarming Stories of Animal Angels | Guideposts

The envelope immediately caught my attention as I opened the day’s mail. The stamp revealed it had been sent from a state prison. I’d been a pastor here at the Church of the Master for 22 years. Not many letters came to me from prisoners.   Curious, I opened it. A few postage stamps spilled out onto my desk. I pulled out the letter, handwritten on notebook paper. “I came to your church 14 years ago, asking for food and money,” it began. “I told the preacher my house had burned down, but that was a lie.”   I knew exactly who [More]

“Mike, we found a match,” my doctor said over the phone. “You’re getting a new set of lungs. I’ll see you in surgery early tomorrow morning.”   I stared at my wife, Patti, in shock. I could hardly believe what I was hearing. This was the call we’d been praying for. I hung up the phone, and Patti swept me into a hug.   Five years before, I’d been diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a disease that causes scar tissue to form in the lungs, making it hard to breathe. There is no cure and, in some cases, like mine, no known [More]

Gas. Brake. Gas. Brake. My foot was starting to cramp from switching between the pedals. Typical for prime rush hour.   My office was 30 miles from home. Before my first day, I’d mapped several routes. I discovered that no matter when I left or which route I took, my commute ended up the same—a total nightmare. Aggressive drivers, bumper-to-bumper traffic, construction delays. Evenings were the worst. After a long day at work, I wanted to relax, not inch along the highway while car horns blared.   I’d taken to praying during my drive. I asked God for traveling mercies—the tranquility to stay calm [More]

“Mom, can we go down to the beach now?”   My 13-year-old son, Jesse, was holding his beach supplies. His 10-year-old twin sisters, Elizabeth and Emily, stood next to him, their eyes expectant. We were staying at a beach house that we vacationed at every summer. I didn’t feel up to going down to the beach. The weather was nice, and the kids weren’t going to go in the water. Jesse was old enough to chaperone. I decided I’d stay behind and sit by the window overlooking the shore to watch them.   “Stick together and be safe,” I told them. Smiling, [More]

Miracles come to us in every shape, size and even color. God’s blessings flow across a spectrum, from everyday reassurances of his presence to out-of-this-world experiences; each divine mystery as vibrant as the colors of the rainbow. These stories sent to us by readers like you show us why God says in Genesis 9:13, “I have set my rainbow in the cloud, and it will be the sign of a covenant between me and the earth.”   Read More: 5 Miraculous Stories Across The Color Spectrum | Guideposts

Hebrews 3:4 tells us, “For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.” This collection of house-hunting miracles reveals the work of the ultimate architect.   Read More: 3 Miraculous Stories of Heaven-Sent Houses | Guideposts

‘‘You don’t want that one,” the shelter volunteer said. “He’s broken.”   “Broken?” I asked. Had I heard her correctly? I looked down at the black cat sitting on my foot. He trilled softly. The minute I’d walked into the animal shelter’s cat room, he’d been one step behind me, my shadow. I wasn’t an expert, but this cat seemed friendly.   “He’s been a stray since birth,” the volunteer explained. “He doesn’t like anyone—not other cats, not dogs, not people. Sometimes they’re out there way too long. He’s already three years old. At a certain point, it’s nearly impossible [More]

Job Search Solution, So Good They Can’t Ignore You, Getting to Yes. The more I flipped through the titles on the shelves at the mall bookstore, the more depressed I got.   Why had I migrated to the self-help section? I’d come to the mall for an escape, a few moments to not have to think about the job I desperately needed, my dwindling bank account, my wife’s medical expenses. But everywhere I looked I was reminded of my troubles.   I’d done everything I could. Tried every way I could think of to get my name out there, sent out dozens [More]

Shoppers at the antiques show in Columbus, Ohio, milled around, but I stood still, mouth agape. Was I seeing things? It seemed impossible, but there it was. A genuine 1920s era Berkey & Gay bedroom suite was being unloaded from a truck by a couple about my age. For me this was like discovering a treasure, one I’d been looking for since junior high school. The furniture was deep green, with hand-painted twining pink roses.   “Like it?” the woman asked as I studied the fine detail on the dresser.   “You don’t see these where I’m from,” I admitted. Or anywhere else [More]

Suzie, my terrier, lay down on the rug in my parents’ living room and looked at me with her sad, brown eyes. “She misses her doghouse,” I told Mom. “She loved it. I could barely drag her out of it to come inside, even when it was raining. It was her favorite place in the world.”   I sighed. Suzie’s doghouse wasn’t lost. I knew exactly where it was. Sitting in the backyard of the apartment house where my ex-husband lived. When Suzie moved into my parents’ house, I hadn’t realized how much she’d miss her old hangout. But when I [More]

“We’re all finished,” said the doctor. “But you’ll have to lie there another twenty minutes or so before you can go.”   I felt my body relax. The hard part was over, now I just had to wait. I was used to waiting. After all, infertility itself was a waiting game.   Beside me sat my husband, Eli. He’d been there throughout the procedure, his comforting presence giving me strength. Once the doctor had left the room, Eli took my hand. “How do you feel?” he asked.   “Okay,” I said. “It didn’t hurt at all.” I’d read as much when [More]

This was getting ugly. Inside a massive ballroom at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, my 14-year-old son, Andrew, was competing in his first match at the Taekwondo Nationals and getting pummeled. It was hard to watch.   He took a hard kick to the chest, stumbling backward. A second kick threw him to the mat. He struggled to stand, the air knocked out of him. I felt helpless from my seat near the edge of the mat. I wasn’t overly concerned about him getting physically hurt. The competitors wore padded vests and head gear. It was Andrew’s pride, his [More]

Our Volkswagen Squareback bounced over the sand and rocks, leaving a cloud of dust in our wake. I looked over at my wife, Sue. With the windows down, her hair whipped around her face. It was a beautiful spring day. The sun was bright and the sky was clear—perfect conditions for off-roading.   Back then, in 1984, Sue and I were living in southeastern California, right on the border of the Anza Borrego Desert State Park. The scenery was majestic, but not without its dangers. Summer temperatures could rise above 125 degrees Fahrenheit, and it was no place for tourists to go [More]

The hospital room was unusually quiet. It was a relief to spend some time alone, just the three of us—my husband, me and our 10-year-old daughter, who was now resting comfortably after surgery. Hannah had undergone a pelvic osteotomy to stabilize her hip, which was prone to dislocating due to Down syndrome. She had a long recovery ahead—months in a body cast, maybe a brace after that—but Hannah was a trooper. She had complete trust in the doctors and nurses who kept a close eye on her, and I prayed that God was nearby too. Hannah looked up at me in [More]

”I’m one of those people who prays about everything,” I told my new teacher friend, Rae, as we sat on a bench in the hallway outside our classrooms. It was the end of the school day, and the students had long since gone home. That’s when Rae and I tended to sit and talk about everything and anything.   Newly married in 1969, my husband and I had just moved over a hundred miles from home in New Brighton, Pennsylvania, to the little town of Ridgway. I got a job as a third-grade teacher at the elementary school. Rae’s classroom was right [More]

The view from our canoes on the Buffalo River was stunning. No wonder this was one of the Ozarks’ premier destinations. Massive bluffs towered over the water on either side—nothing but the calming blue heavens above. But soon into our float trip, the rapids whipped up unexpectedly. My gnawing unease returned with a vengeance.   At 28, I was plenty adventurous and a strong swimmer. Still, I felt there was danger waiting on the river. I’d been dreading this outing almost from the moment my husband, Larry, had made reservations for us and his Uncle Ronnie and Aunt Edna—a two-day, 10.6-mile [More]

The first rays of morning sun shone through my rental car window. It was the middle of August. I was in a small black Ford in a giant parking lot at JFK Airport in New York City.   I had no idea what I was going to do next.   It was 6 A.M. Five hours earlier, I’d been at the boarding gate for a transatlantic flight, on my way to Italy for a long-anticipated retreat at a monastery in the town of Assisi.   Except I’d fallen asleep at the gate and missed the flight.   I awoke with a start [More]

Memories swirled around her as she shopped in the housewares aisle. But who was the mysterious woman that unexpectedly appeared?   Candle holders, picture frames and other knick knacks surrounded me in the housewares department. While my husband and I waited for construction to be finished on our new house, I enjoyed browsing for decorating ideas. A figurine on one of the shelves grabbed my attention, and I picked it up. It was beautiful, made of cast bronze. A woman danced with a young girl, their faces caught in a moment of pure joy, their skirts in motion, the girl looking up [More]

I had breast cancer and needed an MRI. In the waiting room of the doctor’s office, I was filled with dread. I’d always struggled with claustrophobia, and the idea of being in a tiny space with no room to move, bombarded with the loud noise of the MRI machine, sent me into a panic. When the nurse called my name, I stood shakily. Dear Lord, please help me. I’m not sure I have the strength to get through this.   The MRI technician helped me onto the stretcher that went into the machine, all the while explaining what was going to happen. “I’ll [More]

In the dream, I stood at the end of a long, straight gravel driveway. At the other end, I could see a white two-story farmhouse. There were no power lines leading to the house. No car in that long driveway. Details revealing that it was an Amish farmhouse, similar to the ones I often drove past near my home in northern Indiana. There was something inside that house that drew me there, but what it was, I didn’t know.   Fields spread out on either side of me, but I focused on the house. As I got closer, I saw a [More]

Bright red mittens caught my eye as I walked past the Christmas tree. They hung side by side. On one red mitten the word Friends was stitched; on the other, Forever.   The mitten ornaments were a gift from my friend, Jackie. It was hard to believe I’d just spent my first Christmas without her. Her death had been sudden, and we still didn’t know the cause. I was stunned the day her husband, Dale, called to tell me she was gone. In some ways I was still in shock five months later.   Read More: An Angelic Christmas Visit from Her Best Friend | Guideposts

My wife, Arbutis, and I graduated high school in May 1960 and wed that June. We couldn’t wait to start our married life! We set up house in Knoxville, Tennessee, enjoyed a newlyweds’ summer and watched the fall leaves change together. But that winter, on our first Christmas Eve as husband and wife, I was finishing up a job three hours away.   Money was tight, and I’d picked up work in Nashville for a few days, installing a marble floor in a bank. The construction company had set me up in a motel room and lent me a truck for the [More]

I stood outside my house on a June evening, looking up at the sunset. Although the clouds above me made a radiant display, my mind was somewhere else. I was thinking about my younger brother Donald, who had died just a few months before.   Donald was a high-ranking career sergeant in the United States Air Force, and a devoted Christian who’d played drums in his church. Yet when I thought of him now, I didn’t picture him as that accomplished grown man. Instead I saw him as that little baby who was born when I was 11 years old. The way he [More]

On January 6, 2020, as always, I carefully lifted the Nativity angel from the nail at the peak of the wooden stable and held her in my hands. Just as my parents and grandparents had done before me, I waited for this day to take down the crèche. Today was the feast of the Three Kings, or Epiphany, which commemorates the Magi’s visit to the newborn Jesus. They came bearing gifts, and while I wrapped and boxed each Nativity piece for the next year, I thought about the many gifts given throughout the Christmas story. The angel was first. As I took [More]