Proof The Bible Is True

Every Friday for three years I baked for our church’s staff. They enjoyed the homemade cookies and cakes during coffee break, and I loved showing my appreciation for their hard work. While I was at home recuperating from knee surgery, a friend telephoned one Friday and offered to take the weekly treat to the office for me. “I don’t know if I can send anything,” I replied. “My supplies are low, but if I can, I’ll bake an apple pie.” It was one of the specialties I could do in my sleep. However, a search o Read More: God’s Help [More]

Finally, in 2008, after eight years of hard work, Tinsel Time Christmas Tree Farm opened for business. It was a family affair just like we’d imagined. Our kids, along with my brothers, my parents and our nieces and nephews helped out. We dressed like elves and stood by the side of the road waving a banner that read, “Chop down your own Christmas tree!” We drew people in with marshmallow roasts and hayrides in a red-and-white sleigh.   Business was great! After the first year, Karen and I both took early retirement and sunk all of our spare time and [More]

My son and daughters are all grown now, but as their mother I still worry about them. Especially when Gina, my youngest, told me about the car trouble that she’d been having. “I turn the key in the ignition, but it just won’t start,” Gina said when I was down in Texas visiting her and her sister for a month. It sounded to me like battery trouble, but Gina told me that she didn’t have enough money to get a new one right away. Her sister had given her a charger to keep in the car. It fixed the problem [More]

Visits with my grandchildren were precious, but lately it seemed like every time I saw them they were distracted by their gadgets. “Please, God,” I prayed as I pulled into their driveway, “help me find some way to entertain Paul and Jill. Help us make good memories together.” Soon we were chatting about middle school and summer camp. It almost seemed like old times—until Jill slipped her phone out of her pocket. Beside her, Paul was casting longing looks toward his computer. “Let’s go on a hike!” I announced.   “What for?” Paul asked.   I said the first thing [More]

“Facing an impossible situation, try doing what he did.”  Admin I watched it, though I didn’t think I would (or maybe didn’t think I could). I’m talking about Nik Wallenda’s epic and incredibly inspiring high-wire walk across the Grand Canyon Sunday night, broadcast live on the Discovery Channel. Right up until a few minutes before he stepped out on the wire 1,500 feet above the canyon I wasn’t sure I could bear to see the legendary aerialist (and father of three) flirt with catastrophe. This has been troubling me ever since we decided to publish Nik’s piece in our June [More]

Dollywood, the highlight of our big trip to Tennessee with my daughter and her family. Just as I walked through the entrance gates I patted the pocket of my jeans. My wallet was gone! “I was sure I put it in there after I took out the tickets,” I told Jewel, my wife. I checked my fanny pack. No dice. Credit cards, driver’s license, military ID—not to mention $300 in cash. All gone! “Don’t worry, Dad. I’ll help you find it,” my daughter, Teresa, said. “I’ll check the ticket counter,” I said. “Probably left it there.”   I retraced my [More]

My husband, Bill, and I weren’t expecting an evening to ourselves. It’s a rarity, raising three kids. I’d just put a chocolate cake in the oven for after dinner when my sister dropped by, unannounced. “I’ll watch the kids,” she said. “You two enjoy a fun night out.” “What should we do?” I asked Bill. He picked up a newsletter from a Catholic charity we supported. “Well, there’s a potluck tonight,” he said. A church potluck? That wouldn’t have been my first thought. And the church was an hour and a half away. “We don’t have anything to bring,” I [More]

Hey, Filthy Felthy!” It was a guy called Chim. I was in junior high and he was in high school. I didn’t know Chim’s real name, or why he’d picked me out for bullying, but it didn’t matter. I knew he played on the football team and that he took perverse pleasure in shoving me into the dirt. Why, Lord, why? I asked. “Hi, Filthy Felthy,” Chim called one day. “Ready for your daily dusting? Why don’t you run?” I was a decent runner for seventh grade, but Chim could easily catch me. That was probably what he wanted. To [More]

Winter mornings in Michigan were often cold and bleak, especially now that I was getting up earlier than usual to pray. The quiet time with God helped keep me inspired at my job as an elementary school teacher. Some mornings, though, waking up in the dreary darkness, I couldn’t help but wish I had someone to wake up with. I loved my job, but more than anything I hoped to be a wife and mother. So far I hadn’t met the right guy. “Lord, you promise that if we delight in you, you’ll give us the desires of our heart,” [More]

Last year I joined San Francisco’s City Impact, a nondenominational group doing outreach to inner-city residents. This was my first day visiting a public housing complex. The leader put me and another newbie in charge of handing out groceries. My partner and I agreed we had the best job. Who didn’t love food, especially when they couldn’t afford much of it? “Not everyone will need some,” our leader reminded us. “We’re also just here to talk, check in with people, pray with them if they want. It’s aboutshowing our love.” The people on our assigned floors seemed happy to see [More]

I’d been a widow for eight years. I was used to being alone on Valentine’s Day. Or so I thought, until I woke up feeling blue. Before my feet even hit the floor I said to God, I don’t have anyone to love me this year. I really need a Valentine. I mean the works. Roses, a card and dinner out tonight. But no chocolates, please. I’m trying to diet. By the time I’d had my coffee I felt more like myself. I went to work, my prayer forgotten. Then I found a giant Valentine’s Day card taped to my [More]

My daughter, Katelyn, had received a first-class wedding proposal. Her boyfriend popped the question under Christmas lights in Philadelphia’s historic Rittenhouse Square Park. But could we afford a first-class wedding? “I’m going to try to scrape together twenty-five hundred dollars,” I told Katelyn. Even as the words passed my lips, I didn’t know why I’d chosen that amount. I had some jewelry I could sell, but that wouldn’t do it. I worked part-time while caring for a relative,so a second job was out of the question. Lord, you know my needs, so it doesn’t seem right to pray for an [More]

“They’ll hire some young college grad,” Dave told me. “Not an old guy like me.” I’d never seen my husband so discouraged. He’d been doing great work as a field applicator for a farming co-op for 10 years, but when a higher position opened up, the company said they were looking to make an outside hire. After a few weeks of searching they finally let him take a skill test to be considered. Dave felt sure he’d passed, but didn’t think it would change their minds. “If it’s meant to be, God will open the door,” I told him. “All [More]

In this story from August 1949, the beloved singer reveals the role faith and prayer played in her life. I was sitting calmly in a beauty parlor having my hair set when it happened. A spark flew out of a defective hand-cooler and ignited the cotton wadding around my head. In an instant the cotton flared up—my hair was on fire! The frantic operator flailed at the flames, but before he could put out the fire, my eyebrows, eyelids, face and arms were badly burned. For weeks I lay in bed with my head completely bandaged. Around me I kept [More]

Out for some fun spelunking, he now was trapped. Was this the end for him? They didn’t think I could hear them but I could. Every word. “He’s dead weight,” one voice said. “Exhausted, oxygen deprived, dehy­drated. He’s got nothing left.” “I don’t know how we’ll get him out before the rain comes,” another man replied. “God help him if that tunnel floods….” The cold cavern walls stung my cheeks. My lips were caked with dirt, dry and cracked. My empty stomach growled. I strained every muscle in my body, twisted left and right, ex­haled every cubic inch of air [More]

“A child’s faith and persistent prayer brings results!”  Admin Missing: One mouse named Bianca. Wearing a furry blue cap and matching shawl. If found, please return to heartbroken little girl. Bianca was my 8-year-old daughter Caroline’s beloved doll, her favorite mouse detective from the Disney movie The Rescuers . Every morning, as I combed Caroline’s hair, she’d comb Bianca’s fur. Wherever she went, Bianca followed–from the dinner table to her bicycle basket. Even on a weekend trip to Chicago. That’s how we lost her. The morning of our departure, as we packed the car, Caroline set Bianca down on a [More]

” A great lesson in prayer and faith.”  Admin Some years ago evangelist Clyde Dupin was coming to our town, and I was asked to do local publicity for the important event. In the middle of writing lots of articles about the upcoming crusade, I received a phone call from a worldwide ministry in Texas. The media director wanted to interview me, in person, for a full-time feature writing position. I had been waiting for that opportunity for a long time. The problem was…I didn’t have the extra money for an airline ticket. The ministry had agreed to pay for [More]

I awoke at 2:00 a.m. to find my eight-year-old Noah in tears at my bedside. “I miss B.B.” He signed to me. Noah is deaf, and B.B. is his best friend and his cat. She has slept snuggled up to him for the past four years, and only a few days after we moved to our new home in Kansas, B.B. disappeared. My heart ached for Noah, as only a mother’s can when she knows her child is hurting. The day we realized B.B. had somehow gotten out of the house, we began right away to search for her. We [More]

Just one semester before my husband, Dave, was supposed to graduate from college, it looked as though he would have to drop out instead. He had been laid off from his job on the night shift at the auto factory, and if he didn’t find a new position by the time his unemployment benefits ran out we wouldn’t be able to pay for his tuition. Dave was studying to become a teacher. “Maybe I can find a temporary job until June,” I said. That wouldn’t be easy, though. Our 14-month-old daughter, Kristy, had bad asthma. We couldn’t trust a babysitter [More]

I’ll start by warning you that you might want to grab a tissue for this one. I’ve watched this video 8-10 times and I’ve cried every time I’ve seen it. WTVR in Richmond, Virginia, shared this wonderful story that originated with a Facebook video by Becky Miller. The Texas mom posted about her daughter, Bailey, who had been paralyzed for 11 days from the waist down—and there were no answers as to why. Just to set the scene for you, on the day this video was taken, Bailey was waiting on her favorite nurse, and she had a big surprise [More]

For months my husband, Mark, and I had been saving up to get a third family car so that our daughter Anne would have something to drive when she turned 16. With four children, another car—and another driver—in the family would be a godsend. Then came the bad news: Our well had dried up, and so did our savings when we drilled a new one. “I guess I’ll just have to pray for a car,” Anne said when we told her. Anne wasn’t just being a good sport. She really prayed for that car. “I’m praying specifically, just like you [More]

I have always prayed about everything. Big things, small things—they all matter. I trust that God takes an interest in everything going on in my life. But even I didn’t know what to say when my teenaged son, Alan, announced late one night, clear out of the blue, that he was going to bake a lemon meringue pie. Really? “Alan, that’s ridiculous,” I said. “It’s bedtime. I just cleaned the kitchen and did the dishes. Besides, you have school tomorrow. If you want to bake a pie, bake it when you get home in the afternoon. We won’t be able [More]

A coastal wind ruffled my hair as I sat outside our small stucco tract house in Lompoc, California, and I wondered for the millionth time if we should move. The house seemed to squeeze tighter around us as our three active sons, ages thirteen, ten and six, kept growing. I longed for more room. My husband Patrick and I often looked at larger homes, yearning yet hesitant. The question hounded me again: Should we try to move? I prayed for guidance. While reading my Bible one day my heart quickened when I came across Psalm 18:19 (NIV), which read, “He [More]

Has God ever impressed on you to do a big project for Him, and you worked hard on it for years—and yet it seemed like nothing was happening, and God was a million miles away? That’s where I’ve been lately with a huge dream God placed on my heart. Some good things have happened, but the big provisions from Him haven’t arrived yet. I’ll be honest, I’ve been a bit discouraged. Then during my devotions recently, I read a verse in Isaiah 7:11, “Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God.” Those words glared from the page at [More]

In this story from January 1982, the acclaimed actress tells of her first encounter with God, when a prayerful plea received a response more immediate than she could have expected. When I was 18 years old, I had an experience that was to affect the rest of my life. My parents were divorced. Starved for family love, I ran away at 16 to marry my childhood sweetheart. At 17, I had my precious son. Then the war came along, and soon my young husband was drafted and sent overseas. During his long absence, I lived with his very religious parents in [More]

Music video by Bill & Gloria Gaither performing Standing In The Need Of Prayer. (C) 2013 Gaither Music Group.

Recently in the prayer class I lead at our church in Oklahoma City, I was explaining to the new children why we take one Sunday a month from their regular lessons to focus on prayer. “We want you to know God, not just know about Him, and hear God, not just hear about Him,” I explained. If we want our children to know God and not just know about Him, we need to teach them to pray and pray with them. Children could do all kinds of worksheets about God and hear stories about Him, but it is when they [More]