The beginning of a new year is a good time to take inventory of my life. Can I improve who I am? Can I become…
The U. S. Navy ship I was assigned to was on a six-month cruise. With time on our hands, we sailors often gathered in our…
“Who’s that guy?” asked Eddie, rolling his eyes with disdain. “And why is he shooting all by himself?” “That’s Greenwood,” said William. Eddie, a talented…
What had happened to my wife? I couldn’t understand Betty. She had completely changed. She seemed to have new values and a new purpose in…
Our decisions determine our destinies — for earth and eternity. When Judas betrayed Jesus, he knew what he was doing; his choice was conscious and…
I come to the garden alone While the dew is still on the roses . . . I thrust my trembling fingers hard against my…
The cult leader burst through the door of the small room where I was being held prisoner. “Are you ready to repent?” he shouted. “Are…
All of us are confronted with temptation. It is a “given” when part of a spiritually fallen world. The Devil is referred to in the…
Everything in my life appeared perfect. My husband and I had been happily married for five years. We had a beautiful baby boy and many…
The first time I saw him, he wandered into the sales department where I worked as a secretary. Who is this cute guy? I wondered….
“We’re going to take you to a psychiatrist,” my parents told me. “Maybe he can help you.” “But everyone will think I’m crazy,” I protested….
The wails of two small children greeted my ears as I entered the trailer house. Trained as a criminal investigator to observe quickly, I took…
One starry night many years ago — more years than I care to remember — I found God. Or maybe God found me. Traumatic events…
Two candles glowed in front of me, illuminating the fancy black-lacquered altar in our home. I grasped the rosary beads and twisted them mechanically into…
When I was a freshman in college, an atheist lived on my floor in the dorm. What a shame, I thought. Somebody ought to tell…
I nocked an arrow in my compound bow and shot Joey. Just before I released the arrow, he turned around in the doorway of my…
“There’s been a burglary,” the police sergeant grunted. “About an hour ago, three men broke into a house near the Beltway, and they got away….
Glancing toward the door of my prison cell, I noticed a book wedged between the bars. How did it get there? I wondered. It was…
Twenty years ago I was a young man heading off to an Ivy League college. Like most people my age, I didn’t think of my…
When I was stationed in Alexandria, Virginia, I visited many of our nation’s most sacred historical landmarks. During one of my visits to Washington, D.C.,…
“Ugh!” I moaned as I studied my reflection in my bedroom mirror. Who is this girl staring back at me? I’d been raised in a…
The English teacher at my high school took a special interest in me. “Here’s a book you might enjoy reading, John,” he suggested. It was…
“Is there really such a thing as an atheist?” some Christians have asked me. I can testify that there is, because I was an atheist…
Prison. Not a place you’d expect to feel truly free. Freedom from the pain of my past and from my life of crime did come…
“Just as I am is pretty good.” “Take me or leave me.” “I’m not changing for you or for anybody.” Good self-esteem means self-acceptance, doesn’t…
I raised my children in the age of the “liberated woman.” Being a stay-at-home mommy in the early 80’s was considered a waste of female…
A young girl struggles with being an outsider in school and in her family. Even after inviting Jesus Christ into her heart, she deals with rejection and chooses a wrong path. But that path eventually leads her to a new identity and fulfillment in Christ.
A beautiful April day, 1998. Relieved to be done with work, my boyfriend and I were loosening up at a friend’s house. “Want a drink,…
Looking over the wide variety of commands in a word processing program is always kind of fun. You ask yourself, Who in the world would…
In many ways, I am living proof that anyone can come to prison. I did not come from a broken home. I was not raised…
“Something is radically wrong with your baby’s head,” the doctor told my wife, Brenda, and me. “He has a rare problem called cranio-synostosis. The two…
Two men leaned over a kitchen table one Saturday afternoon playing Scrabble. It was mid-December 1979 and, so the story goes, one of them wondered…
Losing everything — a parent, a job, self-respect — can cost you in many ways. One man turned against God in his personal losses, but turned toward Him when God pursued him.
Lightning struck a tree outside the house as a dying Korean told me about Jesus Christ. Fear struck my heart: Where would I go if…
Have you ever gotten lost? Have you ever felt abandoned in a strange place where you didn’t seem to know the language? Have you ever…
They persistently showed up every Tuesday, knocking on my door with an uncanny ability to appear immediately after my daughter went down for her nap….
“To be forewarned is to be forearmed.” This wise admonition applies to cults. According to Dr. Margaret T. Singer in her book Cults in Our…
Dear God, I need help. I have no where else to turn. I’m in too far. It hurts too much. From out there, sin looked…
On the streets of town one day, Jesus was mobbed by people bumping, jostling, elbowing one another in an attempt to get close to this…
Though I had always gone to church with my family, I was an agnostic. As a nuclear scientist, I prided myself on my knowledge and…
Today . . . a gift from God, the anticipation of tomorrow. Today . . . the birthplace of dreams, the resting place of memories….
I never went to Hebrew school. Times were tough and my parents didn’t have the money to teach me the language used in our orthodox…
I grew up in a communist country — Russia — when the KGB kept everything and everyone under tight supervision and a person’s faith in…
I felt my heart pound as I opened the door to Dr. Brady’s suite. This better work, I told myself sternly. It’s my last hope….
Not me! I didn’t want anything to do with Christianity. That was religion, and religion was for people who couldn’t stand on their own two…
I was walking down the hall, minding my business, when some of the guys grabbed me and dragged me, cursing and struggling, into Major Brooks’…
A young man takes the negative behavior of his father seriously — so seriously that he commits to praying regularly for the man’s salvation. God listens to those pleas and brings transformation as only He can.
Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord (Acts 3:19)….
I considered myself a liberated woman. Yet when I met Alan — tall, blond, and handsome — I admired him for his strong spiritual feelings…
In February 1862 during the American Civil War, the Union troops attacked the Confederate stronghold at Fort Donelson, Tennessee. The conflict finally ended when the…
A state university in the Midwest built an arts center with staircases that lead nowhere. Columns hang from the ceiling but stop short of connecting…
At times, I have regretted not growing up in a church. As a youngster, I had never heard the story of David and the giant….
One of history’s most fascinating stories involves several Japanese soldiers from World War II who, though the war ended in 1945, continued to fight the…
“Stop doubting and believe” (John 20:27, NIV). How many people refuse to believe in Jesus Christ? Too many. Some of them put themselves in the…
Now I’m really in for it! I thought despondently. At the age of 19 I had topped off a half dozen arrests with a crime…
As business manager in a law firm, I did my best to play the part of a successful woman: spike heels, skirt above the knee,…