Spiritual Issues

Featured Spiritual Issues

The Church – The Body of Christ

Paul wrote of the mystery that had been hidden throughout the ages: the mystery of the Body of Christ. He called the Body of Christ the Church. God the Father gave Jesus to be the Head of the “Church, which is His Body”. Those who believe in Jesus can be baptized into His Body and made members (hands, feet, etc.) of His Body. They are “to grow up in every way into Him Who is the Head, from Whom the whole Body makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love, when each part is working properly.”


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The Hope That Never Fails

“If I lift up my eyes to the hills, where shall I find help? Help comes only from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth.” Psalm 121:1-2. Hope. A very short, simple, yet powerful word. The dictionary defines hope as “the feeling that what is desired is also possible, or that events may turn out for the best.” To “give up hope” is to reach the end. To “keep on hoping” means there may yet be a chance, however small, that what is desired will come to pass.


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Power to Become a Son of God

When God is central in a human life, there is a steadiness and “a peace that passes understanding.” Unlike ideologies and philosophies, which change with circumstances like the weather, God never changes. A person who knows Jesus does not have to fear anything, not even death, because knowing Jesus is eternal life.


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All Spiritual Issues


Power to Become a Son of God

When God is central in a human life, there is a steadiness and “a peace that passes understanding.” Unlike ideologies and philosophies, which change with circumstances like the weather, God never changes. A person who knows Jesus does not have to fear anything, not even death, because knowing Jesus is eternal life.


The Church – The Body of Christ

Paul wrote of the mystery that had been hidden throughout the ages: the mystery of the Body of Christ. He called the Body of Christ the Church. God the Father gave Jesus to be the Head of the “Church, which is His Body.” Those who believe in Jesus can be baptized into His Body and made members. 


A Living Sacrifice

“I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1). These words reveal the secret to a powerful and fruitful life of discipleship. 


Getting to the Heart of It – Redemption and Release

When people hear the word “Christianity” today, most imagine scenes of Gothic stone, or white clapboard churches, well-dressed parishioners, one-hour services, twenty-minute sermons…. Unfortunately, these notions effectively obscure what real, living Christianity is all about. They substitute ritual for an intimate, personal and living faith in God and in Jesus Christ His Son


The Hope That Never Fails

“If I lift up my eyes to the hills, where shall I find help? Help comes only from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth.” Psalm 121:1-2. Hope. A very short, simple, yet powerful word. The dictionary defines hope as “the feeling that what is desired is also possible, or that events may turn out for the best.” To “give up hope” is to reach the end. To “keep on hoping” means there may yet be a chance, however small, that what is desired will come to pass.


What Has Many Doors But Only One Exit?
The Supernatural: Trespassers Beware

It was a quaint, narrow street in the West Village, lined with brightly painted row houses, decorated boutiques, and miniature gardens. On my left, written in a bright red arc, the words “Reader and Advisor” stared at me from the store front window. Five years earlier I would probably have gone in, not merely to hear the reading but to learn some tricks of the trade.


Taxes to Caesar

In the days when Jesus lived on this earth, while He was teaching openly in the temple at Jerusalem only a few days before His death, there were many who tried to test Him, to catch Him in something He might say in front of the people. A question, simply put, was “Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar?” (Luke 20:22) They knew that the dilemma posed by this question would be His undoing. It was deliberately intended to put Him on the spot in front of all the people, because no matter how He answered it, He could not win.


Eluding the Mold

Each generation expects something special to occur within the small portion of history it is allowed to shape. Therefore, each has its own peculiar set of expectations. These seize people’s imaginations, and nearly the entire generation looks forward together to the day when its expectations will be realities…. But somehow the whole thing soured. 


Answering the “Exorcist”

Blatty’s “The Exorcist” planted the idea of exorcism and devil possession in the minds of millions of Americans practically overnight…. They are no surprise at all to the Biblically-informed, since the Scriptures teach plainly, and without superstition, about them.


Playing Dressup

The house our family lived in had a room in the basement only four feet high. All our toys and games were in it. In one corner we had a steamer trunk filled with my mother’s old dresses, shoes, and hats. I could spend hours dressing up in the most outrageous combinations of colors, patterns, and styles as I pretended to be much older – and very sophisticated. Well, my childhood daydream suddenly ended when a sobering thought hit me. I have been playing spiritual dress up!


Of Noah, and God’s Broken Heart

As the father of two boys, I found a curious fact in the playroom: the whole world seems to love Noah and the Ark full of animals. In scene after scene, Noah and his family build an impressive Ark that sails the depth of the Deluge until the dove comes back with an olive branch, then returns no more. Noah has no enemies anymore, but legions of young admirers who know the story of how the human race was saved. But it turns out not to be just a happy tale of childhood.


Choosing the Unconditional Road

A friend of mine loves God, but wonders about the wisdom of His dealings with her. She says everything is okay, she’s even ready to go to the mission field, except that she doesn’t have a husband. Or a child. How could God leave these important people out of her life and maybe even out of His plan for her? She’s been waiting for a long time and nothing seems to change.


Spiritual Food

As children, our mothers would say, “Eat your vegetables!” I have since learned that certain foods help our body while others tear it down. We are not always aware that our bodies are constantly under siege by infection and disease. Daily dramas and battles play out in the deep places of our cells. This is also the case spiritually.


Religious Garbage (It Can Take Over Your Life)

I had an annoying habit my freshman year: I picked up litter. Not just mine. Everybody’s. I never felt very altruistic about it, though—only increasingly burdened.


Can You Defy Death?

I think back often on that brisk autumn morning during my senior year of high school when Mr. Holmes, the coolest English teacher in the school bar none, began a unit on death. “Death?” you might think, “What a morbid topic for high school seniors.” We thought so, too.


Real Food, Real Drink

For most of my teenage years, I was dissatisfied, always looking back and wanting what was. I would always compare the dismal present with the halcyon days of my youth. But by age 13, things changed, and one thing went beyond my control.


The Road to Boldness

Welcome to Yale, among the most vigorously contested spiritual real estate anywhere! If you have already welcomed Jesus Christ into your heart, this message is for you. To judge by all recent experience, you will finish Yale in one of several ways….


Why Are You Here?

The trees start to bloom again. The breeze has become warm. It is graduation time: a time when people start storing memories for the future, a time of parting with friends. It is also a time, especially for those who have yet to graduate, to think seriously about their purpose for being at Yale.


Rule of Reason

Groping about in the shadow of the Enlightenment, our culture suffers a crisis of intellectual authority. Reason, human reason that is, has been crowned king and all truth claims must now submit themselves before its judgment. One of the deposed authorities sentenced to execution is the Christian tenet that all Scripture is God-breathed. 


Smart Investing

Lately I’ve been thinking about investing. As an English major I didn’t learn much about stocks, commodities, CDs, IRAs, money market accounts, annuities, mutual funds, bonds…. Now, my eyes are wide open to the financial industry. It’s risky waters, you have to know what you’re doing, but even a novice knows what the goal is: get the largest return.


Oh, Glorious Knowledge!

Yale has built a first-class reputation on its ability to handle the knowledge of our world. We have at least four dozen libraries with book holdings in excess of 11 million, professors whose fields of research extend all over the globe…. Yet in my four years here, I have found one kind of knowledge distinctly lacking. 


Tornado Warning

In the movie Twister, a little girl’s life changes forever when a tornado crosses her homestead; it snatches away her father. As an adult she pursues these vortexes and tries to predict their behavior. As the characters encounter tornadoes of increasing strength, one is awestruck at their sheer destructive force. They lay waste, showing mercy to no one.


Going Past the Gold

Several friends and I watched Chariots of Fire, a movie about the 1924 Paris Olympics. I found myself caught up in the character of Eric Liddell. Liddell, an Edinburgh University runner, was headed for a post as a missionary in China. In the Olympics, he refused to run in the 100 meter sprint, in which he was Britain’s greatest hope for the gold. Why? Because the 100 meter trial heats were held on Sunday, and Liddell was a Christian.


Much More than a Creed, Doctrine or Way of Thinking

It is important that we follow the Lord—not a creed, a doctrine, or a way of thinking—but the Lord Himself. We must be connected to Him, having a direct relationship with Him and not via anyone else.


Time Trial

I race bicycles, and one event I do regularly is the time trial. A local bicycle club runs an eight-mile time trial in Woodbridge, and the time which separates the good riders from the rest on the Woodbridge course is 18 minutes. Thus my goal for the past three years was to break the 18-minute barrier. 


You Can’t Cram For This Final

A year ago, almost to the day I write this, a Princess died. It was freshman bazaar day here at Yale, and I remember the looks of disbelief as the news passed along the line of tables on Old Campus. Maybe there was disbelief because Diana was glamorous and wealthy and still in her prime. Or maybe it was that things had changed so suddenly for her. 


Why Jesus?

As an alumnus, I prize Columbia’s global diversity. As a Christian, I marvel how Jesus, a Middle-Eastern Jewish man from two millennia ago, draws followers from every nation. Some of them founded Columbia, Harvard, Yale and Princeton—havens for international students of any religion. Christians started such global humanitarian organizations as the Red Cross, Salvation Army and United Way. What explains Jesus’ unparalleled global impact?