Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.” Faith is not just some ethereal idea floating around in space. Faith is an action word, not just talk. Real faith is active, not passive. James says bluntly, “Faith without deeds is dead” (James 2:26). Faith…

I serve on our Metro District Licensing and Ordaining/Consecrating Committee to interview candidates for accreditation and ordination in the Christian & Missionary Alliance. One question commonly asked: “How were people saved in Old Testament times?” A good answer, the right answer is, “By faith.” When asked for a supporting Scripture, they do well to refer…

By faith, people in the Bible saw things before they actually happened. Noah saw coming judgment. Abraham saw a future city. Joseph saw the exodus from Egypt. Moses saw the deliverance of Israel. Faith envisions what God will one day make visible. “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what…

For trapeze artists a special relationship exists between the flyer and the catcher. The flyer is the one who lets go, and the catcher is the one who catches. As the flyer swings high above the crowd on the trapeze, the moment comes when the flyer must let go. The flyer arcs out into the…

Walt Disney had a vision of a place where children and parents could have fun together. The more Walt dreamed of a “magical park,” the more imaginative and elaborate it became. He needed space to build rivers, waterfalls, and mountains. He would have flying elephants and giant teacups, a fairy-tale castle, moon rockets, and a…

A grandmother promised her 10-year-old grandson a stamp album for Christmas. Christmas came, but no stamp album, and no word from grandmother. When his playmates came to see his Christmas presents, he added that he had also received “a stamp album from grandmother.” His mother asked him about it. “But, George, you did not get…

Michael Horton and his wife anxiously anticipated the premature delivery of their triplets. He will never forget the moment when the doctor looked at him and announced, “They’re all alive!” It was not a foregone conclusion (at least for one of them) and until that report, he and his wife were in suspense. All the…

According to the Council on Foreign Relations’s Global Conflict Tracker, 27 ongoing conflicts are currently taking place globally. They categorize conflict into three groups: worsening, unchanging, and improving. Right now, no conflict is described as improving. Of those worsening: Conflict in Ukraine. War in Afghanistan. Political instability in Lebanon. War in Yemen. The Rohingya crisis…

The Satisfaction with Life Scale was created by researchers as a way to assess an individual’s satisfaction with their life as a whole. People judge how they feel about the five following statements using a 7-scale scoring system, with 1 being “strongly disagree” with the statement and 7 being “strongly agree” with the statement. 1….

I remember growing up and playing the Game of LIFE with my sister, Deb, and others. It’s a board game where players travel in small plastic automobiles that pass along, over, and through small mountains, buildings, and other features. They travel through life – from early adulthood to retirement, with college if necessary, jobs, marriage,…