E. M. Bounds, a 19th century pastor in the Methodist Episcopal Church, wrote a number of definitive books dealing with prayer that are considered classics. Upon his retirement as pastor in 1894, he spent his final 17 years engaged in intercessory prayer, writing, and itinerant revival ministry. He would typically...

At the Last Supper, Jesus consoled His disciples that He would be leaving them, but would not leave them as orphans (John 14:18). He told them that the world would not see Him, but they would. He was trying to get them to see that a new relationship was in...

Together, they came to a garden, a place to pray. Jesus led His disciples here after the Supper. The heads of the Lord’s followers were full of the astonishing things He had said and done to them in the Upper Room. He had washed their feet. He broke bread and...

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”   John...

Job — it was the book I was told to read first. That’s what Kitty Garcia, a fervent, faithful grandmother, told me as she handed me a fresh Bible. It was modern translation, a paperback paraphrased edition, as I was told after I read through it in a couple weeks....

Bill Alderson, Baltimore One of the most recognizable of Jesus’s parables is the Prodigal Son. Most of us have heard messages on the subject of a restored relationship with the Father using this parable as its text, but what if this particular lesson was intended to address the Jews? Since...

The disciples watched Jesus closely as He prayed. They were captivated and quiet in this instance. When He was finished, they asked Him for a specific teaching on the practice of prayer. Take note that this happened “in a certain place” according to the report we examine in Luke 11,...

“Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12). Here’s a commandment that comes with a promise. Honor brings the reward of life. Recognition and respect for our origins should make sense to us. After all,...

The Father and the Contest –what does one concept have to do with the other? Actually, both are significant to the believer in Christ.  When I become a Christian, I enter into a relationship and regiment. I am part of the family of God and I am also a soldier...

The first words Jesus said from the Cross were these: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” The sentence startles us because we understand so little about what’s really happening in our midst. To this point, Jesus had suffered through the miscarriages of Jewish and Roman justice...