In Charles Hummel’s booklet Tyranny of the Urgent, which I read as a young Christian thirty-five years ago, he said that what is urgent is often not important, and what is important is typically not urgent.
My normal approach to Bible study is to pore over texts that relate to something on my mind and heart. Sometimes this has been prompted by my research on current book projects.
I came to Christ at an uncool church (not the one in the photo, but built in the same era). Coming from the family of a tavern owner, and never having been part of a church, it was strange to hear the way people spoke, how they dressed (the men wore suits and ties) and what they sang, including occasional songs in Swedish.
Earlier this year, I did an interview about my job as a writer with Clash, a website for Christian teens. The work I do is more than “just a job” to me. My writing is a ministry, because ministry is service, and every aspect of our lives is to be a service that glorifies our Lord: “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31).
Someone I’d never met came up to me after I spoke at a conference.
“I’ve got a problem with you,” he said, face sour.
“Take a number,” I said.
God is so gracious to give us animals. In Genesis 1 and 2, one of the first responsibilities given to the first man and woman was to care for the animals.
Well, did that get your attention? I ran across this email correspondence recently, related to Randy’s growing up years, and thought I’d share it with you. A high school student wrote a letter to Randy as part of her English class project. Here’s her letter along with Randy’s response.
I grew up without Christ and without the church. When I was in high school I attended a church for the wrong reason—to see a girl I'd met. But God can use even our wrong motives for his right purposes. (In fact, years later that girl became my wife!) At that church and in the youth group there, I heard the gospel for the first time.
Last week I took a trip to Little Rock, Arkansas to record three programs about my book If God Is Good with Family Life Today radio. The show will be airing probably in late spring or early summer. (Bob Lepine and Dennis Rainey, pictured here, are great brothers, and Eternal Perspective Ministries considers it a privilege to support Family Life Ministries, www.familylife.com.)
Today is the twentieth anniversary of an unforgettable experience.
In 1989, I’d spoken at a missionary conference in Palmer, Alaska. Afterward, we were headed north to Galena, on the Yukon River, by small plane. My ten-year-old, Karina, and I were flying with our missionary friend, Barry Arnold, and his daughter, Andrea, also ten. Nanci and our daughter Angie were leaving with the rest of Barry’s family an hour later in another plane, taking a different route.
Well into the flight we were cruising over a beautiful waterfall at three thousand feet, when suddenly the engine lost power ...
I'm the author of over 40 books and the founder and director of Eternal Perspective Ministries. I love Jesus, my wife Nanci, and our daughters, sons and five grandsons!
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