With November, we enter the season of last things. Those of us who live in the Northern Hemisphere are watching the last leaf fall, the last bird fly south for the winter. It is a month that is a special time to reflect on what spiritual writers have traditionally called “the four last things”—death and judgment, heaven and hell. More »

All Saints Day is a perfect time to celebrate the heroic and inspiring lives of the many great saints of the church and to help your family to know and love them. Here are a few family activities that work well: More »

Millions of people drink coffee every morning. For many of them, it’s the one sure thing that will get their “batteries” charged for the day. More »

If there is someone to whom these Scripture verses would apply more than most, it would have to be Mattie J.T. Stepanek, the best-selling poet who died last year at the age of thirteen. Few people have lived a more fragile existence than Mattie. For every moment of his short life, he was beset by a crippling disease. And yet Mattie realized that he had a great treasure to be shared with everyone: his tremendous faith and courage, and the wisdom that he expressed through the beautiful gift of his writing. More »

We are seated on faded plastic chairs perched on the dirt floor of a one-room corrugated tin home. It belongs to Ovalia, a forty-three-year-old Guatemalan woman who is expecting her ninth child. Her face is lined, her hands rough. Her eyes are weary, but they seem to shine with an inner light. More »

"And live in love, as Christ loved us." —Ephesians 5:2 More »

The superscription puts this psalm in context: it was composed at a time when David had to use all his cleverness and even deviousness just to stay alive. Yet David knew that ultimately it was never his own strategy that saved him, and in these difficult circumstances, he sings one of the most memorable hymns of praise to God in the whole Bible. More »

The gospel . . . asks Christians to detach themselves from material goods, which are for the most part illusory, and to do their duty faithfully, constantly aspiring to heaven. May the believer remain alert and watchful to be ready to welcome Jesus when he comes in his glory. More »