Into the Mess My high school Calculus teacher was a retired commander in the U.S. military. He would often work out problems on the chalkboard (back when there were chalkboards in classrooms), going through many steps and covering the entire board with equations and computations.  In the midst of the long, arduous problem-solving process and before finally arriving at the…

Lest We Forget The phrase “lest we forget” is often used in connection with Veterans Day (formerly known as Armistice Day) on November 11, as Americans remember the service of men and women in our military forces to defend our country and protect our liberties. Even before the term was used in reference to veterans, it was used in a…

A shoebox — it’s a simple thing. But shoeboxes—113 million in number, and all containing a colorful and child-friendly Gospel storybook—have been used to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with children who are poor, suffering, lonely, sick, homeless, and who live in areas that are dangerous and affected by war and natural disasters. Fueled by the power of…

Sinclair Ferguson, a well-known Scottish theologian, says that when visiting a church, he looks for two things: Is there frequent teaching of God’s Word to the congregation? Are they devoted to prayer? Indeed, he has noticed that the least-attended meetings at many churches are those centered on prayer. But prayer is serious business. By the time this article appears in…

The month of May seems more like the “end of the year” than December. In May comes the last day of school. Our “Sunday School year” also ends, and in June we go into “summer mode” as families travel for vacation and as children attend camps. For the past nine months, we have been blessed to have many adults be…

At our weekly Good News Club meetings at E. Rivers, the children have the opportunity to write down their praise and prayer requests, for which the club leaders pray during the week. The prayer requests are varied: asking God for help in school, for their parents getting a job or promotion, for good health for grandparents, for safety, confessing sin…