Stuart Briscoe, author and long-time pastor of Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin, tells the following story:

Many years ago, during the Cold War, I traveled to Poland for several weeks of itinerant ministry. One winter day my sponsors drove me in the dead of night to the middle of nowhere. I walked into a dilapidated building crammed with one hundred young people. I realized it was a unique ...

While attending Moody Graduate School in Chicago, campus housing was not available for my wife and me, so we ended up renting an apartment right around the corner on fashionable Oak Street. One morning I noticed Shoo, the local shoeshine man. Like a barker at a carnival, he would offer to shine the shoes (for a donation) of bustling passersby during the early morning rush.

On that particular day, however, ...

Most people would be a little embarrassed to have unexpected company when their house was a mess. My family was staying at a hotel in Nigeria, West Africa, one time when I heard a knock on the door. I opened it and found a smiling Nigerian gentleman ready to clean our room.

I was so embarrassed! My family had travel bags, curling irons, and crumpled clothing sprawled across our unmade beds. Wet towels ...

Helen Roseveare is a British medical doctor who worked for many years as a missionary in Zaire. During the revolution of the 1960s, she often faced brutal beatings and other forms of physical torture. On one occasion, when she was about to be executed, she feared God had forsaken her.

In that moment, she sensed the Holy Spirit saying to her: Twenty years ago you asked me for the privilege of being ...

Some years ago, David Robinson, who plays basketball in San Antonio, visited our church. He's not a member of our church, but he shows up occasionally. You can imagine the stir that occurred when that seven-foot striking fellow walked into the auditorium. We have two worship services, and he came to the first one. At the end of it, people mobbed him. Kids all wanted his autograph. Dads lined up, allegedly ...

Flannery O'Connor's short story A Temple of the Holy Ghost tells of a precocious 12-year-old girl and two country boys who have come to court her visiting cousins. The girl overhears her teenage cousins mock a nun, Sister Perpetua, who has suggested a formula to use in fending off fresh young men in the back seats of cars. "Stop sir! I am a Temple of the Holy Ghost!" the nun taught the girls to say. ...

There it stood—the best tree in the lot. It was the second Christmas of our married life, and with newlywed-like impulse, we decided to forego the two-foot high plastic tree that graced our coffee table the year before. We had found the perfect tree instead. It was wide at the base and came to a perfect point on top. With blissful Christmas cheer we paid the $25, maneuvered it into our '77 Chevy Citation, ...

One reason for the current success of the University of Miami basketball team is forward James Jones. The 6-foot-8-inch, 211-pounder is as successful off the court as on, building a reputation as a generous member of the Miami student body. He says:

My desire is to live out my faith in such a way that people can see Jesus Christ in me without me ever having to say a word. I'll be the first person ...

Unless there is within us that which is above us, we shall soon yield to that which is about us.

In the movie Air Force One, the President of the United States (played by Harrison Ford) is taken hostage as terrorists hijack his official aircraft, Air Force One. Drawing on his former military experience, the President eventually kills or disables all the terrorists but one.

The crisis, however, is far from over. There is no one left who can safely land the plane. The Vice-President and the joint ...