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 ...

The Ultimate Gift is about an arrogant, spoiled young man named Jason Stevens (played by Drew Fuller). Jason expects a huge inheritance when he hears that his grandfather has died. What he gets instead is a crash course in life. Jason is required to do twelve tasks—what his grandfather calls "gifts"—designed to challenge him in improbable ways. Among Jason's tasks is the challenge to make ...

Texts: Passages concerning the sacrifice of Jesus (Leviticus 16, Isaiah 53, Matthew 16:21–28, Luke 18:31–34, John 12:20–36, Philippians 2:5–11)

Principle: In the kingdom of God, death precedes life.

Objects: A sharp knife, cutting board, ingredients for making salsa (or your favorite fresh food dish), and possibly even a way to distribute the food.

Experience: Begin by asking ...

A group of Americans were surveyed concerning issues of life after death:

• Ten percent believe we return to earth in a different form.

• Ten percent believe there is no life after death.

• Twenty-four percent believe the soul lives in a different place, determined by past actions.

• Forty-eight percent believe we go to heaven or hell, depending on confession of sins and accepting ...

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 ...

If I'm not abiding in Jesus, then where is it that I abide? I once asked myself. I began to notice that when I was tired or anxious, there were certain sentences I would say in my head that led me to a familiar place. The journey to this place would often start with me walking around disturbed, feeling as if there was something deep inside that I needed to put into words but couldn't quite capture. ...

If Jesus makes you feel comfortable with your agenda, then he's not Jesus…. Once you domesticate Jesus, he isn't there any more.

...

In order to fix the implications of that text in my vocation, I have taken to quoting it before every visit or meeting: "He is risen. He is going before you to 1020 Emmorton Road; there you will see him, as he told you." Later in the day it will be, "He is risen. He is going before you to St. Joseph's Hospital; there you will see him, as he told you." When I arrive and enter the room I am not ...

Author and pastor John Piper says:

We must not give a sexual image or impulse more than five seconds before we mount a violent counterattack with the mind. I mean that! Five seconds. In the first two seconds we shout, "No! Get out of my head!" In the next two seconds we cry out: "O God, in the name of Jesus, help me. Save me now. I am yours."

Good beginning. But then the real battle begins. This is ...

In the beginning of the movie Spider-Man, Peter Parker undergoes a transformation. Bitten by a spider that's been subjected to genetic experimentation, Peter develops superpowers. Beneath his lycra union suit beats the heart of a hero who nightly swings between the skyscrapers, looking for some endangered soul to rescue.

One such soul is Mary Jane, a young woman he secretly loves. She falls for Spider-Man—but ...