I was on an airplane and the flight attendant started going through the pre-flight spiel, instructing us on what to do "in case of a water landing."

I looked around. We were on a 747 jet. This plane isn't equipped with pontoons. A 747 doesn't "land" on the water. It explodes on impact into pieces the size of my toenail.

The proper way to prepare for an event like this is not to stick your head between ...

On the afternoon of May 2, 1990, I heard holy things. I was visiting Larry Hildreth, a father and husband from our church in Pennsylvania. He was in his thirties, but he was near death from cancer. I was at his home to serve him Communion, because he was too weak to come to church.

Larry was a deeply thoughtful man, and as he spoke that day, slow and deliberately, I realized I was hearing extraordinary ...

Note: This clip is preceded by an incident where a character takes the Lord's name in vain. If you use this clip, please pay special attention to the elapsed time noted at the conclusion of the illustration.

The story of Ghost Town centers around Bertram Pincus—a dentist who detests all people and only enjoys his work because he gets to stuff cotton balls into his clients' mouths and doesn't ...

I went to my first black funeral when I was 16 years old. A friend of mine, Clarence, had died. The pastor was incredible. From the pulpit he talked about the Resurrection in beautiful terms. He had us thrilled. He came down from the pulpit, went to the family, and comforted them from the fourteenth chapter of John. "Let not your heart be troubled," he said, "'You believe in God, believe also in me,' ...

Before giving his life fully to Christ, author Lewis Smedes worked for his uncle's steel company. He writes:

Gigantic cranes hoisted the steel beams from boat to dock by means of immense electro-magnets, each of them about three feet thick, eight feet in diameter, and weighing about fifteen tons. The magnets hung at the end of a two-inch cable which was, in turn, controlled by an operator sitting ...

Two years ago, John Brandick, a 62-year-old British man, was told he would succumb to pancreatic cancer within a year. Thinking he only had that single year to live, he decided to get the most out of what life he had left. He quit his job, quit paying his mortgage, and used his savings to give gifts to friends and family, go on vacations, frequently dine out, and do all the other things that seem ...

In early 2006, San Francisco paralegal Mike Patterson started MyDeathSpace.com, an Internet site that details the deaths of MySpace members and offers links to the archived pages of their accounts. There's even a digital map that tracks the locations of all the deceased who are registered. Patterson's site lists nearly 3,000 deaths and receives over 100,000 hits a day.

Over time, MyDeathSpace.com has ...

Since its birth in 1947, the world's eyes have been on the famous Doomsday Clock. This symbolic timepiece measures how close the world is to "midnight"—that is, a nuclear or environmental apocalypse. It is officially set by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists magazine, a resource dedicated to educating the world about global security.

The magazine made news in 2007 when physicists collectively ...

A 2007 survey conducted by the American Association of Retired Persons suggests that a majority of people 50 years old and older believe in life after death.

Of the people surveyed, 94 percent claimed to believe in God, while 87 percent considered themselves "spiritual" and 82 percent acknowledged being "religious." Over half—66 percent—agreed that their "confidence in life after death ...

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As I approached my 27th birthday, I had this strange feeling that I was about to cross a definitive line—like when an explorer marks the place that is the farthest reach of the previous explorer and then takes one more step into new territory—off the map, over the edge and no turning back. There was nothing at all pleasant about this sensation: It was frightening and lonely and I was ...