Grace is opposed to merit, but it is not opposed to effort.

—Bradley Nassif, professor of biblical and theological studies at North Park University (Chicago, Illinois)

Based upon a true story, The Exorcism of Emily Rose tells the story of Father Moore (played by Tom Wilkinson), a priest on trial for the murder of a young girl named Emily Rose (Jennifer Carpenter) who died during an exorcism he supervised. As the movie progresses, the priest's formerly skeptic lawyer comes to believe that there may be actual supernatural forces at play. She begins to argue that Father ...

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I had the strangest feeling sitting there. The feeling was helplessness. There was nothing I could do. It had been taken care of. To insist on paying would have been pointless. All I could do was trust that what she said was actually true and then live in that—which meant getting up and leaving the restaurant. My acceptance of what she said gave me a choice: to live like it was true or to ...

Author James Herriot tells of an unforgettable wedding anniversary he and his wife celebrated early in their marriage. His boss had encouraged him to take his wife to a fancy restaurant, but Herriot balked. He was a young veterinarian and couldn't really afford it. "Oh, do it!" the boss insisted. "It's a special day!" Herriot reluctantly agreed and surprised his wife with the news.

En route to the ...

Hidalgo is the story of a man named Frank Hopkins who is seeking to find redemption from his painful past as the mixed-race son of a cavalry scout and an Indian chief's daughter.

At the beginning of the movie, Hopkins learns the government is rounding up wild horses used by the Native Americans and is planning to shoot them. The price for purchasing the horses is too great for the Indians. Hopkins ...

In his book Everybody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them, John Ortberg tells of a young man named John Gilbert. At age five, John was diagnosed with Duchenne's Muscular Dystrophy, a genetic, progressive, debilitating disease. At age 25, the disease finally claimed John's life.

Every year John lost something. One year, he lost the ability to run, so he couldn't play sports with the other kids. Another ...

Text: "All this is evidence that God's judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering" (2 Thessalonians 1:5).

Purpose: To show that we are counted worthy in Christ.

Object: A simple, wooden, balance scale. I asked one of the men of my congregation to make it.

Use: On one side of the scale, I placed a small, heavy object (such as a rock), ...

The success of Google Inc. is such that it is now part of the American cultural vocabulary and consciousness. The Google search engine has tamed the vast resources of the Internet allowing users to access pertinent information with lightning speed.

That success, and the company's generosity to its staff (read, stock options), draws hordes of eager prospective employees. Although Google has grown from ...

I have a small collection of baseball cards. The card that is worth the most is called "Future Stars" and is valued at $100.

There are three players on this card. The first is Jeff Schneider. Schneider played 1 year of professional baseball, pitched in 11 games, and gave up 13 earned runs in those 11 games.

The second player is Bobby Bonner, who played 4 years of baseball but only appeared in 61 games, ...

Pay It Forward describes the incredible effects of a seventh grade boy's plan to change the world by doing something for other people they can't do for themselves.

Early in the film, reporter Chris Chandler (Jay Mohr) arrives in a residential neighborhood where a hostage situation is in progress. As he begins to question the police, the hostage-taker crashes a large SUV through the garage door and ...