Editor's Note: On March 10, 2008, we published the following story as an "Editor's Choice" illustration. The story had a number of errors in it, and we wish to provide you with a corrected version. Over the years many pastors have embellished the story, adding the idea that the man who called Joe in the middle of the night was one of Tim Bayly's friends playing a prank on Joe Bayly, Tim's father. ...

A quick look at our culture shows that idealized images of motherhood are inaccurate, and Scripture reveals the same. Ruth was left childless and widowed at a young age. Rachel, Hannah, and Sarah were infertile. Eve and Mary lost sons under terrible circumstances. Two mothers of two kings, both named Ahaziah, encouraged their sons to be wicked and unjust. The Prodigal Son acted with terrible disrespect ...

While attending Magdalen, one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, C. S. Lewis converted to theism in the spring of 1929, thus setting the stage for his eventual conversion to the Christian faith in 1931. He describes his conversion in his book, Surprised by Joy:

You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even ...

My son called. Through years of drug abuse, Scott had stolen from our family, manipulated us, and failed us. It had been a relief not to hear from him for two years.

Scott told me he'd been through a rehabilitation program a year and a half ago that provided something no other had offered. "I met Jesus Christ. I've been forgiven for my past. I want to ask you and Mom to forgive me, too." He said he ...

National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, 47, told this story at an August 4, 2002, Sunday School class at National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C.:

Although I never doubted the existence of God, I think like all people I've had some ups and downs in my faith. When I first moved to California in 1981 to join the faculty at Stanford, there were a lot of years when I was not attending church ...

An ancient Asian legend tells the story of a man who had a wild and impetuous son. Curtis E. Liens, in The Man with Dirty Hands, says:

The boy became involved with the ruffians of the village who persuaded him to join them in a robbery of his own father's treasury house. After the robbery was over, his friends fled with the stolen treasure and left him to face the guilt of the crime alone. The young ...

In Rolling Stone, Chris Heath discusses religion with mega-movie star Brad Pitt:

There is one subject he refers to time and time again, and that is religion. "I would call it oppression," he says, "because it stifles any kind of personal individual freedom. I dealt with a lot of that, and my family would diametrically disagree with me on all of that."

It's only when we later drift into an unlikely ...

John Newton (1725-1807)

A "wretch" who found "Amazing Grace!"

John Newton was nurtured by a devoted Christian mother who dreamed that her only son would become a preacher. But she died when John was a child, and he followed his sea-captain father to a sailor's life. John didn't care for the discipline of the Royal Navy: he deserted ship, was flogged, and eventually was discharged.

He then headed for ...

Let all multiplicity be absent from your prayer. A single word was enough for the publican and the prodigal son to receive God's pardon. ... Do not try to find exactly the right words for your prayer: how many times does the simple and monotonous stuttering of children draw the attention of their father! Do not launch into long discourses, for if you do, your mind will be dissipated trying to find ...

While putting my 4-year-old daughter to bed one evening, I read her the story of the Prodigal Son. We discussed how the young son had taken his inheritance and left home, living it up until he had nothing left. Finally, when he couldn't even eat as well as pigs, he went home to his father, who welcomed him. When we finished the story, I asked my daughter what she had learned. After thinking a moment, ...