Heading home to California … a friend and I passed through the Dallas–Fort Worth airport. On the way to the connecting gate, we heard loud patriotic music playing and saw a group, mostly women, wearing colorful hats, cheering, and waving American flags. The troops were coming home, and here was their welcoming committee.

Two women encouraged us to grab flags and join in. We were early for our ...

Anthony Burger died at age 44. Many feel that he was the finest gospel pianist that ever lived. He spent ten years playing for the Gaither Vocal Band, and in 2006 accompanied the Gaithers on a Christian cruise in the Caribbean. Fifteen hundred people were on the cruise. They vacationed during the day, and they'd come to a gospel concert in the ship's theater at night. The fourth night out, Anthony ...

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness is based on the true story of Gladys Aylward (played by Ingrid Bergman), a faithful missionary in a remote Chinese village who helped run an inn for traveling mule drivers. The China Inland Mission Center in England refused to sponsor her due to her lack of vocation and experience, so in 1932 she set out on her own, believing with all her heart it was God's call on her ...

2006 started off as a bad year for Charles Moore. He lost his job as a roofer in Toledo, Ohio, and decided to return to his hometown of Detroit in search of work. Things progressed slowly, however, and Moore soon found himself living on the street. Then, in July, he stumbled upon 31 U.S. Savings Bonds in a city trash bin while searching for empty bottles to return for deposit money.

Amazingly, Moore ...

In the September/October 2007 issue of Today's Christian, Shirley Shaw tells the story of how the sacrifices of a successful cabinet maker named Terry Lane continue to change a drug-riddled neighborhood in Jacksonville, Florida.

My business had prospered to the point my 40-man staff needed more space to produce the quality cabinets for which Mid-Lane was well known. We found an ideal location in northwest ...

In a 2006 survey, Pew Research workers asked adults why they use their credit cards. Here are the top five reasons:

• Convenience—66 percent

• Unexpected expenses—60 percent

• Finance major purchases—37 percent

• Earn reward points—33 percent

• Out of money—30

According to a 2007 study by RTI International, a non-profit research organization in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, people are slightly more inclined to lose weight if they're getting paid to do so. Researchers at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill offered different degrees of financial reward to 200 overweight or obese individuals. To a third of the group, they promised $14 for ...

In Cremona, Italy, where most experts believe history's best violins were made, Andrea Mosconi has the tall task of keeping the precious instruments in shape. For the past 30 years, six days a week, the old musician has gone to the museum in Cremona's city hall where the 300-year-old violins are stored in display cases. Each morning, before the museum opens to the public, Mosconi plays each violin ...

When Sumner Spence expressed his desire to attend college, many people scoffed because he suffers from cerebral palsy. Sumner can't read books because his eyes won't focus. He can't hold onto things very well because his hands clench uncontrollably. Taking notes in a classroom would be out of the question. Anyone who knew Sumner would have thought it perfectly understandable if he had never set a ...

The January 29, 2007, issue of TIME magazine was all about the brain. The lead article, "The Mystery of Consciousness," was by Dr. Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard. While marveling at the workings of the brain, Pinker clearly thinks we have only the brain—no eternal soul. At the end of the article he writes:

And when you think about it, the doctrine of a life-to-come ...