Fireproof is the story of Caleb and Kathryn Holt, a couple that is considering divorce after seven years of marriage. In one last attempt to salvage their marriage, Caleb's father asks Caleb to try a 40-day experiment he calls The Love Dare. Caleb agrees. In this scene Caleb (Kirk Cameron), a firefighter, is sitting at a kitchen table in the firehouse with the his co-worker, Michael (Ken Bevel). Caleb ...

To help Americans understand poverty in its truest sense, Robert L. Heilbroner, a prominent U.S. economist, itemized the luxuries most U.S. citizens would have to abandon if they were to adopt the lifestyle of their 1.2 billion neighbors who truly live in poverty:

We begin by invading the house of our imaginary American family to strip it of its furniture. Everything goes: beds, chairs, tables, television ...

While working his way through seminary, pastor and author Ed Rowell took a job driving a school bus for kindergartners. Ed shares a story about a valuable lesson he learned from that experience—a lesson about the power of presence and a willingness to say the things God whispers into our hearts. The story begins with Ed meeting a memorable little boy named Ryan:

Several of the kids came from ...

I discovered the importance of pacing when running my first triathlon. I did all my training for the swim leg of the race in a pool. And my times were fantastic. But the Atlantic Ocean is no pool. I was confident going into the race. And so on the opening swim leg, I sprinted from the beach to the first buoy. I wanted to be at the front of the pack so I didn't have to embarrass everybody by swimming ...

In seminary my Bible professor was Manfred George Gutzke, a Canadian like myself who had an impressively large physique and had been the boxing champion of the Canadian Army in his youth. Everything about him seemed oversized: his huge hairless head, his enormous eyebrows, his low gravelly voice, his sweeping knowledge of the Scriptures.

Not only did he hold us spellbound with his grasp of the Bible; ...

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is about a reclusive and eccentric world-famous chocolatier, Willy Wonka (Johnny Depp), who sets up a lottery to invite 5 children to visit his fantastic chocolate factory for a day. He randomly places 5 golden tickets in 5 chocolate bars and soon there is a world-wide clamor to get a lucky ticket.

Inside an elaborate estate in Buckinghamshire, England, a bunch of ...

A 2007 article syndicated in the Agence France-Presse told of a town in Southwest Nigeria that calls itself "The Land of Twins." Why the odd nickname? The majority of families in that region have at least one set of twins, a phenomenon that baffles fertility experts. The only possible explanation scientists have come up with is the vast amount of yams the people consume. Yams contain a natural hormone ...

The World's Fastest Indian is the true story of Burt Munro, a New Zealander who set several land speed records in the 1960s riding an old-fashioned, Indian motorcycle built in 1920. The movie traces his journey from a tool shed in New Zealand (where he worked on the bike for decades) to the most sacred place he can think of—the flat lands of Utah where speed records are set.

In this scene, ...

As human beings, we pride ourselves on being the only species that understands the concept of risk. Yet we have a confounding habit of worrying about mere possibilities while ignoring probabilities—of building barricades against perceived dangers while leaving ourselves exposed to real ones.

For example, we agonize over the avian flu, which [as of December 2006] had killed precisely no one in ...

During the 1970s and '80s, Chattanooga, Tennessee, was a decaying city. Divorce was rampant. Half of all births were to unwed mothers. Single women were the sole providers in 30 percent of homes, with many living in poverty. In August of 1997, a group of businessmen, civic leaders, and church leaders formed a nonprofit organization called First Things First.

Brad Rymer was a local businessman at the ...