CHRISTIAN LITERATURE
& LIVING

CONTENTS

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• REDEEMING THE STORMS -
  A Message of Hope and Prayer From Florida by ...
  Pastor Dave Strem, with James W. Skeen
  Life is full of storms. As devastating as hurricanes can be, many of you would welcome a hurricane compared to some of the life storms that you are facing. A crushed car, an uprooted tree, or a roof torn off a house sometimes is much easier to fix than the problems some of you are facing. Hurricane Charley blew by our area in about an hour. Some of you have been fighting battles and weathering storms that have lasted months, even years. Some of you are fighting battles that without God's intervention you are guaranteed to lose. And yet, you keep on fighting because giving up just feels worse. Jesus said that you will always have trouble. But Jesus went on to say, "But I have overcome the world's troubles. I bring good news." Jesus came to make a difference amid the storms of life.
• THE LAST DAYS OF JESUS' EARTHLY MINISTRY
  Triumphal Entry, Calvary, Resurrection, and Ascension by ...
  Pastor Dave Strem, with James W. Skeen
  The tradition of waving palm branches began when God commanded in the book of Leviticus that once a year, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, which ends up being around harvest time, September or October, to wave palm branches and live in booths or tabernacles to remind them of what God had done for them in delivering them from Egypt. It was a time for celebrating God's salvation. ... Doesn't it feel good to see Jesus being praised. To hear Jesus being celebrated. But it is easy to miss the profound message in this story. Jesus told people stories all through the New Testament not to make them feel good, but to make a point. And God recorded this story not to make us feel good but to make a point. ...
• MISUNDERSTANDINGS - Are They Curable? by ... LeRoy Dugan
  It's difficult for any of us to report facts without twisting them, at least a little. So, someone comes to you and says, "This guy might be a Christian. But he's an emotionalist!" Of course the brother bringing the report is from a denomination which despises Charismatics. His opinion, therefore, is filtered through his theological bias. ... You tend to trust your own hearing more than you trust that of others. So, when you are going out of church and you overhear, "Has she got a baby already?" you can easily conclude that someone was pregnant before married and the disgraceful fact is now manifest by the infant's untimely arrival. Had you heard the rest of the conversation, your impression would have been very different! The ladies discussing the newborn also mentioned that they fondly hope that the two-month premature baby will live! They are not decrying the sin of the mother. There is no sin. They are declaring their hope for the lovely child's survival!
• DEAR JESUS, Plant Deep Inside This Yielded Heart! by ... Nita Steiner
  

  Dear humble, bleeding, spotless Lamb
  Whose life true justice did demand,
  Make me a heart that gladly yields
  To death, that others may be healed.

• NEW MORALITY by ... Harold Brokke
  What is this thing that is happening? What it this sexiness, this looseness? Sex in itself is no evil, nor are we rebuking a person who has sinned and repented with contrition. But we are pointing out a conspiracy brewing in our country to get young men and girls careless in this realm. ... People call it the new morality. We disagree with the idea that it is new. It is as new as the cult of Bacchus in Roman culture, as new as the cult of Baal in Phoenician culture, as new as the ancient social and religious practices of tribes that have never heard of law and grace and have taught their consciences not to be disturbed by moral laxity.
• WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH MY LIFE? by ... Steve Harrison
  I feel in my spirit that I am called to serve the urban poor and the immigrants who, for various reasons, reach our shores. We live in comfortable homes, and we are secure in our realtionships as members of established churches. But many of these poor and needy people need help both material and spiritual. They also do not know Jesus. How can I avoid them or not serve them, if I am really a believer in Christ? ... The Lord Jesus Christ met me and took me to be his child. And this raised a question in my heart: What I should I do with my life?
• ATTITUDE, NOT AGE, DETERMINES GREATNESS by ... Alec Brooks
  When we are 15, we think that when we are 20 we will be what we ought to be. But when we get to be 20, we think that when we are 25 or 30 we will be more mature, and things will be different. Then we get to be 30 and wonder how it arrived so quickly. Getting older doesn't guarantee maturity or necessarily produce the kind of changes God wants us to experience. Decisions that are made at different stages of our lives are what result in our becoming the kind of person God wants us to be.
• THE EFFECTS OF PRAYER ON THE BELIEVER'S LIFE by ...
  Ed Holt
  Prayer is an unnatural activity. It has been said that we raise our children from birth to be independent, autonomous. We teach them to walk on their own, we teach them to go to school, we teach them to eat, and everything that we do, we try to help them become independent. Prayer flies in the face of this autonomous lifestyle. ... Prayer is alien to our proud human nature and yet somewhere, someplace, probably all of us, reach the point of falling to our knees, bowing our heads, and fixing our attention on God and praying. We may look both ways to be sure no one is watching, we might even blush, but in spite, in spite of the foreignness of the activity, we pray.
• MISSIONARY OR MERCENARY? by ... George Foster
  My wife and I were seated across from the Brazilian doctor's receptionist who sat at her tiny desk filling out the inevitable medial history. When she asked my occupation I replied, "missionario" and watched with amused interest while she wrote "mercenario." Later we laughed with the doctor as she apologized for her mistake and hurriedly corrected it. Still later I reflected about the humor of the situation ... about the meanings of the two words…about my motives as a missionary. ... The two words are far apart in meaning and provide a sharp contrast in life-styles and personalities: The mercenary will do nearly anything for a price with no thoughts about morality. The missionary will do anything for Christ - many times at his own expense - but only if it is completely honorable.
• THE MOST PROFOUND STATEMENTS EVER UTTERED by ... Ted Hegre
  At seedtime there was a shortage of grain. But the farmer had to take what there was into the freshly plowed field to sow. His wife would follow her husband with anxious tears running down her cheeks. She would call to him plaintively, "We cannot sow that grain. There will not be enough to eat if you use it for seed!" But the farmer knew full well that he must sow it or there would be nothing whatever for the next year. Hard though it was to see his small supply put into the earth, he knew that the time would come when they would rejoice together over a new crop." ... Only by spending ourselves do we retain life. Only by giving de we get. A man who clutches his own life to himself is motivated by selfishness and a mania for security. The spirit of this world cries, "Gather to yourself! Accumulate all you can now! Protect what you have gained!
• FORGIVE AND BE FORGIVEN! by ... Ruth Billman
  The need for forgiveness is one of the greatest needs of all. The lack of forgiveness results in quarrels, sickness, distress, mental illness, broken homes and war. Both the unforgiven and the unforgiving suffer these results. ... To forgive is to stop blaming people for their offenses and to cancel their debt toward us. It brings to mind the words like, "acquit, pardon and clear from blame." ... If we allow ill will to remain in our thoughts and emotions, here will come an additional factor. Enter the devil himself. A heart full of hatred and malice is exactly what he likes, it is his territory and he sets up shop." To evict him is no easy task.

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