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Forgive Your Brother and Sister In the television series The Brady Bunch, the six siblings would often squabble, but there was a particular rivalry between Jan and Marcia. At one point, Jan explodes to her parents in frustration and jealousy: “All I hear, all day long at school, is how great Marcia is, or how wonderful that Marcia did that...

The Lord Be with You The Dominus vobiscum, which is Latin for “The Lord be with you,” is an ancient Christian salutation. It has been part of many worship services as a pronouncement of blessing, and the phrase comes from the Latin translation of several Scripture passages, including Numbers 14:42, Ruth 2:4, and 2 Chronicles 15:2. When the...

In Him We Have Redemption After a hit-and-run driver killed her son, Donna Holcomb felt God move in her heart to forgive the driver, Marvin Carter. As the young man left the courtroom, she promised to write to him in prison. “Someone has to start making a difference in his life,” she said. “More than anything, this is about understanding...

Purified from All Sin Survivalists warn that all water in the wilderness must be viewed with suspicion. Before drinking even one drop, you need to take steps to purify it from bacteria, parasites, and viruses. The least expensive way to purify water is through boiling, which destroys any living organisms and makes it safe to consume. This...

You Have Overcome In the board game Monopoly, the “get out of jail free” card features a cartoon image of Rich Uncle Pennybags, an elderly millionaire, flying out of a bird-cage. Players who obtain the card can avoid the penalty of losing several turns in the game languishing in the corner jail. As believers, we have a better “get out of...

White as Snow Snow is frozen water, and water is clear. So why does it look white? Scientists explain that individual ice crystals are not purely transparent but translucent, causing the particles of light to change direction. The reflected light bounces every color of light in equal frequency back to us, making the snow appear pure white...

Out of Our Minds for Christ Francis Chan, pastor and author of Crazy Love, said this about the reputation of Christ-followers: “The world is not moved by love or actions that are of human creation. And the church is not empowered to live differently from any other gathering of people without the Holy Spirit. But when believers live in the...

The Art of Holding Fast The motto of Scotland’s Clan MacLeod is “Hold fast.” This could be the church’s motto. To be faithful we must hold fast to what we believe. More importantly, in order to be faithful we must hold fast to Jesus Christ. This can be hard to do when others around you compromise. In the church in Pergamum, some claimed to...

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Popular culture has widely appropriated ideas of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. It was the nickname of the Notre Dame football team’s backfield in 1924. Rock band Metallica used it as the title for a song. The Four Horsemen made a brief appearance in the movie Hellboy: The Fury and appear in more...

Day of Wrath Giuseppe Verdi’s great work Messa da Requiem is a brooding memorial to a poet and writer whom Verdi admired. One of its most famous sections is the “Dies Irae,” which means “Day of Wrath.” During this section trumpets surround the stage, signifying the call to judgment, and the chorus almost shouts: “Day of wrath, that day earth...