Dortha decided to take Psalm 50:23 literally: "He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God." She learned to prepare the way for God's deliverance through praise, and she had stories to tell.One time a drunken driver hit Dortha's front steps  knocking them loose. Her sister commented that she had the worst things happen to her,

"I've caught the sound of saints on higher ground."I think Joshua would have understood that phrase from the hymn Higher Ground. "The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua...did not leave the tent" (Exodus 33:11).The wonder of Moses' holy encounter with God held Joshua there. What would it take and what

Ann Preston, also known as Holy Ann, was a simple Irish lady who lived nearly 100 years ago. Her education began and ended in little more than a week, but in that time she exhausted the patience of her teacher. After many vain attempts to teach her the first letters of the alphabet, he gave her a tap upon the head as he pathetically remarked before the class, "Poor Ann! She can never learn anything."

Gandhi had heard about Christianity as a college student and wanted to learn about it, so he slipped into the back of a church. An usher greeted him with the words, "I'm sorry, but we don't allow black people here."Years later in a speech, Gandhi said, "That usher was only doing his job and he thought he was ushering a colored man out of church, but actually he was ushering India out of the British

Elijah responded to God's voice, rather than to the wind, earthquake, and fire, and so will those for whom we pray. Yet we often want to send the wind, earthquake, and fire! We tend to use calculated words (wind), force (earthquake), or passion (fire) to convince others to change, but when God gently speaks in His quiet way, what happens?"The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is

by Aletha Hinthorn"Our greatest trouble may become our advantage, by entitling us to a new manner of the divine presence," stated E. E. Shelhammer. How true! Several weeks after my mother passed away, I decided to fix her favorite orange cake. The last time I had fixed this recipe I did it especially for her. Suddenly standing at the kitchen table dumping ingredients, I had a deep sadness. But only

Helen saw the love, respect, and closeness of their family torn as one of her children went the way of the world. She and her husband prayed and cried together and painfully asked each other, "Have I done something wrong?"Helen began giving special time to night praying, each night assigning herself a promise to study and pray through. One promise was Isaiah 45:11: "Thus says the Lord, the Holy One

"How did you keep from despairing during my years of spiritual highs and lows?" a friend asked. Through God's grace she had gained spiritual stability and now was trying to help another new Christian. Watching the new convert stumble, she wondered how to remain encouraged. "First of all, I'm not going to say I always kept faith for you," I admitted. "But the Lord helped me to say nothing if I lacked

“Recently I was quite anxious about a particular, painful circumstance in my life,” wrote Cynthia Heald in her book Becoming a Woman of Freedom. She said she prayed as she had never prayed before but remained anxious and unable to experience the peace of God.As she meditated on Philippians 4:6-7 (wondering why it wasn’t working!), she realized that she was doing everything Paul said to do except

A notebook and pen beside me as I read my Bible have become one of my ways to say, "Lord, I am expecting to receive something too good to forget when I read today. I want to demonstrate my love for You by caring for wisdom when it comes." If a verse strikes me as one I would like to better understand or I simply like what it says and want it to be lived out in my life, I write it down. When the burning