Missionary Greg Fisher shares how West African Bible students can ask some of the most penetrating questions about minute details of Scripture. On one occasion he says, “the question took me by surprise. “Reverend,” the student asked, “Fi...

 An old missionary and his wife had worked in Africa for many years. In 1909, they were returning by boat to New York to retire. They had no pension and nothing to take back to show for their many years of labor. When they boarded the boat...

 I have presented a non-literal, non-linear approach to Revelation, because I am convinced that it consists of parallel visions during the Christian era. Last chapter we saw that the Beast and his forces were completely destroyed, and ther...

 “Ancient religions, such as the Roman paganism of Jesus’ day, believed that the actions of gods in the heavens above affected the earth below. If Zeus got angry, thunderbolts shot out. Like kids dropping rocks off highway bridges onto car...

 Fyodor Dostoevsky, the great Russian writer, asks, “What is hell?” In “The Brothers Karmasov,” the monk, Elder Zosmia, says, “I think it is the suffering of one who can no longer love…This is why the creature was given life on earth, and ...

 The roller coaster at King’s Island in my hometown, Cincinnati, is called “The Beast.” And the introduction to Revelation in my son’s “Teen Devotional Bible” invites us to “Remember your first roller coaster ride? You wondered if you coul...

 Businessman Lindsay Clegg tells the story of a warehouse that he was selling. The building had been empty for months and needed repairs. Vandals had damaged the doors, smashed the windows, and strewn trash on the floor. As he showed a pro...

 Bruce Willis is David Dunn in the movie, Unbreakable. The movie begins with Dunn as the sole survivor of a terrible train crash, from which he emerges without a broken bone. In contrast to Dunn, Elijah Price, the other main character, has...

 The lyrics of a song, popularized by John Lennon, invite us to “Imagine there’s no Heaven; it’s easy if you try, no hell below us, above us only sky.” The melody is soothing as the song further envisions “no country, no possessions, and n...

 While I was studying prophetic timeframes in Daniel and Revelation, our church accountant, Tony, was reconciling the church’s set of books. I teased him, saying, “After you’ve finished those accounts, could you help me reconcile Daniel’s ...

 In 1899, a U. S. Patent Office worker said, “Everything that can be invented has been invented.” A memo from Western Union, predicted that “the telephone has too many shortcomings for useful communication.” As a child, I read a science ma...

 Sir Issac Newton’s third law of physics states, “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.” In other words, “The bigger the push, the bigger the kickback.” That is why a gun recoils. As it fires in one direction, it moves in the op...

Revelation is a book of visions. It has it's own language of dreams and visions. Let me give you a simple, genuine example. I had two vivid dreams in the space of week, when I first came to Christ. In my first dream, I was in a car with my hand...

A ‘head-hunter’ who hires corporation executives said, “When I find an executive that I’m trying to hire for someone I like to disarm him. I offer him a drink, undo my tie and talk about football, or whatever, until he’s all relaxed. I then loo...

 Two men in a small village had a big dispute, which they could not resolve. So each decided to talk to the town sage. The first man told him his version of the story. When he finished, the sage said, “You’re absolutely right.” The next ni...

 “The World’s Worst Predictions” catalogues history’s great forecasting blunders. In 1773, King George II said, “the American colonies have little stomach for revolution.” An official declared “the Titanic unsinkable.” And just days before...

 Private Jones was assigned to the Army Induction Center. His job was to advise new recruits about their benefits, especially Serviceman’s Life Insurance (SLI), which could be upgraded for an annual premium. It wasn’t long before his Offic...

 Between flights at the airport, a lady bought a small packet of cookies and sat down in a lounge to read her newspaper. She later heard rustling sounds and was shocked to see a well-dressed man helping himself to a cookie. Not wanting to ...

 A kindergarten teacher asked a young boy what he was drawing. Without pausing to look up, he said, “God!” The teacher smiled, saying, “But nobody knows what God looks like.” Without putting down his crayon, the boy announced, “After I’m f...

 “Truth is stranger than fiction,” and this one from Arkansas City is strange. The EAP reported that “a Little Rock woman died after leaping through her moving car’s sun roof during an incident described as a mistaken rapture.” Thirteen pe...

The Chicago Bulls were once known as “The Dream Team” of pro basketball. A pastor described what his Dream Church would look like. It came to him as a simple illustration during his sermon. “Our church needs to get back to the basics,” he said,...

 On Capitol Hill, Paul Harvey watched a private viewing of “The Passion.” He said, “One scene in the film has now been forever etched in my mind. A brutalized, wounded Jesus was soon to fall again under the weight of the cross. His mother ...

 To interpret what a person says is not always easy. The story is told of a farmer, who walked into an attorney’s office and said, “I want to get one of those dayvorces.” The attorney asked, “Well, do you have any grounds?” “Yea, I got abo...

 A young preacher stood up before the congregation with only his Bible. From behind the pulpit he read, “Behold, I am coming quickly.” Although he had prepared much to say, his mind went completely blank. So, with more force he said, “Beho...

 The end of the world always interested me. My first apocalyptic image was Charlton Heston in “The Omega Man.” Due to a test vaccine, Dr. Robert Neville is the only survivor of a global war waged with biological weapons. Everyone has died ...