Read: Psalm 71:1–12 Be my rock of refuge, to which I can always go. Psalm 71:3 On September 11, 2001, Stanley Praimnath was working on the 81st floor of the World Trade Center South Tower when he saw an airplane flying directly toward him. Stanley prayed a quick prayer as...

Read: Acts 1:1–8 Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Mark 16:15 Evie was one of 25 American teenagers in a high school choir who traveled to Jamaica to sing, witness, and show God’s love to people of a different culture and generation. And for...

Read: 1 John 4:7–19 He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 1 John 4:9 As Jesus’s beloved disciple John grew older, his teaching became increasingly narrowed, focusing entirely on the love of God in his three letters. In the book Knowing...

Read: 1 Chronicles 29:14–19 All of it belongs to you. 1 Chronicles 29:16 I was 18 years old when I got my first fulltime job, and I learned an important lesson about the discipline of saving money. I worked and saved until I had enough money for a year of...

Read: Mark 14:3–9 She did what she could. Mark 14:8 When her friends say thoughtless or outrageous things on social media, Charlotte chimes in with gentle but firm dissent. She respects the dignity of everyone, and her words are unfailingly positive. A few years ago she became Facebook friends with...

Read: Romans 5:6–15 While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 My son’s blue eyes sparkled with excitement as he showed me a paper he had brought home from school. It was a math test, marked with a red star and a grade of 100 percent. As...

Read: 2 Corinthians 4:7–18 We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. 2 Corinthians 4:18 A young boy showered my husband, Carl, and me with bubbles as he came running by us on the Atlantic City boardwalk. It was a light and fun moment...

Read: Deuteronomy 5:28–33 Walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you. Deuteronomy 5:33 I needed an underground water tank and knew precisely how I wanted it constructed, so I gave clear instructions to the builder. The next day when I inspected the project, I was...

Read: 1 Thessalonians 1:1–10 You became imitators of us and of the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 1:6 “Today we’re going to play a game called Imitation,” our children’s minister told the kids gathered around him for the children’s sermon. “I’ll name something and you act out what it does. Ready? Chicken!”...

Read: Psalm 138:7–8; Ephesians 2:6–10 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. Romans 8:29 My wife, Carolyn, and I met Phipps Festus Bourne in 1995 in his shop in Mabry Hill, Virginia. Bourne, who died in 2002, was a master wood...

Read: Isaiah 37:9–22, 33 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6 What do you do with your worries? Do you turn them inward, or turn them upward? When the brutal Assyrian King Sennacherib was...

Read: John 8:31–37 If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:36 Olaudah Equiano (c. 1745–1796) was only 11 years old when he was kidnapped and sold into slavery. He made the harrowing journey from West Africa to the West Indies, then to the colony of...