Today's Christian articles from November 2008

Today's Christian archives from November 2008

Endings ... and beginnings.(Note from the Editor)
November 1, 2008... In 1963 one of Ken Taylor's dreams came true. The man who gave us The Living Bible wanted to offer true stories of faith and hope in a digest, so he founded this magazine and called it The Christian Reader. (His story is told on page 30.) In...

From the pages.(Quick Takes)(Excerpt)
November 1, 2008... Excerpted from Faith and Doubt by John Ortberg. Copyright [C] 2008 by John Ortberg. Used by permission of Zondervan. One year, in the small cul-de-sac where my family lived in Illinois, three husbands in the four houses around us had...

At the author's table.(Quick Takes)(Stephen Simpson)(Interview)
November 1, 2008... "When I discovered that a relationship with Christ wasn't always warm and fuzzy, I became frightened," recalls Stephen Simpson in Assaulted by Joy (Zondervan). "Then I got mad. Then I stopped caring." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Though...

4 books to watch for.(Quick Takes)
November 1, 2008... [O.sub.2] by Richard Dahlstrom (Harvest House). In this fresh perspective on the faith, Dahlstrom compares the process to respiration, showing how Christians can inhale life-giving strength through prayer, study, solitude, and silence and...

"His name is Wonderful": he is the mighty King, master of everything, His name is Wonderful, Jesus my Lord.(Story Behind the Song)(Audrey Mieir)(Reprint)
November 1, 2008... Audrey Mieir was born in Pennsylvania in 1916. She began writing songs at the age of 16, and became widely known as the composer of many wellknown gospel hymns. It was at a special service at her California church on Christmas Day 1959 that...

Creative gospel.(Mission Accomplished)(Yasuko and Graham Fleming)
November 1, 2008... Through painting, film, and dance, two artists share their faith with Japan Yasuko Fleming loved to dance; her husband, Graham, to paint and illustrate. Following a vision to share the gospel message through art, they founded All Nations...

Musical theater with a mission: our Redeemer's United Methodist Church Schaumburg, Illinois.(How We Did It)
November 1, 2008... Many of our church members go on mission trips each summer, to Appalachia to do home repair, or to the Gulf Coast to assist with disaster relief. Who would have guessed that some of us would be called to spend our summers doing musical...

No toy for Ryan? A 4-year-old's impossible-to-deliver Christmas wish.(Prayer That Works)(Viewpoint essay)
November 1, 2008... One holiday season years ago, our family was working at a mission hospital in Kenya. On the other side of Africa, in Gabon, our good friends Bill and Mary Beauvais and their three children were working as full-time missionaries. Gabon...

Gallery of children's art.(Kids of the Kingdom)
November 1, 2008... GALLERY OF CHILDREN'S ART Stromoski [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Punch, anyone?(Kids of the Kingdom)(Adam and Eve)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... When I picked up my three-year-old grandson from preschool, I asked how his day had gone. "Fine," he said. "We learned about Adam and Eve." "What did you learn?" I asked. "God told Adam and Eve not to eat the apple," he replied....

Thor on the porch.(Kids of the Kingdom)
November 1, 2008... When I heard a loud banging from the front porch where my grandson was playing, I called, "What are you doing?" "Nothing, Grandpa," he said. "Well, what are you doing it with?" A guilty little voice replied, "With a hammer." ...

Meet your new neighbors.
November 1, 2008... Greetings readers of Today's Christian from everyone at Significant Living magazine! We are pleased and honored to join Christianity Today International in announcing that in January 2009, Today's Christian will transition to our organization...

Songs to stir the soul: Sara Groves's music tells of a broken world's injustices and serves as a clarion call to action.
November 1, 2008... When Gary Haugen, president of International Justice Mission, recently visited one of the agency's offices in India, he heard a familiar tune coming from the back room. The staff had one song on repeat, listening to it over and over again,...

How you can combat sex trafficking.(Reprint)
November 1, 2008... Learn. Sign up for news from the Initiative Against Sexual Trafficking (IAST) at www.iast.net. Tell. Hang an anti-trafficking poster in your church, business, or office. Posters are available at www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/index.html. ...

Rosa's story: betrayed by a family friend, her dream of a better life in the U.S. became a nightmare.(prostitution)
November 1, 2008... A poor, small-town waitress in Mexico, 13-year-old Rosa longed for a better life. When a family acquaintance promised a job across the U.S. border would provide more money for her parents and nine siblings, Rosa jumped at the opportunity. ...

Their brother's keeper: for years Bob and Starr Calo-oy practiced the gift of caregiving. Now they're showing others how it's done.
November 1, 2008... When Bob and Starr Calo-oy said yes to a friend, they had no idea it would become a life-changing decision. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The parents of 10 children, the Calo-oys (a Filipino name, pronounced Kah-loy) had been deeply...

Essential tips for caregivers.
November 1, 2008... Keep everyone in the loop. Hold a family meeting to discuss privacy issues, bathroom schedules, living space, rules, and individual tasks. Explain that taking care of your loved one will at times cause someone to feel neglected and that...

Divine direction: for Tim Gregory and his Chicago theater company, all the world's a stage--for the gospel.
November 1, 2008... Throughout Chicago, the Midwest's cultural hub, more than 200 theater companies compete to attract big audiences, big awards, and even bigger revenues. Given the Windy City's vibrant performing arts scene, many creative post-graduates flock...

Completing God's to-do list: Ken Taylor never ran out of ideas for projects that honored God.
November 1, 2008... In a handwritten note dated June 15, 1956, titled "Goals for next 20 years," Ken Taylor listed two things under Spiritual Goals: "Digest magazine" and "Needed: Further vision (ideas) to be praying about and interesting people in." ...

Hurricane season: how a Christian School in New Orleans survived Katrina and went on to have an amazing year on--and off--the football field.
November 1, 2008... On August 27, 2005, the football team of John Curtis Christian School, in the New Orleans suburb of River Ridge, gathered on their practice field under stormy skies for a Saturday morning session. The Patriots' first game was a week away. ...

Not my call: a missionary wife in India? Not me!
November 1, 2008... We'd been married only a few months, but already I felt at home in the church where my husband, Rick, was song leader and assistant pastor. In a few years, the elderly pastor would retire and hand the reins to Rick. I had great plans for...

Thankful turkeys: how I learned to be grateful in all circumstances.(Reprint)
November 1, 2008... One year at Thanksgiving I gathered brightly colored construction paper, crayons, glue, feathers, scissors, and the kids. Clustering around my kitchen table, we made turkeys. You know, the ones where you trace around your hand, cut it out,...

Bible man: Awana honors co-founder Art Rorheim's 90th birthday.(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... In 1935, 17-year-old Art Rorheim agreed to lead a weekly program for third-and fourth-grade boys in the basement of his Chicago church. Six years later, as youth director at Chicago's North Side Gospel Center, Rorheim and senior pastor Lance...

No Room at the Inn: the shelter was packed, and Amy steeled herself to turn away the mother and children. Then the phone rang.
November 1, 2008... As director of the women's shelter, Amy had enough to do on Christmas Eve even before the woman turned up with her two children. Temperatures in normally balmy New Orleans had dropped below freezing, and a cold, damp wind blew in from the...

The original Christmas gifts.(Quiz)
November 1, 2008... How many wise men visited the infant Jesus? The Bible doesn't actually say, but the usual guess--three--is based on their giving of three expensive gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. In honor of the season, test your knowledge of these...

It's all in a name: I just can't seem to remember. But God never forgets.(The Last Laugh)(Reprint)
November 1, 2008... It's an unceasing source of astonishment and exasperation for my wife, Dale, that I can know people for years, sometimes decades, without mastering their names. She'll say, "Let's go out to lunch with Janet and John after church." I...