When Justice Meets Righteousness
You know who they are. They’re the people who are always late for everything. They’re the people who smack their gum at the office. They are the people who test all of their ringtones on a packed...
View ArticleMercy Media
We live in a divided world fueled by divided (divisive?) media. Are the print, broadcast and digital media to blame for these divisions, or do they merely reflect existing divisions in society? I...
View ArticleThe Journey Toward Purity
This issue of Light + Life focuses on these words from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8). The Greek word for “pure” is katharos, which...
View ArticleCarrying Peace Into the World
As Christians we hold two things in tension at all times: our desire to be known and to be loved and the knowledge that we are known and loved by God. The desire is good. To be human, to be God’s...
View ArticlePersecution: A Complex Issue
This is the final issue of Light + Life Magazine’s Beatitudes series, and it may also be the most complicated issue in the series. In each monthly issue, several writers have provided their...
View ArticleA Life Changed Through Learning
A Mormon and a Jew walk into a bar … OK, more like a department store. I was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, into the family of a Jewish immigrant and a generational Mormon. At an early age, I was not...
View ArticleA Revival Journal of Pure Bible Truth
B.T. Roberts didn’t just launch the Free Methodist denomination in 1860 with the help of other likeminded folks who because unwelcome in the Methodist Episcopal Church (forerunner of today’s United...
View ArticleFruitcakes, Politics and Peace
I’m a fan of most holiday snacks, but, unlike my father, I’ve never been much of a fruitcake fan. I like fruit, and I like cake, but I don’t really like fruitcake. Perhaps my problem is I prefer fresh...
View ArticleWord Challenge
Every story has a beginning. The start of our journey began with a word, but not just any word, the word that made it all begin. According to Genesis, God spoke (communicated) and it was done. God...
View ArticleReflecting the Father
As a longtime ink-stained wretch (print journalist), I’ve seen my share of gimmicks to get people to buy newspapers — especially in this information age when publishers are desperate to provide reasons...
View ArticleDynamic Duos
Cookies and milk, peanut butter and jelly, ketchup and mustard, bread and butter, salt and pepper, peaches and cream, fish and chips, hide and seek, jeans and T-shirts, cat and mouse, Batman and Robin,...
View ArticleCovenanters and Conferences
I don’t know much about some branches of my family tree. (My wife and I purchased DNA test kits a few months ago to help us trace our ancestry and ethnic backgrounds, but we haven’t opened them yet....
View ArticleHigh School Exile
From third grade through my junior year of high school, I attended a small Christian school inside a Baptist church building. I became immersed in a fundamentalist culture that made my own Free...
View ArticleThe Divine Influence of God
Our vision is “to bring wholeness to the world through healthy biblical communities of holy people multiplying disciples, leaders, groups and churches.” For our vision to be fulfilled it takes holy...
View ArticleThe Means Justify the End
Follow Jesus and you’re destined to be part of a great adventure. From the calling of the 12 to the present day, followers of Jesus eventually encounter one of His unique traits: He seems to do things...
View ArticleHoly and Just
I prefer Facebook for fun and family photos, but I check Twitter to see what’s trending in society and among Christian writers. On the latter social network, I see some Christians emphasizing the need...
View ArticleJust Another Article on Prayer … blah, blah, blah (sigh)
Before you turn the page to see what else is in this issue of LIGHT + LIFE, consider hearing me out. What role does prayer play in your life? What answers to prayer have been etched into the story of...
View ArticleEnd-Times Education
I grew up in an evangelical subculture fixated on Bible prophecy and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. I attended a revival service during which my great-uncle preached in front of a chart detailing...
View ArticleFinding Worth and Valuing Everyone
What is the worth of human life? Do we value the lives of other people? On a more personal level, do we acknowledge our self-worth? Billboard reported Oct. 1 that Lauren Daigle’s song “You Say” had...
View ArticleWalk Healed
The Desperate Need for Deliverance in the Church “Walk healed.” The sound and careful, Spirit-led annunciation of those words — “Walk healed” — are etched in my memory. In the closing moments of the...
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