boldness

On March 7, 1557, a French ship landed into Guanabara Bay, near modern-day Rio de Janeiro, carrying fourteen French Protestant men ready to bring the gospel to this new continent. One of them, 23-year-old Jean de Léry, kept a detailed journal. These men, according to Léry, were sent in response to...
If someone observed your life for a week, for what would they conclude you are living? Would they observe that you oppress others for power? Would they witness you being envious, foolish, a workaholic, or greedy? Would they say you pursue rugged individualism, or isolate yourself to gain power,...
What does it mean to be happy? Well meaning people may exhort us to this end, but how do we define happiness? Some would argue that happiness is found in one’s appearance. Others would maintain that it is found in education. Still others would argue that it depends on extracurricular activities and...
Last January, a new professor wrote with a little conundrum. A student scored a 27% on his final, realized that he might fail the course as a result, and called the professor three weeks later to plead for mercy - a second chance - so he could pass the course. The student explained that he had been...
Ian Shaw, Professor Emeritus at the School for Business and Society of the University of York, UK, has just done the church a great service by writing a well-researched book on the life of Leslie Land, a rather forgotten pastor in mid-20 th -century England who influenced his generation and the...
“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” – Romans 8:16-17 We saw previously how the prayer-life of a Christian...
Thomas Charles, Mary Jones, and the Birth of the Bible Society Many of us have heard the story of the sixteen-year-old girl who walked 25 miles to buy a Bible with the money she had saved while doing chores. That girl was Mary Jones, and her destination was a church at Bala, Wales, where a shipment...
Last night I finished my pilgrimage through Augustine’s City of God . Considering it took Augustine almost a decade to finish book nineteen after starting I would say that I made better time on the reading than he did the writing. I wish that I could say all twenty-two books and eight hundred and...
The East African Revival As many other events in global church history, the East African Revival is still fairly unknown in America. And yet, it spread rapidly through most of east Africa and lasted over 50 years, leaving a profound mark on the local churches. Eager to pinpoint dates, scholars...
Festo Kivengere and His Message of Forgiveness In 1977, the assassination of Anglican Archbishop Luwum shocked the world. Since his military coup in 1971, the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin had been sowing terror around the country. Being a Muslim, he allowed three forms of Christianity in his country (...