Teenagers are a delightful challenge—even to themselves! The teenage years can be full of fun and yet puzzling and frustrating all at the same time. There’s so much growth, change, and transition taking place in this move from childhood to adulthood.

As Jesus walked with His disciples to Gethsemane, He gave them some final instructions. He explained the nature of the relationship He wanted them to have with Him after His resurrection. He compared what He wanted for their lives with that of a fruitful vine.

It seems to me that there are two extremes when it comes to the will of God. One extreme is demonstrated by those who are willing to let their experiences trump the Word of God. The other extreme is the position that the only way God speaks to man today is through His Word.

The resurrection of Christ is the distinguishing event of Christianity and the critical point in our salvation (1 Corinthians 15:17–19). The Great Commission is the critical command in spreading the gospel (Matthew 28:19–20), and our obedience to this command is the distinguishing mark of a growing church.

When was the last time you got fired up about an event or activity? Do you recall the adrenaline that ran through your body? It could have been a family vacation, sporting event, or church service when the Lord spoke to you in a very personal way. You will never forget that experience.

The phrase by faith appears fourteen times in Hebrews 11—a chapter often described as the “Hall of faith.” This chapter briefly chronicles the testimonies of many Bible characters as they lived and walked by faith: Abraham, Moses, Enoch, Joseph, Noah, Joshua, even Rahab.

These statistics speak to the realities of stress, weariness, and emptiness that are part of serving people. But not every pastor falls by the wayside of statistics. So what is the difference between a pastor who becomes a statistic and a pastor who presses on through the struggles and completes his race still in the ministry?

One of my dear friends once told me of a time when she and her husband were first married. During their first few years of marriage, their home was a simple, small apartment with hardly any furnishings. She went on to tell me that they were just as happy then as they are now, many years later, living in a large house on five acres of land.

As a missionary, I would like to recommend an app to you that could be a great blessing in organizing your deputation or your furlough. I use it all the time, and it has made this process easier. If you are like me, you have a list of churches that looks like a spreadsheet. This contains churches that you know pretty well, and also many churches about which you know almost nothing.

The human occasion for the writing of Paul’s final epistle was a preacher’s tears. The preacher was Timothy, his “dearly beloved son” in the ministry and in the faith, whom he wrote during hard times “being mindful of thy tears.” The tears of Timothy are instructive to us, both because of their cause and their cure, and are put in the Bible to open our eyes to little-understood aspects of the Christian ministry.