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Just Because Day When : August 27th Today is Just Because Day. Finally, you have a chance to do something without a rhyme or reason. Most often in life, we do things because we have to, or we want to, or it's expected of us. None of those reasons apply today. Is there something you'd like to do, but there isn't a reason or logic for doing it? Well, today is the day to go out and do something "just because". It is most enjoyable if it is an uncommon, or unexpected activity or action. Perhaps, you have something...

CBN.com – As children, Charles Dudrey and his siblings endured every form of abuse at the hands of their own father. One violent episode sent Charles to the Mayo Clinic. His father slammed Charles’s head against a wall, sending him into a seizure. “The diagnosis for me was grim, and the doctors wanted to do a frontal lobotomy on me to scrape the scar tissue off my brain from the physical abuse," Charles tells The 700 Club. "But my mother said no.” At the age of 11, Charles witnessed the unthinkable, his mother’s murder. He later discovered that his father...

The statement asks for forgiveness “from God and from our Mennonite sisters and brothers” for past wrongdoings and the ways in which Lutherans subsequently forgot or ignored this persecution and have continued to describe Anabaptists in misleading and damaging ways.

Monday night I watched with hands over half open eyes the torturous scene the character Jack Bauer inflicted on the villain of the episode. The bad guy was a Russian terrorist involved with the murder of Jack’s love interest and colleague, Renee Walker. If I had been watching the episode in a movie theater, I’m pretty sure it would have been Rated “R”. It was a gruesome and difficult scene. During the climax of the scene, Jack needs a SD card that the terrorist swallowed. In what appeared to be a psychotic rage, the episode ends with a very dead...

"Our children will look to that day and say, 'My ancestors, they stood before the government. They stood before the Church. They stood as a people. They recognized who God is in our nation. And they did not back down. And they believed for the healing of our nation. They believed for a revival in our people—and the freedom. That's what it's all about.'" (Canada)—Canadian Christianity reports that moments after Prime Minister Stephen Harper formally apologized and asked for forgiveness for the federal government's catastrophic residential schools policy, Native leader and former MP Elijah Harper and 100 Huntley Street's David...

Many of us don’t understand the full meaning of grace. We think of grace as a girl’s name or a church word and don’t really understand the full impact of God’s grace on our lives. But the whole foundation of our faith centers on the concept of grace so let’s explore what’s so amazing about grace.

“What Does It Give? The Benefit of the Sacrament of the Altar”In this midweek Lenten series, we’re looking at the Sacrament of the Altar--Holy Communion, the Lord’s Supper, are other names by which we know this sacrament instituted by Christ. Last week we began by focusing on “The Nature of the Sacrament.” We asked the foundational question, “What Is It?” And the answer came, “It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ himself for us Christians to eat and to drink.” Our answer was based on what Jesus...

Mike Huckabee talks to Gayle Haggard, the wife of Pastor Ted Haggard, about her reasons for staying in her marriage after her husbands marital infidelity became public. (there are 2 parts)

A Dream A Lot Like Mine(Click here for audio. It will open in a new window, so you can listen and follow along simultaneously.) From time to time I wonder if she ever has a dream a lot like mine Where wrong we did back then is back again An’ hittin’ right between the eyes Like the life that we denied because it somehow seemed not worth the sacrifice Of things we thought we needed–now long vanished–and still I pay the price And, from time to time, I wonder if she ever has a dream a lot like mine Each...

Have we remembered that one of the ways of leveling the whole situation is forgiving the enemy? Jesus admonished His children: “Pray for those who persecute you, despitefully use you.” Jesus followed through with His own counsel: “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”

Dr. C.E. "Buddy" Hicks' new column answers questions about Christ and Christianity, today he deals with this one, "I have done many terrible things to my friends and family. I cannot believe that I have been so stupid and selfish. I recently accepted Christ as my Lord, but I am still dealing with guilt. I want to try and restore my broken relationships, but I don’t know how to do it. Lately I’ve been thinking that I may be beyond forgiveness. Please help me"

My son stood larger than life, the sun dancing on his hair, his eyes sparkling as he laughed with his teammates in all the bravado only teammates can share. Grinning from ear to ear, ahead in a major semi-pro football game, my son was radiant with the joy of it, and I thanked God for days such as this. I once had the RIGHT to kill him. For a second I imagined him not there. That thought shot through my body like ice and anger at women like Nancy Pelosi welled up inside. What kind of monster would fight to...

The power of prayer has long been controversial, but a new study in a leading psychological journal finds some of the first scientific evidence that it truly works, at least on the person doing the praying. While previous studies have looked largely at the people being prayed for, investigators flipped the research model to examine those who personally engage in the religious practice. They found that even a single prayer for a loved one led to increased self-reported willingness to be forgiving of that person. Though the research leaves open the possibility of divine intervention, investigators don't claim any "miraculous...

Some time after the conflict, Fuchida came upon the testimony of a young Christian woman. Her mother and father had been killed by the Japanese. That war had swept away her parents’ lives.

I would like to thank all of you for coming back over the last several months to read my story (God’s Story)…My Secret Sin. I didn’t share my story to shock anyone but my intention was to show God’s grace, and how we can trust in His Word.

I phoned the police. In minutes, a plain-clothesman was in my living room, questioning a bathrobed John seated on my sofa. By noon, John was behind bars. But I was out of my money. He put it far behind him in one purchasing job or another so that it was impossible to retrieve what I had given him in good faith.

There are consequences when we forgive the depraved. America has duly performed its solemn rituals to mark the passing of Ted Kennedy -- the pompous displays, the airy speeches, the pseudo-dignified deference to the dead. What we ought to reflect upon, with equal solemnity, is what America's legitimization and ultimate acceptance of such a man portends for ourselves. The tale of Chappaquiddick has, of course, been told and retold. But what Ted Kennedy did to Mary Jo Kopechne that summer night in 1969 is so depraved that the story bears repetition. Put aside the debauchery of the party Kennedy attended...

The most talked abut and controversial sports story surrounds the signing of Michael Vick by the Philadelphia Eagles. Before I weigh in, I should disclose a few things. First, Vick was a favorite of mine in fantasy football. That's because his out of this world talent made him the perfect, potentially, fantasy football player. There was nothing more exciting in fantasy football than watching Michael Vick when he was on your team. Also, I am not especially an animal lover. I don't have any pets and I never have had any pets. (as I say, I have enough trouble taking...

Priest's Last Words: "I Forgive You" Friend Tells of Spaniard Slain in Cuba SANTANDER, Spain, JULY 22, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The last words of Father Mariano Arroyo Merino expressed his forgiveness for the would-be robbers who knifed and burned him. The Spanish priest, 74, was murdered July 13 at his parish of Our Lady of Regla, in Havana, Cuba. Father Arroyo was the second Spanish priest to be assassinated in Cuba in less than a year. Father Eduardo de la Fuente Serrano, 59, was killed Feb. 14. Father Isidro Hoyos, another Spaniard who carries out his ministry in Cuba, was a...

Her son lay dead in his casket. Marija Vukomanovic held fast to her faith. The pastor told mourners about Lazarus, who rose from the dead. The mother knelt and reached for her boy. "I believed in the miracle, so I touched his heart," Vukomanovic said. Nothing happened. Mario Vukomanovic, 23, war refugee, star student and drug addict, was gone, shot dead as he tried to rob a south Orange County pharmacy April 1 at gunpoint. Orange County deputies said the shooting was self-defense. "But now I have another miracle," the mother said in an interview this week. She forgave the...