The Bible Story Family

  4200 years of accumulated wisdom in one room. That is what happens every Wednesday morning as the Golden Agers meet at Fourth Baptist Church. The church has sponsored this gathering of senior saints for many years. Carmen and I began working with them at the beginning of September. The Golden Agers sing hymns, share stories, and play games just like a group of youngsters. After all, we are still young at heart. We take day trips. We hear from missionaries and historians and musicians and travelers. And we pray. Just this week as Missionary Roberto Coelho was speaking to the Golden Agers he began his remarks by saying, “I love this group. Because they pray.” That has been true for years. This is a group of prayer warriors who uphold the work of God’s servants near and far. Carmen and I greatly appreciate the opportunity Fourth Baptist Church has given us to work with this ministry. Their heart for God is truly amazing. And those 4200 years of accumulated wisdom? Well, that i...

  Some of the most beautiful buildings in all the world are found in Europe. Travelers marvel at the construction and decorations of years gone by. Those who live among the beauty sometimes lose the awe of what they experience daily. Anna Morrell has been such a traveler in Spain for the past three months. Having earned a degree in architecture from Bob Jones University she was very aware of the beauty around her. But she was not just there to study architecture. Anna served with a missionary couple, the Seth Grotze family. The creativity aspect came from a combination of artistic and natural curiosity. Anna went to a coffee shop to draw the buildings around her. In America most of us do not think of stopping to look at what someone is drawing, but in Spain this is apparently not uncommon. So people engaged with Anna in the coffee shop and she in turn told them why she was in Spain and encouraged them to consider their relationship with Christ. Anna found opportunities to ser...

  9/11. We lived in eastern Pennsylvania 24 years ago and witnessed first-hand the sight of abandoned cars in parking lots left by people who had ridden the bus to work in New York City that day and never returned for their vehicles. We grieved as a nation over the attack on the Towers and mourned with those who lost loved ones in that tragic terrorist attack. My wife, Carmen, was not in Pennsylvania that day. She watched the news in a hospital room in Minneapolis where our daughter-in-law Dorinda was preparing for the birth of our third granddaughter. The doctors and nurses were somewhat distracted, but Lanie Jo Allen arrived later that day in good health. We remember 9/11 each year with sorrow, but also with joy. Lanie continues to be a source of blessing to our entire family. Isn’t that often our experience in life? Sorrow is mixed with joy. The pathway is not always smooth. We live in the midst of evil because of the sinful choices of fallen men. At the same time we learn...

  Jesus, the Divine Son of God, possessed all the attributes of the Godhead, including omniscience. He had complete knowledge of all things, past, present, and future. That means that when He was alive on earth He could have written a physics textbook. He could have invented the printing press and the internet. He could have given His generation the automobile and the jet airplane. He could have given the world Sputnik, and Tesla and AI. Civilization could have advanced by 2000 years. Why didn’t He do that? Isn’t man’s greatest need the technology that makes it possible for us to enjoy our standard of living and comfortable lifestyles? Judging from how the average person spends money, that would seem to be the case. We cannot live without cell phones, fast food, and dependable transportation.   Instead, Christ met man’s greatest need. He shared with mankind the message of salvation, because that is more important than any other invention or information ever known. At eve...