Photo by Carl Ebert (1931-2014)
Christian Encouragement
Faith-Building Articles
to Give You
HOPE and PEACE
“Everyone needs encouragement, and I believe God intends for us to give it to each other. Encouragement is like food for the human heart. It's the stuff we all live on, and we need it. If we don't get it, we hurt inside, and it usually shows in our behavior or our attitude.” – Dr. David Jeremiah, Turning Point Ministries
TABLE OF CONTENTS
• A Season of Hope in our Ever-changing World. Some things—like Easter—don’t change. May this message remind you of all the Lord has done for you.
NEW: Are You Thinking about Leaving Your Church? This story will help you clarify your thinking on this topic. It features the letter Barbara sent to her church with her reasons for leaving. Includes affirming stories from six of her friends who told why they too had to leave a church they’d once loved, and tells how God miraculously led her to a new church.
NEW: Barbara’s Favorite Bible-Teaching Ministries and Pastors—those she has followed throughout her walk with Christ, through the pandemic, and now. Includes her personal comments about each and some books she particularly recommends.
NEW: The Brain Connection between Writing and Remembering. How a message from Dr. David Jeremiah, Turning Point Ministries, put Barbara on a new path of discovery in how to train her mind to remember things she could never remember before.
NEW: Count Your Divine Connections—How your Life Impacts Those Around You.
• Do You Have a Biblical Worldview? How most Americans see God and the Bible, and why having the right worldview is so important to your eternal destiny.
NEW: Documenting Your Christian Journey. The benefits of journaling about your life experiences, with Barbara’s special tips and short examples from her own Christian journals to inspire you to document your own walk with Christ.
“Sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things; shout for joy to the LORD all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music” (Psalm 98:1, 4; NIV).
• Found! A New Source of Strength. What Barbara learned about self-sufficiency, with eleven reader responses to this inspirational message—maybe the most important one you’ll read today.
“Most people are bothered by the passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand.” – Mark Twain (1935–1910)
• How to Find your God-Given Mission in Life. Originally published as a blog post in July 2022, this writing was inspired by Eric Metaxas’ interview with Mark Wahlberg, Mel Gibson, and Tim Tebow, who shared how faith impacted their careers.
• How to Stop Worry at the Gate. If we don’t get a grip on worry, it can completely debilitate us from the inside out.
“. . . if you entertain too much anxiety about too many things, if you place no trust in providence, what you fear will more often come to pass. We make so many of our own troubles, from mere mishaps to disaster, by dwelling on the possibility of them until the possible becomes inevitable.” – from Dean Koontz's book, Odd Apocalypse
NEW: In What Season of Life Are You Now? This article discusses the need for reflection on where you are in life’s journey and how we change with each passing decade.
• Living in Two Different Worlds. How to live with peace and joy in your heart when our country is now a complete reversal of what it once was.
NEW: My 85th Birthday, Baptism, and Celebration. How being baptized on her landmark 85th birthday changed Barbara's life and drew her nearer to her family, friends, and the Lord.
NEW: Testimony for Christ [PDF]. Barbara shares the story of how she came to learn life’s greatest secret so late in life and how this dramatic experience changed her life forever.
NEW. The Meaning and Importance of Easter. Each year on Easter Sunday, Christians worldwide joyfully celebrate Easter to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after he was crucified.
»» Reader Comments for Barbara’s Testimony for Christ. Features excerpts from Barbara’s journals with some of the comments she got from readers of the first version of the testimony
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11).
• Tornadoes, Disaster Preparedness, and God. If you suffer a weather disaster or fire, here’s how having a disaster plan in place will help you survive it financially and emotionally.
• What Are Your Plans for the New Year? Are you where you want to be in life? Or do you feel you need to get your act together this year? NEW: Your Born-Again Gifts from God. Immediately upon accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you become a child of the living God and the recipient of many gifts and blessings. An encouraging Bible lesson from Chuck Swindoll’s ministry in a personal letter to Barbara.
“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God, because God’s plans for you are better than anything you’ve ever planned for yourself.” –Pastor Greg Laurie
“Our inner happiness depends not on what we experience but on the degree of our gratitude to God, whatever the experience.”– Albert Schweitzer