ODB: To Be Human

“Mr. Singerman, why are you crying?” asked twelve-year-old Albert as he watched the master craftsman construct a wooden box.“I cry,” he said, “because my father cried, and because my grandfather cried.” The woodworker’s answer to his young apprentice provides a tender moment in an episode of Little House on the Prairie. “Tears,” explai

Praying For The Flock

Jesus has taught the apostles well. He has passed on the words God gave Him (vv. 8, 14). The apostles therefore know that Jesus has come from the Father (v. 8) and they are hated by the world because they are no longer part of the mass of humanity in rebellion against God (v. 14).

ODB: Never Alone

“It can be an affliction more harrowing than homelessness, hunger or disease,” wrote Maggie Fergusson in The Economist’s 1843 magazine. Her subject? Loneliness. Fergusson chronicled the increasing rates of loneliness, irrespective of one’s social or economic status, using heart-wrenching examples of what it feels like to be lonely.The hurt of feeling alone isn&rsqu

The Prayer For Glory

Conversation is the usual basis of relationship. The Upper Room Discourse that began with an acted parable (John 13:1-17) now ends with the Lord Jesus praying.

ODB: Turn on the Light

As my husband and I prepared for a cross-country move, I wanted to ensure that we kept in touch with our grown sons. I found a unique gift, friendship lamps connected by wireless internet, which can be turned on remotely. When I gave the lamps to my sons, I explained that their lamps will turn on when I touch my lamp—to provide a shining reminder of my love and ongoing prayers. No matter how

He Will Always Overcome

Jesus is about to suffer and die, and yet these last words in the upper room show His loving concern for the disciples. Building false expectations is hateful-Jesus is lovingly realistic; they will suffer, but like a woman in childbirth, the suffering will end and relief will follow (vv. 21-22).

ODB: Like Jesus

As a boy, theologian Bruce Ware was frustrated that 1 Peter 2:21–23 calls us to be like Jesus. Ware wrote of his youthful exasperation in his book The Man Christ Jesus. “Not fair, I determined. Especially when the passage says to follow in the steps of one ‘who did no sin.’ This was totally outlandish . . . . I just couldn’t see how God could really mean for

ODB: Unimaginable Promises

In our moments of greatest failure, it can be easy to believe it’s too late for us, that we’ve lost our chance at a life of purpose and worth. That’s how Elias, a former inmate at a maximum-security prison in New York, described feeling as a prisoner. “I had broken . . . promises, the promise of my own future, the promise of what I could be.”It was Bard College’

ODB: Strengthened by Grace

During the American Civil War, the penalty for desertion was execution. But the Union armies rarely executed deserters because their commander-in-chief, Abraham Lincoln, pardoned nearly all of them. This infuriated Edwin Stanton, the Secretary of War, who believed that Lincoln’s leniency only enticed would-be deserters. But Lincoln empathized with soldiers who had lost their nerve and who ha