Dr Paul Allen

English: Kaaba at the heart of Mecca. As the night goes on pilgrims visiting the Holy House. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Islam is the second largest religion in the world. In 1995 about 1,122,661,000 Muslims inhabited this planet. Count the commas, folks—that’s a billion plus a hundred million. That means of every living person, one in five is a Muslim. As citizens of what is yet a superpower, we tend not to notice the worldwide Islamic population, of which merely sixteen percent are Arabs. But this blindness to our situation needs to change, not only so we can be more aware of the need for foreign missions, but so we can be aware of the needs of our neighbors. Islam is moving to where you live. And it looks like it is here to stay. Islam and Early America After the United States was founded, Islam had more influence than many would expect on certain segments of the population. For example, after being converted to Christianity, the Virginia statesman John Randolph of Roanoke

Even when life is “easy” it is hard to show mercy to our fellow sinners. When enjoying order, safety, and congeniality, serving others can still be a challenge. But when you are drowning in poverty, murder, violence, lawlessness, sickness, injustice, pain, and desperation, showing mercy to sinners amplifies the sin in yourself. As a sinner, it is difficult to love someone who doesn’t return your love. So how do you respond when the one you hope to serve desires to kill you? Our full-time team of a dozen missionaries serves in Honduras . This country is incredibly hard to live in, let alone minister to. For five years running Honduras has been the most murderous country in the world. Its people are the second-poorest in the Western Hemisphere. The average first birth occurs at 15 years of age. Hospitals are closed, police are outgunned, pastors are driven from the country, babies starve, treatable illnesses lead to death, and indifference and apathy are endemic. Our fences have ba

R G. LeTourneau was a man who knew how to clear obstacles. When he met his wife Evelyn, she was but twelve, he was in his twenties. Almost at once she fell in love and began to pray, "Oh God , please have him wait for me." Bob did wait for her. When she turned seventeen he asked for her hand. His father, Oscar Peterson , forbade marriage until Evelyn was twenty-one. So R. G. eloped with her to Tijuana. Life was tough for the young couple. Often they did without necessities. For years they did not even have running water. The death of their first child forced them to realize they had neglected God in their marriage. They committed themselves fully to the Lord and began to tithe. By 1920 R. G. opened his first garage. The year of the stock market crash he formed his Peoria earth-moving business. Despite the times, LeTourneau succeeded. R. G. became the greatest obstacle-mover in history, building huge earth-moving machines. During World War II he produced 70% of all the army&

How does a minister in a prominent position manage to stay free from scandal and ruin in a culture of selfism and selfishness? What protections do you have in place that might help other ministers? The key to avoiding scandal is living with integrity . If you live with integrity and a clear conscience, you never have to worry about potential scandal—because there are no skeletons hidden in your closet. Being above reproach in the eyes of others starts with being blameless before the  Lord . As important as it is to keep a good reputation in the community, it is a thousand times more important to safeguard your own personal character. The single most important battlefield in the struggle for integrity is your own mind. That’s where everything will actually be won or lost.  And if you lose there, you have already ruined your character. Then it is only a matter of time before your reputation is spoiled, because a bad tree can’t bring forth good fruit. Put simply, if you take ca

Fear, Temptation , and the Narrow Passage in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by  Marc T. Newman, Ph.D. Breathtakingly beautiful,  The Voyage of the Dawn Treader  is another in a series of thought-provoking adaptations of C.S. Lewis’  The Chronicles of Narnia . For book purists, there will always be the shock of seeing changes to a beloved storyline (for me, the second viewing is always better than the first because I can now watch the film on its own merits). But none of the films have shied away from confronting important moral and spiritual issues present in the books. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader  is no exception – fear is the target of temptation, and easy solutions are both alluring and damning, but there is always a way out, if we will only seek it. How many modern books or films deal with these kinds of dilemmas that both children and adults daily face? That is the wonder of Lewis – his stories hold rich meaning at whatever level you encounter them. Whether you are a chil

Image via Wikipedia Before it does, make sure you read the book.  Unbroken  is, in a word, amazing—easily one of the best books I read in 2010. It’s written by Laura Hillenbrand who also penned  Seabiscuit . This new book has shot straight to #2 on the  New York Times  list of bestsellers just days after its release. Unbroken  tells the tale of Louie Zamperini, a character who is so much larger than life that I can’t believe I hadn’t encountered him before. Zamperini grew up in California in the 1930’s, a troublesome kid who was constantly stealing, constantly fighting, constantly getting into trouble. He was  that  kid, the kid who was known by the police, the kid who was every teacher’s nightmare. He was also lightning fast, eventually becoming a member of the 1936  U.S.   Olympic team where he ran the 5,000 meter race and even had the opportunity to meet Adolf Hitler . War came in 1941 and, like so many men his age, Zamperini joined up, enlisting in the United States Army Air