Forlorn Hope

John Clough was called to the harvest field while working in one. He had grown up without religious inclinations, and in college seemed resistant to evangelistic efforts by friends. His roommate tried to read the Bible and pray with him each evening, but John, growing exasperated, drew a chalk line down the middle of the room, forbidding...

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Christmas Family Devotional Guide

The Week of Hope For hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus, the Hebrew people believed that one day God would send a great leader to deliver them from bondage and fear. Their nation was captured, people were taken captive, and their temple was destroyed. But the saddest part was that they knew that their sin had forever separated them...

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Loving God with the Whole Heart

Matthew 22:37-38 We must not love God only with the heart, but with the whole heart. Pray mark this: perfect hatred and perfect love know no such thing as the world calls prudence. If you perfectly hate any one, all things about him displease you; whatever he says or does, though it be never so good, it seems to you to be evil: so if you...

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Romeo, James Dean, Twilight and Other Forbidden Fruit

Here we go again.  Another Christmas season, another Twilight movie.  As I watched reports of people lining up for hours to earn Breaking Dawn Part One a whopping $139.5 million over its opening weekend, I thought it was probably time to repost this article.  I originally posted this in 2008 as I first...

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Introducing: MeinHerrundmeinGott

I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome James Boyd as a new contributor to Deep Riches.  James holds a PhD from Southwestern Seminary and serves as Associate Pastor of First Baptist Church in Princeton, WV.  He is married with two beautiful daughters and has a deep conviction that all Christians should be disciple-makers. ...

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How Parents Can Help a Teen Fulfill His/Her Ministry—2 Timothy 4:1-5

In 2 Timothy 4:1-5, Paul exhorted Timothy, his spiritual child, “to fulfill” the ministry God had given him. What can parents learn from this exhortation about how to help their teens be faithful to the mission of Jesus? First, Paul established the serious basis of the exhortation by reminding Timothy that to ignore it would incur God’s judgment and trivialize the second coming and rule of Christ. Parents have no excuse for trivializing...

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Future Uncertainty

In 1750, at the end of his ministry at Northampton Church, Jonathan Edwards wrote a letter to his dear friend, a Scottish minister named Reverend McCulloch.  After completing over 20 years of ministry in Northampton, it was clear that Edwards did not know what the future held for him.  But it is also clear that he knew Who holds...

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No Man's Land

One of the most enduring images of World War I is the horrific innovation of trench warfare.  Opposing sides of the battle would entrench themselves in parallel holes in the ground.  Defensively, the trenches were brilliant.  It was nearly impossible for the enemy to advance his position against a well-entrenched army. ...

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Hearing God's Call

Soren Kierkegaard once wrote in his journal, “The thing is to understand myself, to see what God really wants me to do; the thing is to find a truth which is true for me, to find the idea for which I can live and die.” Though his statement is fraught with theological pitfalls, it is completely understandable to one who is actively pursuing...

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Blessed Assurance

Though blinded at six weeks of age through improper medical treatment, Fanny Crosby wrote more than 8,000 gospel songs texts in her lifetime of 95 years. Her many favorites such as "Blessed Assurance" have been an important part of evangelical worship for the past century. Only eternity will disclose the host of individuals whose lives have...

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Faith Tested

Faith untried may be true faith, but it is sure to be little faith, and it is likely to remain dwarfish so long as it is without trials. Faith never prospers so well as when all things are against her: tempests are her trainers, and lightnings are her illuminators. When a calm reigns on the sea, spread the sails as you will, the ship moves...

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Jesus, Bring the Rain

When a person looks back over his life, there are certain events that come to mind almost immediately and stand out above the rest.  Certainly, there are the wonderful memories.  The sight of the rippling water when I was baptized at 12 years old will never leave me.  The water was rippling, not because of the baptistery, but...

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