"God Stories"

God called me to preach His Word when I was 17 years old. At 21 I pastored my first church, and for the next 35 years, enjoyed leading many others. Then I went through a divorce. My denomination taught—and I believed—that a divorced person couldn’t be a minister. His privilege to preach the gospel and pastor a church was over, period. I could cite several scriptures supporting that belief. As stated by a popular illustration…

On Easter morning, 1971, Maine’s Sugarloaf Mountain was dark and chilly, a heavy blanket of fog covering the base area. Guitar in one hand, portable speaker in the other, and a canvas tote bag hanging from my shoulder, I climbed the steps from one graveled parking lot to the next, focusing on a distant speck of light and the high-pitched whine of machinery. My steps quickened in anticipation as I drew closer to the small…

The day started pleasantly enough, but it wouldn’t end that way. Temperatures reached 48° on a mostly sunny Thursday, the last day of February. John had never cross-country skied before, but “I thought it couldn’t be that hard,” so agreed to join a friend that morning in skiing the frozen surface of Hermon Pond. After clipping into his cross-country skis, he started down the short slope to the pond’s surface. He didn’t get very far.…

Rev. Brian Haggerty at The Rock Church in Bangor, Maine, included the following story in a recent message. I knew you’d want to hear it. “I want to share a story with you about my Dad. “My Dad was a hard-nosed, hard-working, blue-collared man. He had grown up in the Salvation Army with a godly mother and a lukewarm Christian father. “In all his life, until he started taking his family to the Christian &…

There were many times when, if it weren’t for my faith in God, I would have never made it through my shift as a cardiac care nurse. In my specialty, I cared for a lot of people whose lives teetered between life and death. Everything in me wanted them to live, but there was only so much we could do. From the beginning, however, the one thing I could do was pray, and I’d do…

The following story comes under the heading, “Every good and perfect gift comes from above.” (James 1:17). I believe that. In most of these stories, people know and can see where God is working. Sometimes, however, people don’t. But he’s there; he’s working; and his love is evident, even if his identity is not. The following story describes a simple act of thoughtfulness and its powerful results. An idea came into Caitlin’s mind, and she…

Folks–I won’t often be stealing stories from other publications, but this one was too good to pass up. I first heard the source about twenty years ago, and have remembered it ever since. Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, describes it as “One of the most dramatic messages I’ve ever heard.” You’ll find the condensed 22-minute radio program at https://www.oneplace.com/ministries/family-talk/listen/dr-ev-hill-on-the-death-of-his-wife-228862.html   You’ll have to agree to follow Focus on the Family and signup/in,…

This story was related to me by Russ Venker during my 1997 tour of ski areas out west. Besides having a ministry to the community of June Lake, California, in which he makes good use of his counseling skills, Russ started a ministry at nearby June Mountain that soon saw him in great demand. Besides his community activities, which are many, he now leads the Mountain Learning Center, which specializes in retreat programs for clergy…

I accepted Christ as my Savior when I was twenty-two. That, however, was neither the beginning nor the end of my struggles. My early life was troubled, not from abuse, or neglect, but from my own bad decisions. I was the oldest of three children, and while I was fortunate to be raised in a stable, two-parent home, the difference in my sibling’s ages—I was five years older than one sister and eleven years older…

When you think back over your life, think about some of the invitations you’ve received. Invitations can change the course of our lives, and if you don’t believe me, let me tell you about an invitation I received in college—an invitation that changed my life forever. I didn’t know it at the moment, but in looking back, it’s as clear as day. I was in my first year of college. I never have been much…