It started during a regularly scheduled mid-week chapel service at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky on February 8, 2023, and continued around the clock through Monday, February 20, 2023. On Saturday, February 19, the Asbury University revival entered the 11th day. It had gone viral and thousands of people across the country and overseas traveled to Kentucky to attend. Large numbers watched via live stream. On the 19^th Asbury President Dr. Kevin J. Brown announced that as the revival entered its third week, a schedule had been established for the upcoming week for ending the 24-hour worship at Hughes Auditorium. The last public worship service at the auditorium would be on February 20 at 2:00 p.m. From Monday to Wednesday evening ...

(originally published in March 2016)

Ever played “Whack-a-Mole?” You probably have if you have taken your children to Chuck E. Cheese. Whack-a-Mole is a very physical game in which the player gets a mallet and whacks the moles who pop up at random out of one of their seven holes (see photo). The game seemingly goes on ad nauseum until the timer runs out and no more moles pop up to whack. It is a fun but stressful game. Your adrenalin begins to flow because you have to be ready at all times to pound the daylights out of those moles and you never know from which hole they’ll appear.

There are people who live “Whack-a-Mole” lives. They live from crisis to crisis. Their lives are stressful. They never know when ...

It was stupid. I must have thought I was a 20-something. I was in the foyer of my house balancing myself on one foot trying to put on my shoe. That didn’t work so well. I must have lost my balance and the next thing I knew I was flat on my back on the floor looking up at the ceiling! The first thing I did while lying on the floor was to check to see if I’d broken any bones. Fortunately I hadn’t but I did have a huge swelling developing on my right elbow and my ribs and tailbone hurt like crazy. It has now been over a month since that fall. My ribs, which were cracked but not broken, are slowly healing. My tailbone hurts less and my elbow has shrunk back to almost normal size. I found out what most of you already know; it ...

Happiness is different than joy, isn’t it? Happiness primarily depends on our circumstances and our feelings. For example, we feel happy when we succeed at a task or get a pay raise or buy a new car or make a sale. The problem with happiness is that it is fleeting; it doesn’t last. Apart from faith in Jesus Christ happiness is the best the world can offer.

Joy, on the other hand, is one of the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit is in control of us we experience joy even in the most difficult of circumstances. Let me submit exhibit A: Paul and Silas fastened in stocks in the dungeon of a jail in Philippi (Acts 16). What are they doing in that miserable situation? Praying and singing hymns of praise to God at ...