“What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?” Ecclesiastes 1:3 Solomon’s question in verse 3 begs for an answer. Mine goes like this: What you gain from your labor depends on why you are doing it. There is a huge difference between living for your career and being sent on a mission. The Bible n…
The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem: “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” (Ecclesiastes 1:1-2) Scott was only twenty-six years old when he died. Although he grew up in a Christian home, during his teens and early twenties he went t…
Early this year we ordered a new printing of 100,000 copies of An Anchor for the Soul to be distributed to prison ministries, military ministries, crisis pregnancy centers, to outlaw biker gangs, and to rescue missions. We even have some friends who use the books to reach women who work at strip clubs.A printing of that size costs us about $56,500….
A friend wrote me saying that he had been asked to give a course on evangelism and wanted any ideas I might have. Here is what I wrote back to him:Focus on the gospel, not on technique. Too many evangelism courses focus on saying specific sentences and on how to “close the deal.” I think that matters but it’s not the main thing. M…
Today I celebrate my 60th birthday. Somehow that seems like a milestone worth pondering. To begin with, I am happily surprised that I lived this long. On my little twig of the Pritchard family tree, our men generally don’t live a long time. My dad died when he was in his 50s, my uncle in his 40s, my grandfather when he was 70, two cousins in …
I hadn’t planned on addressing this question until I was asked about it recently. My answer is a simple yes.Evangelical Christians are free to vote for a Mormon if they desire. I say this notwithstanding the great gulf between what we believe and what Mormons believe. There are serious and deeply-felt differences between evangelical Christian…
Here is the info on this week’s China broadcasts:Monday, September 17 The Only Thing That Matters (Galatians 5:1-12)"Our hope is in the Lord alone. All that we need comes from him.” Wednesday, September 19 Risky Business (Galatians 5:13-15) “Christian freedom is freedom from sin, not freedom to sin."Friday, September 21…
A few months ago I wrote to a friend not long before her father died. Over the years she had shared her faith with him, but she had no assurance that he knew the Lord. Her dilemma raised an important question. What should we say when a loved one dies and we are not sure about their ultimate destination? Here is an edited version of what I wrot…
A friend who serves in leadership at his church called to talk about some big decisions the leadership team is facing. The details don’t matter except to note that the decisions will have a big impact on my friend and his family and on the church he serves. Several times during the conversation (at least four times, I think) he mentioned the …
A few days ago we received this letter from a chaplain in California who was asking for more copies of Anchor, which we will gladly send.We are happy to know that prisoners in “the hole” are reading Anchor. When you are in isolation, you have lots of time on your hands. We pray that many of those prisoners will come to Christ as a resul…