Ending of Urgent Words for Now: Urgent Words for Apocalyptic Times, No. 22 by Robert V. Rakestraw (August 18, 2017) Is this the end? There is sadness within me as I write, but also peace. This twenty-second posting of Urgent Words will be the last in this series, at least for now. My reason for […]

Wisdom Woman, Army Woman Edited by Robert V. Rakestraw (June 12, 2017) Who said, ‘I want a sermon on the Flood’ ? [Editor’s note: In June, 1855, after a three year engagement, William Booth and Catherine Mumford were married. They were both twenty-six. In the years following their marriage God used them mightily through their […]

Edited by Robert V. Rakestraw  (April 17, 2017) Is the Holy Spirit sometimes a troublemaker? [John Wesley’s Journal, July 6, 1739]. “I pressed a serious Quaker to tell me why he did not come to hear me as formerly. He said, because he found we were not led by the Spirit; for we fixed times […]

Edited by Robert V. Rakestraw (February 16, 2017) “Early in January, 1862, [in East Africa, missionary-explorer David] Livingstone’s wife was once more at his side, after an absence of four years. [David had decided to send Mary and the children to his native Scotland, because of an extensive African journey he was planning. She had […]

Edited by Robert V. Rakestraw  (December 18, 2016) Have you ever really lived a day? [John Wesley’s Journal, Dec. 23, 1744.]  “I was unusually lifeless and heavy, till the love-feast in the evening; when, just as I was constraining myself to speak, I was stopped, whether I would or no; for the blood gushed out […]

Edited by Robert V. Rakestraw (Nov. 21, 2016) Would you sing choruses after being raped? [The country of Congo received its independence in 1960, and in 1964 a major rebellion broke out against the policies and greed of the new government. The rebel troops (“Simbas”), many of them undisciplined, angry youth—even children—armed with guns, spears, […]

Edited by Robert V. Rakestraw  (November 2, 2016) Will you die peacefully or in anguish? [John Wesley’s Journal, June 29, 1742.]  “I desired to visit one in Newgate [the notorious prison in England]. As I was coming out, poor Benjamin Rutter stood in my way, and poured out such a flood of cursing and bitterness, […]

Edited by Robert V. Rakestraw (October 1, 2016) Why did this martyr’s living body not burn in the flames? “We have written to you, brethren, the circumstances respecting the martyrs [in Asia Minor], and the blessed Polycarp [esteemed overseer of the church at Smyrna], who as if sealing it with his martyrdom [in 155 or […]

Edited by Robert V. Rakestraw (Sept. 18, 2016) What can the great Chicago fire teach us? [Ed. note: On Sunday night, October 8,1871, evangelist Dwight L. Moody was preaching in Farwell Hall in Chicago. Just as he concluded his sermon the listeners realized the hall was on fire and fled wildly from the building. This […]

Edited by Robert V. Rakestraw  (Sept. 1, /2016) Why in the world would a dying woman be laughing so hard? “The happiest person I have ever seen in my life was a dying woman. As she was dying she clapped her hands in joy. She even joked, ‘I am literally being tickled to death.’ Many […]