Tag Archives: hopeforlife.org

More Hope For Life

MHfL coverInstead of doing a Friday book review, as I have at times in the past, this Friday I have a book announcement. Steve Ridgell and I have written a third book: More Hope For Life. This is a follow-up to our 2011 Herald of Truth publication, Hope For Life.

More Hope For Life contains short articles designed to help people find the hope that only God can give.

The articles were originally published on the Heartlight Magazine web site. Most of them also appeared on our Hope For Life web site. The compilation makes it easier to present the articles to someone who is looking for hope.

The book has six sections:

  • Our Father In Heaven
  • Jesus, Our Hope
  • Walking In His Steps
  • The Contented Life
  • When Life Tumbles In
  • Life Without End

Each section is introduced with a pertinent Bible passage, and each article has one that follows it. The pictures in the book are all from Herald of Truth ministry projects.

The book costs $11.00, and shipping is $2.57. Residents of Texas have to pay sales tax as well. (If you would like a signed copy, please send an email to timothycarcher@gmail.com indicating how you would like the book inscribed. If you’d prefer to purchase by check, you can e-mail me at the same address for further information.)

Extravagance

The lists of odd and extravagant Christmas gifts are beginning to appear. Reminds me of something I wrote for the Hope for Life blog last year:

Extravagance

I have to confess: I like looking at extravagant Christmas gifts. Not out of any desire to give or receive them. I just like to marvel at what’s available.

Some of them are amazingly expensive. Like the Ferrari FF listed at Neiman Marcus; it can be yours for only $390,000. You may want to hurry. They only have 10 available.

For mom, Amazon lists a black pearl necklace for a mere $76,500 dollars. Don’t worry… the item ships for free.

Another option is a gift card from Halcyon jets. A $5 million gift card! Actually, it’s called a Dream Card, and it gives you full access to their complete fleet of jets, as well as a private aviation specialist and a personal concierge.

For the truly discriminating, might I suggest you consider purchasing an island? You can get a lovely 20-acre island off the coast of Rio de Janeiro for a mere $8 million. Sorry… only one per customer.

Most of us won’t be spending quite as much on Christmas gifts, though many will spend more than they should. There’s something about the Christmas season that makes us want to give gifts in a big way.

However, we know that the greatest gift has already been given. No one can match the extravagance of our Heavenly Father, who gave us what the apostle Paul calls an “indescribable gift.” (2 Corinthians 9:15) God gave us His own Son, not as a Christmas gift, but as the gift that never stops giving. God’s Son, Jesus, came and died, to give us all the right to claim the gift of eternal life.

The apostle John famously wrote, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16–17)

In this season of giving and receiving, let’s take time to remember the greatest gift of all: God’s Son. And let’s make sure that we’ve claimed the gift He offers each of us: the gift of eternal life.

photo by Michael Connors

Hope For Life

Herald of Truth has published a new book, one that I co-wrote with Steve Ridgell. The book is called Hope For Life and contains short articles designed to help people find the hope that only God can give.

The articles were originally published on the Heartlight Magazine web site. Most of them also appeared on our Hope For Life web site. The compilation makes it easier to present the articles to someone who is looking for hope.

There are six sections in the book: Hope, Forgiveness, Salvation, Response, Lifestyle and Community. Each section is introduced with a pertinent Bible passage, and each article has one that follows it. The pictures in the book are all from Herald of Truth ministry projects.

If you’re interested in purchasing the book, you can do so from the Hope For Life page on the site.

The House That Fear Built

{Thought I’d share an article I wrote for our HopeForLife.org blog a few months ago}

Have you heard of the Winchester Mystery House? The sprawling house in San Jose, California, is famous for its huge size and irregular layout. It was under constant construction for 38 years, eventually coming to have almost 160 rooms.

Despite its great size, the house can be considered unfinished in many ways. There are dozens of doors that open on blank walls, others with knobs on only one side and inside doors with screens on them. There are stairways that reach no destination, chimneys with no stoves, and floors that you can see through.

The construction shows a fascination with the number 13. All the stairways are constructed in series of 13 steps. The chandeliers all have 13 lights. Every wall has 13 panels. Each glass door has 13 pieces.

Who would build such a house?

The mansion was built by Sarah Winchester, the widow of William Winchester (of the Winchester family that owned the famous rifle company). According to Wikipedia (search on “Winchester Mystery House”), the June 1937 issue of Modern Mechanix has a story that provides insight. Another story version relates that after the death of her husband and infant daughter, Winchester was told by a medium that she must build a house that was never completed; if the house were ever completed, Sarah Winchester would die.

Because of this, the fearful widow maintained her house in a constant state of construction. Her attempt to avoid death failed, of course. On September 5, 1922, Sarah Winchester died. Work immediately stopped on the house, and it remains as a monument to one woman’s fear of death.

Was Sarah Winchester the only person afraid of dying? How many others would do whatever it takes to avoid the inevitable?

A favorite passage of mine is found in Hebrews, and it talks about that very fear: “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Hebrews 2:14-15). Jesus came to free everyone held captive by the fear of death.

Jesus has defeated death, and he invites us to share in his victory. There is no need to live fearing death. We have a champion who can rescue us from that fear.

Building a house can’t free us from death. Building a relationship with Jesus will do just that.

Getting back…

Well, with life’s crazy little turns, I had a bit of a setback. While on a trip to Buenos Aires, my laptop was stolen. And I’m finding it quite the task to slowly get all this back to some semblance of order. Hopefully by next week, I can get the blog up and running normally again. I’m sure you can’t wait. :-)

But I won’t leave you without anything. The link was wrong on Christian Massamba’s video the other day, but it’s been corrected now. I’d encourage you to watch his story. Just to make it easy, I’ll post it here as well. I think you’ll be blessed by it: