Here's a wonderful Thanksgiving message from Chris Carrillo, delivered at Care-age of Brookfield on Sunday, November 26th. His inspiration? Psalm 42:4-5:

When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, With the voice of joy and praise, With a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast. Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For the help of His countenance. 

Want to hear more? Visit our new "Messages from Chris Carrillo" page. 

(The painting above, incidentally, is entitled "Pilgrims Going to Church." It's by George Henry Boughton, 1833-1905.) 

That’s the question confounding newly widowed Meg Vogel, a nursing-home biographer and a committed atheist. Who’s the old lady? What’s she so certain about? And why has it become such an urgent issue for Meg? 

​You'll find the answers in Kitty Foth-Regner’s The Song of Sadie Sparrow, a new novel from FaithHappenings Publishers.  Set in a five-star nursing home, it’s the story of three women from three generations, each embracing a different worldview—and the impact they have on each other’s lives, perhaps for all eternity.
 
Find details here, and read an excerpt here. Then order your copy today from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.  ​

Everyone needs to hear the gospel, of course; there’s no other way to heaven, no matter what people may want to think. 
 
But the message is arguably most urgent for the elderly. After all, while no one knows exactly when he will die, this life's denouement is drawing near for the very aged.
 
That’s the premise undergirding Kitty Foth-Regner’s new novel The Song of Sadie Sparrow (FaithHappenings Publishers). It’s the story of three women whose lives intersect in a five-star nursing home called The Hickories—three women of different generations, backgrounds, sorrows, hopes and worldviews:

• Sadie Sparrow is a slightly befuddled 86-year-old who has been abandoned here by her oh-so-busy daughter. But she is settling in just fine, thanks to new friends, a loving staff, a heart full of favorite hymns, and a young Bible teacher who is determined to usher her through the narrow gate to eternal life. 

 

• Meg Vogel is a 58-year-old widow, freelance copywriter and committed atheist who has been hired to write resident biographies. She loves her job, except for all the dreary and offensive God-talk—precisely the nonsense that ruined the last months of what had been her perfect marriage. 

 

• Elise Chapelle, a single 32-year old and devout Christian, quit her teaching job to care for her beloved grandfather. But in spite of her efforts, his failing health has landed him in The Hickories. Not a likely place for Elise to find the ideal husband, but the Lord has been known to work in mysterious ways.

 
Editor Keely Boeving described the novel this way: “A beautifully written story of friendship set against the backdrop of life’s twilight years, The Song of Sadie Sparrow explores contrasting views of purpose and pardon, life and afterlife—and faith’s role in shaping those views, now and forevermore.”
 
It’s available now in both ebook and paperback formats. Order The Song of Sadie Sparrow today!

​It’s good to hear at least some in the news media admitting that the problem with ISIS-driven terrorism is ideological. It would be more accurate to say that the problem is one of a demonic religion, but I suppose we have to take baby steps towards arriving at accurate reporting, and “ideological” is considerably closer than “lone wolf crazy.”
 
However, we are still miles away from the solution if all we can do is talk about stamping out this “extreme” expression of Islam wherever we find it.
 
Jesus explained the problem in language anyone can understand. Here’s what He said, as quoted in Luke 11:24-26:
 
"When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first." 
 
So we can drive out the evil. But if we don’t replace it with the good – which is to say, the truth – the evil is just going to return, more powerful than before.
 
That this is true can be easily seen in the alcohol- and drug-treatment industry. In hard-core addicts, secular solutions are largely five-year failures … whereas Christ-centered solutions such as Teen Challenge are the spectacular success stories that secularists don't want to talk about. But don't miss the point: The Christ-centered programs cleanse the evil of addiction and then replace it with the absolute truth of biblical Christianity. The result: five-year success rates estimated at 86% by Princeton University researchers, and at 87.5% by a Northwestern University study. 
 
And that is the solution to terrorism: Cleanse the terrorists of their delusions, and then immediately replace those lies with the absolute truth of biblical Christianity.
 
We don’t need to try to force belief on anyone; we can’t. But we could force anyone entering this country to take and pass an intensive, multi-faceted, semester-long course in biblical truth – a course that includes aggressive “teaching of the controversy” by exposing the lies of each and every false religion, including Islam. At the same time, we could expose more and more of those outside our borders to the truth via public funding of Bible-based missionary and Christian broadcasting activities.
 
Will it ever happen in this country? Probably not – separation of church and state, doncha know, not to mention the battles that would be waged over which groups are actually speaking the truth.
 
But I’m afraid that, without this “ideology replacement” component, our war on terrorism will be nothing more than an increasingly deadly and costly exercise in futility.