The worst way to deal with a “check engine” light is to put a piece of tape over it and pretend it doesn’t exist. Maybe you have done this at some point or know someone who has. Maybe that warning light is simply the result of a bad sensor, or perhaps it represents a costly repair bill if not dealt with quickly. Regardless, ignoring reality doesn’t make it go away. Last week, we were invited to reflect on what it means to be freed by the truth of Christ.

I grew up in the Church of the Nazarene, just like many of you. I graduated from Southern Nazarene University (SNU), and was on the faculty at Olivet Nazarene University (ONU) and Northwest Nazarene University. Presently, I serve on the foundation boards of ONU and SNU.

This time of year, district assemblies are underway, and thousands of people are preparing for ordination services. Ministerial candidates will have hands placed upon their heads and will be given ordination certificates that challenge them and affirm their calling into vocational ministry all over the world.

Every summer, on the second weekend of August, the Haw Orchard Baptist Church and cemetery in Grayson County, Virginia, are resplendent with color and abuzz with conversation. Why? It's time for the annual 'Decoration.' And many families, including mine, schedule their reunions for that weekend. It's a wonderful time for faith and family traditions. People begin to decorate the graves on Saturday evening, so on Sunday morning, the Haw Orchard Cemetery is ablaze with color . . . reds, yellows, greens, and purples. It's quite a sight! And the church? Well, it's standing room only.

Trapped in an abusive, servile marriage, Meti was desperate. One day at the river, she ate some poisonous beans and waited to die. Miraculously, Meti didn't die and because Nazarene missionaries Sidney and Wanda Knox had come to Papua New Guinea years before in 1955, her life would turn out much differently than she expected when she sat at the river's edge.

The Knoxes started a church in a village called Pokorump that God used to completely repaint the picture of Meti's life.

Traffic surged in three lanes on either side of our small group as we huddled on the median strip of la calle Revolucion in Guadalajara, Mexico. Buses passed within inches of the curb—and our feet—and exhaust blasted us as we waited for the chance to finish our dash across the street.

We expect to hear about the inappropriate use of finances in the secular world—big business and government. But misuse of money in the church by Christians? Surely that is an oxymoron. 

All too regularly media reports relate the misdeeds of one church leader after another with respect to church funds. It's one type of irregularity here and a case of fraud there. Sometimes the amounts seem like petty cash; other times, the amounts are huge.

Grandma died December 15, 2005, at 93 years old. Her lengthy name, Ninah Mae Mitchell Eyre Simmons, revealed her southern roots, Scotch English heritage, and two marriages ending in widowhood. In her lifetime, she moved less than 75 miles from her Louisiana birthplace residence in Montgomery to her husband's homestead farm in Dry Prong to her final years in a Pineville nursing home.

Justine Knight has viewed the global Church of the Nazarene from multiple perspectives. She lives in Bethany, Oklahoma with her husband, General Superintendent Emeritus John A. Knight, Sr.

Q. Which historical figure interests you the most?

A. Susanna Wesley, for the manner in which she reared all those children, especially with her husband away most of the time.

One Sunday morning I preached a simple sermon about the meaning and significance of baptism, saying, "Something happens in the water." Then, I invited anyone who would like to be baptized to come forward. I said, "If you have a change of heart, we have a change of clothes."

Something amazing happened. People began to come forward. By the end of the morning—and two long worship services—173 people were baptized. This included young and old (the oldest was 94), first-time visitors, entire families together, three pastors, and two board members.