William Borden

William Borden

William Borden was born on November 1, 1887. He lived a privileged life as a child and teenager as the heir to Borden Dairy, Inc. When he was seven years old, he surrendered his life to Christ and dedicated himself to do whatever God wanted with his life.

A 1904 graduate of a private boarding prep school in Chicago, William’s parents gave their 16-year-old son a trip around the world as a graduation present. He traveled through Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. During his journey, he felt a growing burden for the hurting people of the world.

William wrote home about his desire to be a missionary. One friend expressed his disappointment that William was throwing his life away to be a missionary. But William wrote in the back of his Bible: “No reserves.”

In 1905, William arrived on the campus of Yale University. The other students knew he was different. One classmate said: “He came to college far ahead, spiritually, of any of us. He had already given his heart in full surrender to Christ...

Freedom’s Promise

In 1999, 33-year-old Marina answered an ad to leave the Ukraine and study abroad in Israel. When she arrived, she was taken to an apartment in Ashkelon where she was introduced to other women who explained that she was now a prostitute.

Amber Barron

Imagine her surprise! Marina became hysterical. As a result, she was beaten, raped, sold off, and finally locked in a windowless basement for a month, drinking water from the toilet and going without food.

She finally managed to escape. But now, she rarely leaves her two-bedroom home in northern Israel because she fears the government will deport her or the criminal gangs will force her back into prostitution.

This story came from the blog of Amber Barron, a 28-year-old freedom fighter for humans being trafficked all over the world.

Exactly one year ago, Amber (who was working in commercial real estate) read a CNN article about Somaly Mam, a Cambodian woman sold into sexual slavery as a child. Now, a free woman, she works to free other girls in the same...

Daniel Blackaby Story

Twenty-year-old Daniel Blackaby, regular blogger on Josiah Road, was born “sandwiched between an older brother and younger sister” into a strong Christian home. At the young age of four, Daniel came to know Jesus—fully understanding the decision he was making even then.

At the local ice-skating rink one day, Daniel decided it was time to accept Jesus into his life. “I closed my eyes and prayed, and asked [Jesus] to forgive my sins and be my Lord. I opened my eyes just in time to see the end boards before I ran face-first into them. … My dad always told me I started my Christian journey with a bang.”

In early high school, Daniel reached a point in his spiritual journey when he went through some hard stuff. “I started to have doubts if God really does love me,” he said. “I realized that I had reached an age where I couldn’t just believe because my parents and siblings did. I had to make my faith my own.”

Also enduring the struggle of being a part of a family that had served in Christian service, Daniel felt...

Mike Blackaby Story

In an effort to let you learn more about the bloggers you enjoy reading, this is the first of several posts that give you insight into more of their world.

Twenty-two-year-old Mike Blackaby could easily be called a Jack-of-all-trades. He’s a full-time seminary student, the “unofficial” leader of the young adults ministry at his church, regular Josiah Road blogger, and he recently started a worship band. But his passion—preaching.

The oldest of three kids, Mike Blackaby grew up in a Christian home, the son of a minister. Always there when the church doors were open, he thought he accepted Christ when he was eight-years-old.

“My motivation for accepting Christ was because my younger brother just had and I didn’t want him to do it first! I prayed the prayer I had always known about and then got baptized by my dad in his church,” he said.

It wasn’t until Mike was 14-years-old that he finally entered into a personal relationship with God after he attended a Franklin Graham Crusade with his youth group.

“At...

Stephen Miller

What started as an insatiable love for music at a young age has turned into something much bigger for Stephen Miller. The 24-year-old musician/minister has taken his love for music and God’s call on his life, and moved it to several much larger platforms.

Miller, who serves as Worship Leader at Sugar Creek Baptist Church in Sugar Land, Texas, said, “About 10 years ago, God told me that music is the most powerful language in the world. Then He called me to teach and minister to people through song.”

Four bands later, Stephen (lead vocals, guitar) is now joined by Micah Peacock (guitar, backup vocals), Will Colbert (bass), and Mario Diaz (drums).

“There is something about music that people are drawn to,” Stephen said. “It’s the same with theology and God. So we want to mix those two languages to reach the nation and connect people with Him—especially our generation, the post-moderns, because that’s who we identify with.”

Will Colbert, the youngest of the band at only 19-years-old, said, “I remember that...

There are so MANY things I don’t know about the Bible

A lot of people think that seminary graduates are all knowing in theology, Scripture, and have some sort of inside connection with the Almighty. I’ve had so many people say, “You must know everything there is to know about the Bible and God!”

That’s just funny to me because it’s so far from the truth. I don’t fit into their perceived stereotype at all—it doesn’t exist. As a matter of fact, there are so MANY things I don’t know about the Bible. I learn new things every day. There are still passages that stump me and religious questions that I don’t know how to answer.

Just the other day, I came across this passage in Mark (11:20-24, HCSB):

The next day when they came out from Bethany, He was hungry. After seeing in the distance a fig tree with leaves, He went to find out if there was anything on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And His disciples heard it.

Early in the morning, as they...

Where is my Phone?

Every day when I open my e-mail, I find it’s constantly flooded with infamous forwards from family and friends that have already haunted inboxes around the world for years.

You know the ones I’m talking about—the cheesy, ridiculous e-mail forwards that result in hardcore eye rolling and cause you to click “delete” as fast as possible. And most of them warn that if you don’t forward it on to at least 50 percent of the contacts in your address book, you’ll be cursed, resulting in bad luck or misfortune for a lengthy amount of time.

I think my all-time favorite forward is the one asking me not to support Pepsi anymore because they’ve taken the name of God out of the Pledge of Allegiance printed on their cans. I’ve received that warning more than 20 times since 1997 and have yet to see the pledge printed on ANY Pepsi can—ever.

However, I did receive a forward from a friend the other day that I hadn’t seen before. I thought I would give it a read through since it was new information. It said:

I wonder what...

Dry Tears

It’s not often that you hear of young people who are changing the world. If teens today are anything like I was, then most of them are only concerned with sleeping in and doing everything possible to not miss the next big social event.

Recently, I read an article about five guys from Acworth, Georgia, who don’t fit the mold mentioned above. No, they aren’t superheroes; they are life-changers.

It all started when a young man named Conner Cress, a junior in high school, saw an image in a magazine of a “skeletal-looking baby, with toothpick-thin arms and legs and wide hopeless eyes,” accompanied by an equally sad story about the horrific conditions in Third World countries due to poverty, starvation, and dehydration.

Conner felt he needed to do something. So he brought the issue to four of his closest buddies—Logan, Dan, Kyle, and Jared. From that group and their desire to do something to help others, they created a solution.

Dry Tears, an organization to help provide clean drinking water to people in...

Conversations with God

My prayer life took a dramatic turn a few years ago. I was thriving in my freelance writing jobs. But after a year of commitment to their projects and when I least expected it, my most solid client dropped me like a bad habit.

They said, “It’s not you, it’s us.” Classic breakup line, right?

I felt so rejected and almost a little betrayed. My mom and dad couldn’t provide the answers as to why this had happened. My friends didn’t know what to say. I felt like no one even really cared about the situation. But it was a really big deal to me.

So I got in my car, drove aimlessly around Dallas, Texas, and eventually started venting to God about my crisis.

It felt weird at first—honestly spilling my guts and using a tone that I thought may be somewhat irreverent in his presence. But then I realized something. That’s the way he wants me to come to him—he wants to talk with the real me.

He sees all of my junk, my thoughts, and my actions every day anyway. Why not talk openly with him about it? Why not share my...

Ask And You’ll Receive…Just Like That?

Like most young people, I struggle to stay afloat financially; I miss my family, who live far away, so bad that I constantly hound them about moving my way; and I wonder when, or if, I’ll ever find that “someone” and get married.

This short list is just a fraction of a more extensive inventory of things that cause me to worry, keep me up at night, and stay unchecked on my never-ending “To Do” list.

Sometimes I let these things get to me. And sometimes I try to remind myself of the bigger picture—that I’ll look back on them 10 years from now with a whole new set of things to deal with and laugh at how petty the old ones were.

I don’t think these states-of-mind are out of the norm for most people. Yes, even those who follow Christ. I just have a problem of trying to deal with everything on my own and I can’t decide which one I want to live in.

“Ask God for what you want and need. Just ask.” This is all I’ve heard lately—from Sunday sermons, to small group Bible study, to my daily e-mail devotional.

Perhaps...