When the World Shakes: Anchoring Your Soul in the Unchanging Goodness of God If you feel like the ground beneath you has been vibrating lately, you are not alone. As we close out 2025 and look toward 2026, the prevailing cultural mood isn't one of optimistic resolution—it’s one of low-grade anxiety. We see it in global instability, we feel it in the deep divisions fracturing major church denominations, and we experience it in the economic and personal pressures of daily life. The writer of Hebrews spoke of a time when God would "shake not only the earth but also the heavens," so that "what cannot be shaken may remain" (Hebrews 12:26-27). It feels like we are living through a great shaking right now. In times like these, the most difficult—yet most vital—question a Christian can ask is: Is God still good? The world’s answer is "no." The skeptic’s answer is "if He is, He isn't very competent." But the biblical answer is a resounding ...
The Ballad of a Mother's Heart
by Jose Villa Tierra
The night was dark,
For the moon was young,
And the Stars were asleep and rare,
The clouds were thick,
Yet Youth went out,
To see his Maiden fair.
Dear one,
he pleaded as he knelt before her feet in tears.
My love is true,
Why you have kept me waiting all this years?
The maiden looked at him.
Unmoved it seemed,
And whispered low.
Persistent Youth,
You have to prove by deeds,
Your love is true.
"There's not a thing
I would not do for you, Beloved" said he.
"Then, go." said she. "To your mother dear,
And bring her heart to me.
Without another word,
Youth left and went to his mother dear.
He opened her breast and took her heart!
But he did not shed a tear.
Then back to his Maiden fair,
He run unmindful of the rain.
But his feet slipped, And he fell down,
And loud, he groaned with pain!
Still in his hand he held the prize,
That would win his Maiden's hands.
But he thought of his mother dear,
So kind,so sweet,so fond.
And then,
he heard a voice!
Not from his lips,
But all apart!
"Get up" it said.
"Were you hurt,Child?"
It was his mother's heart