Jim Graff

Years ago, one father’s heart was breaking over a bitter fallout with his son Michael. Overwhelmed by regret, he placed an ad in the local small-town newspaper: “Dear Michael, all is forgiven. I miss you. Would you please meet me on the bench in the town park at noon this Saturday? Love, Dad.” Saturday arrived, […]

One of the greatest revivals in the history of Christianity is called the Welsh Revival. During that revival, in about a six-month span of time, 5-7.5 percent of Wales’ population came to Jesus, nearly 70 percent staying until their dying day.  This revival began not with a passionate moment on a public platform but with […]

Since the beginning of time, civilizations have gathered near water because it’s essential to life. Water sustains every part of the body—from cellular processes to temperature regulation—and maintains environmental balance through weather and ecosystems. This is why Scripture portrays the Holy Spirit as water for the believer. Just as water is essential for physical life, […]

Our grandkids visited us this summer and brought a game called Beanboozled. I’d never played it before; if I had, I probably would have politely declined! Here’s how it goes: you spin a spinner that lands on a picture of a jelly bean you have to eat. The problem is—each color jelly bean has two […]

I’ll never forget asking Tamara to marry me—the nerves before I popped the question, and how my heart leaped when she said yes. I was overjoyed! We can all think of moments when joy filled our hearts to overflowing—but they’re just that: moments. For some of us, they’re few and far between. That causes me […]

Growing up, I was the youngest of five siblings—three boys, two girls. My brother Kenny, five years my senior, was an exceptional athlete. I loved him picking me up to play on his team for Wiffle ball, basketball, or football games. We typically won, and I was very aware it wasn’t because of my abilities—it […]

In our church, we often remind people that our community is imperfect because it’s full of imperfect people seeking to learn more about a perfect God. And if someone thinks it’s perfect, the minute they join, they’ll make it imperfect too! The key to experiencing an incredible life full of meaningful relationships isn’t dependent upon […]

When our daughter was planning her wedding, Tamara and I enrolled in ballroom dancing lessons. We assumed we’d be naturals! After all, Tamara was a cheer captain of a 5A school, and I was a college athlete. But we soon realized our success in ballroom dancing didn’t so much depend on our individual strengths but […]

In ancient Rome, crowds filled coliseums to watch gladiators fight brutal battles—many to their death. As these warriors prepared to enter the arena, their loved ones would shout one desperate word: spoudazo—“Give it all you’ve got. Fight to the finish.” These weren’t casual cheers from the sidelines; they were gut-wrenching pleas for survival. Gladiators, on […]

I read a medical term the other day that sobered me: philophobia—the fear of being loved. This broke my heart because when someone fears being loved, it robs them of the life God intended. It allows the enemy to steal their significance and, in turn, their successes. Thankfully, in Romans 8:37, God promises He can […]