Roberts heard a voice: “Son, I am going to heal you, and you will take My power to your generation.”

The Great Commission is not a suggestion. If you are wondering whether you should be involved in missions, consider these biblical mandates.

Twenty-three humanitarian workers from a church in South Korea were kidnapped in 2007 in Afghanistan. Two of them, including a pastor, were killed by their Taliban captors. After wrenching negotiations the remaining workers were freed. They came home—but not to accolades. They were castigated for bringing “shame” on their nation.

Pam Cope didn’t close her heart when she learned about vulnerable African orphans. Today she is reaching children around the world.

When the World Trade Center was attacked eight years ago, a young Indian-American escaped the collapsing concrete and steel. The words he prayed that day changed his life forever.

Born with no arms and no legs, Nick Vujicic is teaching the church how to overcome challenges by finding true strength in Christ.

Consumed with despair over her husband's leaving her for another woman, Debbie spent months thinking about taking her life. But one night in 2003, after deciding she would be better off dead, she accidentally logged on to LivePrayer.com.

"I had never seen you before, but I knew that you were speaking truth and love," she wrote in a recent email to LivePrayer.com host Bill Keller. "I emailed you shortly after that, and for almost five years you have been kind enough to keep in touch with me. Your kind attention and care and love have been a stronghold that I have clung to for all these years."

A few years ago a Christian friend of mine, who happens to be an ordained clergyman, was participating in a pro-life march in New York City. Several evangelical and Roman Catholic groups were represented, so there were, predictably, vigorous counter-demonstrations. Many of these were led by gays.

My friend said that for many long minutes a counter-demonstrator kept pace with him from a few feet away, screaming hateful obscenities at him. His tirade slowing down for a few seconds, he shouted this strange question at my friend: "Why do you people hate us?"

The question seemed quite unrelated to the pro-life issue, which of course it is. The questioner identified himself as a gay activist.