Contributed by Ross Cochrane on Dec 25, 2009
Years ago I remember the Kings Commandoes going camping and coming back with insect bites all over their skin. They had been attacked through the night by blood sucking insects which deposit their eggs on living things so the larvae can feast upon it. So under their skin were deposits of larvae
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Evangelical/Non-Denominational
Contributed by Ross Cochrane on Dec 25, 2009
My mother has a fairly rare heart condition known as Hypertropic Cardiomyopathy. It is a disease of the muscle of the heart in which a portion of the muscle of the heart is thickened without any obvious cause. It’s a leading cause of sudden cardiac death in any age group and causes disabling
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Evangelical/Non-Denominational
Contributed by Ross Cochrane on Dec 25, 2009
I was walking along the street with a friend of mine many years ago when we came across a young man being tormented by a group of teenage boys. He was being pushed around and urged on to fight. My immediate inclination was to avoid any conflict and get out of there because the situation looked
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Evangelical/Non-Denominational
Contributed by Curry Pikkaart on Dec 24, 2009
MARCH OF THE PENGUINS: FELLOWSHIP
The documentary The March of the Penguins follows the emperor penguins of Antarctica on their incredible journey through ice and snow to mating grounds up to 70 miles inland. Narrated by Morgan Freeman, this beautiful film captures the drama of these
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Presbyterian/Reformed
Contributed by Curry Pikkaart on Dec 24, 2009
Howard Hendricks once shared how he challenged a class of seminary students to each write down the names of 2-3 people whom, in their judgment, would never come to faith in Christ. Then they covenanted together to pray every day for those individuals. At the end of the semester 36 of those people
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Presbyterian/Reformed
Contributed by Curry Pikkaart on Dec 24, 2009
Steven Jobs was the founder of Apple Computers. There came a point in time when the company was struggling and he approached John Sculley – who was head of one of the divisions of Pepsi Cola – to come on board and help lead them out of difficulty. Sculley kept resisting and Jobs kept persisting.
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Presbyterian/Reformed
Contributed by Curry Pikkaart on Dec 24, 2009
A poem by Ruth Walsh pierces my heart.
I was naked, and you questioned my lack
Of modesty in my appearance.
I was imprisoned, and you debated
The legal aspects of interference.
I was penniless, and you discussed
Tax-deductable donations from your wealth.
I was sick, and you thanked the Lord,
For
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Presbyterian/Reformed
Contributed by Curry Pikkaart on Dec 24, 2009
A man, I’ll call him Ken, once wrote of a ‘chance’ encounter in his life. As a freshman in high school, he saw a boy from his class walking home from school. His name was Kyle. He had an arm full of books. Ken wondered why anyone would carry home so many books on a Friday. He wrote Kyle off as a
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Presbyterian/Reformed
Contributed by Curry Pikkaart on Dec 24, 2009
When I was in seminary, the administration asked me to go on a recruiting trip back to Central College, from which I had graduated. So one of the professors and I flew into DesMoines, Iowa, where the college chaplain picked us up. He started to drive us to Pella, a trip of about an hour. The three
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Presbyterian/Reformed
Contributed by Curry Pikkaart on Dec 24, 2009
In 1986 we moved from Kalamazoo to Grand Rapids. Sometime later we wanted those slides and began to look for them. They were nowhere to be found. We looked in every box and closet in our house; we went back to Kalamazoo and looked in every closet in the parsonage and the church; we ran
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Presbyterian/Reformed
Contributed by Curry Pikkaart on Dec 24, 2009
IF THEY WERE OUR OWN
If you boy or my girl were in darkness –
Were groping alone in the night,
Soul—weary and helplessly seeking
In vain for a glimmer of light,
Thro’ the dangerous depths of a forest,
Bewildered and frightened and lost,
Would I be at home by the fireside
Demurring and counting
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Presbyterian/Reformed
Contributed by Curry Pikkaart on Dec 24, 2009
Think about a mother who just gave birth to her firstborn. Suppose that as she held her baby in her arms, someone came up to her and said, “How much do you want for the child?” Not only would the mother show no interest, but she would be offended at the thought that this precious child could be
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Presbyterian/Reformed
Contributed by Curry Pikkaart on Dec 24, 2009
A story from the book upon which the old movie “The Bridge on the River Quai” was based, is telling. The Irish Republican Army had a ‘buddy’ system called ‘The Mucker System.’ In this system soldiers agreed to ‘muck’ someone else. That meant the other person was more important than ones self –
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Presbyterian/Reformed
In the middle ages–another time of global warming, by the way–the Church imposed penalties upon those who warred in the forbidden times. There were periods of respite from combat, when warring
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Catholic
Contributed by Ross Cochrane on Dec 23, 2009
I have tried fasting a few times in my life and always found it helpful. Once, after a fast for a week or so, I was so hungry for food that I went out and bought a pizza. I was sick that night. Not a good idea to introduce pizza to a starving stomach too quickly. Are you hungry enough?
I was
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Evangelical/Non-Denominational
Contributed by Curry Pikkaart on Dec 23, 2009
When my parents had me baptized an infant, they were acknowledging that God would be faithful in working in my life. They did not know what shape or form my life would take, but they knew it would be in His hands and under His guidance. When I made my profession of faith I thought I was laying a
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Presbyterian/Reformed
Contributed by Curry Pikkaart on Dec 23, 2009
I guess I’ve always liked good news. When I was a student at Central College in Iowa, I worshiped at our Campus Church. Each week there was a pretty heavy prayer of confession that was usually preceded by recounting some really bad news stories of the previous week. Eventually a group of us
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Presbyterian/Reformed
Contributed by Curry Pikkaart on Dec 23, 2009
Before Nelson Mandela was released from prison, Archbishop Desmond Tutu stood in front of the South African Embassy in Washington D.C. one afternoon and said, “Those of you inside, are you listening? Do you hear me? You have already been defeated. Do you understand that? You have already lost and
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Presbyterian/Reformed
Contributed by Curry Pikkaart on Dec 23, 2009
There is a community here in the United States where a Christian Church had such blaring music and so many mission trips and so many children and families that people in the neighborhood issued a petition to make the church quieter. They went to a Jewish neighbor and asked him to sign the petition.
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Presbyterian/Reformed
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