Contributed by David Simpson on Apr 16, 2018
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It’s ironic that this year Easter falls on April Fools day. Have you ever fallen for an April Fools joke or prank? I know as a kid there was always some classmate pulling a prank on someone, with the rest of us in on it and watching that poor soul make a fool of themselves by believing the prank.
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Christian Church
Contributed by Jim Butcher on Apr 13, 2018
Note: this story is told by me - Jim Butcher of Madison WV.
I want to tell you a story about an insight that God gave me into John 14:1-4, the passage where Jesus speaks of going to prepare a place for us. This is the story of something that happened to me several years ago while I was in
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Baptist
Contributed by Jim Butcher on Apr 13, 2018
The business meeting at First Baptist was well into its second hour. It had been another cantankerous one. Lots of angry comments, snide remarks, and power plays. And, making it especially sad, the issue on the table wasn’t even an important one. The debate was over a relatively minor recent
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Baptist
Contributed by Jim Butcher on Apr 11, 2018
What if you had a boss that demanded that you check in with him every ten minutes no matter what?
What if he required that even if you were in the middle of other important work in your office?
What if he demanded that whether you were at the office or at home?
What if he required that even if
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Baptist
Contributed by Jim Butcher on Apr 11, 2018
I was recently reading an interesting book about life in America 200 years ago. One intriguing detail that the author shared was that back then most people only bathed once a year. It made me think of how unpleasant it would have been to gather on a sultry August Sunday morning in a sanctuary
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Baptist
Contributed by Jim Butcher on Apr 11, 2018
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Once upon a time there was a king who ruled a vast domain. He was the wealthiest person in the world: thousands of horses, dozens of homes, access to anything his heart desired. There was nothing anyone could give him that he did not already possess.
One day at the door of the throne room a
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Baptist
Contributed by Jim Butcher on Apr 11, 2018
Note: this story happened to me - Jim Butcher of Madison WV.
One of my favorite baptism stories comes from a friend of mine who owns a house on Heizer Creek. He had a nice spot on his property to do baptisms and told the nearby country churches they were welcome to use it anytime, which a few of
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Baptist
Contributed by Jim Butcher on Apr 11, 2018
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Note: this story is told from my perspective - Jim Butcher of Madison WV.
When I was at Southern Seminary in Louisville, there were a few days in the spring when they offered official photos. It was a professional photographer with a nice backdrop and the prices were reasonable. The seminary
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Baptist
Contributed by Jim Butcher on Apr 11, 2018
Note: This story is told from my perspective - Jim Butcher of Madison WV.
I was visiting with one of our long-time members a few months ago and she related an interesting story about her visit to Madison Baptist decades ago.
Rosemary was sitting along the aisle, waiting on the service to begin,
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Baptist
Contributed by Jim Butcher on Apr 11, 2018
It is indisputable that Billy Graham was the biggest name in Christendom for the last half-century. A few numbers that speak to the span of his influence:
- 2.2 billion – the number of people who heard him preach (in person and broadcasts).
- 185 – the number of countries and territories where
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Baptist
Contributed by Jim Butcher on Apr 11, 2018
Jack Ma has a lot to be happy about.
He is the founder and executive chairman of the Alibaba Group, a tech company in China. Among the things going his way:
- His company went public in September 2014 and its worth shot up to $25 billion.
- He is the richest man in China.
- His company is the
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Baptist
Contributed by Jim Butcher on Apr 11, 2018
It’s an old stereotype that politicians are likely to “massage the truth” a little bit. That’s probably as generous as that can be said.
With that in mind, I was intrigued recently when PolitiFact celebrated their tenth anniversary. PolitiFact is a non-partisan, independent organization that
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Baptist
Contributed by Jim Butcher on Apr 11, 2018
It was a dramatic performance in Game 7 of the World Series about a month ago: Madison Bumgarner coming in as a relief pitcher and proceeding to sow up the win for the San Francisco Giants. An impressive performance.
Let’s go back to the spring – before the first pitch was thrown on the 2014
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Baptist
Contributed by Jim Butcher on Apr 11, 2018
Note: this happened to me personally - you can reference Jim Butcher of Madison WV.
Some of you have heard me share this story over the last few weeks, but I think it’s worth sharing again for those who haven’t had the chance to hear it.
In early March, Patti Price asked me to bring communion to
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Baptist
Contributed by Jim Butcher on Apr 11, 2018
It all started when Stanley Morison complained.
What made it worse was that he wasn’t complaining to just anyone – he was complaining to London’s esteemed The Times newspaper.
His complaint was that their newspaper was not as easy to read as it should be because of the typeface that they used.
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Baptist
Contributed by Jim Butcher on Apr 11, 2018
There are a lot of books that are great and unread. You know, those books that everyone says are great: “it’s a classic,” “one of the best books of all-time,” “a masterpiece.” But almost no one reads them.
Jordan Ellenberg, a University of Wisconsin professor, used Amazon’s Kindle to do an
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Baptist
Contributed by Jim Butcher on Apr 10, 2018
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Frank Bernadone bore the emotional wounds of his time in the military.
His unit had already been through four years of battles when they came to Perugia. The town was heavily fortified, leading his unit’s assault against it to be disastrous. A bloody day of fighting culminated in what was almost
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Baptist
Contributed by Jim Butcher on Apr 10, 2018
In their book Dangerous Intersections, Jay Dennis and Jim Henry write about a church in Phoenix that randomly chose 160 people from the phone book. Half of those names they had people in the church pray for daily; the other 80 names were just laid aside. At the end of 90 days of praying, the
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Baptist
Contributed by Jim Butcher on Apr 10, 2018
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I was looking at the order of worship in a bulletin for another church recently when I noticed a spelling mistake. After the sermon, they had listed that they would have an “Alter Call.” That’s a mistake because the front of a church is referred to as an “altar.”
Then I thought for a moment
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Baptist