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Every Once In A While My Daughter Starts ...
Contributed by Joel Pankow on Apr 30, 2004 (message contributor)
Every once in a while my daughter starts crying. From then on in, the battle begins. My wife and I have an ignorance contest. Who can lay the stillest for the longest without getting up? The trick to winning this battle is to learn how to tune it out. If I can somehow stay in a sort of semi-consciousness without really waking up - then after a while my wife will finally get up - and I’ll be able to fall back asleep - which is where I wanted to be in the first place. Then, I’ll wake up the next morning and ask my wife innocently, “did Maia get up last night?” After she says yes I respond, “I thought I heard something, but I didn’t realize it until you got up.” The reality is that I have learned how to tune it out, because I didn’t want to hear it, so even when I did hear her, I didn’t listen. That’s how we all too often approach God’s Word. We’ll listen when it’s convenient. We’ll listen when we have the energy. We’ll listen when we want to. But when God’s Word tells us something that we don’t want to hear - that we don’t want to believe - then we somehow train ourselves to sleepwalk through it as if God never said it - or as if He really wasn’t talking to us. In reality, the problem is that we don’t like to hear God talk about our sins. We don’t like to hear about a holy God who punishes sins. So many people don’t listen to it. They go to places that talk about how special they are and how important they are. They gloss over the Bible parts that talk about sin and punishment and perfection and hell.
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I Read About A Man Dreaming About The ...
Contributed by Melvin Shelton on Jul 17, 2004
I read about a man dreaming about the crucifixion of Jesus. He was telling in detail how that Jesus was beaten, and the people shouting crucify him. He saw the back of the soldier as he was driving ...read more
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The Church Is Like Noah's Ark: The Stench Inside ... PRO
Contributed by Lynn Floyd on Jul 29, 2003
“The church is like Noah’s ark: The stench inside would be unbearable if it weren’t for the storm outside. It’s true—sometimes we stink and the world is stormy. But as imperfect as we are on this side of heaven, the miracle is that God in fact chooses to ...read more
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In 1829 A Man Named George Wilson Was Arrested ...
Contributed by Bruce Willis on Dec 29, 2006
In 1829 a man named George Wilson was arrested for robbery and murder in a US mail heist. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. Some friends intervened on his behalf and were able to obtain his pardon from President Andrew Jackson. But when told of this, Wilson refused it ...read more
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Alta Vail Of Emporia, Kansas, Tells In Sunshine ...
Contributed by Evie Megginson on Mar 14, 2005
Alta Vail of Emporia, Kansas, tells in Sunshine magazine how she found a new way to pray while ironing. One day she was thinking about the different kinds of lines—bus lines, clothes lines, fishing lines, telephone lines. Why not a prayer line? she asked herself. So she strung a short rope across ...read more
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Like Bill Hybels, I Believe That There Is Nothing ... PRO
Contributed by Jim Kane on May 25, 2004
Like Bill Hybels, I believe that there is nothing like the local church when it is working right. In addition, I agree with what he says after that sentence: “Its beauty is indescribable. Its power is breathtaking. Its potential is unlimited. It comforts the grieving and heals the broken in the ...read more
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