Sermon Central
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Jesus Said In John 13: 35, "Your Love For One ...
Contributed by Jerry Blaxton on Aug 3, 2008 (message contributor)
Jesus said in John 13: 35, “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” A great New Testament example of this being done is in the early church. As Jews began to put their faith in Christ as the Messiah, they began to feel the effects of hostility toward them. They were ostracized from their families; basically they were considered to be dead.
In the movie, Fiddler on the Roof, tradition was very important. The tradition was that a matchmaker paired up men and women for marriage. The oldest daughter fell in love with a different Jewish man who was very Orthodox. The father gave his permission. The second daughter fell in love with a man who was a radical Jew, still Jewish, but with some modern ideas. Going against tradition they were not seeking the father’s permission to marry, just his blessing. He gave both. The third daughter fell in love with a man who was not a Jew, and the father would not give his permission, nor his blessing, and disowned the daughter when she married, even considering her dead.
This is the way it would have been for the early believers who had been Jews. They were kicked out of their families. Since most of them would have been involved in a family agricultural or merchant business, their livelihood would have been gone, so they needed the basic things of life: food, shelter, clothing. In Acts 4 we see that the believers loved one another so much they wanted to serve one another, and did so by giving financially—even selling their own land to give to those in need.
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There Is No God. All Of The Wonders Around Us ...
Contributed by Charles R. Swindoll on Sep 28, 2004
There is no God. All of the wonders around us are accidental. No almighty hand made a thousand billion stars. They made themselves. No power keeps them on their steady course. The earth spins itself to keep the oceans from falling off toward the sun. Infants teach themselves to cry when they are ...read more
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Quecreek Miners Kept Each Other Alive PRO
Contributed by Mark Hensley on Aug 8, 2002
Quecreek Miners Kept Each Other Alive In what the news called "The Miracle at Quecreek," nine miners trapped for three days 240 feet underground in a water-filled mine shaft "decided early on they were either going to live or die as a group." The 55 degree (Fahrenheit) water threatened to ...read more
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Deep Within A Forest A Little Turtle Began To ... PRO
Contributed by Edwin Amundson on Aug 9, 2002
Deep within a forest a little turtle began to climb a tree. After hours of effort he reached the top, jumped into the air waving his front legs and crashed to the ground. After recovering, he slowly climbed the tree again, jumped, and fell to the ground. The turtle tried again and again while a ...read more
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A Young Fellow Wanted To Be A Star Journalist But ... PRO
Contributed by Edwin Amundson on Aug 9, 2002
A young fellow wanted to be a star journalist but lived in a small town (not much possibility). One day the dam upstream broke and the town was flooded. He got in a rowboat and headed out to look for a story. Finding a lady sitting on her rooftop, he tied up the boat and told her what he was after. ...read more
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Have You Ever Heard Of The Expression, "Your Name ...
Contributed by Bruce Howell on Aug 24, 2004
Have you ever heard of the expression, “Your name will be mud?” Do you know where it originated? Samuel Alexander Mudd was the doctor who set John Wilkes Booth’s leg after Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln in Ford’s Theater in 1865. Mudd claimed he didn’t recognize Booth–didn’t really know him. ...read more
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