Contributed by Anne Benefield on Jun 9, 2009
A young man walked into a photography studio with a picture of his girlfriend. He wanted the picture duplicated. The owner of the store noticed the inscription on the back of the picture which said, “My Dearest Tom, I love you with all my heart. I love you more and more each day. I will love
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Contributed by Anne Benefield on Jun 9, 2009
WITH GOD, THERE IS NO P.S.
Nothing can stop the love of God. In a cemetery in Hanover, Germany, is a grave on which was placed a huge slab of granite and then a slab of marble was cemented on top. The rocks were fastened with heavy steel clamps. It belonged to a woman who did not believe in the
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Contributed by Anne Benefield on Jun 9, 2009
Author Ray Bradbury says: "If we listened to our intellect, we’d never have a love affair. We’d never have a friendship. We’d never go into business because we’d be cynical. Well, that’s nonsense. You’ve got
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Contributed by Anne Benefield on Mar 5, 2009
Another thing that bothers most people is that when we pray, we seem to get distracted. That is especially true when we are trying to listen for God’s word. There is an old story about St. Bernard, who once had a friend who told him her never had any distractions. Bernard confessed to having
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Contributed by Anne Benefield on Mar 5, 2009
DANCING WITH GOD
One of my very favorite stories is told by Gertrud Mueller Nelson in To Dance with God: Family Ritual and Community Celebration. It’s the first thing she says at the beginning of Chapter 1:
"Some years ago, I spent an afternoon caught up in a piece of sewing I was doing. The
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Contributed by Anne Benefield on Mar 5, 2009
Fasting is getting more attention these days. In a special issue of Time Magazine on "How Faith Can Heal" Jeffrey Kluger writes:
"Faith and health overlap in other ways too. Take fasting. One of the staples of both traditional wellness protocols and traditional religious rituals is the cleansing
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Contributed by Anne Benefield on Mar 5, 2009
NO-CUT AUDITIONS
Dick Sanderson is kind enough to give me a subscription to Leadership, Real Ministry in a Complex World. It is an exceptional magazine. This quarter there was an insert that carried a story called "A Cast of Thousands" by Lillian Daniel. She writes:
"At my daughter’s
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Contributed by Anne Benefield on Mar 5, 2009
TRUE POVERTY
The second theme in our passage is to strengthen and support the weak and the suffering. My friend at the Gazette also mentioned visiting his daughter in Kenya when she was a Peace Corp volunteer out in the desert areas in the western part of the country. He said that trip had
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Contributed by Anne Benefield on Mar 5, 2009
I WILL, WITH GOD'S HELP
I read a marvelous story remembered by Reverend Mary Moore Roberson. She writes:
"Some years ago, I served on the lay staff of my home parish under the supervision of the priest charged with pastoral care. Barbara took to appearing, first at the door to his office and
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Contributed by Anne Benefield on Mar 5, 2009
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NO ONE STOPPED TO HELP
This past week in DC, a frightening thing happened. In a bad neighborhood where drunkenness and drugs are wide spread. Three men got into an argument, probably about a bottle of beer. One man was punched. They called it a "sucker punch." The man fell backwards and hit
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Contributed by Anne Benefield on Mar 4, 2009
Here’s an interesting thing: What often irritates us in someone else is what we do ourselves.
You know that I am very close to my younger sister Jean, who is also a pastor. Years ago, I noticed that when we were on the phone, she would sometimes “checkout” of the conversation. I would know
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Contributed by Anne Benefield on Mar 4, 2009
There is no more powerful example of hating someone for what we are guilty of doing ourselves than the story of David and Bathsheba. David sees Bathsheba and decides he must have her. She is a married woman, the wife of Uriah. David has many wives. To cover his sinful relationship with
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Contributed by Anne Benefield on Mar 4, 2009
Several workplace-related studies in 2008 suggest that the majority of working Americans aren’t all that fond of whom they work with.
• When asked if a colleague has ever tried to make them look bad, 50 percent of respondents said yes; 48 percent said no; 2 percent said they didn’t know.
• When
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Contributed by Anne Benefield on Feb 4, 2009
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SOLONG'S FAITH
I gave blood on Friday. A lovely woman named Solong sampled my blood to insure that I had enough iron. We struck up a conversation, and it turns out she is a Christian. She told me that in 2006 she felt God calling her to go back to school. She didn't have enough money to go, but
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Contributed by Anne Benefield on Jan 29, 2009
Our topic today is worship and service. I’d like to begin by telling a true story that happened to Reverend Forrest I. Sears. He writes:
Wilma had been a member of our church for many, many years. In her later years she needed the assistance of a cane to help in walking. As she was talking
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Contributed by Anne Benefield on Jan 29, 2009
Alan Peters explains:
Whenever Christian believers gather together to worship, they create the opportunity for a miracle to occur. Worshippers who have experienced this miracle describe it in a number of ways:
• “We all seemed to be thinking and feeling the same things.”
• “There was such
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Contributed by Anne Benefield on Jan 29, 2009
A pastor named Wayne Field asks a series of profound questions:
“What would happen if we applied the same standards of loyalty to our Christian activities that we expect from other areas of our lives?
If your car starts every three tries, is it reliable?
If the post carrier
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Contributed by Anne Benefield on Jan 19, 2009
Two old friends met one day after many years. One attended college, and now was very successful. The other had not attended college and never had much ambition. The successful one said, “How has everything been going for you?”
“Well, one day I opened the Bible at random, and dropped my finger
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