Contributed by Anne Benefield on Jan 19, 2009
I found a story called “Pushing the Rock” told by Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. It is the story of a weak, sickly man, who could not afford to go to the doctor and his condition seemed to grow worse.
The man lived in the deep back woods in an old log cabin. Out in front of his cabin was a huge
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Presbyterian/Reformed
Contributed by Anne Benefield on Jan 19, 2009
Finding God in Hardship
A dear friend of mine has been out of regular work for a couple of years. She has found enough temporary work to stay a float, but it has sometimes been a week-to-week challenge to pay the bills.
As we were talking the other day, she said to me, "I am walking through my
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Presbyterian/Reformed
Contributed by Anne Benefield on Jan 15, 2009
The first time I had to speak in public was when I was in fourth grade. The elementary school I attended was part of the college down the street from my house. I think I was a shepherd in the college's presentation of "Amahl and the Night Visitors."
I was pretty nervous--scared, really--about
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Contributed by Anne Benefield on Jan 15, 2009
When I first came to Geneva, I was struck by how many attractive older women there are here. I thought they must have been strikingly beautiful as young women. When we had our 40th anniversary, I got to see pictures of our lovely women. They were all attractive, still I realized that they had grown
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Contributed by Anne Benefield on Sep 4, 2008
"I'm No Moses!"
When I received my call to go into ministry, I was praying. Immediately, I rejected the call, telling God that I was a business person, not really minister material. I knew how to speak about marketing. I knew a bit about managing people. I could talk about that. On and on I
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Presbyterian/Reformed
Contributed by Anne Benefield on Sep 4, 2008
When I was in New York, I taught confirmation. I’m delighted to announce that Scott Roby and the confirmation teachers are planning to use the materials (updated, of course) that I used. The strength of the curriculum is that each student has a mentor, an adult from the congregation.
The young
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Presbyterian/Reformed
Contributed by Anne Benefield on Jul 14, 2008
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The hard-hearted listener is cynical. Often they have done a fair amount of research to support their unwillingness to hear the word. Or they may have had a personal trauma that left them without faith.
There is a woman in New York City that I counseled during a particularly difficult time in
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Contributed by Anne Benefield on Jul 14, 2008
One of the most difficult problems Protestant churches are experiencing is the lack of denominational loyalty. Protestants regularly church-shop. If the preaching isn't good enough, or the youth group isn't large enough, or the music isn't glorious every week…then we search for a church
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Presbyterian/Reformed
Contributed by Anne Benefield on May 28, 2008
The gift of the Spirit is much too important not to share, but sometimes we don't share it. A few weeks ago when I attended the preaching conference in Woodbridge, VA, I heard James Emery White speak. He is the president of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. In his book, Long Night's Journey
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Contributed by Anne Benefield on May 28, 2008
Earlier this week, I was talking to our music director, Jim Turk, about this sermon. I told him that I was going to challenge you to live out your faith. I told him a story about myself that makes me very self-conscious. It is a story I had never told anyone else. I explained to Jim that it was
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Contributed by Anne Benefield on May 28, 2008
Reverend Marsh writes:
When I was a boy making the morning fires in the fireplace, sometimes, as I cleared away the ashes, I would find some glowing embers from the fire of the night before. I would lay some kindling wood on the coals and blow gently until it glowed bright red and then burst
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Contributed by Anne Benefield on May 28, 2008
Reverend Marsh tells the story of two men who worked together for years.
Joe went to church every Sunday, Harvey not at all. One Monday morning, Harvey said, "Joe, I went to church yesterday," whereupon Joe responded excitedly, "Harvey, I'm sure glad to hear that."
Harvey continued, "The
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Contributed by Anne Benefield on Apr 28, 2008
Did you ever notice that there are certain things the Lord doesn't want us to miss? That's the way I feel about Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture." It was simply impossible to miss. I think the first person to email the link to me was Jim Turk, our music director. He sent it with the words, "This
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Contributed by Anne Benefield on Apr 28, 2008
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For me the most powerful way to experience the presence of the Spirit is in stories. When I was in seminary, I took a course on the Holy Spirit. The professor required that we write our final paper on one of three documents. I chose the 1978 position paper on the Holy Spirit of the Presbyterian
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Contributed by Anne Benefield on Mar 3, 2008
The man tells the story as simply as it happened. Notice that he speaks of Jesus as just a man. He must have heard others call Jesus by name. After sending the blind man to the Siloam pond, Jesus leaves. He isn’t waiting for the man to return to thank Him. Whenever we do anything good, don’t
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Presbyterian/Reformed
Contributed by Anne Benefield on Mar 3, 2008
When I was in business school, I had a very wise and at the same time a very unsettling professor. One day he said, “You will hear the truth you are willing to hear.” What he meant was that as a manager, if you intimidated the people working with and for you, they would avoid telling you what you
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Presbyterian/Reformed
Contributed by Anne Benefield on Feb 27, 2008
She has used up husbands the way each of us uses up unsatisfactory water. We keep trying all these ways to cure our souls. We try this self-help book. We try that therapist. We try this drug. We try that drink. We try this husband. We try that wife. But, ultimately, we have no husband.
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Presbyterian/Reformed
Contributed by Anne Benefield on Feb 19, 2008
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In the inspiring book, This I Believe: Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women, Susan Cosio writes, “I believe in a daily walk just to listen.” A chaplain at a medical center, a writer, and a mother of three, Susan Cosio says:
I believe I have to remove myself from the voices that
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Presbyterian/Reformed
Contributed by Anne Benefield on Feb 19, 2008
“Fasting can be a form of body praying… [But] fasting has nearly ceased to be practiced among us as a religious duty. It has been replaced by other forms of self-denial. One of the most common of those among us is dieting, which is largely cosmetic and therapeutic. What is there to say about it?
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Presbyterian/Reformed
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