Contributed by Ken Pell on Jun 7, 2010
A number of years ago the National Council of Churches declared a week in October to be “Peace and Justice” week. They created an interesting poster to promote the emphasis. The poster depicted a globe or world held aloft by many different colored human hands. What they didn’t realize is that this
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Nazarene
Contributed by Ken Pell on Jun 7, 2010
On August 6, 1945 the man once described as “an outstanding Baptist layman”, President Harry Truman, stood on the deck of the battleship “Augusta”, right after the first atomic bomb was dropped, and proclaimed “this is the greatest thing in history.” Few Americans Christians challenged his claim.
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Contributed by Ken Pell on Jun 7, 2010
The "Oath of Allegiance" taken by all who choose to become naturalized citizens of the United States follows. Immediately after saying the oath one's citizenship is in effect.
"I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign
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Contributed by Ken Pell on Apr 19, 2010
R.C. Sproul gives us a simple way to grasp God's holiness:
"The first prayer I learned as a child was the simple table grace: 'God is great, God is good, and we thank Him for this food.' The two virtues assigned to God in this prayer, greatness and
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Contributed by Ken Pell on Apr 6, 2010
A TREE GROWS IN ENGLAND
In Tewin, England's St. Peter's churchyard stands a great four-trunked tree growing out of a grave. Its presence there is a constant reminder of resurrection for residents in the community. The grave from which it grows is that of the 18th century's Lady Anne
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Contributed by Ken Pell on Apr 6, 2010
"The Harrowing of Hell" -- "I have the keys to death and Hades"
An ancient Christian hymn found in the old hymn book "Odes of Solomon" (from the first one hundred years of the Christian church) has a climactic celebration of "The harrowing (robbing) of Hell." It gives us insight into the first
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Contributed by Ken Pell on Nov 2, 2009
Bruce Longenecker’s book, “The Lost Letters of Pergamum” (pp. 165-166) illustrates their teaching in a story about a Nicolaitan (Kalandion) that attended the Pergamum church. Kalandion is visiting a Christian who has been imprisoned for his faith.
“Kalandion had already visited him on several
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Contributed by Ken Pell on Oct 19, 2009
In the book “101 Romantic Ideas” Laura Jeanne Allen tells the following story.
My Grandfather and Grandmother were married for over half a century, and played their own special game from the time they had met each other. The goal of their game was to write the word "SHMILY" in a surprise place
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Contributed by Ken Pell on Jun 21, 2009
In the story, A Wart Hog from Hell: Revelation, written by Flannery O’Connor, Mrs. Turpin is a self-righteous woman who turns on God when life takes a bad turn.
Out on the farm she screams to God, "Just who do you think you are!?"
Momentarily the question returns to her as it echoes off the
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Nazarene
Contributed by Ken Pell on Mar 22, 2009
When I was a youth living in south Texas, we had … a fireplace. And we used it in the winter. REALLY! Those 60 degree winter nights can chill the bones ya know!!!!
Well, guess who split most on the firewood we used … me. Dad helped … sometimes. But mostly what dad did was teach me how to do it and
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Contributed by Ken Pell on Feb 3, 2009
If you have ever flown to California over the vast desert you have undoubtedly noticed the occasional small green square that is a thriving farm surrounded by shifting sand. You might have wondered how it survives in the midst of all the hostility around it.
It survives because the fertile oasis
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Contributed by Ken Pell on Sep 29, 2008
I watched one of my favorite movies last night. It is an old comedy called "The God's Must Be Crazy." It is about a bush tribe that lives in the Kalahari Desert; they have no earthly possessions. They are happy, content, and self sufficient.
A bush plane flies overhead (which they mistake for a
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Contributed by Ken Pell on Sep 14, 2008
In Tom Hanks’ movie “The Terminal” Hanks plays Viktor Navorski a man from a fictional country called Krakozhia. While Hanks is flying from his home country to the U.S., there is a coup in Krakozhia and the government is overthrown. The U.S. refuses to acknowledge the new government and, as a
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Contributed by Ken Pell on Jul 27, 2008
Fred Douglas Shepard was born on September 11, 1855 in Ellenburg, New York in Clinton County. His father died while he was very young and his mother spent most of her adult life as an invalid. It was probably through this that Fred became associated with illness and caring for the sick. Fred lived
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Contributed by Ken Pell on Jul 19, 2008
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THE CLUTTERED CLOSET
Mark 12:29-31
Object: Picture of a cluttered closet
Objective: Sometimes we must take the time to pull all the "stuff" out of the closet and go through it piece by piece if we want to bring order to chaos.
In my house there is a closet that I call the "junk closet." This
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Contributed by Ken Pell on Feb 10, 2008
Forgiving One Another -- the Monkey Trap
>>I used this as a children’s sermon to open the worship services<<
I’m going teach to you something this morning. I’m going to show you how to catch a monkey! Do any of you have wild monkeys running around your neighborhood? Well, in case there ever is
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Nazarene
Contributed by Ken Pell on Jan 27, 2008
Spiritual Fruit
I have something in my treasure chest that you will recognize today.
This small limb is from a very specific tree in my back yard. Do you know what kind of tree it is? Try and guess.
This limb is from an apple tree.
Every year this APPLE tree gives Vickie and me a lot of
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Nazarene
Contributed by Ken Pell on Nov 5, 2007
In the book, “Blink”, Malcolm Gladwell tells about a study that began at the University of Washington on marriages. Among other things, the study discovered indicators that were near certain to show if a marriage was disintegrating to the point of danger. The single most important indicator was
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Nazarene
Contributed by Ken Pell on Sep 17, 2007
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A couple taking a cruise on a transatlantic ocean liner awoke one morning and saw dark, threatening clouds on the horizon. They decided this would be a good day to have breakfast in the room so they called for room service.
When the steward arrived with their meal he made a comment about the
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Nazarene
Contributed by Ken Pell on Sep 17, 2007
A tragedy struck a home one evening. It caught on fire in the dead of night. As the father awoke to the smoke alarms he began to scurry to rescue his family. He passed through the fire into his daughter’s room, scooped her up, wrapped her in a blanket and made his way back down the flame-engulfed
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Denomination:
Nazarene