Contributed by Matthew Kratz on Jun 15, 2008
"Remind yourself of how much dross there is yet among the gold, and view the corruption of your own heart and marvel that God has not smitten you more severely. Form the habit of heeding His taps, and
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on Jun 15, 2008
1348 Letting Children Free to Develop?
A gentleman named Coleridge was once talking with a man who told him that he did not believe in giving little children any religious instruction whatsoever. His theory was that the child’s mind should not be prejudiced in any direction, but when he came to
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on Jun 9, 2008
"So far we have seen that God is a real being who is perfect, necessary and unlimited, but nothing has been said about the fundamental nature of that being. Invoking the language of substances, we note that things that exist independent of mind are made of one of two types of substance (or of
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on Jun 9, 2008
There are three huge gates that lead into the Cathedral of Milan. Over one gate there is an inscription in marble (under a beautiful flower bouquet) that says, "The things that please are temporary." Over the second gate, there is a cross with this inscription: "The things that disturb us are
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on Jun 9, 2008
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Eternity magazine contained a new item on immortality and people's fascination with it. The article read: “The quest for pseudoimmortality took a giant leap forward with the announcement that you can send your remains "to the heavens" when you die. The Celestis Group of Melbourne, Florida, has
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on Jun 2, 2008
We Praise What We Enjoy
C.S. Lewis said: “I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on Jun 2, 2008
based on 3 ratings
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"God's 'glory' is how we describe the sum effect of all of his attributes: grace, truth, goodness, mercy, justice, knowledge, power, eternality--all that He is. Therefore, the glory of God is intrinsic; it is as essential to God as light is to the sun and as wet is to water. You don't make the sun
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on Jun 2, 2008
Jonathan Edwards’ Conversion
One day when Jonathan Edwards was at home in his father’s house; some hindrances kept him from going to church one Sunday with the family. A couple of hours with nothing to do sent him listlessly into the library; the sight of a dull volume with no title on the leather
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on May 18, 2008
LO! I AM WITH THEE
David Livingstone had spent sixteen years in Africa. The white man was surrounded by hostile, angry natives in the heart of Africa. He was in danger of losing his life and contemplated fleeing in the night. But something happened that changed his mind and gave him peace in his
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on May 18, 2008
based on 1 rating
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KEEPING THE AQUARIUM
"With all our education, our fine buildings, our image of the church, we are doing less to win people to Christ than our unschooled forefathers did. We're no longer fishers of men, but keepers of the aquarium, and we spend most of our time swiping fish from each other's bowl."
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on May 18, 2008
based on 4 ratings
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MENTORING AS A CHURCH PRACTICE
"...In most churches, the congregation pays the pastor to preach, win the lost, and build up the saved—-while the church members function as cheerleaders (if they are enthusiastic) or spectators. The "converts" are won, baptized, and given the right hand of
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on May 12, 2008
2920 Alexander’s Garments. When Alexander the Great entertained the kings and nobles at the court of Persia, he appeared wearing only those garments which had been woven for him by his mother, Olympias, who was the daughter of a chieftain, the wife of a king, and the mother of a conqueror. One
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on May 12, 2008
“For my own part,” says St. François de Sales, quoted by Lesetre, “I should wish any devout man or woman always to be the best-dressed person in the company, but at the same time, the least fine and affected, and adorned, as it is said, with the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. St. Louis said
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on May 12, 2008
2917 “Mom’s Just Perfect”
It’s funny how children often see their moms. There’s a story of a small boy who went into the lingerie section of a big department store and shyly presented his problem to a woman clerk. “I want to buy my mom a present of a slip,” he said, “but I don’t know what size she
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on May 3, 2008
"Our lives should always be the first things to speak; and if our lips speak more than our lives, it will avail very little. So often the tragedy has been that people proclaim the gospel in words, but their whole life and demeanor has been a denial of it. The world does not pay much attention to
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on May 3, 2008
It is said of Robert Murray McCheyne, a godly Scottish minister of the last century, that his face carried such a hallowed expression that people were known to fall on their knees and accept Jesus Christ as Savior when they looked at him. Others were so attracted
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on May 3, 2008
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It was also said of the French pietist Francois Fenelon that his communion with God was such that his face shined with divine radiance. A religious skeptic who was compelled to spend the night in an inn with Fenelon hurried away the next morning,
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on Apr 26, 2008
"True repentance hates sin for what it is-—an affront to God. Knowing that sin is evil and that God hates it motivates the truly repentant person to forsake it. Genuine repentance thus forsakes sin and turns in total commitment to
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on Apr 26, 2008
"Christ is building His people. He is gathering His flock. He is fulfilling His promise to be with the Christians to the end of the age. He is teaching by the Spirit and through His world. He is marking the Church off from the world through the sign of baptism and by making himself remembered and
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on Apr 26, 2008
THIS IS MY BODY
"It was natural then, and it is natural today, to point to a representation of something and say that the representation is the thing. For example, I look at a photograph of our house and say, 'This is our house.' It would not enter anyone’s mind to think I mean that the photograph
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