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“How do you expect me to believe in God,” asked Woody Allen, “when only last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of my electric typewriter?” There are many people like Woody Allen who focus on the annoyances of life rather than wonderful things of life. It always seems that the troubles of
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Methodist
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Singer Sheryl Crow said recently, in a New York Post interview: “I believe in God. I believe in Jesus and Buddha and Mohammed and all those that were enlightened. I wouldn’t say necessarily that I’m a strict Christian. I’m not sure I believe in heaven.” Sheryl Crow is where many people are
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Methodist
Dallas Willard, in his book The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives, writes, “Spirituality in human beings is not an extra or ‘superior’ mode of existence. It’s not a hidden stream of separate reality, a separate life running parallel to our bodily existence. It does
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Methodist
Contributed by Rodney Buchanan on Feb 25, 2007
It was January 30, 1994 and Super Bowl XXVIII was being played out at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. The NFC champion Dallas Cowboys had just defeated the AFC champion Buffalo Bills, 30–13. Dallas scored 24 unanswered points in the second half, and Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith was named the
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Denomination:
Methodist
Contributed by Rodney Buchanan on Feb 25, 2007
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Some of the saddest words in the New Testament are concerning the disciples at the Last Supper. Jesus had repeatedly told them of his betrayal and coming suffering and death. He announced that one of them was about to betray him, and the next verse says, “A dispute arose among them as to which
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Denomination:
Methodist
Contributed by Rodney Buchanan on Feb 25, 2007
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Shane Claiborne, who spent a summer in the slums of Calcutta with Mother Teresa, wrote about her experience there. She said, “People often ask me what Mother Teresa was like. Sometimes it’s like they wonder if she glowed in the dark or had a halo. She was short, wrinkled, and precious, maybe
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Methodist
Contributed by Rodney Buchanan on Feb 18, 2007
Many people find doing God’s will hard. Rosa Parks found it hard when she was arrested on December 1, 1955 for refusing to give her bus seat to a white man. It is difficult to imagine such an arrest taking place today, just a little over 50 years later. But that is because her simple act of
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Denomination:
Methodist
CNN’s website recently featured an article about Frank Warren, editor of the book The Secret Lives of Men and Women: A PostSecret Book. After a troubling period in his own life, he handed out 3000 self-addressed stamped postcards to people on the street, asking them to anonymously mail him their
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Denomination:
Methodist
In a recent article entitled “The Gym of the Soul” on CitizenLink.com, there is a quote from someone who says, “No matter what, you can overcome your past. With help, if you look to God, you can overcome your past and be reborn.” But it was not a preacher who was quoted, rather it was someone you
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Denomination:
Methodist
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In his book The Spiritual Life of Children, the famous Harvard psychiatrist Robert Coles, tells the story of Alice, a ten-year-old girl who came from a family that did not believe in God. She expressed her doubts to him with these words: “I remember... I saw the people next door coming home from
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Denomination:
Methodist
Contributed by Rodney Buchanan on Jan 28, 2007
Adrian Dieleman tells the story of one man’s transformation: “Oscar Cervantes is a dramatic example of the Spirit’s power to transform lives. As a child, Oscar began to get into trouble. Then as he got older, he was jailed 17 times for brutal crimes. Prison psychiatrists said he was beyond
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Denomination:
Methodist
Contributed by Rodney Buchanan on Jan 21, 2007
Certainly no one in recent history has been more of an example of “Christ transforming Culture” than Martin Luther King, Jr. In his book Strength to Love, he wrote: “The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must
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Methodist
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Jurgen Moltmann says, “Expectation makes life good, for in expectation we can accept our whole present and find joy not only in its joy but also in its sorrow, happiness not only in its happiness but also in its pain. Thus hope goes on its way through the midst of happiness and pain, because in
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Denomination:
Methodist
I was watching Lord of the Rings this past week, and there was this wonderful scene where Frodo, the Hobbit, is discouraged because of all the adversity he was going through. As they sit deep in the Mines of Moria, Frodo says to Gandalf, “I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this
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Denomination:
Methodist
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It was 1741, and an old man was wandering the streets of London. His name was George Frederick Handel. At this point, he was angry at life. His mind kept going back to the time when he was famous and had the applause of royalty and the elite of London. But now his mind was full of despair and
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Methodist
Contributed by Rodney Buchanan on Dec 23, 2006
God continues to show up in our day, though largely unnoticed by an unbelieving world. When he comes again it will be impossible to ignore him, for “every eye will see him” (Revelation 1:7). But until then, we need to have eyes that see and ears that hear. There are many examples that I could
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Denomination:
Methodist
Contributed by Rodney Buchanan on Dec 23, 2006
The story is told of a man who was reading the paper while his children were in bed. Much to his chagrin, a young daughter appeared who said she could not sleep. He told her to go back to bed, but she began to cry. So he conceived a plan. In the paper was a picture of the world, and he cut
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Denomination:
Methodist
Contributed by Rodney Buchanan on Dec 23, 2006
It is like the parable I read recently by Paul Kooistra, where he said, “I remember that one fateful day when Coach took me aside. I knew what was coming. ‘You don’t have to tell me,’ I said. ‘I’m off the team, aren’t I?’ ‘Well,’ said Coach, ‘you never were really ON the team. You made that
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Denomination:
Methodist
Contributed by Rodney Buchanan on Dec 17, 2006
St. Augustine echoed this thought centuries ago in his beautiful poem entitled “Incarnation”:
Maker of the sun,
He is made under the sun.
In the Father he remains,
From his mother he goes forth.
Creator of heaven and earth,
He was born on earth under heaven.
Unspeakably wise,
He is wisely
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Methodist
Contributed by Rodney Buchanan on Dec 17, 2006
We should not be frustrated by mysteries; we should delight in them. We don’t have to figure everything out. In an essay titled “Meditation in a Toolshed,” C. S. Lewis describes an experience he had inside a dark toolshed. The sun was brilliantly shining outside, but inside the shed only a
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Methodist