Contributed by Mark Armstrong on Apr 23, 2009
The game ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ first came to light in 1974. Players of D&D create characters which they live out in an alternative reality. And so D&D is a fantasy role playing game where players embark upon imaginary adventures in a created world. Although there’s a few variations of the game, a
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Contributed by Scott Nichols on Apr 17, 2009
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SAME OLD STORY...?
The little boy was not exactly happy about going to church on Easter Sunday morning. His new shoes were to tight, his tie pinched his neck and the weather outside was just too beautiful to be cooped up inside...so as he sulked in the pew his parents heard him mutter to no one in
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As a young teen, I loved to read books from the “Choose Your Own Adventure” series. In the first couple of pages a story would be set up – for example you are going on a hike with your cousins and it begins to storm. But by the end of page three the reader comes to a critical point in the story
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Contributed by Jaco Bester on Apr 2, 2009
‘Africaner’ was the nickname given to a local desperado of Namaqualand in the 1800’s. He was such a hardened character that the governor at Cape Town offered five hundred pounds as a reward to anyone that could deliver him, dead or alive. He and his men were the terror of that part of South Africa,
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YOU DON'T HAVE TO SEE TO BELIEVE
Mt. Diablo is only about 3,500 feet, but it is very noticeable as it sits all alone in the Concord, California valley. Before I called them "God sightings" I found myself caught up in an "aha" moment as I looked at the cloud covered Mt. Diablo. I couldn’t help but
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Contributed by Anne Benefield on Mar 5, 2009
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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 Gaither Bailey on Feb 20, 2009
French impressionist painters Henri Matisse and August Renoir were the closest of friends. Renoir’s health failed and the final decades of his life he was nearly paralyzed with arthritis. Yet, he continued to paint fighting tortuous pain with each movement and stroke of the brush. Matisse asked,
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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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