Contributed by Glenn Durham on Sep 17, 2008
The most recent PCA magazine, ByFaith, reported on Lynn Wheeler’s response to being made a quadriplegic in a car wreck. Rather than pout or withdraw, “Lynn continues to attend church every Sunday, though it requires getting up at 5 am to begin the preparations to leave the house. [And] She has
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Contributed by Glenn Durham on Sep 17, 2008
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Dr. Paul Tripp tells of a night in which he got home late from work after counseling all day and teaching an evening class at Westminster Seminary. He was tired and desperately wanted some relaxation time to read the paper, drink a diet coke and hit the remote control. Tripp had a plan for the
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Contributed by Glenn Durham on Sep 17, 2008
Andrée Seu (pronounced, Ahn’-dray Soo) wrote about it in an article in World Magazine a couple of weeks ago: “I was accustomed to thinking of discouragement as something that happens to a person. But on closer examination…I have been taken aback by how volitional or ‘active’ it is. To go around
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Contributed by Terry Barnhill on Sep 6, 2008
A missionary to South America once wrote a reflective piece about his life in the jungles. He and his family knew the discomforts of such things as snakes and bugs. He told how he and his family were cleaning the house one day when they decided to take a break and have some tea. While sitting at
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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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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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Contributed by Glenn Durham on Aug 13, 2008
Pastor Tim Keller, Ministries of Mercy, 227: “It should be obvious how this applies to our work with the needy. Neither the ‘liberal’ approach (no conditions on aid to the needy) nor the ‘conservative’ approach (only helping the deserving poor) understand grace. Instead, our mercy ministry must
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Contributed by Glenn Durham on Aug 13, 2008
If you tune the second string of your guitar, the A string, to 440 hertz, then pluck it, the E string at 330 hertz will begin to vibrate also, because they share an overtone of 1320 hertz. It is called sympathetic vibrations. As you read this paragraph, Jesus is plucking the A string of mercy; does
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Contributed by Glenn Durham on Aug 13, 2008
Kent Hughes, who pastored in Chicago, tells something which happened to a dear friend. This lady was a missionary on furlough after a particularly difficult season of service. Now, for the first time since they had been missionaries, they had bought a place of their own to rest and recover. The
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More than a decade ago, Matt Thom, a few helpful young teens and me conceived of and set in motion a tree house for our back yard. The tree had a great section where branches came together but it wasn’t large enough for a good side platform. Instead, we placed four 12’ pressure treated 4x4’s around
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The first time I helped my dad prep a car for painting I got the glamorous job of wet sanding it by hand. I got done, went in the house and my dad said, "Are you done?"
I got my usual senior high ego in a twist and said, "Of course. It wasn’t that hard." After lunch, my dad went out to look at the
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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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In his book, Metamorpha, Kyle Strobel tells about a friend of his whose name is Cassie. Cassie was a first-year seminary student whose view of God had never been challenged. Suddenly, she found herself in a setting in which it seemed to her that her image of God was being dismantled. It was as
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Imagine how surprising Matthew’s life was to him. One day he’s sitting at the tax collector’s booth, busily engaged in taking whatever he can get from people. That night he’s got Jesus in his house, throwing a dance party. And the next day -- the very next day -- he’s in the house of the ruler of
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Jesus compared two builders, one "a wise man," the other "a foolish man." Both these men built houses. One house endured the storm; the other house did not. And the emphasis that we must not overlook is this: that the storm pressed upon the wise man's house as fiercely as it did upon the house
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The word “obedience” has its origin in the Latin audire, which means “to hear.” Obaudire is the term. As a point of further interest, the word “absurd” comes from a root which means to be deaf. The absurd
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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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