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I Desire Mercy Not Sacrifice
Experiencing the mercy of God in our lives
Ready & Faithful
Looking to Jesus for help now and hope in the future
Why Suffering?
Help your church understand God's plan in pain
Ruth Bell Graham Tells Childhood Story of son, Franklin with His Toy Gun Ruth Bell Graham tells this story about her son Franklin: Franklin was sleeping on the front porch with his cowboy boots and toy gun. We were having problems with some polecats (skunks), and Franklin told me not to worry ...read more
Scripture: 1 Timothy 1:18-19
Tags: Children
THE LOVE OF CHRIST ENABLES BELIEVERS I like the way one pastor put it years ago (1986) when he became overwhelmed with all the "ideals" he was collecting from church growth seminars and books. He said, "Quite frankly, I'm sick to death of ideals. I have so many ideals and I've been so frustrated ...read more
Scripture: 1 John 4:13-16
Tags: Growth In Christ
NO GREATER GIFT TO THE CHURCH Andrew Murray once said, "God has no more precious gift to a church or an age than a man who lives as an embodiment of His will, and inspires those around him with the faith of what grace can do (Andrew Murray, Leadership, Vol. 7, no. 4). Dear friends, by God's ...read more
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:10
Tags: Character
Benedict Arnold In American history, there is a man who became famous for all the wrong reasons. You have probably heard his name, even if you don’t know the details of his life. Benedict Arnold is a name that brings to mind betrayal and treason; yet he actually was a gifted man and a great ...read more
Scripture: 1 John 2:18-27
Tags: War
Why Be Buried With a Fork in Your Hand There was a woman who had been told she only had 3 months to live. Her doctor recommended that she start making preparations to die. And so, she contacted her Pastor to talk about her final wishes. She told him which songs she wanted sung at her funeral, what ...read more
Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Tags: Heaven
THE NOBODIES OF THE CHURCH Janet Reno, Attorney General of the United States during the Clinton administration, was interviewed on "60 Minutes" on June 26, 1999. She seems to hold this ancient opinion of Christians. Here is how she defined a cultist: "A cultist is one who has a strong belief in ...read more
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31
Tags: Church Body Of Christ
Spurgeon and Murray on Who Makes the Biggest Impact For Christ God used Charles Spurgeon’s preaching in the 19th Century to bring thousands of people to faith in Christ. Even so, Charles Spurgeon himself once said, “I would rather teach one man to pray than ten men to preach.” That’s because he ...read more
Scripture: 1 Timothy 2:1-4
Tags: Prayer General
FRIEND OF THE SON Rick Warren talks about Ron Dunn, a friend of his, who took his young son to a carnival one time for his birthday. His son had picked six boys to go with him, so Ron bought a roll of tickets. Every line he'd come up to, he'd pull off seven tickets and give them to all the kids. ...read more
Scripture: 1 John 5:1-12
Tags: Friendship New Friends
Impact of Prayer in the Life of David Wilkerson Several years ago, a pastor of a small church in rural Pennsylvania decided to convert the two hours a night he spent watching TV into prayer time. Soon after that, there were some gang members in New York City who had been involved in a brutal, ...read more
Tags: Prayer Answered
The Impact of a Small Group with a New Vision on Society Robert Bellah is the Elliott Professor of Sociology, Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. Throughout his academic career, he has been very interested in the influence of religion on society. In an interview in Psychology Today, ...read more
Tags: Religion
The Compassion of Jesus Makes a Funeral a Celebration When I was in the 5th grade and we lived above the funeral home in Pawnee, there was no street celebration, no brass band or snare drum or festive umbrellas but the funeral for Rev Sonious’ wife was something to behold. Just months before she ...read more
Tags: Funerals Christian
HISTORY OF SPAM In the 1930s, Jay Hormel noticed that there was some perfectly good, though not necessarily desirable, pork-shoulder meat going to waste in his meat-packing plant. So he, being the entrepreneur that he was, came up with the idea of processing that meat with a little ham and ...read more
Scripture: 1 Kings 17:1-24
Tags: God's Provision
FAITH AND ICEBERGS Sailors in the northern oceans have frequently observed icebergs traveling in one direction in spite of strong winds blowing in the opposite direction. The icebergs were moving against the winds, but how? The explanation is that the icebergs, with eight-ninths of their bulk ...read more
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:9-11
Tags: Grace
ELEPHANT FIGHTS IN CHURCH An African proverb says, "When elephants fight, grass gets trampled." Elephants do not throw their weight around for nothing. The average African elephant weighs 16,534 lbs. The largest elephant on record weighed about 24,000 pounds and was 13 feet tall! Wild elephants ...read more
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:10-17
Tags: Power, Divisions
George MacDonald and Alan Redpath on the Importance of Depending Upon God George MacDonald, "In whatever man does without God, he must fail miserably, or succeed more miserably." Any seemingly successful person who does it independently of God is above all most miserable! Man is incomplete until he ...read more
The Parental Challenge of Helping Teenagers Face Their World And I wanna share a story with you. It’s a traumatic one and one that actually happened. I did a funeral about four or five years ago and in this funeral it was really bizarre, because as the high schoolers came in about a third of them ...read more
Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12
Tags: Death, Parenting
Arturo Toscanini Demanded Excellence From the Symphony Orchestra One of history’s greatest musical conductors was Arturo Toscanini. Born in Parma, Italy, in 1867, Toscanini died in his sleep in New York City in 1957. For years he conducted the National Broadcasting Company’s Symphony Orchestra in ...read more
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:58
Tags: Music
LINUS ON LOVE FOR PEOPLE Perhaps you've seen this Peanuts cartoon: Linus announces to his cranky sister, Lucy, that he's going to be a doctor. "You, a doctor?" she asks. "How can you be a doctor? You don't love mankind." Linus replies, "I do too love mankind. It's ...read more
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:4-6
Tags: Christian Love
TWO TOMBSTONES A tombstone in a small English village reads, "Here lies a miser who lived for himself, And cared for nothing but gathering wealth. Now where he is or how he fares, Nobody knows and nobody cares." In contrast, a plain tombstone in the courtyard at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London ...read more
HIS LAST THOUGHTS WERE OF HIS CHILDREN A Union sergeant was killed on the first day of fighting in Gettysburg. He was just one of more than 3,000 Union soldiers who died in the three-day conflict. When his body was found later that week, lying in a secluded spot in Gettysburg, he was holding a ...read more
Scripture: 1 John 3:1-2
Tags: Love, Father's Day
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