Contributed by Peter Loughman on Dec 29, 2008
RANDOM UNIVERSE
I had a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary who had an ongoing feud with a professor at another institution. My professor would argue that the universe is well thought out and therefore life is not random and so life has great meaning. His nemesis would argue the opposite,
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Contributed by Peter Loughman on Jan 6, 2009
IF YOU BUILD IT, WILL THE FOOTBALL COME?
In downtown San Antonio sits the Alamodome, a 65,000-seat facility that opened in 1993 for a cost of 186 million. Following the field of dreams philosophy, the city, eager to have a professional football franchise pushed to complete the Texas size facility,
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Contributed by Peter Loughman on Jan 6, 2009
REAL FAITH
The classic test an atheist will give to prove there is no God is this: "If there is a God, let him kill me right now". When nothing happens, they will confidently claim, "See there is no God, for I am still alive and well." Now if we were to ask the atheist, "What if someone came up to
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Contributed by Peter Loughman on Feb 24, 2009
THE TEST OF GETTING TO THE TEST
In the late 1980’s I was interviewing at various corporations in the San Francisco Bay Area for a position in one of the fast track executive programs that were being offered to recent college graduates, of which I was one. In many of these corporations I would go
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Contributed by Peter Loughman on Feb 24, 2009
MOUTHWASH SALESMAN
True story. My father, in the early 1950’s was a salesman for the mouthwash Listerine. He did OK. But, there was one man, Laramie, who sold the stuff like crazy. Laramie sold more Listerine than all the other salesmen put together.
One afternoon, my father asked Laramie for
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Contributed by Ryan Peters on Mar 10, 2009
Psychology Today
The Dangers of Loneliness (Aug 2003)
Friendship is a lot like food. We need it to survive. What is more, we seem to have a basic drive for it. Psychologists find that human beings have fundamental need for inclusion in group life and for close relationships. We are truly social
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Pentecostal
Contributed by Peter Loughman on Mar 31, 2009
STARTING IS THE EASY PART-------------------
Katie and I got married a little over 21 years ago.
We wanted a simple wedding ceremony, a simple reception - a few friends, some family, a little cake, some punch and that was it. But then, the relatives got involved. Sound familiar?
What started out
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Contributed by Peter Loughman on Apr 13, 2009
THE WATER JUG OF THE PROPHET JOEL
So, I’m walking through the Museum of Biblical Archeology in Jerusalem, and I’m walking through an area with various kinds of pottery on display, and there in front of me is this absolutely perfectly preserved water jug.
It stopped me cold.
Now understand, as
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Contributed by Peter Loughman on Apr 13, 2009
GRAVE OF THE UNKNOWN
There we stood bracing ourselves against the cold wind. It was cloudy, it was icy, the wind was blowing hard, it was not a pleasant day. The director said to me, "Peter, I think we should get started now."
There were three of us there, myself, the funeral director and the man
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Contributed by Peter Loughman on Apr 21, 2009
NO SUBSTITUTIONS
We had been living in New Jersey for about three weeks and were wanting to try out different things to get the "East Coast" experience. We both grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and honestly, New Jersey was a complete mystery to us. Some friends recommended that we eat at a
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Contributed by Peter Loughman on May 19, 2009
EGG DELIVERY
Acts 1:1-11
I delivered eggs one summer for an extra job. I had a huge white delivery van and I would load up with cases of eggs in Oakland and deliver them to small markets, omelet restaurants, bakeries, mini markets and a neighborhood co-op or two.
It was a fairly easy job, while I
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Contributed by Peter Loughman on May 27, 2009
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REFUSAL TO BELIEVE
I once served a very wealthy congregation. Over the years the different members had donated various items to the church, many of which were quite valuable. The stained glass windows were valued and tens of thousands of dollars each; The communion table was an intricately carved
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Contributed by Peter Loughman on Jun 16, 2009
ALL THINGS NEW
Years ago, I had the classic New Jersey car accident: I was hit from behind as I stopped for someone in a crosswalk. The guy actually got out of his car threw up his hands and exclaimed, "What the blank are you stopping for?" I got out of my car and motioned to the crosswalk, "I
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Contributed by Peter Loughman on Jul 1, 2009
I have a friend who started this church in the lower 48 that was so successful that they had a difficult time finding a place to meet for Sunday services. They had so many people showing up on Sunday they were literally standing in the parking lot waiting for a seat in the next service.
The church
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Contributed by Peter Loughman on Sep 22, 2009
DECEPTIVE FLOWERS
I have a friend who is a pastor at a church in the lower 48 who was telling me about the flowers in his church. His church, like ours, will take the flowers that were in the worship service that morning, and give them to shut ins or someone who is in the hospital.
He said he
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Contributed by Peter Loughman on Sep 29, 2009
KEYS TO THE KINGDOM?
At a former church, the day I started my job as an associate pastor I was given a set of keys to the church by one of the Trustees, Bill. Bill told me, "Peter, these are not all the keys to the church, we are only giving you four keys: One key to the church building, one key
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Contributed by Peter Loughman on Oct 5, 2009
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LITTLE THINGS - BIG BLESSINGS
When we lived in Houston, Texas, our oldest Spencer was born. Spencer was placed in one of the vast Texas-sized nurseries at this hospital. There in that nursery, I met a group of volunteers who were all from a nearby church. The job of these volunteers in the nursery
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Contributed by Peter Loughman on Jan 3, 2010
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ADHESIVE OXYMORON
Why can’t we all just coexist?
You believe what you believe, I believe what I believe. Whatever you believe is whatever you believe.
Have you seen those "Coexist" bumper stickers? I always laugh when I see a "Coexist" bumper sticker. You know, the ones where a symbol from
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Contributed by Peter Loughman on Jan 16, 2010
DISAPPOINTMENT-----For nine years I had worked with the same group of men on a loading dock, loading and unloading trucks. It was hard physical work, but very mundane and we all found it quite boring. Since the work was so mindless, I would find myself in philosophical conversations everyday. I was
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Contributed by Peter Loughman on Jan 16, 2010
POWER OF THE WORD OF GOD-----A friend of mine, Bill, was a bible translator for Wycliff Bible Translators in some very remote mountains in Bolivia. Bill was on the second Wycliff team. The first Wycliff team went into the most prominent village in the area and learned the local Bolivian language.
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