Contributed by Matthew Kratz on Feb 8, 2009
Bruce Thielemann, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, told of a conversation with an active layman, who mentioned, “You preachers talk a lot about giving, but when you get right down to it, it all comes down to basin theology.”
Thielemann asked, “Basin theology? What’s that?”
The
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on Feb 8, 2009
In understanding the new reality in Christ with the law, Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) explained it in this way:
“What is God’s law now? It is not above a Christian-it is under Christian. Some men hold God’s law like a rod, in terror, over Christians, and say, “If you sin you will be punished with
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on Feb 15, 2009
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STEP BY STEP
He does not lead me year by year
Nor even day by day,
But step by step my path unfolds;
My Lord directs my way.
Tomorrow’s plans I do not know,
I only know this minute;
But He will say, "This is the way,
By faith now walk in it."
And I am glad that it is so,
Today’s enough to
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on Feb 15, 2009
In the early church Jerome, that hardy and stern disciplinarian, removed himself far from the lurid temptations of the city only to find that he had not escaped them at all. As he confessed:
“O how often I imagined that I was in the midst of the pleasures of Rome when I was stationed in the
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on Feb 15, 2009
At the close of World War II, two pictures appeared in a magazine showing a soldier in conflict with a tank. The first showed a huge tank bearing down on a tiny soldier, about to crush him. The picture was proportioned to show the odds involved when a foot soldier with a rifle faced a tank. The
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on Mar 2, 2009
People mark off times and celebrations in different ways. In Belgium (since 1394, in Binche), Brazil (a four-day celebration in Rio de Janeiro), Italy (in Venice, six months of celebrating in the 18th cent., now 12 days), Trinidad and Tobago (featuring a daylong competition among calypso bands),
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on Mar 2, 2009
IDOLATRY IS ABOUT "GETTING"
William Barclay makes this important observation about ancient idolatry: "The essence of idolatry is the desire to get. A man sets up an idol and worships it because he desires to get something out of god. To put it bluntly, he believes that by his sacrifices and his
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on Mar 2, 2009
WHAT OTHER GODS?
What other gods could we have besides the Lord? Plenty. For Israel there were the Canaanite Baals, those jolly nature gods whose worship was a rampage of gluttony, drunkenness, and ritual prostitution. For us there are still the great gods Sex, Shekels, and Stomach (an unholy
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on Mar 9, 2009
In its broadest connotation “the kingdom of God” indicates God’s kingship, rule, or sovereignty recognized in the hearts and operative in the lives of His people, and effecting their complete salvation, their constitution as a church, and ultimately a redeemed universe (William
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on Mar 9, 2009
SIN WILL:
1. TAKE YOU FARTHER THAN YOU PLANNED ON GOING.
2. KEEP YOU LONGER THAN YOU PLANNED ON STAYING
3. COST YOU MORE THAN YOU PLANNED ON
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on Mar 9, 2009
Without exception, everyone of them is a perversion of something which is in itself good. Immorality, impurity, licentiousness are perversions of the sexual instinct which is in itself a lovely thing and a part of love. Idolatry is a perversion of worship, and was begun as an aid to worship.
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There is a church in Millan, Italy that was bombed out during WWII. All of the walls of the church fell down during the war except one. The wall left standing had Leonardo Da Vinci’s "Last Supper" scene painted on it. What a wonderful illustration of how this meal that we call the Lord’s
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Baptist
Let me illustrate with the words that Mark Buchanan wrote of his own experience in his book entitled “Your God Is Too Safe.” He wrote that when he was saved, “I hit the ground running. Immediately, I volunteered for everything, anything, that I felt vaguely interested in and marginally qualified
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If all the sleeping folk will wake up,
If all the lukewarm folk will get fired up,
If all the dishonest folk will confess up,
If all the disgruntled folk will cheer up,
If all the depressed folk will cheer up,
If all the estranged folk will make up,
If all the gossipers will shut up,
If all true
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on Apr 22, 2007
Russ Blowers is active in his local Indianapolis Rotary club. At club meetings each week a member gives a brief statement about his job. When it was his turn, Russ said: "I’m with a global enterprise. We have branches in every country in the world. We have our representatives in nearly every
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on Apr 22, 2007
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5179. Lambie Renounces Citizenship
Dr. Thomas Lambie went to Ethiopia as a medical missionary. After some time he wanted to buy land for a mission station. An Ethiopian law said that no land could be sold to foreigners. Because Dr. Lambie had great love for Christ and the Ethiopians, he gave up his
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on Apr 22, 2007
Joshua Bell, plays the noted “Gibson ex Huberman” Stradivarius violin worth $3.5 million. He commands $1,000 a minute performances all over the world.
But the Washington Post wondered what might happen if Bell were asked to dress down and play as a street musician near one of the busy subway
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on Mar 15, 2009
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QUALIFICATIONS FOR MINISTRY
What qualifies someone for a task? There is a story of the testing of a candidate for missions work:
One snowy morning at 5:00 A.M., a missionary candidate rang the bell at a missionary examiner’s home. Ushered into the office, he sat three hours past his appointment
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on Mar 15, 2009
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WORKS VS. FRUIT
A machine in a factory works and turns out a product, but it could never manufacture "fruit." Fruit must grow out of life, and, in the case of the believer, it is the life of the Spirit (Gal. 5:25). When you think of "works," you think of effort, labor, strain, and toil; when you
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Contributed by Matthew Kratz on Mar 15, 2009
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FRUIT DISTRIBUTION
The Spirit's provision of fruit might be compared to a man standing on a ladder in an orchard, picking the fruit and dropping it into a basket held by a helper below. No matter how much fruit is picked and dropped, the helper
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