Contributed by Mark Schaeufele on Mar 19, 2009
When I was in Amsterdam, working as a missionary with YWAM, a Christian music group came to the city to play at a place called "The Last Watering Hole." A number of us went to hear them play and support them in their mission. While we were there, a who was not a Christian light up a joint. Out of
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Contributed by Charles Newman on Mar 14, 2009
While at McDonalds this past week I saw a grandmother almost in tears of frustration as she tried to strap her toddler granddaughter into a car seat. They couldn’t leave to go to their next destination until the little girl was safe and secure in the car seat. The little child kicked and screamed
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Contributed by Tim Smith on Mar 10, 2009
Keith Getty, who wrote the hymn "In Christ Alone" says there are three signs of the church on decline:
1. The church becomes decreasingly knowledgeable of God.
2. The church becomes increasing obsessed with itself.
3. The
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Contributed by Tim Smith on Mar 9, 2009
"The United Methodist Church has helped over 59,000 people who were affected by Hurricane Katrina. Over 45,692 volunteers (3320 teams) volunteers from around the world have served in our disaster recovery ministry. That’s a donation value of $40,468,015. What we have found is that we are not just
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Contributed by Tim Smith on Mar 9, 2009
"FOLLOW ME."
To understand that calling and Jesus’ invitation, we need to understand the context. In Jesus’ day, childhood education started at age five as young boys went to the synagogue school to learn Hebrew and memorize the Torah. By the time of his bar mitzvah at age 13, a typical Jewish
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Contributed by Tim Smith on Mar 9, 2009
You remember the Gatorade commercial with Michael Jordan and the tagline, "Be like Mike." Well, our goal as Christians should be to "be like Jesus." 1 John 2:5-6 puts it this way, "This is how we know
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Contributed by Tim Smith on Mar 9, 2009
OLD WIVES' TALES: THE TRUTH
Have you ever believed something, only to find out that it wasn’t true? Consider these old wives tales:
"If you go outside with wet hair, you’ll catch a cold." Cold weather, wet hair, and chills don’t cause colds; viruses do.
"Reading in dim light will damage your
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Contributed by Tim Smith on Mar 9, 2009
REDEMPTIVE LOVE CHANGES PEOPLE
John Ed Mathison, former pastor of Frazier Memorial UMC, tells the story of Tommy Waite, an African-American man serving time in jail and converted through Frazier’s Prison Ministry. They didn’t stop there though. They discipled him and even helped him to get his
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Contributed by Tim Smith on Mar 9, 2009
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodists, realized that if he went longer than 3 hours without praying to God and reading his word, then he began to think and act like the world rather than think and act like Jesus. So every three hours, he stopped what he was doing to be with God. This helped
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Contributed by Tim Smith on Mar 9, 2009
GOD DOESN'T GIVE TRIP-TIKS
You remember the AAA Trip-Tiks? You flip page by page and it showed every mile, every hotel you were going to stay at, and every sight you would see. I remember sitting in the back of my parents' car just watching mile after mile go by. And even though I knew what was
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Contributed by Carl Greene on Feb 16, 2009
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CHILDREN ON SILENCE
Author Kathleen Norris used to play a game with elementary-school children in which she would make a deal with them. "First you get to make noise," she would bargain, "and then you’ll make silence."
The time of noise was always predictably chaotic -- shouting, pounding and
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Contributed by Bryan Fink on Dec 25, 2008
To put the gift of eternity into perspective let’s take this roll of Christmas ribbon and unroll it all the way down the hall.(Invite some of the kids to help with this). The ribbon symbolizes eternity. Now, take a pencil such as this and make a mark anywhere on that ribbon. Any idea what that
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Contributed by Tim Smith on Dec 10, 2008
So what is a vision? George Barna defines it as, "Vision for ministry is a clear mental image of a preferable future imparted by God to His chosen servants and is based upon an accurate understanding of God, self and circumstances." Vision is more than simply what could be. It’s something that must
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Contributed by Tim Smith on Dec 10, 2008
NOT A GUEST, BUT FAMILY
Ellen Porter tells the story of Mitsuyo, a Japanese exchange student coming to live with her family. Her father had written and warned Ellen that Mitsuyo was a willful child, but she saw no signs of that at all. She dressed the same each day, was silent while eating at the
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Contributed by Chester Harris on Dec 4, 2008
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THE RED GLOVE
It was one of those rare wintry days on the campus of Asbury Seminary with snow drifting over the sidewalks and students slipping and sliding, intentionally and without serious intent! I needed to mail a letter and decided to trek the extra distance to the Wilmore post office, rather
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Contributed by Keith Broyles on Nov 24, 2008
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BLESSINGS FROM HURRICANE IKE
Tuesday I went out, by myself at first, but later in the day Cindy went with me, to check on many of you. No, I didn’t make it everywhere, but I did make it out I think to most of the communities where we have members. As I visited with folks, and even more folks
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Contributed by Keith Broyles on Nov 24, 2008
Buddy is what history has called a “Yellow Dog Democrat.” He would never disagree with that statement. He never has had anything good to say about any Republican that has ever held office. In fact the word “Republican” is almost always uttered with an expletive of one form or another. If a
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Contributed by Keith Broyles on Nov 24, 2008
How easy it is to give credit and thanks to everything and everyone but the real source of al our blessings! God deserves our thanks.
For some of us there may be many reasons to be thankful this coming Thursday. Perhaps we may even see it as the best year we have ever had. For others of us, it
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Contributed by Martyn Baxter on Nov 23, 2008
That is us too, so often. We have the scriptures, we know of its authenticity and yet we fail to live by its teaching. We live in a land of plenty where we fail to go without all we need and more, look on your television sets at home for a reminder, yet we fail to give thanks. We experience the
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