Larry Lea, who used to serve as a pastor in Rockwall, Texas, has a course on the Lord’s Prayer. When he teaches people how to pray this petition -- “Your kingdom come” -- he asks them to draw an imaginary circle around themselves and not to emerge from that circle until all their priorities are in
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Presbyterian/Reformed
BUECHNER'S UNIQUE LOOK AT FORGIVENESS
Frederick Buechner is a Presbyterian minister and an author, and he has delightful little book called The Alphabet of Grace. It is somewhat like a dictionary of terms that people of faith commonly use, only Mr. Buechner offers some very uncommon reflections on
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NO REST FOR THE UNFORGIVING
Somewhere in the recesses of my memory is the recollection of a movie. It’s a Western; I know that much. I can’t remember the title of the movie, but I remember the story line.
The hero is a law man, and he is transporting a convicted murderer across the treacherous
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Presbyterian/Reformed
REVENGE: A LAZY FORM OF GRIEF
In the 2005 film, The Interpreter, Nicole Kidman plays the role of Sylvia Broome, a United Nations translator who overhears an assassination plot. In one scene in the movie, Sylvia talks about revenge and mercy. She speaks of a primitive tribe and a tradition they
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Presbyterian/Reformed
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CONVERTED NOT ONCE, BUT OFTEN
A person of no less stature than Ruth Graham, the daughter of a Presbyterian missionary and the wife of a world-famous evangelist, struggled with this idea of a "moment of conversion." She was raised in the faith and knew that she was secure in Christ, and yet she
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Presbyterian/Reformed
TRAINING IN GODLINESS
Our daughter-in-law has participated at times in triathlon competitions. The triathlon is an endurance event in which you swim a certain distance, ride your bike a certain distance, and finally, and without resting, run a certain distance. It is a very demanding test of your
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Presbyterian/Reformed
THINK STEPS, NOT PROGRAMS
In his book, Seven Practices of Effective Ministry, Andy Stanley writes: "Think Steps, Not Programs" (p. 88). The idea is this: Instead of having a strategic vision that focuses on programs, you have a strategic vision of a people-process, a pathway that takes people from
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Presbyterian/Reformed
A GIFT OF THE WORD
When I was a teenager, my pastor gave me a little pocket New Testament, bound in red leather. And inside, on the flyleaf, he had written a note. And with the note was a Scripture citation: Romans 12:1-2. I couldn’t wait to turn to that passage and read what it said. If you know
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Presbyterian/Reformed
I remember years ago, when I was the pastor in another city, we had a man in our church that worked in a local processing plant. His name was Doug. One day, a new guy – a fellow by the name of Mike – showed up to work there, and Doug got acquainted with him and invited him to come to our
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Presbyterian/Reformed
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GIVING BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO
One Saturday I was working in the yard, and I came walking around the corner of my house. And there was a boy there, on a bicycle. He was wearing Scout uniform, and I’m guessing he must have been about ten or eleven years old. It didn’t take me long to figure out what he
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Presbyterian/Reformed
IMITATING EVERYTHING
The most influential person in my life was a man by the name of Charles. He was the pastor of the church where I went as a teenager. You may have heard me talk about Charles before, and, if you have, you may remember that he taught me how to drive, he helped me learn a trade
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Presbyterian/Reformed
BIBLE: LIFE SUPPORT
I didn’t always go to church; in fact, I didn’t start attending anywhere regularly until I was in the ninth grade. But I wasn’t exactly a stranger to church. Occasionally, this friend or that one would invite me to go to Sunday School.
I remember one time -- I must have been
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Presbyterian/Reformed
THE IN-LAWS: "ARE YOU A PRAYING MAN?"
Sheldon Kornpett was a quiet, reserved man with a successful dental practice in Manhattan, that is, until he met his future in-laws, Mr. and Mrs. Vince Ricardo. Sheldon’s daughter was soon to be married to their son, so Sheldon’s wife hosted a dinner party at
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Presbyterian/Reformed
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS?
Not long after I got out of seminary, I decided I needed more training. So, I applied for a pastoral residency position at one of the largest churches in our denomination. It was a church in Prairie Village, Kansas, just outside of Kansas City, Missouri. As it turns out, the
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YEARNING FOR YOUR BELOVED
Hearing God’s voice begins as a matter of affection. We have to listen for the voice of God the way a lover listens for the voice of the beloved.
During the year before my wife and I were married, I lived in a remote city, and what I discovered is that there is no pain
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Presbyterian/Reformed
LOOKS GREAT, BUT WHAT DOES IT DO?
I once read about a certain Mr. Wahlstrom who purchased an old bombsight and took it apart to see what made it work. As he began to put it back together, he decided to add to it some spare parts he had from other projects. Over time, friends and neighbors took an
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Presbyterian/Reformed
I THOUGHT WE'D TALK MORE ABOUT GOD
Some years ago, a woman came to me for counseling. Her husband had died suddenly from a rapidly growing cancer, and she was overcome not only with grief but with fear regarding her future. She did not now know who she was or where she was to go. She was beside
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Presbyterian/Reformed
A CHILD'S VIEW OF GOD
Many of you know that I did not grow up in the church. My family was not religious, and so, we seldom spoke of God. Still in all, even as a child, I had some conception of God. I don’t know where I got it or how I picked it up, but I had an undeveloped, primitive theology. I
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CALVIN'S HEART AFLAME
We are emotional beings, and it is unlikely that we would check our emotions at the door when we enter the sanctuary. Our great forebear in the faith, John Calvin, chose as his personal emblem a hand extending upward to God and in that hand a heart aflame. And
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Presbyterian/Reformed
COMMON BITTERNESS
When I was in college, I worked as a youth director at a little church out in the country about an hour’s drive away. There were two families in that congregation that didn’t get along. When they came to worship, they would take up their positions on opposite sides of the room
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