Contributed by Anne Benefield on Mar 5, 2009
TRUE POVERTY
The second theme in our passage is to strengthen and support the weak and the suffering. My friend at the Gazette also mentioned visiting his daughter in Kenya when she was a Peace Corp volunteer out in the desert areas in the western part of the country. He said that trip had
...read more
Tags:
Denomination:
Presbyterian/Reformed
Contributed by Anne Benefield on Mar 5, 2009
Another thing that bothers most people is that when we pray, we seem to get distracted. That is especially true when we are trying to listen for God’s word. There is an old story about St. Bernard, who once had a friend who told him her never had any distractions. Bernard confessed to having
...read more
Tags:
Denomination:
Presbyterian/Reformed
Contributed by Anne Benefield on Mar 5, 2009
DANCING WITH GOD
One of my very favorite stories is told by Gertrud Mueller Nelson in To Dance with God: Family Ritual and Community Celebration. It’s the first thing she says at the beginning of Chapter 1:
"Some years ago, I spent an afternoon caught up in a piece of sewing I was doing. The
...read more
Tags:
Denomination:
Presbyterian/Reformed
Contributed by Anne Benefield on Mar 5, 2009
Fasting is getting more attention these days. In a special issue of Time Magazine on "How Faith Can Heal" Jeffrey Kluger writes:
"Faith and health overlap in other ways too. Take fasting. One of the staples of both traditional wellness protocols and traditional religious rituals is the cleansing
...read more
Tags:
Denomination:
Presbyterian/Reformed
Contributed by Anne Benefield on Jun 9, 2009
A young man walked into a photography studio with a picture of his girlfriend. He wanted the picture duplicated. The owner of the store noticed the inscription on the back of the picture which said, “My Dearest Tom, I love you with all my heart. I love you more and more each day. I will love
...read more
Tags:
Denomination:
Presbyterian/Reformed
Contributed by Anne Benefield on Jun 9, 2009
WITH GOD, THERE IS NO P.S.
Nothing can stop the love of God. In a cemetery in Hanover, Germany, is a grave on which was placed a huge slab of granite and then a slab of marble was cemented on top. The rocks were fastened with heavy steel clamps. It belonged to a woman who did not believe in the
...read more
Tags:
Denomination:
Presbyterian/Reformed
Contributed by Anne Benefield on Jun 9, 2009
Author Ray Bradbury says: "If we listened to our intellect, we’d never have a love affair. We’d never have a friendship. We’d never go into business because we’d be cynical. Well, that’s nonsense. You’ve got
...read more
Tags:
Denomination:
Presbyterian/Reformed
Contributed by Paul Fritz on Jun 24, 2004
based on 1 rating
| 2,797 views
Suffering can become so intense at times that we don’t know how we can take any more pain. It’s in these moments that Jesus reassures us of His presence and sustains us, even though for reasons we do not understand the hurt is not taken away.
Dr. Diane Komp, a pediatric cancer specialist at Yale
...read more
Tags:
Denomination:
Evangelical/Non-Denominational
Contributed by Sermon Central on Oct 21, 2002
based on 6 ratings
| 2,791 views
ALL IN MY HEAD!
On Halloween night my three-year-old grandson, Brian, couldn’t sleep because he was convinced ghosts were in his room. "It’s all in your head," his mother reassured him. "Now go to sleep." Before she got down the stairs, his voice called out again. "Mom, the ghosts have left my
...read more
Tags:
Contributed by Sermon Central on Dec 15, 2001
based on 10 ratings
| 2,896 views
IT JUST CAN'T WAIT
Following the news of ex-Beatle George Harrison’s death, "Today" how anchor Anne Curry interviewed Anthony DeCurtis, a writer for Rolling Stone* magazine. DeCurtis talked at length about Harrison’s search for a meaningful spiritual life. Curry said, "Apparently Harrison was the
...read more
Tags:
Contributed by Matthew Kratz on Nov 10, 2007
based on 3 ratings
| 1,454 views
ILLUSTRATION: “No Use but Useful”
Elderly Sister Ann in China was born into quite an educated family. She had four brothers who all became doctors. She, however, was not even taught how to read and write. She began to train as a nurse, but her father fell ill and she was required to nurse him.
...read more
Denomination:
Other
Contributed by James Wilson on Nov 23, 2000
based on 113 ratings
| 4,218 views
God’s design is for a man and woman to enter into a permanent, intimate relationship with one another. A relationship like Eddie and Mary enjoy. Let me read you a letter that Eddie wrote to Ann Landers:
Dear Ann Landers:
On Aug. 14, 1945, the war ended in the South Pacific. That was the day I
...read more
Tags:
Denomination:
Baptist
Contributed by Mike Rexroat on Oct 27, 2007
And what about other examples from fictional stories: in Beauty and the Beast we find the Beauty having a preconceived notion of what the Beast is like…in the movie Shrek…which by the way is Anne’s nickname for me when I shave my head…. the princess in that movie…she had a preconceived notion of
...read more
Denomination:
Christian/Church Of Christ
Contributed by Michael Elmore on Jan 17, 2002
based on 5 ratings
| 3,432 views
What Is Revelation Like?
The story is told that after Helen Keller’s teacher, Anne
Sullivan, had given her the names of physical objects in
sign language, Miss Sullivan attempted to explain God and
tapped out the symbols for the name "God." Much to Miss
Sullivan’s
...read more
Tags:
Denomination:
Methodist
Contributed by Sermon Central on Jun 2, 2004
based on 3 ratings
| 2,032 views
THE WHOLE EAST COAST
While our friends from India traveled around California on business, they left their 11 year-old daughter with us. Curious about my going to church one Sunday morning, she decided to come along. When we returned home, my husband asked her what she thought of the service.
"I
...read more
Tags: