Contributed by Jim Kane on May 25, 2004
based on 26 ratings
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A common source of challenge in life is commitment as illustrated in the following story:
The church choir director was frustrated with the sporadic attendance of all the choir members for rehearsals for the Christmas Choral Concert. At the final rehearsal he announced, “I want to personally thank
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Denomination:
Church Of God
Contributed by Jim Kane on Jan 12, 2007
based on 1 rating
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I did some checking this past week on the history and origins of Christmas and from the on-line encyclopedia, Encarta, I read, “… most scholars believe that Christmas originated in the 4th century as a Christian substitute for pagan celebrations of the winter solstice… Although the Gospels describe
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Denomination:
Church Of God
Contributed by Kevin Barron on Dec 29, 2012
Steve McGuire, our retired county judge, mentioned to me the other day that when someone wishes him “Merry Christmas,” he will sometimes tell them, “I wish you a happy birthday for Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior!” He has seen, like all of us need to see, that Christmas was not just the lights
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Denomination:
Methodist
Contributed by Peter Loughman on Dec 21, 2007
I once worked with a guy who would, every year, place a call to a local florist on Christmas Eve and order two gift baskets, one for his teenage daughter and one for his wife. It was a quick call, lasting about twenty five seconds. The florist would always ask what he wanted in the baskets and he
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Denomination:
Evangelical/Non-Denominational
Contributed by Pat Cook on Feb 7, 2006
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Let me tell you about C.S.Lewis, the author of the Chronicles of Narnia. In 1952 he had been writing to one of his fans an American woman named Joy Gresham, a recent convert to Christianity, and who had been a Communist Jew. She was also going through a hard divorce. He autographed her copy of his
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Denomination:
Baptist
Contributed by Johnny Creasong on Dec 18, 2006
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Dorothy Rodefeld is known in Madison, Wisconsin, as the "light lady" because of the elaborate Christmas displays she builds each year at her 19th century farmhouse. Last year, however, Dorothy’s nativity scene was robbed.
Among the missing items were a shepherd and a wise man. But it was the loss
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Denomination:
Church Of God
Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Jun 8, 2009
SEEING BUT NOT EATING
The Jewish Rabbi known as Rav held a similar viewpoint. Brad Young summarizes his view, "One will be judged not only for sins committed against Torah but also for pleasures in life that were neglected because of a false religious abstinence. The sense of joy in living comes
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Independent/Bible
Contributed by Ron Ferguson on Jan 2, 2026
[249]. A MESSAGE FROM A POEM – STRANGE DOCTRINES ARE AMONG US
[[ “Secernment” (third stanza) refers to the act or process of separating or distinguishing substances, often used in a physiological context to describe the secretion of substances in the body. It can also mean the ability to
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Evangelical/Non-Denominational
Contributed by Sermon Central on Jun 18, 2007
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The fields of Flanders were no place to be on Christmas Eve, 1914. Thousands of British, French, Belgian and German troops were dug-in and planning yet another day’s carnage. None of them would have guessed that the “War to End All Wars” would continue nearly four more years and ultimately cost
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Contributed by Bob Joyce on Oct 10, 2007
Dr. Thomas Holman at the University of Washington in Seattle did a study some years ago with his colleagues. They developed a “life’s events scale” where they determined a numerical value for the different things in life that cause us stress.
The loss of a spouse = 100 pts.
Divorce = 73
Getting
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Denomination:
Baptist
Contributed by Kenneth Squires on Mar 22, 2005
based on 5 ratings
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A common phrase used in the world of healing is, “time heals all wounds.” I have found this to be more false than true. As a pastor, I talk regularly with people who are still carrying hurts from 30 or 40 years ago. The real truth is, time often makes things worse. Wounds that are left untended
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Denomination:
Pentecostal
ERROR VS. PERSON IN ERROR
This love and good will, to be sure, must in no way render us indifferent to truth and goodness. Indeed love itself impels the disciples of Christ to speak the saving truth to all men. But it is necessary to distinguish between error, which always merits repudiation, and
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Catholic
Contributed by Davon Huss on Oct 1, 2007
Mindy Caliguire in Spiritual friendship says, “What do you do when you can’t stand the thought of praying, when the words of the Bible seem plastic and false… when you have been doing everything ‘right’ and the bottom falls out? It’s at these times when it is the spiritual friends who throw
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Denomination:
Christian/Church Of Christ
Contributed by Bobby Scobey on Apr 10, 2008
The seriousness of errant doctrine can be compared to a missile aimed a mere one degree off target. The difference seems slight and negligible at first, yet the results of the error increase dramatically throughout the flight, until the missile totally misses its intended target.
So it is with
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Denomination:
Pentecostal
Contributed by Todd Stiles on Dec 14, 2006
You see, our presence is really the best way to reveal our love. (Don’t worry, kids, I’m not encouraging your parents to boycott presents, but I do want to make a point.) And I can say this from experience, for when I was a kid our home was burglarized just before Christmas one year. Man, was I
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Denomination:
Baptist
Contributed by Don Hawks on Dec 30, 2007
A man who was a school teacher reflected upon a Christmas experience. He said, "At Christmas the kids always brought me gifts. They brought them in different types of boxes but after a while I was pretty savvy about what the gifts were. There would be a thin handkerchief box. I knew it was a
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Denomination:
Methodist
Contributed by Sermon Central on Dec 18, 2003
based on 1 rating
| 1,418 views
What might we do in our families to celebrate Christmas as a holy day? Of course, we remember that its date was first set purposely to coincide with the Roman festival of the returning of the sun, so that it was indeed initially a pagan holiday. In order to celebrate it, however, the first
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Contributed by Aubrey Vaughan on Dec 20, 2007
A recent survey in the Times reports. The Saga Populus survey of 10,000 over 50s found widespread concerns about the celebration of Christmas. Some 85 per cent objected to councils replacing ‘Christmas’ lights with ‘winter’ lights and 84 per cent were dismayed by the replacement of nativity
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Denomination:
Baptist