WHAT IS SPIRITUAL MATURITY?
In our Pueblo group we asked how we could define spiritual maturity? Someone said, "Being spiritually mature probably means you don't try to figure out whether the people around you are spiritually mature or not."
Someone else said, "It's all I can do to figure
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Christian/Church Of Christ
Contributed by Gordon Curley on Dec 30, 2010
WOULD YOU BECOME A DOG?
C. S. Lewis:
“Lying at your feet is your dog. Imagine, for the moment, that your dog and every dog is in deep distress. Some of us love dogs very much. If it would help all the dogs in the world to become like men, would you be willing to become a dog? Would you put down
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Denomination:
Brethren
Contributed by Tim Smith on Mar 17, 2011
FAN OR FOLLOWER?
Kyle Idelman writes:
It was a Thursday afternoon, and I was sitting in our sanctuary where 30,000 people would soon be coming to one of our Easter services. I had no idea what I was going to say to them. I could feel the pressure mounting. I sat there hoping that a sermon would
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Denomination:
Methodist
Contributed by Patrick Nix on Mar 23, 2011
EDISON AND LINCOLN: PICTURES OF COMMITMENT
Look at the life of Thomas Edison. At 21, he patented his first major invention: the Electrical Vote Recorder (a device 100 years ahead of its time!). At 26, he invented the automatic telegraph and paraffin paper. At 30, the phonograph (earliest record
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Baptist
Contributed by Rick Pendleton on Mar 29, 2011
In 1990, a woman entered a Haagen-Dazs store in Kansas City for an ice cream cone. While she was ordering, another customer entered the store. She placed her order, turned and found herself staring face to face with Paul Newman. He was in town filming a movie. His blue eyes made her knees buckle.
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Baptist
Contributed by Curry Pikkaart on Mar 29, 2011
SHATTERING THE UNTRUTHS
There's a short story by Carmen Corde that tells of a young woman who gives birth to a blind son. "I do not want my child to know that he is blind!" she informs family and neighbors, forbidding anyone to use telltale words such as 'light,' 'color,' and 'sight.' The boy
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Denomination:
Presbyterian/Reformed
I WAS THE LAMB
Every summer when I was a child, my family would make the trip from Texas to New Jersey to see my dad’s parents. They lived in a fascinating two-story house in which all the bedrooms were upstairs. The room I slept in had a single bed, and above the bed was a picture of Jesus. You
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Denomination:
Presbyterian/Reformed
CARNIVAL CHRISTIANS
What’s a "Carnival Christian?" A Carnival Christian is someone who enjoys the fun. Someone who gets caught up in the excitement of cheering for Jesus, but sometimes has a hard time taking a personal stand for him when the crowd isn’t around. Commitments for them are difficult
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Denomination:
Salvation Army
Contributed by Rodelio Mallari on Apr 13, 2011
WHEN A CHRISTIAN GROWS
Dr. Bonar once remarked that he could tell when a Christian was growing. In proportion to his growth in grace he would elevate his Master, talk less of what he was doing, and become smaller and smaller in his own esteem, until, like the morning star, he faded away before the
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*other
WORDS IN THE SPIRIT
When I was asked to be the preacher for the North Little Rock Ministerial Alliance Community Thanksgiving Service, I was floored. I didn't think that anybody thought that much about me. I was honored by the gesture, but the moment I said "yes," my nerves got the best of me. I
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Denomination:
Methodist
COME IN THROUGH THE DOOR
There's an old spiritual. I'm sure you've heard it. It starts out, 'So high you can't get over it, so low you can't get under it, so wide you can't get around it! You gotta come in through the door.'
That's what Jesus tells us in this passage from John's
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Denomination:
Presbyterian/Reformed
LIVING STONES
I have to tell ya, I’m so proud of my baby girl. She's working on a project for the school’s science-fair by growing citrine crystals in the basement. What normally takes thousands of years to do in nature; chemists have somehow been able to reproduce in a matter of weeks. I think
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Denomination:
Lutheran
Contributed by Michael Walther on May 27, 2011
"CAN'T NEVER DID NOTHING."
When I was in high school, I worked as a janitor. I was the summer help, and I was teamed up with the regular janitor named Jim. Jim was a rough character. When I first met him he reminded me of Charles Manson. He was a former Marine who had been through some very
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Denomination:
Lutheran