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Faithful to the Finish
Peter's final call to a young and growing church
Grace and Glory
A short series through the highlights of 1 Peter
Entrusted
Gifts, risk, and the return of the King
MAKING SERVICE A JOY An amusing story was told to me by the manager of a New York hotel. The great Paderewski occupied a suite there a number of years ago during one of his seasons at Carnegie Hall. It was the master’s custom to practice for a couple of hours every morning on the magnificent ...read more
Scripture: 1 Peter 4:9-11
Tags: Servanthood
Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ
THE CLARENCE PRINCIPLE That's what spiritual maturity is--It's not just being a Christian for a little while. It's being able to discern the difference between right and wrong, because you have practiced applying the principles of God's Word in your every-day life. It's being able to discern the ...read more
Scripture: 1 Peter 5:1-4
Tags: Leadership General
LEADERS AT THE POLES In his book, Leading at the Edge, Dennis Perkins contrasts the leadership values of two different explorers: Earnest Shackleton and Vilhjalmur Stefansson. In 1914, Shackleton led a daring expedition to reach Antarctica in the South. A year earlier, Stefansson led an expedition ...read more
WEAR THE PANTS Levi-Strauss recently ran an ad campaign that targeted men for a line of Dockers pants (June 2011). Maybe you've seen some of the ads. One of them was called a "MAN-ifesto," and the script went like this: "Once upon a time, men wore the pants, and wore them well. Women rarely had ...read more
Tags: Men, Leadership, Biblical, Leadership General
TRUSTING THE SCENT Years ago I read the story of a man by the name of Wally who owned a farm in Connecticut. He had a remarkable talent he had with birds, chickadees specifically. It seems that every morning these little birds would flutter down and land on his hands. And it wasn’t just for food; ...read more
Scripture: 1 Kings 17:2-5
Tags: Trust
MYSTERIOUS LIFE PRINCIPLE A wise old professor of biology stood before his class of eager students. The Professor held a little brown seed in his hand. Quietly he spoke to his class. "I know just the composition of this seed. It has nitrogen, hydrogen, and carbon. I know the exact proportions. I ...read more
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:22-25
Tags: Creation
CARL'S GOSPEL GARDEN He didn't talk much. He would always greet you with a big smile and a firm handshake. Even after living in our neighborhood for over 50 years, no one could really say they knew him very well. Before his retirement, he took the bus to work each morning. The lone sight of him ...read more
Tags: Christian Witness
MOTHERS LIVE FOR OTHERS We've got all sorts of people here this morning. One thing we have got a lot of is mothers. Some of you, your children are long grown up. But you have the experience of having been a mother. So? Well, every mother lives her life for another. And that is what the church ...read more
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Tags: Mother's Day
Denomination: Anglican
MIRACLE MANDY The doctor told Marsha Mark and her husband they would never have biological children. In their disappointment, Marsha clung to a friend's words: "Somehow, God is going to use your struggle with infertility for his glory." Marsha began to pray for a glimpse of that glory. "I asked ...read more
Scripture: 1 Samuel 1:1-20
Tags: Prayer Answered
Denomination: Baptist
LABOR PROMPTED BY LOVE Bernard Newman tells how once he stayed in a Bulgarian peasant’s house. All the time he was there the daughter was stitching away at a dress. He said to her, "Don’t you ever get tired of that eternal sewing?" "Oh no!" she said. "You see, this is my ...read more
Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 1:3
Do you know of a bloke called Daniel Carter, arguably the world’s best rugby player. This from Andy Howell of The South Wales Echo in 2008 “Scrum-half [Justin] Marshall took Dan the man under his wing when he burst on the scene with Canterbury, helping him through games as he developed into the ...read more
Scripture: 1 Timothy 1:1-22
Tags: Discipleship, Learning From Jesus, Growth As A Disciple
Denomination: Salvation Army
FOSTER: FIVE PERCENT SPIRITUALITY Richard Foster writes this: Many of us live in a kind of inner apartheid. We segregate out a small corner of pious activities and then make no spiritual sense out of the rest of our lives. We become so accustomed to this way of living that we fail to see the ...read more
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 10:31
Tags: Christian Disciplines
WHAT HAPPENS AT HOME Howard Hendricks used to say to us men in seminary preparing to lead churches, "If your Christianity isn't working at home, don't export it." It was his way of saying, "If you can't make your faith work in your own family, then please don't try to make it work in the family of ...read more
Scripture: 1 Timothy 3:4-5
Tags: Parenting
Joe Bayly, a Christian author and leader, had a son named Tim who was not following the Lord. This caused great tension in the home until one day Joe told his son he had to move out. Taking Tim aside, he said, "Tim, you're not living for God and you need to leave our home." Tim left, but his ...read more
THE ACCIDENT ALREADY OCCURRED There’s a phrase in military aviation which goes like this: "The accident already occurred, we're just waiting for the plane to arrive at the crash site." What does that mean? It means the accident occurred miles before the actual accident occurred, when the pilot or ...read more
Scripture: 1 Kings 11:1-43
Tags: Cause, Idolatry, Effect
FEAR OF FLYING? A man is sitting in the coach section of a flight from New York to Chicago, biting his fingernails and sweating profusely. Noticing his disturbed expression, a flight attendant walks over and says, "Sir, can I get you something from the bar to calm you down?" The man gives a nod ...read more
Scripture: 1 Timothy 3:3
Tags: Alcohol
LOOKING AT THE LIGHT A pastor told a story of a man in his congregation who had lost literally hundreds of thousands of dollars. He owed everybody. One day the pastor asked him, "How in the world are you even surviving? How can you smile? How can you be enthusiastic about Jesus and about life when ...read more
Scripture: 1 Kings 19:1-21
Tags: Trials And Difficulties
THE HAPPINESS OF HEAVEN In 1871 Fr. J. Boudreau wrote a short story entitled "The Happiness of Heaven." It's a story about a kindhearted king who is hunting in the forest when he discovers a blind, poor orphan boy living there. The king takes the blind orphan to his palace and adopts him as his ...read more
Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Tags: Heaven
A KING'S RANSOM I Timothy 2:6 says Jesus "gave himself as a ransom." A ransom is a price paid to purchase someone's freedom. In 1193, the English King Richard I, also known as Richard the Lionheart, was returning from leading a Crusade to the Holy Land. As he returned through Europe, Leopold V ...read more
Scripture: 1 Timothy 2:1-7
Tags: Salvation
AGAINST THE WIND There will be challenges and suffering. Kites rise against, not with the wind. It is the winds that oppose it that drive it even higher. When the winds of adversity or criticism blows, allow it to be to you what the blast of wind is to a kite--a force against it that causes it to ...read more
Scripture: 1 Peter 2:18-25