Contributed by Mark Eberly on Dec 15, 2008
HAPPINESS VS. JOY
There is a pretty common belief that differentiates between happiness and joy. This is one that I believe. Happiness is based on circumstances. Expensive gifts and good food and parties and celebrations and Christmas lights can bring happiness. But they are only temporary. They
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Church Of God
Contributed by Mark Eberly on Dec 15, 2008
What is Christmas is really about? I would say it is not about simply being filled with joy and singing and family and relationships as the Whos seem to think Christmas is about. In fact Christmas is about a person: Jesus. It is about the one who was born as an outcast. His mother and father
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Church Of God
Contributed by Mark Eberly on Dec 22, 2008
The Gospel According to… Charlie Brown. Charlie Brown cannot catch a break. He is the stereotypical American loser. Whenever he tries to kick the football that Lucy is holding, every time she pulls it away at the last second and he misses it, flying through the air to land flat on his back. His
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Church Of God
Contributed by Mark Eberly on Dec 22, 2008
A film made in 2002, The Magdalene Sisters, told the sad story of the "maggies" of Ireland. They got that nickname from Mary Magdalene, from whom Jesus had driven seven demons. Tradition says that Mary Magdalene was the prostitute who washed Jesus’ feet with her hair. Hence when a strict order of
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Church Of God
Contributed by Mark Eberly on Jan 8, 2009
"TRUDGE"
The word "trudge" gives us a definite picture. We trudge through snow. It is laborious walk. It is tiring. It takes work. It seems to me to be rather unmotivated. Sometimes doing what is right seems like trudging. Sometimes doing what we need to do is not glamorous and exciting. Sometimes
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Church Of God
Contributed by Mark Eberly on Jan 8, 2009
I don’t know what will happen this year. I know that a lot of us are struggling in many ways especially financially. Food prices are going up. A loaf of bread at Wal-mart used to be around 80 cents a couple of years ago. Now it is over a dollar. 10 pounds of potatoes used to be 2 dollars or less.
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Church Of God
Contributed by Mark Eberly on Jan 12, 2009
HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD
If this doesn't inspire you worship God with every millimeter of your being, if thinking about this ginormous God does not compel you to shout for joy and sing His praises with all of your being, then I don't know what will. Probably nothing.
Chris Tomlin wrote these words
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Church Of God
Contributed by Mark Eberly on Jan 12, 2009
OUR STAR-BREATHING GOD
Here is one for our Browns fans. The biggest star that we have seen--Canis Major or The Big Dog. If you take our golf ball earth, then this star would be in comparison the size of Mt. Everest. Seven quadrillion earths would fit into it...that is enough golf balls to cover
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Church Of God
Contributed by Mark Eberly on Jan 12, 2009
WHIRPOOL GALAXY
God breathed out our sun. His word put the earth in its orbit around the sun. But this is really nothing. Our sun is one of between 200 and 400 billion other suns in our galaxy. What is our galaxy called? Milky way.
Now I want to show you a picture. [This picture can be found
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Church Of God
Contributed by Mark Eberly on Jan 30, 2009
Marriage and Creation
Your life started as the joining of two cells, One from your mother and one from your father. That cell from your dad made in an incredible journey as one of thousands. Each cell carries 23 chromosomes. When the cell from your dad and the cell from your mom met, they formed
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Church Of God
Contributed by Mark Eberly on Jan 30, 2009
Sanctity of life Sunday. Life, every life, is a miracle. No matter what you’ve been through. No matter what your parents have said about you or failed to say, you are God’s miracle. I showed you one baby picture… here is one where you are at three days old. At this point you have 16 cells. You
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Church Of God
Contributed by Mark Eberly on Jan 30, 2009
LAMININ
Now here is the craziest thing. It is amazing. Some of you probably have seen this. In Christ, all things are held together. The heavens. The earth. And even our bodies. This is amazing. It is totally outrageous. And we call it Laminin. I first heard this through a preach named Louie
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Church Of God
Contributed by Mark Eberly on Feb 19, 2009
Yet, in a way Ray was a hero (at least by our culture’s standards). He was selfish. He was self-centered. He was egotistical. He was self-absorbed and was focused too much on power, privileges, and the pleasures that excessive wealth could bring. I say he was a hero because basically Rehoboam was
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Church Of God
Contributed by Mark Eberly on Feb 19, 2009
Learn from others. Learn from their mistakes. Learn from their advice. Ray was too self-centered to do that. He wasn’t seeking advice as much as wanting people to tell him that what he was thinking was right. He didn’t really want his father’s advisors to help him as much as he wanted them to agree
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Church Of God
Contributed by Mark Eberly on Feb 19, 2009
Countries far and wide sought out Solomon. He gained influence and riches. Immediately after this passage, there is the story of two prostitutes who each had a baby. The mother of one child in her sleep rolled over and killed her child. She got up and switched her dead baby with the other women’s
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Church Of God
Contributed by Mark Eberly on Feb 19, 2009
In seminary, every student was asked this question and it was sort of a psychological test that with the other tests could reveal some possible issues of the student and point to the fitness of the student for pastoral ministry. For example, I said, “Jesus.” Because as a potential pastor, I thought
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Church Of God
Contributed by Mark Eberly on Feb 19, 2009
This is a huge concept for us: loyalty. It is huge because loyalty in my opinion is narrowly practiced on our society. It is present but usually limited to loyalty to oneself. And loyalty affects a very special area of our lives: the social arena. Loyalty or lack of loyalty has a major impact upon
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Church Of God
Contributed by Mark Eberly on Feb 19, 2009
LOYALTY TO GOD OR OURSELVES?
When I was in seminary, I had some conversations with some fellow students, with a good mentor and friend Ron Mabry, with a Dr. Stafford and the credentialing team in Indiana. Through these interactions God was speaking to me and asking me where my loyalties to lie? Is
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Church Of God
Contributed by Mark Tonkery on Feb 21, 2009
DON'T FORGET ABOUT MARSHA
The story is about one day when a woman named Louise fell asleep in her bed, and dreamed a very frightful dream. She dreamed that someone in Hell wrote a letter to her, and it was to be delivered to her by a messenger. The messenger passed between the lakes of Hell, and
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Christian/Church Of Christ
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