Contributed by Alan Perkins on Apr 1, 2001
based on 125 ratings
| 2,616 views
I’ve been reading a book by Robert Putnam, a professor at Harvard. The book is called "Bowling Alone," and in it, he documents the decline in community life in American over the last four decades. The title comes from a trivial but telling example: the percentage of adults who belong to a bowling
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Baptist
Contributed by David Yarbrough on Oct 15, 2001
based on 24 ratings
| 5,247 views
Dr. Elizabeth Targ, a psychiatrist at the Pacific College of Medicine in San Francisco, has also tested out prayer on critically ill AIDS patients. All 20 patients in the study got pretty much the same medical treatment, but only half of them were prayed for by spiritual healers. Ultimately, 10 of
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Evangelical/Non-Denominational
Contributed by Brian La Croix on Dec 2, 2001
based on 4 ratings
| 2,735 views
I’d like to read you a list of phobias that are out there today. These are all very real, even if they might seem outlandish to someone who doesn’t have them:
Peladophobia: fear of baldness and bald people (by the way, if any of you here have that fear, we will have a healing service for you
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Wesleyan
Contributed by Scott Chambers on Jan 24, 2003
based on 15 ratings
| 1,945 views
Islam is one of the fastest growing religions in the world today. Dr. Harry Rimmer tells about a discussion he had with a Muslim teacher; comparing Christianity to Islam. He said, “We believe that God has spoken to us in a book, the Bible.” The Muslim replied, “We believe God has spoken to us
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Christian/Church Of Christ
Contributed by Galen Hackman on Mar 1, 2003
based on 61 ratings
| 2,865 views
Recently this word—fellowship—has been in the headlines of our daily experience, thanks to the popular movie adaptations of J. R. R. Tolkin’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.
In the first book and movie, entitled, Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien describes the camaraderie of a diverse group of
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Brethren
Contributed by James O. Davis on Oct 28, 2003
based on 9 ratings
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Jesus said the times before His second coming would include a multiplication sign, a mental sign, a moral sign, and a miracle sign. Concerning the latter, He was talking about the nation of Israel. He reminds us to keep our eyes on the fig tree. When it begins to blossom you know the end is
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Assembly Of God
Contributed by Bobby Mcdaniel on Dec 27, 2003
based on 2 ratings
| 1,997 views
b. The story of the origin of the Christmas crèche rests with St. Francis of Assisi.
St. Bonaventure tells the story like this. In the year 1223, St. Francis, a deacon, was visiting the town of Grecio to celebrate Christmas. Grecio was a small town built on a mountainside overlooking a beautiful
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Contributed by David Haun on Dec 27, 2003
based on 3 ratings
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Few [called by Christ] would have been considered wise in the world’s eyes. Few were powerful or influential decision makers. Few were wealthy. Among the earliest disciples, five were fishermen, one was a tax collector, and the careers of the rest are unknown. None (with the possible exception of
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Christian/Church Of Christ
Contributed by Lynn Floyd on Jan 19, 2004
based on 11 ratings
| 2,643 views
Some nine year old children were asked what they thought of death and dying. Jim said, “When you die, they bury you in the ground and your souls goes to heaven, but your body can’t go to heaven because it’s too crowded up there already.” Judy said, “Only the good people go to heaven. The other
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Baptist
based on 19 ratings
| 3,886 views
Ortberg notes this about the inability to love:
1. The most serious sign of hurry sickness is a diminished capacity to love. Love and hurry are fundamentally incompatible. Love always takes time, and time is one thing hurried people don’t have (87).
2. The truth is look around at our society
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Evangelical/Non-Denominational
Contributed by Sermon Central on Dec 20, 2005
based on 5 ratings
| 1,720 views
It’s easy to live a long life, at least in America. Look at the statistics: Out of every 100,000 persons, 88,361 reach 50 years of age, more than 70,000 make it to 70, and almost 17,000 get to 85 or more. Staying around a long time, however, should not be our primary goal. Rather, we should be
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Contributed by Sermon Central on Apr 17, 2006
based on 3 ratings
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Theologians tell a story to illustrate how Christ’s triumph presently benefits our lives: Imagine a city under siege. The enemy that surrounds they city will not let anyone or anything leave. Supplies are running low, and the citizens are fearful. But in the dark of the night, a spy sneaks through
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Contributed by David Ward on Jun 14, 2006
based on 1 rating
| 1,884 views
In 1837 three young Methodist ministers, James Calvert, John Hunt, Thomas Jaggar, and their wives set out from England for the Fiji Islands. Theirs was a difficult assignment. The work there was only three years old, and the people were still cannibals. Hardly any fruit was seen during their
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Evangelical/Non-Denominational
Contributed by Kent Kessler on Dec 9, 2006
based on 2 ratings
| 2,106 views
Several years ago, missionaries had difficulty in communicating the good news of Jesus Christ to the Chinese people. But one day, there was a breakthrough.
A missionary was studying a particular Chinese ideograph, the one which means "righteous." He noticed that it contained an upper and lower
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Denomination:
Methodist
Contributed by Sermon Central on Feb 20, 2007
Strong Small Churches - The bigger a church grows, the worse it becomes both in quality and in its capability to reach new people. This surprising finding comes out of a Germany -based Institute of Church Development study of churches worldwide. In churches with attendance of less than 100, 31% of
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