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I Desire Mercy Not Sacrifice
Experiencing the mercy of God in our lives
Ready & Faithful
Looking to Jesus for help now and hope in the future
Why Suffering?
Help your church understand God's plan in pain
THE MEANING OF THE CROSS In the 19th century, Armenian Christians, under a Turkish Muslim government, experienced a tremendous amount of persecution. The government lifted the ban on Muslims converting to Christianity in 1856. Then just eight years later, they began arresting these Muslim converts ...read more
Scripture: 1 Peter 4:12-19
Tags: Persecution
IS GOD GOOD? Randy Alcorn talks about what happened to his friend, Ethel Herr in his new book, What Good is God. She had had a double mastectomy. Then two months later, doctors discovered that the cancer had spread. One of Herr's friends in shock asked her, "And how do you feel about God now?" ...read more
Tags: Trials And Difficulties
STAY OUT OF THE STAGNANT WATER Palmer Chinchen, in his book, True Religion, talks about traveling to the western edge of Zimbabwe with his brothers to raft the Zambezi River, starting at the base of the Victoria Falls. The falls are the largest in the world, more than a mile wide and three hundred ...read more
Tags: Church Practices
THEY'RE NOT READY FOR HEAVEN The movie The End of the Spear tells the true story of five missionaries who gave their lives to reach the violent Waodoni tribe in the jungles of Ecuador in the 1950s. Led by Nate Saint, the missionaries were eager to reach the Waodoni people before they all died off ...read more
Tags: Missions
THE EXAMPLE OF BETHANY HAMILTON That word for "commit" is actually a banking term. It means to deposit something for safekeeping. Well, that's what we're to do with our lives when we go through times of suffering. Deposit your life in God's bank (so to speak) for safe-keeping. Trust Him to ...read more
Tags: Trust
IF I BELIEVED... An atheist once told William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, "If I believed what you Christians say you believe about a coming judgment and that impenitent rejecters of Christ will be lost, I would crawl on my bare knees on crushed glass all over London, warning men, night ...read more
Scripture: 2 Peter 3:3-13
Tags: Evangelism Urgency
PICKING THE WRONG DOOR Stuart Briscoe, in his book Everyday Discipleship for Ordinary People, tells the story about a fellow pastor who was officiating at the funeral of a war veteran. The dead man’s military friends wanted to have a part in the service at the funeral home, so they requested that ...read more
Scripture: 1 Peter 5:1-5
Tags: Leadership General
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
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
JOHN STOTT, A HUMBLE MAN I like the way Thomas Carlyle put it some time ago. He said, "One example is worth a thousand arguments." (Thomas Carlyle, quoted in Men of Integrity, July/August 2000; www.Preaching Today.com) In difficult times, we don't need dictators and arguments. We need leaders ...read more
Tags: Humility
VISIONS OF GLORY Chan Gailey, who just began his second season as head coach for the Buffalo Bills, got his start coaching football at Alabama's Troy State University. In 1984, with a 12-1 record, he led the Troy State Trojans to a Division II NCAA national championship. A week before the big ...read more
Scripture: 1 Peter 5:5-6
Tags: Pride
STEVEN CURTIS CHAPMAN: STILL BLESSING HIS NAME On May 17, 2008, Christian recording artist Steven Curtis Chapman and his family suffered a devastating loss. Their five-year-old adopted daughter, Maria Sue, was struck and killed when Chapman's seventeen-year-old son was backing his SUV out of the ...read more
Scripture: 1 Peter 5:10-11
Tags: God In The Hardships
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
FROM ATHEIST AND SKEPTIC TO BELIEVER--THE CASE OF LEE STROBEL Lee Strobel was a Yale Law School graduate and a journalist for the Chicago Tribune. When he was a skeptic and an atheist, he undertook an investigation into the claims of so called "prophets." He set out to debunk the prophecies of ...read more
Scripture: 2 Peter 1:16-21
Tags: Apologetics The Bible
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
TEN DOLLARS IS TEN DOLLARS A man named Stumpy and his wife Martha went to the state fair every year and every year when Stumpy saw the antique bi-plane he would say, "Martha, I'd like to ride in that airplane." Martha always replied, "I know Stumpy, but that airplane ride costs 10 dollars, and ...read more
Scripture: 1 Peter 3:1-7
Tags: Marriage Struggle
HUMILITY UNDER OATH "Humility is something we should constantly pray for, yet never thank God that we have." Henry Augustus Rowland, professor of physics at Johns Hopkins University, was once called as an expert witness at a trial. During cross-examination a lawyer demanded, "What are your ...read more
Scripture: 1 Peter 5:5-7
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