Contributed by Steve Smith on May 18, 2006
• 52-62% of all first marriages will eventually end in legal
divorce. Untold others will experience emotional divorce and unsatisfying relationships.
• 60% of all remarriages eventually end in legal divorce.
• 43% of all marriages are remarriages for at least one of the adults.
• 65% of
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Denomination:
Baptist
Contributed by Steve Holmes on Jun 10, 2006
based on 1 rating
| 1,657 views
Voltaire, the noted French writer, who died in 1778, said that in
one hundred years from his time Christianity would be swept from existence. Only fifty
years after Voltaire’s death, the Geneva
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*other
Contributed by Steve Greene on Nov 29, 2006
based on 2 ratings
| 1,520 views
Noah could have been the poster child for obedience. But I wonder if Noah ever felt foolish out there building a boat out in his back yard. Were there days when he thought about quitting? For Noah, building this boat was a huge step of
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Denomination:
Nazarene
Contributed by Steve Smith on Dec 4, 2006
based on 5 ratings
| 5,714 views
ILL: Christmas Season
Listen to this parody of the Christmas season that I read this past week:
"And there were in the same country children keeping watch over there stockings by the fireplace. And lo! And was said unto them `Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy that is for
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Baptist
Contributed by Steve Smith on Dec 4, 2006
based on 1 rating
| 4,785 views
ILL: FINALLY CHRISTMAS
Senator John McCain of Arizona was a prisoner of war during the Vietnam conflict. He was shot down and held as a prisoner of war in Hanoi for 5 ½ years, 1967-1973, spending much of it in solitary confinement.
John McCain said this, “When I was being mistreated by the North
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Denomination:
Baptist
Contributed by Steve Smith on Dec 11, 2006
Author Jeanne Guyon in the book "Experiencing God Through Prayer" says this about giving: "Once you have given yourself to God, do not take yourself back again. Remember, a
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Denomination:
Baptist
Contributed by Steve Smith on Dec 23, 2006
My wife Debbie, told all the family that instead of giving her a Christmas gift this year that she would prefer that we take whatever amount of money we were going to spend on her and spend it on someone in the hospital or the nursing home.
In fact, every Christmas Day, she and the kids bake up
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Denomination:
Baptist
Contributed by Steve Smith on Dec 23, 2006
based on 6 ratings
| 3,942 views
Let me close with an excerpt from Sharon Jaynes’ book, “Celebrating a Christ-centered Christmas”:
An African boy listened carefully as his teacher explained why Christians give presents to each other on Christmas day. "The gift is an expression of our joy over the birth of Jesus and our friendship
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Denomination:
Baptist
Contributed by Steve Smith on Jan 6, 2007
I read one time about how shipbuilders back in the days of sailboats would prepare the masts for their ships. They would go to the forest and find an appropriate tree, then they would clear out all the surrounding trees and leave that one standing, leaving it exposed to the wind and storms.
As the
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Denomination:
Baptist
Contributed by Steve Smith on Jan 6, 2007
"We were on shipboard," relates a captain’s wife, "lying on side from storm in a Southern harbor. We were obliged, first to make our way ashore. The waves were rolling heavily. I became frightened at the thought of attempting it, when one came to me, saying, ’Do not be afraid: I will take care of
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Denomination:
Baptist
Contributed by Steve Smith on Feb 26, 2007
Hudson Taylor says it this way: “The branch of the vine does not worry, and toil, and rush here to seek for sunshine, and there to find rain. No; it rests in union and communion with the vine; At just the right time, and in the
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Denomination:
Baptist
Contributed by Steve Smith on Feb 26, 2007
S.D. Gordon tells of a spring storm that broke a large limb on his cherry tree. Although it hung by a very small strand, to his surprise the blossoms came anyway. Later some fruit began to grow as it did on the other branches.
He noticed, however, that only those in full contact with the tree
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Denomination:
Baptist
Contributed by Steve Greene on Apr 12, 2007
based on 2 ratings
| 2,627 views
Remember false guilt attacks the person and the Holy Spirit attacks the problem.
A young boy was going to spend the evening at a friend¡¦s house. His father asked that he call home once he arrived so that the father could be assured that his son had arrived safely.
As the evening wore on, this
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Denomination:
Nazarene
Contributed by Steve Smith on Jul 16, 2007
based on 2 ratings
| 4,410 views
ILL: The Heart of Worship
There’s a recent song that was written by a young man who lead the worship at church. He was an extremely talented singer, but the preacher there took him aside and told him that he could not lead the singing at church until things changed because he saw that he was more
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Denomination:
Baptist
Contributed by Steve Smith on Jul 16, 2007
based on 1 rating
| 4,506 views
ILLUSTRATION: BY LIFE OR BY DEATH
John Piper, in his book, “Future Grace”, reprinted a letter by Carl Lundquist, former president of Bethel College and Seminary. In 1988, the doctors told him he had a rare form of cancer which invaded the skin over his entire body and ended his life three years
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Denomination:
Baptist
Contributed by Steve Smith on Jul 16, 2007
POEM: DON’T QUIT
When things go wrong as they sometime will,
when the road your trudging seems all up hill,
When funds are low and debts are high,
and you want to smile but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit
rest if you must but please don’t quit.
Life is queer with it’s twist
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Denomination:
Baptist
Contributed by Steve Smith on Jul 16, 2007
"Worry is the warning light that God is really not first in my life at this
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Denomination:
Baptist