Joseph Valachi was a gangster who worked for various crime bosses in the Mafia during the mid-20th Century. He handled mostly low-level criminal activity such as numbers rackets and gambling.
Valachi was eventually arrested for dealing heroin, along with his crime boss at the time, Vito Genovese.
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Denomination:
Episcopal/Anglican
Contributed by Peter Loughman on Jan 29, 2008
THE VINEYARD CARETAKER
Mark 11:27-12:12
In high school I was on the track team – I was a sprinter. Our coach would make us sprinters run long distance as well as run sprints for practice. We hated running long distance, it was so boring, it was so tedious, we felt it was against our nature. But
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Denomination:
Evangelical/Non-Denominational
Contributed by Rick Crandall on Jul 16, 2008
based on 2 ratings
| 4,788 views
WHY DOES GOD ALLOW HARDSHIP?
We live in a mixed-up, messed-up world. Sometimes terrible things happen that don't make any sense at all, and we wonder why?
Steven Curtis Chapman is one of the best known singer-songwriters of contemporary Christian music. Over the last 15 or 20 years his songs have
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Denomination:
Baptist
Contributed by Terry Laughlin on Aug 11, 2008
based on 15 ratings
| 8,791 views
Caterpillar Ugly, Butterfly Beautiful
It is a well-known fact that a caterpillar changes into a butterfly. The butterfly can truthfully say as he looks at the caterpillar, "Such was I, but now I am changed."
Every Christian has once been a sinner, living for self and the momentary pleasures
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Evangelical/Non-Denominational
Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 13, 2009
based on 1 rating
| 3,348 views
GETTING WORSE BEFORE IT GETS BETTER
"Celente, who is CEO of Trends Research Institute, has the best track record in the professional forecasting industry, so when he speaks people listen. He was almost alone in predicting well in advance the 1987 stock market crash, the 1990 collapse of the Soviet
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Contributed by Sermon Central on Feb 10, 2009
based on 1 rating
| 4,973 views
JACK THE NEIGHBOR
Someone in Elgin once had a neighbor named Jack. Jack was a tough man. He worked hard, he drank hard, he fought hard, and he was harsh and gruff in his manner. Most people were afraid of Jack.
But this one neighbor got brave and said hello to him over the fence one day. He
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Contributed by Tobin Crenshaw on Aug 15, 2010
Take a young man from a wealthy family, strip him of all of his money until he finds himself homeless and has to beg on the street, hold him in a cell as a prisoner of war in a foreign land, and turn his family against him and what are the odds you would give for him to impact the world?
Or
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Denomination:
Brethren
based on 1 rating
| 3,577 views
THE CIRCLE MAKER
Pastor Mark Batterson wrote a book called "The Circle Maker". He tells the following.
The Book of Legends, is a collection of stories from the Jewish Talmud, when I discovered the true legend of Honi the Circle Maker. It forever changed the way I pray. I pray more. I pray with
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Denomination:
Baptist
Contributed by Ron Ferguson on Sep 28, 2025
[214]. A MESSAGE FROM A POEM - PAUL’S PRISON
This is my oldest surviving poem. I had parts of others but they are gone. The poem came about when thinking of Paul in prison in Rome. Everything seemed against him there, but he was never forsaken by God of course.
When Paul was in prison he
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Denomination:
Evangelical/Non-Denominational
Contributed by Julian Silva on Jan 9, 2003
based on 9 ratings
| 2,929 views
While I was working in the V Corps Chaplain’s office in Frankfurt, Germany; I came in contact with many wonderful Christian individuals. One of the most inspiring was a German by the name of Carl Scholz. In speaking to him one day, he related to me of how that during the Second World War he served
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Denomination:
Baptist
Contributed by Ray Ellis on Sep 10, 2006
based on 2 ratings
| 5,369 views
Compassion –Acts of kindness showing God’s love.
A Hospice physician living in Denver, Colorado wrote about his experience of showing God’s kindness to a desperate mother.
I was driving home from a meeting this evening about 5, stuck in traffic on Colorado Blvd., and the car started to choke and
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Denomination:
Free Methodist
Three years and a half years ago, an incident occurred that I filed back because I knew at some point that I would have a message to place it in. In fact, I heard Anthony Mangun use it in a message that he preached. I have some friends that incorporated it into some sermons that they preached.
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Denomination:
Pentecostal