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Struggles with Ego
Over the weekend I spent time in silent retreat meditating on Ephesians 1-3. One of the key disciplines of a silent retreat is taking time to quiet the soul. Henri Nouwen used the description of getting the monkeys out of the trees. We get all the distractions flying at us and chattering away in those first hours of silent retreat.…
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Monday Thoughts
Some great thought-provoking posts and articles are surfacing this Monday. Bill Mounce over at Koinonia has some thoughts on the Ted Haggard situation. His big question is: “Why was Haggard removed from his church? Why were they not allowed to at least attend?” He readily admits he doesn’t know the entire situation, but he asks the question anyway. I find…
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Time Wasters
I had finished my message for Sunday morning when I ran across this great column by Mark Galli. I wish I had come across it before writing my message. I could have printed this off and just read it! My text for the day is Luke 2:22-40, the story of Simeon and Anna. Here are two people who simply wasted…
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Is Jesus THE Way?
A recent post over at ScriptureZealot stirred my thinking. Some of the more incendiary comments have since been edited out, but it stirs me nonetheless. It raised the specter of hard-line Calvinism simply saying, “If you don’t believe in TULIP (and some very specific tenets of Calvinism) then you are preaching another gospel.” That’s the subtle undertone of the piece…
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Yawning at the Word
Mark Galli has an excellent piece at Christianitytoday.com. We are so easily BORED with the Word these days. What is our problem? This paragraph is challenging to me: Whenever the Bible is read, a hush should come over us. We should be inching toward the edge of our seats, leaning forward, turning our best ear toward the speaker, fearful we’ll…