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Is Christianity Close to “Extinction?”
In the Middle East, there is a story that is never told. We get caught up in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and forget there are Christian brothers and sisters suffering for their beliefs. This story sheds some light on what these brothers and sisters face day in and day out. What I find disappointing is this comes out of England rather…
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Help in Prayer
Growing up as a Pentecostal it was assumed you just prayed. There were times we might be taught prayer, as in a “life” of prayer, but when it came to actual praying a good Pentecostal just closed their eyes and let ‘er rip. To pray someone else’s words was simply, well, backslidden. You were supposed to know God. Over the years I learned…
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We have the choice to give thanks
My reading this week took me through the tiny book of Habakkuk. The hand of the Lord he would see would be a hand of judgment as God had to deal with his people. He had the assurance that God would deal with Israel’s enemies as well, but the heartbreak for Habakkuk was knowing God had to deal harshly with…
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I Can’t Find God
There are those times when God just doesn’t seem to be there. It’s really as if the darkness does hide him. These words from Job are powerful: 8 Look, I go east; he’s not there, west, and don’t discover him; 9 north in his activity, and I don’t grasp him; he turns south, and I don’t see. 10 Surely he knows my way;…
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The Dream in My Heart
This particular article by Richard Stearns captures the dream that has been stirring in my heart. I only wish I had been able to find a way to act on the stirring as well as the pastor in the story. But that dream is still there. I’ve known in my heart the shift that has been happening and I’ve known…
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Learning to Pray
Bill Mounce has some great thoughts on learning to pray. “Please notice how the discussion starts: “Pray then like this.” The Lord’s Prayer was never intended to be mindlessly repeated as if it were some magical incantation. It is not to be recited in church while we were thinking of who is playing football this afternoon. In the verses immediately preceding our…
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The Rage and Pain in Our World
The news sometimes seems to pile up. A man chases down his wife and kills her. Then, he turns the gun on himself and commits suicide. Not long before this, another man did almost the exact same thing. People living in pain and anger. Rage that simmers beneath the surface, then explodes. In the middle of all this, we are…
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Prayer for the Day
From The Daily Office (which, it turns out, has nothing to do with the sitcom on NBC): Gracious Father, we pray for your holy Catholic (universal) Church. Fill it with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in anything it is amiss, reform it. Where…
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The Freedom of the Kingdom
if you open your heart to the hungry, and provide abundantly for those who are afflicted, your light will shine in the darkness, and your gloom will be like the noon. (Isa. 58:10, CEB) When do we find freedom in our own lives? We all live broken lives in some way. Yet, in Christ, we have the opportunity to find…
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Fasting and Loosing Chains
6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away…
Tag: Prayer
