... and in fellowship. That is when God is most real in our liveswhen we open our hearts to His Spirit and to each other. John R. Westerhoff tells a story about the three little pigs. Years had passed since the crisis with the wolf. The family of the ... until you have a cardiac arrest? Wouldn't it be better to do as Ralph Kelly does and, as St. Paul suggests in I Thessalonians 5:18: "...give thanks in all things"? You and I would live longer if we did. And we would enjoy life more. Be careful how you walk. Good ...
... , And the cost of things is put above the cost of time together; Isn’t it wonderful that from time to time, The best of us, Reach out and touch, The rest of us?" There is a lot of Gospel in that. "Perfect love casts out fear." (I John 4:18). When the late Dr. E. Stanley Jones preached on love in India, a church leader complained that though he had saturated his leadership with love, one of the laymen was making a lot of trouble and threatening to split the church. The frustrated clergyman asked Dr. Jones ...
... talk about mountaintops and valleys this morning. Sometimes our faith is a mountaintop faith. Jesus took Peter and James and his brother, John, with him and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. There they would be away from the crowds that were always ... we find his words: "We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain." (II Peter 1:18) Much more would happen to Jesus and the disciples. I would like to believe that as a result of this incident Peter and the ...
... his mother and told her he wanted to be a rabbi. "What kind of job is that," she asked, "for a good Jewish boy?" The mother of James and John had great dreams for her sons. Is there anything wrong with that? Maybe, maybe not. LET'S BEGIN BY ADMITTING THAT MOST PEOPLE AT SOME TIME IN THEIR ... I GOT THE SHAFT, (Nashville: Dimensions for Living, 1993). 3. TIME (May 25, 1987), p. 18. 4. "Great Motivators," edited by Juanita Ruiz, PERSONAL SELLING POWER, March 1995, p. 69. 5. "Distant Follower," by C. Thomas Hilton, THE ...
... my neighbor? Because I love God, and God has commanded me to love my neighbor. "No one can truly love God," says the Epistle of John, "who does not love his or her neighbor." This is how we show our love for God: we pass on God's love to others. ... loved you with a love that can only be repaid one way, ˜Love your neighbor as you love yourself.'" 1. LEXINGTON HERALDLEADER, February 18, 1994, p. 21. 2. SOME THINGS ARE TOO GOOD NOT TO BE TRUE (Nashville: Dimensions for Living, 1994). 3. Don M. Aycock, WALKING ...
... is healing in generosity of spirit. Generosity is the mark of the redeemed. The person who knows he or she has been redeemed by the generosity of God is able to be generous with others. 1. 33197, p. 18, "Washington Whispers," Contributed by Dr. John Bardsley. 2. Haddon W. Robinson, WHAT JESUS SAID (Grand Rapids, MI: Discovery House Publishers, 1991). 3. George & Meg Patterson, THE POWER FACTOR (England: Word Publishing, 1986). 4. Jamie Buckingham, PARABLES (Milton Keynes, England: Word Publishing, 1991), p ...
... as likely to drink to the point of being drunk. --Two percent of teens from happy homes admitted to attempting suicide, while 18 percent from unhappy homes said they had tried to take their own lives. --Twenty percent of those from happy homes admitted to ... , commitment, respect and a family with God at its center. 1. Internet, 11/30/99. Contributed by Dr. John Bardsley. 2. Danny Cox and John Hoover, SEIZE THE DAY (Hawthorne, N.J.: Career Press, 1994). 3. E-zine: THE FUNNIES Mailto:andychaps_the-funnies- ...
... are at the center of who we are and what we are about. Back in the 1700s song writer Charles Wesley, his brother, John Wesley, and Richard Pilmore, were holding an outdoor service, when a mob attacked them pelting them with stones. They were compelled to flee ... The Gospel of Mark (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1975), pp. 307-309. 3. Selected, Signs of the Times, December 18, 1884. (Dale Galusha http://www.pacificpress.com/signs). 4. Zig Ziglar, SOMETHING TO SMILE ABOUT, Thomas Nelson Publishers, ...
... God. For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength." (1 Corinthians 1:18-25, NIV) In the last few weeks, we have been following the theme CHOOSING CHRIST AT THE CROSSROADS. In today's Bible passage ... no less radical today than it was then. It has never lost its power to change lives or to draw fire. Turn to the book of John, chapter six. In verses 25 through 65, Jesus says that he is the bread of life, and that no one can enter God's kingdom unless they ...
... you don't know his name. Actually, Elwood's voice is heard more than 27 million times a day. This equals more than 18,000 times each minute of the day. Elwood Edwards is the man behind those three special words (No, not "I love you") but three ... lesson for today concerns that important milestone when Jesus was baptized in the river Jordan by John the Baptist. Jesus, the Word made flesh, according to the Gospel of John, humbles himself and is baptized at the hands of this wilderness preacher. Do you remember ...
... 1904 in New York City, Oppenheimer was fascinated from a young age with science. He was admitted to Harvard at 18 and graduated three years later--with honors. He studied in the finest schools in Europe prior to beginning a ... evaluating our life quite suddenly--due to a sudden crisis. Rather than a slow evolution--we find ourselves rudely awakened. When best-selling author John Grisham was in his 20s, he learned that his best friend was dying of cancer. In an interview, Grisham said, "I couldn't believe ...
... shows us a better way--the way of love. 1. Joyful Noiseletter, Jan. 2004, p. 2, "The Lord's Laughter, Jeff Totten. 2. Breakpoint commentary, Chuck Colson 3. Kingsport (TN) Times-News, 10-2-2003, p. 4a. Contributed by Dr. John Bardsley. 4. "Dear Santa" by Barbara Sjoholm, Smithsonian, December 2003, p. 128. 5. Today in the Word, June 19, 1992. 6. Toronto Globe and Mail, December 18, 1996, http://www. globeandmail. com/. 7. "Peace by Pieces," by Freddy Duntz, Guideposts, August 2001, p. 12-13. 8. "A New Light ...
... comes the training. If you're going to be a champion at any endeavor, you've got to be willing to give your best. Pastor John Ortberg once said something that I think is enormously important. He was speaking on the biblical admonition to train for godliness. Here is what he ... , O, The Oprah Magazine, November 2003, p.174. 4. "A Couple of High Climbers" by Carole Bula, Time magazine, June 18, 2001, p. 62. 5. The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene, Profile Books, Profile Books Ltd., London, England, 2002, p ...
... who were experts at making other people feel unworthy. Listen again, my friend. The person who puts other people down isn't sure of his or her own acceptance or approval. John 3:17, "The Son came into the world not to condemn he world but that the world through him might be saved." I like the way Clarence Jordan translated II Corinthians 5:17-18 in his COTTON PATCH VERSION OF THE EPISTLES: "God was in Christ hugging the world to Himself. He has bridged the gap between Himself and us and has given us the ...
... with him. And then Jesus says these words: "I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." (John 1: 51) Jacob got it wrong all those years ago. The stairway to heaven was not in a place. It was in a person--the Person of Jesus Christ, who ... 1990), p. 197. 5. Richard Exley. Deliver Me (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1998), pp. 18-19. 6. Pearl Bailey, "Great Motivators," edited by Juanita Ruiz, Personal Selling Power, March 1995, p. 69.
... the Church is dead, but Jesus said, “I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it!” (Matt. 16:18) And Jesus said to the doomsayers: “Why do you make a tumult and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping. And they laughed ... that blustery old devil became a leader of the apostolic band. He laid His hands on the other disciples...and James and John, the so-called “Sons of Thunder,” who were as ambitious and freewheeling as any wall-street broker, became students of a ...
... tricky phrases in the Bible which requires some understanding.John defines it succinctly: “This is eternal life, (present tense,) that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” (John 17:3) “Eternal Life” is a life lived in ... drive us to God, to where we say with the tax collector in Jesus’ parable: “God be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13) And then comes the good news: “But God showed His love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died ...
... Church. That boy became Tito, the Communist leader of Yugoslavia after World War II. About the same time an altar boy named Peter John served at Mass in St. Mary''s Cathedral, Peoria, Illinois. This altar boy, too, dropped the wine cruet. In later life, that boy ... rather than Christ. Another set of words started a fire of faith that still illuminates truth to a darkened world. Proverbs 12:18 says, "Thoughtless words can wound as deeply as any sword--but wisely spoken words can heal." Secondly, we can use our ...
... EMPTYING and EXALTING. I believe I find some of the same truths taught in this passage by Paul in our Lord Jesus Christ''s teaching in Luke 18:9-14 of the familiar story of two men who went to the temple to pray. It is not surprising to me that I studied this great ... of a person''s skin. The key words found in Paul''s ancient writing that we read today and the experience of John Howard Griffin are EMPTYING and IDENTIFYING. When we can identify with another, we know the footsteps they must travel in, and it ...
... have an inheritance which is undefiled." Jesus has gone on before us. We can''t claim what isn''t already there. In John Steinbeck''s great novel, THE GRAPES OF WRATH, a migrating "Okie" family is told not to waste vital packing space on photographs ... the wilderness to preach the gospel....? I was horrified recently when Dan Rather shared on the evening news a recent finding that 18% of American children couldn''t locate our nation on a world globe. Our past and heritage remind us we are not orphans, but ...
... you will come again to notice that the middle letter is "I." Basically, sin is the big "I." According to the Apostle Paul in Romans 1:18-25, it is when we begin to worship the creature rather than the Creator. It is when we want to decide what is right and wrong ... cross is a reminder of how far man will go in hate and horror. Second, the cross reminds us of the heart of God''s love. John 3:16, exclaims, "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son." If you want a picture of what the heart of God ...
... surface Jesus' ignominious death on the cross seems to make no sense. We remember, however, what Saint Paul (1 Corinthians 1:18) said about this apparent contradiction in our faith, "For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing ... , unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (John 12:24). Again Jesus tells us, "For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake ...
... traveling with him the road to Glory. That is our focus for the message today. I want us to center on verse 18. How suggestive is that word of Jesus: listen to it. “I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven.” Jesus is reflecting on ... of oneness with Christ. But it is consistent with all of Jesus’ teaching. You remember his metaphor of the vine and the branches in chapter 15 of John’s gospel in which Jesus tells us who God is, and who he is in relation to God, and who we are in relation to him: I am ...
... Christ offers it. The Bible is right. As we think in our hearts so we are. Paul uses a remarkable phrase in Ephesians 1:18. "The eyes of your heart." You see, our hearts do have eyes by which we see ourselves from the very depths of our personality. " ... our lives is Jesus. Therefore, our self-concept may and can be established by what He thinks of us. Listen again to our text from John. See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called the children of God; and that is what we are. The reason ...
... save it" (Mark 8:35). "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32). "I will not leave you desolate; I will come to you" (John 14:18). "He who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die" (John 11:25-26). Faith, therefore, consists in believing those promises and acting as if they will come true. To be sure, the evidence seems often against the fulfillment of Christ's words. When we are beset ...