... counsel is found in these guidelines and emphases! Where is the therapist who could speak more directly and helpfully to our spiritual need? How shall we, his latter-day disciples, respond to this counsel? Shall we assess the quality of our faith, the extent of our love, the depth of our concerns, the sincerity of our commitment, the degree of our courage, the validity of our prayer life? Shall we check up on ourselves to make sure we are involved with God in his agenda, rather than trying to go it alone in ...
... Signor Marchesi and get them from him. PIETRO: What if he will not give? FRANCO: Then tell him his soul will be consumed to the flames of eternal hell. Go. (Pietro goes.) CESCA: We must hurry! (They exit.) Scene The Fourth in which a little boy with a noble and loving heart removes a curse. GIUSEPPE: I am cold. Very cold. Who is this? It is little Antonio. What is he doing here? He's just a little boy. Two days ago he was begging for sweet cakes, and I yelled at him and chased him away. Sleep well, little ...
... side of the face; ...give your coat as well as your shirt to anyone who asks; ...go farther than you have to when you are pressed into service by someone; ...respond generously to everyone who asks for financial help or a loan. Those maxims are surely lovely to contemplate in one’s mind, but it would be totally ridiculous to live according to them. From the perspective of the world we live in, they don’t make much sense at all. This world seems to be filled with ruthless robbers, murderers, rapists, and ...
... he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body." In Norway, there is a small church called the Church of the Lamb. Instead of having a cross on its steeple, it has the figure of a lamb. The people of that village love to tell why that lamb was placed on the top of their church. One day, as work was being completed on the brand new church building, a young man lost his footing and slipped from the steeple. At the precise moment that he was falling toward the ground, a flock ...
... close by. We sing all sorts of hymns that indicate the crying need of the soul: "Just a Closer Walk With Thee," "Draw Me Nearer," "O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go," "Still, Still With Thee," "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." Persons of all time have echoed the urgency to ... song: "All my life was full of sin when Jesus found me, All my heart was full of misery and woe; Jesus placed His strong and loving arms around me, And He led me in the way I ought to go. No one ever cared for me like Jesus, There’s no ...
... sin - "You are the man!" In a day when wickedness is in high places and cases of injustice are common, people who have the fire of love in their bones need to speak up and cry out for God’s cause. This does not say you will not get criticized or condemned ... on the Mafia’s hit list or lose your job or have a cross burned on your front lawn. Why then oppose evil and falsehood? The love of God burning in our bones drives us to do it! The Fire of Praise No Christian can help but shout and sing praises to one ...
... ; sin is doing violence to our highest nature. It is tearing down something essential at the center of life; it is breaking with the purpose of the universe. Sin is violating eternal truth. Sin is rebellion against God; and it breaks the heart of God. Sin is sin against the love of God revealed to us in the death of Jesus. James (4:10) lets us in on a secret: "Humble yourself before God, and he will lift you up; turn on evil and evil will flee from you; come close to God and he will come close to you." If ...
... this calculated risk. Yet it is better to take this risk than to let us settle into a complacency that no longer even knows a savior is needed and thus to end the search before it is begun. The calculated risk itself is a sign of God’s enduring love which cannot permit his creation to get bogged down within itself of its own inertia! So God comes to a Cornelius and terrifies him but directs him in turn to send for a man named Simon. Meanwhile, Peter is having a struggle of his own, for it is unthinkable ...
... , "Christ is the end of the law" (Romans 10:4). To one who serves "in the new life of the Spirit" the reign of the law has ended. He has entered into a new relation to God which is determined by grace, in which love is the compelling motive. And love is incommensurate with any form of legalism. Justification If sin has broken man’s filial relation to God, and man cannot repair the break by obeying God’s law, how is the restoration of fellowship with God brought about? Paul’s answer is the doctrine ...
... in a tiny pinpoint of light, and that very dim. A woman in a hospital with a pain in her side is facing surgery tomorrow. She is prone to see all of life in the light of that immediate circumstance. She is likely to forget the immeasurable value of the love with which she is surrounded. She may not be aware of all the good things life has brough to her up to this time; it may seem to her now that never in her life has she ever seen a golden sunrise. And the little pinpoint of light in which ...
... things than we do, those who outdo us, those who succeed where we fail, those who are more fortunate than we, those who win the election we wanted to win, those who get the girl or the guy we wanted, those who land the job we wanted. This is the love of the saints! If we allow our minds and hearts to be incubators of envy, we may be tempted to lie or steal or commit adultery or even kill to satisfy the green-eyed monster within us. Even if we resist those temptations, we will surely be alienated from that ...
... our direction, and then helps us respond to him. From the moment God began forming us in our mother's womb, he began calling us. I love the story about the friendly postman who stopped on his rounds to talk with a 4-year-old about his new baby sister. He asked, "Can ... this: "Butch, a Christian is a person who has heard and responded to God's call, who is a transmitter of God's love, and who is secure in the safe- keeping of Jesus Christ." Everyone has heard of the famous Hatfield-McCoy feud. From 1864 through ...
... can think of no better way to spread the words than through your column. I hope you will deem it worthy. "We’ve come to the end of another day, Hear me, dear Father, as I pray. Thank thee for all the blessings we share And keep me in thy loving care." That modern prayer comes close to the way a little Jewish child in Jesus’ day addressed God at bedtime. Before that child closed his eyes in sleep, he would say these words from Psalm 31:6 - "Into thy hands I commend my spirit." When David’s greater Son ...
... !" The order of things that had been bypassed because of the pottery’s vanity and impatience, comes around to make a form of judgment against it. GOOD NEWS SHINES through our text today. It is the good news of God’s ordering power at work through his steadfast love. He is working for those who wait for him, who live in patient obedience to his order until his time is fulfilled, in the lives of those who wait for him. God ordained that our waiting would not be in vain. In the fullness of time the coming ...
... . Life that was destined to reach through the centuries and affect even us this night. That night, in the form of a tiny, squirming, helpless, dependent baby, born in a stable, in a miraculous way that has bewildered the generations - inspired poets, artists, and musicians - the Love and Truth and Wisdom of all the ages took human form and entered the life of mankind and became one of us. Here was the hope of which the prophet spoke when he said, "The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall ...
... the politics of our nation, the affairs of our world, be a sign from God calling us to repentance also? We need to ask ourselves regularly, "What is God trying to tell me?" because in his mercy, God is active in our lives, trying to tell us how much he loves us and how dearly he wants our salvation. Thank God that in his grace he has made us alert to his signs in our life. We have seen God’s signs, signs that all Christians share, like Baptism, the Word and the Body and Blood of Jesus, and individual ...
... It hurt. His son was about to cry. Before he did, he looked up into his father’s eyes. There he saw, not anger, but only love and sorrow that he had accidentally hurt his son. Instead of crying, the little fellow broke out laughing. It made all the difference in the world ... has put it, "It is not that we can’t find God; the truth is we can’t get rid of him." He pursues us in love. Let’s get one thing straight: suffering is not to be enjoyed. You do not lie down and let it run over you. You fight ...
... in the path." (A paraphrase) The front door of the tomb opens upon this life. But the back door opens upon the Eternal. There are two doors. Be not afraid! God is in charge here! You have just come home. I believe that Christ is the Being of Light. He loves us. He is waiting for us there. I am not afraid to go where Christ has gone. Death is the last of life’s traumatic experiences and Christ has conquered it. "This is the Victory, even our faith." There is a small book that comes out of England, God at ...
... her. Playing Time: 3 minutes Setting: At home Props: None Costumes: Contemporary Time: Now Cast: Husband Wife (HUSBAND AND WIFE ARE TALKING AS THEY ENTER) WIFE: Yes. Yes! HUSBAND: No. No! WIFE: Oh, yes, you will. HUSBAND: Oh, no, I won't. WIFE: You will, because I don't love you. HUSBAND: I still won't give you a divorce. WIFE: Yes, you will. I have friends that will testify for me in court. HUSBAND: You won't ever get to court, because I'm not going to file for divorce and you won't. WIFE: And why won ...
... it will not take you long, only eight brief chapters - there is not a single mention of God. Not once. A wonderful collection love poems, OK...but holy scripture? Some have rushed to its defense. One famous Jewish teacher, Rabbi Akiba, claimed that, "The whole world is ... for a fairer tax system. He says, "I've spent a lot of time studying the New Testament, and it has three philosophies: love God, love each other, and take care of the least among you. I don't think anyone can justify putting an income tax on ...
... being more aware than ever of the faith she yet has in him, he will seek to be a better man, a more faithful and loving husband. So it is in our relationship with God. If you know yourself forgiven, truly forgiven, today will be a turning point in your ... We are free to make a new start. We are free to forgive one another. But one thing more, forgiveness allows us to accept the love God has for us. Someone has said that a person who knows himself to be a sinner avoids church like an overweight person avoids ...
... it away, you still have a lot of it left over? Can you guess what it is? The answer is love. Love is the one thing that never runs out. No matter how much love you give away, you'll always have plenty left over. And you know why love is like that? Because love comes from God. God loves everybody, and He puts love in our hearts so that we can love everybody too. There may be some people we don't feel like loving. Maybe we don't want to love the person who tripped us out on the playground, or we don't want to ...
... St. Paul, some of the most famous words ever penned, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose . . ." (NIV) Say what? "In all things God works for the good . . . ?" Does God know ... had? Life is hard, but God is good. Paul writes, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose . . ." But there's one thing more to be said. You and I have the opportunity to ...
... story of a mom who wanted her child to start life in the right direction and be reminded throughout life of the right direction. (1) Most successful families are church families, but that is not necessarily the same as being connected to Christ. When you really love someone, a part of them lives in you. You see the world through their eyes. You absorb some of their values and attitudes. Even when you are away from them, you carry a piece of them in your heart. Your life bears the imprint of their influence ...
... our life and our strength. But we dare not stop here, or we will still be playing church rather than playing Jesus. It is clear that Christ calls us to be more than a shrine. The Christian church is not a place but a people--a people bound together in love and in mission. In his letter to the Corinthians Paul is writing to a church being torn apart by dissension. I am reminded of the story of a shoe salesman who had shown a certain woman more than 25 pairs of shoes before she settled for the first pair that ...