Thought Exercise on Going Through

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Mental Disorders & Fear

Author

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 41:10, Genesis 15:1, Exodus 14:13–14, Philippians 4:6–7, Psalm 34:4, Mark 4:39–40

There was a time when adults were neatly categorized into one of two groups: you were either neurotic or psychotic. Psychotic meant that you were out of touch with reality and afraid; neurotic meant t...

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The Two Great Questions

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

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Scripture

Genesis 50:19-20 , Job 19:25-27, Isaiah 25:7-8 , John 11:25-26, Romans 8:38-39 , Psalm 23:4

In a poignant tribute written after his son’s passing in a climbing accident, Nicholas Wolterstorff reflects: When we have overcome absence with phone calls, winglessness with airplanes, summer he...

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Mental Health Today

Author

Alan Noble

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Scripture

1 Kings 19:1-18, Job 3:6-7, Lamentations 3:17-26, Matthew 26:36-46, 2 Corinthians 1:3-11, Psalm 42:5-11

We don’t know what we are doing, and I think this is especially true about the way our society deals with mental health. In just the past fifteen years, I have witnessed a massive shift in how evangel...

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The Impact of Going Through the Fire

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

John 3:16-17, Romans 5:8, 1 John 4:9-10, Matthew 27:45-50, Isaiah 53:1-5, Luke 23:34, 2 Corinthians 5:14-15, Ephesians 5:2, John 15:13

In George Bernard Shaw’s play about Joan of Arc , as Joan faces her execution by burning, she addresses those in power who have condemned her: “I will now go to the common people and find comfort in ...

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Living in Transition

Author

William Bridges

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I became interested in the subject of transition outer changes around 1970 when I was going through some difficult inner and outer changes. Although I gave up my teaching career because of those chang...

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You’ll Get Through This

Author

Max Lucado

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 14:22, Deuteronomy 29:5, Psalm 23:4, Psalm 77:19, Isaiah 43:2, Daniel 6:22, Acts 12:7

You fear you won’t. We all do. We fear that the depression will never lift, the yelling will never stop, the pain will never leave…We wonder: Will this gray sky ever brighten ? This load ever lighten...

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Pursuing a Version of Something

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Scripture

John 10:10, Psalm 16:11

There is a lovely book of advice for writers called Turning Pro by Steven Pressfield, which talks about how much easier it is to pursue a version of something than the real thing. Pressfield say...

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The Usher’s Prayer

Author

Donald S. Whitney

Keywords

Going Through the Motions

I pastored a church in the Chicago area for almost fifteen years. During the worship service one Sunday morning the ushers came forward to receive the offering, and one of the ushers was asked to pray...

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The Music Must Always Play

Author

Fleming Rutledge

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 41:10, Psalm 56:3, 2 Timothy 1:7, Deuteronomy 31:6, Matthew 6:25-34, 1 John 4:18, Luke 1:30

As Europe plunged ever deeper into a second world war, the British poet W.H. Auden composed a poem (“September 1, 1939”) that peels back our human tendency to cover up all fear and uncertainty with se...

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Jonathan Swift’s Exhortation for Two

Author

Jonathan Swift

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While primarily known today as the author of Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift also served as an Anglican priest in his home country of Ireland. While his writing gained significant traction througho...

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Recording Your Prayers?

Author

Donald S. Whitney

Keywords

Scripture

1 Samuel 1:12-15, Daniel 6:10, James 5:16, Ecclesiastes 5:2, Romans 8:26

When prayer consists of the same spoken sentences on every occasion, naturally we wonder at the value of the practice. If our prayers bore us, do they also bore God? Does God really need to hear me sa...

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The Messy Middle

Author

William Bridges

Keywords

Crises

Scripture

2 Corinthians 4:8-9, Hebrews 10:23, Romans 12:2, Psalm 37:23-24, Philippians 1:6, Isaiah 43:19, Ecclesiastes 3:1

The Messy Middle In his classic work Transitions, author and professor William Bridges shares an excellent anecdote about life in crisis: it can happen at any time and in a myriad of ways. It also de...

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Rewiring Our House is Painful

Author

Ken Costa

Keywords

Scripture

Philippians 1:6, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Romans 12:2, Isaiah 40:31, 1 Peter 1:6-7, James 1:2-4

God stretches our faith in order to prepare us to receive his promises. That often requires painful rewiring. We need updating, just as an old house may need rewiring. The old electrical wires might b...

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The Kinds of Being Spiritually Lost

Author

Don Everts and Doug Schaupp

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 7:7-8, Proverbs 27:17, Luke 15:4-7, Luke 19:10

The second lesson this group of new believers has shown us is that the postmodern path to faith is organic. Lostness, of course, looks different depending upon your perspective and personality. It is ...

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A Social Media Fast

Author

Marlena Graves

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 30:15

So in the last three years, in order to reorient myself and head back onto the narrow way, I’ve given up social media and/or the internet for Lent. At first it’s agonizing. I’m like a caffeine or nico...

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Always Make Sure You Are Aiming at the Right Target

Author

Vance Pitman

Keywords

If you were lucky enough to watch the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, you probably remember swimmer Michael Phelps bursting onto the international scene. Phelps won six medals in those ga...

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Grief in Modern Life

Author

Jason Baxter

Keywords

In 2011, the online publication, Slate, surveyed its readers about their experiences of grief. Apparently, grief was a hot topic for many readers because they received nearly 8,000 responses within on...

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The Bible a Great Comfort

Author

Andy Cook

Keywords

Scripture

2 Timothy 3:16-17, Romans 15:4, Isaiah 55:11, Hebrews 4:12-13, 2 Peter 1:19-21, Matthew 4:4, Matthew 24:35, Isaiah 41:8-10, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, Psalm 46:, Genesis 37:12-36, 1 Samuel 19:, 1 Samuel 20:, 2 Corinthians 11:23-30, 2 Corinthians 4:17, Acts 21:27-36

For seven years, Terry Anderson was held as a hostage of Shiite Muslim fundamentalists. The former reporter for the Associated Press had been taken captive and held as a political prisoner, and for se...

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What the Internet Reveals about Us

Author

Olga Khazan

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 23:27, Isaiah 29:13, Luke 12:2, 1 Peter 3:4, James 5:16

People can say one thing and do something totally different. You see the darkness that is often hidden from polite society. The thing that you see is a widespread insecurity. I think people put on a f...

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First and Third World Fears & Authentic Worship

Author

Mark Labberton

Keywords

Fear

Scripture

Psalm 27:null, 1 John 4:19

One Sunday I was preaching on Psalm 27. It is a remarkable psalm of hope for God’s- deliverance from fear for those who have faced tough times. With the same candor found in many psalms, this one vivi...

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A Desperate Prayer, a Quiet Answer

Author

Andrew Purves

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 3:20, John 11:40, Psalm 30:2, Jeremiah 32:27, Romans 8:11, Psalm 46:1, Isaiah 41:10

In his important book, The Crucifixion of Ministry, seminary professor Andrew Purves describes what he needed as he faced down a cancer diagnosis and the upcoming chemotherapy he would soon endure: ...

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They Were All Laughing at Me

Author

Brett McCracken

Keywords

Several years ago, when I was about to speak in a seminary chapel, the seminary’s president introduced me and noted that my sons were with me in the front row. He announced each of their names and ask...

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A Deep Breath and a Turn

Author

Eugene H. Peterson

Keywords

There is an interesting history of the word repentance. The word in Hebrew means originally “to take a deep breath and sigh.” A deep feeling of sorrow, of remorse. Repentance at the root, at the very ...

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Hiking or Sauntering?

Author

John Muir

Keywords

Pilgrimage

Hiking – I don’t like either the word or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains – not hike! Do you know the origin of that word ‘saunter?’ It’s a beautiful word. Away back in the Middle A...

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Waiting: Leaning into the Pain

Author

Ashley Hales

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 16:2–4, Isaiah 40:31, Lamentations 3:25–26, Matthew 4:2–4, Romans 8:24–25, Psalm 130:5–6

With the global coronavirus pandemic in spring 2020, life stopped. Overwhelmed by the threat of a disease we couldn’t stop and for which we didn’t have the hospital capacity, everyone moved work and s...

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The Value of Not Watering Your Plants

Author

William Rowley

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 37:7, Hosea 12:6, Psalm 27:14, Isaiah 40:31, Psalm 130:5-6, James 5:7-8

An experienced gardener knows the value of not watering their tomatoes. Well, there's a little more to it, but that's the headline. Suppose you go to the nursery in the spring and get a tom...

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A Rough Start to Ministry

Author

Craig Groeschel

Keywords

Pastor Craig Groeschel shares the true story of his “less than promising” career as a pastor. It should serve as a reminder that rejection and criticism are never final, unless we allow them to be: ...

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The (Seeming) End of the Line

Author

Jonathan Grant

Keywords

A few years ago Christian friends of ours, after several years of marriage, came to see Esther and me to explain that their relationship had reached an impasse and that they could see no alternative b...

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Transformation in the Heartbreak Hotel

Author

Howard and Phyllis Rutledge

Keywords

It was on November 28, 1965, that fighter pilot Howard Rutledge’s plane was shot down right into the hands of the North Vietnam Army. Quickly he was shuttled to the “Heartbreak Hotel,” one of the noto...

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Going Down to the River to Pray

Author

William Rowley

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 14:21-29, Joshua 3:, 2 Kings 5:, Acts 8:36, Acts 16:13-15

Have you heard the old spiritual “Down to the River to Pray” or “The Good Old Way”? It is most famous in popular culture because of Alison Kraus’s version of the song recorded for the movie O Broth...

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