Bible and Theology on Town

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Prayer for Local Government

Keywords

Almighty God our heavenly Father, send down upon those who hold office in this State (Commonwealth, City, County, Town, ____________) the spirit of wisdom, charity, and justice; that with steadfast pu...

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Prayers of the People, Form I

Scripture

Romans 8:38-39, Acts 2:42-47, Mark 4:35-41, Luke 17:11-19, Psalm 68:19

Deacon or other leader With all our heart and with all our mind, let us pray to the Lord, saying "Lord, have mercy." For the peace from above, for the loving-kindness of God, and for the ...

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“I’m Going Home, I’m Going Home”

Author

James S. Hewett

Keywords

Scripture

Philippians 3:20-21, Revelation 21:3-4, 2 Corinthians 5:1, Psalm 23:6, John 14:2-3

A prominent citizen in town was dying. As he lay in his lovely home, the best doctors surrounding him, he whispered, with a note of despair, ‘I’m leaving home, I’m leaving home.’ Across town there la...

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Location, Location, Location

Author

William W. Klein

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 10:25-37, Matthew 13:34-35, Acts 13:15, Mark 12:28-31, John 10:22-23

As in buying real estate, three principles are crucial to understanding a person’s words: location, location, and location. We cannot make sense of what someone says unless we understand the context i...

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The Construction of Utopias

Author

Eugene H. Peterson

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 16:10, Acts 17:26-27, Zechariah 4:10, Matthew 25:21, Colossians 3:23-24

One of the seductions that continues to bedevil Christian obedience is the construction of utopias, whether in fact or fantasy, ideal places where we can live the good and blessed and righteous life w...

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Where is God? Hanging From the Gallows

Author

Jonathan Cornell

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 27:46, Hebrews 4:15, 1 Peter 3:18, John 19:30, 1 Peter 4:13

In Elie Wiesel’s Night , Eliezer is a Jewish teenager, a devoted student of the Talmud from Sighet, in Hungarian Transylvania. In the spring of 1944, the Nazis occupied Hungary. Increasingly repressi...

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Missing the Signs

Author

Eunice McGarrahan

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 12:54-56, Matthew 16:1-4, Isaiah 60:1, Romans 13:11, Psalm 119:105, Genesis 12:1

Earl Palmer frequently tells the story of a cross-country with two other young pastors early in his pastoral ministry. They were making a cross-country trip from the East Coast back to California. I...

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Preaching the Bible's Stories

Author

Paul Koptak

Keywords

300 10-Minute Devotions For the past six years I’ve been a volunteer chaplain at Haywood Pathways Center , a Christian residential program for people working to turn their lives around from addict...

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O Simplicitas

Author

Madeleine L'Engle

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 2:19, John 1:14, Matthew 2:9-11, Luke 2:8-12, Matthew 2:1-2, Luke 2:6-7

An angel came to me And I was unprepared To be what God was using. Mother I was to be A moment I despaired, Thought briefly of refusing. The angel knew I heard According to God’s word, ...

Quote

Author

Barbara Brown Taylor

Keywords

Scripture

Mark 16:1-8

Mark did not know exactly what we would be scared of all these years later; he just knew we would be. By ending his gospel right there, right in the middle of a sentence, he also left us free to decid...

liturgy

Inspired by Psalm 23 (1)

Author

Paul Engle

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 23:null

Father, we come to express our appreciation for you as our great Shepherd. We are your sheep whom you know by name. Accept now the praise we as your flock offer in your presence. We thank you sincere...

liturgy

God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—our

God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—our Loving Creator, Redeemer and Guide: We praise and thank You for being with us wherever we are on the journey of faith; whether we feel You or not—You are here wit...

liturgy

Holy God–Father, Son and Spirit: We

Holy God–Father, Son and Spirit: We come with our agendas in order to enlist you in our causes but You won’t be co-opted for our small visions. Instead, You hold out a greater vision and purpose and i...

liturgy

Lord–Father, Son and Holy Spirit: Thank

Author

Richard Herman

Keywords

Scripture

Nehemiah 1:1-11, Acts 16:25-34, Mark 4:35-41, Acts 2:1-13, Luke 10:25-37, Matthew 11:28-30, Acts 1:8

Lord–Father, Son and Holy Spirit: Thank You that there’s no place we can hide from Your Spirit, no place we can flee from Your presence. We can’t go beyond the reach of Your love, nor out-distance the...

liturgy

Lord—You’re the God who notices. You

Author

Richard Herman

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 5:7, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, Psalm 34:15, Mark 4:39-40, Luke 7:12-15, Mark 10:46-52, Luke 19:5-6

Lord—You’re the God who notices. You notice a desperate woman who touches Your garments in a crowd. You notice a lonely, little tax-collector in a tree. You notice a blind man on the roadside, a widow...

liturgy

Loving God ~ Father, Son and Holy

Author

Richard Herman

Scripture

James 1:17, 1 Peter 5:6-7, Philippians 4:6-7, Romans 15:13, John 14:27, Isaiah 40:31

Loving God ~ Father, Son and Holy Spirit: We are a people who are waiting: waiting to celebrate Messiah’s birth; waiting to see what this day–and every day–holds as Your blessings for us; and waiting ...

liturgy

Risen and present Lord: There’s no

Author

Richard Herman

Keywords

Scripture

James 5:14-15, Romans 8:38-39, Matthew 28:20, Isaiah 41:10, Psalm 23:4, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, Psalm 139:7-10

Risen and present Lord: There’s no place we go–near or far, high or low, familiar or strange–where you aren’t there with and even before us. There is no experience we have or feeling we feel that’s un...

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What About Weddings? A Practical Guide for Ministry Leaders

Author

Richard Herman

Keywords

Weddings

Would You Rather Do a Funeral? A wedding or a funeral? Most seasoned pastors will say, “Hands down, I’d rather do a funeral.” When you ask “Why?” you will most likely hear things like: Everybody...

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The Death of Christendom

Author

Tod E. Bolsinger

Keywords

In one generation, the place of Christianity within culture dramatically shifted as we experienced what theologians and sociologists of religion call the “death of Christendom.” Christendom isn’t Chri...

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The Costly Love of the Father: Sermon Illustration Tuesday

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 15:11-32, Psalm 23:null, John 21:15-19, Luke 19:1-10, Genesis 45:4-7, Psalm 23:5, 2 Corinthians 5:18-19

In the old American South (and in many places in the American North) a European American who invited an African American as a guest to an expensive restaurant in a white section of town would subject ...

Quote

Author

Wesley Granberg-Michaelson

Keywords

“It is good once in a while to feel oneself in the hands of God,” Søren Kierkegaard once wrote, “and not always eternally slinking around the familiar nooks and corners of a town where one always know...

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Remaining Calm Amidst a Good Shepherd

Author

Richard Dahlstrom

Keywords

Sheep

One glorious autumn…I spent an afternoon climbing with a friend who grew up raising sheep in the Alps. We were climbing near the bottom of a ski area …[near] this steep green slope where [a] delightfu...

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Reconciliation in Prison

Author

Keywords

Reconciliation

On a trip to South Africa, I met a remarkable woman named Joanna. She is of mixed race, part black and part white, a category known there as “Coloured.” As a student she agitated for change in aparthe...

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Lowering His Price Based on Appearances

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Honoré de Balzac would eventually become a celebrated writer in post-Napoleanic France. He was renowned for his complex characters and realistic writing style. But like many young and aspiring writers...

Quote

Author

Peter Kreeft

Keywords

Prayer is essentially the practice of the presence of God, and that is the road to Heaven. There is no alternative. God is the only game in town. All other roads are dead ends. Since we must give our ...

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The Origin of Santa Claus and Stockings

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 6:3-4, Acts 20:35, Proverbs 19:17, James 1:27, 2 Corinthians 9:6-7, 1 John 3:17, Matthew 25:40

The man behind the unlikely tradition of Christmas stockings is usually thought to have been Nikolaos of Myra. He was a Greek Christian who became bishop of Myra, a city of Asia Minor. Nikolaos, or Sa...

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How Transformation Happens

Author

James Bryan Smith

Keywords

Scripture

2 Corinthians 5:17, Romans 6:11-14, Galatians 2:20, Romans 8:1-2, Colossians 3:3-4, John 8:34-36, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Ephesians 4:22-24, Romans 8:15-16

In The Good and Beautiful God , James Bryan Smith describes a new Christian he happened to know who came to him one day feeling dejected. He was so excited to be a follower of Jesus, but he just co...

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You Are the Tree

Author

Jake Meador

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 1:null

In the film Of Gods and Men , director Xavier Beauvois tells the story of a small group of mostly French monks living in Algeria during a time of civil unrest. These monks live a life of quiet fideli...

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A Modern Worldview

Author

Annie Dillard

Keywords

Now we are no longer primitive. Now the whole world seems not holy….We as a people have moved from pantheism to pan-atheism...It is difficult to undo our own damage and to recall to our presence that ...

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The Church Split Over… What, Precisely?

Author

Michael L. Lindvall

Keywords

Presbyterian minister Michael Lindvall begins his fictional story about a pastor in the Midwest in The Good News from North Haven like this: I am the pastor of Second Presbyterian Church. There is...

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