Christian Living on Growing Up

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I have a lot of growing up to do. I realized that the other day inside my fort.

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Most of us have genes that make us as hardy as dandelions: able to take root and survive almost anywhere. A few of us, however, are more like the orchid: fragile and fickle, but capable of blooming sp...

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C. S. Lewis

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”My Dear Lucy, I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed...

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A Field of Chaff & Wheat Growing up Together

Author

John F. X. Harriott

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Scripture

Exodus 32:1–14 , 1 Kings 19:9–18, Isaiah 6:1–8, Matthew 13:24–30 , 1 Corinthians 1:26–29 , Psalm 51:17

The Church is not a clean, well-lit place where everything runs smoothly and actions automatically match ideals. It is, in the words of the Gospel, a field of chaff and wheat growing up together and b...

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The Maturation Process of the Soul

Author

Ronald Rohlheiser

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Scripture

Malachi 3:2-3, 1 Peter 1:6-7, Proverbs 17:3, Psalm 66:10-12, Isaiah 48:10, John 15:1-2

The human soul is like a fine wine that needs to ferment in various barrels as it ages and mellows. The wisdom for this is written everywhere, in nature, in scripture, in spiritual traditions, and in ...

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Author

Maya Angelou

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Most people don’t grow up. Most people age. They find parking spaces, honor their credit cards, get married, have children, and call that maturity. What that is, is aging.

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The Prodigal Daughter

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Scripture

Ephesians 2:4-5, Luke 19:1-10, Genesis 37:50, Isaiah 55:7, Psalm 103:8-12, Jeremiah 31:3

In What’s So Amazing about Grace?, Philip Yancey offers an updated version of the parable of the prodigal son. Growing up in the countryside in Michigan, a young girl rebels against her old-fashioned...

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A Pastor Speaks Healing

Author

Rob Reimer

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Scripture

James 5:14-15, Mark 16:17-18, Acts 4:29-30, John 14:12, 2 Corinthians 5:7

I grew up in a church where healing never happened. We had theology that Jesus healed, but I never saw anyone healed growing up in the church. One day, I’m a pastor, and I decide we have to move beyon...

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Only the Penitent Man Shall Pass

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

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Scripture

1 Peter 5:6, Luke 18:13-14, James 4:10, Acts 3:19, Matthew 3:8

With the recent release of a new installment in the Indiana Jones movie series, our family decided to re-watch the original trilogy (I like to act as though Kingdom of the Crystal Skull never existe...

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The Mayflower Pilgrims

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Jim Forest

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Pilgrim. For a child growing up in America, the word Pilgrim had no religious connotations. Mainly heard in the plural, Pilgrims referred to a community of storm-defying. Black-clad English Puritans w...

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How To Keep Your Kids From Talking All the Time (Unfortunately, Through Lying)

Author

Steve May

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Proverbs 10:19, James 1:19, Matthew 12:36, Colossians 4:6, Amos 5:13, 1 Samuel 3:

My friend Joi told me that when she was growing up, her parents invented a ploy to keep her from talking all of the time. They told her that people are allowed only so many words in one lifetime, and ...

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Punching Holes in the Darkness

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Billy Graham

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I’ve always loved the story about Robert Louis Stevenson growing up in Scotland. In those days, streetlamps didn’t just come on automatically; people were hired to light each one individually. One eve...

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Love in Action

Author

Dawn Pick Benson

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Scripture

Matthew 25:34-40, John 13:14-15, 1 John 3:17-18, James 2:15-16, James 2:15-16, 2 Corinthians 3:2-3

When I was growing up, my dad was a farmer, not a Christian. He had little interest in faith, having been told by his father that the Bible was a fairy tale. But then a local pastor took an interest i...

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The Psalms: A Playlist for the Road Trip of Life

Author

Scott B. Bullock

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Psalm 23:null, Psalm 91:null, Psalm 119:null, Psalm 133:null, Psalm 1:1-2

My Daily Soundtrack Often, my daily life is filled with a soundtrack of my own choosing. When I sit for long periods of time to do something rather mundane, like reconcile the checkbook, pay bills, ...

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Author

Henry Cloud

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James 5:16, Ecclesiastes 4:10

We grow in part by confessing our faults and weaknesses to each other (James 5:16; Eccl. 4:10). If we are always being strong and without needs, we are not growing, and we are setting ourselves up for...

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End of Construction, Thank you for your Patience

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Billy Graham

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My wife, Ruth…was one of those who could lighten heavy hearts, especially mine. I will never forget when she announced what she wanted engraved on her gravestone, and for those who have so respectfull...

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Psalm 8 | God's Majesty

Author

Scott B. Bullock

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Scripture

Psalm 8:, Psalm 144:3, Job 7:17, Hebrews 2:6-10, Matthew 21:16, 1 Corinthians 1:27-29

Ancient Lens What’s the historical context? Background Structure This Psalm of David is unique. “It is the only hymn in the Old Testament composed completely as a direct address to God.” [1] It e...

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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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The Perfect Soil for Winemaking

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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My first call to ministry was in Eastern Washington state. It turned out to be one of the most prolific winemaking regions in the country. One of the things I learned from a local winery was really qu...

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He is With us in our Crying Out to God

Author

Wesley Hill

Scripture

Mark 15:34

When the great theologian Jürgen Moltmann was sixteen years old in 1943, he was drafted into the German army and was soon captured by the Allied forces. He wound up in a prisoner of war camp in Scotla...

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The Origins of “Servant Leadership”

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

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Scripture

Philippians 2:5-8, Mark 10:45, John 13:3-5, 12-15 , Matthew 25:21, Colossians 3:23-24, Matthew 6:3-4, 1 Peter 5:5-6

The Swiss-German novelist Hermann Hesse published a short story in 1932 called "Journey to the East." In it, a group of men go on a long journey. Throughout their trip, they are accompanied ...

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Throwing Away Valuable Resources

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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Scripture

Psalm 42:, Philippians 3:13-14, 2 Corinthians 5:17, 2 Corinthians 11:24-30

In many parts of the country, leaf clean-up is an annual chore. They fall from the trees, blanket our lawns, and we often bag them up and toss them out (or burn them). There’s a lesson in this… In my...

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We are Better Together: Moving from Empire to Kingdom

Author

Angie Ward

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A Multi-faceted Church Who loses by the church and parachurch’s lack of unity and cooperation? Absolutely everyone : congregations, ministry organizations, ministry leaders, individual believers . ....

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The Redemptive Landlord

Author

Easton Garcia

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Not everyone living in a distressed neighborhood is associated with gang members, parole officers, employers, social workers, or pastors. But nearly all of them have a landlord. —Matthew Desmond, E...

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The Church's Funeral

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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Scripture

1 Corinthians 12:12-27, Ephesians 4:15-16, Revelation 3:1-3, James 2:17, Matthew 16:18, Hebrews 10:24-25, 1 Peter 2:4-5, Romans 12:4-5, Acts 2:42-47, 1 Corinthians 3:9

The story goes about a young man (or woman!) with dreams of growing a small church nestled in rural Oklahoma. Despite his relentless efforts, the church continued to teeter on the edge of extinction a...

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Sacred Space: Lessons from Ethiopia’s Church Forests

Author

William Rowley

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Too Busy for God? American work culture is all-pervasive. For many members of your congregation, it can be a real fight to get actual time off—and cell phones and the internet has made it possible to...

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God of grace and truth, hope and power:

Author

Richard Herman

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Scripture

Ephesians 6:10-11, Isaiah 58:11, Philippians 4:6-7, Isaiah 61:1, Psalm 147:3, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, Romans 15:13

God of grace and truth, hope and power: in the midst of an ever-changing world, we delight that You are constant, joyous and loving, always the same, but never stagnant or boring. That’s why we’re so ...

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Compassionate God—In Christ, you enter

Author

Richard Herman

Scripture

1 Timothy 2:1-4, Psalm 33:22, Philippians 4:6-7, John 14:1, 1 Peter 5:7, Romans 12:15

Compassionate God—In Christ, you enter our condition; you experience our sorrow and our joy ... and redeem them. By Your Holy Spirit, you carry us along: in crisis and celebration, in despair and acco...

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The Fruit Comes at the End

Author

Banning Liebscher

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In the growth cycle of fruit-bearing plants, fruit comes at the very end. The cycle starts with a seed being planted in the ground. When watered, the seed will break open and begin to put down roots. ...

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Incarnation is a Dirty Business

Author

William Rowley

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Scripture

Matthew 14:19-20, John 9:6-7, Mark 2:3-4, John 13:4-5, Mark 1:40-42, Luke 2:7, John 1:14

The gospels are earthy. People are close to the earth. They travel here and there by foot. They eat the live heads of grain growing from the soil as they walk through the fields. They get grubby and h...

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