Christian Living on Speaking Out

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God Can Care for Us, Reputation and All

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There is a story of a medieval monk who was being unjustly accused of certain offenses. One day he looked out his window and saw a dog biting and tearing on a rug that had been hung out to dry. As he ...

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About Anti-Asian Racism in America (And What Your Church Can Do About)

Author

Jin Cho

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Scripture

Revelation 7:9

The following article was originally written for the author’s denominational newsletter as part of the celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. It is meant to provide some insights into t...

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Loving Others

Author

Scot McKnight

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Scripture

Colossians 3:12-14, Luke 10:25-37, John 4:1-26, Galatians 5:13-14, Matthew 22:37-39, Philippians 2:3-4, 1 John 4:7-8

Let me tell you the story of a great missionary named Frank C. Laubach (1884–1970). He grew up in the farming community of Benton, PA, and served as a Congregationalist missionary in the Philippines. ...

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Author

Winston S. Churchill

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Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

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Author

Oscar A. Romero

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Scripture

Hebrews 12:11, Galatians 6:1, 2 Timothy 4:2, Ephesians 5:11, 1 Peter 4:16, John 15:18-19, 2 Timothy 3:12

The church must suffer for speaking the truth, for pointing out sin, for uprooting sin. No one wants to have a sore spot touched, and therefore a society with so many sores twitches when someone has t...

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The Psalmist draws us into prayer

Author

Richard Herman

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Scripture

Psalm 66:16-19, Matthew 6:6-8, 1 Peter 4:10, Matthew 5:14-16, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, Isaiah 41:10, Psalm 103:1-5

The Psalmist draws us into prayer saying: Come and hear, all you who honor God and let me tell you what he has done for me. I cried out to him and God has surely listened and heard my prayer. Praise ...

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Author

Benedict of Nursia

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There are times when good words are to be left unsaid out of esteem for silence.

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Author

Abraham Kuyper

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Scripture

John 3:5-8, John 1:32, Luke 3:22, Matthew 3:16, Mark 1:10, Acts 2:1-4, John 20:22

Of Him nothing appears in visible form; He never steps out from the intangible void. Hovering, undefined, incomprehensible, He remains a mystery. He is as the wind! We hear its sound, but can not tell...

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Prep for Pentecost

Author

Jack Levison

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Pentecost Came Like Wildfire I’m lying on an ice pack early this morning, doing my back exercises and listening to Pray as You Go , a tool for meditation, with monastery bells, music, and a Bible re...

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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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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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Lord—You’re the God who notices. You

Author

Richard Herman

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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...

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Lord–You speak, and things happen. At

Author

Richard Herman

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Lord–You speak, and things happen. At the beginning—you spoke and creation happened; and you keep on speaking, giving us promises we can count on, and admonitions to heed. When we need comfort—you spe...

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Prayer of Adoration Lord—you’re

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Scripture

1 Timothy 3:16, John 1:14, 1 Timothy 1:15, 1 Peter 1:23, James 4:10, 1 John 1:9

Prayer of Adoration Lord—you’re sufficient in everything. You can create without us; save without our assistance; bring good out of evil, hope from despair and restore what we mess up. You’re soverei...

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Truth in the Pulpit: Why Intellectual Integrity Matters for Pastors

Author

William Rowley

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While sexual sin, financial scandals, and toxic work environments hurt pastoral credibility, a more subtle, and probably more common danger is carelessness with the truth. Intellectual integrity matte...

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Starving Amongst Abundance

Author

Dave Peterson

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Scripture

1 Corinthians 9:8, 1 Timothy 6:6-10, Luke 12:16-21, Matthew 16:24-28, Matthew 6:19-21

Dave Nessia was starving himself to death while hoarding food. It was on the hit reality show Alone. After 73 days alone in the wilderness, he had lost 40 lbs. and his blood pressure had fallen to 80/...

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Preaching on Parables: A Simple Framework to Teach Them Effectively

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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Scripture

Matthew 22:null, Matthew 22:1

A Special Kind of Story Most Christians have some idea of what a parable is. Ask an adult Sunday school class and you might hear: “It’s a story!” Another might chime in, “with a moral message!” Mer...

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5 Steps to Handling Strife Within the Church

Author

Mike Kenyon

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Scripture

James 4:1, Philippians 2:14, 1 Corinthians 14:33, James 1:5

Conflict in Ministry Have you ever whispered to yourself, “I didn’t sign up for this?” I confess those words have passed through my mind more than once over the years. When I started out in ministry...

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The Creeds Connection to The Body of Christ

Author

Deanna A. Thompson

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Confession of Faith

Despite belonging to a church where recitation of the creeds is an integral aspect of worship, I was for many years part of that group of moderns Pannenberg referenced who have wondered (sometimes sil...

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The Eternal Weight of Glory: The Shadow of Our Future Selves

Author

N. T. Wright

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Scripture

Philippians 1:6, 2 Corinthians 4:17

In this short excerpt, the scholar and Anglican clergyman N.T. Wright discusses the famous “weight of glory” passage in 2 Cornthians 4:17: For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an ...

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Struggling to Feel Chosen

Author

M. Robert Mulholland Jr.

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Scripture

Ephesians 1:3-6

Commenting on Ephesians 1:3-6, M. Robert Mulholland describes just how powerful it can be personally, when we recognize that we were chosen by God, especially for children who are the result of an unp...

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A Modern Worldview

Author

Annie Dillard

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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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Repentance Makes Way for God’s Grace

Author

Billy Graham

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Scripture

Matthew 4:17

Repentance is a very unpopular word. But the first sermon Jesus ever preached was “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). This was God speaking through His Son. Jesus had come w...

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What Your Prayers Reveal

Author

Timothy Keller

Keywords

Prayer

A pastor and friend of mine, Jack Miller, once said he could tell a great deal about a person’s relationship with God by listening to him or her pray. “You can tell if a man or woman is really on spea...

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The Value Remains the Same

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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Scripture

Philippians 1:6, 1 John 3:1, 2 Corinthians 3:18, Romans 8:29, Ephesians 2:10, Jeremiah 31:3

Garry Smalley was a Christian counselor and prolific author. He was known for one particular illustration about the intrinsic value each of us has as children of God. Speaking at a large event, he ask...

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The Meaning of Blessing

Author

Henri J. M. Nouwen

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Scripture

Genesis 12:1-4, Psalm 1:1-3, Matthew 5:3-12, Galatians 3:8-9, Genesis 12:2-3, Genesis 27:1-40

Let me first tell you what I mean by the word “blessing.” In Latin, to bless is benedicere. The word “benediction” that is used in many churches means literally: speaking (dictio) well (bene) or sayin...

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Kissing a Leper

Author

Francis of Assisi

Keywords

Mercy

Scripture

Matthew 25:40, Luke 10:33-34, James 1:27, Philippians 2:3-4, Isaiah 58:6-7

Francis of Assisi was riding a horse down the road that went by a leper hospital situated far from Assisi, for then, as in biblical times, lepers were a rejected lot. Francis was not yet the saint of ...

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Defining the Gospel

Author

Carl Medearis

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Scripture

John 14:6, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, Acts 4:12, Colossians 1:15-20, Galatians 2:21, Romans 10:9-10, Romans 6:23

I’ve been reading Donald Miller’s Searching for God Knows What . Miller took this point to an even further extreme. In his book, he tells a story about one occasion when he was speaking to a class at...

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The Return of the King

Author

R. Alan Culpepper,

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Scripture

Revelation 19:16, Matthew 2:2, John 18:36-37, Revelation 17:14, Zechariah 9:9, Isaiah 9:6, Psalm 24:7-10, Colossians 1:15-20

Lord John Culpepper was witness to a dramatic turn of events in English history. He was a member of the privy council of King Charles I, who was executed in 1649, apparently contrary to the law and th...

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The Meeting Place of Deep Intentionality and Self-Forgetting

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In his prose and poetry, David Whyte shares what David Brooks refers to as “emotional joy” in his book, While not necessarily unique to the Christian, this type of joy has the ability to draw us towar...

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