Christian Living on Speed

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Lessons in Slowing Down: Grapes and A Ford Model-T

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Scripture

Psalm 46:10, Mark 6:31, Psalm 23:1-3, Mark 1:35, Ecclesiastes 3:1, Matthew 6:28-29, Isaiah 30:15

One winter break in college, I was spending some time at a friend's house. This friend's father had recently purchased a Ford Model T and he was excited to take me for a spin. Now, If you’ve n...

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Author

Kosuke Koyama

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God walks “slowly” because he is love. If he is not love he would have gone much faster. Love has its speed. It is an inner speed. It is a spiritual speed. It is a different kind of speed from the tec...

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A Rationale for Speeding

Author

Billy Graham

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A police officer pulled over a distinguished-looking woman, the story goes, and asked why she had exceeded the speed limit. The old gentleman sitting in the passenger seat laughed and said, “Well, you...

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Author

Charles Hummel

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A fanatic has been described as a person who, when unsure of his direction, doubles his speed.

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Accelerated Growth: Stretching Your Crops

Author

Michael Steinberg

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Scripture

Hebrews 10:36, Romans 5:3-4, Mark 4:28, Galatians 6:9, Isaiah 40:31, Psalm 27:14

The inordinate desire in the west to increase productivity, to go faster and faster, especially in business, can actually become counterproductive. In this short story from the Chinese philosopher Men...

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Defining Patience

Author

Max Lucado

Keywords

Patience

Scripture

1 Corinthians 13:4

The Greek word used here (1 Cor. 13:4) for patience is a descriptive one. It figuratively means “taking a long time to boil.” Think about a pot of boiling water. What factors determine the speed at wh...

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Thaw the Chicken: Unexamined Assumptions

Author

JR Woodward

Keywords

Scripture

Joshua 9:14, 2 Samuel 6:, Nehemiah 2:, 1 Kings 12:

The Federal Aviation Administration once developed a cannon-like device to test the strength of windshields of airplanes. They actually shot a dead chicken (I’m serious) into the windshield at the app...

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Staying Quiet in a Noisy World

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

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Scripture

1 Peter 5:8, Ephesians 6:12, Proverbs 4:23, Matthew 26:41, Psalm 46:10, 1 Kings 19:11-12, John 10:10

In the Critically acclaimed 2018 horror film A Quiet Place , Earth faces an alien invasion unlike any other. In the movie, the aliens behave like merciless monsters, using their lightning-fast sp...

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God–Father, Son and Holy Spirit; Lord

God–Father, Son and Holy Spirit; Lord of all our yesterdays, todays and tomorrows: thank you that we don’t need to be afraid of what’s coming because you’re already there ahead of us. Nothing takes yo...

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God, our heavenly Father–from whom all

God, our heavenly Father–from whom all families gain purpose, direction and life: When we need bread, you don’t give a stone; and when we ask for fish, you don’t give a snake; for you are good, you ar...

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God—We’d like to have had a Hallmark

God—We’d like to have had a Hallmark card kind of week: gentle, quiet and serene, but it’s been anything but that. People died this week—and families and friends grieve. A man got bad news about cance...

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Risen and present Lord: There’s no

Author

Richard Herman

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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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The Problem with Sheep

Author

Kenneth E. Bailey

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 23:null

In his excellent study of the famous Biblical passage on shepherds, ( The Good Shepherd: A Thousand Year Journey from Psalm 23 to the New Testament ) , scholar Ken Bailey provides helpful context t...

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Sermon Illustration Tuesday (10.23.18)

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Church

It is a phone call no parent wants to receive. “Jerry,” Bethany said, “Catherine’s had a little accident.” “Accident! How bad?” “She’s going to be okay. You want to talk to her? We're in a kind o...

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A Seared Conscience

Author

J. Douglas Burford

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During my college years—in my infinite wisdom—it occurred to me that it made no sense to stop at red traffic lights when there was clearly no traffic around. So I began to stop only briefly—just long ...

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The Stalker

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Hebrews 13:6, Matthew 7:15-16, Matthew 10:28, Ephesians 6:12, 1 Peter 5:8, 2 Corinthians 11:14, Proverbs 14:12

Editor’s Note: This story is often told as a true story, when in fact it is probably fictitious. Nevertheless, there is a significant illustrative point: sometimes the things we fear most may in fact ...

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An Emotional Reckoning

Author

Brené Brown

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In navigation, the term reckoning, as in dead reckoning, is the process of calculating where you are. To do that, you have to know where you’ve been and what factors influenced how you got to where yo...

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When Failure Launches our Greatest Success

Author

Charles Colson

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Sometimes God takes our greatest failures and turns them into our greatest successes. Charles “Chuck” Colson had risen the ladder of national political success at breakneck speed. After a tour in the ...

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Adolescence and the Pings, Not Pong

Author

Craig Detweiler

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Adolescents have been offered a license to post without any accompanying ethical framework. Is it fair to blame teens for misusing tools that didn’t exist in our childhood? If I had been given a phone...

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What Kind of Inquiry does this Ordering Policy Recommend?

Author

Gregg A. Ten Elshof

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When the movie The Da Vinci Code hit the theaters and the swirl of related controversy began to pick up speed, I decided finally to read the book so that I wouldn’t be found ignorant dinner parties. I...

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The Power of the Worldwide Church

Author

Gerald L. Sittser

Keywords

Scripture

1 Corinthians 12:12-14, 1 Corinthians 12:27, Isaiah 43:2, 1 John 4:7, Romans 12:5, James 5:14-15

It is a phone call no parent wants to receive. “Jerry,” Bethany said, “Catherine’s had a little accident.” “Accident! How bad?” “She’s going to be okay. You want to talk to her? We’re in a kind of am...

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Author

Maya Angelou

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I find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God's will, but as human beings become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the ma...

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Author

Jim Rohn

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If someone is going down the wrong road, he doesn’t need motivation to speed him up. What he needs is education to turn him around.

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Author

Augustine of Hippo

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Scripture

John 6:35, Psalm 27:4, John 4:1-26, Luke 10:38-42, Psalm 139:13-14, Ephesians 3:17-19, Psalm 63:1-4

What is it then that I love when I love you? Not bodily beauty, and not temporal glory, not the clear shining light, lovely as it is to our eyes, not the sweet melodies of many-moded songs, nor the so...

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Building on a Solid Foundation

Author

A. J. Swoboda & Nijay K. Gupta

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Building an antifragile faith takes time. It can’t be rushed. Consider this: It takes (on average) around twelve to eighteen months to construct a new single-family home in America. This process incl...

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Psalm 8 | God's Majesty

Author

Scott B. Bullock

Keywords

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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Adapted from Psalm 79:5-9

Author

Cody Sandahl

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 79:5-9

How long, O Lord? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire? Do not remember against us our former iniquities; let your compassion come speedily to meet us, for we are brought very ...

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Wolves, Sheep, and Sheepdogs*

Author

Daniel G. Amen

Keywords

Sheep

In his book On Combat, Lieutenant Dave Grossman talks about people being in one of three categories on a bell-shaped curve: wolves, sheep, or sheepdogs. Most people fall into the category of being she...

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Bumper Sticker Hypocrisy

Author

Gino Grunberg

Keywords

A police officer pulled a driver aside and asked for his license and registration. “What’s wrong, officer,” the driver asked. “I didn’t go through any red lights, and I certainly wasn’t speeding.” “N...

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Paul in Prison

Author

Andrew M. Davis

Keywords

Scripture

Acts 24:27, Acts 16:25, Romans 5:3-5, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, Acts 24:26-27, Philippians 4:11-13

Roman imprisonments were brutal. There was no concern for prisoner comfort, no plan for meals or for medical care, and no concern for a just and speedy trial. Paul’s imprisonment in Caesarea went on f...

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