Current Affairs and Causes on Epiphanies

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The Day of Epiphany

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Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 6:1–8, Genesis 28:10–22, 2 Kings 22:8–20, Acts 9:1–19, Luke 24:13–35 , Psalm 119:105

The Texas-based pastor Matt Chandler spent a decade working with teenagers, and during that time, he realized how a specific change takes place between sixth graders and ninth graders. As Chandler say...

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The Love of God Wrapped About Him

Author

Thomas Kelly

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Scripture

Psalm 4:1-3, Psalm 30:5, Romans 8:28, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Psalm 34:18, Isaiah 43:2, Psalm 23:4, Job 1:, Job 2:, Job 42:, 2 Samuel 11:, 2 Samuel 12:, Genesis 37:12-36, 1 Kings 17:8-24, Daniel 6:, Psalm 34:18

The sense of Presence! I have spoken of it as stealing on one unawares. It is recorded of John Wilhelm Rowntree that as he left a great physician’s office, where he had just been told that his advanci...

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Crises Reveal God & Us

Author

Marlena Graves

Keywords

Crises

Scripture

Genesis 32:28, Exodus 3:14, Job 3:11, Psalm 139:14, Isaiah 6:5, Matthew 16:15-17

God uses our identity crises to reveal who we are and who he is. Sometimes these crises come out of nowhere. Something devastating happens. Someone close to us dies. We are diagnosed, or someone we kn...

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God of glory, you sent Jesus among us

Author

Austin D. Hill

Keywords

Scripture

Colossians 3:12-13, Matthew 5:16, John 8:12, Romans 12:2, James 5:16

God of glory, you sent Jesus among us as the light of the world, to reveal your love for all people. We confess that our sin and pride hide the brightness of your light. We turn away from the poor; we...

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Author

David Brooks

Keywords

The road to character often involves moments of moral crisis, confrontation, and recovery. When they were in a crucible moment, they suddenly had a greater ability to see their own nature. The everyda...

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Lord, high and holy, meek and

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 16:24-25, Philippians 1:21, Romans 8:18, Matthew 23:12, James 4:10, Psalm 23:4

Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly, Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision, where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights; hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold thy glory. Let me lear...

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Author

Jack Kinder

Keywords

You’re not made in a crisis—you’re revealed. When you squeeze an orange—you get orange juice. When you squeeze a lemon—you get lemon juice. When a human being gets squeezed—you get what is inside—posi...

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Author

Max Lucado

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God’s greatest blessings often come costumed as disasters. Any doubters need to do nothing more than ascend the hill of Calvary.

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Author

Bill Mefford

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Pentecost . . . The Holy Spirit fills the disciples and they speak in tongues they likely do not understand themselves. It is an uncontrolled public witness – uncontrolled by human agendas – as well a...

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Author

Dallas Willard

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Individual disasters, too, very largely follow upon human choices, our own or those of others. And whether or not they do in a particular case, the situations in which we find ourselves are never as i...

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A Reminder of the Paradox of Christian Power and Authority

Author

Rowan Williams

Keywords

Scripture

Revelation 5:1-14, Matthew 25:31, Revelation 21:3-4

When you go into one of the great homes of the late Roman empire and you see a mosaic of Christ enthroned at the far end, you’re looking at the place where the emperor would sit. And the emperor would...

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Crisis & Peace: An Unexpected Connection

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Like many of you, I have been praying for those affected by Hurricane Ian along the Eastern shore of the United States. I've also continued to pray for Ukraine and for Russia, that peace would com...

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Author

C. S. Lewis

Keywords

Fine feelings, new insights, greater interest in 'religion' mean nothing unless they make our actual behavior better.... When we Christians behave badly, or fail to behave well, we are making ...

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The Wake-Up Call

Author

Marva J. Dawn

Keywords

For most of us, it’s a personal experience of poverty that helps us transcend our often narrow experience of the world. In this excerpt from theologian Marva J. Dawn, the former Regent College profess...

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Author

Paul Chappell

Keywords

Often we become apathetic in our lives until we face a severe storm. Whether loss of a job, health crisis, loss of a loved one, or financial struggle; God often brings storms into our lives to change ...

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Adapted from Phillipians 2

Author

Austin D. Hill

Keywords

Scripture

Philippians 2:6-8

Jesus, though you were in very nature God, you did not consider equality with God as something to be used to your own advantage. Rather, you humbled yourself, you made yourself nothing. Lord, you are ...

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Almighty God, to whom all hearts are

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Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you,...

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Inspired by John 1 and Matthew 25

Author

Ellen R. Dawson

Keywords

Scripture

John 1:14, Matthew 25:31-46

You came to us, Word made flesh, to show us what it means to love. You came to us, Word made flesh, to teach us how to serve. You came to us, Word made flesh, to remind us to clothe the naked and fe...

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Author

Aldous Huxley

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 28:10-17, Exodus 3:1-6, 2 Kings 6:15-17 , Luke 24:13-32, 1 Corinthians 13:12, Psalm 119:18

There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.

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Lord God, we acknowledge that your Word

Author

Paul Engle

Keywords

Lord God, we acknowledge that your Word is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. Your Word exposes us for what we really ar...

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Author

Frederick Buechner

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 40:28-31, Exodus 3:1-6 , Habakkuk 3:17-19 , Mark 1:14-15, Romans 8:38-39, Psalm 8:3-4

Turn around and believe that the good news that we are loved is gooder than we ever dared hope, and that to believe in that good news, to live out of it and toward it, to be in love with that good new...

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Author

Jim Elliot

Keywords

Crises

Father, make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road; make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me.

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Jesus, we receive your blessings and

Author

Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia

Scripture

Psalm 51:10, Ephesians 4:23-24, 2 Samuel 12:1-14, John 7:37-38, Philippians 2:5-8, Matthew 5:3-4, Psalm 51:10

Jesus, we receive your blessings and pray for the Holy Spirit to make them real in our lives. Renew a right spirit within us, a poor spirit, a spirit that knows our deep need of your grace and deliver...

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Stuck in the Houses Our Words Construct

Author

Gregory Spencer

Keywords

Scripture

James 3:5-6, Psalm 19:14, 2 Corinthians 4:18, Proverbs 18:21, Romans 12:2

All day long, all of us are framing and reframing our lives. We talk about the memory of our adorable but sexist grandpa. We label ourselves as movie critics or introverts or justice-lovers. We say th...

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A Franciscan Blessing

Keywords

May God bless you with a restless discomfort about easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may seek truth boldly and love deep within your heart. May God bless you...

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What Does it Mean to be Blessed?

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 32:24-30, Numbers 6:24-26, 1 Kings 17:8-16 , Matthew 5:3-12 , Luke 1:46-55, Psalm 34:18

The word blessed has been among the vocabulary I’ve removed from my daily life. In the faith of my young adulthood, it was a word that filled my conversations: a term to close out emails or to d...

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Adapted from Genesis 1

Author

Chip Hardwick

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 1:null

Leader: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, Darkness was over the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. People: Centuries before Jesus walked among us, Th...

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A Life Changed by a Stolen Gideon Bible

Author

Andy Cook

Keywords

Steve May tells the story of “Dee,” who grew up in east Tennessee in an affluent, but unchurched home. Dee’s time at college involved as much wild living as it did studying, and soon her life became a...

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Author

Bette Dickinson

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 2:8-11, Matthew 5:3, Philippians 2:6-8, Isaiah 57:15, Micah 5:2

The shepherds show us that we don’t prepare to receive the king of heaven the same way we prepare to meet the celebrities of our day, through earthly displays of showiness. In fact, receiving our King...

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Author

Andrew Arndt

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 41:39-43 , Exodus 4:22-23, 2 Samuel 9:6-7, Luke 15:17-24, Galatians 4:6-7 , Psalm 103:13-14

When he [the prodigal son] found himself desiring to be treated as one of the pigs, he realized that he was not a pig but a human being, a son of his father. . . . Once he had come again in touch with...

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