Faith and Work on New Life

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Prayer of Adoration God, Almighty –

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Prayer of Adoration God, Almighty – holy, gracious, truthful and loving, we’re drawn by Your invitation to enjoy Your love, an invitation to feel Your touch and hear Your voice, to taste and see tha...

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Divine Do-Overs: God's Renewable Compassion

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

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Scripture

John 3:3, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Revelation 21:5, Lamentations 3:22–23, Jonah 3:1–10 , Isaiah 1:18, Luke 15:11–32, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Psalm 103:10–12

Hope remains possible even amid our failures—whether we disappoint God, let down our families, or fall short of our own expectations—because divine compassion operates like an inexhaustible well. Each...

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Faithful God–Father, Son and Holy

Faithful God–Father, Son and Holy Spirit: You are always there in times of transition or trial, times of uncertainty and anxiety, or times of accomplishment and celebration. You do not leave us nor fo...

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Leader: Come, let us be about our

Author

Ruth C. Duck

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Leader: Come, let us be about our preparations for a new advent of love among us. people: The wastelands of life around us cannot shut out the promise of life-giving water. leader: Hatred and warf...

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Becoming a Tiller of Soil

Author

Mark D. Roberts

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Scripture

Galatians 6:7, John 15:5, Matthew 13:23, Isaiah 28:24-26, Proverbs 12:11, Genesis 2:15

One of my favorite sections of Home Depot is the power garden tool department. Even though I have all the tools I need, I still like browsing through Home Depot’s collection of power mowers, chainsaws...

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Spirit of the Living God—Fall afresh on

Author

Richard Herman

Scripture

Philippians 4:6-7, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, Romans 8:26-27, John 14:26-27, Psalm 51:10-12

Spirit of the Living God—Fall afresh on us this day. Spirit of God present and powerful, Spirit of God fruitful and faithful, Spirit of God filling and fulfilling us as children of the Father and foll...

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An Unlikely Story of Redemption

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

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Scripture

2 Kings 5:1–14, Isaiah 53:4–5, Exodus 15:26, Mark 2:1–12, John 11:25–26, Psalm 103:2–3

David (Yonggi) Cho would go on to lead what is recognized as the largest church in the world (the Yoido Full Gospel Church), but his spiritual journey began far from Christianity. Raised as a Buddhist...

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Acknowledging the Pain: Thoughts From the Founders Desk

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

This past week I have been at a reunion with college friends (this is the main reason I missed last week's update). It's been significant for a number of reasons. I hope to unpack a few other ...

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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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That Future Life

Author

Randy Alcorn

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As he reflected on his life’s work, the famed author of Les Miserables , The Count of Monte Cristo , and many others, Victor Hugo describes what he believed about life after death, that heaven would...

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O God, Giver of all good, and Fountain

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Scripture

Psalm 118:24, James 1:17, Psalm 136:1, Philippians 4:19, Lamentations 3:22-23, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

O God, Giver of all good, and Fountain of all mercies, in whom are all the springs of our life; all glory, thanks and praise be unto thee for thine unfailing goodness; for thy faithfulness which is fr...

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Working with God through Our Work

Author

Kara Martin

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 12:2, 2 Corinthians 5:16-17, Colossians 1:17-20

Note from TPW: Kara Martin addresses life in the secular workplace, sharing insights to help you lead your congregations to understand their faith and work and also to bring the Kingdom into your o...

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O give thanks to the Lord, for he is

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O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, and his mercy and truth endure forever. Thank the God of heaven, because his goodness endures forever. Let Israel now say that his mercy endures forever. ...

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A Perfect Retirement?

Author

Eric Thurman

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In his book Thrive in Retirement, Eric Thurman shares the story of close friends preparing for their golden years: My husband was a lawyer who joked that after “the big case” came across his desk, h...

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Author

Karl Barth

Keywords

Sabbath

The command to celebrate the Sabbath, and therefore to cease and abstain from all our own knowledge, work and volition, even from all our arbitrary surrenders and inactivity, from all arbitrary quiesc...

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Author

Wendell Berry

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 2:16-17 , Exodus 20:8-10 , Job 38:4-11 , Psalm 90:12, Matthew 6:27, 2 Corinthians 12:9

We will have to start over, with a different and much older premise: the naturalness and, for creatures of limited intelligence, the necessity of limits.

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Playing Busy like a Fiddle While the World Burns

Author

Jen Pollock Michel

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 2:22-23, Psalm 46:10, 1 Corinthians 15:58

As early as April 2020, a debate raged about the responsibilities of those of us turned safely inside during this global storm. For those time privileged enough to find their calendars suddenly cleare...

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Author

Karl Barth

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 15:6, Habakkuk 2:4, Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 5:1-2, Matthew 17:20, Psalm 62:5-6

Only faith survives; faith which is not a work, not even a negative work; not an achievement, not even the achievement of humility. . . . Faith is the ground, the new order, the light. . . . Faith is ...

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Topsoil and Christ

Author

Wendell Berry

Keywords

The most exemplary nature is that of the topsoil. It is very Christ-like in its passivity and beneficence, and in the penetrating energy that issues out of its peaceableness. It increases by experienc...

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Oh Lord, our Lord, When you called your

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Oh Lord, our Lord, When you called your child Abraham out of Ur, You were beginning a new project in human history. You were creating a new people. A people who would be known as salt and light, A peo...

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Seeing the Value of Their Work

Author

Tom Nelson

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 2:15, 1 Kings 5:13-18, Colossians 3:23-24, Ephesians 4:28, Matthew 25:31-40, Psalm 90:17

After attending a conference in New York City, a pastoral colleague, Reid Kapple, was flying home to Kansas City on US Airways flight 745 when the plane suddenly lost cabin pressure. As the plane desc...

liturgy

Adapted from Psalm 126 (ESV)

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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Scripture

Psalm 126:

When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, “The LORD ha...

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Cat and Mouse Games

Author

Max Lucado

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 3:14-15, Job 1:6-12, Isaiah 14:12-15, Colossians 2:13-15, Luke 10:18-19, Psalm 91:13

My friend Carter Conlon has ministered in New York City for more than two decades. Yet he spent many of his early years on a farm. He recalls a barnyard scene that illustrates the status of Satan. A f...

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It’d Be Easier Without People

Author

Chuck DeGroat

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 15:1, Exodus 18:13-26, Matthew 18:15-17, 2 Timothy 4:2, Psalm 121:1-2

Statistics show that 80 percent of new pastors leave the ministry within five years. A friend once remarked, “If they were able to pastor churches without people, they might last ten years.” Most past...

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Just another Consumer Product?

Author

Paul Roberts

Keywords

One of the many technological transformations of the twentieth century took place right on our dinner plates. Because of its cheapness and convenience, most Americans quickly accepted new ways of eati...

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Author

Randy S. Woodley

Keywords

Shalom is meant to be both personal (emphasizing our relationships with others) and structural (replacing systems where shalom has been broken or which produce broken shalom, such as war-or greed-driv...

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Author

Karel Čapek

Keywords

We say that Nature rests, yet she is working like mad. She has only shut up shop and pulled the shutters down; but behind them she is unpacking new goods, and the shelves are becoming so full that the...

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Doing Rather Than Being

Author

A. J. Swoboda

Keywords

Sabbath is that ancient idea and practice of intentional rest that has long been discarded by much of the church and our world. Sabbath is not new. Sabbath is just new to us. Historically, Christians ...

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Sabbath-Keeping and Legalism

Author

Walter Brueggemann

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 2:1-3, Exodus 20:8-11, Deuteronomy 5:12-15, Mark 2:27-28, Matthew 12:8, Luke 6:5

For the most part, contemporary Christians pay little attention to the Sabbath. We more or less know that the day came to reflect, in U.S. culture, the most stringent disciplinary faith of the Puritan...

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Author

Wendy Wasserstein

Keywords

Are these hyperscheduled, overactive individuals really creating anything new? Are they guilty of passion in any way? Do they have a new vision for their government? For their community? Or for themse...

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