Life on Planet Earth on Being There For Someone

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"I'm With You"

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Keywords

Sometimes in our adolescence what we need most is just someone to stick by our side, even if we make some rather hasty decisions. In this short excerpt, Bob Goff tells a story from his own teenage yea...

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Case Closed?

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Daniel 3:16-18, Esther 7:3-6, Jeremiah 32:17, Psalm 2:1-6, John 20:19-20

During the infamous Dreyfus trial in France, Jewish army officer Captain Alfred Dreyfus was falsely accused of treason, sparking a national scandal marked by anti-Semitism and injustice. Among Dreyfus...

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Psalm 22 | Feeling Forsaken by God

Author

Scott B. Bullock

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 22:, Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34, Hebrews 2:12

Ancient lens What’s the historical context? A Structured Complaint The Psalmist organizes his complaint against God in three sections. The first two sections dramatize the complaint (vv. 1-11 and...

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Author

Nadia Bolz-Weber

Keywords

In the midst of grief, all anyone can really do is be with us and make some casseroles. "… I’m here. Don’t be afraid. Let’s eat. ”

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Evil is Nearby

Author

Matthew Keller

Keywords

Evil

The sad and tragic truth is that evil is never far away. Not far from where you sit right now, men, women, and children, are being forced into every type of slavery and prostitution, by people so fera...

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Author

Jonathan Franzen

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This wasn't the person he'd thought he was, or would have chosen to be if he'd been free to choose, but there was something comforting and liberating about being an actual definite someone...

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Not a Single Note of Joy

Author

Eugene Peterson

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 2:1-4, Ecclesiastes 2:10-11, Mark 8:36, Colossians 3:23-24, Romans 12:2, Psalm 127:1-2

Months of struggle, of strategy, of sacrifice all paid off in a landslide victory for President Richard Nixon in 1972. On election night his aide Charles Colson was in the place he had always wanted t...

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Suspicion Towards the Poor

Author

Kevin Blue

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 5:42, Luke 6:30, Proverbs 19:17, Matthew 25:35-36, Deuteronomy 15:7-8

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime. Therefore, don’t give a man a fish.” This is the cultural mantra of many in the middle and upper ...

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Father: Thank You for always being

Author

Richard Herman

Scripture

Psalm 34:14, Luke 15:20, Hebrews 4:14, Romans 6:4, Acts 1:8, 2 Corinthians 12:9, Psalm 25:4-5, Matthew 11:28-30, Isaiah 41:10, John 14:13, James 1:5, 2 Corinthians 9:8, Habakkuk 3:2, Isaiah 6:8, Matthew 28:19-20

Father: Thank You for always being ready to welcome us and listen to us. Thank You for sending Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Savior: born like us, experiencing all that we experience yet sinless, who d...

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Somebody Does Care

Author

Matthew Keller

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Scripture

Philippians 2:4, Galatians 6:2, John 13:34-35, Matthew 5:14,16, Isaiah 58:10, Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, Proverbs 27:9

Many years ago, I was on my way home from work and a friend came to mind. It occurred to me that I hadn’t heard from him for a few days, and I knew he had been having a tough time. (This was before th...

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Forgiveness Among Americans, a Study

Author

Fetzer Institute

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 18:21-22, Matthew 6:14-15, Luke 17:3-4, Ephesians 4:32, Colossians 3:13

According to a study performed in 2010 by the Fetzer Institute: Sixty-seven percent of Americans agree that the US population is composed of generally forgiving people, but 58% also agree that ther...

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Defining Shame

Author

Heather Davis Nelson

Keywords

Shame

It’s a word we do not often use in daily conversation, book groups, or church pulpits, but shame is something we all experience. It’s the feeling that we have missed the mark according to our own stan...

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The Advantage of Being an Addict

Author

Paul Williams and Tracey Jackson

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The advantage (if you can call it that) that addicts have is that they have their identifiable addictions. Whether you are an alcoholic, a drug addict, a compulsive gambler, or an uncontrollable overe...

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Sticking With One Another

Author

Thomas G. Long

Keywords

Scripture

2 Corinthians 1:3-7, Deuteronomy 31:8, Psalm 23:4, Galatians 6:2, Philippians 2:7-8, Romans 12:15, John 15:13

Robert Wuthnow told a story about a man named Jack Casey, who worked as a member of an ambulance rescue squad. When he was a child, Jack had oral surgery - five teeth pulled. The little guy was terrif...

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A Short History of Niceness

Author

Sharon Hodde Miller

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I don’t think it is an overstatement to say that niceness has a hold on us, but in order to understand why that is, it helps to understand how it came to be. Like many words, nice has meant different ...

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Bearing Secrets

Author

Keywords

Poverty

In his book Prayer , Phillip Yancey shares the testimony of a man named “John” who has spent the past 25 years working in street ministry, primarily with the homeless population of his city: I he...

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To Be One of the Great Ones Is Not What It Seems

Author

C. S. Lewis

Keywords

Scripture

1 Samuel 16:7, Isaiah 53:2, Micah 6:8

For those of us who live in the shadow of self-doubt, who may wonder what meaning a life of relative anonymity may have in a society filled with the cult of celebrity in which likes, reposts, and digi...

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God Cares for Your Emotions (Psalm 139)

Author

Bill Gaultiere

Keywords

Emotions

Scripture

Psalm 139:23, Psalm 139:null

By Bill Gaultiere Many Christians are stunted in their spiritual growth because they don’t understand or express their deep emotions and desires. As pastors, ministry leaders, caregivers, or parents...

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The Key to Understanding Anger

Author

Robert Farrar Capon

Keywords

In his book The Mystery of Christ , a series of fictionalized pastoral counseling sessions (based on actual events), the Episcopal priest Robert Farrar Capon shares a number of helpful ways of unde...

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10 Great Quotes from How to Lead... by Clay Scroggins

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

How to Lead Without Being in Charge: Leveraging Influence When You Lack Authority came out just about a year ago, so for my timing, I'm actually a bit ahead having just finished it. It is really...

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Healing From the Inside Out

Author

Dave Peterson

Keywords

Scripture

Philippians 2:13, Psalm 147:3, James 1:2-4, Romans 8:28, Jeremiah 17:14, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Isaiah 41:10

The bad news was that a friend’s leg was severed in a gruesome automobile accident. The good news was that it was surgically reattached. A few months later she asked if I wanted to see her scar. I swa...

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Smiling & Giving a Big Okay

Author

E. Randolph Richards and Richard James

Keywords

When we tell a story, a lot goes without being explained. For example, I might say, “After I finished speaking, I looked at the audience. They were all smiling. Someone in the back shot me a big okay....

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Masks and Ministry

Author

Mark Meynell

Keywords

Scripture

1 John 4:20, Matthew 6:6-8, Matthew 15:7-9, Titus 1:16, Proverbs 26:24-26, Romans 12:9

The ancient Greek word for actor was hypocritēs (ὑποκρῐτής), which, at first, only implied someone who explained or interpreted something. But by New Testament times, it was more negative. It suggest...

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Name Your Inner-Critic

Author

Hannah Brencher

Keywords

Insecurity

Earlier this year, I decided to name my inner critic. At this point in my life, I am well aware of the critic and his games. His methods of keeping me standing one place, never putting myself out ther...

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Author

Henri J. M. Nouwen

Keywords

Scripture

Colossians 3:12-13, 1 Thessalonians 5:11, Job 2:11, Galatians 6:2, Romans 12:15

When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain an...

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One Vice

Author

C. S. Lewis

Keywords

There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which every one in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they ...

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Leaving Late and Arriving Early: The Power of a Good Detour

Author

Tony Evans

Keywords

Not long ago I came upon a wreck on a road that leads from our national office to our local church. It appeared that the wreck had happened only minutes before I arrived. A car was completely overturn...

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Author

Peter Kreeft

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He's what we really need. If your friend is sick and dying, the most important thing he wants is not an explanation but for you to sit with him. He's terrified of being alone more than anythin...

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Author

Albert Einstein

Keywords

Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to a divine purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing...

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Author

Ann Patchett

Keywords

Sometimes the circumstances at hand force us to be braver than we actually are, and so we knock on doors and ask for assistance. Sometimes not having any idea where we’re going works out better than w...

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