Life on Planet Earth on Encounter

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The Love of God Wrapped About Him

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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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George Bernard Shaw

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The best place to find God is in a garden. You can dig for him there.

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Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken.

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Author

Rick Lambert

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"Everything we encounter today is used by God to prepare us for tomorrow. he wastes no trials, withholds no blessings, nor does he hold back on the discipline of his soldiers. All He does prepare...

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Bob Goff

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Oftentimes, when I encounter someone who makes me feel afraid, I instantly put up barriers. I put them up with my big words and opinions. I construct them to protect myself. Barriers make me feel righ...

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Author

Jean-Paul Sartre

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Adventure

For an occurrence to become an adventure, it is necessary and sufficient for one to recount it.

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The Most Vital and Significant Moments

Author

David G. Benner

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Defining Moments

I have been pondering the nature of presence and encounter since first reading Martin Buber’s I and Thou as a university student. His assertion that “All real living is meeting” struck a deeply resona...

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Timothy Keller

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One of the main ways we move from abstract knowledge about God to a personal encounter with him as a living reality is through the furnace of affliction.

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Faith Like a Journey

Author

Samuel Rodriguez

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Scripture

Isaiah 40:31, Acts 20:24, Hebrews 12:1-2, James 1:2-4, Proverbs 3:5-6, Psalm 37:23-24, Philippians 3:13-14

While global flights and online booking have made travel easier in many ways, other aspects, often related to safety and security, still create challenges. As often as I fly, I could tell you plenty o...

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The Great Temptation

Author

Alan Fadling

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Scripture

Isaiah 26:3, Mark 6:31, Habakkuk 2:3, Psalm 27:14, Genesis 8:22

In his excellent book, An Unhurried Life, Alan Fadling describes one of our greatest temptations in the modern age—hurry: Hurry is a great temptation. Hurry looks like impulsive, knee-jerk reactions...

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The Privileged Site of God’s Comfort

Author

Robert Barry Leal

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Scripture

Exodus 3:1-2, Deuteronomy 8:2, 1 Kings 19:4-5, Psalm 63:1, Isaiah 40:3

Especially in the Hebrew Bible, wilderness is the privileged site where God comforts the Hebrew people or their representatives at times of crisis in their lives. In the wilderness God calls and leads...

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Harry Potter’s Dementors & Depression

Author

Mark Meynell

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Scripture

Isaiah 40:29-31, Job 3:25-26, 2 Corinthians 1:3-5, John 16:33, Psalm 34:17-18

When J. K. Rowling created the Harry Potter universe, she naturally drew on her own experiences to flesh it out. This is true even for such alarming creatures as ‘dementors’. These are soulless beings...

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Psalm 22 | Feeling Forsaken by God

Author

Scott B. Bullock

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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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Lord Jesus—the same yesterday, today

Author

Richard Herman

Scripture

Matthew 5:9, Ephesians 4:32, James 5:15-16, John 14:27, Psalm 34:18

Lord Jesus—the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, and the author of change, who’s constantly doing “a new thing,” which makes us sit up and take notice. We admit, we’d be more comfortable with a pred...

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Faithful and Good God–our Father,

Author

Richard Herman

Scripture

Psalm 46:1, Matthew 11:28-30, Philippians 4:6-7, James 1:5, 1 Peter 5:7, Isaiah 41:10

Faithful and Good God–our Father, Redeemer and Companion. You know all about us–and love us anyhow; nothing we are or do surprises you or puts you off. Therefore, we turn to you with assurance and tru...

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Prayer of Adoration Lord, our Lord –

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Psalm 8:1, Isaiah 6:1-8, Luke 19:1-10, John 8:1-11, Micah 7:18-19

Prayer of Adoration Lord, our Lord – How excellent is your name in all the earth. Because of who you are – we praise You. Because of what you’ve done – we thank You. You are a Father to the fathe...

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Maximize the Moment: Be Diligent

Author

Claude Alexander

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Scripture

John 9:1-5, John 9:5, John 9:null, John 9:25, Matthew 27:54

Blog post adapted from Necessary Christianity by Claude Alexander, Jr. Adapted from Chapter 5, "I Must Be Diligent" The life of Jesus reveals that God’s call and God’s claim on the belie...

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A Soul Thirsty for God

Author

Alan Fadling

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Scripture

Psalm 42:1-2

It’s summertime, and here in Southern California it begins to get rather hot. And I find myself thirsty a lot. I’ll get out and cycle 20 miles and come back parched. It makes me think of these psalm l...

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What Job Got: Thoughts from the Founder's Desk

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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Pain

A couple weeks ago I was having a conversation with another pastor and the book of Job came up. This friend said something that has stuck with me ever since. He said, "You know, the end of Job is...

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Packing for Passage on the Mayflower

Author

Bill Bryson

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Many of us struggle to know exactly what to pack when we go on our various travels. The Pilgrims in their voyage to the new world were no different. As Bill Bryson describes in his book Made in Americ...

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Pilgrimage and Progression

Author

Christian George

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Pilgrimage is centered around one thing—progression. God does not call us to be static saints, even if we cannot move physically. We are constantly on the move spiritually, evolving in our understandi...

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One Very Important Word of Encouragement

Author

Dan B. Allender and Larry Crabb

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As a youngster I developed a thoroughly annoying and humiliating problem of stuttering…In the ninth grade, I was elected president of our junior high student body. During an assembly of the seventh, e...

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The Brain Perceiving a Threat

Author

Brian King

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Regardless of how real the stress may or may not be, when our brain perceives a situation as being threatening, the process it engages is the same. Just like airport security, our brain has to take ev...

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Don’t Look Down But Up

Author

Rowan Williams

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Scripture

Hebrews 10:24-25, Philippians 2:3-4, Ephesians 4:2, Romans 12:10, 1 Peter 5:5

In his excellent book on the desert fathers, Where God Happens , former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams tells of an encounter between two monastic fathers. The first was Macarius, famous in...

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A Little Girl and The Founding of World Vision

Author

Soong-Chan Rah

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Scripture

Matthew 25:35-40, James 1:19-27, Luke 10:33-37, John 21:15-17, 1 John 3:17-18, Ruth 2:8-12, Acts 9:36-42, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, Luke 6:38

In 1947 huge crowds came to hear a thirty-two-year-old Californian preach at mass evangelistic rallies throughout China. Although Bob Pierce had no knowledge of Chinese language or culture, his messag...

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Robert Barry Leal

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Especially in the Hebrew Bible, wilderness is the privileged site where God comforts the Hebrew people or their representatives at times of crisis in their lives. In the wilderness God calls and leads...

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Author

Richard Hendrix

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Second only to suffering, waiting may be the greatest teacher and trainer in godliness, maturity, and genuine spirituality most of us ever encounter.

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The Journey of Reconciliation is Grounded in the Practice of Lament

Author

Emmanuel Katongole and Chris Rice

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The first language of the church in a deeply broken world is not strategy, but prayer. The journey of reconciliation is grounded in a call to see and encounter the rupture of this world so truthfully ...

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To be Lonely is to be Human

Author

Ronald Rohlheiser

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No person has ever walked our earth and been free from the pains of loneliness. Rich and poor, wise and ignorant, faith-filled and agnostic, healthy and unhealthy have all alike had to face and strugg...

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Constructing Ceremonies

Author

Cormac McCarthy

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In his post-apocalyptic novel The Road, McCarthy tells a story about a father and son traveling in search of civilization,. In a bleak, desolate world devoid of any human civilization, McCarthy descri...

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