Personal Development on America

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We must shift America from a needs to a desires culture…. People must be trained to desire, to want new things, even before the old have been entirely consumed. We must shape a new mentality. Man’s de...

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A Prayer for Those Who Govern

ALL SINGING: (America the Beautiful, first verse) O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain! America! America! God shed His grac...

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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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Author

Os Guinness

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The blunt fact is that America's grand promotion of debt-leveraged consumerism has stood Max Weber's famous thesis about the rise of capitalism on its head. It has scorned the early-American s...

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Struggling to Rest

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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Scripture

Genesis 2:2-3, Exodus 20:8, Deuteronomy 5:12-15, Nehemiah 13:15-22, Psalm 127:2

Rest has never been one of America’s greatest strengths. According to one study, only one in seven adults (14%) have set aside an entire day for the purpose of rest. For those who do set aside an enti...

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God–our Father, Lord and indwelling

Author

Richard Herman

Scripture

Philippians 4:6-7, 1 Timothy 2:1-2, Psalm 133:1, 2 Corinthians 9:13-14, Matthew 28:19-20

God–our Father, Lord and indwelling Spirit of grace and power: Thank you for hearing us when we pray whether in songs of rejoicing or through tears of sorrow. Thank you for gifts–for the gifts of musi...

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The UK’s Minister of Loneliness

Author

W. David O. Taylor

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According to a 2018 CIGNA study, loneliness in America has reached “epidemic” levels. After surveying twenty thousand adults, researchers found that 46 percent felt alone either sometimes or always, 4...

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God of grace, abundance, and joy, who

Author

Richard Herman

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Scripture

John 8:12, Isaiah 61:1-3, 2 Corinthians 5:18-19, Matthew 5:14-16, 1 Timothy 2:1-4, Matthew 8:5-13

God of grace, abundance, and joy, who pours out your love on us every day: When we had no hope–You came as a light in our dark time. When we were weak–You came in power to lift us up. When we were los...

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O Lord and Father of the household of

Author

Hughes Oliphant Old

Scripture

1 Timothy 2:1-2, Galatians 6:2, Romans 12:10, Micah 6:8, James 5:16

O Lord and Father of the household of faith, we thank you for the gift of faith worked within us by your Holy Spirit. We thank you for having called us to yourself, for consecrating us to your ser...

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Author

Robert Banks

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While American society is rich in goods, it is extremely time-poor. Many societies in the two-thirds world, by contrast, are poor in material possessions, by our standards, but they are rich in time. ...

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Building on a Solid Foundation

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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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An Opportunity to Come out Strong or Never

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

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The novel Martin Chuzzlewit , written by Charles Dickens, is one of his least successful works, though Dickens himself commented to a friend that he believed it was his greatest work up to its pu...

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Starting With the Boots

Author

R. Kent Hughes

Keywords

Scripture

John 13:14-15, Philippians 2:5-7, Matthew 23:11, James 4:10, Mark 10:45, 1 Peter 5:5-6

In 1878, when William Booth’s Salvation Army was beginning to make its mark, men and women from all over the world began to enlist. One man, who had once dreamed of becoming a bishop, crossed the Atla...

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Working On Our Muscle Memory: Sermon Illustration Tuesday

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Change

Scripture

Luke 15:null

Editor’s Note: The following illustration came from one of my own sermons, as I was trying to help a congregation see itself not as a building, but the body of Christ. It has been adapted for TPW: No...

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Author

Timothy Jennings

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According to the National Institute of Mental Health, anxiety disorders are the most common mental health problem in America, affecting 28.8 percent of adults at some point in their lives—and the rate...

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Surrounded By Water With Nothing to Drink

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Theologian John S. Dunne tells of a group of early Spanish sailors who reached the continent of South America after an arduous voyage. Their caravels sailed into the headwaters of the Amazon, an expan...

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A Mission-field Tragedy Turned to the Glory of God

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

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Scripture

Romans 8:28, John 12:24, Genesis 50:20, Romans 8:28, Acts 1:1-11, Acts 8:4-5, Acts 13:13-52, Acts 6:9-10, Acts 16:25-34

Sometimes what seems like a failure is actually the seed of God’s work. As Mark Batterson tells the story, it started with David and Svea Flood. Sent to the Congo by a church in Sweden, they helped es...

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Wrong About the Future

Author

Source Unknown

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“Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.” “Popular Mechanics,” forecasting the relentless march ofscience, 1949 “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” Thomas Wat...

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On Winning? Considering Kevin Durant and Anthony Bourdain

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide. Albert Camus Two events recently collided in my mind and coalesced into this short essay: The first was a relatively in...

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Unfulfilled Prayers

Author

Cody Sandahl

Keywords

Scripture

Habakkuk 1:2-4, 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, Lamentations 3:25-27, James 5:13-16

My son has seizures and intellectual disabilities. A couple of years into that journey, I organized a global prayer vigil for my son. I recruited friends and colleagues in North America, South America...

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Just Charge It!

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

I recently attended an event sponsored by Compassion International, the International Child Sponsorship Organization. The event was called “Stepping into My Shoes”. The purpose being to show children ...

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How Do Porcupines Cuddle?

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Scripture

1 Corinthians 13:4-7, Philippians 2:3-4, Proverbs 15:1, Colossians 3:12-13, Ephesians 4:2-3, Romans 12:18

The furniture salesman said the couch would seat five friends without a problem. Then I realized, I don’t have five friends without a problem. Old joke—sorry—but still. It reminds me of the old saying...

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Working on Our Muscle Memory

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 18:20, 1 Peter 2:5, Hebrews 10:24-25, Acts 2:42-47, Colossians 1:18, Ephesians 4:15-16, Romans 12:4-5

Editor’s Note: The following illustration came from one of my own sermons, as I was trying to help a congregation see itself not as a building, but the body of Christ. It has been adapted for TPW. No...

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Camels Using P.E.D.’s

Author

Irwyn L. Ince Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 8:, Proverbs 31:30, 1 Peter 3:3-4, 1 Samuel 16:7, Proverbs 31:30, 1 Samuel 16:7

Performance-enhancing drugs are a major problem in the sporting world. Cycling, baseball, weightlifting, football—athletes at the highest levels need something to put them over the top or keep them in...

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Author

Eugene Peterson

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 12:2, Isaiah 55:8-9, Psalm 42:4, Exodus 23:2, 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5, Hebrews 13:4, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Classically, there are three ways in which humans try to find transcendence--religious meaning--apart from God as revealed through the cross of Jesus: through the ecstasy of alcohol and drugs, through...

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Author

Mark Talbot

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American Christianity tends toward a kind of "easy-believism." The Gospel is often presented in a way that suggests that someone is saved as soon as he or she has "accepted" Jesus ...

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Author

Gore Vidal

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Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half.

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When Helping Hurts: An American in the Philippines

Author

Duane Elmer

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 28:26, Proverbs 3:5-6, Proverbs 14:12, Philippians 2:3-4, John 9:2-3

An American woman visiting the Philippines, observed an elderly woman on the outskirts of Manila. She looked poverty-stricken and walked with the help of a cane down into a ditch alongside a main road...

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Author

Doc Childre and Deborah Rozman

Keywords

The American Institute of Stress notes that 75 to 90 percent of visits to primary care physicians are for stress-related complaints . . . A Harvard study shows that people who live in a state of high ...

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Who Do They Think We Are?

Author

Os Guinness

Keywords

Perseverance

The day after Christmas would normally have been a quiet day in Washington, D.C., above all on Capitol Hill. But December 26, 1941, was different. It was only nineteen days after the Japanese attack o...

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