Stages of Life

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The Gift of Silence & Reflection

Author

Matt Markins, Mike Handler, and Sam Luce

Keywords

When Fred ( also known as Mr. ) Rogers gave the commencement address to the Marquette University graduates of 2001, he did something for each of those in attendance; he gave them the gift of silen...

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Finding God in the Slowness of Life

Author

A. J. Swoboda & Nijay K. Gupta

Keywords

We admit that embracing slowness is hard . But slowness transforms us. One of our favorite theologians, Dr. John Goldingay, served for decades as a professor of Old Testament theology. Goldingay ...

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A Romance for the Ages

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

The marriage of Queen Victoria and Albert (otherwise known as Francis Albert Augustus Charles Emmanuel — quite a mouthful!) was one for the ages. Their love and devotion to each other was remarkable, ...

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Mother's Day Sermon Ideas: Four Verses That Find Motherhood in the Heart of God

Author

Ryan Bundrick

Keywords

Mother’s Day is complicated for a pastor. Among the happy families that are celebrating, there are children who were abused by mothers, mothers who lost lost a child, and women suffering from inferti...

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Mother's Day Prayers for Worship: For Celebration and for Those Who Grieve

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Break out the carnations! Mother's Day is coming. Mother's Day is a little tricky for pastors, though. It's a spring morning, things are finally warming up (in Northern climes, anyway), an...

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What Would You Do Differently?

Author

Mark Batterson

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I preached my first sermon at National Community Church on January 14, 1996. The only thing I remember about that message is my opening illustration. I can’t remember the original source, but I think ...

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The Great Re-Wiring of Gen Z

Author

Jonathan Haidt

Keywords

Gen Z became the first generation in history to go through puberty with a portal in their pockets that called them away from the people nearby and into an alternative universe that was exciting, addic...

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Author

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Keywords

What you do speaks so loud, that I cannot hear what you say.

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Fostering Shame in a Little Girl

Author

Sandra D. Wilson

Keywords

I was standing in line in a crowded public rest room engaged in one of my favorite hobbies, people watching, when I observed a brief interaction between a mother and daughter. Mother looked harried an...

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Lamblike Masculinity

Author

Derek Vreeland

Keywords

A few years ago I led a two-day retreat for some Christian men. …We agreed that we don’t want to be a bunch of dudes , allowing American cultural images of masculinity to shape our hearts. Nei...

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Now You Do It: A Good Parent Enables the Child

Author

Mia Levetan

Keywords

Scripture

1 Corinthians 3:2, Hebrews 5:12-14, Luke 10:25-26, Deuteronomy 6:7, James 1:22

[M]y husband, Nick, tells a story of when he was a teenager riding his bike with his friends, and his chain came off his bike. Nick took the bike to his dad, who said, “I'll fix it, you watch”. Hi...

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That's Not Fair!

Author

Casey Clark

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Any parent who has children of speaking age has likely heard the expression, “That’s not fair.” Those words come in all shapes and sizes—quickly shouted, drawn out almost with extra syllables, or said...

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Author

Henry Cloud & John Townsend

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Alcoholics Anonymous has a great definition of how we change: We change when the pain of remaining the same is greater than the pain of changing .

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Different Seasons, Different Challenges

Author

Ronald Rohlheiser

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, Ecclesiastes 3:11, Luke 15:11-32, Proverbs 20:29, Psalm 90:10-12

Someone once quipped that we spend the first half of our lives struggling with the sixth commandment ( Thou shalt not commit adultery ) and the second half of our lives struggling with the fifth comma...

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Wrestling with the Devil or God?

Author

Ronald Rohlheiser

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 32:24-28, Genesis 32:30, Hosea 12:3-4, Hebrews 5:12-14, 1 Corinthians 3:1-2, Romans 5:3-5, James 1:2-4, Luke 9:23-24, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

Maturation is a lifelong journey with different phases, human and spiritual. And it has many setbacks. What can be helpful is to have a grasp of the natural seasons of our lives and how these interfac...

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The Frustrating Unpredictability of Faith

Author

Don Everts and Doug Schaupp

Keywords

Scripture

Galatians 6:9, John 3:8, Ecclesiastes 11:5, Isaiah 55:10-11, John 6:44

Writing about ministering to postmodern skeptics, Don Everts and Doug Schaupp share a helpful insight into the mystery of God's movement: The first lesson they have taught us about the path to f...

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Author

J. R. R. Tolkein

Keywords

Gandalf at his parting from Sam, Merry, and Pippin at the Gray Havens: "I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil."

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Waiting: Leaning into the Pain

Author

Ashley Hales

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 16:2–4, Isaiah 40:31, Lamentations 3:25–26, Matthew 4:2–4, Romans 8:24–25, Psalm 130:5–6

With the global coronavirus pandemic in spring 2020, life stopped. Overwhelmed by the threat of a disease we couldn’t stop and for which we didn’t have the hospital capacity, everyone moved work and s...

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Author

Peter J. Gomes

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 2:10–11, Isaiah 55:2, Proverbs 11:28, Luke 12:15, 1 Timothy 6:7–8, Psalm 49:16–17

The search for the good life, which so often is defined in terms of “things” and the means to get as many “things” as possible, has turned into a dead end as more and more people have more and more.

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Author

Henri-Frédéric Amiel

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 90:12, Ephesians 5:15–16, John 13:34–35, Proverbs 3:27–28, Isaiah 58:6–7, Micah 6:8

Life is short, and we do not have much time to gladden the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us. Oh, be swift to love, make haste to be kind.

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Author

Ruth Haley Barton

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 14:13-14, Isaiah 30:15, 1 Kings 19:11-13, Psalm 46:10, Matthew 11:28-30, Luke 10:38-42

Another reason we are so tired is that we are always working hard to figure things out rather than learning how to cease striving, how to be with what is true in God’s presence and let God be God in t...

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The Falling of Leaves

Author

Bonnie Smith Whitehouse

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 3:1–2, Leviticus 23:39–41, Isaiah 55:10–11 , John 12:24 , Galatians 6:9, Psalm 126:5–6

As fall temperatures drop, trees begin to lose their green (chlorophyll), and their fall foliage of vibrant red, yellow, and orange appears. Earlier in the year, maples have dropped seedpods (sometime...

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Autumn: The Conclusion of our Ordinary Time in the Land

Author

Sylvie Vanhoozer

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 3:1–2, Leviticus 23:39–41, Ruth 2:2–3, Galatians 6:9, John 4:35–36, Psalm 126:5–6

And so we arrive at autumn, the conclusion of our ordinary time in the land. The seeds planted at the start of our pilgrimage have produced a harvest in fields, homes, and towns. Farms display God’s a...

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Throwing Away Valuable Resources

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 42:, Philippians 3:13-14, 2 Corinthians 5:17, 2 Corinthians 11:24-30

In many parts of the country, leaf clean-up is an annual chore. They fall from the trees, blanket our lawns, and we often bag them up and toss them out (or burn them). There’s a lesson in this… In my...

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Author

Vincent van Gogh

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 96:11-12, Psalm 95:1-5, Job 37:14-16, Psalm 19:1

As long as autumn lasts, I shall not have hands, canvas and colors enough to paint the beautiful things I see.

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Author

Morgan Harper Nichols

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, Genesis 2:2-3, Psalm 104:

Turn to the sun rising above your head or the leaves of the deciduous trees falling to the ground and think, "In the same way there is a rhythm to nature, I have rhythms too."

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Refining Metals in Fire

Author

Eunice McGarrahan

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 12:49, Malachi 3:2, Zechariah 13:9, Isaiah 48:10, Proverbs 17:3, Psalm 66:10-12, 1 Peter 1:7

Refiner’s fires are used on precious metals, not for mundane elements. The refiner must hold the metal in the hottest part of the fire in order to burn off all the impurities, thus retrieving a pure...

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Author

Robert Farrar Capon

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 22:1-14, Ezekiel 37:1-14 , Job 1:20-22, John 12:24, Romans 6:3-5, Psalm 30:5

Death is not an eventuality that with luck, waits for another day. It is today’s cup from which God now insists you drink. If you think that somehow you can choose today not to carry the deaths of you...

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Author

Octavia Butler

Keywords

I suspect that this is the most important thing I’ve said in all my interviews and talks as well as in this book. It’s a truth that applies to more than writing. It applies to anything that is importa...

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Surprise Me!

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

* This story is likely untrue, but a funny anecdote nonetheless It’s difficult sometimes to think we won’t live forever. A wealthy man who had made his fortune and spent many years in New York p...

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