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We are Fed as we Feed
Celebrated as one of the greatest writers of all time, French writer Marcel Proust (1871–1922) filled out a personal questionnaire at the start of his career for a magazine like the one we know today as Vanity Fair. His handwritten response sold at auction in 2003 for almost a quarter of a million dollars.
One of the questions asked of him was this: “What profession would you have chosen had lack of paper prevented you from becoming a writer?” Proust replied, “I would, I think, have chosen to be a baker: it is honorable to give men their daily bread.” Proust realized what every writer, and every disciple, learns, often the hard way: we are fed as we feed.
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God's Joy Moves From Unmarked Box to Unmarked Box
"God's joy," said by the Persian mystic Rumi, "moves from unmarked box to unmarked box, from cell to cell. As rain water down into flower bed. As roses up from ground. Now it looks ... -
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Grace is the Secret to Self-Forgiveness
We all have shadows and skeletons in our backgrounds. But listen, there is something bigger in this world than we are, and that something bigger is full of grace and mercy, patience and ingenuity. The... -
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Grace Means We Are Already Victors
Grace means that in the middle of our struggle the referee blows the whistle and announces the end of the game. We are declared winners and sent to the showers. It’s over for all huffing, puffing piet... -
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Excluding Sinners is Excluding God
There is a story of a public sinner who was excommunicated and forbidden from entering the church, He took his woes to God. "They won't let me in, Lord, because I am a sinner." "W... -
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Deus ex machina
While there are an infinite number of ways for a movie to fall short, a common complaint is if the inciting incident of the drama is solved in a way that comes out of nowhere, even breaking the logic ... -
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That's Not Fair!
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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Luther's Overwhelming Guilt
In a way, the Reformation began in one monk's overwhelming guilt. Martin Luther was riddled with guilt and filled with anxiety because he could see that he could not live up to God's standard ... -
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Sanctification is a Process
Sanctification is a process. Basically, the word sanctified means “set apart.” The term saint comes from the same root and means “a set-apart one” to the Lord. Another word with the same meaning is ho... -
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Allowing Even the Storms to be “Good”
It’s easy to label what we consider “good things” in our lives as gifts from God and to welcome them with gratitude. But when difficult things happen, we don’t look at them as part of God’s good plan ... -
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Brother Lawrence and Trusting God in Failure
Brother Lawrence, a 16th-century Carmelite monk, spent his days scrubbing pots and mending shoes. Largely uneducated, he filled his free time writing letters and notes that, after his death, friends g... -
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Mending is an Act of Courage
Mending is an act that requires courage. To mend can be to repair a relationship, as described in the line above from Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing . In this splendid play, Benedick and Be... -
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The Connection Between Grace & Gratitude
The words “gratitude” and “grace” come from the same root word, gratia in Latin and kharis in Greek, as mentioned earlier. In addition to being the name of a goddess, “grace” is a theological word, on... -
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Grace Upon Grace
A number of mature Christians have described the Christian journey as one in which the follower of Jesus experiences different levels of grace. Let us imagine . . . that there are many rooms in t... -
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The DIfficulty of Grasping the Unsearchable Riches of the Gospel
Some years ago our pastor told an unusual story about a Southern plantation owner who left a $50,000 inheritance to a former slave who had served him faithfully all his life. That was quite a sum of m... -
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When your Good Christian World Falls Apart
In her memoir, Confessions of a Good Christian Girl, Tammy describes the internal turmoil she experienced trying to be a good, rule-following Christian who had unexpectedly built an entire life arou... -
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An Unlikely Story of Redemption
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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My Part in my Salvation
The 19th and 20th century Canadian-American pastor Harry Ironside once told a story of a new Christian who gave his testimony during a church service. Beaming with joy, the man spoke of how God had re... -
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A Field of Chaff & Wheat Growing up Together
The Church is not a clean, well-lit place where everything runs smoothly and actions automatically match ideals. It is, in the words of the Gospel, a field of chaff and wheat growing up together and b... -
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That’s a Lot of Wine!
In John 2, Jesus creates an abundance of wine during a wedding. There are six jars that hold 20-30 gallons each (that’s about a half barrel each!). So, let’s do the math… 20x6=120 gallons (or ... -
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The Number Doesn’t Matter
John 21:11 tells us that the disciples caught 153 fish. Why 153? According to John Wesley, the number doesn’t matter. Along the same lines, Karoline Lewis writes, Abundant fish. Don’t meta... -
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Grace Turns our World Upside Down
At the beginning to the musical Les Misérables , the lead character Jean Valjean is arrested by the police, with silver he has stolen from a kindly bishop who had given him shelter. Valjean is plainl... -
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The Three Basic Problems of Sin
Karl Barth (1886-1968), the famous Swiss theologian, once wrote that all human sin finds its roots in three basic human problems. He included pride (hubris), dishonesty and slothfulness in his list of... -
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Grace and Self-Reliance
We might not say we believe a Jesus-plus-our-efforts idea of the gospel, but when we place our performances on the pedestal of personal progress, we’re not relying on the grace of God. We’re worshipin... -
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Clearing the Path to Grace
To help us in our confession we may want to picture a path littered with many rocks. Some are small pebbles, others are quite large, and still others are almost completely buried so that we cannot kno... -
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Grace & Guilt
In Guilt and Grace , Swiss physician and Christian, Paul Tournier, writes… I cannot study this very serious problem of guilt with you without raising the very obvious and tragic fact that rel... -
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The Failure to Understand & Give Grace
David Seamands (1922-2006) was an author, scholar, evangelical renewal leader and counselor. In an article for Christianity Today , he shares his earnest experience of many of his patients who we... -
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Beyond the Darkness of Their Blindness
One of the biggest challenges in the Christian journey is grasping the heart of grace. Oftentimes there is an internal battle between our theology and our lived experience. In this short excerpt, Fred... -
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Receiving Mercy Instead of Wrath
God does for you what Bill Tucker’s father did for him. Bill was sixteen years old when his dad suffered a health crisis and consequently had to leave his business. Even after Mr. Tucker regained his ... -
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Every Self-Salvation Project
At the core of every project of self-salvation is the staunch unwillingness to believe that God’s love and forgiveness can be unmerited. Those who would try and save themselves prefer work to rest, ef... -
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An Appeal for Mercy at the Heart of our Faith
When Johann Sebastian Bach sought to convey the heart of Christian truth through music, he chose the Mass as his foundation. His B Minor Mass begins with a heartfelt plea from the full chorus and orch...
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Index by Topic
A
B
C
- Calling (2)
- Celebrations (1)
- Challenges (1)
- Challenges of Parenting (1)
- Changing Hearts (1)
- Character (1)
- Character Transformation (2)
- Cheap Grace (2)
- Children (1)
- Christian Identity (1)
- Christian Story (2)
- Christmas (1)
- Church (1)
- Church Conflict (1)
- Church Health (1)
- Church Hurt (1)
- Church Members (1)
- Churches (2)
- Coldness of Heart (1)
- Common Grace (1)
- Comparative Religion (1)
- Confession of Sin (3)
- Consequences (1)
- Contradictions (1)
- Control (1)
- Conversational Prayer (1)
- Conversion (3)
- Costly Grace (1)
- Courage (1)
- Covenant of Grace (1)
- Cover Up (1)
- Crime (1)
- Crises (1)
- The Christian Faith (1)
D
E
F
- Failure (2)
- Fairness (1)
- Faith (3)
- Faith and Prayer (1)
- Faith vs. Works (5)
- False Religion (1)
- Fathers (1)
- Fathers and Sons (1)
- Financial Struggles (1)
- Fishing (2)
- Food (1)
- Forgiveness (5)
- Forgiveness of Sin (2)
- Foundations (1)
- Freedom from Sin (1)
- Freedom in Christ (1)
- Friend of Sinners (1)
- Fulfillment (1)
- Fullness of Life (1)
- The False Self (1)
G
- Getting Help (1)
- Gifts (3)
- Giving Freely (1)
- God Cares For You (1)
- God's Abundance (2)
- God's Acceptance (2)
- God's Forgiveness (1)
- God's Gifts (2)
- God's Help (1)
- God's Provision (1)
- God's Pursuit (1)
- God's Story (1)
- God's Truth (1)
- God's Unfailing Love (1)
- God's Wrath (1)
- Golf (1)
- Good News (1)
- Good Samaritan (1)
- Good Works (4)
- Goodness (1)
- Gospel (3)
- Grace (63)
- Grace and The Spiritual Disciplines (2)
- Grace upon Grace (3)
- Grace vs. Works (10)
- Gratitude (1)
- Growth (3)
- Growth Mindset (1)
- Guilt (4)
H
I
J
L
M
P
R
- Reading the Bible (1)
- Rebellion (1)
- Receiving Forgiveness (2)
- Receiving Gifts (2)
- Receiving Grace (15)
- Receiving the Gospel (1)
- Recognizing our Sin (1)
- Reconciliation (1)
- Redemption (4)
- Reframing (1)
- Regret (1)
- Rejecting God (1)
- Rejecting Jesus (1)
- Rejection (1)
- Relief (1)
- Religion (4)
- Religion as a Weapon (1)
- Religions (1)
- Relying on Jesus (1)
- Rescue (2)
- Restlessness (1)
- Restoration (2)
- Righteousness (1)
S
- Sacrifice (2)
- Sacrificial Living (2)
- Sacrificial Love (2)
- Salvation (3)
- Sanctification (6)
- Satan's Lies (1)
- Saved by Grace (3)
- Scripture (1)
- Secrets (1)
- Seeking the Kingdom (1)
- Self-Acceptance (2)
- Self-Examination (1)
- Self-Improvement (1)
- Self-Judgment (1)
- Self-Justification (1)
- Self-Loathing (1)
- Self-Love (1)
- Self-Reliance (2)
- Self-Renunciation (1)
- Self-Righteousness (1)
- Self-Sacrifice (1)
- Self-Salvation (3)
- Self-Sufficiency (1)
- Set Free (1)
- Shame (1)
- Sickness (1)
- Sin (3)
- Sinfulness (1)
- Sinners (2)
- Sinners and Saints (1)
- Sins (3)
- Sins of the Church (2)
- Sloth (1)
- Spiritual Blindness (2)
- Spiritual Growth (3)
- Spiritual Hunger (1)
- Spiritual Maturity (1)
- Spiritual Nurture (2)
- Spiritual Thirst (1)
- Spiritual Transformation (3)
- Sports (1)
- Stories (1)
- Storms (1)
- Struggles (1)
- Surprise (1)
- Surrender (1)
T
Index by Reference