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Freedom ‘for’
Robert Youngs gives this illustration: I have on my table a violin string… it is free. I twist one end of it and it responds. It is free. But it is not free to do what a violin string is supposed to do–produce music. So I take it, fix it in my violin and tighten…
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Telling the Story: The ‘Do not be afraids’ of Christmas
It’s hard to let go of Christmas. The “Do not be afraids”are still on my mind. When the angel visited Mary in Nazareth, the words gushed from Gabriel’s mouth: “Do not be afraid…you have found favor with God.” Seeing an angel right in front of her would have been terrifying. Pondering it from this side,…
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Allow the word of God to speak to you
The Bible is God’s word. The Bible is the way God speaks to us today. If the Bible is God’s word then we must adhere to every word and read it as if a letter from a dear friend. In fact the Bible is much more important to you than a personal letter from the…
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Living on the Other Side of the Lens Part 2
“For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” James 2:26 The life of faith in God is designed to be a thrilling adventure. I know that idea is the polar opposite of the picture that religion has tried to paint down through the centuries and definitely contrary…
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The enemy at Christmas
Many moons ago, my beloved was sharing a difficult church situation with his mentor, Dan Garland. Things had been going splendidly…then they were not. Dan Garland is a treasure. He has been a godsend to us. Since our friendship began in 1999, when he served as the KBC Evangelism director, he has shared from his…
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What is Christmas to you?
I wonder what Christmas means to a mother who has lost her husband, who must take care of three or four children, working every day, never quite getting everything done, never making ends meet. What does Christmas mean to her? I wonder what Christmas means to the little man in Zimbabwe, 80 years old, living…
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Telling the Story: Mary’s Song
Have you ever been so filled with the joy of the Lord, or overcome with appreciation that He has met a secret or public need, or He has saved your bacon AGAIN and you just can’t get over that He still puts up with you or He has pulled you out of a pit or…
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Living on the other side of the lens
“Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.” James 2:18 We are living in curious times, perhaps the culmination of time, as it seems several streams of human invention and intention are flowing towards…
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Quit complicating the Grace of God Part 4
“And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he arose, and rebuked…
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God’s heartbeat in us
The great paradoxes of the Bible. To live you must die; to be free you must serve; to know the truth you must see the lie. God is not trying to confuse us but to show us that His ways are not our ways, nor are His thoughts our thoughts. Isaiah 55:8. Here is another…
Category: Devotionals
