Faith of a Child

My sister once told me that she couldn’t believe what was written in the bible because Genesis talks about people living hundreds of years, and she just didn’t think that was possible. All it took was one thing she couldn’t understand for her to discount the entire bible.
I suspect we’ve all come across people like [...]

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He turned the world upside down

A basic principle in life is that if you follow the rules, you will benefit in some way. If you follow the rules at your job, doing what’s expected of you, then you will continue to get a paycheck. If you follow the rules at school, diligently studying and doing all the assignments, then you’ll [...]

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Out of work and in despair? – a follow-up

Do you believe you aren’t good enough for God to care? Well, God does care, just like a loving parent. But like a parent, God knows when to hold back and not interfere in your life.
A wise parent, when observing their adult child struggling with a problem, may themselves struggle with the desire to jump [...]

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Message to Atheists – what if I’m wrong?

I believe in God and His Son, Jesus Christ. But what if I’m wrong? What if I come to the end of my life and discover it was all a lie? What if the end is truly the end; no benevolent Father in heaven, no heaven, no after-life? What a drag that would be. All [...]

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Money – Can you always rely on it?

Over coffee this morning, a friend told me about the layoffs that had just taken place at his job. He asked for prayers for several friends who were now out of work – more victims of the crumbling economy. We talked about the condition of the newly-unemployed, and reflected on how much we all tend [...]

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What inspires you to obey?

They threaten eternal damnation in hell, if you don’t obey God. They claim that God actually hates you, unless you obey Him. Maybe you’ve seen pictures of them on the Internet or in the news, with their picket signs that say “God hates you,” and other such vulgar declarations. Promoting obedience through condemnation and fear; [...]

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Weak Faith = Weak Prayers

Have you ever noticed how you can gauge a person’s faith by how they pray? I’ve written about this before (“How would Jesus pray?”), but after just now receiving a particular prayer request, I can’t help but whine yet again.
I’m on a prayer chain at the church I attend. Tonight, after getting home from [...]

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The “Dump and Run” maneuver

A good friend of mine who is a Baptist pastor recently whined to me about the tendency of some people to dump their problems onto him. He explained that some in his congregation like to come to him for a type of confession (maybe these are ex-Catholics). The confession doesn’t bother my friend; what [...]

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The answer’s not always yes

Please forgive me for ignoring something very important in the past three posts. I would like to thank seekhispurpose for pointing it out. In my enthusiasm to illustrate a power in prayer that I believe comes from praying with certainty and expectation, I ignored the fact that with our prayers, the answer is not always [...]

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Win or Lose – It’s up to You

This is a story of two teenage girls. They lived in different parts of the country and had no way of knowing each other, yet they had this in common: they were both about to celebrate their 18th birthday. And they had another thing in common; they both had loving parents who wanted to help [...]

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Is God Santa Claus?

How generous is God? Why does He appear generous with some, yet not with others? Since yesterday’s post about asking, (read it here), I’ve been thinking more about the generosity of God.
If you like, take a look at what I wrote yesterday, specifically at the words of Jesus? What kind of picture do His words [...]

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Anything you want – just ask

What’s holding you back? Why don’t you have everything you want? Are you taking Jesus at His word?
“Ask and it will be given to you.” (Matthew 7:7)
Judging by how often Jesus encouraged us to ask, I don’t think He wanted us to be timid about it.
“Again, I tell you that if two of you on [...]

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How Elusive the Truth

It can be staring me right in the face, and I’ll still miss it. It’s only after I find it, that I realize how obvious it was all along (duh).
I’ll give you an example from my engineering career. We were having lots of test failures, and I was in charge of finding the cause. With [...]

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In Whom do You Trust?

In our lives we have choices about what or whom we want to trust. Many of us place our trust in Jesus and God. In addition, we place some of our trust in other things, such as money, other people, ourselves, civic leaders, laws that protect us, or maybe even traditions that help us feel [...]

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Your Faith Will Set You Free

The strength of faith can be very inspiring, as in some who are still suffering from the effects of Hurricane Katrina. In a May 3rd article in my local newspaper, written by Becky Bohrer of the Associated Press, a story is told of the financial difficulties of many churches in the New Orleans area.
Basically, because [...]

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God Comes Close… Always

At a memorial service a couple of weeks ago, the presiding pastor, in an effort to comfort the mourners, said that God comes closest when we are down. I suspect he may have been reaching out to those in the crowd who are not Christian, who do not have God to lean on in good [...]

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