Tag: life
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God’s Love Shown
How do we know people love us? Sometimes we know because they tell us. However, most often we know that people love us because of what they do. These actions are pictures of love. One of the great surprises we experience in life is the love of others. We are surprised that others value us. …
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Contentment – A New Way to Look at Life
Godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. – 1 Timothy 6:6-8 In our advertising saturated world, the concept of contentment is…
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Trapped!
Galatians 4:17 They eagerly seek you, not commendably, but they wish to shut you out so that you will seek them… 21 Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the law? A parable… Matthew 12:43 “Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through…
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Live by the Spirit
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. – Galatians 5 This week I want us to think about how God’s transformation works in us. I do mean transformation. God isn’t just…
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‘Thinking on the Unity of God’
Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! Although I am aware that this verse is talking about the fact that there is only one true God, it gets me thinking about how often I treat God as if He is several beings. Let me explain… When I pray,…
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Why the Resurrection
Have you recently considered the claims of the Scripture? No, I don’t mean the claims of people who carry the Bible – they could have an agenda. I mean, have you really read what the New Testament claims about Jesus? It isn’t a message of morality. The New Testament does not have a simple respect…
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Faith that is Self Evident
Last Sunday we looked at James 2:14-26. James has some hard words for those who do not live out their “faith”. He calls it dead. He asks if such faith can save anyone. He declares that such faith is useless. These are hard words. It gets even harder when he says that a person is…
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Desiring God Conference on Prayer
This week I went to a conference that dealt with the prayer life of a pastor. Since the conference speakers quoted the reformers quite liberally, I thought that it would be appropriate to put a quotation on prayer in this week’s devotion. This is from my favorite preacher of the 1800s, C. H. Spurgeon: “Continue…
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Preparing for Christmas – A Struggle of Faith
Sometimes we forget how much of struggle Christmas was for the first people who experienced it. I think of the struggle of Mary and Joseph as they made their way to Bethlehem. I think of the struggles of everyone who was visited by an angel. At each encounter, the angel had to say, “Do not…
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Thanksgiving
This week we celebrate Thanksgiving. Yet, I wonder how often we really have given thanks. I mean, it is one thing to utter the simple, “Thank you.” It is quite another to truly give thanks. Do we even understand how powerful thanksgiving is? God has said in His Word that the refusing to give thanks…