Phew! Something Stinks!

“Take off the graveclothes.” John 11:44, NIV Have you ever smelled something so raunchy it makes you gag? A skunk who’d let loose? Filthy gym clothes that had been stuffed in a locker for an entire semester? A dead animal? Your spouse? Well, hopefully not your spouse. Have you ever had to send your spouse out of the house because they simply reeked? I have. More than once. (Sorry, Larry,[…]

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So many targets. Which do I aim at?

Getting Your Eyes Back on God’s Target

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6, NIV “Lean not on your own understanding”—that’s a tough one. It’s easy to think we have it all together, that we know what we’re doing. But we don’t see the BIG picture that God sees, and that means we[…]

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Three Questions Every Christian Should Ask Themselves

“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God.” Romans 1:1, NIV “It is impossible to read or to meditate on this letter too much or too well.” So said Martin Luther about the book of Romans. My own recent plunge into Romans brought that home for me. Just wading into the first verse led me into deeper waters of[…]

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What do we do after we pray? Stepping it up, stepping in, stepping forward.

“But we prayed to our God and posted a guard . . . “ Nehemiah 4:9 “I’m praying for you.” We hear it from Christian friends. We see it on Facebook when a fellow believer shares about a health problem or about some difficulty they’re going through. “I’m praying for you,” we respond. I’m not dismissing the value of those words. I’m just wondering how many times the words are[…]

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