Worship

Worship

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In his book Worship: Beholding the Beauty of the Lord (Crossway), Skip Ryan reminds us, “Worship is not a matter of talking about the Lord. It is experiencing the Lord.  . . . You can’t analyze and worship at the same time. “I learned a lot about football when my son played in high school. I was never much of …

Father's Day

Father’s Day

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In his book Disappointment with God, writer Philip Yancey relays a touching story from his own life. One time on a visit to his mother–who had been widowed years earlier, in the month of Philip’s first birthday–they spent the afternoon together looking through a box of old photos. A certain picture of him as an eight-month-old baby caught his eye. …

Holy Spirit, Bible

Holy Spirit, Bible

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In a recent Turning Points Daily Devotional, David Jeremiah observes: “A motorist in North Carolina was charged with careless driving after she accidentally hit an elderly pedestrian because she had not adequately defrosted her windshield. When our windshields are covered with ice or snow, it’s tempting to clear a little patch and start out, hoping the defroster will take care …

Politics, Politicians

Politics, Politicians

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A little girl asked her father, “Daddy? Do all fairy tales begin with ‘Once Upon A Time’?” He replied, “No, there is a whole series of fairy tales that begin with ‘If elected I promise.’”

Lord's Prayer

Lord’s Prayer

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John Claypool wrote: “I’ve always loved the little story about the boy who’s trying to learn the Lord’s Prayer, and one night as he knelt by his bed, these words came out: Our Father, who are in heaven How do you know my name? Such individualized affection will always remain a mystery to us mortals, and at the same time, …

Frustration, Directions

Frustration, Directions

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A man absolutely hated his wife’s cat and decided to get rid of him one day by driving him 20 blocks from his home and leaving him at the park. As he was getting home, the cat was walking up the driveway. The next day he decided to drive the cat 40 blocks away. He put the beast out and …

Priorities

Priorities

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Two friends were walking near Times Square in Manhattan. It was during the noon lunch hour and the streets were filled with people. Cars were honking their horns, taxicabs were squealing around corners, sirens were wailing, and the sounds of the city were almost deafening. Suddenly, one of them said, “What an interesting place to hear a cricket.” His friend …

Economy, Thrifty

Economy, Thrifty

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After her husband’s death, Mary sent a lengthy obituary to the local newspaper. She soon received a call from the newspaper office to explain that there was a cost per word to publish the obituary. When she head that, she said, “Well then, just change it to “George Cooper died.” The clerk explained that there was a six word minimum …

Memory

Memory

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In the later years of his life, the great 19th century American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson suffered from an increasingly faulty memory. When things would slip his mind, he complained of his “naughty memory,” as he called it. Sometimes Emerson would forget the names of different objects. In order to speak of them, he would refer to them in a …

Confidence

Answers, Confidence

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Not expecting to do well on the economics exam, Bill was heartened by the first question: “In any given year, and to the nearest ton, how much wheat did the United States export?” Smiling confidently, he wrote, “In 1492, none.”