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Barnabas the Encourager
Paul and Barnabas healing at Lystra (detail); Willem de Poorter (Wikipedia Commons) Do you, like the Apostle Paul, have an encourager in your life? Someone who can lift you up when the chips are down...
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How to be Blessed? Hear and Obey.
Lutheran Women’s Missionary League logo I spoke on May 21, 2016 on how to be blessed at a local luncheon of the Lutheran Women in Missions League (LWML). Here are my remarks based on Luke 11:27-28:...
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An Angel and the Apostle Paul
St. Paul Shipwrecked by Gustave Dore; courtesy www.creationism.org Did you know the apostle Paul met an angel? Everyone knows angels filled the sky when Jesus was born, and they turned up from time to...
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Devotions: Or Quiet Time?
The Importance of Having Daily Devotions or a Quiet Time (Four part talk given at New Life Church, Ukiah, CA; June 18, 2016) The measure of the worth of our public activity for God is the private...
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Devotions: Bible Reading
We own a variety of Bibles The Importance of Devotions: Bible Reading This part 2 of a series. You can read part 1 here. The most important part of my daily devotions is reading the Bible. The Bible is...
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Imagination and the Bible
The Prodigal son’s older brothers; Distant Shores Media/Sweet Publishing (Wikipedia Commons) I use my imagination all the time when reading the Bible. I put imagination to good use when I teach Bible...
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Safeguards: Bible and Imagination
What safeguards do imaginative teachers and writers use when turning to the Bible? I talked about imagination and the Bible in my last post here. But because we believe the Bible is truth, it’s...
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Am I a Pharisee?
Jesus and the Pharisees by Gustave Doré (Wikimedia Commons) Am I a Pharisee like those Jewish scholars in the Gospels? Sometimes I can see where they’re coming from when they challenge Jesus again and...
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WHY Study the Bible? 5 Reasons
The last three Bibles I’ve used for study. “I don’t understand why you keep studying the Bible. I read it once, isn’t that enough?” I laughed out loud when an innocent acquaintance asked a genuine...
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How I Prepare to Lead Bible Study
Tried and true Bible study lesson books This is how I prepare to lead Bible study. I’ve already written about the reason why we study the Bible after that initial read, here. I’ve been teaching Bible...
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Martin Luther, The Bible and Me
Luther By Lucas Cranach the Elder [(Wikipedia) Martin Luther nailed a lengthy piece of paper to the Wittenburg church door on October 31, 499 years ago. Luther, a monk, announced his dissatisfaction...
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Beware Bitterness: 4 Tips
Today always provokes bitterness in people. It doesn’t even matter what day it is, bitterness overcomes and erodes who you are. It’s got a definition: “negative emotion or attitude, similar to being...
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One Candle for Advent Hope
We lit one candle for Advent Hope last Sunday. The Advent hope candle also is known as the prophecy candle which looks forward to Jesus’ birth. But what is Advent? The word is a shortened form of...
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Advent, Waiting and Childhood
I’d never heard of Advent during my childhood. I knew about waiting for Christmas, but not that the month of December encompassed Advent. Advent, of course, is all about waiting for the coming of...
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How I Read My Utmost for His Highest
I’ve been reading My Utmost for His Highest since before the turn of the century. This is how I use it. As a Devotional I’d never used a devotional book before I opened My Utmost for His Highest. I’ve...
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How I Recognize God’s Voice
I heard God’s voice today. Oh, not in an audible way, but in a clearly recognizable way. This is how. As a writer, I understand “voice” is a term for how I differentiate my characters from each other...
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Martin Luther and Modern Times
Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the Wittenberg Church door 500 years ago. The actual date is October 31, but throughout 2017 Lutherans–of which I am one–will be remembering the monk and his...
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The Revivalist and Oswald Chambers
Oswald Chambers first published articles in The Revivalist and Bible Advocate magazine in 1907. The magazine, which is still in print, ran a special edition about Oswald Chambers in January-February...
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What Motivated Job’s Friends?
Job’s friends is often a derogatory term for people whose attempts to console make a sufferer feel worse. I’ve been one, I’ve had Job’s friends in my life and I’ve observed them frequently in the...
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Oswald Chambers, Job and Baffled to Fight Better
Baffled to Fight Better, comments on the Book of Job, is one of the few books Oswald Chambers worked on in his lifetime. Even at that, Baffled to Fight Better did not appear in book form until after...
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