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Defining Moments: Contentment

            Contentment is quite an elusive commodity, but it’s something we’re called to cultivate in our lives as Christians. In his excellent book called The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, Jeremiah Burroughs provides a helpful definition. He says, “Christian contentment…

“THANKFULNESS”

One day that fall of 1621 near Plymouth Rock, four Puritan settlers were sent to hunt for food for a harvest celebration. The Wampanoag Indian Tribe heard gunshots and alerted their leader, Massasoit, who thought the English might be preparing…

“Toying with the Truth”

Crawford H. Toy (1836-1919) was a promising phenom in Southern Baptist life. He was a gifted teacher with a bright future in training the next generation for ministry. He spent a decade teaching at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary alongside…

“The Mystery of Godliness”

“Beyond question, great is the mystery of godliness…” 1 Timothy 3:16 “Jesus sits in no second place among teachers. Paul mentions what the mystery of godliness is, and declares that it concerns the manifestation of God in human, flesh, that He…

Defining Moments: Mercy

In 1 Timothy, the Apostle Paul greets Timothy with a blessing of “grace, mercy, and peace” and later marvels at the reality that an opponent of Christ and Christians like himself would “receive mercy” from the glorious Lord Jesus Christ…

“Blessing Flows from Affliction”

As I’ve been studying this week’s stanza of Psalm 119, the psalmist’s words “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn Your statutes” reminded me of the melancholy poet William Cowper’s beautiful stanza in “God…

Which Road?

Film maker Walt Disney was ruthless in cutting anything that got in the way of a story’s pacing. Ward Kimball, one of the animators for Snow White, recalls working 240 days on a 4 1/2-minute sequence in which the dwarfs made…

“REFLECTION WEEK!”  

START ON THE SUNDAY PRIOR TO EASTER SUNDAY This is Palm Sunday because people laid the branches in his path. Read Luke 19:28-42 and Zechariah 9:9.  Reflection: How often do you praise God for coming into your life? MONDAY: Read about Jesus at…

“A Wide Place”

In September 2017, when Jess and I first visited Lassen Volcanic National Park, we challenged ourselves to climbing the menacing volcano Mount Lassen and trekking out to the remote Chaos Crags. The next summer, we felt we had earned a…