Category: Faith

Bible

A Reluctant Miracle?

Chris

Have you ever noticed that when you’re sick or tired, if you can get your brain to focus for a while, you seem to notice things you’ve never seen before? I’ve been out of it for a few days because of a sinus cold. While reading my Bible, I’ve caught a few phrases that have made me think.

Someone may write back and call what I’m about to say heresy, but I can’t help but wonder if Jesus performed a miracle (and probably still does) reluctantly. I get this thought from a small phrase in the story of His healing a deaf-mute, and you can read the whole story in Mark 7:31-36.

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Bible, Christian Living

Blessed are the Pacesetters (3)

Chris

So what are my thoughts about being a pacesetter? If you haven’t read the previous posts on this topic, please go back and do so, as I can’t spend a lot of time on rehashing those ideas here. [ Post #1 | Post #2 ]

Come back with me to the analogy of driving on the freeway, and we’ll work a few of those ideas out.

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Bible, Christian Living

Blessed are the Pacesetters (2)

Chris

You might be wondering why I haven’t expounded on the Pacesetters yet. The truth is, I want to make sure that I word everything just right.

While clearing up my thoughts for the next post, I received my monthly email from the Catalyst team. (I sign up for a vast array of e-mail newsletters since I can’t exactly sit and browse for hours with dial-up. Also, I get to keep the headlines and links for future reference.)

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Bible, Christian Living

Blessed are the Pacesetters (1)

Chris

Driving has become a vital element to our daily lives. Many of us commute to work, and though mass transit has found a greater role in recent years, we often still find ourselves driving a portion of the distance. We also drive to our supermarkets, Wal-Marts, shopping malls, sports events at professional and pee-wee levels, friends’ houses, family reunions, etc. Without our vehicles, we would be “trapped” within a short distance from our birth places.

Instead, we get to enjoy the open road. Of course, some locales are more open than others. You wouldn’t consider rush hour in any major city to be the open road. But you would find yourself in steep competition to get ahead, to move further in less time than the vehicle next to you.

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Bible

Reflections on Ezekiel 47:12

Chris

I had the privilege of preaching again on Sunday, January 25th. I had actually written the sermon for a service back in February of last year, but at the last minute decided that it wasn’t right for the audience or the setting. Instead, it became the jump off point for my latest book project.

As our pastoral staff prepared for the coming of 2009, our lead pastor was searching for a theme for the year. In October we relaunched our home groups program by team-preaching on three of the tribes of Israel. One of those sermons was about Joseph, and the topic of the message was Fruitfulness. Out of that message came three words: fruitfulness, increase, addition. From those words came our theme for 2009: Fruitfulness: Living lives of increase and addition. With the lead pastor ready to launch the theme, I found the opening I needed to preach a sermon entitled, “The Useless Tree.”

Now, I’m not going to tell you a lot about that message because you can listen to it if you’d like. Instead I’d like to share some extra thoughts that came out of a time of prayer this past Sunday night. We have started a four-week emphasis on prayer on Sunday nights, and I quickly found myself jumping into a routine that I enjoyed in a previous church. Out of that time of prayer came the following reflections on Ezekiel 47:12.

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Bible

Give Me A Reason

Chris

My wife and I often find ourselves in different rooms in the house during the day. She’s kind of a neat freak and baker, and I’m more of a computer-book nerd. When we get in our individual modes, she’s usually off in the kitchen and I’m in my home office. My office doesn’t have a traditional door, just a couple of curtains hung in the open thruway. So when she has the radio on up in the kitchen, I get bits and pieces of what she’s listening to while I’m trying to do my own thing.

She was recently listening to a radio program, and the speaker mentioned how when he had honest questions about God and Christianity, those around him who were Christians failed to fulfill a task we should all be ready for.

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