Examples of Steadfastness, Part 2

Examples of Steadfastness, Part 2Selected ScripturesMarch 17, 2024 Many of you have exercise routines.  You enjoy getting out in the morning and running for 30-60 minutes, or heading to the gym after work to lift some weights and put in some cardio work.  I’m guessing that none of us has a workout routine like Candice […]

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Examples of Steadfastness

Examples of SteadfastnessSelected ScripturesMarch 10, 2024 Slowly read Psalm 16.  Did you hear what the psalmist said of his relationship with God? “I take refuge in You.” “I have no good besides You.” “The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup.” “The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; indeed, my […]

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A Prayer for Steadfastness

A Prayer for SteadfastnessColossians 1:9-12March 3, 2024 Patrick Lawler had a persistent toothache.  For about a week his tooth had been bothering him.  It was bad enough that even his eyesight became blurry.  He tried painkillers.  They didn’t work.  He tried icepacks to reduce the swelling.  Nope.  He even tried the cure-all for all mouth-related […]

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Be Steadfast in the Gospel

Be Steadfast in the Gospel1 Timothy 3:14-16February 25, 2024 After his death, a documentary entitled Won’t You Be My Neighbor? chronicled the life of seemingly everyone’s neighbor, Mr. Rogers.  In the film, Rogers’ wife, Joanne reveals a question he asked her shortly before his death:  “Am I a sheep?”  As he approached his last moments […]

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Be Steadfast in Your Suffering

Be Steadfast in Your SufferingRomans 5:3-5February 18, 2024 Christian university professor Mark Talbot tells his story of suffering in When the Stars Disappear: When I was seventeen, I fell about 50 feet off a Tarzan-like rope swing, breaking my back and becoming partially paralyzed from the waist down. I spent six months in hospitals. Initially, […]

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Be Steadfast in Fighting Sin

Be Steadfast in Fighting SinRomans 6:12-14February 4, 2024 On a very limited number of occasions — once, maybe twice — I have felt like I had reached the limits of my physical ability.  My arms and legs trembling with weariness, I was near the end of my body’s strength. On a few of occasions I’ve […]

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Be Steadfast

  Be Steadfast — Ministry Focus for 20241 Corinthians 15:58January 28, 2024 In the late 1980s, Henry Dempsey was flying for a commuter airline.  On one flight with an empty 15-passenger airplane, he and the copilot heard a rattling noise toward the back of the plane.  The copilot took control of the plane when Dempsey […]

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You and the Word

You and the WordPsalm 119 SummaryJanuary 21, 2024 When I was a child, at Christmas my maternal grandparents always had a candy gift bag for each of the grandchildren.  But there was a requirement for receiving that gift:  you had to quote a Bible verse from memory.  We shared Christmas with them in my sixth […]

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The Bible and Prayer

The Bible and PrayerPsalm 119:169-176January 14, 2024 At the beginning and middle of every new year, we spend one Sunday being reminded of the importance of the Word of God in our lives from Psalm 119.  This morning, we come to the last stanza in this great text.  We will find in this passage many […]

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Christ’s Two Appearances

  Christ’s Two AppearancesTitus 2:11-14December 17, 2023 ’Tis the season for waiting.  And waiting.  Maxine Bland can empathize.  A couple of decades ago she showed up to work and found a letter for her that was postmarked 14 years earlier.  It had the correct postage for the time, the correct address and zip code; it […]

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Instruction for Equipping the Saints

Instruction for Equipping the Saints2 Timothy 4:1-5December 3, 2023 In his book, Four Thousand Weeks:  Time Management for Mortals, Oliver Burkeman writes: The average human lifespan is absurdly, insultingly brief. Assuming you live to be 80, you have just over 4,000 weeks. Nobody needs telling there isn’t enough time. We’re obsessed with our lengthening to-do […]

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The People Who Equip the Saints

  The People Who Equip the Saints1 Timothy 1:12-17November 19, 2023 Three years ago Chris Young was named as the General Manager of the Texas Rangers.  At that time he talked to longtime Ranger broadcaster, Eric Nadel, and said something like, “We need you to stay our broadcaster because we are going to win a […]

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One Goal for Equipping the Saints

One Goal for Equipping the Saints1 Timothy 1:3-5November 12, 2023 I hate to rush right past Thanksgiving and Christmas, but in a few weeks you will be thinking about new goals for a new year.  What kinds of things might you consider?  One writer has some suggestions for you: Read less. It makes me think […]

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