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Tuesday, October 5, 2009

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"The metropolitan New York area may be a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there." That's how a lot of folks feel about the area where I lived for so many years. And I can understand that. The area has a very fast pace, an awful lot of people, and there is a high stress quotient. Some call it stressful, some call it exciting, and some call it both. Now imagine this young man moving to the New York area to join our ministry team. He grew up in a small town in Mississippi, and he most recently ministered in Arkansas. Bam! He's suddenly in this whirlwind we call the New York area. So did he crawl inside his little home and just watch TV with his dog? No way! He started driving into New York every chance he got. He checked out all those places he'd heard so much about. He learned very quickly how nice it was to spend a day down at the Jersey Shore. He started eating a lot of new things he never tried before. Yes, this can be a hard area to adjust to, but he decided not to lament his location, he decided to make the most of it!

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

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I saw this amusing commercial. This basset hound lying on the floor next to his master; his master is totally covered by the newspaper he's reading. On the floor in front of the dog is a page of the newspaper that advertises this incredible bargain airfare from a certain airline. Suddenly, the dog has a bubble over his head in which he sees himself at the kennel again while his master is off traveling. The dog quietly picks up that part of the paper that has the ad, trots over to the garbage can, drops it in, and goes back to his master's side, and his master never knows the difference. Of course, the dog has no way of knowing those great sale fares aren't always as great as they first appear. The sale fare is in big print, but at the bottom is the small print with lots of conditions. Or you call and you get some surprises. You have to fly over a certain day of the week, or there's a penalty for any changes, or there are only a few seats at that price, or you may have to book two years in advance! It looks great for a while, but the added conditions change things a bit - conditions you hadn't counted on.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

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I was more of a Superman and Batman fan. I never really got into Spider-Man. But when the blockbuster Spider-Man movie came out, a lot of people did get into Spider-Man. And you know what? There has been a couple more of them since then. I'm still not very interested in this web-spinning, skyscraper-climbing, crime-fighting guy in the spider suit, but I am interested in something he said in the first movie about him. Peter Parker is the bookish teenager who gets bitten by a radioactive spider one day and begins to discover that he has suddenly developed some amazing spiderish abilities. (Okay, I'm reporting the story; I didn't write it.) Now, it dawns on him that he can't just use these abilities for himself. He has to use them to make a difference. Here's what he says. I like this: "For me, living an ordinary life is no longer an option."

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

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Our friend Jack was heading out on a recent canoe trip with some friends, undaunted by a river that was rising from recent heavy rains. No sooner had they pushed off into the water but the stronger-than-expected current dumped their canoe. All their supplies for the weekend were suddenly headed downstream. Instinctively, Jack started swimming after the supplies to retrieve them. He, too, was caught up in the current, and he was caught off guard at how cold the water was. In no time, he was beginning to feel the first indications of hypothermia with no way to get out. At that seemingly hopeless moment, a life jacket floated by. Jack knew this was his chance. He grabbed that life jacket in that one moment of hope and it saved his life.

Friday, September 11, 2009

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I guess we'll be reliving for a long time the images of the World Trade Center attacks and the heroic rescue efforts that followed them. One moment that really hit me was this interview with a big guy who was helping the rescuers. He was sitting on a curb at Ground Zero, talking with a reporter from a cable news network. He told how he had been delivering food to the rescuers, and then how he was making his way back through the rubble when he decided to reach into that rubble just on the chance someone might be there. Suddenly, he felt a warm hand grabbing his arm. Immediately, he went and got helpers who pulled a firefighter out of there alive! And then that's when he lost it in the interview as he choked out these words, "He touched me first."

Thursday, September 10, 2009

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Some dear friends of ours lost their 19-year-old son. Because of the way it happened, his death was really a sudden, gut-wrenching tragedy. But with Jesus as their anchor, even through this, his mom and dad declared that "God wants life to come from his death." One way that's happened is through their decision to donate his organs to help save and improve some other lives. Not long after their son's death, the word came that someone in a neighboring state had received their son's heart. That's been a source of comfort and encouragement to them. As they say, "Our son's heart is giving life to someone else."

Monday, September 7, 2009

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It was one of those nights that flashes back in our memory for years, like treasured pictures in a mental scrapbook. It was the early 1990s and the Soviet Union was beginning to break up. Estonia and Latvia had been under Soviet domination for years, with Christians often being persecuted, or marginalized, even imprisoned and beaten. Our daughter was one of a team of college students, privileged to be one of the first Christian teams to be able to freely present Christ in Estonia and Latvia. They had just held some unforgettable meetings with believers in Riga, the capital of Latvia, and they had heard some of the stories of the price some of those dear saints had paid for their loyalty to Jesus Christ. They had been through so much.

Friday, September 4, 2009

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It isn't easy to get baptized in the desert, especially if you're of the persuasion that believes in being baptized by being immersed in water. Our daughter-in-law grew up in one of those areas without much water, so she got baptized in a horse trough - minus the horse of course. Some Marines in Iraq got baptized in a small brick chapel, in a rubber dinghy filled with water. A young corporal was one of those. He decided to get baptized as his unit was preparing to attack the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah. Reports said that he came out of the water dripping wet and beaming. He explained his reason for doing it and for doing it then: "I just wanted to make sure I did this before I headed into the fight."

Thursday, September 3, 2009

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A young man named Jared became somewhat of an American celebrity, all because of the massive amount of weight he lost. A deli sandwich chain has featured him in a lot of their advertising the last couple of years. He says he lost basically the equivalent of another whole person, largely by eating their low-fat, low-calorie turkey sandwich for months. And as Jared's body has been shrinking, the sandwich chain has been growing!

Friday, August 28, 2009

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The battles were horrendous. The casualties were many. But the outcome changed everything. That's a very quick summary of the final episode of J. R. R. Tolkien's classic trilogy, Lord of the Rings. That trilogy jumped off of dusty bookshelves and into the popular culture with their portrayal in three of the most successful movies of all time. Tolkien weaves a tale of a world called Middle Earth where these soulless, subhuman beings are attempting to stamp out what they call the "Age of Humans." Finally, in the concluding "Return of the King," Middle Earth's rightful king, Aragorn, leads the humans in one last, all-out attempt to turn back the forces of evil. After many costly battles, there's a glorious coronation day for the triumphant king. As the crown is placed on the head of the rightful ruler before this jubilant crowd of his subjects, they know the dark days are over. And the one who crowned him makes this hope-filled announcement, "Now begin the days of the King!"

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