By most accounts, the apostle Paul seemed to be a pretty passionate guy. He was willing to endure lashings, stonings, and verbal abuse for the sake of the gospel. He traveled the Mediterranean world planting churches. He wasn’t afraid to go the extra mile. But there is only one thing he himself said he “strenuously…
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Words. They are everywhere. Life without them would be…well…confusing. Think about how pervasive language is. Just today, I used language in the preparation of a sermon. I used it to correspond with dozens of individuals. I used language to give an instruction to a fellow staff person in our church. Not only is language pervasive,…
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When there is a conflict between external circumstances and internal desires, discontentment is often the result. The more of life I live and see, the more I’m convinced discontentment is close to the root of many of our problems. So how do we deal with it? 1. Show some humility If discontentment results from our…
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Perhaps the most famous biblical story is David and Goliath. So many people understand this to be a call for us to trust God in the face of the giants we face, but the Bible isn’t about us. It’s about Jesus Christ. So if the story of David and Goliath is ultimately about him, we…
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Job is one of the most read stories in all the world even to this day. You know the story. Job is a very godly man whom God himself speaks highly of. God permits Satan to ravage Job’s life. Once wealthy, he becomes impoverished. He loses everything. Once blessed with ten children, all ten are…
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Joseph and his brothers marry and have children and their children have children until they become a great nation: Israel. So great have their numbers become in Egypt that the king of Egypt enslaves them in forced labor enforced by brutality and oppression. God sees the injustice his people have to endure and has compassion…
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Remember Joseph and the technicolor dream coat? Joseph was betrayed by his own brothers and sold as a slave in a foreign land. Years later Joseph finds himself sitting at the King of Egypt’s right hand; second in command of that great nation with incredible power to wield as he sees fit. On a seemingly…
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Later in Abraham’s life, after a decades long battle with infertility, God blessed Abraham and his wife Sarah with a son, Isaac. God tested Abraham’s loyalty by instructing Abraham to sacrifice his only son on an altar. Just as Abraham was about to plunge the dagger into the soft flesh of his boy, God stopped…
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Picture yourself sitting in your living room one day. God comes to you and speaks to you audibly and says, “Brian, pack up a few things and leave the Fox Cities. I’m sending you to a country you know nothing about. Its culture, language, food, and people will all be foreign to you. I want…
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