isaiah4031kjv

[isaiah4031kjv]

Life-Changing Choices (Isaiah 41:10)

This slideshow requires JavaScript. Champion athlete Eric Liddell’s decision not to run on Sunday in the 1924 Olympic Games was not difficult because of his deep belief that the Lord’s Day was for worship and rest. A more agonizing dilemma had come a year earlier when Eric was asked to speak about his faith in Christ to a group of coal miners. Liddell said of his struggle: “My whole life had been…

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Faith with Works (James 2:17)

This slideshow requires JavaScript. Because of his arthritis, Roger could no longer handle the winters of Illinois, so he moved to tropical Bangkok, Thailand. One day, he remembered his grandmother’s favorite song, “What You Are”: What you are speaks so loud that the world can’t hear what you say; they’re looking at your walk, not listening to your talk; they’re judging from your actions every…

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Radical Generosity (1 Timothy 6:18)

This slideshow requires JavaScript. Cindy Kienow, who works at a popular restaurant in Hutchinson, Kansas, had been waiting on one of her steady customers for 3 years. He always tipped her well, sometimes leaving as much as half the tab. Then he outdid himself – he gave her a $10,000 tip for a $26 meal. He told her, “I want you to know this is not a joke.” What an amazing display of radical…

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But God (Romans 5:8)

This slideshow requires JavaScript. Howard Sugden, my pastor when I was in college, preached many memorable sermons. After all these years, the one titled “But God …” still makes me stop whenever I come to those words in the Bible. Here are a few examples of verses that encourage me with the reminder of God’s righteous intervention in human affairs: “You mean evil against me; but God meant it for…

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Get Up! (Psalm 54:4)

This slideshow requires JavaScript. I hadn’t been water-skiing in 15 years, but when friends offered to take my son-in-law, Todd, and me out on the lake last summer, how could I say no? It seemed like a good idea until I watched Todd have trouble getting upright on his skis. He had done a lot of skiing, but as he tried to get up on one ski, he kept falling. So when it came to my turn, I didn’t…

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Unchanging Love (James 1:17)

This slideshow requires JavaScript. At a wedding I attended, the bride’s grandfather quoted from memory a moving selection of Scripture about the relationship of husband and wife. Then a friend of the couple read “Sonnet 116” by William Shakespeare. The minister conducting the ceremony used a phrase from the sonnet to illustrate the kind of love that should characterize a Christian marriage:…

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Get Rid of the Grubs (Proverbs 3:21, 23)

This slideshow requires JavaScript. A frustrated homeowner had a yard full of moles. He tried everything he knew to defeat his “underground enemy,” but he was losing the battle. Finally, a friend informed him that he was trying to solve his problem in the wrong way. The moles weren’t the real culprits, even though they were tearing up his lawn. The real problem was the grubs that the moles were…

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Awesome! (Psalm 47:2)

This slideshow requires JavaScript. It’s an often-used word, and we hear it in the most unusual contexts. It’s the word awesome. My 9-year-old grandson Josh and I were playing with a radio-controlled racecar set on the living room floor. Several times he would say, “Awesome!” On another occasion, as my wife and I were leaving a restaurant, the manager, who was standing by the door, asked, “How…

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Spiritual Warmth in Service (Colossians 4:12-13)

This slideshow requires JavaScript. Epaphras is commended in the Scriptures because of his fervent labors and inspiring zeal. What we as Christians need more than anything else is to be stirred by the Holy Spirit until we are filled with the warmth of His love. Then like Epaphras, we will find it easy to serve the Lord effectively. Let me illustrate. As a musician was tuning his instrument prior…

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Changing Enemies into Friends (Matthew 5:44)

This slideshow requires JavaScript. During the US Civil War, hatred became entrenched between the North and South. In one instance, President Abraham Lincoln was criticized for speaking of benevolent treatment for the Southern rebels. The critic reminded Lincoln that there was a war going on, the Confederates were the enemy, and they should be destroyed. But Lincoln wisely responded, “I destroy…

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The Trouble with Running (Psalm 38:5-6)

This slideshow requires JavaScript. Our dog had fleas. For a while, they just about drove him crazy. When we realized what his problem was, we bathed him with flea shampoo, dusted him with flea powder, and fumigated his bedding with flea spray. Then, just when we thought we had them beat, they showed up again. What was happening? Was he getting them from his food? From his bedding? From us? No,…

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Planted in the House of the Lord (Psalm 92:14)

This slideshow requires JavaScript. After conducting a series of interviews with elderly people, author Don Gold published the book Until the Stinging Stops: A Celebration of Life and Old Age America. Gold loved and admired his grandmother, and it was the memory of her that moved him to meet and learn from other elderly people. He recalls that on the way to one of his interviews, he got lost on a…

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My Heart Condemns Me (1 John 3:20)

This slideshow requires JavaScript. Do you sometimes feel guilty and unworthy because of something you did years ago? You have confessed it and asked God to forgive you, but the memory of it still haunts you. I empathize with you. Feelings of guilt still sweep over me when I recall how I failed an elderly, childless woman while I was training for the ministry. She was a regular customer in a…

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Instincts (Psalm 32:6)

This slideshow requires JavaScript. Flying into a storm is a dangerous experience. The temptation is to fly by your instincts, or, as aviators, say, “by the seat of your pants.” But as any pilot will tell you, that’s a prescription for disaster. If you rely on your feelings and instincts, you become disoriented, thinking the plane is going up when it’s actually going down. Thankfully, the…

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“They Almost Didn’t Tell Me” (Mark 5:19)

This slideshow requires JavaScript. The title of today’s article came from the testimony of Nancy Silver Cochran as she told about her conversion to Christ from Judaism. She is troubled because Christian friends waited so long to share the gospel with her. She accepted Christ immediately after hearing the story of Jesus, but she wishes she had heard it 9 years earlier. Some believers at that time…

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Communion on the Moon (Psalm 139:8)

 This slideshow requires JavaScript. Apollo 11 landed on the surface of the moon on Sunday, July 20, 1969. Most of us are familiar with Armstrong’s historic statement as he stepped onto the moon’s surface: “That’s one small step for a man; one giant step for mankind.” But few know about the first meal eaten there. Buzz Aldrin had brought aboard the spacecraft a tiny communion kit provided by his…

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More Than We Imagine (1 John 3:2)

This slideshow requires JavaScript. For decades, astronomical artists have painted scenes of the universe based on a combination of scientific information and their own imaginations. But photographs from robotic space probes and the Hubble Telescope have redefined these artists’ view of reality. In a Los Angeles Times article, space artist Don Dixon said the first pictures of Jupiter‘s moons, Io…