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Welcome!
A hot tip. Invest your life in hospitality
to others. The return on this investment is out of this world. God's deep
love for us should be paid forward, in part, by our cheerful expressions of
hospitality. God values people more than property or things. And, so
should we. Let's set another place at the table and put clean sheets on
the bed.
David Wolfe, his wife Karen, and their eleven children believe in expressing
God's love through hospitality. Each year they entertain between 100 and 200
guests. David and Karen are regular readers of the SoAmazing Letter and
amazing friends to me.
A Prayer begins . . .
Our Father in heaven, you are precious to us. Bless David, Karen and their children.
We are grateful for their example of gracious hospitality. Help us learn from them. And, please
continue to bless their ministry.
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Don't be satisfied with just a taste of a great book by reading a quotation. Let the whole book inform your soul. Clickle our links and feast on the whole Thanksgiving Dinner!
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Two selected book quotations begin . . .
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Pray Or Die
Category: Christian Living
ISBN: 0917463196
Keywords: Steve Harris,
ministry, marriage, spiritual warfare, God, Francis Thompson, Andre Bustanoby,
The Hound of Heaven, prayer, prayer life, journal, thanksgiving,
faith, Robert Norris, Christianity Today, Word, Inc., Miller, Kevin A. Miller
" 'It's either pray or die,' in the words of Steve Harris. 'In the last couple of years
it has dawned on me, I am either going to do this or possibly lose my ministry or
my marriage. I used to give lip service to Ephesians 6:10 about spiritual
warfare, and I preach about it; but I'm beginning to see that warfare is real, and prayer
is therefore essential, whether I feel like doing it or not.'
Another inner adjustment: recognizing, at least in their better moments, that emotional
darkness and God can both be present. Indeed, the darkness may be a SIGN of his
presence. 'I love Francis Thompson's poem 'The Hound of Heaven,' 'says Andre Bustanoby,
counselor and former pastor. 'There's a line near the end where this man who is running
for his life from God talks about the shadow looming over him. With a burst on insight
he says, 'Is my gloom, after all, the shade of his hand outstretched caressingly?'
I always think of that when I think of discouragement. There's a shadow cast over my
life, but it's not the pall of doom. It's the shade of his hand outstretched caressing
me. He's saying, 'My son, I'm bidding you to growth. Won't you see that as my purpose
in your life?'
In addition, many pastors have found specific methods helpful for breaking through.
'My prayer life is not as vital during the times I'm discouraged,' says Ed Bratcher,
'but one thing that helps me is writing in my
journal.
My writing is for me a form of prayer: I speak about my needs and also try to express my
thanksgiving for what God has done for me. I look back later and see what have been the
sources of my discouragement and how some of these things have worked out. That renews me.'
In Mark 2, a paralyzed man is unable to get to Jesus to be healed, so four of his friends
carry him there on a stretcher. And when Jesus sees the friends' faith, he heals the
man (Mk. 2:5). A similar principle applies to the pastor paralyzed with despondency.
The only way to get to Jesus in prayer may be for friends to carry you. Robert Norris,
pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, Maryland, knows what that's like.
'When I don't want to pray, I get my wife to pray with me. Other times I have taken my
friends and said, 'Please pray. I don't want to.' "
SoAmazing Review: In Secrets of Staying Power,
Kevin Miller tackles the discouragement that often faces pastors, church workers,
and ministry professionals and provides life and ministry saving insights.
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Plenty Persuasive Evidence
Category: Christian Living
ISBN: 0310234697
Keywords: seeker, hell,
Almighty, Geisler, Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics,
Zen Buddism, God, heavens, Christians, Allan Sandage, cosmologist, astronomy, Sir Fred
Hoyle, Intelligent Designer, astrophysicist, Hugh Ross, University of Toronto, Robert
Jastrow, agnostic, Mount Wilson Observatory, Goddard Space Institue, Big Bang, Bertrand
Russell, Look, pride, will, persuasive, Zondervan Publishing House, Stroebel, Lee Stroebel
"One more thing before we go,' I said as I read him the colorful words of a frustrated
spiritual seeker:
'So if I want to avoid hell, I presumably have to believe that a snake talked to Eve,
that a virgin got pregnant from God, that a whale swallowed a prophet, that the Red Sea
was parted, and all sorts of other crazy things. Well, if God wants me so bad . . . why
does He make believing in Him so . . .
impossible? . . .
It seems to me that an all-powerful God could do a much better job of convincing people
of His existence than any evangelist ever does. . . . Just write it in the sky, nice and
big: 'Here's your proof, Ed. Believe in Me or go to hell! Sincerely, the Almighty.' '
Looking up at Geisler, I said, 'What would you say to him?'
Geisler [A prodigious author who wrote, co-authored, or edited more than fifty books
including the 841-page Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, which systematically
discusses issues ranging from 'absolute truth' to 'Zen Buddhism.] was a bit bemused.
'My answer would be that God did do something like that,' he replied. 'Psalm 19:1 [NIV]
says, 'The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his
handiwork.' In fact, it's written across the heavens so vividly that more and more
scientists who search the stars are becoming Christians.
'The great cosmologist Allan Sandage, who won astronomy's version of the Nobel Prize,
concluded that God is 'the explanation for the miracle of existence.' Sir Fred Hoyle,
who devised the steady state theory of the universe to avoid the existence of God,
eventually became a believer in an Intelligent Designer of the universe.
'The astrophysicist Hugh Ross, who got his doctorate in astronomy from the University of
Toronto and did research on Quasars and galaxies, said scientific and historical
evidence 'deeply rooted my confidence in the veracity of the Bible.' Robert Jastrow, a
confessed agnostic and director of the Mount Wilson Observatory and founder of the
Goddard Space Institute, concluded the Big Bang points toward God. And I like what
mathematical physicist Robert Griffiths said: 'If we need an atheist for a debate, I go
to the philosophy department. The physics department isn't much use.' The evidence,
Lee, is so clear.'
Not to a skeptic like Bertrand Russell, I noted. 'He said if he someday stands before
God and is asked why he never put his faith in him, he'll say he hadn't seen enough
evidence,' I reminded him.
Geisler, one of whose hobbies is collecting quotes from atheists and agnostics, pointed
out something else Russell said. 'He was asked in a Look magazine interview, 'Under
what condition would you believe in God,' and he essentially said, 'Well, if I heard a
voice from heaven and it predicted a series of things and they came to pass, then I guess
I'd have to believe there's some kind of supernatural being.'
. . . 'I'd say, 'Mr. Russell, there has been a voice from heaven; it has predicted many
things; and we've seen them undeniably come to pass,' ' Geisler declared.
'Then you don't think God is making it hard for people to believe?'
'On the contrary, the evidence is there if people will be willing to see it. It's not
for a lack of evidence that people turn from God; it's from their pride or their will.
God is not going to force anyone into the fold. Love never works coercively. It only
works persuasively. And there's plenty of persuasive evidence there.' "
SoAmazing Review: The Case For Faith
answers the questions of skeptics, agnostics, atheists and spiritual seekers.
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