As a teenager I had the best dog, a golden retriever named Tyler. He was sweet, present, playful, and always up for a car ride. Sadly, Tyler died a few years ago, so we had him cremated and buried him in my parents' backyard. A few months after Tyler passed…
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Your hope and your future depend on your intentional effort. I'm not talking about struggling to keep up appearances, or working to put your game face on. I'm talking about making a demand on your heart and mind to see yourself in a better future. I don't know exactly how,…
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As God puts his hand on us, it is evidenced in our lives. When the Word of God is not only preached with boldness but also lived with confidence, there is an atmosphere for change. There is a shift. We don't just hear truth... we live truth. As the Holy…
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Long ago, God said to his chosen people, "You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests" (Exodus 19:6) After Christ claimed his place as eternal high priest, the apostle Peter said that believers constituted "a royal priesthood" (1 Peter 2:9). This transfer of honor and duty includes several responsibilities,…
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Last Friday marked one of the most tragic and triumphant moments in human history. On a hill shaped like a skull, the Son of God hung on a cross between two thieves. Satan surely thought he was witnessing God’s greatest defeat, but he was witnessing his own ultimate destruction and…
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I wonder if you have suffered a loss. Maybe your husband just left you. Maybe one of your children passed away in a tragic drunk-driving accident. Maybe your teenager ran away. Maybe someone you love committed suicide. I want you to read the next few words carefully and slowly. God…
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Imagine for a moment if Steve Jobs did nothing with his creativity and innovative thinking but instead decided to dabble in those gifts as side projects while following a more traditional path and getting a more traditional job. If this was the case, the world would have been robbed of…
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Why are we able to ask an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-seeing God for help? Why can we ask for a better life and future with him? There's really only one reason. The reason is the object of our faith. Because of this object, we can boldly come to God with our…
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Every Tuesday, I get the joy of spending two hours at the local jail with women who want to learn about Jesus, helping them figure out how to do life again once they are released. It's a seven-week program. We talk with them about creating a resume, dressing for a…
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Heaven sounds like a place of imaginative fictional fantasy. But maybe the reason we possess within us such imaginative fictional capacity is because of a longing for eternity that God placed in the human heart. Like a bird's homing instinct, it's pointing us homeward. There's a little bird called the…
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