Jesus had no servants, yet they called Him Master.
Had no degree, yet they called Him Teacher.
Had no medicines, yet they called Him Healer.
Had no army, yet kings feared Him.
He won no military battles, yet He conquered the world.
He committed no crime, yet they crucified Him.
He was buried in a tomb, yet He lives today.

The people stood yelling, “Crucify!”
and it breaks our hearts every time.
For Jesus’ death occurs every time
someone is ignored, mistreated, oppressed.

“Crucify!”
tears away at God’s Beloved.

There is a time for everything,
And a season for every activity under heaven:
A time to be born and a time to die,
A time to plant and a time to uproot,
A time to kill and a time to heal,
A time to tear down and a time to build,
A time to weep and a time to laugh,
A time to mourn and a time to dance.

(Ecclesiastes 3)

Redeem Your Time in the New Year!

What is Christmas to you?
Is Christmas all about shopping, waiting in line, going in debt, gaining weight, visiting relatives, and holiday music and Christmas parties?

Apparently a lot of American’s associate those things with Christmas and aren’t too merry about it. In fact it seems that most American’s have something about Christmas they they dread. Here are some survey findings commisioned by Consumer Reports Magazine:

• 28 percent hate shopping for gifts – (68 percent worry about having to wait in line to buy them, and 37 percent “abhor” getting in debt over it)
• 37 percent worry about gaining weight
• 24 percent aren’t looking forward to seeing relatives
• 23 percent hate the seasonal music
• 16 percent hate going to holiday parties

(Source: RC/Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

This should remind us that during the Christmas Season, we need to make sure the whole world knows the real “Reason for the Season” That a Savior has come.

Christmas Collection
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“The absence of thankfulness does not mean that we are merely ungrateful. It means that we are missing the thrill of appreciation and pleasure.”

Shannon Pollack

What is it in your life that you don’t really need?

1 John 2:15-17 ESV
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

Luke 12:15 ESV
“And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.””

Matthew 6:19-21 ESV
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

1 Timothy 6:6-10 ESV
“Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”

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Anonymous

An old man going a lone highway
Came at the evening cold and gray
To a chasm vast and deep and wide,
Through which was flowing a swollen tide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim
That swollen stream held no fears for him
But he paused when safe on the other side
And built a bridge to span the tide.

“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near,
“You are wasting strength with building here.
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again must pass this way.
You have crossed the chasm deep and wide;
Why build you the bridge at the eventide?”

The builder lifted his old gray head,
“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,
“There follows after me today
A youth whose feet must pass this way.
This swollen stream which was naught to me
To that fair haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim.
Good friend, I am building the bridge for him.”

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“A garden is so much like a church. So much care and feeding. Such competitiveness among the plants — some of them literally choke each other to death if you don’t get out there and put a stop to it. The big gorgeous ones get lots of attention, but then one comes along that looks almost dead all season and suddenly, almost overnight, blooms splendidly forth. Never write anybody off completely. You just don’t know. ”

— Barbara Cawthorne Crafton in Let Us Bless the Lord, Year One

The Parable of the Sower is a notable study of preaching, showing its differing effects and describing the diversity of hearers. The wayside hearers are legion. The soil lies all unprepared either by previous thought or prayer; as a consequence, the devil easily takes away the seed (which is the Word of God) and dissipating all good impressions, renders the work of the sower futile. No one for a moment believes, that so much of present-day sowing would go fruitless if only the hearers would prepare the ground of their hearts beforehand by prayer and meditation.

Similarly with the stony-ground hearers, and the thorny-ground hearers. Although the word lodges in their hearts and begins to sprout, yet all is lost, chiefly because there is no prayer or watchfulness or cultivation following. The good-ground hearers are profited by the sowing, simply because their minds have been prepared for the reception of the seed, and that, after hearing, they have cultivated the seed sown in their hearts, by the exercise of prayer. All this gives peculiar emphasis to the conclusion of this striking parable: “Take heed, therefore, how ye hear.” And in order that we may take heed how we hear, it is needful to give ourselves continually to prayer.

Source: E.M. Bounds in the Necessity of Prayer

PRAYER governs conduct and conduct makes character. Conduct, is what we do; character, is what we are. Conduct is the outward life. Character is the life unseen, hidden within, yet evidenced by that which is seen. Conduct is external, seen from without; character is internal — operating within. In the economy of grace conduct is the offspring of character. Character is the state of the heart, conduct its outward expression. Character is the root of the tree, conduct, the fruit it bears.

E.M. Bounds in “The Necessity of Prayer”

You say: “It’s impossible”
God says: All things are possible (Luke 18:27)

You say: “I’m too tired”
God says: I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28-30)

You say: “Nobody really loves me”
God says: I love you (John 3:16 & John 3:34)

You say: “I can’t go on”
God says: My grace is sufficient (II Corinthians 12:9 & Psalm 91:15)

You say: “I can’t figure things out”
God says: I will direct your steps (Proverbs 3:5-6)

You say: “I can’t do it”
God says: You can do all things (Philippians 4:13)

You say: “I’m not able”
God says: I am able (II Corinthians 9:8)

You say: “It’s not worth it”
God says: It will be worth it (Roman 8:28)

You say: “I can’t forgive myself”
God says: I Forgive you (I John 1:9 & Romans 8:1)

You say: “I can’t manage”
God says: I will supply all your needs (Philippians 4:19)

You say: “I’m afraid”
God says: I have not given you a spirit of fear (II Timothy 1:7)

You say: “I’m always worried and frustrated”
God says: Cast all your cares on ME (I Peter 5:7)

You say: “I don’t have enough faith”
God says: I’ve given everyone a measure of faith (Romans 12:3)

You say: “I’m not smart enough”
God says: I give you wisdom (I Corinthians 1:30)

You say: “I feel all alone”
God says: I will never leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5)

God knows better!

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“In God’s sight, my giving is measured not by how much I give, but by how much I have left after I make my gift. Not by its size is my gift judged, but by how much of me there is in it. No one gives at all until he has given all! No one gives anything acceptable to God until he has first given himself in love and sacrifice.”

A.W. Tozer

You cannot believe what you do not know.
You cannot respond to what you cannot understand.

Whether he was born in 4 B.C. or A.D. 6, in Bethlehem or Nazareth, whether there were multitudes of the heavenly host to hymn the glory of it or just Mary and her husband–when the child was born, the whole course of human history was changed.

That is a truth as unassailable as any truth. Art, music, literature, Western culture itself with all its institutions and Western man’s whole understanding of himself and his world–it is impossible to conceive how differently things would have turned out if that birth had not happened whenever, wherever, however it did.

And there is a truth beyond that: for millions of people who have believed since, the birth of Jesus made possible not just a new way of understanding life but a new way of living it.

Frederick Buechner in Listening to Your Life. Christianity Today, Vol. 37, no. 15.

Christmas Collection
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“Self-esteem is never self-made. It grows from the esteem of others given in response to all our lives produce”
Maurice Wagner in “The Sensation of Being Somebody” (Zondervan 1975)

Have you helped build the self-esteem of your youth?

100 years from now, it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove…

But the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child.

Anonymous

• God won’t ask what kind of car you drove. He’ll ask how many people you drove who didn’t have transportation.
• God won’t ask the square footage of your house, He’ll ask how many people you welcomed into your home.
• God won’t ask about the clothes you had in your closet, He’ll ask how many you helped to clothe.
• God won’t ask what your highest salary was. He’ll ask if you compromised your character to obtain it.
• God won’t ask what your job title was. He’ll ask if you performed your job to the best of your ability.
• God won’t ask how many friends you had. He’ll ask how many people to whom you were a friend.
• God won’t ask in what neighborhood you lived, He’ll ask how you treated your neighbors.
• God won’t ask about the color of your skin, He’ll ask about the content of your character.
• God won’t ask why it took you so long to seek Salvation. He’ll lovingly take you to your mansion in heaven

Source: Circulating on internet via emails

“I have four things to learn in life:
To think clearly without hurry or confusion;
To love everybody sincerely;
To act in everything with the highest motives;
To trust in God unhesitatingly.”

“I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month.”
– Harlan Miller

“Peace on earth will come to stay, when we live Christmas every day.”
– Helen Steiner Rice

Christmas Eve was a night of song that wrapped itself about you like a shawl. But it warmed more than your body. It warmed your heart… filled it, too, with a melody that would last forever.
– Bess Streeter Aldrich

My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?
– Bob Hope

To the American People: Christmas is not a time or a season but a state of mind. To cherish peace and good will, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. If we think on these things, there will be born in us a Savior and over us will shine a star sending its gleam of hope to the world.
– Calvin Coolidge

“Christmas is not just a day, an event to be observed and speedily forgotten. It is a spirit which should permeate every part of our lives.”
– William Parks (Missions)

“I sometimes think we expect too much of Christmas Day. We try to crowd into it the long arrears of kindliness and humanity of the whole year. As for me, I like to take my Christmas a little at a time, all through the year. And thus I drift along into the holidays-let them overtake me unexpectedly-waking up some fine morning and suddenly saying to myself: “Why this is Christmas Day!””
– David Grayson

“Don’t expect too much of Christmas Day. You can’t crowd into it any arrears of unselfishness and kindliness that may have accrued during the past twelve months.”
– Oren Arnold

“So remember while December Brings the only Christmas day, In the year let there be Christmas In the things you do and say.”
– Anonymous

Christmas Collection
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“This Advent we look to the Wise Men to teach us where to focus our attention. We set our sights on things above, where God is. We draw closer to Jesus… When our Advent journey ends, and we reach the place where Jesus resides in Bethlehem, may we, like the Wise Men, fall on our knees and adore him as our true and only King.”
– Mark Zimmermann

“Christ was born in the first century, yet he belongs to all centuries. He was born a Jew, yet He belongs to all races. He was born in Bethlehem, yet He belongs to all countries.”
– George W. Truett

“Let us keep Christmas beautiful Without a thought of greed, That it might live forevermore To fill our every need, That it shall not be just a day, But last a lifetime through, The miracle of Christmastime That brings God close to you.”
– Garnett Ann Schultz

“God walked down the stairs of heaven with a Baby in His arms.”
– Paul Scherer

“Love came down at Christmas; Love all lovely, love divine; Love was born at Christmas, Stars and angels gave the sign.”
– Christina Rossetti

“This is the month, and this the happy morn, wherein the Son of heaven’s eternal King, of wedded Maid and Virgin Mother born, our great redemption from above did bring.”
– John Milton

“This is Christmas: not the tinsel, not the giving and receiving, not even the carols, but the humble heart that receives anew the wondrous gift, the Christ.”
– Frank McKibben

“Best of all, Christmas means a spirit of love, a time when the love of God and the love of our fellow men should prevail over all hatred and bitterness, a time when our thoughts and deeds and the spirit of our lives manifest the presence of God.”
– George F. McDougall

“Off to one side sits a group of shepherds. They sit silently on the floor, perhaps perplexed, perhaps in awe, no doubt in amazement. Their night watch had been interrupted by an explosion of light from heaven and a symphony of angels. God goes to those who have time to hear him”– and so on this cloudless night he went to simple shepherds.”
— Max Lucado

“Late on a sleepy, star-spangled night, those angels peeled back the sky just like you would tear open a sparkling Christmas present. Then, with light and joy pouring out of Heaven like water through a broken dam, they began to shout and sing the message that baby Jesus had been born. The world had a Savior! The angels called it “Good News, ” and it was.”
— Larry Libby (“The Angels Called it Good News” in Christmas Stories for the Heart)

“Let us remember that the Christmas heart is a giving heart, a wide open heart that thinks of others first. The birth of the baby Jesus stands as the most significant event in all history, because it has meant the pouring into a sick world the healing medicine of love which has transformed all manner of hearts for almost two thousand years… Underneath all the bulging bundles is this beating Christmas heart.”
— George Matthew Adams (The Christmas Heart)

“The purpose and cause of the incarnation was that He might illuminate the world by His wisdom and excite it to the love of Himself.”
— Peter Abelard

I truly believe that if we keep telling the Christmas story, singing the Christmas songs, and living the Christmas spirit, we can bring joy and happiness and peace to this world.
– Norman Vincent Peale

“Christmas is a necessity. There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we’re here for something else besides ourselves.”
– Eric Sevareid

Christmas Collection
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“Whatever else be lost among the years, Let us keep Christmas still a shining thing: Whatever doubts assail us, or what fears, Let us hold close one day, remembering its poignant meaning for the hearts of men. Let us get back our childlike faith again.”
– Grace Noll Crowell

“There’s nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child.”
– Erma Bombeck

“Christmas, in its final essence, is for grown people who have forgotten what children know. Christmas is for whoever is old enough to have denied the unquenchable spirit of man.”
– Margaret Cousins

“At Christmas play and make good cheer,
For Christmas comes but once a year.”
– Thomas Tusser

“Christmas! The very word brings joy to our hearts. No matter how we may dread the rush, the long Christmas lists for gifts and cards to be bought and given–when Christmas Day comes there is still the same warm feeling we had as children, the same warmth that enfolds our hearts and our homes.”
– Joan Winmill Brown

“Christmas is a day of meaning and traditions, a special day spent in the warm circle of family and friends.”
– Margaret Thatcher

“Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall.”
– Larry Wilde

Christmas Collection
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“The Grinch hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season!
Now, please don’t ask why. No one quite knows the reason.
It could be that his head wasn’t screwed on quite right.
It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight.
But I think that the most likely reason of all
May have been that his heart was two sizes too small.”
– Dr. Suess

“Christmas is for children. But it is for grownups too. Even if it is a headache, a chore, and nightmare, it is a period of necessary defrosting of chill and hide-bound hearts.”
– Lenora Mattingly Weber

“It is not even the beginning of Christmas unless it is Christmas in the heart.”
– Richard Roberts

“Remember, if Christmas isn’t found in your heart, you won’t find it under a tree.”
– Charlotte Carpenter

“It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air.”
– W. T. Ellis

“Mankind is a great, an immense family. This is proved by what we feel in our hearts at Christmas.”
– Pope John XXIII

“The only real blind person at Christmas-time is he who has no Christmas in his heart.”
– Helen Keller

“Christmas Eve was a night of song that wrapped itself about you like a shawl. But it warmed more than your body. It warmed your heart…filled it, too, with melody that would last forever.”
– Bess Streeter Aldrich

“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”
– Charles Dickens, Ebeneezer Scrooge, A Christmas Carol

“They err who thinks Santa Claus comes down through the chimney; he really enters through the heart.”
– Mrs. Paul M. Ell

“Until one feels the spirit of Christmas, there is no Christmas. All else is outward display-so much tinsel and decorations. For it isn’t the holly, it isn’t the snow. It isn’t the tree not the firelight’s glow. It’s the warmth that comes to the hearts of men when the Christmas spirit returns again.”
— Anonymous

“Christmas is not in tinsel and lights and outward show. The secret lies in an inner glow. It’s lighting a fire inside the heart. Good will and joy a vital part. It’s higher thought and a greater plan. It’s glorious dream in the soul of man.”
– Wilfred A. Peterson (The Art of Living)

“This is Christmas: not the tinsel, not the giving and receiving, not even the carols, but the humble heart that receives anew the wondrous gift, the Christ.”
— Frank McKibben

“Christmas … is not an eternal event at all, but a piece of one’s home that one carries in one’s heart…”
– Freya Stark

“Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.”
– Calvin Coolidge

“There is no ideal Christmas; only the one Christmas you decide to make as a reflection of your values, desires, affections, traditions.”
– Bill McKibben

Christmas Collection
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Christmas is the season of Giving

“Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone.”
– Charles Schulz

“A Christmas candle is a lovely thing; It makes no noise at all, But softly gives itself away; While quite unselfish, it grows small.”
– Eva K. Logue

“We make a living by what we get but we make a life by what we give.”
– Winston Churchill

“If there is no joyous way to give a festive gift, give love away.”
Unknown

“Mail your packages early so the post office can lose them in time for Christmas.”
– Johnny Carson.

“I once bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas with a note on it saying, toys not included.”
– Bernard Manning

“Let us remember that the Christmas heart is a giving heart, a wide open heart that thinks of others first. The birth of the baby Jesus stands as the most significant event in all history, because it has meant the pouring into a sick world of the healing medicine of love which has transformed all manner of hearts for almost two thousand years. Underneath all the bulging bundles is this beating Christmas heart.”
– George Mathew Adams

“A Christmas candle is a lovely thing; It makes no noise at all, But softly gives itself away; While quite unselfish, it grows small.”
– Eva K. Logue

“Were it not for the shepherds, there would have been no reception. And were it not for a group of stargazers, there would have been no gifts.”
– Max Lucado, God Came Near

“Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won’t make it ‘white’.”
– Bing Crosby

“Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.”
– Washington Irving

“Do give books – religious or otherwise – for Christmas. They’re never fattening, seldom sinful, and permanently personal.”
– Lenore Hershey

“The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.”
– Burton Hillis

“It is the personal thoughtfulness, the warm human awareness, the reaching out of the self to one’s fellow man that makes giving worthy of the Christmas spirit.”>
– Isabel Currier

“Christmas, my child, is love in action.”
– Dale Evans

“Christmas is most truly Christmas when we celebrate it by giving the light of love to those who need it most.”
– Ruth Carter Stapleton

“Christmas, my child, is love in action. … Every time we love, every time we give, it’s Christmas.”
– Dale Evans Rogers

“Christmas gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect.”
– Oren Arnold

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Simply put, prayer is communicating with God. As a child of God you are invited to come boldly before His throne. ‘Since we have such a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God,’ the apostle Paul writes, ‘…then let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.’ (Hebrews 4:14-16)

Because of who God is–the King of Kings and Lord of lords, the Creator of heaven and earth–we must come into His presence with reverence. But He is also our loving heavenly Father who cares for us and delights in having fellowship with us. Therefore we can come to Him with a reverent, joyful heart, knowing that He loves us more than anyone else has ever loved us or will ever love us.

Someone has said, ‘Prayer is the creator as well as the channel of devotion. The spirit of devotion is the spirit of prayer. Prayer and devotion are united as soul and body are united, as life and heart are united. There is no real prayer without devotion, no devotion without prayer.’ Real prayer is expressing our devotion to our heavenly Father inviting Him to talk to us as we talk to Him”

Excepted from “The Coming Revival: A Call to Fast, Pray, and ‘Seek God’s Face’ by Bill Bright (p184)

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Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

Which road do you walk?
What eternal difference is it making?

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“When it comes to irritations, I’ve found that it helps if I remember that I am not in charge of my day… God is. And while I’m sure he wants me to use my time wisely, he is more concerned with the development of my character and the cultivation of the qualities that make me Christlike within. One of his preferred methods of training is through adjustments to irritations.

A perfect illustration? The oyster and its pearl.
Pearls are the products of irritation. This irritation occurs when the shell of the oyster is invaded by an alien substance like a grain of sand. When that happens, all the resources within the tiny, sensitive oyster rush to the irritated spot and begin to release healing fluids that otherwise would have remained dormant. By and by the irritant is covered– by a pearl. Had there been no irritating interruption, there could have been no pearl. No wonder our heavenly home has pearly gates to welcome the wounded and bruised who have responded correctly to the sting of irritations.”

Source: Charles Swindoll, The Finishing Touch

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It takes a minute to find a special person,
an hour to appreciate them,
a day to love them,
but then an entire life to forget them.

“Every Christian family ought to be as it were a little church consecrated to Christ, and wholly influenced and governed by His rule. And family education and order are some of the chief means of grace. If these fail, all other means are likely to prove ineffectual. If these are duly maintained, all the means of grace will be likely to prosper and be successful.”

Jonathan Edwards

Have you ever wondered why the stone was rolled away?

It certainly wasn’t so that Jesus could get out — Later when the disciples are in the upper room with the doors locked, Jesus simply appears in their presence.

The gospels tell us there was an earthquake and the stone rolled away – But I assure you that it wasn’t for Jesus’ benefit.

It was for ours.
It wasn’t so Jesus could get out.
It was so Mary and others could get in
and see that Jesus was gone.

I wonder if there is a stone in your life that needs to be rolled away so that you can discover the resurrected Savior?

Easter Collection
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Among the apostles, the one absolutely stunning success was Judas, and the one thoroughly groveling failure was Peter.

Judas was a success in the ways that most impress us: he was successful both financially and politically. He cleverly arranged to control the money of the apostolic band; he skillfully manipulated the political forces of the day to accomplish his goal.

And Peter was a failure in ways that we most dread: he was impotent in a crisis and socially inept. At the arrest of Jesus he collapsed, a hapless, blustering coward; in the most critical situations of his life with Jesus, the confession on the road to Caesarea Philippi and the vision on the Mount of transfiguration, he said the most embarrassingly inappropriate things. He was not the companion we would want with us in time of danger, and he was not the kind of person we would feel comfortable with at a social occasion.

Time, of course, has reversed our judgments on the two men. Judas is now a byword for betrayal, and Peter is one of the most honored names in the church and in the world. Judas is a villain; Peter is a saint. Yet the world continues to chase after the successes of Judas, financial wealth and political power, and to defend itself against the failures of Peter, impotence and ineptness.

Eugene Petersen quoted in: Tim Kimmel, Little House on the Freeway, Page 191-192.

Easter Collection
Games and Activities in celebration of Easter.

Get more than 80 creative ideas for planning a Youth Easter celebration or Easter Party. You can immediately download my best Easter Icebreakers, games, illustrations, Easter activity ideas AND MUCH MORE in a useful ebook!

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If everything is coming your way, you might be in the wrong lane!

I think that I shall never see
A church that’s all it ought to be.
A church whose members never stray
Beyond the straight and narrow way.

A church that has no empty pews
Whose pastor never has the blues.
A church whose deacons always deak
And none are proud and all are meek.

Where gossips never peddle lies
Or make complaints or criticize
Where all are always sweet and kind
And all to others’ faults are blind.

Such perfect churches there may be
But none of them are known to me.
But still I’ll work and pray and plan
To make our church the best I can.

—-Author Unknown

MORE IDEAS? See “Creative Object Lessons”

200 page e-book that explains everything you need to know when planning your very own object lessons. It contains 90 fully developed object lesson ideas and another 200 object lesson starter ideas based on Biblical idioms and Names / Descriptions of God.

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Great leaders don’t change the way we do things–they change the way we think.

“The man who forgets to be thankful has fallen asleep in life.”
Robert Louis Stevenson

Holiday Collection
Games and Activities in Celebration of common Holidays.

Creative Holiday Ideas has over 300 pages of ideas to help you plan your next New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween or Fall Festival, and Thanksgiving event. If you’ve ever wondered what you’re going to do for all these holidays and how you’re going to do it, this resource is for you.

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“Prayer goes by faith into the great orchard of God’s exceeding great and precious promises, and with hand and heart picks the ripest and richest fruit.”
E. M. Bounds

“The prayer power has never been tried to its full capacity. If we want to see mighty wonders of divine power and grace wrought in the place of weakness, failure and disappointment, let us answer God’s standing challenge, ‘Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not!”

J. Hudson Taylor

When you have to put up with mean people,
Think of them as sandpaper.
They may scratch you,
Rub you the wrong way
But eventually…
YOU end up smooth & polished

And the sandpaper….?
It’d be worn out & ugly!

Makes you think, doesn’t it?

Jesus Christ, the very Son of God, found it necessary to have definite and extended periods of fellowship alone with His Father. Who could be busier than He? His day was filled from morning to night, speaking to crowds, healing, holding private interviews, traveling and training His disciples; yet He found it necessary to have time alone with God…

The Christian life might be compared to a soldier in battle. He is out on the front lines but is connected with his commanding officer by radio. He calls and tells of the conditions and problems he is facing. Then his commanding officer, who from his vantage point can see the entire battle area, relays instructions. In like manner the Christian shares his joys and sorrow, his victories and defeats, and his needs, as God instructs and guides him through His Word.

It is our heavenly Father who directs our battle of life. He knows the steps we should take. We must take time to go to Him for guidance.”

Bill Bright- “A Handbook for Christian Maturity” (Campus Crusade for Christ International)

“I prayed for faith, and thought that some day faith would come down and strike me like lightning. But faith did not seem to come. One day I read in the tenth chapter of Romans, ‘Now faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.’ I had closed my Bible and prayed for faith. I now opened by Bible and began to study, and faith has been growing ever since.”

Dwight L. Moody

“The vigor of our spiritual life will be in exact proportion to the place held by the Bible in our life and thoughts…I have read the Bible through 100 times, and always with increasing delight. Each time it seems like a new book to me. Great has been the blessing from consecutive, diligent, daily study. I look upon it as a lost day when I have not had a good time over the Word of God.”

George Mueller

For teens, your presence will always mean more than your presents.

“Your written instructions are miraculous.
That is why I obey them.
Your word is a doorway that lets in light,
and it helps gullible people understand.
I open my mouth and pant because
I long for your commandments.”
Psalm 119:129-131

“Courage is the power to do well when the air is turbulent and the going gets tough. It is having the character to do well when things are tempting, when things are painful.

It is easy to be a mother when a baby is cooing and gurgling over breakfast; it takes courage to be a mother when the child suffers from a terrible and incurable handicap.

Courage is the power to do well in the face of a threat–to your life, to your security, to your future, to the things you hold dear.”

Lewis Smedes “Practical Christianity” (Tyndale House Publishers)

Holiday Collection
Games and Activities in Celebration of common Holidays.

Creative Holiday Ideas has over 300 pages of ideas to help you plan your next New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween or Fall Festival, and Thanksgiving event. If you’ve ever wondered what you’re going to do for all these holidays and how you’re going to do it, this resource is for you.

=> Tell me more about the Holiday Collection

Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at something that doesn’t really matter.

We’re important,
but not essential;

valuable,
but not indispensable.

We have a part in the play,
but we are not the main act.

A song to sing,
but we are not the featured voice.

God is.

“If we will not be governed by God, then we will be ruled by tyrants.”
William Penn

“It is impossible to enslave mentally or socially a Bible reading people. The principles of the Bible are the groundwork of human freedom.”
Horace Greeley

It is the place where the worship is a time to be entertained
Where the tithe is whatever change you have in your pocket
Where the message is something to make you feel good about yourself
Where the hymn of commitment is “I Surrender Some.”
Where Instead of “Standing on the Promises” we are merely sitting on the premises.

Let me not wait for the right place, the right time, to celebrate Your presence. Let me go rejoicing through my days, abiding in You and delighting in You, praising You now and forever.”

B. J. Hoff- “Faces in the Crowd”

We need to learn this secret of the burning heart. Suddenly Jesus appears to us, fires are set ablaze, and we are given wonderful visions; but then we must learn to maintain the secret of the burning heart–a heart that can go through anything. It is the simple, dreary day, with its commonplace duties and people, that smothers the burning heart–unless we have learned the secret of abiding in Jesus…

Oswald Chambers – “My Utmost for His Highest”

Learn More: My Utmost for His Highest: An Updated Edition in Today’s Language

According to Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, a father’s involvement with a child increases the child’s IQ, the child’s motivation to learn, and the child’s self-confidence. In addition, children with involved dads are more likely to develop a sense of humor as well as an “inner excitement.”

Victor Parachin, “The Fine Art of Good Fathering,” Herald of Holiness, February 1995, pp. 32-33.

1. Be a mentor to a boy without a father through Big Brother or some other agency
2. Contact your local junior or senior high school to tutor a needy kid
3. Teach Sunday School
4. Become a leader in Awana, Pioneer Clubs, or Adventure Club
5. Meet one-on-one weekly, with a boy in your church or neighborhood who doesn’t have a father in the home
6. Become a leader in Boy Scouts or Cub Scouts
7. Coach Little League or some other sport
8. Volunteer to work with needy kids in an inner city ministry
9. Hire a potentially “at risk” kid for yard work or in your business
10. Become active youth leaders in your local church or a parachurch organization
11. Start a church-based sports league that reaches out to needy kids in the community
12. Lead a Bible study in a juvenile detention center or group home

June 1996 issue of The Standard (pp 20-23), published by the Baptist General
Conference, 2002 S. Arlington Heights Rd., Arlington Heights, IL.

“A good father is one of the most unsung, unpraised, unnoticed, and yet one of the most valuable assets in our society.”

Billy Graham

Holiday Collection
Games and Activities in Celebration of common Holidays.

Creative Holiday Ideas has over 300 pages of ideas to help you plan your next New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween or Fall Festival, and Thanksgiving event. If you’ve ever wondered what you’re going to do for all these holidays and how you’re going to do it, this resource is for you.

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“The way to God has properly been described as ‘letting oneself fall,’ and has been compared with the first flight of a baby eagle, pushed out of the nest by its parents, and then discovering to its amazement that the invisible ocean of light in which it is dropping is capable of bearing it up. The presence of God which surrounds everyone is like this invisible ocean which bears us up more surely than do all visible means of security.”
Karl Heim – “The Treasure Chest”

“No man is poor who has had a godly mother.”
-Abraham Lincoln

Holiday Collection
Games and Activities in Celebration of common Holidays.

Creative Holiday Ideas has over 300 pages of ideas to help you plan your next New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween or Fall Festival, and Thanksgiving event. If you’ve ever wondered what you’re going to do for all these holidays and how you’re going to do it, this resource is for you.

=> Tell me more about the Holiday Collection

I will worry less about my children and trust God more.
I will commit them into the Lord’s care.
I will love my children unconditionally and let them know I do.
I will believe in them constantly and encourage them often.
I will pray for them daily.
I will teach them responsibility for their own actions.
I will try to be an example of godliness, but I will be unafraid to let them see my faults.
I will give them generous doses of laughter, interspersed with fun.
I will release them when they are grown but they will always be my own.

Her children arise up, and call her blessed. Proverbs 31:28

Source Unknown

Holiday Collection
Games and Activities in Celebration of common Holidays.

Creative Holiday Ideas has over 300 pages of ideas to help you plan your next New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween or Fall Festival, and Thanksgiving event. If you’ve ever wondered what you’re going to do for all these holidays and how you’re going to do it, this resource is for you.

=> Tell me more about the Holiday Collection

Always keep your eyes open for the little task, because it is the little task that is important to Jesus Christ. The future of the Kingdom of God does not depend on the enthusiasm of this or that powerful person; those great ones are necessary, too, but it is equally necessary to have a great number of little people who will do a little thing in the service of Christ.

The great flowing rivers represent only a small part of all the water that is necessary to nourish and sustain the earth. Besides the flowing river there is the water in the earth–the subterranean water–and there are the little streams which continually enter the river and feed it and prevent it from sinking into the earth. Without these other waters–the silent hidden subterranean waters and the trickling streams–the great river could no longer flow. Thus it is with the little tasks to be fulfilled by us all.”

Albert Schweitzer

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The evidence for Jesus’ resurrection is so strong that nobody would question it except for two things: First, it is a very unusual event. And second, if you believe it happened, you have to change the way you live.

­Theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg

The life of Jesus is bracketed by two impossibilities: a virgin’s womb and an empty tomb. Jesus entered our world through a door marked “No Entrance” and left through a door marked “No Exit.” And for all who feel it is impossible to overcome the situations facing them—sickness, death, divorce, persecution, loneliness, despair, addictions—Jesus stands at the human door marked “No Way” and knocks.

Peter Larson

“The people who hanged Christ never, to do them justice, accused him of being a bore—on the contrary, they thought him too dynamic to be safe … He was emphatically not a dull man in his human lifetime, and if he was God, there can be nothing dull about God either.”

C.S Lewis

“Somebody has well said that there are only two kinds of people in the world there are those who wake up in the morning and say, “Good morning, Lord,” and there are those who wake up in the morning and say, “Good Lord, it’s morning.”

“Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.”
Will Rogers, Humorist

The Church is a Hospital for sinners; Not a Museum for Saints.

“People grow old only by deserting their ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up interest wrinkles the soul. Worry, self-doubt, self-distrust, fear and despair; these are the long, long years that bow the head and turn the growing spirit back to dust.”

Douglas MacArthur

“If we work upon marble, it will perish; if we work upon brass, time will efface it; if we rear temples, they will crumble into dust; but if we work upon immortal minds, if we imbue them with principle, with the just fear of God and love of our fellowman, we engrave on those tablets something that will brighten to all eternity.”
– Daniel Webster

Hear, oh, hear! The Christmas bells are ringing peal upon peal, chime upon chime! Full and clear they ring, and the air quivers with joy. What is the burden of their music as it floats far and wide? Awake! Awake! it says. A great Change is coming — peace upon earth, good-will to all men….

…Then ring all the bells on earth! ‘Tis Christmas Day in the morning of brotherhood. Ring man’s great joy from pole to pole, from sea to sea! Tug with mighty arms at the bell rope that the sound may ring out full and far and long! Light the world’s Christmas tree with stars. Heap offerings upon its mighty branches. Bring the Yule-log to the world-fireplace. Deck the world-house with holly and mistletoe and proclaim everywhere the Christmas of the human race!

Source: Helen Keller, “Out of the Dark: Essays, Letters and Addresses on Physical and Social Vision.” Doubleday, Page & Co. Garden City, NY. 1913. pp. 274-282.

Christmas Collection
Games and Activities helping youth discover the Reason for the Season.

Get more than 200 creative ideas for planning a Youth Christmas celebration or Christmas Party party. You can immediately download my best Christmas Icebreakers, games, illustrations, Christmas activity ideas AND MUCH MORE in a useful ebook!

=> Tell me more about the Christmas Collection

“Beware in your prayers, above everything else, of limiting God, not only by unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do. Expect unexpected things, ‘above all that we ask or think’… ”
Andrew Murray

Labour mightily for a healing spirit. Away with all discriminating names whatever that may hinder the applying of balm to heal your wounds…Discord and division become no Christian. For wolves to worry the lambs is no wonder, but for one lamb to worry another, this is unnatural and monstrous.

Author: Thomas Brooks
Source: quoted in Credenda Agenda, Volume 5 Number 2, Page 3, I.D.E.

“We ought to give thanks for all fortune: if it is ‘good,’ because it is good, if ‘bad’ because it works in us patience, humility and the contempt of this world and the hope of our eternal country.”
–C.S. Lewis

Holiday Collection
Games and Activities in Celebration of common Holidays.

Creative Holiday Ideas has over 300 pages of ideas to help you plan your next New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween or Fall Festival, and Thanksgiving event. If you’ve ever wondered what you’re going to do for all these holidays and how you’re going to do it, this resource is for you.

=> Tell me more about the Holiday Collection

Perhaps to be able to explain suffering is the clearest indication of never having suffered. Sin, suffering, and sanctification are not problems of the mind, but facts of life-mysteries that awaken all other mysteries until the heart rests in God.

-Oswald Chambers

Once walking through the twisted little streets of Kowloon in Hong Kong, I came upon a tattoo studio. In the window were displayed samples of the tattoos available. On the chest or arms you could have tattooed an anchor or flag or mermaid or whatever. But what struck me with force were three words that could be tattooed on one’s flesh, “Born to lose.”

I entered the shop in astonishment and, pointing to those words, asked the Chinese tattoo artist, “Does anyone really have that terrible phrase, Born to lose, tattooed on his body.”

He replied, “Yes, sometimes.”

“But,” I said, “I just can’t believe that anyone in his right mind would do that.”

The Chinese man simply tapped his forehead and said in broken English, “Before tattoo on body, tattoo on mind.”

-Norman Vincent Peale in “Power of the Plus Factor”

Money will buy:

A bed BUT NOT sleep,
Books BUT NOT brains,
Food BUT NOT appetite,
Finery BUT NOT beauty,
A house BUT NOT a home,
Medicine BUT NOT health,
Luxuries BUT NOT culture,
Amusement BUT NOT happiness,
A Crucifix BUT NOT a Savior,
A Church pew BUT NOT Heaven.

What money can’t buy, Jesus Christ can give freely without charge.

Once there was a congregation in which every member was just like you. Each one cooperated and supported every church program just the way you have been doing. Everyone worked as hard and attended the same services and church functions as you do. The elders, the deacons, and the preacher were all as interested in the church as you are at this time. They put the same emphasis on their recreation, business, and other material affairs that you do. Each member gave to the church as you are giving. Within a year or so, this congregation….