In a recent E4U class on the book of Acts, I talked about how the apostle Paul varied his method but stayed true to his message. A good example of this is in Acts 17. While in Thessalonica, he visits the synagogue and uses the Hebrew Scriptures to proclaim Jesus. The Jewish synagogue was a familiar place to Paul, who was raised as a "Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee of Pharisees." With a primarily Jewish audience, Paul uses methods familiar to his audience. Even though his methods/reasoning reflected his audience, his message remained simple: Jesus is the Christ. Later in the same chapter, he stops in Athens and finds himself in the marketplace of ideas. I love how Luke describes the Athenians: "All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas" (Acts 17:21). Sounds like a…
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In the house I grew up in, there is a hole in the bathroom door. It was the result of one brother swinging a baseball bat at another brother. Fortunately, the door closed before the bat met its intended destination. The door was never fixed or replaced. Instead, the hole served as a visible reminder of how unresolved conflict can leave lasting damage -- not just to a house but to a heart. You know what I'm talking about. Perhaps you still carry the wounds of words that were slung at you years ago. You might dread coming home from work. A temper flare-up has left you scorched. Conflict that has been simmering for years is starting to boil. This weekend I will be sharing advice from God's word about how to resolve conflict in a healthy manner. We will never eliminate conflict; but we can learn to handle it…
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Teenagers send an average of 3,000+ text messages a month. If you work with teenagers, I encourage you to read the article in the Wall Street Journal. Here's a quick excerpt. ***************** Texting's rise over conversation is changing the way we interact, social scientists and researchers say. We default to text to relay difficult information. We stare at our phone when we want to avoid eye contact. Rather than make plans in advance, we engage in what Rich Ling, a researcher for the European telecom company Telenor and a professor at IT University in Copenhagen who studies teens and technology, has named "micro-coordination"—"I'll txt u in 10mins when I know wh/ restrnt."
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"It is a mistake to look to the Bible to close a discussion; the Bible seeks to open one." - William Sloane Coffin One of the great mysteries of the universe is this: God wants to have a relationship with you. And with me. And my neighbor, too. How do you approach the Bible? Do you go there to prove a point or to hear a voice, a different perspective -- God's perspective. Do you listen for nuances of God's character? Years ago I heard someone say, we should not seek to master the Bible but to have the Bible master us. If we simply use the Bible to answer questions on a quiz, we are missing the point. Right doctrine definitely matters. But behind the doctrine is God's desire to have a relationship with us. Instead of using the Bible to close a discussion ("now that settles it"), ask…
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"Sympathy is no substitute for action." - David Livingstone Often we hear a piece of bad news and it makes us feel bad. Children shouldn't suffer, innocent people shouldn't be oppressed, no one should have to live in squalor. With so much bad news coming at us, the challenge is to remain sympathetic without becoming hardened. While that is challenging enough, the greater challenge is to move beyond sympathy to action. Maybe we can't fix all the world's problems, but that's missing the point. What problem can we solve?
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