In him we were also chosen. —Ephesians 1:11 Jesus chose, called, taught, and trained the eleven apostles named in Acts 1:13; then went back to heaven and left the beginning of his church in their hands. The first 30 years of that church is chronicled in the book of Acts. […]
By grace you have been saved. —Ephesians 2:8 The first ten verses of 2 Cor. 12 finds Paul on a Roller Coaster … First he soars to heights of ecstasy, caught up into heaven. Second he drops to depths of misery, tormented by a thorn in the flesh. Third
One thing I do. —Philippians 3:13 You intend to make some changes. You’re going to ditch a toxic habit and kick-start a positive attitude. When? Soon, you say. Soon is deferral, and deferral digs the graves of good intentions. Sometimes it takes a tragedy, a blood test, or a funeral to cause us to act.
The day Frederick Buechner graduated from Princeton he and his classmates were lining up to march to their commencement seats when a fellow-graduate moseyed down the column asking each person, “What are you going to do now?” A few had a job lined up. A good number were headed to graduate school. But for some
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We will reap a harvest if we do not give up. —Galatians 6:9 Here are two cold, hard facts: 1) You never finish what you never start. 2) You never finish what you start if you stop. Most everyone I know
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I press on toward the goal. —Philippians 3:14 Meryl Davis and Charlie White won the gold with world-record performances in the Winter Olympics dance competition in Sochi, Russia. They didn’t get to the top-center of that flag-draped podium in one giant leap; they climbed there one torturous step at a time. They started practicing together
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No mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. —1 Corinthians 2:9 With a couple of kids in the back seat, a trip to grandma’s house can be downright chaotic. It’s a war zone back there … “You got to sit by the
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We do not lose heart. —2 Corinthians 4:16 The reason behind Paul’s “We do not lose heart” was this: “our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Cor. 4:17). That wasn’t a spurt of sing-and-be-happy drivel. Paul knew what it was to hurt: he had
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Cast your cares on the Lord. —Psalm 55:22 He offered him $250,000 a year to do all his worrying for him, and he accepted faster than you can count to 10 by 5s. The new-hire’s first question was, “Where are you going to get the $250,000?” “That’s
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Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. —Psalm 37:7 Dear God, When I have to cope with the irritable the demanding the critical the unreasonable teach me to be still and wait patiently for you. When I am tempted to disgrace my Christian calling by being
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