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After the storm
“Without warning, a furious storm came up” (Matthew 8:24). We’ve been living in Wilson, North Carolina since 1987. Since then, we’ve seen our fair share of storms. But last Saturday’s F2 tornado was a new experience. Moving from the hills of Virginia,…
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Two weeks to remember
“They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” (John 12:13)! This coming Sunday we begin our remembrance of Passion Week with what Christians call Palm…
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Staying on when God opens doors
“I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door for effective work has opened to me” (1 Corinthians 16:8-9). We have been praying for over 19 years that God would open a door for us to reach the…
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Why do “bridge” events?
“Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew…To those not having the law I became like one not having…
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Don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone
“The women said to Naomi: ‘Praise be to the LORD, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer’” (Ruth 4:14). Have you ever noticed that you really don’t appreciate something until it’s gone? We have this terrible tendency…
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Down to the threshing floor
“So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law told her to do” (Ruth 3:6). “His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but…
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Finding favor
“Why have I found such favor in your eyes” (Ruth 2:10 NIV)? Have you ever been someone’s favorite? Favorite son, employee, player, student… have you ever been the “apple” of someone’s eye? I recently read about an experiment with underperforming…
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Out of Moab
“In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab” (Ruth…
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Stop striving
“You must deny yourselves and not do any work because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the LORD, you will be clean from all your sins” (Leviticus 16:29-30). Do you ever feel like a…
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Faith or phobia?
Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save…