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Can You Change Your Focus When Facing Fear?
Let’s look a little more closely at the differences between David, the Israelites, and Goliath. As we read the story in 1 Samuel 17, two truths stand out right away: 1) Goliath is huge, 2) the Israelites, including King Saul, are terrified. Goliath was almost ten feet tall and he had the best armor the Philistines could attain: a large standing shield, a coat...
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Are You Keeping An Eye on the Harvest?
My in-laws own a strawberry farm. They live in Gallatin, TN, so if you are ever passing through in the month of May, you should stop. There really is nothing better than popping a juicy, fresh picked strawberry into your mouth. It’s sweet and flavorful and you’ll never buy from a store again once you’ve had field fresh strawberries. Every year when the season...
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Who is This King Called Jesus?
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from old, from ancient days. – Micah 5:2 The long awaited ruler from Bethlehem mentioned in Micah is Jesus of Nazareth. He was born in Bethlehem and the angel...
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A Quiet Night for Grace to Arrive
-written by Matt Clotfelter During the heavy snow in December 2017, I was at work. To say the shift was busy would be an understatement. Of course, with all the snow on the ground, traveling was much slower than normal. Luckily, there were very few people on the road. Most folks had heeded the warnings to just stay home, often with no power. Once...
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Are You Allowing Christmas to be Personal?
In the life group Bailey and I are in, there is a couple who just had a baby. Over the past nine months we have experienced the excitement of their announcing they were pregnant, the gender reveal (in true mermaid fashion if you know Kyndel), the baby growing, baby showers, and finally the arrival of Miss Noël! Leading up to her birth, we talked...
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God Knows Your Mess and Accepts You
-written by Betsie Richards I’m sitting in an ICU waiting room, wishing I wasn’t here. To distract myself, I people watch. I’ve caught myself wondering the stories of all these people and their families. How did they end up here? What’s wrong with their loved one? Do they feel like we do? I could go up and introduce myself and get to know them...
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Can God’s Timing Be Perfect In My Struggle?
But when the right time came, God sent his son, born of a women, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. – Galatians 4:4-5 God, in His perfect timing, sent Christ into the world to rescue us from the penalty of sin....
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Glory in Our (Not So?) Failure
God’s timing is funny. I meet weekly with 3 other ladies to talk about our relationships with Christ. We discuss the assigned Bible reading, recite the memory verse to each other, share our struggles, and confess our sins. The week of Thanksgiving Offering, we read about Joshua and the Israelites crossing the Jordan River into the promised land. As they crossed, each tribe was...
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Have You Limited Your Generosity?
I remember the first time I saw him put a check in the offering plate. I was sitting next to him in the choir. He didn’t make a big deal about it; just quietly took the check out of his pocket and dropped it in the plate. I have no idea what the amount was. But I wanted so badly to be able to...
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Stewardship Is More Than Money. It’s Everything.
Stewardship. What does this word make you think of? For me, my mind always goes right to church and managing money. Yes, we do say it in church and yes, we do steward money, but there is more to it. Stewardship is simply the conducting, supervising, or managing of something. While managing or stewarding money is a big part of our lives, there’s a...
