‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.’ Deuteronomy 6:5 This is the first commandment, but how many of us practice it? The commandment is challenging us in three areas: heart, soul, and strength, which incorporate every aspect of our being. Heart speaks of emotions,
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The 1914-18 World War was declared to be the war to end all wars; yet, a few months ago, I watched ceremonies on TV that presented veterans of many other wars that were fought after 1918. Even as I write this, there is a war raging in Syria and across other parts of the globe.
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My wife, Tracie, recently said she felt really happy. Why? We were doing nothing special, just relaxing at home watching the TV by ourselves. Can you remember the last time when you were really happy? You may have experienced momentary happiness when you received a gift or something good happened but, for us, experiencing lasting
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How easy it is to praise God when everything is going well – when our problems are all resolved, the sun is shining, and we have no worries. But should our praise be confined to these moments when we are well? I was struck recently reading through some of the Psalms by the amount of
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We hear much about reciprocity these days, particularly regarding the imbalance of trade. So, what does it mean? Reciprocity is defined as: “Exchanging things with others for mutual benefit, and responding to a positive action with another positive action.” The problem is, if there is no reciprocity it always leads to a problem, as we
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Life is full of unexpected occurrences. Some are pleasant, like receiving a nice surprise, others are unpleasant and sometimes devastating. As we come to September, many will remember the 11th of September 2001 when two planes flew into the Twin Towers in New York. It was unexpected – how could anyone have imagined that would
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Many years ago I had a lawn that had been seeded and, as the grass grew and was tended, looked very beautiful. It was a pleasure to sit outside and enjoy the view. During the long hot summer however, the ground became hard, the grass turned yellow and appeared to die. It was a sad
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News is noteworthy information not previously known. There are all kinds of news: good news, bad news, interesting news, funny news. But fake news? It’s a contradiction in terms. The essential quality of news is that it is accurate information; that it is correct, that it is truthful. Otherwise, it is not news but a
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I’ve heard a book has been written that asks the question, ‘What if Jesus never came?’ I have not read the book, so this is not plagiarism, but the question intrigued me. As I write this, I ask the question: What if Jesus hadn’t come? There would be numerous consequences: We wouldn’t know that God
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I recently met a young Christian man who was amazingly honest. He said that, as a young person, he became addicted to computer games. He knew that addictions to drugs, alcohol and pornography were wrong, but playing computer games was never mentioned as being wrong and, of course, it isn’t. However, when something becomes an
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