Author: gabriel
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How to Pray
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A lot of people don’t pray because they say they don’t know how. Some think there is a special vocabulary that God hears. If they don’t use the precise words and inflections, they think God turns a deaf ear. Bullfeathers! I once heard of an atheist mother whose daughter was…
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Punkie Brewster Theology
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Punky Brewster was a theologian. Did you know that? One of her most famous theological platitudes was: “How can you know if you’re happy if you’re never, ever sad?” A similar expression says, “You can never savor the exhilaration of the mountain top until you’ve experienced the depression of the…
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To Fear or Not to Fear
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There are two types of fear: healthy fear and toxic fear. If you happen upon a mama grizzly bear with her cubs on a hike in the mountains, and you are not afraid, then you are either crazy, or the “Grizzly Man.” And we know what happened to the Grizzly…
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Diary Notes of a Recovering Pharisee
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I watched a TV show the other night about a group of brain surgeons. One Asian doctor, Dr. Sung Park, is a genius and speaks very broken English. When patients ask him if they could die during one of his surgeries, he says, “I don’t do die. I do live.”…
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The Eyes Have It
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I was not expecting it. Wasn’t looking for it. Then all of a sudden… WHAM! The routine of my life was detoured down a road I did not desire to take. It was silly how it happened. I reached over into the back seat of the car to get the…
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In Spite of Fear
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They were on their way up to Jerusalem with Jesus leading the way. The disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid (Mark 10:32). Dismal times… uncertain days… fear and trepidation. Not much has changed in two thousand years, has it? Many times Jesus said to His disciples, “Fear…
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The Power of the Tongue
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“The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”—Proverbs 18:31 I bet you didn’t realize that you have a lethal weapon in your mouth. That is what God says. He, most of all, knows the power of the spoken word. He…
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Are You a Pathfinder or a Trailblazer?
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Consider, if you will, the postage stamp. Its total usefulness consists in its ability to stick to one thing until it gets to its destination. I have not looked lately but has the word, commitment, been deleted from the dictionary? Even postage stamps are useless without commitment, or as I…
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Torch the World!
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What is the difference between knowledge and enlightenment? When you have knowledge, you use a torch to light the way. When you are enlightened, you become the torch. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a…
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The Pain of Change
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Life change will never occur until the pain of staying where you are is greater than the pain of going where you need to go. On Friday I was diagnosed with diabetes. My A1c was high along with my liver functions. My doctor put me on medication and a radical…