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Go For It

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One of the most heart rendering experiences I've ever had occurred on a mission trip to the south pacific. My niece came with me along with a dozen other workers. We arrived at the airport in Manila Philippines for our return flight to America. My niece reached for her passport...and it wasn't there. One thing for certain, you're not getting on an international flight without a passport. It was lost on the bumpy ride to the city. She had everything, but not quite! Everything.. but the most important item... which gave her right of passage. At that point, nothing else mattered. I recall her weeping on my shoulder, "Uncle John, there going to keep me here forever". How God bailed us out of that jam was amazing and a great devotion for another time. What I'm reminded of from this is the story of the rich young man that came to Jesus in Matthew 19. He had everything and had kept all the law. He would have been like the Bruce Wayne of Palestine. He had money, ...
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Guest Blogger: Chaplain Mary Beth McSwain

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Grief Like A Child   “Faith like a child.” This is a phrase I’ve heard many times as a person who has grown up around Christian culture, and who would even call themselves “churchy.” Jesus talks about children when he is asked about entrance into God’s kingdom and he says, “Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it” (Matthew 18:1-5, Mark 10:13-16, Luke 18:15-17). I admit that my visual snapshot of this Gospel moment has always entailed a child running around, jumping up and down, making messes, giggling, effortlessly living life, struggling to stay still while they sit on Jesus’ lap. They approach the kingdom of God with energy, zeal, with a wonderful kind of recklessness and trust. But my encounter with Leah, a 10 year old granddaughter of a woman dying, expanded my view of what “faith like a child” means and what entering the kingdom of heaven might also look like. It was Monday at lunch time at the VA hospital in Nashville. I had just gott...
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Kaliedoscope

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"When we pray the heart of God and man align." Because of our humanity we are not shielded nor able to escape the issues of pain, hardship, and suffering that awaits every mortal being. The beauty of our relationship with God, and I would even say the purpose, is how His grace and power works through the frailties of our life; displaying His manifold power in the deepest and darkest valley's of our human experience. People who live outside of this alignment constitutes the majority of mankind. It is among the masses in which we derive a vocabulary of words with seemingly universal application. For example; the word bad, in the sense of badness, is the opposite of good. Bad is bad. If I say to you that I am good you would not think bad. Good is good; bad is bad. However, the carnal words; used by man; often universal in use; are irrelevant and pale to a spiritual lexicon and perspective. Only in alignment with God; through the lens of faith; do we regard our life ...
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