Grace

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Tag Archive for: grace

ODJ: unwanted and unloved

A pastor and his congregation, serving in an area known for addicts, alcoholics and prostitutes, haveprayed an interesting prayer for many years: Lord, send us the people nobody else wants. That prayer has been answered, as more than 800 church attendees are now involved in recovery programmes designed to help them break free from destructive lifestyles. Recently the pastor added this phrase to th

ODJ: who’s seeking whom?

Zach was a lonely guy. If there was a party, he wasn’t invited. In fact, when he walked down the city streets, he could feel the hostile glares boring into his back. But his life took a turn one special day. Clement of Alexandria, one of the church fathers, says that Zach became a very prominent Christian leader and ended up a pastor of the church in Caesarea. Yes, we are talking about Zacchaeus

ODJ: sculpting a stump

One morning I noticed a man with a chainsaw cutting down a large tree in front of some local farm buildings. He was still there in the afternoon, working on the tree stump with his power tool set at an unusual angle. Days later I passed the place again and noticed the stump had been transformed into a replica of a corncob. The man hadn’t been merely toppling a tree, he had sculpted vertical rows

ODJ: a baby’s cry

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Recently one state in America instituted a law requiring each pregnant woman considering an abortion to watch a sonogram of her unborn child, receive medically accurate explanations of what she views, and listen to her baby’s heartbeat. Following the law’s passage, a blogger who supports abortion raised money and bought iPods for abortion clinics. Her purpose? To provide each patient with a wa

ODJ: drowned by love

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One of my deep joys as a pastor has been to baptise both of my sons. I have a picture taken just before I went into the baptismal pool with one of my boys. I’m crouched down, eye to eye. I don’t remember what I was saying, but I remember the tears. God was pouring grace on my son, and my church was welcoming him into its fold.

Baptism is a visceral, physical moment. It contains myst

ODB: Play In Pain

Baseball Hall-of-Fame catcher Gary Carter was a follower of Jesus. During his 19-year career, he drew strength and endurance from his faith in God to compete day after day. In an article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal shortly after Carter died of brain cancer at age 57, writer Andrew Klavan told how Carter had influenced his life.In the late 1980s, Klavan had sunk to a low point

ODJ: place for the unfit

Downsize Fitness is a health club with a uniqueniche. It caters only to people who want to lose at least 3 stone. Tara Lawton, a member of Downsize Fitness, quit her health club because she sensed she didn’t fit in. She said that people always seemed to be silently judging her. Then she found Downsize Fitness and loves it. Downsize is attractive to people like Lawton because it welcomes overweig

ODB: No Risk

A colleague recently shared an experience I don’t intend to try personally—bungee jumping. I found his description of the event both fascinating and terrifying. To think of jumping headfirst from a bridge hundreds of feet in the air suspended only by a giant rubber band is not my idea of a good time. But his leap was not without support. He described not one, but two heavy-duty harnesses that

ODJ: new kind of father

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Many people struggle in their daily life due to a poor relationship with their earthly fathers.I’ve counselled some who tend to humanise and view God through the lens of their negative experience. Many believers in Jesus also get tripped up in their relationship with their heavenly Father. If their earthly dads have failed them, it’s hard for them to believe that God won’t do the same.