September 21, 2015
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Category:
Hope Weekly
| Tags: good-bye, Duane Cross
I hate good-byes. I’m the guy sitting in the car waiting for Sheri to say her good-byes. The definition of good-bye is “an act of parting or leave-taking.” So this blog is one of my good-byes… a leave-taking. It’s difficult because I’m one who likes to be in control of his emotions ...
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September 11, 2015
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Category:
Hope Weekly
There is a greater purpose to our work than providing our basic needs. There is an underlying factor why God created work in the first place. Work has been ordained by God since day 1 (Genesis 1). He did not create work to punish us. He created it as a gift to fulfill our lives....
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August 31, 2015
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Category:
Hope Weekly
To be a risk-taker presumes doing. I looked into the face of a young man laying in a casket at his funeral. I’m sure nobody there wanted to trade places with him. He wasn’t doing anything bad… he just wasn’t doing! And not just not doing wrong isn’t a noble purpose to satisfy every people....
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August 24, 2015
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Category:
Hope Weekly
When Jesus was physically here on earth, what would it have been like to be Mary or Martha or Lazarus or one of the disciples? What would it have been like to shoot the breeze with Jesus? To have a barbecue with Jesus? What would the conversations have been about?...
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August 17, 2015
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Category:
Hope Weekly
In the series I’m preaching on “Christian or Disciple?” we are asking the question “How would our world be different if we lived and loved and died like disciples” (real-time followers of Jesus)? If we treated our brothers and sisters in the church as “ladies and gentlemen”, how different would the church look? How about every single visitor who walks through...
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August 10, 2015
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Category:
Hope Weekly
Some of the most frustrating things we may experience as humans is overcoming adversity. Adversity comes in many different forms, and it is quite often unwarranted. Adversity may occur without rhyme or reason. It may come in the form of losing a loved one, trouble in marriage or with your children, or even through a poor attitude of a coworker. However, God consistently us...
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August 3, 2015
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Category:
Hope Weekly
"I wonder what you would consider is too high a price for your discipleship? Your marriage? Your children? Your parents approval? Your family’s acceptance? Your friend’s affirmation?"...
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July 27, 2015
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Category:
Hope Weekly
| Tags: unanswered prayer
We persistently ask God through prayers and we sometimes wonder if He hears us, even when we know He does. Sometimes the answer to our prayers is No and you’ll never understand why. Our heavenly Father is far too wise and loves us far too much to give us everything we ask for. Someday we’ll thank God for the prayers He didn’t answer as much or more than the ones He d...
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July 20, 2015
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Category:
Hope Weekly
How do you minister to someone who is dying? You trust the Spirit and point them to Jesus. But that is not always the only pathway. This article “Hope in Hospice” written by Percy McCray and published in Leadership Journal (Spring, 2015). Is a beautiful reminder of what it means to be the very “presence” of Jesus. Enjoy....
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July 13, 2015
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Category:
Hope Weekly
| Tags: Youth Ministry, lost generation, reaching the youth, anthony espindola
In recent years there has been an unsettling disengagement of young adults with the American Church. For some reason, when students graduate high school and gain the freedom of college, they are simply choosing to not go to church anymore. In the four years that I’ve worked with youth I have received this question the most: “How do we keep students engaged after they g...
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