Articles for tag: Marriage

April 22, 2007

Christian Standard

The Simplest of Things

By Lisa Jernigan As my daughter-in-law waited in line at her favorite home away from home, Starbucks, a thought popped in her mind to purchase drinks for the car waiting in line behind her. It was something simple that offered exciting possibilities. When she gave the money to the employee and informed him of her plan, she learned a surprising fact: this had happened once before. As the employee shook his head in amazement, he told her about another time when someone offered to buy drinks for the car behind him. Amazingly enough it created a chain of generosity that

April 15, 2007

Christian Standard

MEGACHURCHES: Why Count?

By Kent Fillinger I love the Bible because the good, the bad, the ugly, and even the strange are recorded honestly and objectively from start to finish. Two particular stories illustrate the honesty of the Bible and provide the context for a significant leadership lesson. Counting the Kill In the Old Testament, King Saul”s daughter Michal was in love with David. In an attempt to destroy David, Saul asked David for a dowry of 100 Philistine foreskins in return for his daughter. David exceeded the request. First Samuel 18:27 says, “David and his men went out and killed two hundred

March 25, 2007

Christian Standard

Five Ways to Prepare Your People for a Stewardship Sermon

By Bob Russell 1. Don”t apologize. A preacher who subscribed to our tape ministry was disgruntled that I had preached four straight sermons on sacrificial giving. “If you don”t stop preaching about money, there won”t be any people left to fill up the new building you”re trying to finance,” he wrote. The director of our Living Word Tape Ministry replied to him, “Dear Sir, during the month Bob preached on giving, enthusiasm was high, and twice as many accepted Christ as do in a usual month. Over half of Jesus” parables concern use of material possessions. Maybe if you preached

November 22, 2006

Christian Standard

Stopped Short by the Principal”s Passion

By Mark A. Taylor What do we do when a church member drops out? “Somebody should call him,” someone said to me about a new Christian in a troubled marriage who has stopped coming to our church. But neither of us knows the guy well enough to call him. I don’t think I’ve ever spoken to him. What can we do? This was fresh in my mind when I heard a radio report about a high school principal in New York City who’s passionate about keeping students in school. Gillian Smith, herself a former high school dropout, has a zero

July 30, 2006

Christian Standard

Passing the Baton

By Nanette Schmitt “Teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God” (Titus 2:3-5). Throughout most of my teen years, a single woman in her 20s at my church took time to mentor me. Every other week she came

July 30, 2006

Christian Standard

Humbled and Enriched by Encounters With the Poor

By Nancy Karpenske I made myself read through our congregation”s benevolence log before I wrote this, reviewing nearly 2,000 entries. Some of the stories make me laugh, like the day a person rushed in to beg for a voucher for a tank of gas. A warrant had been issued for his arrest, and he was trying to get out of town before the police caught up with him. Or the woman who called in and requested food. She said she had just wakened from a coma. She specifically needed the prime rib daily special from a local restaurant. When she

January 8, 2006

Christian Standard

A Jesus Retreat in Islamic Kosovo

By Mike Grooms “I believe that Jesus is the Messiah and my Savior, and that”s a choice my father cannot take from me.” That”s what she said. This young lady from a village in Kosovo was going to return to her home the next day. She expected a beating from her father, and she was scheduled to be sold to a man (as his wife, I think) because her father didn”t want her around anymore. Such is life in her old and isolated village. The only reason she was allowed to attend this weekend Christian seminar was because her friends

January 1, 2006

Christian Standard

BALANCING LIFE AND WORK: Four Perspectives for the Church

By Kevin Demmitt Throughout history the church has led the way in challenging societies to improve the quality of family life for both men and women. In the ancient world governed by patriarchal standards, the church progressively proclaimed sexual fidelity for both men and women, sacrificial love between a husband and wife, and commitment to preserving the bond of marriage. Christians challenged social norms by teaching respect for men, women, and children patterned after the love of Christ for his church. Soft Patriarchs, a recent book by Bradford Wilcox, documents that even today those who regularly attend evangelical churches are

July 24, 2005

Tom Ellsworth

wisdom

Wisdom Is a Good Thing

Reflecting on Ecclesiastes and James, Tom Ellsworth shares how God teaches wisdom through life experiences, relationships, and hard seasons—inviting believers to hold on loosely to this life and keep eternity in view.

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