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6b2a5c6
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Perry continued, his voice even but firm as granite; "Do you prefer the easy platitudes? You said you didn't. How dare you speak about God like He's some frivolous clown? Do you think you're the only one who has suffered in this world? Every apostle but one died a martyr's death. By the time of Nero the streets of Rome were lined with Christians hanging on crosses. Emperors would wrap them in wax and light them on fire, using their burning ..
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Randy Alcorn |
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985919f
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Why ask for your daily bread when you own the bakery?
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wealth
temptation
faith
self-sufficiency
materialism
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Randy Alcorn |
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298e98a
|
If you're a child of God, you do not just "go around once" on Earth. You don't get just one earthly life. You get another-one far better and without end. You'll inhabit the New Earth! You'll live with the God you cherish and the people you love as an undying person on an undying Earth."
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new-earth
heaven
god
life
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Randy Alcorn |
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22eee99
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Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God." (Colossians 3:1) This is a direct command to set our hearts on Heaven. And to make sure we don't miss the importance of a heaven-centered life, the next verse says, "Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things." God commands us to set our hearts and minds on Heaven."
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Randy Alcorn |
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fcdf7b2
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Nathan] wasn't blindly obsessed with a possession. He wasn't crazy. He was a hero--a father who'd risked his life to rescue his son.
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fiction
courageous
fatherhood
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Randy Alcorn |
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b13180a
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O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water" (Psalm 63:1). We may imagine we want a thousand different things, but God is the one we really long for. His presence brings satisfaction; his absence brings thirst and longing."
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Randy Alcorn |
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2eab5a6
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Meanwhile, we on this dying Earth can relax and rejoice for our loved ones who are in the presence of Christ. As the apostle Paul tells us, though we naturally grieve at losing loved ones, we are not "to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope" (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Our parting is not the end of our relationship, only an interruption. We have not "lost" them, because we know where they are. They are experiencing the joy of Christ's ..
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Randy Alcorn |
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0488a80
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I feel like a child who has found a wonderful trail in the woods. Countless others have gone before and blazed the trail, but to the child it's as new and fresh as if it had never been walked before. The child is invariably anxious for others to join in the great adventure. It's something that can only be understood by actual experience. Those who've begun the journey, and certainly those who've gone further than I, will readily understand ..
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money
discovery
stewardship
excitement
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Randy Alcorn |
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26480de
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Think of friends or family members who loved Jesus and are with him now. Picture them with you, walking together in this place. All of you have powerful bodies, stronger than those of an Olympic decathlete. You are laughing, playing, talking, and reminiscing. You reach up to a tree to pick an apple or orange. You take a bite. It's so sweet that it's startling. You've never tasted anything so good. Now you see someone coming toward you. It's..
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Randy Alcorn |
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e6f3732
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Foulgrin's Rule Twenty-Three: tactics without strategy are useless.
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Randy Alcorn |
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3e95ab0
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I'd rather be tried by 12 than carried by six.
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Randy Alcorn |
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4242341
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A Christ-centered church is not a showcase for saints but a hospital for sinners.
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Randy Alcorn |
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ecfcba8
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If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.
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Randy Alcorn |
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58f69d0
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Because satan hates us, he's determined to rob us of the joy we'd have if we believed what God tells us about the magnificent world to come.
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Randy Alcorn |
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e9cb170
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Matthew Henry, the Puritan preacher and Bible commentator, made this statement after a thief stole his money: "Let me be thankful first because I was never robbed before; second, although they took my purse, they did not take my life; third, because, although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth, because it was I who was robbed, not I who robbed."
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Randy Alcorn |
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50f1e3d
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The happiest people in the world are those who have a deep, gratitude-drenched relationship with Christ.
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Randy Alcorn |
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5bd94f8
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Is It Unloving to Speak of Hell? If you were giving some friends directions to Denver and you knew that one road led there but a second road ended at a sharp cliff around a blind corner, would you talk only about the safe road? No. You would tell them about both, especially if you knew that the road to destruction was wider and more traveled. In fact, it would be terribly unloving not to warn them about that other road.
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Randy Alcorn |
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1eeddcd
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Father to teenage son: "My relationship with you is more important than anything I've got to say to you."
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lecturing
relationship
fatherhood
parenting
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Randy Alcorn |
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656adec
|
To be in resurrected bodies on a resurrected Earth in resurrected friendships, enjoying a resurrected culture with the resurrected Jesus--now that will be the ultimate party! Everybody will be who God made them to be--and none of us will ever suffer or die again. As a Christian, the day I die will be the best day I've ever lived. But it won't be the best day I ever will live. Resurrection day will be far better. And the first day on the New..
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Randy Alcorn |
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8b67f0f
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It would upset us, but would we think it unloving if a doctor told us we had a potentially fatal cancer? And would the doctor not tell us if the cancer could be eradicated? Why then do we not tell unsaved people about the cancer of sin and evil and how the inevitable penalty of eternal destruction can be avoided by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ?
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Randy Alcorn |
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c87a427
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We've fallen for the devil's lie. His most basic strategy, the same one he employed with Adam and Eve, is to make us believe that sin brings fulfillment. However, in reality, sin robs us of fulfillment. Sin doesn't make life interesting; it makes life empty. Sin doesn't create adventure; it blunts it. Sin doesn't expand life; it shrinks it. Sin's emptiness inevitably leads to boredom. When there's fulfillment, when there's beauty, when we s..
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Randy Alcorn |
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51c47af
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If we can keep ourselves from interfering with the natural laws of life, mistakes can be our child's finest teachers.
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nature
learning
life
teacher
parenting
mistakes
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Randy Alcorn |
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054486e
|
When Christ died on the cross for us, he said, "It is finished" (John 19:30). The Greek word translated "it is finished" was commonly written across certificates of debt when they were canceled. It meant "paid in full". Christ died so that the certificate of debt, consisting of all our sins, could once and for all be marked "paid in full"."
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Randy Alcorn |
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1de7812
|
Given our abundance, the burden of proof should always be on keeping, not giving. Why would you not give? We err by beginning with the assumption that we should keep or spend the money God entrusts to us. Giving should be the default choice. Unless there is a compelling reason to spend it or keep it, we should give it.
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money
stewardship
giving
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Randy Alcorn |
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2af4d3d
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It's curious that the Church has become the most tightfisted at the very time in history when God has provided most generously. There's considerable talk about the end of the age, and many people seem to believe that Christ will return in their lifetime. But why is it that expecting Christ's return hasn't radically influenced our giving? Why is it that people who believe in the soon return of Christ are so quick to build their own financial..
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return-of-christ
kingdom-of-god
stewardship
giving
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Randy Alcorn |
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1f220ba
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Jake had never felt like such a fool for keeping a promise. He'd broken plenty of others he should have kept. Why had he kept one he should have broken?
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Randy Alcorn |
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ba253ad
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God created us to love people and use things, but materialists love things and use people.
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Randy Alcorn |
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7af2548
|
In the midst of prosperity, the challenge for believers is to handle wealth in such a way that it acts as a blessing, not a curse.
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wealth
stewardship
prosperity
curse
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Randy Alcorn |
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bfa2a7f
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wisdom begins with the humility to say there's a great deal I don't understand.
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Randy Alcorn |
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cbc1f27
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For every American who believes he's going to Hell, there are 120 who believe they're going to Heaven.
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Randy Alcorn |
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8525d1a
|
The people of God ought to be the happiest people in all the wide world! People should be coming to us constantly and asking the source of our joy and delight. A. W. TOZER
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Randy Alcorn |
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bf9bab6
|
As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." God's thoughts are indeed higher than ours, but when he reduces his thoughts into words and reveals them in Scripture, he expects us to study them, meditate on them, and understand them--again, not exhaustively, but accurately."
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Randy Alcorn |
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65aeb7f
|
We tend to start with Earth and reason up toward Heaven, when instead we should start with Heaven and reason down toward Earth.
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Randy Alcorn |
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803d9a6
|
After his wife died, in great pain C. S. Lewis realized, "If I had really cared, as I thought I did, about the sorrows of the world, I should not have been so overwhelmed when my own sorrow came."3 Our own suffering is often our wake-up call. But even if you aren't now facing it, look around and you'll see many who are. ... Suffering and evil exert a force that either pushes us away from God or pulls us toward him. ... Unfortunately, most e..
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suffering
faith
god
justice
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Randy Alcorn |
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131b64a
|
And do you think your refusal to believe will convince God to change his nature? He is who he is no matter what you think of him. Despite what Americans believe, the universe is not a democracy. Truth is not determined by the majority. As for hell, if you were as just and holy as God is, you would understand that all men deserve hell. It is no puzzle that men should go to hell. What is a puzzle is that men should go to heaven.
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Randy Alcorn |
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e1dc0d1
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Never forget Yesu is King. Never forget your home is in another world. Never forget your father will be waiting to see you again.
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Randy Alcorn |
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672a1a9
|
A Greek philosopher said, 'All men think it is only the other man who is mortal'. The way we scurry about accumulating things is testimony to our unspoken doctrine that we are exceptions to the law of death. The events of September 11, 2001, were a shocking reminder to millions of Americans of something we should have already understood - our mortality.
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Randy Alcorn |
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1e9390c
|
Shouldn't we just admit the obvious--that the New Testament call to discipleship, compassion, and giving leaves no room for the way many of us are thinking and living? Is it time to get beyond the theoretical stance of 'I'd be willing to give up anything if God asked me to,' and start actually giving up things in order to do what He's commanded us?
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Randy Alcorn |
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6aa5b5a
|
Suppose churches taught that God is happy and that he is the source of all happiness. Suppose Christians believed that God calls them to view work, play, music, food, and drink as gracious gifts from God's hand to be responsibly enjoyed within the parameters of his commands.
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Randy Alcorn |
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4f7e9f7
|
Giving up everything must mean giving over everything to kingdom purposes, surrendering everything to further the one central cause, loosening our grip on everything. For some of us, this may mean ridding ourselves of most of our possessions. But for all of us it should mean dedicating everything we retain to further the kingdom. (For true disciples, however, it cannot mean hoarding or using kingdom assets self-indulgently.)
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possessions
hoarding
giving
sharing
discipleship
selfish
grip
purpose
kingdom
surrender
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Randy Alcorn |
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3f69d5b
|
If Miss Watson had told Huck what the Bible says about living in a resurrected body and being with people we love on a resurrected Earth with gardens and rivers and mountains and untold adventures--now that would have gotten his attention.
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heaven
christianity
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Randy Alcorn |
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c49de63
|
Most of us find it very difficult to want "Heaven" at all--except in so far as "Heaven" means meeting again our friends who have died. One reason for this difficulty is that we have not been trained: our whole education tends to fix our minds on this world. Another reason is that when the real want for Heaven is present in us, we do not recognize it. C. S. Lewis"
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Randy Alcorn |
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492679f
|
Life on earth matters not because it's the only life we have, but precisely because it isn't--it's the beginning of a life that will continue without end.
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Randy Alcorn |
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fe99e8b
|
No death, no suffering. No funeral homes, abortion clinics, or psychiatric wards. No rape, missing children, or drug rehabilitation centers. No bigotry, no muggings or killings. No worry or depression or economic downturns. No wars, no unemployment. No anguish over failure and miscommunication. No con men. No locks. No death. No mourning. No pain. No boredom. No arthritis, no handicaps, no cancer, no taxes, no bills, no computer crashes, no..
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Randy Alcorn |