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What we want and need in our bitter, rebellious times is God, but unwilling to turn fully to him, we reach for idols and forfeit his intended grace.
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Stephen Mansfield |
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A man is known by the company he keeps. We all know that we can tell a great deal about people by looking at those they call friends. It is also true that we can tell a great deal about ourselves by what our friends do when we hit hard times.
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Stephen Mansfield |
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Facing the reality of that painful season when it felt as though you were in a sandstorm with no skin is the key to becoming whole now.
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Stephen Mansfield |
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find it interesting, given the controversies over alcohol that would eventually erupt in the history of the Christian church, that the arrival of Christianity in the world and its eventual sway over the empire did not diminish the Roman love of beer. For the early Christians, drunkenness was the sin--as their apostles had repeatedly taught--and not the consumption of alcohol. After all, their Lord had miraculously created wine at a wedding ..
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Stephen Mansfield |
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Every Christian has a capacity for the most magnificent Christlikeness. Yet, every Christian also has the potential to commit the most disgusting and horrible acts of the flesh.
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Stephen Mansfield |
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To know gritty truth about life straight from the pages of Scripture is part of the grace of God and allows us to live safely and effectively in a fallen world.
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Stephen Mansfield |
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Far better to know people for the cruel creatures that they are, and to love them despite their flaws, than to love them as we wish them to be and constantly be disappointed and hurt.
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Stephen Mansfield |
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John Wesley drank wine, was something of an ale expert, and often made sure that his Methodist preachers were paid in one of the vital currencies of the day--rum. His brother, Charles Wesley, was known for the fine port, Madeira, and sherry he often served in his home; the journals of George Whitefield are filled with references to his enjoyment of alcohol.
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Stephen Mansfield |
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Psalm 23:3 every day. Lord, please be my good shepherd and restore my soul.
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Stephen Mansfield |
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By doing rather than merely studying, we create a culture. Newcomers and the young feed on that culture. They watch. They do. They, too, are changed. Our culture expands. You Americans create a system of thought. The most you ask is that people contemplate new ideas. You might ask them to give or to sometimes attend meetings, but no contagious culture is created.
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Stephen Mansfield |
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Take all of this book upon reason that you can, and the balance on faith, and you will live and die a happier and better man.
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Stephen Mansfield |
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QUALITIES OF A GREAT GENERAL" 1. Tactically aggressive (loves a fight) 2. Strength of character 3. Steadiness of purpose 4. Acceptance of responsibility 5. Energy 6. Good health and strength George Patton Cadet"
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Stephen Mansfield |
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A NATION'S STRENGTH What makes a nation's pillars high And its foundations strong? What makes it mighty to defy The foes that round it throng? It is not gold. Its kingdoms grand Go down in battle shock; Its shafts are laid on sinking sand, Not on abiding rock. Is it the sword? Ask the red dust Of empires passed away; The blood has turned their stones to rust, Their glory to decay. And is it pride? Ah, that bright crown Has seemed to nati..
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Stephen Mansfield |
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True manliness is about the determination to act according to a noble definition of what it means to be a man. This is within the reach of every man, no matter how he looks or sounds.
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Stephen Mansfield |
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SOMEONE ONCE TRIED TO SUMMARIZE A PRINCIPLE IN Aristotle's epic work Poetics with these words: "Action is character." Now Aristotle was describing the elements of drama when he wrote his Poetics, so he didn't necessarily mean what I mean here. Still, his basic premise is true: we know what a person's character is by what he does."
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Stephen Mansfield |
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NOTHING GREAT WILL EVER BE ACHIEVED WITHOUT GREAT MEN, AND MEN ARE GREAT ONLY IF THEY ARE DETERMINED TO BE SO. FOR GLORY GIVES HERSELF ONLY TO THOSE WHO HAVE ALWAYS DREAMED OF HER." --Charles De Gaulle, from The Army of the Future (Vers l'armee de metier), 1941"
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Stephen Mansfield |
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Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. --Helen Keller, from The Open Door (1957)
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Stephen Mansfield |
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HAVING THUS CHOSEN OUR COURSE, WITHOUT GUILES AND WITH PURE PURPOSE, LET US RENEW OUR TRUST IN GOD, AND GO FORWARD WITHOUT FEAR AND WITH MANLY HEARTS." --Abraham Lincoln, Address to Congress, July 4, 1861"
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Stephen Mansfield |
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In the Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle said, "Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way . . . you become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions."
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Stephen Mansfield |
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Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere.
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Stephen Mansfield |
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Churchill wrote, "In my belief, you cannot deal with the most serious things in the world unless you also understand the most amusing."
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Stephen Mansfield |
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Charlemagne's support for brewing enhanced an already vibrant Christian beer culture in the medieval church, one that is difficult to exaggerate. An example comes to us from a letter that Pope Gregory wrote to Archbishop Nidrosiensi of Iceland. In it, Gregory describes how some children in the medieval period were baptized not with holy water but with beer. This was likely because beer was cleaner than water and for the baptizing priest it ..
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Stephen Mansfield |