Jun 30th, 2009 by Chad |
8 Words to Change Your Family: Love
I want to begin with a story of true love for the family:
I was attending a junior stock show when a grand-champion lamb, owned by a little girl, was being auctioned. As the bids reached five dollars per pound, the little girl, standing beside the lamb in the arena, began to cry. At ten dollars, the tears were streaming down her face and she clasped her arms tightly around the lamb’s neck. The higher the bids rose, the more she cried. Finally, a local businessman bought the lamb for more than $1000, but then announced that he was donating it to the little girl. The crowd applauded and cheered.
Months later, I was judging some statewide essays when I came across one from a girl who told about the time her grand-champion lamb had been auctioned. “The prices began to get so high during the bidding,” she wrote, “that I started to cry from happiness.” She continued with: “The man who bought the lamb for so much more than I ever dreamed I would get returned the lamb to me, and when I got home, Daddy barbecued the lamb–and it was really delicious.”
Joe Wagner, in Reader’s Digest.
Today we conclude our series with a transforming word, Love. While this is our last word, it is most certainly not the least. In fact, without this word, we cannot hope to see any of the other words we’ve studied in this series even begin to transform our families.
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Jun 21st, 2009 by Chad |
8 Words to Change Your Family: Commitment
Today as we celebrate Father’s Day, we come to our final “Building Word”, Commitment. It’s unfortunate, but this word and action is grossly overlooked in our society today. And I’m not just talking about fathers who leave the home; that’s just one area.
Ironic, but the most telling vision of how we view commitment was given in a car commercial a few months ago. It said:
These days, nobody seems to value commitment.
“Don’t like your job, get a new one!”
“Don’t like your wife, trade up for a new one!”
“Don’t like your nose, make a new one!”
Commitment, it seems, has become an afterthought.
What people do not recognize, is that there is great power in commitment! There is great benefit and blessing in commitment.
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Jun 15th, 2009 by Chad |
8 Words to Change Your Family: Church
Last week we discussed the first of three “Building Words” with Truth. Today’s word is the next step to building on that truth, and that is through God’s Church. We can take many of the steps we highlighted last week to see Truth in our families, but we cannot make it on our own! We need the communities of faith God has established and placed where we are.
1 Timothy 3:15 (NLT)
You will know how people must conduct themselves in the household of God. This is the church of the living God, which is the pillar and foundation of the truth.
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Jun 10th, 2009 by Chad |
SOAP Devo for 6/10/09
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Jun 8th, 2009 by Chad |
8 Words to Change Your Family: Truth
Henry Augustus Rowland, professor of physics at Johns Hopkins University, was once called as an expert witness at a trial. During cross-examination a lawyer demanded, “What are your qualifications as an expert witness in this case?”
The normally modest and retiring professor replied quietly, “I am the greatest living expert on the subject under discussion.” Later a friend well acquainted with Rowland’s disposition expressed surprise at the professor’s uncharacteristic answer. Rowland answered, “Well, what did you expect me to do? I was under oath.”
Today in the Word, August 5, 1993.
I hope you’ve been enjoying this series, but more importantly I pray that you’ve been able to implement these words in your own families to enact CHANGE for the better.
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