Preach & Reach (Friday)

Posted on October 3, 2014 by Shirlee Abbott

1 peter 3 15

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Preach & Reach (Thursday)

Posted on October 2, 2014 by Shirlee Abbott

Architect

 

Back to the Annual Session of the American Baptist Churches of NJ: Ann Borquist, missionary to Brazil, urged us to think GLOCALLY (global+local)–

 

Lord, I pray for the safety of street kids in places like Russia, Brazil and Kenya; and I pray for the safety of the kids that linger on the corners in my own community.

Raise up peacemakers where gangs flourish–in Central America, in American cities and right here in my own town.

Provide for young mothers, Lord, struggling to sustain their families in refugee camps, in war zones and in my own neighborhood.
bless praying

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Preach & Reach (Wednesday)

Posted on October 1, 2014 by Shirlee Abbott

expert

“I have preached my very heart out. I could not say any more than I have said. Will not your prayers accomplish that which my preaching fails to do? Is it not likely that the Church has been putting forth its preaching hand but not its praying hand? “
(from Charles Spurgeon, best known for his preaching)

 

Think: Pray, Preach, Pray, Reach, Pray.
bless praying

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Preach & Reach

Posted on September 30, 2014 by Shirlee Abbott

blueprint

.

Mark 16:15 (NIV)
Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.

 

All the world, all creation. So what is it about “all” that we don’t understand?
bless obedient

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Preach & Reach

Posted on September 29, 2014 by Shirlee Abbott

thought

 

 

I admire a preacher who can throw out a simple phrase that sticks long after. Some of my personal favorites:

 

        • The past is a guidepost, not a hitching post
        • God doesn’t call us to succeed; He calls us to obey

I just returned from the annual meeting of our American Baptist Churches of New Jersey, where I picked up one more–from Romal Tune (comparing churches and gangs), on our tendency to think, “if I can reach just one person.”

“You want just one? We get to keep the 99!”

Lord God, let’s go for the full hundred!

bless caring

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God Has a Sense of Humor (Friday)

Posted on September 26, 2014 by Shirlee Abbott

discipline

Smile at cloud ponies that race across the sky and morph into snowmen. Chuckle at the stick that sprouts legs and ambles over fallen leaves. Laugh out loud at a bubble-blowing baby face.

 

 

Humor surrounds us and breaks up the boredom, rearranges our routine. It is a gift from God. He says to his children, “Go out and play. Have fun!”bless amused

 

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God Has a Sense of Humor (Thursday)

Posted on September 25, 2014 by Shirlee Abbott

expert

 

From Billy Sunday (an orphan who left professional baseball to become an itinerant preacher):

 

 

“God likes a little humor, as is evidence by the fact that he made the monkeys, the parrot — and some of you people.”

I agree with him. I know that God has a sense of humor–he made me, didn’t he?bless soul pic

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God Has a Sense of Humor (Wednesday)

Posted on September 24, 2014 by Shirlee Abbott

Architect

 

I stand by the fence watching the giraffes nibbling from tree branches. They are awkwardly graceful. Creator God, what were you thinking?

 

I sense Jesus leaning against the fence and laughing, Aren’t they great!bless amused

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God Has a Sense of Humor (Tuesday)

Posted on September 23, 2014 by Shirlee Abbott

blueprint

There’s a Bible passage that reminds me of an Abbott and Costello routine.

This is how the story of Hagar and Ishmael reads with the meanings of the names taken from chapter 16.

 

Genesis 21:15-18
When the water in the skin was gone, Hagar put the boy God Hears under one of the bushes. Then she went off and sat down about a bowshot away, for she thought, “I cannot watch God Hears die.” And as she sat there, she began to sob.

God Who Sees heard God Hears crying, and the angel of God Who Sees called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God Who Sees has heard God Hears crying as he lies there. Lift God Hears up and take him by the hand, for God Who Sees will make God Hears into a great nation.”smile

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God Has a Sense of Humor

Posted on September 22, 2014 by Shirlee Abbott

thought

 

Can you envision God laughing?

 

 

        • Absolutely
        • Seems out of character for the Lord of the Universe
        • I just hope he’s not laughing at me

Consider the platypus: bill of a duck, feet of an otter, tail of a beaver–an egg-laying, venomous mammal. It seems to be assembled out of left-over parts, kind of like Johnny Cash’s One Piece at a Time Cadillac.

The way I see it, God had a good chuckle when he designed the platypus. And when a platypus tickles my funny bone, I’m not laughing at God. I’m laughing with God.bless amused

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