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Dec, 01, 2009 0
A former trapeze gymnasium seems to be an unlikely location for a Church of the Nazarene. Acrobats once teetered on tightropes just above the place where a strange cross hangs on the wall. Fashioned out of chicken wire, the hollow cross is stuffed with fast-food wrappers, cigarette packets, beer…
Dec, 01, 2009 0
During my teen years, I discovered that my church had a 14-page list of rules that were mainly "don'ts." No matter how I tried, I felt that I never quite made it to the state of sinless perfection I sought. Many nights grim dreams of punishment for my failures haunted my sleep. But the sum of my…
Dec, 01, 2009 0
How could I choose just one? At the end of September 2001, I was sitting in front of 50 letters from various schools, orphanages, and nursing homes. Each contained the same thing - a description of a difficult situation and a plea for help. Having recently started working with Nazarene…
Dec, 01, 2009 0
The Early Church fathers understood Jesus' prayer that "all of them may be one . . . that the world may believe that you have sent me" (John 17:21) would be fulfilled in "visible" unity for His Church. Any split was viewed as a grave breach against the Body of Christ. This belief essentially…
Dec, 01, 2009 0
The choice between singing and everything else crystallized for Brad Garvin when he was in high school in the Chicago area. He was in the band, the choir, and on the basketball team. "I got kicked off the basketball team for making the all-state choir," he says, laughing. "I knew music would always…
Dec, 01, 2009 0
Samba sat in the middle of the circle, feeling every eye fixed on him. Some in his family watched with disgust, others with unbelief, and some seethed with anger. For the last time, his father asked him: "Are you going to renounce that faith?" Silently, he raised his head and looked at his family…
Dec, 01, 2009 0
Here is a Bertha Munro classic that first appeared in the Herald of Holiness, now Holiness Today. She wrote in her autobiography that it summarized her philosophy of personal relations (Bertha Munro, The Years Teach, p. 266):
I owe you respect for your personality. You too are that climax of God's…
Dec, 01, 2009 0
Following in Jesus' footsteps, a church in the U.S. gathered at a river for the baptism of a Mexican-American family. As in some cases in the New Testament, the entire family, all dressed in white, was invited into the water by the pastor and then baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and…
Dec, 01, 2009 0
"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done."
(Luke 22:42, NLT)
Sacredly, I knocked on the front door of the Free Grace Church parsonage. Sister Christine opened the door and said, "Brother Kerry, Danny will be so glad to see you." To her, his name was…
Dec, 01, 2009 0
"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done."
(Luke 22:42, NLT)
Sacredly, I knocked on the front door of the Free Grace Church parsonage. Sister Christine opened the door and said, "Brother Kerry, Danny will be so glad to see you." To her, his name was…