Thoughts on praise and thankfulness, taken from my contribution to Jane Redmont's 1999 book When in Doubt, Sing: Prayer in Daily Life. This excerpt (pages 188-190) is from the chapter entitled "Daring to Raise the Alleluia Song."
“Everything I know about praise and joyful prayer goes back to the very beginning of my Christian life,” Fred wrote to me. “There is of c...
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It's the Blue Knight vs. the Yellow Knight in a jousting match. Normally the victor is determined by whose lance breaks into splinters, signifying that they have struck a mighty blow against their opponent's breastplate or shield. But in this case, the blue knight has managed a direct hit on the yellow knight's own lance, breaking it in two. Let's hope the judges are sharp-...
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Soon I would like to introduce and recommend the unduly neglected Adolph Saphir (1831-1891), but for now I'll just quote him. Here is the voice of evangelical Christianity from a little over 125 years ago: clear, passionate, artful, scriptural, doctrinal, and comprehensive. If you know anybody who can still talk like this (or grow a beard like that), hang around them as muc...
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“I’ve made a very conscious effort to train myself in the visual tradition of the church. I’m stocking my head with the symbols that Christian artists have used to portray the mystery visually."
Jane Redmont is the author of When in Doubt, Sing: Prayer in Everyday Life (HarperCollins, 1999), a readable and wide-ranging exploration of the practice of prayer in modern ...
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There are thousands of self-help books on the market. People are feverishly attempting to come to grips with who they are in this confusing world. Not only can you read books on self-help you can watch Dr. Phil on television or listen to Dr. Laura on the radio. Yet, I often find when I am exposed to these pontiffs from the church of self-helpism they often give prescriptions...
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I have attended a number of churches in a number of different states and countries over the years and one thing that they often had in common was a spiritual life simplified into lists. For example, to be a good Christian I was told to (1) attend church each Sunday (morning and evening); (2) to give to the church (preferably 10% or more); (3) have a daily quiet time (or at leas...
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There are some people whose lives incline you to listen seriously to whatever they say. Samuel M. Zwemer (1867-1952) was such a person and lived such a life. So his little book, Taking Hold of God: Studies on the Nature, Need, and Power of Prayer (Grand Rapids, Mich: Zondervan, 1936), had my attention simply due to Zwemer's credibility as a missionary. Reading it, I was de...
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In his 1965 book How to Be Rich: The Success Secrets of a Billionaire Businessman, J. Paul Getty (1892-1976) tells the story of how he quit smoking. On a vacation in France, he woke up at two A.M. in his hotel room, craving a cigarette. Finding none in his pack, none in his jacket, none in his luggage, he decided to make the hike to the nearest all-night vendor, at the trai...
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The editorial staff at Middlebrow regrets to inform our readers that a picture published here recently does not meet our own high journalistic standards. We are issuing a retraction and correction of that image and are currently investigating our policies for accepting images from freelance contributors.
The image in question was provided by our freelance contributor Gr...
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Recently, it has seemed impossible to follow sports without reading about some one who was caught cheating. We have the whole baseball debacle with Barry Bonds et al., and, of course, Pete Rose’s betting scandal. I was very excited to see Floyd Landis’ amazing win at the Tour de France—only to see it tainted by two failed drug tests. (As I perused the Sports Illustrated...
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“Worldliness is an immense number of allowable details issuing in an unallowable end.”
— Frederick W. Faber (1814-1863), Self-Deceit: A Comedy On Lies, A Way Of Overcoming Them
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In Colossians 1:10, Paul prays that the Colossians would be able to "walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him." In its original Greek, it's a a rougher sentence, reading something like this: "to walk worthy of the Lord in all pleasing." Most responsible translations do something to smooth that out, because even to make sense of the phrase, we readers need to...
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My fifteen year old son starts blogging and settles this age old question: Who would win a fight: Nessie or Dracula?
I love you L.D.!
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