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When You Are Walled In, Look for the Way Out

There’s a wall in front of you. Behind you is a past you are running from. Beyond the wall awaits the promise of a new life. But you’re not moving because there is this “wall.” You feel trapped. No way out. This is just the sort of situation in which God does some of his finest work. You need only ask the Israelites. Behind them was a life of back-breaking work and slavery. Ahead of them was a life in the land of Promise. Behind them was the fierce army of a fanatical Pharaoh coming towards them. Ahead of them was a wall. Their obstruction was made of water. Your “wall” may be a fear of failure. Or maybe it’s a lack of confidence that has grinded your progress to a halt. Or it could merely be too many problems that have piled up in front of you at the same time. And you have no clue which one to tackle first. So you stopped. And you aren’t sure if there is a way over, around, or under this imposing impediment. At this point many people panic. Anxiety courses its way through the...
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When the Last in Line Gets Chosen for the Team

The casting agent enters the room with her top picks for the show’s leading man and lady.   The new series will follow the spellbinding story of a clan that builds a powerful, world-impacting family tree.   This is the pilot, and it is crucial to make the right call on the individuals who will fall in love and launch this Kennedy-like family of influence and fame. Producers and writers alike have waited breathlessly for this moment, the moment when who they have envisioned as the leading characters will be finally realized in an actor and actress.   But when they turn to see who has been tapped for these most special of roles, the thud of their collective jaws hitting the majestic mahogany conference table muffles their mutual groans. There before their wide eyes, instead of the expected vibrant, young couple with gleaming white teeth and tanned and toned bodies, stand a 75-year-old man and a 65-year-old woman.   Not what they had pictured for their production. ...
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God’s Great Passion is to Be With You

Some movies start at warp speed.   Case in point: Star Trek.   From the opening scene to the end it barely lets you breathe.   If you slip out for popcorn you were sure to miss something important.   And yet, people did.   This disturbs me greatly since I am a movie snob.   I think the way to maximize the movie-going experience is to be in your seat at least 20 minutes early.   Never done that?   Then next time you go to a movie look around and spot the person that is in the prime seat—dead middle, eye level with the center of the screen.   That’s what 20 minutes early gets you.   Popcorn and drink in hand, nothing will move this person from their secured spot for the duration of the movie. That’s where you need to be for God’s story.   Its opening scene also starts with a relentless pace that doesn’t let up.   The first line reads, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).   Right off t...
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Writing Your Life Chapter into The Story of Life

If you think Genesis is just a band from the ‘80’s . . . If you think it was Dr. Dolittle who took two of each animal into a big boat . . . If you think an epistle is a woman married to an apostle . . . . . . you may need to know more of The Story . You may be a bit intimidated by the Bible. You’re not alone; many people are. And no wonder, its pages mention odd names like Jehoshaphat and Nebuchadnezzar. It contains accounts from places you probably never heard of, like Sinai and Samaria. And it seems to be made up of a lot of different, seemingly unrelated stories. But it really is one big, exciting story. You can see it easily if you open your Bible to the beginning and then flip all the way to the end. The first words found in Genesis 1:1 read: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Then, if you turn all the way to the back of the book, Revelation 21:1, you find, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away . ...
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