Sermon Central
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Love Is Self-Sacrifice For Others. In The ...
Contributed by Scott Jensen on Sep 11, 2008 (message contributor)
Love is self-sacrifice for others. In the magazine The Christian Leader, Don Ratzlaff retells a story from Ernest Gordon’s Miracle on the River Kwai, a story based on World War II events. The Scottish soldiers, forced by their Japanese captors to labor on a jungle railroad, had degenerated to barbarous behavior, but one afternoon something happened:
A shovel was missing. The Japanese officer in charge became enraged. He demanded that the missing shovel be produced, or else. When nobody in the squadron budged, the officer got his gun and threatened to kill them all on the spot… It was obvious the officer meant what he had said. Then, finally, one man stepped forward. The officer put away his gun, picked up a shovel, and beat the man to death. When it was over, the survivors picked up the bloody corpse and carried it with them to the second tool check. This time, no shovel was missing. Indeed, there had been a miscount at the first checkpoint.
The word spread like wildfire through the whole camp. An innocent man had been willing to die to save the others! The incident had a profound effect… The men began to treat each other like brothers.
When the victorious Allies swept in, the survivors, like human skeletons, lined up in front of their captors… instead of attacking their captors, they protected them and insisted: “no more hatred. No more killing. Now what we need is forgiveness.”
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John Sutherland Bonnell, The Great Preacher Of A ... PRO
Contributed by Aaron Householder on Sep 30, 2004
John Sutherland Bonnell, the great preacher of a generation ago, has suggested five questions which are useful in evaluating Christian effectiveness and commitment. Look Closely at them to judge your strengths and weaknesses as a disciple of Christ. 1. Does my life witness each day to the power ...read more
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The Simple Fool Tends To Go With The Flow. He ...
Contributed by K. Edward Skidmore on Jun 14, 2004
The Simple Fool tends to go with the flow. He believes whatever he hears. It reminds me of the way Garrison Keilor described members of the Unitarian Church: They believe whatever book they just finished reading. Too many people live that way. · They’ll go to church on Sunday, · try to ...read more
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In His Book The Spiritual Life Of Children, The ...
Contributed by Rodney Buchanan on Feb 4, 2007
In his book The Spiritual Life of Children, the famous Harvard psychiatrist Robert Coles, tells the story of Alice, a ten-year-old girl who came from a family that did not believe in God. She expressed her doubts to him with these words: “I remember... I saw the people next door coming home from ...read more
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I Remember Reading About An Obituary That Is ... PRO
Contributed by K. Edward Skidmore on Sep 15, 2004
I remember reading about an Obituary that is meant to make you stop and think: · He brushed his teeth twice a day · The doctors examined him twice a year · He ate low-carb, low-fat every day · He gave up his tonsils, his adenoids, his gall bladder … and traded in a few worn-out glands · He ...read more
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When A Train Goes Through The Tunnel And It ... PRO
Contributed by Aaron Householder on Sep 30, 2004
"When a train goes through the tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still ...read more
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