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    Jesus and the Rohingya Refugees

    Imagine being stranded at sea for more than a month without food and water. Packed into boats with hundreds of others, and with dwindling supplies, you have to drink urine in order to survive. The dead are thrown overboard. That is exactly what some 2,000 refugees are facing in the Bay of Bengal now.

    Paul uses surprisingly harsh words

    In his previous letter, Paul chose to use words like “love,” “hope,” and “peace.” But in his final letter, the apostle closed with some pretty shocking terms! On “Discover the Word” today, we’ll have an honest discussion about people who disappoint us, as we unpack Paul’s harsh words for a former friend.

    A Consistent Life

    While studying the book of Daniel, I was struck by how easily he could have avoided being thrown into the den of lions. Daniel’s jealous rivals in the government of Babylon laid a trap based on his consistent practice of daily prayer to God (Dan. 6:1-9). Daniel was fully aware of their plot and could have decided to pray privately for a month until things settled down. But that was not the kind of person he was.

    Life to Come

    Ponder the life-giving and life-changing hope that can dismiss the fear of death and give assurance of the indescribable glory that is to come in Life to Come: The Hope of the Christian Faith.

    A thoughtful conversation about faith and how it influences what we think and how we respond to life’s challenges

    What is faith? Is it something we believe, or something we live? Let’s answer those questions in a study of James, chapter 1. Join in this thoughtful conversation about faith.

    We Can Trust Him

    I know very little about persecution. My physical well-being has never been threatened because of what I believe or what I say. What little I “know” about the subject comes from what I hear and read. But that is not true for many of our brothers and sisters around the world. Some of them live in danger every day simply because they love Jesus and want others to know Him too.

    Why Would A Good God Allow Suffering?

    Everything in life happens for a reason, even though you may not always understand it. In this booklet, author Kurt De Haan helps you discover how to put suffering to work for you. Gain a better understanding of how the pain in your life can help you recognize attacks from the enemy, seek God in faith and hope, be

    Change: Following God Through Life’s Crossroads

    No matter how you view change, it’s an inevitable part of life—you can’t experience anything new without it. In Change: Following God through Life’s Crossroads, Bill Crowder examines the life of the apostle Paul and offers insights to help you overcome fears, doubts, and resistance to change. Discover how you can draw closer to God and experience His peace, follow His lead and move into a new season of purpose, and impact the world around you for His glory.

    Living Testament

    Watchman Nee was arrested for his faith in Christ in 1952, and he spent the rest of his life in prison. He died in his jail cell on May 30, 1972. When his niece came to collect his few possessions, she was given a scrap of paper that a guard had found by his bed. On it was written his life’s testimony:

    Paul’s Prison Epistles

    This course offers an analysis of four of the epistles that Paul wrote from prison (Colossians, Ephesians, Philemon, and Philippians). As Christians we face many challenges to our faith. False teachings and worldviews assault our loyalty to Christ. Suffering tempts us to think that God is not in control, or that He does have our best interests at heart. And our relationships with other believers are often strained to the point that we doubt the value of the church. But Paul responded to these types of difficulties in his letters from prison. This course is a study of these epistles, based on…

    Spiritual Sight

    A prisoner who survived 14 years in a Cuban jail told how he kept his spirits up and his hope alive: “I had no window in my cell, and so I mentally constructed one on the door. I ‘saw’ in my mind a beautiful scene from the mountains, with water tumbling down a ravine over rocks. It became so real to me that I would visualize it without effort every time I looked at the cell door.”

    Ironically, some of the most hopeful books of the Bible—Philippians, Colossians, and Ephesians—come out of Paul’s house arrest in Rome. The letter to the Ephesians gives a hint as to what the apostle Paul saw when he thought about life beyond his place of confinement.

    At Risk For The Savior

    During basic training, Desmond Doss irritated his drill instructor and fellow soldiers. A pacifist by conviction, he refused to carry a weapon into battle, and this made his peers doubt his courage. Trained as a medic, the young Christian had no qualms about facing combat. But his goal was to save lives.

    Do you need some hope to cling to in the midst of a trial?

    Thursday, October 4, 2012, Part 3

    “In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9-10).

    IDEA: We pray that God’s will may be done on earth as it is in heaven because God’s will is not being done on earth now.

    PURPOSE: To help listeners pray the Lord’s Prayer with understanding.

    The important role that followers of God play in bringing good to the world

    Monday, October 1, 2012

    “In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come” (Matthew 6:9).

    IDEA: To think of the implication of the kingdom of heaven in our lives, it might help to think of life without it.

    Understanding the persecution that ordinary Christians face every day

    When we hear the word persecution we often correlate it to the early church martyrs who lived centuries ago. It’s foreign, and far removed from our world today.