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<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Miraculous Healing</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span><br>
I have a friend
who is a surgeon and a committed Christian. He is the physician who
took care of me when I had a snow blower accident and needed surgery on
two fingers. During one of the surgeries (all done with local
anesthetic), I asked, "Don, do you believe in divine healing?"<br>
<br>
"Is there any other kind?" he responded.<br>
<br>
Good
point, but what I really wanted to know was whether he believed in what
we would call miraculous healing, so I asked, "Actually, I wanted to
know if you believe in miraculous healing."<br>
<br>
"Yes," he answered in a matter of fact way, "Why do you ask? Do you want me to stop the surgery?"<br>
<br>
John Jewell, What About Healing?<br>
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<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The Buzzard, the Bat, and the Bumblebee</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span><br>
If you put a
buzzard in a pen that is 6 feet by 8 feet and is entirely open at the
top, the bird, in spite of its ability to fly, will be an absolute
prisoner. The reason is that a buzzard always begins a flight from the
ground with a run of 10 to 12 feet. Without space to run, as is its
habit, it will not even attempt to fly, but will remain a prisoner for
life in a small jail with no top. <br>
<br>
The ordinary bat that flies
around at night, a remarkable nimble creature in the air, cannot take
off from a level place. If it is placed on the floor or flat ground, all
it can do is shuffle about helplessly and, no doubt, painfully, until
it reaches some slight elevation from which it can throw itself into the
air. Then, at once, it takes off like a flash.</span></div>
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<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>A bumblebee, if
dropped into an open tumbler, will be there until it dies, unless it is
taken out. It never sees the means of escape at the top, but persists in
trying to find some way out through the sides near the bottom. It will
seek a way where none exists, until it completely destroys itself.<br>
<br>
</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>In many ways, we
are like the buzzard, the bat, and the bumblebee. We struggle about with
all our problems and frustrations, never realizing that all we have to
do is look up! That's the answer, the escape route and the solution to
any problem! Just look up.<br>
<br>
Source Unknown</span></div>
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<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Quiet Time Is for Listening</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>There was a fifth
grade teacher who decided that she would use this listening process with
her children. Every morning for five minutes she required them to be
totally quiet. That's hard for any of us to do, much less a fifth
grader. She discovered that a great deal of good came from the
experience of silence. After one of these quiet times she asked the
students if they had heard anything. One boy said: Yes, I heard
something say that I should be more obedient to my parents. Another
said: I heard something say that you should always be fair: When you are
tagged and nobody sees it you are still out. There is no substitute for
listening.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Staff, <a __removedlink__603562674__href="http://www.eSermons.com" target="_blank">www.eSermons.com</a></span></div>
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<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The Friendship Mirror</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>A psychologist
friend of mine once developed a personal growth seminar entitled, The
Friendship Mirror. It began with an exercise in which you were asked to
write down the names of ten people you consider to be friends - people
you enjoy being with ... people you like ... people you feel most
comfortable relating to. Then he'd ask you to describe them in terms of
their age, race, height, weight, education, views, whether they're
married or single, with children or not. When you finished, what you
found was a striking similarity between the people you like the best and
... are you ready for this? Yourself! <br>
<br>
Surprise! We tend to
identify most easily with those people who are like us. "Birds of a
feather flock together," they say. Which is nothing new, of course, but
it's something we do well to be reminded of, from time to time, for to
grow up is to grow out and to mature in faith is to widen your circle to
include those who don't just mirror your image, but challenge you to
think and act in new ways.<br>
<br>
Philip W. McLarty, The Boundaries of the Kingdom </span></div>
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<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>________________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Believing in Jesus: Erasing Boundaries</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>If we believe in
Jesus, we know the boundaries are erased inside and out, life's for us
all. Fred Craddock tells the story of a missionary sent to preach the
gospel in India near the end of World War II. After many months the time
came for a furlough back home. His church wired him the money to book
passage on a steamer but when he got to the port city he discovered a
boat load of Jews had just been allowed to land temporarily. These were
the days when European Jews were sailing all over the world literally
looking for a place to live, and these particular Jews were staying in
attics and warehouses and basements all over that port city.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>It happened to be
Christmas, and on Christmas morning, this missionary went to one of the
attics where scores of Jews were staying. He walked in and said, "Merry
Christmas." The people looked at him like he was crazy and responded,
"We're Jews." "I know that," said the missionary, "What would you like
for Christmas?" In utter amazement the Jews responded, "Why we'd like
pastries, good pastries like the ones we used to have in Germany." So
the missionary went out and used the money for his ticket home to buy
pastries for all the Jews he could find staying in the port. Of course,
then he had to wire home asking for more money to book his passage back
to the States.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>As you might
expect, his superiors wired back asking what happened to the money they
had already sent. He wired that he had used it to buy Christmas pastries
for some Jews. His superiors wired back, "Why did you do that? They
don't even believe in Jesus." He wired back: "Yes, but I do." </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>David Reynolds, Crossing Boundaries </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>_______________________________________________ </span></div>
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<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The Sermon Title</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Generations of
preachers at Princeton Seminary were schooled in their homiletical
skills by Dr. Donald Macleod. Among the points Dr. Macleod would make
during the semester was the importance of choosing a compelling sermon
title. In fact, he asked students to give their sermon title before
beginning each sermon.</span></div>
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<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>He used to tell of
Mrs. O'Leary who would hop on the Fifth Avenue bus on Sunday morning in
Manhattan and pass the great churches along that thoroughfare. As the
bus would approach each church, she would eye the sign in front with the
sermon title and decided, on the basis of what she read, whether to get
off the bus and attend that church. Dr. Macleod's constant refrain was,
"Pick a title that will make Mrs. O'Leary get off the bus."</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Mindful of that instruction, one of his aspiring preachers mounted the pulpit one morning for his first student sermon...</span></div>
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<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The rest of this illustration, as well as many additional illustrations and sermons for the whole year, can be accessed at <a shape="rect"><span>www.Sermons.com</span></a>. </span></div>
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