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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">The Fellowship of the Bearers of Cold Water</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">An
old man named Calvin had lived a good life as a farmer for years. One
day an evangelist came to the community, and, in the course of his stay,
visited Calvin and asked him what denomination he was. Calvin answered
the question like this: "When my grain gets ready for selling, after
I've harvested it and packaged it, I can take it to town by any one of
three roads ” the river road, the dirt road, or the highway. But when I
get my grain to town and go to the buyer to sell him what I have, he
never looks at me and asks, ˜Calvin, which road did you take to get your
grain to town?' What he does do is ask me if my grain is any good." </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Friend,
is your grain good - the grain of your discipleship? That's all that
really matters. When we get to Heaven we will probably find some (Roman
Catholics) and some (Baptists) and some (Presbyterians). And they'll be
just as surprised to see us as we will to see them. But we will all
belong to just one fellowship. Let's call it the Fellowship of the
Bearers of Cold Water. We will all be people who have lived out our
discipleship through acts of kindness to others.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">King Duncan, Collected Sermons, <a __removedlink__1845469286__href="http://www.Sermons.com" target="_blank">www.Sermons.com</a></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">______________________</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">The Cumulative Effect of Sin</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Time-lapse
photography compresses a series of events into one picture. Such a
photo appeared in an issue of National Geographic. Taken from a Rocky
Mountain peak during a heavy thunderstorm, the picture captured the
brilliant lightning display that had taken place throughout the storm's
duration. The time-lapse technique created a fascinating, spaghetti-like
web out of the individual bolts. In such a way, our sin presents itself
before the eyes of God. Where we see only isolated or individual acts,
God sees the overall web of our sinning. What may seem insignificant --
even sporadic -- to us and passes with hardly a notice creates a much
more dramatic display from God's panoramic viewpoint. The psalmist was
right when he wrote, "Who can discern his [one's own] errors? Forgive my
hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not
rule over me." (Psalm
19:12-13).</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">_________________</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Designed to Be Lived Up</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Ted
Engstrom of World Vision fame tells how one day he was cleaning out an
old desk drawer. He found a flashlight he hadn't used in a year. He
turned it on but there was no light. He shook it, and then he unscrewed
one end to release what were probably dead batteries. The batteries
wouldn't come out, but finally, after some effort, he shook them loose.
What a mess he found! Corroded batteries with liquid acid seeping all
over the mechanism - all because he hadn't used the flashlight
regularly!<br>
<br>
Batteries are designed to be turned on, to be used, not neglected or
ignored. What you and I refuse to use we will surely lose. We're meant
to he turned on, too. Our gifts are to be used! Our lives are not meant
to be "waited out" but to be lived up! Are you and I living up to the
gifts and talents God has given us? What kind of commitment do we have
to ourselves and to the graces within us?</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Richard W. Patt, Partners in the Impossible, CSS Publishing Co., Inc.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">_________________________</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Where to Put the Pies</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">I
was in a small rural church one time that had a major dispute about
where the pies should be placed in the kitchen prior to serving them for
the annual turkey supper. One woman actually left the church community
because several new comers to the church had convinced the rest of the
women working in the kitchen that it would be more efficient to put the
pies on the counter beside the sink instead of the counter next to the
refrigerator. "It's not the right way to do it", she said. "We've never
done it that way before, and I am not going to be part of doing it that
way now. I won't have any part of that kind of thing. Those new people
are going to ruin this church. They don't know anything. They aren't
even from around here."</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Sound familiar to anyone? </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">The
apostle John came up to Jesus one day. "Jesus", he said, "I was walking
down the road with the rest of the disciples, and we saw someone
casting out demons in your name. We tried to stop him because we don't
know who he is; we tried to stop him because he's not one of us.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Richard J. Fairchild, Working Together</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">____________________</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Are We Askew, Too?</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">One
pastor tells about listening to his father tell a story about a
neighbor whose barn had burned down. The entire community gathered to
help rebuild it. His father and some other men were told to saw the
rafters. They first cut a rafter and then traced around it with a pencil
and cut another one. They based the third rafter on the second the
fourth on the third and so on. What they didn't take into account was
the width of the pencil mark. Each rafter was one pencil mark wider than
the one before. After a while, this can add up to quite a difference.
By lunch time they looked at the barn and discovered it was going up at a
very strange angle because they had deviated from the original
standard. Do you not sense that our barn is a little askew today, too? <br>
<br>
</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">King Duncan, Collected Sermons, <a __removedlink__1845469286__href="http://www.Sermons.com" target="_blank">www.Sermons.com</a></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">______________________________</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Feeding Sin</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">In
1939, a coast guard vessel was cruising the Canadian Arctic when the
men spotted a polar bear stranded on an ice floe. It was quite a novelty
for the seamen, who threw the bear salami, peanut butter, and chocolate
bars. Then they ran out of the food. Unfortunately, the polar bear
hadn't run out of appetite, so he proceeded to board their vessel. The
men on ship were terrified and opened the fire hoses on the bear. The
polar bear loved it and raised his paws in the air to get the water
under his armpits. We don't know how they did it, but eventually they
forced the polar bear to return to his ice pad--but not before teaching
these seamen a horrifying lesson about feeding polar bears. <br>
<br>
Some people make the same mistake with sin that these sailors nearly made with the polar bear…</span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"><span style="color: black">The rest of this illustration, as well as many additional illustrations and sermons for the whole year, can be accessed at </span></span><span style="color: black"><a target="_blank" __removedlink__1845469286__href="http://mail.churchmail.com/lists/lt.php?id=Kk8CBwIFAAZRCEkNAAdKDAtXUVw%3D"><span style="font-size: small"><font color="#0000ff">www.Sermons.com</font></span></a></span><span style="font-size: small"><span style="color: black">.<br>
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