Let Me Illustrate

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From 2026.07.22 edition of The Morning Dispatch

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I struggle with overeating. What should I do? - CCEF

I struggle with overeating. What should I do? - CCEF

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https://www.wavy.com/news/local-news/norfolk/display-of-yearslong-debt-to-gun-store-taken-down/

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12 Reasons Your Wife Needs Her Mother More Than You Need That Promotion

What social science and Judeo-Christian traditions agree on about grandmothers, proximity, and the family asset most husbands overlook

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How to Recognize and Deal With High-Conflict People

You’ve been on the volunteer committee at church for three weeks when the texts start. It’s 9:47 PM on a Tuesday, and your phone lights up w

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What About the Awkward Psalms? – reformation21

Editor's Note: This article is from the forthcoming book, God Is Our Refuge and Strength: 150 Devotionals Through the Psalms, by Bill Boekes

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To hope means to be ready at every moment for that which is not yet born, and yet not become desperate if there is no birth in our lifetime. —Erich Fromm; cited in Matthew Erickson, The Pastor as Gardener, 173

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The standard of the exploiter is efficiency; the standard of the nurturer is care. The exploiter's goal is money, profit; the nurturer's goal is health—his land's health, his own, his family's, his community's, his country's. —Wendell Berry; cited in Matthew Erickson, The Pastor as Gardener, 134-135

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If I am going to stay true to my vocation as a pastor, I can't let the 'market' determine what I do. I will find ways to pray with and for people and teach them to pray. . . . I'm not going to wait to be asked. I am a pastor. —Eugene Peterson; cited in Matthew Erickson, The Pastor as Gardener, 69

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It is a mercy to have a faithful friend that loveth you entirely . . . to whom you may open your mind and communicate your affairs. . . . And it is a mercy to have so near a friend to be a helper to your soul and . . . to stir up in you the grace of God. —Richard Baxter; cited in Dave Harvey, The Clay Pot Conspiracy, 154

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HEALTHY churches

Dave Harvey's acronym for practices that lead to becoming strong despite our inherent weakness as leaders: Honor others Encourage more than you want to be encouraged Acknowledge weaknesses more than parading strength Look to the interests of others Talk less and listen more Help the weak Yearn for Christ

—Dave Harvey, The Clay Pot Conspiracy, 124-142

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It is amazing how consistently the stories of even the most complex institutions come down to their trustees, the ones who, at their best, bear the institution's pain and brokenness, forgive it, and serve it. It is amazing how consistently the fate of institutions hinges on a few people, and their own personal character, how much even one person can tip the balance toward devastating injustice or toward redeeming abundance. And it is amazing how often the most trustworthy trustees are those who have personally experienced the worst that idolatry and injustice can do. —Andy Crouch; cited in Dave Harvey, The Clay Pot Conspiracy, 87-88

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Risk is the cost of making decisions without the luxury of omniscience. —Dave Harvey, The Clay Pot Conspiracy, 26

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It is good for me that I have been supplanted, despised, censured, maligned, judged by and separated from my nearest dearest friends. By this I have found the faithfulness of Him who is the friend of friends . . . and to be content that He to whom all hearts are open . . . now sees . . . the uprightness of my intentions to all mankind.

—George Whitefield; cited in Dave Harvey, The Clay Pot Conspiracy, 26

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My kids are grown, and I feel like a failure in how I raised them. What do I do with my regrets? - CCEF

My kids are grown, and I feel like a failure in how I raised them. What do I do with my regrets? - CCEF

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https://www.9marks.org/article/is-this-young-person-ready-to-be-baptized-clarifying-questions-and-considerations-for-churches/