Showing 1 - 10 of 18 resources
Happiness Where You Least Expect It Matthew 3:1-17 Dr. Jim Denison I’d like us to begin with a survey. Time magazine recently explored the subject of happiness, and included in its report a tool devised in 1980 by a psychologist named Edward Diener. It rates your happiness compared with the rest of us. Answer these […]
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All’s Well That Starts Well Matthew 4:1-11 Dr. Jim Denison We’re all salespeople in life. We all have something we want others to “buy” or believe. According to Newsweek, Andrew Fischer is selling his forehead. The 20-year-old Nebraska man decided to auction it as ad space for 30 days, and received more than 100 bids. […]
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Great Risk, Great Reward Matthew 5:10-16 Dr. Jim Denison Today’s Bible study has but one point: Jesus rewards most fully those who pay a price to follow him. The greater the cost, the risk, the sacrifice, the greater the life, the joy, the peace, the reward. We progress in proportion to the fare we are […]
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When God Lets You Down Matthew 8:1-17 Dr. Jim Denison Ed Diener, a University of Illinois psychologist, has news which may be bad or good, depending on your point of view. He compared the overall happiness and well-being of the billionaires and millionaires on the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans, and the Maasai […]
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All About Miracles Matthew 14:22-33 Dr. Jim Denison A friend recently sent me this story. An Amish boy and his mother were in a shopping mall. They were amazed by almost everything they saw, but especially by two shiny, silver walls that could move apart and then slide back together again. The boy asked, “What […]
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Darth Vader Doesn’t Wear Gray Matthew 16:13-20 Dr. Jim Denison As everyone in the so-called “civilized world” knows, the final Star Wars movie opened this week. The first Star Wars movie, made back in 1977, used 360 visual effects; the last episode has 2,151. The six movies have sold $9 billion in merchandise to date. […]
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Theology for Tsunamis Dr. Jim Denison Matthew 2:13-18 On December 26, scientists at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Honolulu forecast a massive tsunami within 15 minutes of the Indonesian earthquake, but did not have phone numbers to call to warn those in Southeast Asia. None of the countries most severely affected had a tsunami […]
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How to Hear From God Matthew 2:19-23 Dr. Jim Denison A friend recently sent me some questions I couldn’t answer: Why do we wash bath towels? Aren’t we clean when we use them? If not, what was the purpose of the bath? What is the point of brick wallpaper? Is there ever a day when […]
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Winning in the Fourth Quarter Matthew 4:12-25 Dr. Jim Denison Today’s Super Bowl will be the biggest sporting event of the year. Last year 144 million people saw all or part of the game, in 230 countries around the world. Television ads are going for $2.4 million each. Imagine the pressure for the players on […]
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He Who Has the Gold, Makes the Rules Matthew 7:12 Dr. Jim Denison I mentioned last week that I teach Men’s Bible Study because I have stories I can’t tell on Sunday. Some of you wondered what I meant. Here are some stories which get close to the line. “Cash, check or charge?” the clerk […]
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