http://madetomatter.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=4631&view=post&articleid=72860&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
Monday, February 21, 2011 • Randy Kilgore • Forgiveness
"They're never going to be able to forgive me, are they?"
--The man who years earlier murdered a neighbor in a drunken stupor;
--a recovering alcoholic whose family refuses to believe "this is the time I really mean to change";
--a daughter whose last words to her father were venomous and hateful, spoken only hours before a hemorrhage claimed his life.
What do we do when we realize someone we've wronged will not forgive us? How do we cope with mistakes we've made that destroy relationships, and even lives? How do we keep them from disabling us spiritually; how do we keep others (including Satan) from using them to disable or discourage us?
http://madetomatter.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=4631&view=post&articleid=72052&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
Monday, January 31, 2011 • Randy Kilgore • Work as service to God
"We were created to be careful keepers of the place where God puts us, whether that place is ten square feet of assembly line or ten square feet of cubicle or ten thousand square feet of a manufacturing facility. We were also created to enjoy the work we do because we're doing it alongside God."...
..."As Christians, our problems begin when we think we're smarter than God. When we think old rules (the Bible) don't work in new cultures. When we think getting our share of the pie comes before making sure everyone else has enough. When we think the world exists to make us comfortable, happy, and prosperous."...
..."On this side of heaven we work to fix the things our sinful natures broke. We work to fix lives physically, emotionally and spiritually. We work to fix Creation environmentally, economically and spiritually. We work to fix ourselves and our families and the tiny place where God has us laboring."
http://madetomatter.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=4631&view=post&articleid=71078&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
Friday, December 10, 2010 • Randy Kilgore • God's love
One of my favorite ways to kick off adult retreats-especially men's retreats-is to have them sing the children's song Jesus Loves Me. Grins and groans always greet me when I try this, but I know a secret: Most of the adults in the room no longer feel like Jesus loves them, if they ever did.
It isn't that these adults (including, probably, most of you reading this devotional) doubt Jesus, or the Bible; it's that they feel too hypocritical or too unworthy or too distant or too flawed or too sinful to believe Jesus could love them. From the front of the crowd it's truly amazing to watch as the song's simple truth plows through years of stress and hurt, leaving some even fighting back tears.
http://madetomatter.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=4631&view=post&articleid=70013&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 • Randy Kilgore • Compassion
In an effort to get her boys to stop eating the core of the apples she gave them, a young mother finally told them the apple seeds in those cores were poison, and if they swallowed one of them they would die. To her delight, no more cores were consumed. Weeks later, however, one of the boys accidentally swallowed a seed while eating an apple...
http://madetomatter.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=4631&view=post&articleid=69230&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
Friday, September 10, 2010 • Randy Kilgore • Active faith
The question of eternity is the most important question in the human journey, but it is the question we're afraid to ask as "modern Christians." Does Hell exist? If it does, then nothing in life is as important as warning people away from the awful eternality of its' terrible sentence. But if it doesn't, then nothing in Scripture may be counted as truth-and nothing we do, evil or good, makes much sense. Adoniram Judson learned this truth in the worst possible way...
http://madetomatter.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=4631&view=post&articleid=69074&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
Thursday, September 2, 2010 • Randy Kilgore • Humility
Even saints have their limits, right? Apparently not.
http://madetomatter.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=4631&view=post&articleid=68168&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
Sunday, July 25, 2010 • Randy Kilgore • Change agent
Though there are terrible struggles in the world today, it is important to remember there are other times in history when the world has been equally distressed--perhaps even times that were worse. Because we don't know when God's marvelous grace and patience with humanity will end, it is imperative we remain hopeful--primed and ready for revival and renewal if God allows it. to happen. With history as our guide, we find evidence for how best to prepare for those revivals and awakenings. Here are ten keys--3 beliefs, 4 traits and 4 actions--Christian history shows are necessary for anyone to be agents of renewal in our cultures. How many do you possess? What are you prepared to to let God accomplish in and through you?
http://madetomatter.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=4631&view=post&articleid=67951&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
Wednesday, July 14, 2010 • Randy Kilgore • Hope
A thousand strands of time-each with its own collection of sights, smells and sounds-spin themselves to form it, this thing called place. When we're most troubled, our souls tend to find some way to carry us back to it. Those thousand strands-moments, we call them-form a tapestry of remembrance that serves as an anchor to our soul.
http://madetomatter.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=4631&view=post&articleid=67572&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
Friday, June 25, 2010 • Randy Kilgore • Active faith
The keeper of the light, officially, that cold January night in 1856 was Samuel Burgess. But lighthouse keepers in the early days of the American republic often held two jobs, and Keeper Burgess found it necessary to chase lobsters to feed his family. This meant the keeper of the light, in fact, that cold January night was 17-year-old Abbie Burgess, the keeper's oldest daughter.
http://madetomatter.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=4631&view=post&articleid=67386&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
Monday, June 14, 2010 • Randy Kilgore • Emotional Needs
He meant well, this pastor trying to ease the pain of a stranger, but he was too young to have learned the "dos" and "don'ts" of comfort-giving. So this particular patient shifted in his bed uncomfortably while the pastor tried to teach him that other people had troubles worse than his, so "he should draw comfort from that, at least."
