God

Beautiful Applause

Elizabeth Mitchell
11 Jun 2018
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“She has done a beautiful thing to me” (Mark 14:6). Their names are not even mentioned, and yet the Lord bestowed the highest praise on three women who demonstrated courage in difficult circumstances. Their ordinary lives are not memorials for us to simply admire, but to emulate, compelling us to love the Lord more deeply and trust him more completely right where we are today. We meet one woman as she entered Simon’s house in Bethany “with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table” (Matthew 26:7). Some of […]

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Park Summit Seniors Recreate Prom Memories

The Good News
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Do you remember your Senior Prom? Where were you? What did you wear and who was your date? Many elderly residents living at Park Summit, a long-term care center in Coral Springs, were able to relive their senior prom experience. On May 24th, an enthusiastic group of willing volunteers from Parkridge Church of Coral Springs partnered with Hear2Heart Outreach of South Florida to recreate one of the most memorable experiences in an individual’s lifetime. It was an afternoon filled with music, dancing, food and laughter; everything you would expect from a senior prom including the crowning of a Prom King […]

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The Midwest Meets the Middle East

Omar Aleman
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midwest

“Can’t wait to see snow,” was my reaction when I learned that I had to travel to Chicago on a business trip at the ripe age of 22. I took a night flight, and although cold, the drive to the hotel was pleasant. A date at the federal courthouse awaited me the next morning, and since my lodging was only a couple of blocks from my destination, I decided to “hoof it.” And there it was… white, wet, cold snow. However, this stuff had no resemblance to what I had seen on television. Instead of falling from the sky, the […]

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Firewall Students Serve South Florida

The Good News
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Firewall Centers held its Fifth Annual Serve-A-Thon on Saturday, April 28th, where over 500 Firewall students, their mentors and volunteers engaged in seven service projects throughout Broward County and learned the value of giving back. Firewall Plantation, Western and Blanche Ely High students visited three elderly care centers through Heart2Heart Outreach of South Florida. While there, Firewall students played games and read with the residents, taught them how to better use their phones and cleaned the facilities. Firewall Indian Ridge Middle and North Side Elementary students beautified North Side Elementary by restoring the outside areas, painting and laying sod in […]

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The 21-Day Slow

Stephan Tchividjian
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21-day

I typically don’t like to fast. I know it’s important, and it’s encouraged throughout the Bible. I know that there are many benefits to fasting. The clarity and focus that occurs as one intently focuses on Jesus is something supernatural. I have dear friends who fast regularly for extended times and speak of its benefits. I still don’t like to fast. I have fasted many times and frankly, will fast again. However, did I say I don’t like to fast? 21-Day Fast Our church has, over the past few years, encouraged its community to fast for the twenty one days […]

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Don’t Squander Your Summer

Dr. Bob Barnes and Torrey Roberts
1 Jun 2018
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In our house it always feels like we come crawling into summer time like someone who just finished a marathon…one they didn’t train for. We are all absolutely exhausted but SO looking forward to a break. Dreams of a beautiful summer of family bliss dance in our heads as parents, but how often is that really the case? One of two things may happen: either we get to August wondering what in the world happened to the summer days, or we get to the end of June wondering when they can go back to school (or both depending what day […]

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summer

Youth and Next Generation Leaders Take Center Stage at Church United

Edwin Copeland
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youth

As Church United, we believe a mission to own the lostness, pain and brokenness of our community must include a mission for youth. Without a strong focus on reaching the next generation, we will miss perhaps what could be the greatest domestic missions opportunity in our nation’s history. Research points to the reality that over one million youth at least nominally in the church today will choose to leave each year for the next three decades. Thirty-five million youth raised in families that call themselves Christians will say they are not by 2050. However, we believe the story is far […]

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Step Ahead

Elizabeth Mitchell
1 May 2018
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“You shall walk in all the way that the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you…” (Deuteronomy 5:33). Babies do a lot of sleeping (When we desperately need some, they usually quit!). In the first few months of life, babies could almost be called couch potatoes, swaddled tight as a burrito, eating, sleeping and then sleeping some more. Children are altogether different, and their chubby legs are constantly on the move. Toddlers fall, get back up and fall again. They simply don’t mind. Children realize that in order to […]

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The Servant of Sickness

Dr. Tommy Boland
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sickness

“Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word” (Psalm 119:67). Sickness Is sickness always an attack of the spiritual forces of evil in this world? If we are looking for the root cause of sickness then the answer is a resounding YES. Going all the way back to the encounter between Satan and Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden when sin entered into humanity through the willful rebellion of Adam and Eve against the revealed will of God, sickness was now a byproduct of the sinful condition. But now that sickness has entered […]

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Musings on Being Secular

Norm Wise
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I think most people, even those who say they believe in God or even Christianity, are very secular in their “Monday Morning” approach to life. I know it is easy for me to fall into a “secular” frame of mind. What do I mean by secular? — Relating to the cultural or temporal concerns without any reference to big ideas, metaphysical thoughts, religion or faith. The core idea is that it is focused on the here and now. It is looking at life “under the sun” and not connecting it to the eternal. All things spiritual are irrelevant, impractical and […]

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