Ce să fac atunci când mă simt singur?

Întrebare: Nu-mi place să vin acasă la apartamentul meu. Este rece și întunecat. Primul lucru pe care îl fac este să deschid televizorul doar pentru a auzi niște voci umane. Mănânc singur, butonez canalele, uneori citesc ceva și apoi mă duc la culcare. Am mai fost în relații, însă nici una dintre ele nu a […]

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Ce să fac atunci când mă simt singur?

Întrebare: O persoană pe care o consideram a-mi fi prietenă, a bârfit despre mine și sunt foarte rănită de acțiunile ei. I-am spus ceva confidențial, iar ea a spus mai departe aceste lucruri celorlalți prieteni ai mei. Nici nu mai pot merge la biserică. Sunt foarte furioasă pe ea. Nu mai vorbesc cu ea deloc, […]

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Depresia: speranță pentru zile negre

Unii le numesc „zilele lui Iona”- acele momente în care te simți la pământ, lipsit de capacitatea de a avea o perspectivă pozitivă asupra vieții. Însă, Iona nu a fost singura persoană din Biblie care a suferit de acest gen de depresie. Ilie s-a simțit de asemenea, copleșit. La fel și regele David. Depresia ne […]

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Musing Over Mistakes

When it comes to mistakes, we need a great deal of tolerance. And a sense of humor doesn’t hurt, either. I ran across an embarrassing mistake recently in the sports section of the newspaper. A volleyball coach was being featured, and the article went on and on about her background, superb ability, win-loss record, and style of coaching.

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Compassion

It was one of those backhanded compliments. The guy had listened to me talk during several sessions at a pastors’ conference. All he knew about me was what he’d heard in the past few days: ex-marine . . . schooled in an independent seminary . . . committed to biblical exposition . . . noncharismatic . . . premil . . . pretrib . . . pro this . . . anti that.

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Who Cares?

Who really cared? His was a routine admission to busy Bellevue Hospital. A charity case, one among hundreds. A drunken bum from the Bowery with a slashed throat. The Bowery . . . last stop before the morgue.

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Back-Door Blessing

I had lunch recently with a businessman who runs his own company. As we talked, the subject of wisdom kept popping up in our conversation. So I asked, “How does a person get wisdom? I realize we are to be men of wisdom, but few people ever talk about how it is acquired.” His answer was quick and to the point: “Pain.”

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Who, Indeed, Knows?

I grew up in the heyday of radio. (Fact is, I didn’t even see a television set until I was a teenager.) If we got our homework done, we could listen to various weeknight radio shows. Remember that spooky line the announcer always gave just before The Shadow came on: “Who knows what evil l-l-lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!” Then there would be a blood-curdling laugh, which faded away into the distance. I always liked all the lights on when we listened to that program.

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Deep Grief

The past couple of weeks have been some of the toughest of my life. My emotions have spanned the spectrum: shock, sorrow, horror, intense anger, disillusionment, disappointment, and utter bewilderment. I have prayed—without much benefit. I have read the Scriptures from the Psalms and Proverbs to the words of Jesus and various sections of the letters from Paul, Peter, James—without much peace.

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God’s Sheepdogs

The words of Psalm 23 are very familiar to all of us. Yet, unless we read that psalm through the eyes of a sheep, we will miss its magnificent message. Remember how it concludes? “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever” (KJV).

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