Author name: Leon Stier

3274) Prayers of William Barclay

William Barclay (1907-1978) was a Church of Scotland minister, professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Glasgow, and author.  He wrote several excellent books of prayer from which the following were taken and adapted. ************************************* Praying for Help to Be Good People: Lord Jesus, help us to live that we may bring help and […]

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3273) Your Children’s Children

By Frederick Buechner in Beyond Words:  Daily Readings in the ABC’s of Faith, (HarperOne, 2004).      To have grandchildren is not only to be given something, but to be given something back.  You are given back something of your children’s childhood all those years ago.  You are given back something of what it was

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3272) Cleo and John (2/2)

     (…continued)  Four years later, Cleo’s husband John died.  John was a believer, but wasn’t one to talk much about his faith.  He wasn’t like Cleo.  He didn’t have anything picked out for his funeral, and we did not have long discussions about God’s love and promises.  He and Cleo went to church together,

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3271) Cleo and John (1/2)

     Cleo was dying of cancer.  She was still strong enough to come to church and go to appointments, but the doctors had told her there was nothing more they could do.  The cancer would soon end her life.  She was 66 years old and her husband had just retired.  They had lots of

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3270) Meeting Jesus on a Greyhound Bus

By Eric Watkins (above), pastor of Harvest Orthodox Presbyterian Church in San Marcos, California (from November 2023 Christianity Today) ——————————————–      I was born outside the church—very far outside.  Neither of my parents were Christians when I was a kid.  We were a military family, my dad a Marine, and we bounced around several

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3269) Lord Willing

     Andree Seu Peterson is my favorite columnist.  She writes a column for World, a Christian news magazine.  Every month, she selects a little snippet of her life to contemplate upon, and then she writes a page about it.  She is about my age, so she writes about many of the same things I

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3268) Volunteering for Slavery

Pictured above:  Sugar plantations utilized some of the most brutal and deadly systems of enslaved labor in history.  The unforgiving pace of the harvest of the sugar cane, and the dangerous mill work in the processing of the sugar, resulted in an average life expectancy of just 7 to 9 years for enslaved workers. ———————————–

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3267) FDR’s D-Day Prayer

     Eighty-two years ago today, on the morning of June 6, 1944, Allied forces led by the Americans, invaded Northern France in the biggest military operation in history.  The goal was to get a foothold on the continent, push back the German forces, and defeat the Nazi war machine that was threatening Western civilization.

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3266) Tired of Giving In

Based on a June 3, 2026 article at:  www.breakpoint.org —————————————–      On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks, a black woman, was riding a city bus home from work.  She was seated in the back rows designated for black riders; but the front seats were full, and a white man needed a

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3265) Father Jerzy

By Chuck Colson (1931-2012), December 24, 1997, at: http://www.breakpoint.org ————————————-      I stood shivering in the autumn chill at the grave of Father Jerzy Popieluszko (1947-1984).  Jerzy was a young pastor who once delivered the dynamic messages that stirred the Polish people to overthrow their Communist oppressors.  His theme was always the same: The Christian

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