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Carl B. Rife

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Can We Give Thanks? -- 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18 -- Carl B. Rife, Charles Cammarata -- 2006
For a six-year-old boy who was ill from birth
John -- Carl B. Rife, Harold D. Shaffer -- 2001
The Sea of Galilee is so beautiful; I wish I were there now, with Jesus and Peter and James and the
The Money Bag -- Carl B. Rife, Harold D. Shaffer -- 2001
Judas -- Judas IscariotIt would have been better had I not been born.Oh, Lord.
Mary (The Mother Of Our Lord) -- Carl B. Rife, Harold D. Shaffer -- 2001
Little did I know growing up in Nazareth of Galilee that I had been chosen by God to be his sacred v
The Towel -- Carl B. Rife, Harold D. Shaffer -- 2001
Look at the cross before you, the wilted palm branches symbolizing the fact that early in the last w
Peter -- Carl B. Rife, Harold D. Shaffer -- 2001
I denied him! I denied him! I denied him.
The Crown Of Thorns -- Carl B. Rife, Harold D. Shaffer -- 2001
We have been looking at the symbols of the cross during this season.
Judas -- Carl B. Rife, Harold D. Shaffer -- 2001
Why do you look at me that way in your smug self-righteousness?
The Nails -- Carl B. Rife, Harold D. Shaffer -- 2001
During these Sundays in Lent, we have been looking at the symbols of the cross.
Mary Magdalene -- Carl B. Rife, Harold D. Shaffer -- 2001
Unloved and unlovable.
The Palms -- Carl B. Rife, Harold D. Shaffer -- 2001
The Symbols Of The CrossThe Palms
Honk, If You Love Jesus -- John 14:15; 13:4-35 -- Carl B. Rife -- 1993
In the film Dead Poets' Society, the teacher, Mr. Keating,
Let Our Kids Pray -- Matthew 6:6; 26:36-44 -- Carl B. Rife -- 1993
Quite a few years ago I saw a bumper sticker on a car that
God Made My Day -- Carl B. Rife -- 1993
"God Made My Day" is one anonymous Christian's response to the
Christians Aren't Perfect; They Are Forgiven -- 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 -- Carl B. Rife -- 1993
There it was on a bumper sticker -- "Christians Are Not
God Said It. I Accept It. That Settles It. -- 2 Timothy 3:16-17 -- Carl B. Rife -- 1993
Like the other bumper stickers we talked about, this bumper
I Found It! -- Luke 15 -- Carl B. Rife -- 1993
For those of you who may have not been here during this series
Warning! In Case Of Rapture This Car Will Be Unmanned -- Mark 13:14-37 -- Carl B. Rife -- 1993
During recent weeks we have been using some religious
My God! Why? Teenage Death Due to Drinking and Driving -- Job 3:2-26< -- Carl B. Rife, Anthology -- 1989
May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.
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Object: A sheep or lamb stuffed animal.

Note: For the best experience, when you ask the questions, take the time to draw the children out a bit and help them come up with answers. Make it more of a conversation if you can.

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Hello, everyone! (Let them respond.) Are you ready for our story today? (Let them respond.) Excellent! Let’s get started! (Hold the sheep in your lap as you continue.)

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Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, singing with full voice… (vv. 11-12a)

Phillip Hasheider is a retired Wisconsin beef farmer and an award-winning author who was dead for six minutes and came back to tell about it. If you have ever thought about dying and wondered what it would be like, then Hasheider’s Six Minutes in Eternity is a book you will want to read.

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A medical worker is working long, hard, stress filled hours in an urban hospital setting. One day he or she is called into the administrator’s office to be terminated due to angering professionals in the upper echelon. The worker protests that it is, “My word against their word, why am I to be the scapegoat?” The administrator pulls rank! The worker is asked to turn in their badge and do not come into the premises again unless as a patient. The now unemployed medical worker still feels the calling to be a healer. So, they get a job at an alternative/natural health medicine store.
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Acts 9:1-6 (7-20)
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When Beth was a teenager, she lived on the streets. She smoked cigarettes and drank beer and her parents had said that she had to choose: her friends or her family. Beth chose her friends and lived from house to house and eventually in homeless shelters. She barely avoided being raped at one point. About six months of shelter-hopping was all she could take, and she found a shelter that sponsored her until she took the GED. They told her she was brilliant: she was just bored and dissatisfied with the status quo. The shelter supervisors suggested she look into community college.
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(For alternative approaches, see Epiphany 6/Ordinary Time 6, Cycle B; and Proper 9/Pentecost 7/Ordinary Time 14, Cycle C.)

The main theme of this psalm is captured profoundly in the movement within a single verse: "Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with morning" (v. 5). Casting life experiences between light and dark is not unique or novel, of course, but the poet's treatment of these themes offers some fertile ground for reflection.

Elizabeth Achtemeier
We have three different accounts of the conversion of Saul in the Gospel according to Luke (9:1-20; 22:6-16; 26:12-18). They differ in a few minor details, but essentially they are the same. In addition, Paul writes of his conversion in Galatians 1:11-16, and in 1 Corinthians 9:1 and 15:8-9, stating that at the time of his conversion on the road to Damascus, he saw the Lord. For Paul, that made him an apostle, equal to the twelve. An apostle, in Paul's thought, was one who had seen the risen Christ and had been sent to announce that good news.
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Once in a far-off land, there was a great king whose dominion extended far and wide. His power and authority were absolute. One day, as events would happen, a young man, a commoner, committed a grave offense against the king. In response, the king and his counselors gathered together to determine what should be done. They decided that since the offense was so grave and had been committed by a commoner against someone so august as the king, the only punishment that would satisfy justice was death.

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