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Unbroken: Experiencing Divine Relationship Through Enduring Prayer in Everyday Life Chris Altrock – May 21, 2017

This entry is part [part not set] of 3 in the series Unbroken

Attention Spans

A couple of years ago the software giant Microsoft conducted a study of 2,000 people. They discovered that the average human attention span has declined.[1] In 2000 the average attention span was 12 seconds. In 2015 it had dropped to worse than a goldfish:

 

Attention span of a goldfish

9 seconds

 Attention span of humans

8 seconds

 

The report theorized that this short attention span largely has to do with the impact of a digitized lifestyle. That is, because we use so much digital media these days, we’re used to doing a lot of things quickly, but paying attention to none of it for very long.Read More »Unbroken: Experiencing Divine Relationship Through Enduring Prayer in Everyday Life Chris Altrock – May 21, 2017

Unbroken: Finding Divine Resources through Enduring Prayer in Everyday Life (1 Thess 5:17) Chris Altrock – May 14, 2017

This entry is part [part not set] of 3 in the series Unbroken

A famous Russian story centers on a man who was born in a region north of Ukraine.[1] His life was filled with suffering and loss.

●      When he was three and his brother was ten, his parents died. He and his brother were taken in by their grandfather, who raised them.

●      When the brother became a teenager, he became unruly and began drinking heavily. Once, the older brother pushed his younger brother and permanently damaged the younger brother’s arm. The younger brother lost all use of his arm.

●      Eventually, the grandfather found a wife for the younger brother. Upon his death, he left his home and property to the younger brother and wife. The older brother, jealous that the grandfather had left everything to the younger brother, set fire to the house one night. The younger brother and his wife barely escaped.

●      They were now destitute, without any clothing or money. For two years they lived as landless peasants, selling the handiwork which the wife was able to sew.

●      Then, she became ill. And she, too, died.

This poor man had now suffered the loss of his parents, the injury to his arm, estrangement from his brother, the loss of his grandfather, the loss of his home, and the loss of his wife. Overcome with grief, the husband took his Bible, and set off on a pilgrimage, searching for meaning and purpose in life.Read More »Unbroken: Finding Divine Resources through Enduring Prayer in Everyday Life (1 Thess 5:17) Chris Altrock – May 14, 2017

Fearless: Praying (Matt. 26:36-56) Chris Altrock – March 26, 2017

Fearless for Blog

Nobody Ever Taught Me How

In the movie “Gravity,” astronaut Matt Kowalski is in charge of the Space Shuttle Explorer. Its mission is to repair the Hubble Telescope. The repair will be done by specialist Ryan Stone. Mission Control aborts the mission, warning that a Russian missile has hit a satellite, causing a chain reaction and now there is a storm of debris charging toward the pair of astronauts. As a result of the debris strike, both Stone and Kowalski must make their way to the International Space Station. At one point Kowalski makes the decision to untether himself from Stone to prevent both of them from dying. Isolated and coming to grips with the fact that she too may die in space, Stone has the following conversation with God: 

“I’m gonna die, aren’t I God?… I’m really scared. Nobody will mourn for me; no one will pray for my soul. Will you mourn for me? Will you pray for me? Or is it too late? I mean, I’d pray for myself but I’ve never prayed in my life. Nobody ever taught me how. Nobody ever taught me how.”

We need prayer every day. But there are moments in our lives when things are at their worst, when things are at their darkest, when we need prayer like we’ve never needed it before. And how tragic it would be to reach one of those crisis moments and not really know how to pray.Read More »Fearless: Praying (Matt. 26:36-56) Chris Altrock – March 26, 2017

Winners & Losers: Fighting Dragons (Rev. 12) Chris Altrock – Aug. 14, 2016

Winners and Losers Website

More Than We See

The Light Between the Oceans is a novel, soon to be a movie, by M. L. Stedman. It tells the story of Tom and Isabel Sherbourne. Shortly after World War 1, the young couple move to Janus Rock, 100 miles off the coast of Australia, to run the lighthouse, where the Indian and Southern Oceans meet. Tom and Isabel only receive visitors from the mainland once every three months and only visit the mainland once every few years.

Isabel endures three tragic miscarriages on Janus Rock. After the third, strangely, providentially, a small boat washes up on their tiny shore. It carries a man who has died, and an infant who is, miraculously, alive. Tom and Isabel, partially acting out of grief from their third miscarriage and partially out of what they truly believe is best for the infant, take the child as their own. They name her Lucy and raise her.Read More »Winners & Losers: Fighting Dragons (Rev. 12) Chris Altrock – Aug. 14, 2016