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Showing posts with the label atonement

Countdown to Christmas Day 2: Everlasting Life

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Like many in East Tennessee, I watched in anguish as local TV stations told of the devastating school bus accident that took the lives of one woman and two young girls and injured numerous other small children this afternoon. We saw blood-stained foreheads and scraped chubby cheeks. We saw first responders holding hands with small children as they moved away from the scene of the accident to safety. In the press conference the chief of police choked on his tears and the school superintendent almost couldn't speak he was so emotional about the tragedy that had just occurred. The whole city is stunned. I thought about the mothers who hurried their backpack laden wee ones onto the bus this morning, never once thinking the kiss goodbye would be their last. Moms and Dads put their little ones on buses every day and think very little of it. Every afternoon the big yellow bus brings their precious children home again, safe and sound. But not today. How many of them already had Chris...

Gratitude Day 17: Second Chances

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Very few things in life are guaranteed. We have ideas, ambitions, hopes, dreams. We make plans that fail. We hope for things that don't happen. We make mistakes. Separating illusion from reality isn't always easy as some things aren't obvious, especially when we try to make choices or judgments when we don't have all the facts. In short, we aren't perfect. When things don't turn out quite as we hoped or when mistakes are made, it 's good to know we get a second chance to do better. We never have to be stuck with our mistakes if we are willing to do the work to overcome them. A pair of does along Hyatt Lane Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park Copyright 2012 Kristina Plaas, All Rights Reserved Repentance and forgiveness enable second chances, where both the one who erred and the one adversely affected by the error get the chance to make amends and try again. The atonement of Jesus Christ makes it possible for us to repent. Being followers of ...