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Loving the World
Was it an old Keith Green song that said, “You love the world, but you’re avoiding Me”? 1 John is clear about NOT loving the world. He gives us examples: craving what the body feels, craving for what the eyes see, and the arrogant pride of one’s possessions. (CEB). Sounds like it pretty much includes… everything. What IS loving the…
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Is There Joy in the Journey?
We are down to our last two weeks of “Eat This Book,” our journey as a church through the New Testament. We have made an intentional effort to read the New Testament with fresh eyes, tackling whole books at a time rather than a few verses at a time. This has been a joy for me personally. It is so…
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The Gospel of Mark and the Power of the Kingdom
As we read the Gospel of Mark for this week, I have worked on a theory: Everything Mark does in his gospel flows from Mark 1:15. I have no idea if this is actual or not… and I’ve not had enough time, resources, millions of volumes of others who think about this stuff, etc., to truly “analyze” it. It’s just…
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The Sermon on the Mount and the Process of Discipleship
For years I have taught that the Sermon on the Mount is the clearest teaching on the Kingdom of God in found in one place in Scripture. Going through Matthew this time as our church prepares for Sunday, I’ve walked through the passage again to find if that still holds true as a statement for me. The pattern I have…
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The Bold Brash Claims of Faith
For all the years I have spent reading the Gospels, I still am blown away by the bold claims of faith. 18 Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to…
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Building Spiritual Muscle
In Matthew 6 we get those verse that talk about trusting God for the basics of life. What to wear, what to eat, etc. Trust him. Easier said than done, I know. Wow, do I know! I live in more anxiety than I’m willing to admit! (And I happen to be admitting some, so just think…) So, how do we get to…
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In the Kingdom the Clean “Infects” the Unclean
Matthew 8 is bold. Jesus touches the leper. The rule of the day was to quarantine the “unclean” because if the “unclean” touched the “clean,” the “clean” would become infected. Jesus reverses the effect. The Kingdom is about reversal. As Dallas Willard points out, that’s the whole point of the Beatitudes. It is demonstrating that no one is beyond Kingdom…
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Surpassing the Righteousness of the Pharisees
This week our church is reading Matthew in our journey through the New Testament. One of my favorite passages to camp is the Sermon on the Mount. I am blown away by the high calling of the Kingdom of God. Jesus makes the astounding claim that he hasn’t come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. This isn’t a new…
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The Core of Why We Must “Eat This Book”
Our reading for this Sunday is Philippians, 1-2 Timothy, and Titus. As I read through 2 Timothy 3:10-4:5, I am once again convicted by these words. These verses are probably core to why the Spirit has led us on this journey as a church to read the entire New Testament this summer. 2 Tim. 3:16-17 is central. We need the power…
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Common English Bible and Romans 5:1
I have enjoyed our New Testament reading this summer in the Common English Bible. Yet, I still find a couple of awkward phrases. (Every translation provides that, however.) Rom. 5:1 in the CEB is interesting: Therefore, since we have been made righteous through his faithfulness combined with our faith,[a] we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. The footnote…
Category: Bible Study
