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Do You Want the Kingdom or Not?
15 When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feastin the kingdom of God.” 16 Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. 17 At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for…
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Do NOT Worry
Luke 12. Life is so much more than the anxiety I get from the STUFF I have to deal with. The challenge is trust. The challenge is to understand that with Christ… I am more to him. He has my needs. 24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them.…
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The Action and Activity of the Spirit
25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. (Luke 2:25, NIV) I have begun a project that I hope to lead my church through this summer. We are going to read the New Testament in community. The order…
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Are You Dead Yet?
One of my favorite fun movies is Cool Runnings. It’s a comedy about the Jamaican bobsled team. When the team would crash in practice, the driver would ask, “Sanka, are you dead, mon?” He would answer, “Yeah, mon.” We need to remember this as believers. We need to realize we are dead to the old life. The life of sin…
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Quit Hanging Around the Corpse
We have a fascination with death, being dead, being undead, etc. I am not even going to attempt to categorize any of it because I pay very little attention to it and all I will get are comments about how I mis-categorized something. My point is this: we need to quit hanging around the corpse. Once something is dead, leave…
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Keeping It Simple: Just Do What He Says
9 The Lord of heavenly forces proclaims: Make just and faithful decisions; show kindness and compassion to each other! 10 Don’t oppress the widow, the orphan, the stranger, and the poor; don’t plan evil against each other! 11 But they refused to pay attention. They turned a cold shoulder and stopped listening. 12 They steeled their hearts against hearing the…
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Refusing God’s Best
We are the human race and it is our demise that we keep thinking WE know better than God. We keep contorting our philosophies and theologies to what brings comfort to us. The short work of Haggai has a phrase repeated that needs to be shouted to us once again, especially as the people of God: So now, this is…
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Abraham and Faith
One of my favorite passages is Genesis 15. The faithfulness of God is beautifully and powerfully demonstrated in his interaction with Abram. One of the great verses is v. 6. Again, looking through different translations brings a wider variety of possibility than I imagined. NIV:Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness. CEB:Abram trusted the Lord,…
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The Righteous Shall Live By…
This is one of those times when comparing translations has a bit of a jolt for me. I am in Habakkuk for this Sunday’s message, so I run into Hab. 2:4. I usually use the NIV and the CEB. I am also using Logos to do some exegetical work, though I’m just not a Hebrew scholar. NIV: 4 “See, the…
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Scared Spitless
That means really scared. Habakkuk had that experience. His small book is look inside his prayer journal. At first, he seems pretty ferocious. He’s upset with God. The wicked are getting away with murder, blah, blah, blah. “I’m just going to give God a piece of my mind and see what he does with that!” 2 Lord, how long will…
Category: Bible Study
