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The community of the saints and sanctification
“The sanctification of the church-community consists in its being separated by God from that which is unholy, from sin… For the community of saints this implies three things. First, its sanctification will manifest itself in a clear separation from the world. Its sanctification will, second, prove itself through conduct that is worthy of God’s realm of holiness. And, third, its…
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How NOT to have a healing ministry
I am walking my way through the Gospel of John and there are times I find passages I’m familiar with a bit humorous. John 5 is one of them.
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Is it time to quit the Church?
The past few weeks have been heavy news for the Church. For evangelicals… it’s been Willow Creek and the leadership failure of that megachurch. (Then there are those trying to cling to evangelical as “tribe” but the politics of it right now are a bad mess.) For the Catholics, it was the grand jury findings in Pennsylvania, then another bombshell…
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Has the Word been pouring through me?
A few weeks ago in church I had a serious challenge drop into my heart from the Spirit. I was just entering the Book of Acts and the Gospel of John as part of my daily reading. I am using the daily reading from the Book of Common Prayer through this season. When I get to Advent, I hope to…
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I’m the luckiest guy on earth
RIP Senator John McCain. A fitting excerpt of a speech by McCain HERE.
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The road to Babylon
The past couple of weeks have been contemplative for me because of issues I’ve reflected on in the last few posts. This morning I woke up with the same thoughts. They were slightly different, but when I go back and read my last few posts, especially the longer one I linked to on the Daniel Generation, it was the Spirit…
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A prayer for the church
Gracious Father, we pray for your holy Catholic Church. Fill it with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in anything it is amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite…
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The enemy shows up when things are GOOD
As I keep moving prayerfully through Acts 5, I am struck by how I like to emphasize things in my preaching and teaching. I love Acts 5:12-16. Peter’s shadow falling on people heals them and delivers them from demons! Who wouldn’t like that? Who couldn’t preach on that?
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The deceit in our heart
I am writing/praying my way through Acts right now and come to Acts 5 where Ananias and Sapphira lie about the amount they are giving in the offering and God strikes them dead. We have so many questions about why God struck them dead. This thought occurs to me this time around in my reading: Too often we’re bothered by…
