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Treating the Presence of God as Holy
2 Samuel 6 When David brought back the Ark to Jerusalem, he did what the Philistines had done years ago: he put it on a cart. God had allowed the Philistines some “latitude” so the ark could get back to Israel. But for Israel, there were rules. They were to know better. There are things that are “holy” and “sacred”…
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Off to San Francisco — Worlds Far Apart
As a pastor, I am about to experience two very different worlds in a matter of hours. The first world was a dream for me. I performed a wedding for a couple in the Minnesota Twins ballpark, Target Field. I am a huge baseball fan, so being able to walk on the field, sit in the dugout, etc., was a…
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The gods of war
2 Samuel When David came into power, the kingdom was not united. He ruled in Hebron first, then power was consolidated. It wasn’t consolidated through negotiation alone. It was war. It was civil war. Part of the distaste for the “Old Testament God” is our own distaste for war. I’m not a true pacifist, but I sympathize with those who…
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Reading the Old Testament — Getting the Stars Out of Our Eyes
I grew up in church. I grew up in Sunday School and children’s church. In our small church we didn’t have children’s pastors. The parents would rotate Sundays as volunteers. My parents were my children’s pastors once month. We had this game my dad would have us play where someone would get up in front, he would pin a name…
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A Pep Talk for my Royals
Since my Royals can’t get above .500, I think they have a mental block. So, I’m doing my part to help them out.
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Give Us This Day
One of my daily practices is to wake up saying the Lord’s Prayer. As I begin to move around in the morning, I try to remember to slowly walk through the prayer and stop on key phrases so I can meditate more. It settles my heart and on anxious mornings when my mind is racing with things to do or…
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Paying attention where we give
Too often we are ready to give emotionally off an appeal and we don’t often think about just how much money actually gets to the need. This story chronicles 50 really low percentage charities. Low percentage would be the amount of money they pay to solicitors and how much of the money raised actually gets to the need. I actually…
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David and the Temple
In 2 Samuel 7 David wanted to build the Lord a temple. He was living in a nice place, so he wanted to give God a worthy temple. You know, like every other god of every other nation. But Yahweh isn’t like every other God. He refused David’s request. He promised to allow David’s successor the opportunity, but he makes it…
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Our Government is Transparent. As You Were.
Q: In the spirit of “transparency,” just what is the scope of the warrants issued to listen in on conversations and read emails? A: We can’t reveal that at this time. Q: The name of the secret judge who issued these secret warrants? A: We can’t reveal that at this time. Q: The names of Congressional reps who were given…
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The Place of Grief
2 Samuel 1 I do not believe in reincarnation. But I’ve hedged my bets on this one. I put in a request just in case. I’ve asked God to bring me back as a black church choir director. This is a request from years ago, when I learned so much about HOW to grieve from a couple of funerals at African…
