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I’m always left with… WOW
2 Peter 1:2-11 is an all-time favorite passage. It is majestic. It is challenging. It is a high calling. And… it is attainable. All we need to walk in this majestic calling has already been given.
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The great vision of the Kingdom of God
Luke’s rendition of the Sermon (on the plain rather than mountain) is stunningly simple. The life of the Kingdom is simple and powerful. Yet… we do not live them out. It begs the question: WHY DO WE NOT TAKE THESE WORDS SERIOUSLY? Go to Luke 6:27-20.
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Holy isn’t comfort
We come to the place of Christmas. We sing with gentleness, “O Holy Night.” Holy is not comfortable. It is not even predictable. We want a sweet song to sweep away our problems and lavish us in comfort. But what is holy does not avoid pain or difficulty. Holy makes way for the good, but that is not always comfortable.
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Our misunderstanding of the Kingdom of God
I truly wish I could articulate better what I truly believe in the deepest part of my soul about the Kingdom of God. N.T. Wright helps me. He articulates the vision of the Kingdom in a way I understand… but then I try to repeat it… and… ugh. There is so much to “undo” in my old truncated view of…
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Our misunderstanding of salvation
I have been rekindled in my thoughts concerning “salvation” the past few years. We have such a truncated version of “gospel” that we try to keep it reduced to something like, “Jesus came to save you so when you repent you can know you go to heaven when you die.”
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Living in the power of the beautiful kingdom of God
One of the great lessons I’ve carried from NT Wright is to see heaven and earth in a far different relationship than what I believed growing up. Heaven is not “up there” and earth is not “down here.” They are two different dimensions of God’s good creation.
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Our grand invitation
Matthew 7:13–14 (NIV)13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. I recently finished up another journey through the Sermon on the Mount and come away…
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The church as recovery group
D.L. Mayfield’s new book, The Myth of the American Dream, is timely. There is a lot of gold in this book and I will do a review later on. But this quote is incredible: My husband likes to say that we need the church to be our recovery group; we need it to be a place where we can share…
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Clueless to Greatness
33 They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” 34 But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. (Mark 9:33-34) We can be so clueless. Jesus talks about sacrifice, and we’re consumed with who gets the best seat in the house.