PENnED
…before they're washed away
recent posts
- Does God Take People Away? Rethinking Job 1:21 in Context
- Grafted Into One Tree: What Paul Actually Meant About Israel, Gentiles, and the People of God
- When Frameworks Distort Scripture: Learning to Hear the Text Again
- The Obscenity of Misplaced Allegiance
- A Reflection Honoring the Women Harmed by Cruel Abortion Laws
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Category: Reflections on Scriptures
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November 20, 2011 Read: Matthew 5:9,38-48 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. This part of The Beatitudes can easily be misunderstood in a certain way: that anyone who makes peace regardless of faith or despite the lack of it becomes and should be called a child of God. We need…
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Read: Romans 5:12-19 12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned…. 15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the…
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November 19, 2011 Read: Jonah 1 17 Now the LORD provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Kids love this story. Adults quarrel over whether or not the “huge fish” and Jonah’s experience in its belly was real. But that’s really beside the…
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November 18, 2011 Read: Acts 17:19-31 “God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.” What did God do so that people might seek him? God created…
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Frank said, “I hate the song.” November 17, 2011 Read: Matthew 4:18-22 19“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” That seems clear. But some people have come to Jesus not to follow him or to fish for people. They have come to Jesus because some preacher said doing so they can live…
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November 16, 2011 Read: 1 John 2:18-27 24 As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is what he promised us—eternal life. There was a young man who attended my Bible study and who said…
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November 15, 2011 Read: Hebrews 5:12–6:2 You need milk, not solid food! These are some offensive words to people who are supposed to be spiritual adults but in reality are still infants. With some people, I feel that my efforts have been in vain. But this passage brings me some comfort because it seems to show…
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November 14, 2011 Read: Lamentations 3:25-33 31 For no one is cast off by the Lord forever. This verse has been used as proof text for the belief that God will not abandon people in hell forever. But it’s context seems clear: it is meant for “those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him”…
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November 13, 2011 Read: 1 Peter 3:8-17 17 For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. Let’s get this straight: suffering for doing good is better than suffering for doing evil only if it is God’s will. The verse thus implies that suffering for doing…
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November 12, 2011 Read: Exodus 15:22-27 On this supposed-to-be memorable day, the Lord provided the much needed water for the Israelites who were trekking the desert to the promised land. But just a couple of chapters later, they seem to have forgotten what God had done for them: “…they grumbled against Moses” saying “Why did…
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November 11, 2011 Read: Romans 8:31-39 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. What an…
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November 10, 2011 Read: John 3:22-36 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them. The reason why John the Baptist gives way to Jesus is because Jesus is the Messiah, God’s anointed Savior, and he is not. People may trust someone else…
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November 9, 2011 Read: Luke 2:22-38 29 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. 30 For my eyes have seen your salvation, 31 which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.” Simeon’s praise is a beautiful expression of…
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November 8, 2011 Read: Romans 14:13-19 Although “the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking,” Christians have quarreled over the issue of what or what not to eat or drink. What I find interesting is how the Apostle began in this chapter: “1 Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over…
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November 7, 2011 Read: Philippians 3:8-17 What is it that the Apostle Paul is pressing on to take hold of? What is the prize he is trying to win? He tells us: “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow,…
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