Of course you’ve heard the phrase, “Be careful of what you wish for. You just might get it.” The Philistines wanted the Ark of the Covenant because it was known far and wide that the presence of the God of Israel was there. (Of course, from our perspective here in the 21st century, we know…
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These chapters, while not entirely inspiring, seem to be a *little* less hopeless sounding than the first two, don’t you think? There’s a lot here to think about, but in our limited time, I’d like to focus for just a moment on chapter four. Halfway through the chapter, Solomon talked about the man who works…
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Paul begins this chapter by telling the Galatians that they are foolish to listen to the false teachers who are telling them that they need to follow the Mosaic Law. And then he proceeds to tell them why God gave the Law. The Law was given, not as a way to earn a place in…
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Sometimes I think the so called modern translations go just a bit too far in trying to simplify the language. In chapter 3, verse 3 there’s the phrase “the Holy Box”. Other translations call it “the ark of God”. It was the Ark of the Covenant. Anyway, I’d like to share with you what F….
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Today we are beginning the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes was written by King Solomon, the same King Solomon who wrote the book of Proverbs. Like Proverbs, Ecclesiastes is classified as a book of wisdom. But you will very quickly see that Solomon’s approach is much different here. I don’t want to give away too much…
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Paul had spent some time with these people on one of his missionary journeys, and they had received him well. However, after he left them some false teacher had come in who told them that Paul was not to be respected as an apostle, and they began teaching the Galatians that they had to follow…
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The chapter began with Hannah’s prayer when she brought Samuel to the temple. God had given Hannah the gift of a son. And I think that most people’s prayer would be something along the lines of, “Thank you, God, for giving me this boy.” But instead of focusing on the gift, Hannah is praising the…
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I’m sure you noticed that these two chapters were not written by Solomon. We don’t really know any more about either Agur, mentioned as the source of the words in chapter 30, or Lemuel from chapter 31, than what is said in the text. Chapter 30 talked about fools and evil people, chapter 31 described…
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Paul’s closing comments to the Corinthian church are a bit of a mixed bag. In responding to those who seem to be swayed by the false teachers in their midst who have questioned Paul’s authority, he defends his apostleship in relating how God gave him a vision some fourteen years earlier, in which Paul was…
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Today we begin the book of 1 Samuel. Now, while this is still in the history section of the OT, we are really making a transition from the time of the Judges to what will be the time of the Kings. First and Second Samuel are not written by Samuel, but 1 Samuel is primarily…
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