There are three different verses that I want to zero in on today, and they really encapsulate the Gospel, or the Good News. Remember Jesus’ words in Matthew 18:3 when he said: Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. In all the…
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So we had a bit of tension in this chapter, didn’t we? The Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh nearly started a war, even though their motives were right. Of course, all they had to do was let the rest of the tribes know what they were doing ahead of time, right? Have…
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I really like these short little Psalms. I’m sure you know that these were written as songs, and I can easily see these as songs that became popular to be sung not only in the temple, but as the people went about their days. Don’t you have some favorite songs or choruses from your church…
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So here in chapter nine, Paul is again speaking to the Jews with a message that was difficult for some of them to hear, but again, good news to us. He told them that it wasn’t genetic background that makes a person the child of God, but faith in Jesus. No matter how hard you…
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In chapter 20 we read about the cities of refuge. These were places that those who had accidentally killed someone could flee and be protected from those who would take revenge on them before a trial had taken place. As the commentator Matthew Henry put it, these were people who were guilty by hand, but…
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The Hebrew language had several different words that are often translated into English as “law”. I’m not going to give you all those different Hebrew words here today, but I’m going to read a partial list some of their meanings, and I’d like to see if you can pick out which of these words are…
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Romans 8 begins with the words, “Now, because of this,”. So you have to ask “Because of what?” The apostle Paul is continuing his thoughts from the previous chapter, where he spoke of the conflict we have with our new nature that has been made possible because of God’s grace and the fallen nature of…
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Joshua was an exceptional example of a leader. Here at the end of chapter 19 is another reason why. After all the tribes have received their various parts of the Promised Land, then the people of Israel gave of their land a portion to Joshua. As a great leader should, he served them and took…
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Psalms chapter 117 is the shortest chapter in the Bible, and it’s smack dab in the center. You know what is really amazing about it? The writer wrote something that could not have been accepted by the Jews! Why? Because it says, “Praise the Lord, all nations! Praise Him, all people!” You see, unless you…
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Ok, so there was a lot of talk of sin in today’s reading. Before I give my thoughts on the reading, maybe we should define the term. What is sin? Sin is a word we don’t hear much in our culture today, much less in our churches. I think part of the reason is that…
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