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They Would Be Dead by Now
Many people are alive today who, had they been living even 100 years ago, would be dead by now. What I mean is that many hurt, weak, sick, or diseased persons are able to be healed, strengthened, cured, or at least treated or relieved today for things that would have likely caused their death a century and more ago. We have done a lot things, including modifying food and developing medicines, that have made it so that we see a lot of people with a lot of problems, but at least they are still alive.
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As Reliable as the Sunrise
On the night He was betrayed, Jesus told His disciples that the cup poured out for them was the new covenant in His blood (Luke 22:20). It is the sign of the promise revealed in Ezekiel 36 and Jeremiah 31. The Lord committed to Israel that He would cleanse their sins, take away their hearts of stone, give them hearts of flesh, and cause each of them to know Him. This covenant stands out because it depends wholly on the Lord.
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Envy Kills
Envy kills. It kills the taste buds of one’s own soul, making sweet things seem dull and unsatisfying. It kills contentment, making those who have not wish that they were someone else. Envy has killed entire classes of people, as with the manifesto of communism to overthrow those with property and make sure that everyone has an equal amount.
Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain; it takes away the life of its possessors.
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Let There Be Light
Many things might discourage a pastor. A devoted pastor will probably be discouraged by a lack of response to the gospel, a blindness among men to the beauty of Christ, and even slow transformation among professing Christians. If the aim is to present every man complete in Christ, then he may think “Ready. Aim. Fire…me.” A pastor may even be tempted to try other techniques to make something happen. But pastors can be faithful and encouraged without being Calvinists (though that helps) as long as they believe in creation.
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What Fits?
What sort of behavior belongs with the God who created heaven and earth? When we receive His revelation about His effective word that brought about being in blankness, what other kinds of conduct would be characteristic? What else does a sovereign God do that fits His demeanor?
World leaders enter meetings with elaborate ceremonies and fanfare. What about the world Maker? World leaders travel with security and command armies? What about the world Maker?
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Less Mary Poppins Snapping
Why did God create an unformed and unfilled mass of earth first (Genesis 1:1-2)? Why was Stage One at the beginning of day one a watery wilderness and wasteland? Why not create it all with one word, heaven and earth and creatures and man? For that matter, why create with only one man and woman? He created forests of trees and swarms of birds, why not create with a full population with full cell coverage and free smart phones for all?
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The Things of Earth
If you already saw my book review on Goodreads, I’d still say go ahead and reread my plug for the book below anyway. For emphasis. But first, the following paragraph introduces the book on its back cover.
The world is full of good things…Ice-cold lemonade. The laughter of children. College football. Scrambled eggs and crispy bacon. But what happens to these earthly pleasures when Jesus shows up? Do the things of earth grow strangely dim?
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The Whole Row
One attribute of God in Genesis one that isn’t always mentioned by commentators, theologians, and preachers is that our God gives. All of creation is overflow. He doesn’t make anything because He needs it, or so that He could take something back from it, or so that He could have servants who will do work He finds distasteful on it. Look at the creation story less as an answer to scientific questions and more as an answer to sociological questions.
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To Force More Perfect Union
Abraham Lincoln did not have the chops to unite the Union peaceably. Part of his problem is that he loved the Union too much.
Caveats, qualifications, and disclaimer: I did not pay much attention in school as a kid. I am not a historian or a politician or a librarian. I have only read about 100 pages of Lincoln’s speeches in this collection. I did not stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
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Like a Herd of Gerasene Swine
How did God do it? He is a much more disciplined writer than any human author. I can’t handle when a question hangs too long, let alone if the group’s answers are rushing down a steep bank like a herd of Gerasene swine. But He held back for what seems to us like an eternity before crushing Christ and then raising Him from the grave.
The moon and stars created on the fourth day lit the stage.
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Shooting Whales in a Barrel
We’ve been working through our church’s What We Believe statement on Sunday evenings and last Lord’s day Pastor Jim took us through the section on the Saving Work of the Holy Spirit. Our Life to Life small group had a spirited discussion about the function and fruit of the Spirit on Friday night.
Finding errors in the thinking and practice of pneumatologically challenged Christians may be easier than shooting whales in a barrel, and may excoriate a similar amount of blubber.
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Be Cheered!
Over her Christmas break from college, Katie Herrington came to our Life to Life group after one of the messages on worship. The question for discussion related to any general thoughts on our Sunday morning liturgy. Katie said that while she enjoyed having communion each week, and while she appreciated the glad attitude we bring to it, she also had a difficult time not imagining us lifting our cups toward each other and saying “Cheers!
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Ongoing Application
We believe that God saves sinners. We believe that the Father elected a people for His Son forever ago, that the Son laid down His life to pay for the sins of His people a while ago, and that the Holy Spirit grants new life and repentance and faith any time ago. Our sovereign, triune God designed, obtained, and fulfills all His saving work when He wants.
Because we believe that God drives salvation and that His eternal will cannot be derailed, we might ask, “When is a man saved?
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The Tyrant's Life
A single mom with eight year-old triplet sons went to Starbucks one afternoon for a break. She had spent her day not only making meals, cleaning spills, and overseeing homeschool assignments, but also arguing with her sons about the reasonableness of her directions, defending her authority, and trying to maintain order. One of her young lawyers said something to the effect, “It feels like we’re in prison.” She took this final straw with her to sip some coffee.
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The Nature of Things
Knowing the nature of things is quite valuable and surprisingly elusive. When the church assembles on the Lord’s day and meets God in worship, confessing our sin, hearing His Word, praying and singing to Him, we are being reminded of how things really are.
Remembrance also happens at His Table, too. Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today. Everything was given change orders when He walked out of the tomb, or given warning that time was running out if it would not submit to the new order.
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An Airtight Case
The only thing required to be guilty before God is to do nothing. Men transgress God’s law on purpose more than the evening news has time to report. But they can and do sin before getting out of bed in the morning and when they crawl under the covers after a day of ignoring God.
One of the scariest paragraphs in the Bible covers a legal ramification of creation. While the author of Hebrews acknowledges that we only understand that God made the world by faith, Paul warns that every man who doesn’t praise God for making the world is guilty in his unbelief.
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Hunt You Down
If you have sinned against someone, you do not need to wait for them to hunt you down. If a brother comes to talk to you, tells you your fault, and if you have sinned, then you ought to acknowledge it, seek his forgiveness, and be restored to fellowship. But confession of sin is not only a reaction when caught or confronted.
Jesus preached in Matthew 5 that a man shouldn’t even give money if he remembers that he’s sinned against someone else.
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Something Has to Be Done
In the third book of his space trilogy, That Hideous Strength, C.S. Lewis relates a turning point in one of the main character’s life. Taken into custody, Mark Studdock began to consider that he had been resolutely wrong about almost everything in and for his entire life. Even as he contemplated his possible death it seemed better not to think about all of the things he would need to change if he acknowledged the first crack in the wall.
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New Times Three
God does not command His people to read the Bible anywhere in the Bible. That’s probably for two reasons. First, most people didn’t have their own copies of God’s Word to read. They depended on hearing the Word read in corporate worship, and pastors were commanded to read the Word publicly for the people (see passages such as 1 Thessalonians 5:27 and 1 Timothy 4:13).1
A second reason why personal reading of the Bible isn’t an imperative is because reading, in and of itself, is much too undemanding.
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What's Your Problem?
Only the unrepentant are unwelcome at the Lord’s Table. Those who will not believe in and submit to Jesus do not have any part of Him. Those who profess faith but undo their profession by ongoing rebellion to His commands are disciplined away from the fellowship of this meal. But every other believer is invited. More than that, every believer is being changed by it. Take, for example, those believers that Paul categorizes in 1 Thessalonians 5:14.