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Month: December 2016

Homeless Jesus

Matthew 8:19,20 A scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” As I was sitting in Starbucks a few days ago, a…
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Why Does God Not Fix This?

Matthew 8:2-4 A leper came to him… saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus… touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. I can be a terminal whiner.  Last night, on the drive home, as the slow pickup ahead of me sped up whenever I…
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The Coming Storm

Matthew 7:24-27 Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall… And everyone who hears these words of…
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The Ugly Spawn of Grace

Matthew 7:21-23 Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven… I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ When life fell apart and I went to treatment, those around me…
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Does the Bad Guy Know He is Bad?

Matthew 7:15-20 Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. I am occasionally told that I overthink things (shocking, I know).  I am usually told…
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The Skinny Path

Matthew 7:13,14 Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. I sat in the restaurant…
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Do Unto Others…

Matthew 7:12 So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them… How I treat those around me is often dependent on how I feel like treating them. So, my behavior may be altered by my mood, sleep, carbohydrate intake or irritability.  In short, I act out how I feel, which…
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Seek and Find

Matthew 7:7 Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. I have attempted to use this passage as leverage against God to insist that He has promised to grant my every wish. In doing so, I missed what is one of the…
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Selling God

Matthew 7:6 Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you. When we were first married, my wife and I won a free carpet cleaning.  In our ignorance, we unwittingly invited a vacuum salesman into our home.  This poor…
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The Spiritual Gift of Being Judgmental

Matthew 7:1,3 Judge not, that you be not judged… Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Here, in perfect metaphor, Jesus so aptly sums up the defect of being critical and judgmental, a defect that is so pervasive…
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