Month: December 2016

Matthew 6:5 When you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. When I got out of chemical dependency treatment, I was acutely aware of my need for God.  I had a problem…
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Matthew 6:1,2 When you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do… that they may be praised by others… But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Have you ever…
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Matthew 5:43,44 You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you… If you are like me, you read some passages and just pass them by as they really have nothing to do with you. …
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Matthew 5:38,39 You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. Jesus’ teaching is just plain hard sometimes.…
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Matthew 5:33-37 You have heard that it was said… You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all… Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil. It is a…
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Matthew 5:31,32 It was also said, Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery. Three times, Jesus quoted the Old Testament law and three times, He insisted that following…
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Matthew 5:29,30 If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. If I do not have the relationship with God that I want or if I find myself enslaved to…
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Matthew 5:27,28 You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. When I was a teenager, a well meaning youth leader at our church told the boys that it…
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Matthew 5:21,22 You have heard that it was said…You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment… Do you ever scream at people in your head?  People, in fact, can be infuriating idiots.  I…
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Matthew 5:17 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I assume that every high school graduate can recall the behavior that ensued on those days that a substitute teacher showed up.*  It was as if the rules…
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