Month: April 2017

Luke 15:13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. I have a habit of inserting myself into a story to understand the characters.  I sympathize with, or at least understand the younger son in…
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Luke 14:27,33 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple… Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. I clearly recall the justifications I made in college for drinking.  As I grew up in a home that did not consume…
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  Luke 14:16,18 A man once gave a great banquet and invited many…  But they all alike began to make excuses. I have lived with an excuse for every day of the week for refusing God’s invitation.  I would love to spend time with you God, but I need to sleep.  I have to work…
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Luke 14:12,13 When you give a dinner…do not invite your friends… lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. I turned into a coffee shop in the…
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Luke 14:11 Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. A friend and I were recently discussing an individual whom we find to be quite prideful.  The maddening thing, in our estimation, is that this person remains completely blind to that pride.  We would never act like that. We…
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Luke 13:2 Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? A couple times over the last week, I have been drawn into a conversation regarding the weight of sin.  Are some behaviors worse than others?  Is the drug dealer more evil than the thief?  Is…
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Luke 12:25,29,31 Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. In Alcoholics Anonymous, it is common to open…
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Luke 12:15 One’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. I am hesitant to write this story as it is the kind of story at which I am prone to roll my eyes.  It is important though, so I am going to tell it and if you roll your eyes, I will…
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Luke 11:42 Woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. Admittedly, I see addiction everywhere.  Because of my own experience with addiction and my need to understand my flesh nature, I have come to see defect in everyone.  In my defense, it…
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Luke 11:34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. When I was in junior high, one of my classmates brought a certain magazine into the locker room for our perusal.  I…
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