Author: Scott

Matthew 9:14,15 Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast? And Jesus said to them, Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. During our engagement, my wife…
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  Matthew 9:12,13 Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick… I desire mercy, and not sacrifice. For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. Modern medicine sees addiction as a disease, a view which chafes some.  The rub is that addiction involves apparently volitional behavior. …
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Matthew 9:10,11 …Many tax collectors and sinners came…. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Once, while in college, I went to a local homeless shelter to provide a church service and serve food.  I think I saw it as a…
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Matthew 9:2 …Some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” When I go to God, I often treat him like Santa Claus, presenting him with my list of requests.  It is not that…
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Matthew 8:28,29 …Two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way. And behold, they cried out, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God?” I probably spend an inordinate amount of time contemplating God’s sovereignty versus free will.  Is God really in control…
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Matthew 8:24-26 There arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and…
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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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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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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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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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