Birthday
Today is my birthday. I will be on an airplane flying over the Atlantic from Barcelona to home. But I will be thinking about other things in other places. So today I am going to give you my birthday gift. Choose the one you like.
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The Great Invention
This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24 NASB Has made – “Judaism presents an innovation of the first importance. For Judaism, time has a beginning and will have an end. The idea of cyclic time is left behind. Yahweh no longer manifests himself…
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Local-Motion
. . . the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, . . . Deuteronomy 13:5 NASB Brought you from – YHVH’s redemptive work in the exodus from Egypt is a constant reminder to the people. Again and again the text identifies YHVH…
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What Else Can It Mean?
“You shall have no other gods before Me.” Exodus 20:3 NASB Gods – OK, be very honest. As honest as you can be, of course, since your honesty will still be a function of what you believe to be true. What you believe to be true about this commandment is probably something like this: “I…
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The Difference
This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. John 17:3 NASB Eternal life – Let’s not get wrapped up in the Trinitarian implications here. Just remember that Yeshua says (or at least John says that he says) that eternal life is about knowing…
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Unconscious
Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” Genesis 28:16 NASB I did not know it – lo yada’etti. But how could he not know? Isn’t God everywhere? How could Jacob think for a moment that God wasn’t in the place where…
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The Solid Rock – Rewind
I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope. Psalm 130:5 ESV Hope – Psalm 130 is a cry to the Lord from the depths of despair. It’s not despair over the external circumstances of life. It’s despair over the chaos of disobedience, of sin at the center of who…
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The Whole Man
Now Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan-aram, and camped before the city. Genesis 33:18 NASB Safely – Jonathan Sacks translates this passage as, “And Jacob emerged complete.” He points out that Jacob no longer wanted or needed the blessing that Isaac…
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Worship and Work
We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. Romans 12:6 NIV Gifts – While the Greek heritage provides a rich texture for understanding the idea of gifting as the expression of joyful celebration, an even deeper context can be seen in the Hebrew thought patterns that lie behind Paul’s vocabulary. Charis is typically…
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Pleasing Pursuits
We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. Romans 12:6 NIV Gifts – The Greeks recognized a connection between chairo (joy) and edone (pleasure). In later Greek thinking the two terms are barely distinguishable. Alignment with the deepest expression of joy is the truest sense of pleasure. Eric Liddell made the connection when…
