Category: Church Stuff
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Fasting in Appreciation
Joshua 5:2-12 At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again.” So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Haaraloth (the hill of foreskins). Now this is why he did so: All those who came out of Egypt—all the men of military age—died in the…
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Fasting in Humility
Deuteronomy 26:1-11 When you have come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the LORD your God is…
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We Shine Together
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2 Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness, not like Moses, who put a veil over his face to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of the glory that was being set aside. But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this very day, when…
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Walking Wet
But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when…
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A Life of Joy
Ezra 1:1-4, 3:1-4, 10-13 In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, in order that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia so that he sent a herald throughout all his kingdom, and also in a written…
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Soil Tending in the Desert
Comfort, O comfort my people,says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley…
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Jesus Changes Lives
Rev. Rami AlMaqdasi grew up in Basra, Iraq, and shared with us how his life as a Christian from Iraq has been marked and defined by war. His earliest memories are of fleeing the violence of the Iraq-Iran war, coming of age during the Kuwait War, and of serving the church in Syria as Iraq…
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God is in the Struggle
“That which does not kill you makes you stronger” is one of those “power sayings” that often get bandied about in polite society, a sort of talisman against the challenges of daily life. In fact, the phrase has its origins in the work of Freidrich Neitzsche, who includes it in a list of aphorisms in his…
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Reading Calvin and the Rule of Love
This month, I will be preaching and teaching on questions that have come from the pews–we are calling it the “Ask Me Anything” sermon series, and so far the questions I have received have proven quite interesting. Initially, I had conceived of this as an opportunity for folks to ask questions about our faith and…
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Mother Mary, Full of Guts
I have been thinking a lot about Mary lately, and I suppose it is inevitable. I mean, it *IS* Advent, and this is practically the only season that Protestants pay attention to the Mother of God. The rest of the year, not so much. Anyways, I was reading and praying over the Magnificat, and, like…
Deeper in me than I 