Tag: save
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The Tax Man Comes
Mark 2:13–17; Luke 19:1–11 Zacchaeus has been a staple in Children’s church for years…♫♪“Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he.”♪♫ His stature makes him identifiable for children. They understand being too short to see things that all the adults get to see. What gets lost for the children is Zacchaeus’…
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Foundational
Matthew 19:16–26; Hebrews 9:1–14; Romans 10:8–13 The story of the rich young ruler, in my experience, has always been presented in one way…he cared too much for his stuff. This is true…to a point. Is the conclusion that we have often been led to actually correct? Or perhaps we, too, are missing which point Jesus…
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Pounding the Pavement
Luke 12:16–34 We often use the words of Jesus out of context. When we do so, we often lose their original meaning. “Don’t worry about what you eat…or what you will wear” is often used to say don’t worry about “worldly” things, except…it isn’t. When we look at the rich man’s productive harvest, we get…
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The End of the Matter
Jonah 4:1–11 How could you save them? Really? Look at them! If you’d left me alone they would have died, just like they should have! Why Jonah is so upset? There is a lot of conjecture, but Jonah’s anger really does seem out of place. Perhaps he had something against the city of Nineveh. That,…
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Judge? Not Quite
John 3:11–21; John 12:44–50 There is an ongoing tension in being a follower of Jesus. The first is that Jesus came to save the world so that no one would perish. On the other hand, without a doubt, there is some sort of division of those who have died into those who will be ushered…
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Rescuers & Yachts
Ezekiel 33:1–16; Matthew 14:22–34; Colossians 4:2–6 (read online ⧉) When sailing ships were still the primary transportation across the oceans, John was lost overboard during a storm. Before his friends (the crew) could rescue him, they lost sight of him in the storm. By providence, there was another ship nearby that did see him and…
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Unyielding Prayer
Psalm 39; 2 Samuel 12:13–23; Luke 18:1-8 (read online ⧉) It’s hard to grasp why God would appear to condemn an innocent child to die. How it occurs is a mystery. We can infer that David understood that the child would die and that God would not save it. This would be in contrast to…
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Calling Others
John 6:44–51; Acts 15:12–21; Romans 1:16–25 (read online ⧉) One of the hardest things for any believer is the understanding that a loved one may not be with them in Heaven. Whether one believes in Dante’s 7 circles of Hell, the Hell of endless torment, or the Hell of eternal life “merely” not being in…