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Archive for the ‘Christ’ Category

Concession vs. Intent

Posted in Christ, Divorce, Peace, Pharisees, tagged , on March 31, 2011| Leave a Comment »

 

He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. – Matthew 19:8

Jesus turned specific questions into life principles. That’s one reason the Bible is so applicable today, the issues may change but the principles don’t.

The religious leaders of Jesus day came to trip him up with the hot topic of what circumstances allowed divorce but Jesus pointed to the broader principle of God’s intent.

My kids pull this on me all the time – what will dad allow me to get away with? In contrast, my wife is interested in what I want, I love that about her!

Peace with God is like that. It only occurs when we act upon what God wants, not what he will allow.

We can start today, now, regardless of our past.

Prayer: Lord, help me to follow what you really desire for my life, not just what you will allow me to get away with. Amen.

Sound Bite: “God’s intent is better than his concession”

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One “Not Good” In All Creation

Posted in Adam, Church, Community, In Christ, tagged , , on March 29, 2011| Leave a Comment »

And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. – Genesis 2:18

God gave the “Good” pronouncement on everything he created except one – Adam’s aloneness.

Adam was good but his being alone wasn’t, so God made man into a community1 – first with a partner, then through that partner a family.

Some like being alone – no one to be hassled or disappointed with, no one to get in the way or make you wait, no one to limit your freedom or to say, “No!”; but that’s not God’s way.

God has always been a community (in his case – Father, Son, Spirit) and community is his intent for us.  He makes a place, in the Community of faith, for everyone who will accept Christ, if we will but coöperate and choose his way over our own.

God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land. – Psalm 68:6

– fritz

1 – Genesis 1:27

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Shoe Throwing

Posted in In Christ, tagged , , , , on March 15, 2011| Leave a Comment »

“Judah is my lawgiver; Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe” – Psalm 60:7b-8a

Throwing a shoe in middle Eastern culture was a sign of intense disrespect, and it is really bad when God says he will (figuratively) throw his shoe over a whole people group!

Fact is, God judges by people groups, even now.

Notice the term,”nations” in this verse and who said it:

“When the Son of man shall come in his glory … before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them [the nations] one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats” – Jesus (Matt. 25:31-32)

There is one exception!

“[P]ut on the new man … where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.” – Colossians 3:9b-11

Those who put on Christ are his people group regardless of where they come from.

“[T]hou … hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation” – Revelation 5:9b

Jesus’ redemption crosses all boundaries, people groups, and genders.

Thank God for Christ!

– fritz

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