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Safe and Sound

In my last post, I wrote about words that are not “idle” words.  In fact, those not idle words bring life. In this post, I want to focus on words that are “sound” words. “Sound” has many meanings beyond auditory.  “Sound” is also:   free from flaw, defect, or decay solid, firm, stable secure, reliable free from error, fallacy or misapprehension based on thorough knowledge and experience agreeing with accepted views   The sound words that we need for life come from Jesus:   “If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness,” (1 Tim 6:3) To give some insight into just how sound these words are, listed below is how some other versions of the Bible translate “sound words”:   Sound instruction Wholesome words True teaching Healthy words Accurate words True words   When I think of all those descriptors of His sound words, the phase “safe and sou
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Recent posts

Not Just Idle Words

I own a 25 year old car.  The body might be falling apart but the engine runs great and it idles smoothly.  Such idling is good. Idling can also have to do with spending too much time doing nothing or being without purpose or being engaged in that which is pointless.  Such idling is not good. What if I were to tell you that I know of something that is the about as far as being without purpose as you can get?  Would you want it? Here is that something:  “They are not just idle words for you—they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”  ( Deut 32:47) Other versions of the Bible use some different words for that first phrase in the verse and such can be helpful in assessing how important the words really are: “Not meaningless words…”   “These are not just useless words…”   “No empty word for you…”   “Not unimportant words…”   “Not useless words…”   “Of great value to you…”   And some of the other v
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Act Your Age!

Our old gas powered mower finally bit the dust. But it did last for 18 years so I think we got our money’s worth. As I was considering a replacement for it, my wife and my son encouraged me to buy a self propelled mover. They said it would make the mowing go so much easier, especially for someone my age! While the cost was quite a bit higher for a self propelled mower, I did go ahead and get one. After opening the box, I did the right thing and started reading the Operator’s Manual. I figured that I may as well put it together right since it did cost me a pretty penny. The Operator’s Manual, quite early in the opening section, mentioned some statistics for mowing accident. It turns out that men aged 65 and older top the charts for the highest number of mowing accidents. Following that ugly truth was a laundry list of warnings for those men over 65. The warnings included descriptions on how to prevent accidents. As my eyes started glazing over and I was about to dismiss it all, reality
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The Whole Town!

                                                                   The Whole Town *   The hope was to change the world!   And the leader that was expected to accomplish that seemed to be coming into his own.   And now it was starting to look like it all could hit the big time. A whole town was coming out to meet the leader and maybe the opportunity to share the message of change could be multiplied. But (there always seems to be a “but”), the outcome ended up being shaped by what had happened earlier. What happened earlier was mostly centered around a not so ordinary man.  In fact, this man scared the daylights out of people.  At night, he roamed naked among the tombs, screaming and yelling at the top of his lungs.  He frequently cut himself so that his blood flowed freely.  The townspeople had tried to bind him with chains but he just tore them off like they were made of paper.  The reality was that he was demon possessed.  But were not talking just one demon, but multiple ones
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Be Amazed!

Be amazed… Jesus welcomed sinners …The Pharisees and legal experts were grumbling, saying, “This man welcomes sinners… (Luke 15:2) Jesus hung out with sinners …And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” (Luke 19:7) Jesus ate with sinners …And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” (Matt 9:11) Jesus was a friend of sinners …The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ (Matt 11:19) With Jesus being so welcoming, what did people do? People came to see Him …They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” (John 12:21) People came to hear Him …Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. (Luke 15:1) People followed Him …While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many ta
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Freed From The Gravity of Depravity

The words rhyme!  They are also a treasure trove of meanings.  To top it off, some of the words even have the same spelling and very different definitions! Let’s start with the word “depravity”.  It is “th e state of being morally bad, the q uality or state of being corrupt, evil, or perverted.” Consider the rhyming word “gravity”.   It is “a serious situation or problem; the gravitational attraction of the mass of the earth, the moon, or a planet for bodies at or near its surface.” Now throw in a variation of the word “gravity” as in “grave”.  It is “an excavation for burial of a body; likely to produce great harm or danger; significantly serious.” Depravity is grave, as in serious and it great harm can be a result of it.  Depravity can even work a lot like gravity, that is, if left unchecked, it pulls us further into grave situations. Furthermore, when our time has come and we enter the grave due to a physical death, depravity could also be the defining status of our lives a
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Just Wave Your Hands!

It’s not too hard to imagine the disappointment! There had been the account of a powerful God who could totally burn up a sacrifice, even one that had been drenched in water. And the priest, this guy Elijah, had simply called on God and God did it, big time! But instead of another big and impressive illustration of the power of God, Naaman was told to just go and bathe in the river Jordan. Naaman was actually more than disappointed that the prophet in this situation didn’t dramatically wave his hands to heal him. Go and bathe in the muddy Jordan, yeah right! There were better rivers back home. Not only didn’t he go bathe in the river, he went home in a rage! In my last post, I wrote about that dramatic demonstration of God’s power as shown by burning up the sacrifice and the altar but I also cautioned us that such does not happen as regularly as people might want. In fact, I don’t think it has happened in the same way since! But what normally does happen is this: God speaks, God hears
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