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What Is Biblical Literacy?
We complain about it, write about it, claim it’s important or even critical, design programs to create it, but what is it? I don’t mean that none of us know what we mean when we say “biblically literate” or “biblically illiterate,” but do we all mean the same thing? I don’t think we do, and…
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Fences: Mending or Rending
The following is a sermon I presented at the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Pensacola on September 11,2005 and originally posted here on September 13, 2005. I’m reposting it because when I went to look for it, I found that the original post had somehow been truncated, and also because there is a one word at a…
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Experiencing the (Baptism of the) Holy Spirit
This is a topic where I tend to make just about everyone uncomfortable. Long time readers may recall a previous discussion of speaking in tongues, and my own experience of it. Those who expect me to be intellectually oriented and rational are uncomfortable with mystical experiences, and many who are comfortable with the mystical experiences…
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Luke 11:9-13 – Giving
What does it mean that our heavenly Father asks us to ask, seek, and knock? Why doesn’t he just make everything work the way He wants it?
John Wesley – Sermon 44 – Original Sin
Testing a modernized version of a sermon by John Wesley, #44, “Original Sin.” The modernization is done by Gemini AI.
Matthew 6:9b – Father
A look at fatherood and the Lord’s Prayer. What can we learn from God as our Father?
Psalm 78:5-7 – Generations
We need to share the faith with later generations, spiritual or physical, by living it openly.
Link: On John Wesley and Penal Substitution
I found the article Penal Substitution in John Wesley’s Atonement Theology quite helpful. It’s one valuable note that is often not accounted for enough in scattered Wesley quotations is the development of his own experience. I value penal substitution, though not nearly enough for many of my Reformed friends, in that I believe it is…
1 Peter 2:1-2 – Pure Milk
What does it mean to long for the pure spiritual milk? How does it relate to the expressed need to go on to maturity and solid food?
Romans 12:12 & 15:13 – Hope
It’s easy to hope when things are going well, but what about when things are not going so well? What about wen drudgery seems to overcome us?
Matthew 18:1-5 – As Children
What does it mean to become like a little child? What does it mean that strength is manifested in weakness?
1 Peter 1:24-25 – Endures
God’s word is eternal, but we often label our own ideas and our own interpretations as authoritative, and thus live on withered grass rather tan the eternal word.
John 16:29-33 – We Got This!
In this passage, Jesus prepares his disciples for impending trials and their eventual scattering, emphasizing that true peace comes from being “in Him.” Despite their confidence, Jesus foresees their struggles. He reassures them of the Father’s presence, highlighting that despite failures, peace is attainable through Christ, who has overcome the world.
Psalm 23:6 – Pursued
Living in God’s house forever, pursued by goodness and love.
Psalm 23:5 – A Table
God has prepared, current prepares, and will prepare for us a feast.
Psalm 23:4 – With Me
No matter wat you’re walking through, God cares and walks with you. He knows our weaknesses and trials.
Psalm 23:3 – Back to Life
God is our reviver.
Psalm 23:2 – Green Grass and Quiet Water
Green grass and quiet water, for both body and soul.
Psalm 23:1 – The Shepherd
The Lord is my shepherd, I will lack nothing. Really?
Introducing Psalm 23
Who needs an introduction to Psalm 23? It’s one of the most familiar passages in the Bible. That’s likely why my wife suggested it as a starting point. With that challenge, I’ll be continuing the process I used for Psalm 119, and doing a post on one verse per day. Overview Bob MacDonald, in Seeing…
New Series on Familiar Passages
Starting a new series, or really continuing an old one based on a challenge to do meditations on familiar passages.
Psalm 119:176 – Seek Me
No matter where we are or what we’re trying to do, we need God to seek us out. The law may be good, but it doesn’t not replace the lawgiver.
Psalm 119:175 – Let Me Live
The Psalm’s praise and prayer is encapsulated in this verse and again in the next. Give me life, let your decisions help me!
Psalm 119:174 – Delight
Longing and delight are both produced by God’s grace that starts giving before we ever ask, even before we even are.
Psalm 119:173 – Help!
“May your hand help me” is a prayer that we all need to pray, recognizing God’s power as the only thing that can take us where God demands that we go.
Psalm 119:172 – Sing Some More!
What makes laws righteous and praiseworthy? I look at quite a number of other sources to talk about righteous laws.
Psalm 119:171 – Sing Praise!
How can one sing praises about the law? Perhaps we need to change our perspective.