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Showing posts from March, 2020

God is undefeated by death

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Ezekiel 37:1-14 The hand of the  Lord  was upon me. He brought me out by the Spirit of the  Lord  and set me down in the middle of a valley, which was full of bones.  2  He had me pass through them and go all over among them. There were very many on the valley floor, and they were very dry. 3  He said to me, “Son of man, can these dry bones live?” I answered, “ Lord  God, you know.”  4  Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the  Lord .’” 5  This is what the  Lord  God says to these bones. I am about to make breath enter you so that you will live.  6  I will attach tendons to you. I will put flesh back on you. I will cover you with skin and put breath in you, and you will live. Then you will know that I am the  Lord . 7  So I prophesied as I had been commanded, and as I was prophesying there was a noise, a rattling, as the bo...

The Warrior Rejected by Many Followers

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John 6:66-68  From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Every day, somewhere, couples get divorced. We remember all the happy moments of that wedding day when two people declared their love for each other and put rings on each other’s fingers. They made so many promises: to take care of each other when they were sick, when poor, when things were bad, as well as when things were better. They said they would cherish each other right up until one of them died. So what happened to those happy days and that awesome commitment to each other? What does it take to break up a wedded couple? How many disagreements and arguments? How much disgust over such things as personal habits, too much alcohol, fits of anger and rage, drugs, video games taking time away from relations...

Undefeated by dysfunction

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Genesis 37:1-11 1 Jacob lived in the land where his father had resided as an alien, that is, in the land of Canaan. 2 This is account about the development of the family of Jacob: When Joseph was seventeen years old, he was tending the flock with his brothers. He was just a boy compared to the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah. Joseph brought a bad report about them to their father. 3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his other sons, because he was the son born in his old age, and he made him a special robe. 4 His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, so they hated him and could not speak to him in a friendly way. 5 Once Joseph had a dream, and he told it to his brothers, so they hated him all the more. 6 He said to them, “Please listen to this dream that I have dreamed: 7 There we were, binding sheaves in the field, and suddenly my sheaf rose up and stood upright. Then your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to my sheaf.” 8 Hi...

Reconnaissance Report: Know Your Enemy

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Ephesians 6:12  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. When you Google something, that search engine actually only searches about 4 percent of everything out there in cyberspace. Something called the deep web has the other 96 percent—all of which is hidden to most people. There is some technical stuff and some military stuff on the deep web, as well as secret, forbidden communications and more. The really scary part is that there is another hidden part of the deep web. That hidden part is called the dark web, where you can find stolen credit card numbers for sale, mail order marijuana, killers for hire, sex trafficking, medical experiments on people, illegal betting, and much more. To read about it sends shivers up your spine! When God tells us there is a darkness to this world, he includes SOM...