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The Will of God and the War for Life: How Praying “Your Will Be Done” Is an Act of Warfare
“Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10) The second half of Matthew 6:10 parallels or fleshes out the first half. First we ask for the kingdom of God to come, then we pray more deeply into what that means. On the surface this is a pretty simple request. Yet,…
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“Pray Like This”: How to Pray the Pattern in the Lord’s Prayer
Therefore, you should pray like this . . . (Matthew 6:9) In last week’s post we talked about “vain repetition” or empty babbling: praying like the prophets of Baal, in a desperate show of works meant to get the attention of an indifferent God. Jesus is clearly against that kind of praying. What sometimes gets…
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The Way of Reconciliation: How Mercy Triumphs Over Judgment
Jesus is relentless in his examination of anger: its roots, its ugliness, the damage it does, and the guilt we incur because of it. Along the way he continually underlines the fact of judgment. We might be tempted to see “the judgment of God” as something arbitrary or cruel, but the truth is that because…
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God Is Not a Legalist (And Righteousness Isn’t What You Thought It Was) – Part 2
From Rachel: I am kicking off 2019 with three months of rest and seeking God … so I am reposting favorites from the blog. Enjoy! Righteousness is not what you think it is. When it comes to righteousness, most of us think like Pharisees. We see it as a position we must earn or else…
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God Is Not a Legalist (And Righteousness Isn’t What You Thought It Was) – Part 1
From Rachel: I am kicking off 2019 with three months of rest and seeking God … so I am reposting favorites from the blog. Enjoy! We don’t say it, but most of us understand the Sermon on the Mount as one giant losing proposition. We cannot possibly be as righteous as it calls us to…
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The Gospel According to Jesus
From Rachel: I am kicking off 2019 with three months of rest and seeking God … so I am reposting favorites from the blog. Enjoy! The Beatitudes, so familiar and easy to gloss over, are breathtaking when we see them clearly. Far from just a disjointed list of niceties, these kingdom blessings encompass the gospel…
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The Hidden Gospel in the Heart of the Beatitudes
Several years ago I was supposed to speak at a women’s conference here in Ontario on the Beatitudes and the kingdom of God. The idea was “seeing yourself through a kingdom lens.” I’d suggested that topic in part because it was specific but still broad enough for me to develop my talk over time, as…
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Blessed Are the Spiritually Impoverished, for the Kingdom of Heaven Is Theirs
The first blessing Jesus gives in the Beatitudes makes no sense at all. Poverty is not a “happy” state (makarios, the Greek word for “blessed,” is also translated “happy”). To be poor is devastating, not blessed. It is not a virtue to be poor in spirit: to be poor in spirit means we have no…
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Purpose, Identity, and Why We Don’t Start with the Great Commission
Matthew 4:18-22 tells the story of the day Jesus called his first disciples: While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you…
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“If You Are”: What the Temptation of Jesus Reveals About Our Deadliest Trap
“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil. After He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was hungry. Then the tempter approached Him and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.’” (Matthew 4:1-3, HCSB) For years I…
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