Category: Bible Study

Bible Study / Justice

Instead of a Show

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One more thought on our previous subject.

When Abraham is told of Sodom and Gomorrah’s impending destruction, he asks God if He will kill the righteous along with the wicked.

Then Abraham drew near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked!

Bible Study / Spiritual Journey

You Don’t Always Get What You Want

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Twelve Years Prior

Her name was Rachel, and she was perfect. How could anything that small and helpless and beautiful not be perfect? So what if she wasn’t a boy? If someone offered him ten sons at this moment, he would turn them all down. Because she was perfect.

Her name was Yael, and she was annoyed. Her time was supposed to have been finished five days ago, but she was still bleeding. She had gone past before, but never this long. She wasn’t concerned, but she was certainly getting tired of the extra laundry.

Bible Study

The One Where…

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Last Thursday and Friday was the annual Global Leadership Summit put on by Willowcreek. This is my sixteenth time to attend, and it’s still two of my favorite days of the year. In honor of GLS, let’s talk about … well, let’s just talk and maybe we’ll see at the end what we talked about.

Today we’re going to look at a couple of episodes in the life of a man named Peter. Or Simon. Or Cephas. He had a lot of names (he wasn’t in witness protection as far as we know), but we’ll call him Peter from here on out.

Bible Study

Nicholas Monikers

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Names are interesting things. We are given them for a lifetime, yet have no say in what they are. That could be a good thing (Brian, Ashley) or a very bad thing (Moon Unit, Apple). We all know people who don’t like their names (any boy named Leslie), people whose parents couldn’t spell (Graclyn), and people whose names we wish we had (Rhianna, Powers Booth).

Names can make for interesting stories. My mother’s name is Blanche, which as you might guess is a relatively unusual name. When she was in high school, a guy trying to “chat her up” (sorry, too many British comedies on PBS) asked her her name.

Bible Study

Writing lessons from two Dan’s

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In the early days of the 80’s, Dan Fogelberg released a song titled Same Old Lang Syne. It was a straightforward “story” song, along the lines of Taxi or You’re So Vain. (No, there haven’t been any decent story songs in the last 30 years and yes, I’m an old fogie. Now get off my lawn.)

The song told the story of the singer running into a former flame in the grocery store on Christmas Eve. It is a bittersweet reunion, as they sit in their car and reminisce (they “couldn’t find an open bar”), and think about what was and realize that it is still “was” and will never be “is”.