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Exodus 6:1-12

RB
Randy Blacketer

Deep discouragement, even discouragement with God. That is the background to Moses’ grievance against the Almighty. Moses complains bitterly to the Lord that he has mistreated his people. He has sent Moses on a fool’s errand. In sum, Moses charges: “you have done nothing at all to deliver your people” (5:23).Some pious interpreters of previous…

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Leviticus 25

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Randy Blacketer

The second law of thermodynamics, in oversimplified layman’s terms, is that everything tends toward chaos. All things fall into disorder. It seems to be a spiritual and moral law as well. At least this is the case after sin infects God’s good creation. One of the most visible areas of this sin-generated chaos is our…

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Genesis 16:1-6

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Lora Copley

Comments, Observations, Questions to Consider Hagar is revered by 2 billion people walking the earth right now as a “mother of the faith.” Perhaps no other woman besides Mary herself has as many people who honor her. But what are we to make of Hagar’s story? The apostle Paul in Galatians 5 uses Hagar as…

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Exodus 15:22-27

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Lora Copley

Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider Three days is a long time to go without finding water, especially if you have little ones under four. Nursing mothers are beginning to get desperate. When water is sighted, the kids run to it, laughing, whooping, but just a taste leaves them gagging, spluttering, wiping their tongues on…

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2 Kings 6

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Lora Copley

Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider. What do we do with the people we can’t stand? The co-worker who daily makes you look stupid. The classmate who gets the glory for your hard work. The brother-in-law who always has to get his way. Pick up a pop magazine in any grocery checkout lane and you’ll…

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2 Chronicles 20:1-30

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Lora Copley

Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider Firm places often prove otherwise. Stand on financial security? One Wall Street crisis and retirements are on sinking sand. Stand on your strength of your heroes? Say it ain’t so, Joe, but even childhood idols like Lance or Tiger leave us disappointed. Stand on national defense? See 9-11. Stand…

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Ecclesiastes 3:1-11

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Lora Copley

Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider. Ever been to a Corn Maze? If you look at the maze from the outside, the perimeter, it looks like a harmless old corn field.  Very different when you view it from smack in the middle, the inside, trying to find your way. And of course, the view is…

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Psalm 71:1-6

Epiphany 4C

Doug Bratt Headshot
Doug Bratt

Psalm 71 seems to be an elderly person’s plea for God’s help in dealing with his enemies. While some scholars see this as aging King David’s prayer, the identity of the psalm’s author is not essential to the psalm. In fact, James Mays calls its language “plastic.” By that he seems to suggest that the…

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Jeremiah 1:4-10

Epiphany 4C

Scott-Hoezee
Scott Hoezee

My wife mentions this semi-often. For her, it’s a combination of envy and consternation. The issue is vocation, “calling,” and it crops up in conversation between the two of us whenever someone asks me once again to tell my “call story” to be a minister or in case some other preacher—in the course of a…

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Genesis 4:1-14

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Heidi De Jonge

This is a story about the other side of Eden, a story about life and death, a story about brothers, a story about God. An introduction to this text could highlight current stories of life and death – stories that make it clear that we are for life and against death.  When I preached on…

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