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It would be just like him

The God of the Bible looks like Jesus, the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being. It would be just like him to go to the cross.

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Practicing Our Scales

Imagine if our walk with Christ, representing his kingdom in the world, were as practiced and pure as Hania Rani’s fingers on the piano keys.

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Rescue

I practice the spiritual discipline of rescuing earthworms on paved surfaces. It's a reminder to me that I can pause what I'm doing, get a little dirty, and help. Also, that I've been given the responsibility to care.

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Your Roots Are Showing

The life that I bring to the world can only be found in my attachment to Christ. His presence with me is essential.

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Connection

I live in a U.S. county with traffic problems. It's a peninsula, and what's not swamp land has been developed. Building new roads is difficult and expensive. Making things worse, roads that could connect don't.

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What's in the Bowl?

During a spring trip, my wife and I purchased a glass bowl. It's colorful and handmade. When I turn the bowl upside down, nothing falls out. Does that make it empty?

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Forming Forming

Belong to Become

We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. — 1 John 1:3

We try to be independent, logical, and objective. Realistically, we are social, relational, and interdependent, formed in groups and families. Seth Godin says, "When you pick your tribe, you pick your future." As a pastor, I hope people identify with fellowships that are wholly devoted to Jesus and formed by Jesus in the ways of Jesus. That's choosing a right good future!

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Legacy

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. — Matt. 5:9

The word for children, huios, suggests bearing someone's name authentically. It's participating with a forerunner. It's being of the same character as a parent, literal or figurative. Those who are called God's children will be peacemakers because their claimed Father is a peacemaker. By my attitudes and actions, who will I be called the child of?

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Knowing Knowing

First Order

Love God. Love neighbor. God, with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. My neighbor, as myself. God's kingdom has an economy of love and trust. Love is the gift of self.

Love of God is primary in both the Old Covenant and the New. My gift of self to God looks like humility, surrender, and heart obedience. This sets the map for Jesus' close-second command, loving myself and my neighbor.

Flipping this order can lead to worldly, fleshly, ungodly concepts of love, expressed in legalism and license. Since God is love, genuine love cannot be un-God-like, un-Jesus-like.

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