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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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Don't Love The World

Do not love the world or anything in the world. — 1 John 2:15

God so loved the world that he gave his first and his best. Jesus came not to condemn the world but to save it. Shouldn't we go and do likewise? To untangle an apparent contradiction, we have to distinguish between the world system and the people trapped in it. We reject the system and its patterns, but we can only love people who have so far missed The Way of escape.

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Knowing Knowing

Know That You Know

We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. — 1 John 2:3

I say it a lot: knowing God is eternal life. Eternal life is knowing God. To know that you know is not about certainty; it's about being in a relationship. And coming to know implies a deepening relationship. Set certainty aside and look for evidence. This kind of relationship with God will be expressed in allegiance and transformation.

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Gold Standard

These [trials] have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.  — 1 Peter 1:7

Today, refined gold is valued at $3335 per ounce. God values genuine faith even more. Gold is also more perishable than faith. Then, Paul tells us there's something even greater than faith:

And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor. 13:13) In fact, the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Gal. 5:6b)

Maybe faith is a better standard. Or love.

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