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Why Bother to Pray?
I realize God tells us to pray, but really, is that the only reason, “Because He said so?” This last week a friend (Ira) and I drove from Albuquerque to Phoenix to visit and pray with Stephen and his wife Kimberly. They are a young couple from church, and Stephen has stage four colon cancer.…
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MLB’s PRIDE Hats: A Christian Perspective
Thank you Major League Baseball. You gave me a new insight into Deuteronomy this morning. I’m referring, of course, to the current MLB controversy when players were required to wear PRIDE hats and some wrote Bible verses on them. The passage was Deuteronomy 10:12–11:25. Here’s the Verse for the Week: “What does the Lord your…
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Refuge
Deuteronomy 4:41 (NLT) 41 Then Moses set apart three cities of refuge east of the Jordan River. From 1998 to 2005 I pastored Elim Chapel in Winnipeg Canada. Elim means “an oasis,” or “a place of refuge.” A refuge is “a safe haven, sanctuary… a place of safety or protection.” When the Israelites entered the Promised…
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Bizarre Love
I’m working my way through Deuteronomy, the farewell address by Moses. I stumbled onto an old truth about God that I’ve known, but somehow it hit me fresh, and even a little bizarre. In chapter four he warns the people that if they break faith with God, they will “arouse His anger” v.25. They’ll disappear…
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Moses and the Promise: Lessons from a Bizarre Bible Story
The Bible is full of bizarre stories; this may be a new one for you. When the Israelites left Egypt, Moses was 80. By the time they were about to enter the Promised Land, he was 120. He had led these people through arguing with Pharaoh, the red sea, grumbling Israelites, the ten commandments, and…
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Sticking the Landing: Embracing Life’s Lasts
OK, here’s a depressing verse, at first glance anyway: James 4:14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. As this is my final week of work, I’ve been thinking about “lasts.” My first car was…
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Finding Grace: A Reflection on James 4:6
Our verse this week is James 4:6, but knowing the context helps. In the first five verses James nails the awful consequences of our selfishness: fighting, the hollow prayers, the misplaced loves. He goes so far as to call us enemies of God because our desires have become our first love. It’s a convicting setup,…
Dan Cooley - An ir-reverend Christian viewpoint 