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                 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. (I Corinthians 12:12-14)   not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:25) One of the things I discovered while going to Hillcrest RV Resort that they had lots going on. There were two clubhouses, and activities all the time. When I came to Erie for the summer, it seemed as if the community disappeared. After a time, I figured out that the key to community is, in large part, having a place to get together. That’s generally lacking in Erie. The closest I could come was our churches, most of which...
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Judge, Lawgiver, King II

                   For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; it is he who will save us. (Isaiah 33:22)                 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:25)                 Yes, this is yesterday’s verse, but as I was not sleeping last night, I was thinking, and a couple of thoughts seemed interesting enough to explore. The first deals with culture and pronouns. The verse repeatedly says that God is our ____. For Americans, the emphasis here is that God is your _____ and my _____ therefore our ___. Individually. What happens between you and God should not have anything to do with what happens between God and me. In the Israeli...
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Judge, Lawgiver, King

                 For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; it is he who will save us. (Isaiah 33:22)                 Two possibilities immediately leap to mind that really have nothing to do with God, and everything to do with politics. The first is that the government should never be God, even though throughout history, that’s precisely what happened. The second is that the functions listed above are ones for which some level of responsibility has also been given to mankind, with God as the supreme judge, lawgiver, and king. This is the idea that the Founding Fathers used when designing the federal government. No king, but a panel of judges, two large bodies of lawgivers, and no king but a president. And they set up checks and balances designed to prevent any of these from usurping the power of the others.    ...
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Unfolding

                 The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple. (Psalm 119:130)                 Once upon a time, if someone decided to go somewhere, they pulled out a map. Generally, they were folded in 12” by 3-4” rectangles, and you would have to unfold it, locate where you are, then where you want to go, and figure out how to get from one to the other. It wasn’t really practical to have the whole map unfolded for the whole trip, so you refolded the map so you could see the part of the trip you were map open. There would be times when you might have to unfold it and refold it a different way, to make another part of your journey visible. If you were alone in the car, that could make life difficult. And no, you never seemed to get the map folded back the way it was when you bought it. Now, of course, we have...
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Under His Wings

                 He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. (Isaiah 91:4) Near San Bernardino, CA, there are cameras trained on an eagle’s nest, and the feed has proven to be quite popular. This year, Jackie and Shadow lost a pair of eggs, and laid a second pair. Jackie spent a lot of time brooding the eggs. Even after the eaglets hatched, she stayed with them, keeping them warmly tucked against her downy breast during snowstorms, dry during rainstorms, nearly getting blown off the next in a windstorm, but always covering the eaglets. Even once they were big enough to not need quite so much protection, Jackie stayed nearby. Sometimes, a squirrel would come up to the nest, and Jackie would spread her wings and slap down, covering the eaglets and frightening the squirrel away.  When crows, owls, or other flying predators came along, Jackie or Sha...
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Call To Me

                 This is what the Lord says, he who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it—the Lord is his name: “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. ” (Jeremiah 33:2-3)                 Do you call to God? I think I call to Him, but there may be a difference between whimpering and whining and calling. It’s not unusual for me to get out of bed in the morning saying, “Help, God. I need help.” Before I reach the hall, I’m already failing. I know this is a habit of mine, so I try to ignore it, but the point is that there’s a difference between that and “Good morning, God. What do you want me to do with today?” And that is different from “Good morning, God. You promised to tell me great and unsearchable things I don’t know. I’m listening.” And then actually listen.      ...
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Twenty-Two

                  But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (I Samuel 16:7)                 Maybe it was because Saul was tall. When Samuel went to anoint the new king of Israel, his first inclination was toward a tall, good-looking member of the family. God chose the youngest member, the “runt” of the litter, who probably didn’t have anything against him (to the external eye) except that he was the little brother, and everyone picked on the youngest as the “nobody, nothing” of the family.                 We all do it. Put aside the rabid accusations of the various -isms. Yo...
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