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Acquitting the Guilty

                 Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent— the Lord detests them both . (Proverbs 17:15) There’s a lot of acquitting and condemning going on, and those who are doing it are sure that they are acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty. But of what are they innocent or guilty? How can we determine it? For some (and I am not among them) the guilty and innocent include anyone within certain collectives: one skin color is guilty, another is innocent. One income bracket is guilty, another is innocent, etc. And above all else, those who agree with someone are innocent, while those who disagree are not only guilty, but guilty of all of the worst possible crimes. Those who disagree are “literally Hitler” even if they don’t agree with anything Hitler believed or did. Some people believe that what makes a person guilty or innocent is entirely up to the subjective perspective of the observer. If that is the case,...
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Contamination

                 Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. (II Corinthians 7:1) While this doesn’t look like a collective verse, it still has the “we.” This allows the verse to be both about us as individuals and us as a community. There are two questions that need to be addressed. The first and obvious question is what contaminates our bodies and spirits, either as individuals or communities? The obvious answer is “sin,” but  sometimes what contaminates doesn’t seem bad. Pray about it and see what God tell you. The second question is what are we willing to give up, or take on, out of reverence for God. Do we revere God? If we do, what does that mean in our lives? What should it mean? This is one of those “exam table” questions that I automatically answer negatively. I don’t think I revere God, or...
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Disputable Matters

                 Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand. (Romans 14:1-4)                 When Paul wrote this, it was common for the meat that people served to have been sacrificed to some god, including God. Some people thought that it was evil to eat meat sacrificed to any god except God. It’s not quite the same thing, perhaps, but would you eat a meal that was prepared in honor of Adolph Hitl...
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Definitions

       The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. (Psalm 14:1)                 God: the supreme or ultimate reality: such as a: the being perfect in power, wisdom, and goodness who is worshipped (as in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism) as creator and ruler of the universe ( GOD Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster ) Priest: someone who is authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion especially as a mediatory agent between humans and God (ST Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster ) Religion: commitment or devotion to a god or gods, a system of beliefs, or religious observance : the service and worship of a god, of multiple gods, or of the supernatural ( RELIGION Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster   Note: this is the second definition as the first is, in my opinion, circula...
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God's Handiwork

               For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10) Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken . (Ecclesiastes 4:12)                 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 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 10:24-25) (Yes, again.)                 We’re back to the individual/collective bit, and once again, we is both. You and I are God’s handiwork, but like blue and yellow, like two bricks. We each do a job. Together, we are God’s handiwork as well. We make green and part of the temple...
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What God Has Joined

                    The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. (Genesis 2:23-24)                       Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”   “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” “Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?” Jesus repli...
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The First Human Community

                   Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”  (Genesis 1:26-28) This isn’t the beginning of community. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and all the angels were a community before Adam was created. It is, however, the beginning of human community, and it consisted of God and two humans: one male, one female. Both the male and the female human were created in the image of God, which gives each t...
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