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Genesis 28:10-19a
You always feel a little embarrassed when you get caught being unobservant. Like when you neglect to notice the diamond on your friend's left ring finger. Or when you don't say anything about your wife's new haircut. Or when you get pulled over for accidentally driving the wrong way on a one-way street. We feel ashamed when we fail to recognize something important. It makes us look as if we don't care. It makes us look lazy. It makes us look unintelligent. Especially if the thing you are failing to notice is... God.
Leah T.
Genesis 28:10-19a
We are celebrating over the next four years the sesquicentennial of the Civil War. USA Today opened its cover story with this observation: "Two of every three Americans have an ancestor who lived through the Civil War. It helps to explain why so many people -- re-enactors, treasure hunters, genealogists, collectors, hobbyists, preservationists, tourists, battlefield rats -- feel so connected to a war that began 150 years ago."
Jacob was told by God that he and his offspring would inherit the land upon which he presently laid. As Christians, we are connected to that covenant that God made with Jacob. Jacob's story, in essence, has become our story. Our allegiance to Jacob's story is not so dissimilar to the allegiance we hold to our current sesquicentennial celebration. Stories provide for us a sense of identity and direction.
Ron L.
Romans 8:12-25
I recently read an article in the Orlando Sentinel about a 55-year-old man named James Bain. When he was 19, he was wrongfully convicted of raping a young boy and sentenced to life in prison. Thanks to Florida's Innocence Project as well as new DNA forensics testing, Bain is now a free man but only after spending 35 years behind bars. To read the article, see http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-10-23/news/os-innocence-bain-20....
How easy would it have been for Bain to give up, to throw his hands in the air and not even try to assert his innocence? His hope that he would be cleared gave him the patience to endure his incarceration. And just like him, we too have a hope, the hope of heaven. Like Paul said, "If we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience" (v. 25).
Craig K.
Romans 8:12-25
Tony Campolo notes that Christians and environmentalists, those who love the Creator and those who love the creation, should find it easy to relate to one another. But such has not been the case.
Campolo explains: "Christians, particularly evangelicals, have tended to ally with those conservative capitalists who fear that the consequences of environmentalism will make concern for spotted owls more important than jobs for loggers and that clean-air regulations will make American industry noncompetitive.... From the other side, environmentalists also have a fear and suspicion about Christians. They often excuse us of propagating a theology that leads to the destructive exploitation of nature. They have been duped into believing that Christians make the biblical mandate to subdue the earth (Genesis 1:28) into an ideology that justifies all kind of abuses...."
Campolo seeks to reconcile these two groups to work with God for eventual restoration of the creation.
Richard H.
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Tom was the new CEO of a small company in financial trouble. He knew that some of his employees were honest and hardworking, and he knew that some of his employees were greedy, selfish, and dishonest. But since he was a new CEO and the company had already been through some major turnover in administration, Tom knew that he would have to wait to deal with the bad employees. Even though they were not helping the company, Tom needed to wait for the company to settle out before he could weed out the bad.
Leah T.
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
The Grammy Awards have dropped a significant number of categories eligible for recognition -- decreasing from 109 to 78. Yet 78 music awards still seems like an outlandish number. In fact, 78 awards still deflates the significance of each individual category. With so many winning the prize a sense of specialness is lost.
Jesus spoke of evangelism as sowing seeds. Good seeds fell among the bad and it is not until the time of the harvest that the two can be separated. It is much like the Grammy Awards -- with so many awards, who can make the distinction between the truly good and the mediocre? One will know not by the award but by listening to the music.
Ron L.
You always feel a little embarrassed when you get caught being unobservant. Like when you neglect to notice the diamond on your friend's left ring finger. Or when you don't say anything about your wife's new haircut. Or when you get pulled over for accidentally driving the wrong way on a one-way street. We feel ashamed when we fail to recognize something important. It makes us look as if we don't care. It makes us look lazy. It makes us look unintelligent. Especially if the thing you are failing to notice is... God.
Leah T.
Genesis 28:10-19a
We are celebrating over the next four years the sesquicentennial of the Civil War. USA Today opened its cover story with this observation: "Two of every three Americans have an ancestor who lived through the Civil War. It helps to explain why so many people -- re-enactors, treasure hunters, genealogists, collectors, hobbyists, preservationists, tourists, battlefield rats -- feel so connected to a war that began 150 years ago."
Jacob was told by God that he and his offspring would inherit the land upon which he presently laid. As Christians, we are connected to that covenant that God made with Jacob. Jacob's story, in essence, has become our story. Our allegiance to Jacob's story is not so dissimilar to the allegiance we hold to our current sesquicentennial celebration. Stories provide for us a sense of identity and direction.
Ron L.
Romans 8:12-25
I recently read an article in the Orlando Sentinel about a 55-year-old man named James Bain. When he was 19, he was wrongfully convicted of raping a young boy and sentenced to life in prison. Thanks to Florida's Innocence Project as well as new DNA forensics testing, Bain is now a free man but only after spending 35 years behind bars. To read the article, see http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-10-23/news/os-innocence-bain-20....
How easy would it have been for Bain to give up, to throw his hands in the air and not even try to assert his innocence? His hope that he would be cleared gave him the patience to endure his incarceration. And just like him, we too have a hope, the hope of heaven. Like Paul said, "If we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience" (v. 25).
Craig K.
Romans 8:12-25
Tony Campolo notes that Christians and environmentalists, those who love the Creator and those who love the creation, should find it easy to relate to one another. But such has not been the case.
Campolo explains: "Christians, particularly evangelicals, have tended to ally with those conservative capitalists who fear that the consequences of environmentalism will make concern for spotted owls more important than jobs for loggers and that clean-air regulations will make American industry noncompetitive.... From the other side, environmentalists also have a fear and suspicion about Christians. They often excuse us of propagating a theology that leads to the destructive exploitation of nature. They have been duped into believing that Christians make the biblical mandate to subdue the earth (Genesis 1:28) into an ideology that justifies all kind of abuses...."
Campolo seeks to reconcile these two groups to work with God for eventual restoration of the creation.
Richard H.
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Tom was the new CEO of a small company in financial trouble. He knew that some of his employees were honest and hardworking, and he knew that some of his employees were greedy, selfish, and dishonest. But since he was a new CEO and the company had already been through some major turnover in administration, Tom knew that he would have to wait to deal with the bad employees. Even though they were not helping the company, Tom needed to wait for the company to settle out before he could weed out the bad.
Leah T.
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
The Grammy Awards have dropped a significant number of categories eligible for recognition -- decreasing from 109 to 78. Yet 78 music awards still seems like an outlandish number. In fact, 78 awards still deflates the significance of each individual category. With so many winning the prize a sense of specialness is lost.
Jesus spoke of evangelism as sowing seeds. Good seeds fell among the bad and it is not until the time of the harvest that the two can be separated. It is much like the Grammy Awards -- with so many awards, who can make the distinction between the truly good and the mediocre? One will know not by the award but by listening to the music.
Ron L.
