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Watch out that you do not fall

Commentary
Proper 16 | Ordinary Time 21 - B
1 Kings 8:(1, 6, 10-11) 22-30, 41-43
Ephesians 6:10-20
John 6:56-69
Now the transition from desert people to settled nation is complete. The ark, symbol of the presence of God with them during all their years of wandering from Egypt to Canaan, finally comes to rest in the inner court of the Temple. The cloud is a powerful symbol to them that the same God who led them in former days will now be with them at this time and in this place.

We would be hard-pressed to find a more appropriate prayer of dedication for a house of God. Little wonder that Solomon's word has echoed through thousands of houses of God on days of dedication for millennia.
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John Jamison
Object: Two small containers or boxes and several pieces of paper. I used two shoe boxes with lids and about fifty pieces of used printer paper. Label one box “Judge” and the other box “Not Judge.”

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For February 23, 2025:

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Christal Berns wrote, in a May 23, 2023, article for Christian Learning, about Jacksonville, FL police officer Ike Brown. On May 27, 2002, Brown received heartbreaking news from his colleagues. His sergeant, lieutenant, chief, and chaplain came to his home and told him his son had lost his life in a shooting incident.
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We all believe in justice; we all cry out to have our rights protected. Yet the power of revenge eventually takes us beyond where any of us truly want to go, for two reasons.

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Some years back, there was a best-selling book that got a lot of attention in the church, one written by a rabbi, Harold Kushner. The book was called When Bad Things Happen to Good People (HarperCollins, 1982). It is an honest attempt to grapple with the problem of evil. Why is it, Rabbi Kushner wants to know, that good and faithful people sometimes have to suffer?

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Sibling rivalry. It's the pits. It has been around as long as there have been siblings around. Beginning with Cain and Abel, we see one brother disgruntled because God likes the other brother's sacrificial offering better. We remember, too, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, Rachel and Leah, the prodigal son and his older brother. Life is not fair.
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When a person enters into any society or any fellowship, he takes upon himself the obligations to live a certain way, by certain standards. If the person fails to live the kind of life necessary, he hinders the purpose of the society.

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