Tender mercies

Posted on November 13, 2019 by

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This week we are looking for the new covenant in the Old Testament of the Bible.

Most Christians have a tendency to think about the Old Testament as being all about the old covenant, and the New Testament all about the new. That is generally true, but it doesn’t mean there is no new covenant in the Old Testament and no old covenant in the New. The old covenant in the New Testament is represented primarily by the Pharisees who based their righteousness on the law and their supposed following of the law by twisting of the truth around their own arrogance.

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Posted in grace | Tagged , | 3 Comments

How do you say ‘Thank you’ for this?

Posted on November 11, 2019 by

th-10

Today we honor those men and women who have served their country on behalf of us all. They answered the call. They gave the best years of their lives to protect our freedoms. They put themselves in harm’s way. They put themselves between danger and us. They stood in the gap. Whatever you personally feel about the wars that have been fought in our lifetime and whether they were necessary, it doesn’t change one bit the story for those who went. They were all doing what one should do for one’s country.

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Posted in Veteran's Day | Tagged | 2 Comments

The other side of the generation gap

Posted on November 8, 2019 by

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Those were the days my friend

We thought they’d never end

We’d sing and dance forever and a day

We’d live the life we choose

We’d fight and never lose

Those were the days, oh yes those were the days

          – words by Gene Raskin

One of our readers pointed out in a comment about yesterday’s Catch that the new “OK boomer” saying is just a timeless reaction of young people to the nostalgia and condescension of the older generation. It happens with every generation. Grandparents pine for the old days when they were young and they decry the way things are, blaming everything on the current younger generation. While the young people try to grapple with current realities and consider their grandparents too old and out of touch to bother with.

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Posted in Millennials, new frontier, Transformation Generation | Tagged , | 8 Comments

Where boomers and millennials “R” both OK

Posted on November 7, 2019 by

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As if we needed one more reason to be divided. On top of huge chasms in politics, conservative and liberal philosophies, racial divides, and the ever widening gulf between the haves and the have-nots, we now have a generational divide fueled by a movement started on social media and legitimized on the floor of the New Zealand Parliament as “OK boomer.” 

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Posted in Millennials, new frontier | Tagged , | 3 Comments

‘Is your name in this book?’

Posted on November 6, 2019 by

th-8

It’s been on my mind ever since. Ever since Ron Ritchie handed me his old New American Standard version of the New Testament — the one like we all had in 1970 that was all marked up with lines and colored pencils and highlighters — and asked me if my name was in it. It threw me at first because I wasn’t sure what he meant. Did he mean was my name physically in that Bible? Had he written my name in there? Had I? Since he is in that last few weeks of his life, and this particular Bible with the handmade leather cover was a sort of trophy from the Jesus Movement, had he gotten it out for nostalgia’s sake to remember those years? I was surprised he still had it. Or maybe he’s still using it. I’m pretty sure mine is in the attic somewhere.

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Posted in Jesus Movement, word of God | 3 Comments

Whose side are you on?

Posted on November 5, 2019 by

th-2

Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”

“Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?”  Joshua 5:13-14

As followers of Christ and inhabitants of the kingdom of God, we must find a way to rise above politics. And more than that, we must rise above labels (liberals and conservatives), and camps (right and left), not only because we belong to another kingdom, but because this country has become so polarized that if you are going to play the game, you have to take a side, and yet it is impossible for one side to have all the truth. Both sides have truth, and both sides have evil. The devil is on both sides, entangled in the political works, and contrary to what many Christians have thought for the last 20 years, you can’t coax the devil into doing the Lord’s work.

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Posted in Christianity and politics, Worldview | Tagged , | 10 Comments

What Jimmy Carter and I demonstrated yesterday

Posted on November 4, 2019 by

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Much to the chagrin of the pastor, Secret Service agents, relatives and fellow church members who encouraged him not to, former President Jimmy Carter showed up to teach an adult Bible class of over 400 people at the Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, after falling and fracturing his pelvis only two weeks previous. The pastor gave the reason for Carters insistence as: “He is pouring out that you might see Christ while he is suffering.”

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Posted in Old/New Covenants | Tagged , | 1 Comment

The morning after

Posted on November 1, 2019 by

 

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Oak Street on Halloween.

It’s the morning after. Masks are down. Costumes on the floor. Decorations will come down later today and be packed away in the “Halloween” box for another year. The only indications of what went on last night are the candy wrappers in the street that eluded our brooms while we were trying to clean up in the darkness last night.

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Posted in Halloween, Old/New Covenants | Tagged , , | 3 Comments