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Showing posts from September, 2014

A Whole Street of Houses, Stirred With A Spoon

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“ And by this time they were come up to the great iron gates in front of the house; and Tom stared through them at the rhododendrons and azaleas, which were all in flower; and then at the house itself, and wondered how many chimneys there were in it, and how long ago it was built, and what was the man’s name that built it, and whether he got much money for his job? These last were very difficult questions to answer. For Harthover had been built at ninety different times, and in nineteen different styles, and looked as if somebody had built a whole street of houses of every imaginable shape, and then stirred them together with a spoon.” —The Water-Babies, by Charles Kingsley. Ch.1 (1863)
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Shut Up Because Of Unbelief

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Luke opens his letter to Theophilus (which we know as “the Gospel of Luke”) with a peculiar account of the herald of Jesus, John the Baptist. John’s role in the life and ministry of Jesus was part of God’s plan, but there may be one other element about his story that we might miss.  Here’s the situation: Zacharias was chosen to perform a once-in-a-lifetime service in the Temple when The Angel of The Lord appeared to him with a peculiar message, a message not intended for the devout who waited for Zacharias to emerge, nor for the nation of Israel, nor for the Romans. The Angel brought a personal message from God to Zacharias--that he would father a child. Understand that both Zacharias and his wife were well beyond childbearing years, so “naturally,” Zacharias doubts the message. A child? Impossible! The Angel tells Zacharias that God already sees the not-yet-conceived child as “great”, but what makes him great? The Angel says that John will be recognized by what he eats and...
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