The seventh of the Big Ten commandments, given by our loving Creator to bless us with a special revelation of the path of life that He wove into the fabric of His good world, is a blessed torment. It strikes at the heart of being creatures who by...
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September 1, 2023 Andrew Sargent
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We are eight commandments into the Big Ten. These God gave for the creation of a stable and blessed society. Exodus 20:15, says simply, “You shall not steal.” Amazingly enough, however, many worldview assumptions exist inside those four words. In the book, The Kite Runner, Baba, the narrator’s...
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August 30, 2023 Andrew Sargent
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The last of the great commandments given by God to Israel at Mount Sinai in order that they might reap the benefits of a blessable and blessed society cuts below the surface of the previous four commandments in a powerful way. It strikes at the underground spring from...
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August 30, 2023 Andrew Sargent
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Exodus 20:13 gives a simple command with layers of implications in the context of Scripture. “You shall not murder,” demands that society punish legally provable murderers with death, and, more deeply yet, that believers pull murder, roots and all, from their souls. I’ve been serving the Lord as...
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August 18, 2023 Andrew Sargent
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In The Ten Commandments, we have the rudiments of a legal code. Torah[1] however, is much bigger than a legal code. In it, specific commands are woven into the rich context of Israel’s covenant living before Holy God. Thus, while a judicial body might hold one accountable to...
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August 18, 2023 Andrew Sargent
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In the list of rules for society that God gave as a good gift to His confused, rebellious, and self-destructive image bearers, the first to which He attached a promise is “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the...
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August 17, 2023 Andrew Sargent
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In the Ten Commandments, we find the core of a body of rules for life and society that are God’s gift to a floundering race. In them, He reveals the rudiments of the path of life in His world. Today, I want to meditate on the fourth of...
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August 16, 2023 Andrew Sargent
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God founded His good rules for living on ten basic commands. Any people who dedicate themselves to keeping the heart and soul of these commands will find God’s good-life… a life of stability, wisdom, happiness, and wholeness… not a perfect life, because people still battle selfishness, and God...
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August 15, 2023 Andrew Sargent
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God gave ten commandments to Abraham’s descendants when he created them as the nation of Israel. When followed, these commandments establish a grand vision for God’s good life of stability, wisdom, happiness, and wholeness. His first commandment was that they wake up to the One Holy Creator of...
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August 10, 2023 Andrew Sargent
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Because the Creator is a God of love who, for His own purposes, made a good world for us to populate and to bring into divine order,[1] He is also eager to reveal Himself to us and to help us find the path of life in His world…...
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August 9, 2023 Andrew Sargent
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If you are a new believer, fresh to the church scene, Christians can, I imagine, seem like really nice people who do some weird things. One of the reasons that they do some weird things is because they continue religious practices from the Bible. The old stuff is...
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August 9, 2023 Andrew Sargent
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The big ideas about life need to be woven into the daily, weekly, monthly and yearly routines of living if one wants to keep important Christian virtues fresh… like gratitude, repentance, mercy, and forgiveness. The perpetual rehearsal of core values in the seemingly mundane aspects of life, and...
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August 9, 2023 Andrew Sargent
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When I was working on my first Master’s degree in Biblical Studies, a classmate and I were sitting in my living room, tussling over the meaning of a certain passage of Scripture. We were sharing life experiences, considering nerdy stuff like grammar, examining the context, and basically wrestling...
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August 3, 2023 Andrew Sargent
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In my early teens, I tried to read the letters of Paul in the New Testament. It was an embarrassing experience. I lacked the skills to follow his arguments, had no context for the letter, and didn’t understand the vocabulary. My reading interests at the time topped out...
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August 2, 2023 Andrew Sargent
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Practicing Jews and Christians are called to be “people of the book.” That doesn’t mean they always are, but it does mean that while our religion is meant to be a relationship with our Creator through which we strive to become more and more like Him, we also...
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August 2, 2023 Andrew Sargent
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When my daughter and her other senior teammates ran their last track race together, the four of them held hands and crossed the finish line together, shouting, “The class of 2008 Rules!” It was a beautiful moment. The coach, however, hung his head, both smirking and bemoaning the...
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August 1, 2023 Andrew Sargent
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If you’ve spent your life in church as I have, the special vocabulary of church as well as the common events of Sunday gatherings are like a comfy old blanket from childhood… washed of course. If, however, you are new to the entire idea of church, our terms...
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July 29, 2023 Andrew Sargent
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Now, I know that Christians have a reputation for being the most stylish people in the room, but the title of our little chat today isn’t about wearing fashionable eye-wear, though I’m more than happy to give you some tips. Here’s one; monocles are out right now. What...
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July 28, 2023 Andrew Sargent
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If you recently responded to an invitation to “accept Jesus as your savior,” and someone handed this devotional to you, let me be the first author to welcome you to the Christian family. Jesus said that the angels in heaven rejoice over every sinner who repents and who...
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July 27, 2023 Andrew Sargent
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I came across a fascinating exchange, practically a monologue, between a Yakuza boss and a dying assassin in the recent Woody Harelson film called Kate.[1] Spoiler Alert… big time, by the way: Trained all her life as an assassin by her handler, and, unbeknownst to her, also the...
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June 28, 2023 Andrew Sargent
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