Categotry Archives: Sunday meditations

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Sunday Meditations: The Big Deal About Sin and Grace

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Categories: Sunday meditations

For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them.” –Gal. 3:10, NASB

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a Sunday meditation, but Galatians 3 has been stirring in my soul all week–and particularly the verse above.

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Sunday Meditation: Convinced in Our Own Minds

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Categories: Meanderings (look it up), Sunday meditations

One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him….One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind….I know and am convinced in the Lord that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. (Rom. 14: 2-3, 5, 14, NASB, emphasis mine)

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Sunday Meditations: Psalms of Ascents

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Categories: Sunday meditations

For this installment of the bi-weekly Sunday Meditations, I have a slightly different approach than normal. For the past few days, several passages from the “psalms of ascents” (Ps. 120-134) have been rolling around in my head and heart. Yesterday, I read them all the way through.

The “psalms of ascents”, as this set of 15 psalms is called, were traditionally sung by Jewish pilgrims as they walked the long ascent several times a year to the City of Jerusalem. They are songs to accompany “ascending the hill of the Lord.” I love these psalms because as I read them through, it’s as though I can feel my own soul being lifted up; taken together, they form an upward progression. (It is surmised that they were once one psalm, set in parts like Psalm 119 which comes immediately before them.)

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Sunday Meditations: The Voice

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Categories: Sunday meditations

The voice of the Lord is powerful,
The voice of the Lord is majestic.
The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
Yes, the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon…
The voice of the Lord hews out flames of fire.
The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;
The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
The voice of the Lord makes the deer to calve
And strips the forests bare;
And in His temple everything says, “Glory!”
–Psalm 29:3-9, NASB

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Sunday Meditations: The Just and the Unjust

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Categories: Sunday meditations

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” –Matt. 5:43-45, NASB

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Sunday Meditation: It Was for Freedom

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Categories: Sunday meditations

“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you.” –Gal. 5:1, NASB

In his letter to the Galatians, Paul was addressing an attempt of religious Jews to enforce the Law of Moses on the young Gentile Christians, including telling them they needed to be circumcised like the Jews. It wasn’t so much the act of circumcision that Paul was coming against–it was all the religious legalism that it represented. Paul was trying to reinforce the gospel of grace to these young believers.

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Sunday Meditations: It’s Alive

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Categories: food for thought, Sunday meditations

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intents of the heart. -Heb. 4:12, NASB

Taken in the context of the passage, this verse really seems to be talking about how the word of God tests and proves our obedience and trust, challenging us with truth–thus, the judging of thoughts and intents, and so on. But I am thinking in particular about the idea at the beginning of the verse–that the word of God is living and active.

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Sunday Meditations: No Escape

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Categories: Sunday meditations

Ps. 139:7-12 (NASB):

Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
If I take the wings of the dawn,
If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,
Even there Your hand will leade me,
And Your right hand will lay hold of me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me,
And the light around me will be night,”
Even the darkness is not dark to You,
And the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are alike to You.

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Sunday Meditation: Accurately Handling the Word of Truth

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Categories: Sunday meditations

I’m thinking at the moment about some words the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy:

“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim: 3:16-17, NASB)

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Sunday Meditations: In All Our Ways

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Categories: food for thought, Sunday meditations

I’ve never been a fan of memorizing Scripture, but I have to admit that with all the passages I was required to memorize in Christian school, a lot of it stuck with me. My first month there, we had to learn Proverbs 3–the whole chapter. I can still remember huge portions of it, but especially this part:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.” (Prov. 3: 5-6, NASB)

Now, 30 years later…learning those verses was the easy part. Learning to live them–that’s the hard part.

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