Tag: righteousness
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Well Being Instead of Welfare- Exodus 21:12-36
God provides laws that carry punishment based on damages incurred by victims. If one person kills another intentionally, that person is to be killed. If it is unintentional, there is a way for that person to remain alive but be sentenced to a form of exile. Striking or cursing parents, an adult abusing his parents,…
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Initial Statements About Slaves- Exodus 21:1-11
God instructs Israel concerning slavery and the appropriate times to free slaves. I always found it difficult to recognize that God gave instruction concerning slaves. Like we just saw in Chapter 20, the Law is not the standard for ethics. The Law is meant to bring longevity and prosperity for Israel. Thus, some laws were…
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How to be Righteous Before God
Melchizedek, the prophet/priest/king of Salem (later Jerusalem), represents the order of faith that transcends the Law. Moses makes it clear to the Israelites that the Law does not determine their faith or righteousness before God. Being the people of God was never about keeping a Law. It was always about God’s faithfulness. Abram is blessed…
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Pharisaism: The Religion of the Degenerate
Jesus is in the temple complex speaking directly to the chief priests and elders. This is Jesus’s third parable against them in view of the public. Matthew 22:1-14 22.1 Καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς ὁ Ἰησοῦς πάλιν εἶπεν ἐν παραβολαῖς αὐτοῖς λέγων· 2 Ὡμοιώθη ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν ἀνθρώπῳ βασιλεῖ, ὅστις ἐποίησεν γάμους τῷ υἱῷ αὐτοῦ. 3 καὶ…
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The Treasure of the Church
The kingdom of Heaven is not the kingdom of this world. Many things that seem religious or good from the world’s perspective are actually contrary to Jesus’s teaching about the kingdom of Heaven. If I were to ask you what you treasure, how would you answer? Do you treasure family, friends, your house, food, comfort,…
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Tobit- Righteous in His Own Eyes
Tobit 1 v. 3-9 Tobit’s monologue in 1:3-3:1, reveals much about what 3rd Century B.C. Jews valued. These values would remain into and through the 1st Century A.D, during Jesus’ physical ministry on this earth. During His ministry, Jesus would address many of the things that became popular in the religious teaching of the Jews.…
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Does God Really Hold Us Accountable?
When I was doing ministry in Oklahoma City, I would drive once-a-week to a town called Slaughterville in Lexington County. Next to Slaughterville there was some beautiful land on which I would hunt. This is the same place where I experienced the squirrel-nado; that’s a different story. On this particular occasion, I was hunting coyotes.…
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What is Righteousness?
Before I willingly surrendered my life to Christ at fifteen years of age, I don’t know that I would describe myself as an atheist. Perhaps I was more of a deist. I probably believed that there was a god, but I had no interest at all in really knowing that god or worshipping that god.…
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Purpose and Righteousness in a Sinful World
After Adam and Eve rebelled against God because of their own self-interest, they had two sons. Because of jealousy (also self-interest), one son murdered the other. People multiplied on the earth. God saw that people had become evil. In fact, In Genesis 6:5, we read that God saw that every inclination in the heart of…
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When Good Christ Followers Become Wicked…
Previously, I wrote about the fact that there are false teachers in this world. Teachers who might have started well and with Christ as their motivation, but who began building their own empire in this wasteland instead of working to advance God’s kingdom, and instead of teaching the truth, they entice people by teaching what…