Abe's Kid

There's more to the story - honest.

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Divine Mandate

1 Timothy 1:3-5 “What does God want me to do?” The question haunts every serious Christian.  It haunts us because the answer eludes us. How else could we account for the nagging recurrence of the question?  How else indeed. Could it be the question that deludes us into thinking there’s an answer that eludes us?  While God doesn’t tell most people exactly what he wants them to do, he has…

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Grace Mercy and Peace

Last time (not yesterday, sorry) I shared about one of the two unexpected features in Paul’s greeting to Timothy – the placement of God in the role as Savior. This time I want to look at the insertion of a word into his greeting.  Paul had a standard greeting in all his letters to the churches and to individuals – “grace and peace to you.” This greeting was a fusion of the common Gentile…

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A Greeting from God our Savior

In the first two verses of 1 Timothy, we find the greeting that we’ve come to expect at the beginning of Paul’s letters. But that expected greeting contains two unexpected features.  As usual, he identifies himself as an apostle of Christ Jesus but goes on to say that he was made an apostle by the command of “God our Savior.” While this phrase can be found a few times outside of Paul’s writings,…

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The Letter to the Letter to the Ephesians

The New Testament book that is typically named, Ephesians probably wasn’t originally sent to the Ephesian church or meant for them.  Other of Paul’s letters derive their names from his intended recipients as given in his greeting. For instance, the sister letter to “Ephesians,” that we call Colossians, contains the Greek prepositional phrase, “en Kolossais,” in verse 2. Similarly, the Greek…

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The Man Clothed in Linen

The linen garment is unspoiled and unembellished. Just as its wearer.

The LORD said to the man clothed in linen, “Go in among the wheels beneath the cherubim.” In Ezekiel 10:2 quoted above, the prophet has been watching the ministry of “the man clothed in linen.” He’s introduced in the previous chapter like this: Then I heard him call out in a loud voice, “Bring near those… The Man Clothed in Linen — Pleasant Street Church of Christ

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Free Indeed - Galatians 1:10-17

Like with trustees in a concentration camp we learn to survive by siding with our jailors. In time, our complicity wins us special favors which we come to treasure more than our own souls.

The gospel couldn’t have arisen from humans because we find its freedom reprehensible. Photo by Snapwire on Pexels.com Everyone wants to be free, but nobody likes freedom. We don’t like to be compelled or constrained. Something in humans will resist external control when we perceive it1. We’ll even do things we don’t really want to do just because someone else has prohibited it. Take for…

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The Kingdom of the Gospel - Galatians 1:8-9

Christian dogma begins and ends with the gospel.

Every believer in the gospel has direct guidance from God. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!”Galatians 1:8 Nobody outranks the gospel. Paul claimed no legislative authority as an apostle. Instead, he affirmed his subjection to the message he had already preached to them. He didn’t claim ongoing…

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Fake News - Galatians 1:6-7

Fake News – Galatians 1:6-7

Paul begins the body of Galatians like this: I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ…”Gal. 1:6a (NIV) The Greek word here translated “I am astonished,” denotes more wonder than dismay. The NASB translates it, “I’m amazed.” The difference might seem insignificant, but I believe the latter more accurately conveys Paul’s tone. We…

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Sprung - Galatians 1:3b-5

According to Stanley Milgram, "Submission to authority is a powerful and prepotent condition in man." How could we ever be free if this is true?

Would you buy alien invasion insurance? A recent Gallup poll revealed that a significant percentage of Americans believe that aliens have visited the earth. Even so, I bet alien invasion insurance would be a tough sell especially if the premiums were very high. Two factors mitigate its appeal. Nobody’s ever experienced one. Aliens might be real and if they have visited this planet from a…

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Family Ties - Galatians 1:3a

Family Ties – Galatians 1:3a

In the first two verses of Galatians, Paul renounced the forces which constrain and control humankind – conformity and authority. In their place, he introduced a new order that promotes individual expression and social cohesion – the divine family. As we move into verse three, we’ll see begin to see some of the implications of leaving human society to join God’s family.

Photo by Anna Shvets on

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Free Association

Let’s do a little word association. When I say, “Christian,” what word pops into your head? I’d be willing to pay $20 to anyone who can honestly say that they associated “Christian” with “subversive.” If your first word was “conservative,” “fundamentalist,” “rightwing,” or the like, you can send me $20. In America, Christians institutions work to defend “traditional values.” But that’s not the…

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A Christlike Enigma -DDWJWD Final

A Christlike Enigma -DDWJWD Final

I’ll confess that I’ve struggled to write this series. I almost feel like one of those people who critique Mother Teresa for not doing more community development. Even if God didn’t exactly mean for us to mimic the details of Jesus’ life, surely aspiring to be more like Jesus can’t be a bad thing.

Or can it?

I’ve only seen it yield bitter fruit in my life. At the beginning of this series,I shared…

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Divine DNA - DDWJWD Part 7

Divine DNA – DDWJWD Part 7

I’ve been using Paul’s Epistles to argue against mimicking the life of Jesus as he is depicted in the Gospels. That doesn’t mean the two parts New Testament contradict. The Gospels tell about Christ’s earthly ministry, his death, and resurrection. After Jesus came back to life, everything changed including the way we view him and other people. The letters of Paul written to disciples who’d…

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Crazy Radical Legalism - DDWJWD Part 6

Crazy Radical Legalism – DDWJWD Part 6

The WWJD fad flamed out almost two decades ago, so why talk about it? While people no longer wear the plethora of merchandise, the ideal lives on. In fact, the teaching that Jesus, as he’s presented in the Gospels, ought to serve as the believer’s true north has made a resurgence over the past ten years.

Responding to consumerist megachurch trends, influential teachers like Francis Chan and…

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What Would Jesus Don't - DDWJWD Part 5

What Would Jesus Don’t – DDWJWD Part 5

Of course, there’s about as much danger of everybody “doing what Jesus would do” as there is of everybody Wanging Chung. Jesus was an outlier even in his day. Really doing what Jesus would do would require everyone to quit their jobs, spend forty days in wilderness prayer and fasting, preach itinerantly trusting God for provisions, heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead, lambast the…

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Multiple Personality Design - DDWJWD Part4

Multiple Personality Design – DDWJWD Part4

Even if millions of Jesus clones could somehow produce a functioning society, his example would still fail to address the vast array of choices and experiences even within the life of one individual. Consider this admittedly-hard-to-follow quote from the singular mind of John Oman:

But, when we imagine that we can finally direct our lives by mere imitation of the life of Christ, we fall into a…

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Every Third Person Wang Chung Tonight! DDWJWD Part 3

Every Third Person Wang Chung Tonight! DDWJWD Part 3

In 1986 pop music reach its zenith with the release of “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” by the group, Wang Chung. Check out this excerpt to see what I mean:

Across the nation Around the world Everybody have fun tonight A celebration so spread the word Everybody have fun tonight Everybody have fun tonight Everybody Wang Chung tonight Everybody have fun tonight Everybody Wang Chung tonight Everybody…

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