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Two’s Company
Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there. (Joshua 2:1 NIV, 5-5-12) It’s called learning from mistakes. First time they publicly sent out twelve spies who represented all…
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Faith vs Sight
It takes eleven days to go from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea by the Mount Seir road. [But] In the fortieth year [after they left Egypt], on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses proclaimed to the Israelites all that the Lord had commanded him concerning them. (Deuteronomy 1:2, 3 NIV, 2-16-12) File this one…
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Believe
Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (John 6:28, 29 NIV, 12-30-11) The first, most important, and most difficult step. Believe. Nothing of value happens without it. It is believing enough to…
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His Rules
Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself. (John 6:15 NIV, 12-19-11) God doesn’t play by my rules. Matter of fact, when I try to make him, He leaves. [Father, forgive me for trying to get you to do things my way. Show…
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Sit Down
Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” (John 6:10 NIV, 12-14-11) In the miracle of feeding 5000, this is where the faith occurred. Have them sit down BEFORE the food arrives or is even possible. Have the people sit down before Jesus has actually done anything. Have the people sit down. Only then will Jesus…
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Realism
Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!” (John 6:7 NIV, 12-13-11) It’s called realism. It’s honestly assessing the situation. As Jesus himself put it in another context, counting the cost to see if your army is big enough to…
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Stretching
He said this to stretch Philip’s faith. He already knew what he was going to do. (John 6:6 MSG, 12-12-11) That is a fun verse unless you are the one playing he role of Philip. Then it kind of sucks. I could try to see past the testing to the goal God has of growing…
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Mad Jesus
Mark 3:1-6 Jesus looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. (Mark 3:5 NIV, 10-29-11) Does God value mercy? Look how mad Jesus gets when the religious folk are so consumed with…
For years, I’ve produced brief devotional videos called Jumpstarts that I published in various outlets. (You can find them here, as well as the odd podcast.) The root of those videos was daily Bible journals I’ve been doing for decades.
I recently decided to take a hiatus from the videos, and instead publish excerpts from those journals here.
As you’ll soon see, they tend to be brief, normally consisting of just one main idea. They may also be a little rough. I’m not going to do much editing. You’ll get them just the way they came out of my brain, years, days, or months ago.
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