By Mark D. Roberts
09/01/10
Dear Friends, During the month of August, I’ll be on vacation with my family, and then I'll take a few days for study and writing leave. In order to allow this time to be a true break from my normal work and also to provide you continued access to these Daily Reflections, I have decided once again [...]
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By Mark D. Roberts
08/31/10
Note: the author is posting “greatest hits” while on vacation. As the Lord prepared to reveal the full covenant to the Israelites, he warned them to stay away from Mt. Sinai. If any were to touch the mountain, they would die. When I first read this, I cringed. Why would God want to keep his [...]
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By Mark D. Roberts
08/30/10
It’s easy for people today, even Christians who know their Bible, to have a mistaken view of the Tabernacle (and the Temple that replaced it). We think of religious buildings (churches, even Jewish temples) as places where people gather regularly for prayer and worship. Though the Jewish people did journey to the Temple in Jerusalem for special occasions, neither it nor the Tabernacle were primarily gathering places for the community. We might also think of the Tabernacle as the place in which sacrifices were offered to the Lord. This was surely true, and a key element of the Tabernacle’s purpose. But, still, it was not first and foremost a place for priestly sacrifices.
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By Mark D. Roberts
08/29/10
Note: the author is posting “greatest hits” while on vacation. When we come across a verse like Mark 11:24, we can easily miss the point. Some Christians don’t pay attention to Jesus’ hyperbolic teaching style or broader biblical teaching on God’s nature, and we turn Mark 11:24 into a rule for how to get [...]
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By W.Miller
08/29/10
We are living in a time in which there is a crisis of identity. It is an identity crisis caused by a distorted understanding of freedom. When playing a video game, you can decide if you want to live the life of a rock star, a mountain biker, a superstar quarterback, or the leader of a country. You can dress like them, act like them, think like them, and even live their virtual lives if you have the right games on the technological device of your choice.
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By Mark D. Roberts
08/28/10
Note: the author is posting “greatest hits” while on vacation. There are many reasons to praise the Lord. Scripture repeatedly calls us to do it, so we praise God out of obedience (for example, Psalm 96). Praising the Lord often impacts our own souls. We might begin to praise God with heavy hearts, for [...]
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By Mark D. Roberts
08/27/10
Dear Friends, During the month of August, I’ll be on vacation with my family, and then I'll take a few days for study and writing leave. In order to allow this time to be a true break from my normal work and also to provide you continued access to these Daily Reflections, I have decided once again [...]
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By Brehm Center
08/27/10
The following is a guest post from Fuller professor J.R. Daniel Kirk. I heartily encourage you to frequent his blog, Storied Theology. It is one of my very favorites. He writes on everything from Revelation and Paul to modern folk music and movies, often integrating the lot. The following post concerns the short-lived series Firefly and [...]
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By Mark D. Roberts
08/26/10
Dear Friends, During the month of August, I’ll be on vacation with my family, and then I'll take a few days for study and writing leave. In order to allow this time to be a true break from my normal work and also to provide you continued access to these Daily Reflections, I have decided once again [...]
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By Mark D. Roberts
08/25/10
Dear Friends, During the month of August, I’ll be on vacation with my family, and then I'll take a few days for study and writing leave. In order to allow this time to be a true break from my normal work and also to provide you continued access to these Daily Reflections, I have decided once again [...]
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By Mark D. Roberts
08/24/10
Note: the author is posting “greatest hits” while on vacation. Today is Mardi Gras. Many of us associate Mardi Gras with lavish and lascivious celebrations in places such as New Orleans and Rio de Janeiro. Not the sort of thing you’d expect to show up in daily reflections on the Bible! But, in fact, Scripture [...]
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By Mark D. Roberts
08/23/10
Note: the author is posting “greatest hits” while on vacation. Mark 15:43 introduces a man named Joseph, who was from Arimathea, a small town northwest of Jerusalem. He is identified as “an honored member of the high council” (15:43). We know this council by another name, the Sanhedrin. This body, composed of the most [...]
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By Mark D. Roberts
08/22/10
Note: the author is posting “greatest hits” while on vacation. After the death of King Solomon in 931 B.C., Israel was divided into two kingdoms, the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. While both kingdoms failed in their faithfulness to the Lord, Israel chased after other gods even more than [...]
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By Mark D. Roberts
08/21/10
Dear Friends, During the month of August, I’ll be on vacation with my family, and then I'll take a few days for study and writing leave. In order to allow this time to be a true break from my normal work and also to provide you continued access to these Daily Reflections, I have decided once again [...]
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By Brehm Center
08/21/10
I recently came across a magazine article about the advent of the very first playground in New York City. This playground was completed in 1903 in New York’s Lower East Side. The response to this novel park was astounding. Twenty-thousand children swamped the playground and its surrounding area. In what was likely supposed to be [...]
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By Mark D. Roberts
08/20/10
Dear Friends, During the month of August, I’ll be on vacation with my family, and then I'll take a few days for study and writing leave. In order to allow this time to be a true break from my normal work and also to provide you continued access to these Daily Reflections, I have decided once again [...]
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By Brehm Center
08/20/10
What is the appeal of criminals? Why do we enjoy watching movies about their lives? Why do we end up rooting for them in those movies? The Godfather saga, The Professional, The Italian Job, Ocean’s 11, 12, and 13, Bonnie and Clyde, Inception, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Pulp Fiction, Goodfellas, Fight Club, The Usual [...]
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By T. Dalrymple
08/20/10
Have Christians, as Anne Rice alleges, lost credibility on what it means to love?
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By Mark D. Roberts
08/19/10
Note: The author is posting “greatest hits” while on vacation. Paul wrote the letter we call 1 Corinthians, in part, to deal with the problem of division among the Christians in Corinth. For a variety of reasons, these believers were not getting along, and were dividing up into little cliques rather than living as [...]
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By Mark D. Roberts
08/18/10
Note: the author is posting “greatest hits” while on vacation. Almost all Christians remember the events of the Last Supper and reenact those events on a regular basis. Some of us call this “Communion.” Others call it the “Eucharist” or the “Lord’s Supper” or the “Mass.” But no matter the differences in name or theological [...]
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By Mark D. Roberts
08/17/10
Note: the author is posting “greatest hits” while on vacation. In the days before his passion, Jesus took a break from teaching in the Temple of Jerusalem in order to spend some time with his followers and friends in Bethany, which was a little more than a mile from Jerusalem. As he was eating, [...]
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By Mark D. Roberts
08/16/10
Note: the author is posting “greatest hits” while on vacation. If we are to offer ourselves to God as living sacrifices (Rom. 12:1), we have a crucial role to play. We must choose to say “No” to the ways of the fallen world. But that’s not the whole story. You will be able to discern [...]
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By Brehm Center
08/16/10
I used to consider myself one of those creative types: I had the ‘creative’ look, I’ve been a community teaching artist, choreographed a piece for 40 plus people, and sometimes, others would turn to me for creative ideas. However, I seem to have fallen into a creative drought: where nothing in [...]
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By Mark D. Roberts
08/15/10
Note: the author is posting “greatest hits” while on vacation.When Jesus was asked by one of the Jewish theologians which was the greatest commandment of all, he began by quoting a crucial passage from the Jewish law: “Listen, O Israel! The LORD our God is the one and only LORD. And you must love [...]
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By Brehm Center
08/15/10
Scott Pilgrim Vs The World feels like the film adaptation of the graphic novel adaptation of a video game adaptation of a movie. Somewhere along the line everyone forgot where or how the storyoriginated, and Scott Pilgrim’s (Michael Cera in his usual goofy, sweet guy role) tale is destined to be re-adapted for all eternity, but [...]
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By G. Dalrymple
08/15/10
When we confuse the kingdom of God for any kingdom in this world, we do God's kingdom serious harm.
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By Mark D. Roberts
08/14/10
Dear Friends, During the month of August, I’ll be on vacation with my family, and then I'll take a few days for study and writing leave. In order to allow this time to be a true break from my normal work and also to provide you continued access to these Daily Reflections, I have decided once again [...]
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By Brehm Center
08/14/10
My first semester in college, I took calculus with Dr. Stone. In Dr. Stone’s class, I sat next to Harrison. I met Harrison in Dr. Stone’s class, and out friendship did not extend beyond the classroom except for a polite nod to one another as we passed in the gym or elsewhere on campus. Dr. [...]
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By Mark D. Roberts
08/13/10
Dear Friends, During the month of August, I’ll be on vacation with my family, and then I'll take a few days for study and writing leave. In order to allow this time to be a true break from my normal work and also to provide you continued access to these Daily Reflections, I have decided once again [...]
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By Brehm Center
08/13/10
After the credits rolled, as I sat in the emptying theater contemplating Eat, Pray, Love, the older woman next to me turned and struck up a conversation with me. She asked what I thought of the movie – a good first line at such moment – and let the conversation go where it may. She told me [...]
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