Daily Passage on Works: Matthew 7:24-27

The following passage ends the Sermon on the Mount, and “these words of mine” refers to the words of Matthew 5-7.

Day 27:

Matthew 7:24-27: Everyone therefore who hears these words of mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man, who built his house on a rock. The rain came down, the  floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it didn’t fall, for it was founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of mine, and doesn’t do them will be like a foolish man, who built his house on the sand. The rain came down, the floods came, and the wind blew, and beat on that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.

The Purpose of This Exercise

“Works,” as a word, has become almost a cuss word in many Evangelical circles. Affirming constantly that we are to be careful to maintain good works, as Titus is told to do (3:8), is frowned upon. Doing so requires constant reminders that we are not saved by works.

This is not what we find in Scripture. The apostles don’t apologize for exhorting us to good works. They don’t apologize for warning us, and they certainly don’t stop to remind us that we are saved apart from works.

We are at 27 passages so far. I’m shooting for 180, six months worth.

Somehow, it seems to me, that 180 exhortations to good works, without apology and without reminders of our salvation by faith alone, should be sufficient to motivate us to follow those examples.

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To Speak or Not to Speak

Do you ever get in a situation where you are wondering whether to confront a false teaching or just to let it go for the sake of peace? I find myself in that situation a lot. Evangelical theology is terrible. Even what’s good is tradition-based and not Scripture-based. Evangelicals claim the Bible as their “sole rule of faith and practice,” but the reality is that they ignore or explain away dozens of verses, maybe hundreds.

Hmm. Maybe that should be my next experiment, after or along with the daily passage on good works I’m doing.

On the other hand, if you want to find people who are devoted to following Jesus, people who actually obey him, many even in radical ways, among the Evangelicals is the most fruitful place to look. (The rest of you can get as angry as you want. I’d prefer you would get jealous, rather than angry, but either way it’s just true.)

Evangelicals have no place to get haughty. There’s a very convicting book devoted to the failure of the Evangelical Gospel. It’s called The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience. You can get it just about anywhere; I’m certain it’s on Amazon. The statistics given by Ronald Sider in that book are backed up on a regular basis by The Barna Group. George Barna is a famous Christian pollster, and I’m sure he’d like to be just a pollster, reporting the wonderful success of Evangelical teachings, rather than the controversial figure he has become for reporting the frightening truth about divorce, abortion, ignorance, and unbelief among “Christians” in America.

Charles E Hackett, the national director of the Division of Home Missions of the Assemblies of God, once said:

A soul at the altar does not generate much excitement in some circles because we realize approximately ninety-five out of every hundred will not become integrated into the church. In fact, most of them will not return for a second visit. (Kirk Cameron & Ray Comfort; The Way of the Master [Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2004] p. 61)

As Ray Comfort points out is his book, Hell’s Best Kept Secret, it doesn’t do us much good to cite the 5% who are really converted when we are creating 19 backsliders for every convert we produce. Can we really compare those kind of results to Paul’s?

For I am confident that he who has begun a good work in you will continue it until the day of King Jesus (Php. 1:6)

It is true that there were problems even in Paul’s churches, but what church today could tell its whole congregation that it is confident that God will continue the good work he has begun until the day of Christ Jesus? The fact is, George Barna tells us that 60% of all professing Christians admit that they are either backsliding or stagnant in their Christian faith. They are not growing towards being presented blameless and holy in the Lord’s sight on the last day.

I have spent the last 18 years in a congregation where we could be confident that God was continuing the work in every person. We could promise people that if they would stay, the grace of God would work on them and conform them to the image of Jesus Christ.

That congregation still exists and consists of around 150 people because we’ve got around 50 in various states and countries teaching people not only the power of God that comes through the proclamation of the name of the King, Jesus the Lord, but also teaching them the power of the church, its unity, and God’s love for it.

I know there’s something better.

It’s hard to avoid taking every opportunity possible to say something to shut down the machinery of tradition that grinds up 95% of those who make a profession of faith and leaves 60% of the survivors struggling just to keep their head above water.

It’s just as hard to say something that angers the 2% of the professing ones that are left, who think they are growing and in most cases are, and who are reaching out to those that struggle. They think their way worked for them, so it should work as well for all these others. Sometimes it does.

But it’s just not what the apostles gave to the church.

So I just keep walking the line.Why did I say all this? Because tomorrow’s post is a discussion of a statement I found on a zealous young lady’s blog, citing a tradition almost all us Evangelicals take for granted. Thought through, the tradition is horrific—in my opinion, if we understood what we were saying, blasphemous. For many of those struggling, whom I mention above, it breaks their will, steals their fear of God, and cripples them in the battle against the devil, who by means of his demons, seeks to devour both us and them.

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Daily Passage on Works: Hebrews 10:26-31

Today’s passage is from the NASB because it is the translation that is the most careful with Greek verb tenses. In a passage like this, that is important. Greek verb tenses can indicate continuous action or just a snapshot. In Hebrews 10:26, the writer uses a verb tense that means ongoing activity. It is not one willful sin that is terrifying (though may God grant us to tremble at even one), but ongoing sin. The NASB communicates this accurately.

Day 26:

Hebrews 10:26-31: For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Purpose of this Exercise

“Works,” as a word, has become almost a cuss word in many Evangelical circles. Affirming constantly that we are to be careful to maintain good works, as Titus is told to do (3:8), is frowned upon. Doing so requires constant reminders that we are not saved by works.

This is not what we find in Scripture. The apostles don’t apologize for exhorting us to good works. They don’t apologize for warning us, and they certainly don’t stop to remind us that we are saved apart from works.

We are at 26 passages so far. I’m shooting for 180, six months worth.

Somehow, it seems to me, that 180 calls to good works, without apology and without reminders of our salvation by faith alone, should be sufficient to motivate us to follow those examples.

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Not Secretly and Not Deep Down

Long ago a deacon at a church I attended told me he’d like to get together with my wife and I. He couldn’t tell me what it was about, but he assured me it was spiritual.

It sure was. It was Amway, and he tried every tactic he could think of to tempt me to long for the riches of this world.

“Deep down, ” he said, “you know you want a BMW. Admit it!”

This is a bad example because for some reason I was born without the longing for a BMW, or a Ferrari, or whatever hot car that most people long for. I’ve had my own struggles, and most of the typical fleshly lusts, and I have not spent my life as an icon of self-control. Cars, however, would be a pretty stupid thing to tempt me with. As long as I had a reliable car to drive, I’d trade a Camaro (my favorite sports car) for a box of Chips Ahoy cookies, especially if you threw in a half gallon of milk. A Camaro and a box of cookies have equal value to me.

The point, however, is not a specific desire, but our desires.

My fleshly desires are not “deep down,” and they are not secret. My friend said, “Deep down, you know you want it.” Others say, “Secretly, you desire it. Admit it!”

It’s not secret! It’s not deep down! I don’t have to admit it—we don’t have to admit it—because we’ve never been hiding it.

We are overcoming the desires of the flesh, not hiding from them. We are crucifying the passions of our body, not pretending they don’t exist.

I’m a human being. Sometimes I want revenge. Sometimes I want attention (which is not always bad). Sometimes I want fame (which, as a desire, is always bad). Sometimes I want money. Sometimes I just want to relax and taxe some time for me (also not always bad, just usually).

Either way, it’s not a secret. No one makes me more tempted by reminding me that I travel this world in a body that must be disciplined and brought under control so that I do not perish like my deacon friend certainly will if someone has not gotten him to obey the Gospel of King Jesus.

It’s also not “deep down.” It’s right on the surface. It’s a battle I fight every day, gladly, because I am not just human. I am a partaker of the divine nature, and I strongly oppose the evil demons (1 Pet. 5:8-9) and the lusts of my body (Rom. 8:12-13) because I know that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us (Rom. 8:18).

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Daily Passage on Works: Galatians 5:24

Day 25:

Galatians 5:24: Those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its lusts and desires.

Purpose of This Exercise:

“Works,” as a word, has become almost a cuss word in many Evangelical circles. Affirming constantly that we are to be careful to maintain good works, as Titus is told to do (3:8), is frowned upon. Doing so requires constant reminders that we are not saved by works.

This is not what we find in Scripture. The apostles don’t apologize for exhorting us to good works. They don’t apologize for warning us, and they certainly don’t stop to remind us that we are saved apart from works.

We are at 25 passages so far. I’m shooting for 180, six months worth.

Somehow, it seems to me, that 180 calls to good works, without apology and without reminders of our salvation by faith alone, should be sufficient to motivate us to follow those examples. Does that not seem reasonable to you?

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The Prosperity Gospel and Two Covenants

The Prosperity Gospel gets its knocks. Deservedly so.

Too often, though, our answer is merely to throw verses at it, and we miss the main point, a point that is crucial to our understanding of many facets of the Christian life.

It’s not like throwing verses isn’t intellectually effective. Jesus told a parable against storing up treasures on earth (Luke 12:16-21). He told us that the only way to be his disciple is to forsake all our possessions (Luke 14:33). He told us specifically not to store up treasure on earth (Matt. 6:19). Paul tells us that those who want to be rich are laying a trap for themselves (1 Tim. 6:9).

Those aren’t the only such passages. I’m sure some of my readers are chomping at the bit, wanting to add more verses to that list.

There’s something more, though, and it has to do with the verses prosperity teachers would give us in retort.

The Carnal Old Covenant and the Spiritual New Covenant

Verses that Prosperity preachers use include things like:

  • Length of days is in her [Wisdom] right hand, and in her left hand riches and honor. (Prov. 3:16)
  • The crown of the wise is their riches. (Prov. 14:24)
  • You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he that gives you the power to get wealth. (Deut. 8:18)

There are so many more such verses that we need to stop there.

The difference between these “prosperity” verses and the “anti-prosperity” ones that we’ve looked at is that all these prosperity verses are in the old covenant.

It is important for us to know the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant. It affects everything.

The old covenant and the Law of Moses, which are the same thing (Ex. 34:28; Deut. 4:13), were given to a fleshly nation. The new covenant is the old covenant “filled up” or “expanded” for a spiritual people.

That is why Moses could prescribe food laws, but Jesus and Paul could say that food cannot defile (Mk. 7:15; 1 Cor. 6:13). That is why Moses could prescribe a law about oxen, but Paul could say that God doesn’t care about oxen (1 Cor. 9:9-10).

More controversially, that is why a weekly physical rest on the Sabbath, one of the ten commandments, could be called a shadow by Paul (Col. 2:16-17) and replaced by a spiritual rest in Hebrews (ch. 4).

It is also why earthly riches can be a fruit of wisdom under the old covenant, while the new covenant warns that our riches are to be in heaven.

Jesus said that he did not come to abolish the Law but to bring it to fullness (Matt. 5:17—”fulfill” is a mistranslation of the Greek πλεροο). The Law took into account the hardness of the hearts of fleshly Israel (Matt. 19:8). One cannot put new wine into old wineskins, Jesus said (Matt. 9:17).

So Jesus both made the wine new, by expanding or bringing to fullness the Law of Moses, and also by making fresh wineskins out of us. We who are spiritual Israel can handle the bubbling, expanding wine of the new covenant. The unregenerate Jewish nation could not.

  • He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, whose circumcision is of the heart and of the spirit, and whose praise is from God. (Rom. 2:28-29)
  • We are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Jesus Christ, and have no confidence in the flesh. (Php. 3:3)
  • In him you are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of sins by the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, buried with him in baptism, in which you are also risen with him by faith in the working of God who has raised him from the dead. (Col. 2:11-12)
  • Are you so foolish? Having begin in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? (Gal. 3:3)
  • Do not store up treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. Instead, store up treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy, and where thieves do not break in or steal. For where you treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Matt. 6:19-21)
  • Pay attention and beware of greed! A man’s life does not consist of the abundance of things he possesses. (Luke 12:15)
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Daily Passage on Works: 4 Days at Once

Apparently, this isn’t the daily passage on works. A couple days in the hospital, a spell of fatigue, and I’ve been out of the loop a solid week. Sorry. Let’s catch up. We need four passages to do that:

Day 21-24:

Galatians 5:19-21: Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolotary, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Colossians 1:28: We proclaim him, admonishing every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man perfect in Christ.

Ephesians 5:3-10: But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of theses things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them; for you were foremerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Light consistis in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.

Romans 8:12-13: For we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh, for you live according to the flesh you will die. If, however, by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, then you will live.

Purpose of This Exercise

“Works,” as a word, has become almost a cuss word in many Evangelical circles. Affirming constantly that we are to be careful to maintain good works, as Titus is told to do (3:8), is frowned upon. Doing so requires constant reminders that we are not saved by works.

This is not what we find in Scripture. The apostles don’t apologize for exhorting us to good works. They don’t apologize for warning us, and they certainly don’t stop to remind us that we are saved apart from works.

We are at 24 passages so far. I’m shooting for 180, six months worth.

Somehow, it seems to me, that 180 calls to good works, without apology and without reminders of our salvation by faith alone, should serve as sufficient example that we ought to follow it. Does that not seem reasonable to you?

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Francis Chan on the Church

There is nothing dearer to my heart than the church. Evangelicals have forgotten what the church is, and Roman Catholics have warped it into a misled international organization.

The church is the fullness of him who fills all in all (Eph. 1:23) and the pillar and support of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15). More practically, it is the place where God sets the solitary in families (Ps. 68:6). Those who have not experience church life have no idea of the love, beauty, and power in it. The devil does, and he opposes the appearance of the family of God, the church, wherever it might appear.

Let me stop there and let Francis Chan say this much better than I can:

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David the Prophet

Yesterday I discussed Melchizedek and the incredible revelation that is in Psalm 110.

Psalm 110 was written by King David. Today I want to talk about why David was such a great prophet.

David Believed God

We know from the incident with Uzzah, son of Abinadab (2 Sam. 6), that David didn’t really know the Law of Moses as a young man. As a young king, he tried to bring the ark of God to Jerusalem, but he transported it on an ox-cart. When the ark shook, Uzzah grabbed it, and God killed him for touching it.

David went home for three months, and he apparently spent that time reading the Law. When he came back it was with Levites and poles to carry the ark the way it was supposed to be carried.

Ignorance, however, didn’t stop David from believing God. He was a worshiper of God from a young age. Even as a shepherd, he was a warrior, doing his job protecting the sheep with all his heart. He tells us that he killed both lion and bear in defense of his sheep, all in preparation for his battle with Goliath and later for his time as shepherd of God’s sheep.

David Loved God

The attitude David showed when he found out that Goliath was mocking the armies of the living God shows his attitude toward God. He was fiercely defensive of Yahweh. The Psalms show an honor and love for God that had to have begun while he was still tending flocks for his father.

David Loved the Word of God

There is no expression of praise for the commands, precepts, statutes, and laws of God than Psalm 119, unless it be the much shorter Psalm 19, also written by David. He not only loved the Scriptures, and the words that came to him from the prophets, but he was convinced that the teachings that came from God were the route to victory, joy, conquest … in a word, they were everything. He knew they were to be obeyed and not just said.

We Can Be the Same

There’s not a lot of “deep” insight into David in this post. It’s simple. David believed God like a child, loved God, and loved his teachings. He diligently applied those teachings to his life, and he became king, prophet, psalmist, and the eternal house of Jesus was from his bloodline.

We may not be called (well, are not called) to be everything David was, but we are called to be “all we can be.” The route to that is the same as it was for David: believe God, love God, and love the teachings of God.

Hearing God

I have had conversations over the last couple years with two people over the internet, and I have had long-term and recent discussions with local friends that have trouble even understanding what “hearing God” means.

I’m going to dodge that whole issue and talk about what’s normative in Christianity. What is normative is that we would all receive the Spirit, that our old men would dream dreams, and that our young men would prophesy (Acts 2). It is normative that when we come together, the prophets would speak one by one, and that all of us would bring a psalm, a revelation, a language, an interpretation, etc.

I don’t care if you believe languages have passed away or are unimportant. That’s not the point. The point is from Adam to whoever the last Christian mentioned in the Bible is, God has been speaking with his people both individually and corporately. Surely, 1 John is one of the last letters written that we have in our “New Testament,” and it tells us that “the Anointing” will lead us into all things, be true and not a lie, and make us people who “know.”

That can only happen if we have the “Spirit of wisdom and revelation” that Paul prayed we would have.

Mind you, I think it is important–nay, mandatory–to remember that the Anointing leads “y’all,” not just you by yourself, into reliable truth. Individuals confidently relying on Jesus and the Scriptures alone cannot be trusted (Heb. 3:13). It is the church that is the pillar and support of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15). Nonetheless, the church is nothing more than the sum of its members, the body of Christ, and it finds the truth by “speaking the truth to one another in love” (Eph. 4:11-16).

David was a prophet to whom great truths were revealed. The foundation of that friendship with God that produce the revelation of God in his life was his free, abandoned, passionate, fearless love for God and his confident trust that whatever God said was the best way to live.

That is our route to fellowship with God as well.

<p style=”margin-left: 40px; font-face: Garamond; “>You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. From now on, I do not call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing. Instead, I have called you friends because everything that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. … In that day, you will ask me nothing. Truly, truly, I tell you that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you. (Jn. 15:14-15; 16:23)</p>

 

 

 

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Melchizedek

Thank you to the book Eternity in Their Hearts for opening my mind (and spirit) not only to the following ideas, but even to this way of thinking.

Have you ever noticed how odd the story of Melchizedek is?

Let’s start by getting past our English words, and let’s look at the story using the Hebrew names for God in the story.

In Genesis 12:8 and 13:4 we read that Abraham called on the name of Yahweh. (LORD or GOD in all caps is always the “tetragrammaton” in Hebrew: YHWH, usually rendered in English as Yahweh, occasionally as Jehovah.) This is the only name we are given throughout Genesis chapters 12 and 13.

In chapter 14 we read about the war between the kings of Shinar, Ellasar, Elam, and “nations” and the kings of the plain (the five cities that were destroyed by God in chapter 19, including Sodom and Gomorrah). Sodom was plundered, and with them Lot was plundered. Abraham brought 318 men to rescue Lot and his family, and in the process, rescued the plunder of Sodom as well.

Free Bonus

Three hundred eighteen is a great symbolic number in Greek. “Learn the eighteen first, and then the three hundred. The ten and the eight are thus denoted: ten by Ι and eight by Η. You have Ιησ&omicron;υσ [Jesus]. And because the cross was to express grace by the letter Τ, he also says, ‘Three hundred.’ He signifies Jesus by by two letters, and the cross by one.” (Letter of Barnabas 9, AD 80-130)

When he returns, the king of Sodom comes out to greet him. That’s to be expected. His was one of the cities defeated in the war.

The king of Salem also shows up. What? Who is he? Salem is never mentioned before. What is this king doing.

Then we’re told this is the priest of El Elyon, the most high God. He brought bread and wine, and he blessed Abraham, and he called him “Abram of El Elyon.”

He takes tithes from Abraham, and then he’s gone. Three verses. That’s it.

He’s never seen again in any of the histories.

He’s mentioned one more time, in Psalms of all places:

Yahwheh has sworn and will not repent, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”

The writer of Hebrews expounds on all this and how the priest after the order of Melchizedek is Jesus. That’s all important, more important than what I have to say, but I want to expand your mind the way Eternity in Their Hearts expanded mine.

The God of Melchizedek

Melchizedek is the priest of El Elyon, a deity that it appears Abraham has never heard of. Neveretheless, when Abraham addresses the king of Sodom, he says, “I have sworn to Yahweh, El Elyon, that I will not take anything that is yours” (Gen. 14:22).

Remember, Abraham was a Babylonian. He was from Ur of the Chaldees, and the Chaldees are the Babylonians. God called him out of the polytheism of the society around him, but Abaraham did not have all the social and religious mores that we have. Monotheism was unusual in his day.

There was no reason for Abraham to equate Yahweh and El Elyon. Yahweh spoke to Abraham in Ur and in Haran, lands far away from Sodom. The cities of the plain would have had a pantheon of gods, and there was no reason for Abraham to believe anything other than that Salem had a pantheon of gods as well. Why should he embrace this high priest of El Elyon?

Whatever the reason is, he did.

My guess is that Melchizedek was one of those earthly appearances of the Word of God (a Christophany). His presence is enough to convince the hearts of the chosen ones, like Abraham. Somehow, Abraham knew that this was man to follow.

One of the things that makes me think that is not only that Melchizedek appears, unexplained, out of nowhere, from a city to which we are not yet introduced, but also that he brings with him bread and wine. You don’t need me to explain the symbology of that. The story still gives me chills and brings me to a state of awe.

Why Melchizedek?

The other question is, “What in the world would prompt David to bring Melchizedek up centuries later?”

Psalm 110 is full of incredible revelation. In the Septuagint, verse 3 says, “I have begotten you from the womb before the morning.” To the early Christians, this was as clear a reference as there could be to the birth/generation of the Son of God in eternity past before the beginning began. That statement is immediately followed by, “The Lord swore, and will not repent, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”

David writes about the generation of the Λογοσ (Word, Reason, Logic, Thought) of God before the creation of the world. Then he writes about his becoming a priest after the order of Melchizedek.

What incredible revelation!

It’s shocking that David would write anything about a priesthood after the order of Melchizedek. Three verses in Genesis?

David was a prophet who became a prophet by his love for God. It started …

Whoa. I was headed down a rabbit trail. I like the rabbit trail, so I’ll use it for tomorrow’s blog.

For today, I’ll just finish with that clumsy ending. I do not feel at all impressed with the way I wrote this, but I hope that my awe and love for the whole issue of Melchizedek comes across a bit. We all need revelation from God anyway (Eph. 1:17; Col. 1:9). May he grant you insight into this King of Righteousness despite my feeble words.

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