For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined. Psalm 66:10 The process for refining silver, in a nutshell, goes something like this: The crushed ore is heated on a porous bed of bone ash until it melts. Next the lead and other impurities are absorbed into the bone…
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“For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” Matthew 15:19 Jesus is explaining what He meant when He said, “Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.”  His point was that outward appearance and tradition, i.e. religion,…
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Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom.  And in all your getting, get understanding. Proverbs 4:7 In the above verse, Solomon directs his son to what is important and says, “Now look young man, wisdom is the principal thing. So get wisdom. And with all of your getting get understanding.”   In other words, don’t just know…
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But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to…
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Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us,  it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an…
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Then Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the ark of the covenant stood; and they are there to this day. Joshua 4:9 When Israel miraculously crossed over the Jordan River on dry ground into the promised land, Joshua set…
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“But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.”   Matthew 6:3-4 Jesus here introduces the Christian sleight-of-hand. In other words, don’t even dwell on…
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Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts…
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Consider the work of God; for who can make straight what He has made crooked? Ecclesiastes 7:13 God does not make mistakes. Let me repeat, “Our God does not make any sort of mistakes, no matter how big or trivial they may seem.” All too often, and I am guilty of this myself, we tend…
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But when the officers came and did not find them in the prison, they returned and reported, saying, “Indeed we found the prison shut securely, and the guards standing outside before the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside!” Acts 5:22-23  The morning after the apostles had been thrown into the…
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