Author: Greg
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Revealed in Us
. . . God, who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles . . . Galatians 1:15-16 In referring to his own conversion experience, Paul states that God revealed Christ…
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True Separateness
Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord. “And do not touch what is unclean; and I will welcome you.” 2 Corinthians 6:17 Paul is not quoting a single passage here, but offering a summary of a message of separateness from the Hebrew Scriptures. A similar statement that we often hear…
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Spiritual Realities
If we do not know how to discern the movement of the Spirit of God, we have to rely on the visible instead. The natural and material world, which is good in its own created existence, is but a shadow of the far more substantial, though invisible, spiritual realities. We tend to think that what…
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Promise and Faith
Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. Genesis 15:6 This passage is from the story of God reaffirming the promise He initially made to Abram in Genesis 12:1-3. Despite Abram’s misgivings, which he had enumerated in the previous verses, we are told he trusted God. His trust in God…
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Cross of Mercy
But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Matthew 9:13 Jesus twice quotes Hosea 6:6 here and in Matthew 12:7. The message of Hosea is that God does not desire sacrifices, even though many believed that sacrifices were God’s…
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Cross of Love
But we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness. 1 Corinthians 1:23 Paul’s statement about the difficulties people have in accepting the message of a crucified Lord is a lament, not a call to action. If the cross is problematic to understand, may it be so for the right reasons…