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When Profit Becomes More Important Than People

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There comes a time when we have to stop looking at what is happening around us and simply shake our heads in disbelief. We have to ask a harder question: What are we going to do about it? We are living in a time when artificial intelligence is moving into almost every part of human life. It is being used to write, draw, paint, answer phones, create music, produce advertisements, handle customer service, analyze information, and perform work that humans depend upon for their livelihoods. Technology itself is not the enemy. People have always created tools to make work easier and to accomplish things that would otherwise require enormous amounts of time and effort. The problem begins when the tool becomes more important than the person, and when the desire for greater profit causes humans to be treated as though they are nothing more than an expense that can be eliminated. That takes us into something much deeper than artificial intelligence. It takes us into the way God expec...
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When Government "Takes" God’s Throne

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   Who Do We Worship? There is a question that every generation must answer, and it is not merely a political question. It is a spiritual question. It is not only about elections, laws, presidents, or parties. It reaches so much deeper than that. The question is this:   Who actually sits on the throne of the human heart? Throughout history, mankind has struggled with that question. Every empire, every kingdom, every government, and every civilization has faced the same temptation. Human beings are created to worship. God built that desire into us. The problem is not whether mankind will worship. The problem is what/who mankind will worship. The Creator or the creation? The eternal God or temporary power?  The One who gives life or the systems that merely manage life? The Bible tells us: “You shall have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:3 God did not give this command because He needed human praise. No! God is not lacking anything. He gave this ...
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A Cacophony of Names

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A Cacophony of Names: Moses’ Father-in-Law, Who Was This Man? Have you ever started reading a passage of Scripture and suddenly stopped because you thought, “Wait a minute... who are we talking about now?” Moses’ father-in-law is one of those moments. He appears in Scripture with several names, and if we are not careful, we can feel like we are trying to keep track of characters in a very large family reunion where everyone has more than one name tag. Was he Reuel ? Was he Jethro ? Was he Hobab ? Was someone in the family changing names every time Moses picked up a scroll? Probably not. The confusion comes more from our modern way of thinking about names than from the ancient Hebrew world. So, let’s grab our coffee and sit down with the Scriptures and sort through this “cacophony of names.” The First Name We Meet: Reuel When Moses fled from Egypt after killing the Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew slave, he arrived in the land of Midian. There he helped the daughters of a Midianit...
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What "god" Do YOU Worship?

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  Before we ask what "god" we worship, we must first examine the heart, because Scripture tells us to guard it with all diligence. The heart is where worship begins. Whatever we place there above God will eventually shape the direction of our lives When someone asks, "Do you worship idols?" most people quickly answer, "No." In their minds, an idol is a carved statue made of wood, stone, or gold. They imagine people bowing before images as the nations did in Bible times. Since they have never done that, they assume idolatry has nothing to do with them. But God looks deeper than what our hands are doing. He looks at the heart. When the Lord gave Israel the Ten Commandments, His very first command was, “ Thou shalt have no other "god"s before me” (Exodus 20:3) . Before He spoke about murder, stealing, adultery, or lying, He spoke about worship. Why? Because whatever sits upon the throne of the heart will eventually influence everything else we do...
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The Sin That Cannot Be Forgiven

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What Did Jesus Really Mean? Few passages in the Bible have caused as much fear and confusion as Jesus' words about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, in Mark 5 . Many sincere Christians have wondered if they committed this sin years ago without realizing it.  Some remember saying something foolish before they were saved.  Others think back to a time when they doubted God or questioned the Bible.  Still others have heard preachers speak about the "unpardonable sin" in such frightening ways that they have spent years wondering if there is any hope left for them.  Yet when we carefully read what Jesus actually said, and especially why He said it, we discover that many of these fears come from misunderstanding the passage rather than from understanding it. Whenever we come to a difficult passage in Scripture, we should remember that the Bible interprets itself. First, we look at the definition of the words being used. Second, we examine the context by reading the v...
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