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And The Violent Take It By Force

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  There is a statement Jesus made that has caused a great deal of confusion over the years. He said, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by forc.” Matthew 11:12.  When we read those words in the King James Version, it can sound as though Jesus is talking about people physically attacking the Kingdom of God and taking it away by force. But that is not the only possible meaning of the Greek text, and when we examine the words, the surrounding verses, and the parallel passage in Luke, we begin to see what Jesus was actually describing. Jesus was speaking about a great change that had taken place with the arrival of John the Baptist.  Just before this statement, Jesus had spoken very highly of John.  He said, “Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist” Matthew 11:11.   Then Jesus immediately began speaking about the Kingdom of Heaven and wh...
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The Pearl of Great Price

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  Have you ever really stopped to think about what a pearl actually is?  We usually see a pearl after all the work is finished.  It is sitting in a piece of jewelry, polished and shining, and we think, "Oh, that's pretty."  We know pearls are valuable, but most of us probably don't stop to think about how that little round object got there in the first place.  A natural pearl has a remarkable story behind it. It is formed inside a living mollusk through a biological process that takes place mostly out of sight.  When you understand what is actually happening, that little pearl becomes a whole lot more interesting. A natural pearl begins when something becomes enclosed within the tissues of a mollusk.  It might be a grain of sand, a parasite, some organic material, a piece of tissue, or some other foreign material.  We have all heard the story that a pearl begins with a grain of sand getting into an oyster, but that is not really how every natur...
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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. ...
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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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