Contemplative Bible Reading

Luke 11:52 (New Living Translation) “What sorrow awaits you experts in religious law! For you remove the key to knowledge from the people. You don’t enter the Kingdom yourselves, and you prevent others from entering.” Jesus is speaking in this verse. He condemns the religious leaders—those who should be teaching the people about God. Those […]

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Galatians 6:12 (New Living Translation) Those who are trying to force you to be circumcised want to look good to others. They don’t want to be persecuted for teaching that the cross of Christ alone can save. This is the theme of Paul’s Galatian letter: The cross of Christ ALONE saves There are no prerequisites, […]

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Galatians 5:24 (New Living Translation) Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. I like the wording of this verse in this translation. I used to hate people who were fill-in-the-blank, but I killed that hatred by nailing it to […]

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John 8:12 (New Living Translation) Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” Here and there in the Bible I find one-sentence summaries of the Gospel. […]

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John 7:24 (New Living Translation) Jesus replied,…”Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly.” Sometimes the words of Jesus are so simple they smash me into a wall. The Bible is full of examples of how people judge on the surface by human and worldly standards. How childish am I? Go past the superficial, […]

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John 7:2-4 (New Living Translation) 2 But soon it was time for the Jewish Festival of Shelters, 3 and Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, where your followers can see your miracles! 4 You can’t become famous if you hide like this! If you can do such wonderful things, show […]

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Luke 16:15 (New Living Translation) Then he said to them, “You like to appear righteous in public, but God knows your hearts. What this world honors is detestable in the sight of God. Put the last sentence of this verse under that tag “#IknowthisfromJesusbutIhateit.” Surely Jesus didn’t know what he was saying. Surely this is […]

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Mark 9:38 (New Living Translation) John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone using your name to cast out demons, but we told him to stop because he wasn’t in our group.” And so it began or so it continued. John, he is the culprit here but it could be me, divides people into them […]

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Mark 9:30-31a (New Living Translation) 30 Leaving that region, they traveled through Galilee. Jesus didn’t want anyone to know he was there, 31 for he wanted to spend more time with his disciples and teach them. Jesus wanted more time so that He could teach his followers. As the pendulum swings in Christianity in this […]

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Mark 7:1-5 (New Living Translation) 1 One day some Pharisees and teachers of religious law arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus. 2 They noticed that some of his disciples failed to follow the Jewish ritual of hand washing before eating. 3 (The Jews, especially the Pharisees, do not eat until they have poured water over […]

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