Contemplative Bible Reading

Ezekiel 43:12 (New Living Translation) And this is the basic law of the Temple: absolute holiness! The entire top of the mountain where the Temple is built is holy. Yes, this is the basic law of the Temple. My eyes focus on verses like this one. Verses that proclaim things like this is the basic […]

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2 Chronicles 36:21 (New Living Translation) So the message of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah was fulfilled. The land finally enjoyed its Sabbath rest, lying desolate until the seventy years were fulfilled, just as the prophet had said. The people of Judah were taken captive to Babylon. No one was left to farm. What happened to the […]

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Micah 6:8 (New Living Translation) No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. I ran across it again in the annual […]

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Jeremiah 22:1-3 (New Living Translation) This is what the Lord said to me: “Go over and speak directly to the king of Judah. Say to him,2 ‘Listen to this message from the Lord, you king of Judah, sitting on David’s throne. Let your attendants and your people listen, too. 3 This is what the Lord says: Be fair-minded and just. Do […]

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Ezekiel 9:9 (New Living Translation) Then he said to me, “The sins of the people of Israel and Judah are very, very great. The entire land is full of murder; the city is filled with injustice. They are saying, ‘The Lord doesn’t see it! The Lord has abandoned the land!’ The situation: the sins of the people are […]

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1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (New Living Translation) 19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. A temple: […]

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Colossians 1:21 (New Living Translation) This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Note, when I was not a Christian I was an enemy of God. I wasn’t someone who was ignorant or someone who disagreed about a few things […]

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This post is a little different as it doesn’t contemplate any particular verse of the Bible. Instead, I look at a phrase: The LORD of Heaven’s Armies This phrase is all over the place in the New Living Translation (NLT). I decided to use the NLT this year as it has now supplanted the New […]

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Psalms 51:4 (New Living Translation) Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just This is from David’s famous prayer asking for forgiveness. He sinned by cheating with Bathsheba and having […]

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