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They rout the inhabitants, and capture and kill Adoni-Bezek ("the Lord of Bezek"), who recognizes the rightness of this judgment on him ("God has paid me back for what I did to them," v 7). It is notable that, while many 21st-century readers have many qualms about Israel's conduct in Canaan, this defeated Canaanite did not. God's judgment throughout history is to give people over to the consequences of the life they have chosen (eg: Psalm 6..
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Timothy J. Keller |
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He is both the rest and the storm, both the victim and the wielder of the flaming sword, and you must accept him or reject him on the basis of both. Either you'll have to kill him or you'll have to crown him. The one thing you can't do is just say, "What an interesting guy."
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Your religion is what you do with your solitude." In"
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Timothy J. Keller |
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This is why in the Lord's Prayer we don't get to the petition for our daily bread and needs until we have spent time remembering the greatness of God and reigniting our love for him. Only then can we pray rightly for happiness and for our needs.
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Paul is saying that sin can only be cut off at the root if we expose ourselves constantly to the unimaginable love of Christ for us. That exposure stimulates a wave of gratitude and a feeling of indebtedness.
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Look what God's done for me! Is this how I respond to him?
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Adoption usually occurred when a wealthy adult had no heir for his estate. He would then adopt someone as heir--it could be a child, a youth, or an adult. The moment adoption occurred, several things were immediately true of the new son. First, his old debts and legal obligations were paid; second, he got a new name and was instantly heir of all the father had; third, his new father became instantly liable for all his actions (his debts,
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Then, suddenly, the defense comes in with a new witness who can be proved to have been at the scene of the crime! The witness says: I was there, and she (the defendant) was not. She is innocent! This person "testifies with" the defendant. He says the same thing and puts the verdict beyond doubt."
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Timothy J. Keller |
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The "Spirit of sonship" that Paul speaks of is, therefore, an ability that the Holy Spirit gives us to approach God as a Father instead of as a boss or slavemaster. In"
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Timothy J. Keller |
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The word "frustration" here--mataiotes--is the same word as the one translated as "vanity" in the book of Ecclesiastes in the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament. It means nature is alienated, both from us (who were meant to live in harmony with nature, as its directors, or rulers--see Genesis 1:29), and from itself."
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Timothy J. Keller |
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This is the future--fulfilling, renewing, joy-giving--that creation can look forward to because it is the future that God's children are looking forward to.
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Timothy J. Keller |
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It is easy to overlook the fact that the promise that "in all things God works for the good" is made only to "those who love him, who have been called"
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Timothy J. Keller |
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The same sun that melts wax hardens clay." In other words, what makes a life "good" is not a particular set of circumstances, but how the heart interacts with them."
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Timothy J. Keller |
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This shows us that "the good" God always is working for us is character change. He is making us as loving, noble, true, wise, strong, good, joyful and kind as Jesus is."
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Is there anyone or anything that can separate me from Christ's love for me? And
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Timothy J. Keller |
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The remedy is to read, re-read, deeply ponder and learn to live out of the truths of verses 18-30!
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Building our lives on something besides God not only hurts us if we don't get the desires of our hearts, but also if we do.
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Timothy J. Keller |
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human society is deeply fragmented when anything but God is our highest love. If our highest goal in life is the good of our family, then, says Edwards, we will tend to care less for other families. If our highest goal is the good of our nation, tribe, or race, then we will tend to be racist or nationalistic. If our ultimate goal in life is our own individual happiness, then we will put our own economic and power interests ahead of those of..
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Hay que aprender, pues, primero a servir a los demas, ayudados por el Espiritu, para poder hacer frente asi con exito a los retos y dificultades del matrimonio.
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Moralistic behavior change simply manipulates and leverages radical selfishness without challenging it. It tries to use that selfishness against itself by appealing to fear and pride. But while this may have some success in restraining the heart's self-centeredness, it does absolutely nothing to change it. Indeed, it only confirms its power. Moralistic behavior change bends a person into a different pattern through fear of consequences rath..
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Timothy J. Keller |
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When we use God's grace as a motivator, we can criticize sharply and directly, but the other person will generally be able to perceive that we are nonetheless for them.
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Timothy J. Keller |
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We humans may say, "Let there be light in this room," but then we have to flick a switch or light a candle. Our words need deeds to back them up and can fail to achieve their purposes. God's words, however, cannot fail their purposes because, for God, speaking and acting are the same thing. The God of the Bible is a God who "by his very nature, acts through speaking."105"
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Timothy J. Keller |
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It is worth asking ourselves: Where am I saying "I can't" but God is saying "You won't"? Israel's failure to obey was based on what they saw as good reasons--God said they were flimsy excuses. Why? Because "God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear" (1 Corinthians 10:13). God will never put us in a position where we cannot obey him."
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Timothy J. Keller |
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We must go back again and again to the gospel of Christ crucified, so that our hearts are more deeply gripped by the reality of what He did and who we are in Him.
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Tremendous freedom comes when we can laugh at ourselves and whisper to him, "So! It's been you all along!" In some ways that day will be the true beginning of your career as a preacher and teacher of God's Word."
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Timothy J. Keller |
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El espera que no disfracemos esas emociones con distracciones que prometen alivio, pero que nunca cumplen.
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Timothy J. Keller |
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The gospel does not say, "the good are in and the bad are out," nor "the open-minded are in and the judgmental are out." The gospel says the humble are in and the proud are out. The gospel says the people who know they're not better, not more open-minded, not more moral than anyone else, are in, and the people who think they're on the right side of the divide are most in danger."
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Contrary to popular opinion, then, Christianity is not a Western religion that destroys local cultures. Rather, Christianity has taken more culturally diverse forms than other faiths.25 It has deep layers of insight from the Hebrew, Greek, and European cultures, and over the next hundred years will be further shaped by Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Christianity may become the most truly "catholic vision of the world,"26 having opened its..
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Freedom, then, is not the absence of limitations and constraints but it is finding the right ones, those that fit our nature and liberate us.
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Timothy J. Keller |
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To become wise is to become a disciplined person, given not to impulsiveness but to self-examination, to circumspection, and to clear thinking.
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Timothy J. Keller |
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God is the only person from whom you can hide nothing. Before him you will unavoidably come to see yourself in a new, unique light. Prayer, therefore, leads to a self-knowledge that is impossible to achieve any other way.
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Sin can only grow in the soil of self-pity and a feeling of "owed-ness." I'm not getting a fair shake! I'm not getting my needs met! I've had a hard life! God owes me; people owe me; I owe me! That's the heart attitude of "owed-ness" or entitlement. But,"
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Timothy J. Keller |
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is remarkable that in all of his writings Paul's prayers for his friends contain no appeals for changes in their circumstances. It is certain that they lived in the midst of many dangers and hardships. They faced persecution, death from disease, oppression by powerful forces, and separation from loved ones. Their existence was far less secure than ours is today. Yet in these prayers you see not one petition for a better emperor, for protect..
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Timothy J. Keller |
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When Lovelace speaks of warming oneself "at the fire of God's love," he is describing what it means to meditate on the righteousness we have in Christ through his sacrificial death. If we don't meditate on that until our hearts are hot with assurance, we will "steal love and self-acceptance" from worldly achievements, beauty, and status."
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Timothy J. Keller |
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It is an item of faith that we are children of God; there is plenty of experience in us against it. The faith that surmounts this evidence and that is able to warm itself at the fire of God's love, instead of having to steal love and self-acceptance from other sources, is actually the root of holiness. . . . We are not saved by the love we exercise, but by the love we trust.275 When Lovelace speaks of warming oneself "at the fire of God's l..
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Timothy J. Keller |
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ANNOYANCE. Conflict (Hebrew madon) in Proverbs does not refer to principled disagreements or respectful arguments. It is something God hates (6: 19) and at the heart of conflict is annoyance, a word that means contempt and disdain between people. Everything said in conflict is to belittle rather than convince.
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Not Christians. We don't expect things in life to "work for good" of their own accord. When we find things working out beneficially for us, it is all of God, all of grace, all of him. When things work out, Christians never say: Of course--that's as it should be! Rather, they praise God for it."
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Timothy J. Keller |
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But second, this truth removes general fear and anxiety when life "goes wrong." We know it hasn't gone wrong at all! If God "works" in "all things," it means his plan includes what we would call "little" or "senseless" things. Ultimately, there are no accidents."
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Timothy J. Keller |
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The family is no longer what Christopher Lasch once called a "haven in a heartless world," a counterbalance to the dog-eat-dog areas of life.58 Instead, the family has become the nursery where the craving for success is first cultivated."
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Thomas Goodwin, a seventeenth-century Puritan pastor, wrote that one day he saw a father and son walking along the street. Suddenly the father swept the son up into his arms and hugged him and kissed him and told the boy he loved him--and then after a minute he put the boy back down. Was the little boy more a son in the father's arms than he was down on the street? Objectively and legally, there was no difference, but subjectively and exper..
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Timothy J. Keller |
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malcontents praised least. The good critics found
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Timothy J. Keller |
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if we live for and love any thing more than God himself, we are trapped. They become things we have to have, so we "run," exhausted, after them."
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Timothy J. Keller |
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Anything that is functionally more important to you than God is an idol. Anything you love more than God--even a good thing like a spouse or child or social cause--is a false god. Because we love them too much, we are wracked with uncontrollable fears and anger when they are threatened and inconsolable despair when we lose them.
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Timothy J. Keller |
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And in no way is the gospel story sentimental or escapist. Indeed, the gospel takes evil and loss with utmost seriousness, because it says that we cannot save ourselves. Nothing short of the death of the very Son of God can save us. But the "happy ending" of the historical resurrection is so enormous that it swallows up even the sorrow of the Cross. It is so great that those who believe it can henceforth fully face the depth of the sorrow a..
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Timothy J. Keller |