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Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

  • Westminster Shorter Catechism Series
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Home Archives for pharisee

Muddy Waters, Mercy and the Fifth Beatitude

Posted on January 26, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre Leave a Comment

Mercy

The fifth Beatitude tells us that those who are merciful will receive mercy. At first reading this sounds right to us. If you do good to others they will do good to you. It seem natural, like the popular concept of karma. Yet we see that this does not always hold true. How then should we understand this Beatitude?

Filed Under: Bible Reflection Tagged With: Beatitude, God, Gospel of Matthew, Jesus, Muddy Waters, pharisee, Sermon on the Mount

Humility wins the day – The humble will be exalted

Posted on December 12, 2011 Written by Mark McIntyre 4 Comments

Luke 18 records the story of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. Only one of them left the Temple forgiven, the one who expressed humility

Filed Under: Bible Reflection Tagged With: humility, Jesus, pharisee

I don’t have the chutzpah to pick up the first stone

Posted on July 7, 2011 Written by Mark McIntyre Leave a Comment

I have heard it said that chutzpah is illustrated by the man who kills his mother and father and then pleads to the judge to let him off because he is an orphan. In other words, chutzpa is that behavior that knows no self limitation. This evening a friend sent me a link to a […]

Filed Under: Bible Reflection, Christianity and Culture, Church Leadership Tagged With: Jesus, pharisee, Religion

An Unholy Alliance: Pharisees and Herodians

Posted on June 17, 2011 Written by Mark McIntyre Leave a Comment

An Unholy Alliance We are moving toward a presidential election year in the United States. As a result, the political pundits are ramping up their efforts to develop a market for their predictions. With this backdrop, when I read Mark this morning, Mark 3:6 grabbed my attention. In this verse there is a simple statement […]

Filed Under: Bible Reflection, Christianity and Culture Tagged With: Church, pharisee, Politics, Religion, Sin

Great Packaging + Great Product = Integrity

Posted on April 21, 2011 Written by Mark McIntyre 1 Comment

Question Mark

As consumers we know that beautiful packaging does not guarantee the quality of the product inside. The photo on the box often looks much better than the content. On the other hand, with the rise of store brands, we know that good stuff can be found in very plain packages. Visually stunning packaging is done […]

Filed Under: Bible Reflection, Christianity and Culture Tagged With: Church, hypocrisy, mission, pharisee

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Rumble Strips

Thankful for the rumble strips

Rumble strips on the road assist us in arriving at our destination and keep us out of the ditch. Scripture provides warnings that function as spiritual rumble strips. One is found in Galatians 5 and is the subject of this post.

Sheep

A mediation on Psalm 1

I have read this psalm many times, but this morning I came away with a different impression than I have ever had before.

21

Who is the Redeemer of God’s Elect?

In the last few months, I have been reading about the first Ecumenical Councils of the church in the 4th and 5th Centuries. It was at these councils that the nature of Jesus was clearly defined for all of Christendom. Many of the misunderstandings about Jesus that survive today were addressed by these councils.

Fulfill what you vow

Our culture wants to tell us that it is OK to walk away from something that was vowed. In our society, we are no longer astonished by how often marriage vows are broken, even among church leaders. We have too much evidence that a pattern of seeing vows as non-binding has crept into the church.

Evil and Death

Evil and death

I ran across this quotation from Nicholas Wolterstorff while reading Philip Yancey’s book Vanishing Grace: When we have overcome absence with phone calls, winglessness with airplanes, summer heat with air-conditioning – when we have overcome all these and much more besides, then there will abide two things with which we must cope: the evil in […]

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