Energion.com - Religion, Philosophy, and Politics

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Thanks

Before retiring, my Dad was a Construction Superintendent. He would often be sent out of town on big jobs that would last a year or so. He would come home on weekends. However his living out of town during the week would require him to have a second residence. He would choose some pretty cool places to stay (at least from my perspective as a young adventurous boy).


I remember visiting him on some weekends or even spending most of a summer with him in some of the most fun places. He stayed in a  [Read more at Greg's Watering Hole]

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God’s Warnings – Blessings

Now these things happened to them as examples, and they were written as a warning to us, on whom the ends of the ages have come.      1 Corinthians 10:11 (HCSB)

Have you received a warning from God lately? Those of us in the medical profession often remark with awe and gratitude how the human body sends out warning signals like pain, shortness of breath, and stomach upset that have brought people to an early diagnosis. With the technology that we have, blood tests can warn us of cancer, high  [Read more at Jody's Devotionals]

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Democrats Running Anti-Romney, Pro-Gingrich Ads in Florida?

From what I’ve found I’m not sure if these are largely against Romney, which could at this point be explained as getting a head start on the general election (though I doubt that), or actually pro-Gingrich. (Report in the Boston Globe, hat tips Stones Cry Out and American Thinker.)

I pointed out in a comment at Stones Cry Out that one of the reasons I, as a non-Republican (as opposed to left-leaning, which I’m not sure what it means) blogger have not commented on this practice is that I  [Read more at Threads from Henry's Web]

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Reading the Common English Bible

In 2011 we observed the 400th anniversary of the Authorized or King James Version of the Bible.  The KJV reigned supreme for more than 300 years, with true challengers emerging only in the mid-20th century, as new understandings of translation theory and new textual discoveries began to make themselves felt.  There are a few folks left that not only prize the KJV, but hold tightly to its authoritative status.  It's as if good old King James I was God incarnate.  But even most conservative  [Read more at Bob Cornwall]

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Hearing God's Message -- A Lectionary Reflection

Deuteronomy 18:15-20
1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Mark 1:21-28
Hearing God’s Message
            How does one know the voice of God?  What helps one discern when God is speaking and when God isn’t?  These are important questions, as people of faith desire to know what God is up to and what God would have us do.  We needn’t embrace a deterministic world view to concern ourselves with such questions, for in our prayers we do desire to enter into  [Read more at Bob Cornwall]

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Nail In My Finger

As a young man I worked quite a bit in construction. Working on construction sites offers plenty of possibilities for getting hurt even when you are working as safe as possible.


For instance, on one occasion I was nailing strips of wood onto concrete walls with the old concrete nails. I had to hammer the snot out of these nails to get them into that old, hard wall. During this process, I noticed blood running down my fingers. My blood! A sliver of one of the concrete nails had gone into my  [Read more at Greg's Watering Hole]

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The Road Not Taken

– Robert Frost (1916)

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had  [Read more at Jody's Devotionals]

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Well Done

"Well done good and faithful servant". Those words out of Matthew 25 have been on my mind lately as I ponder some things I may undertake. What believer doesn't want to hear those words come out of Jesus' mouth when they stand before Him?

My decisions on whether or not to be of service to someone has often been based on how it would affect me. Try these scenarios of my possible service for example.


I could send twenty bucks to the local soup kitchen. Twenty dollars won't impoverish me and  [Read more at Greg's Watering Hole]

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Shelter in the Storms

The LORD is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack. 
He lets me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside quiet waters.          Psalm 23:1-2 (HCSB)

Why does God allow thunderclouds and disasters in my life when I am wanting green pastures and quiet waters? It may be a waste of my time and effort to ask “Why?” – but there it is.

I have prayed The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) since I was a small child. It wasn’t until more recent years that I began to comprehend  [Read more at Jody's Devotionals]

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Knowledge and the Danger of Arrogance

 1 Now concerning meat that has been sacrificed to a false god: we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes people arrogant, but love builds people up. 2 If anyone thinks they know something, they don’t yet know as much as they should know. 3 But if someone loves God, then they are known by God.  (1 Corinthians 8:1-3 -- Common English Bible.) I'm not preaching on this text from 1 Corinthians 8 this Sunday (it is the lectionary selection from the Epistles), but I thought it  [Read more at Bob Cornwall]

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