The Story
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Devotions: Facing the Giants
Bethel will press pause on The Story through the Advent and Christmas seasons as we prepare for the coming of a king. This is the one for whom John the Baptist prepares the way declaring that he is “the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight’”…
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Devotion: The Softer Side of the Old Testament
After some pretty rough weeks in The Story as we read about battles and God seemingly being pretty hard-nosed about the rules (for example, Moses didn’t get to cross over into the Promised Land because he struck a rock to bring about water rather than just speaking to it), we some real gems through the…
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Devotion: Can God Possibly Want Me?
All Christians want a relationship with God, but we’re not always clear on what that relationship should be or about our part in it. We hear stories of faithful people from long ago or more contemporary people of faith like Mother Theresa and we think that we could never have faith like theirs. And, if…
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Devotion: How Complete Is Our Obedience?
The Story | The Battle Begins I cringed a bit when I wrote the title for this week’s devotion: “How complete is our obedience?” But, as you read chapter 7 from The Story, I think this ends up directing our thoughts toward God’s Upper Story. As I read and talked with people on Sunday morning, I…
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Devotion: Wilderness Wandering and Spiritual Assessment
After spending 6 weeks dwelling with The Story, how do you feel? Just like the road trip we talked about Sunday morning in worship, the beginning of The Story has been exciting as we see the possibilities ahead for us this year. You may have found that The Story hasn’t been what you expected. You…
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Devotion: The Story – Abraham
The focus for this week is the story of Abraham and the building of a nation. I suggest starting with reading The Story, chapter 2. If you need a book, they are available at church. If you weren’t able to be in church on Sunday, we covered a lot in the sermon (see “References” below for…
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Devotion: The Story – Creation part 2
The wonder of Creation often becomes burdened with the politics of environmentalism, the deep questions of existentialism, and the theological dissection of precisely happened at Creation and how long it took to transpire. It’s good and natural for us to question and dig deeper – and I hope you do. As I see it, the…
Epicurious Lutheran 