PerryDox – BeJustAChristian

PHall | April 27, 2020

Category: Matthew | Comments Off on Matthew 1:1 – Is Jesus Guilty of Identity Theft – bejustachristian.com
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PHall | April 27, 2020

I imagine Peter feeling quite generous of heart, by doubling the times the rabbis had said to forgive based on Amos 1:6, and adding an extra for good measure. Peter asks, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? As many as seven times?” Can you picture the […]

Category: Matthew | Comments Off on Matthew 18:21-22 – 70×7
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PHall | April 26, 2020

Category: Matthew, Genesis | Comments Off on 1 – bejustachristian.com – Matthew 1:23 – How to Decide Right and Wrong
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PHall | April 23, 2020

“If you think the Law of Moses was tough, wait until you hear what I got to say!” I used to read the Sermon on the Mount with that trepidation. “If you even think something wrong, then you’re going to hell!” I soon learned Jesus is doing what Pharisees didn’t. He is teaching how not […]

Category: Matthew | Comments Off on Matthew 5 – Don’t Become Like Those Who Use People
Tags: Sermon on the Mount

PHall | April 22, 2020

The Golden Rule is known more than applied (Mt.7:12). That’s as much a self-judgment as observation. I would like to take a different angle which might help.Instead doing to others as you would have them do to you, try this: Do to others what you already do for yourself. That is taught elsewhere such as […]

Category: Matthew, Ephesians | Comments Off on A New Take On An Old Rule
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PHall | February 27, 2020

Matthew’s biography of Jesus has the end meet the beginning, bookends if you please. These are aimed at the shame of the recipients. Matthew 1 famously has the genealogy of Jesus showing his regal credentials as the King of the Jews. But notice these two divergent aims: 1) Matthew 2 we have the “king of […]

Category: Matthew, Romans | Comments Off on Matthew and Romans: Mirror Lessons
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PHall | December 21, 2019

The story, or stories, are true and familiar; one is an echo of the other.1. Each narrative comes at the beginning (Genesis 1-2; Matthew 1-2).2. Each is a story about a genealogy (Genesis 2:4; Matthew1:1).3. At the beginning there is a focus on a light that was not the sun (Genesis 1:3; Matthew 2:2,7-10; Luke […]

Category: Matthew, Bible, Genesis | Comments Off on Two Creation Birth Stories
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PHall | November 18, 2019

Matthew begins in a most boring way:“An account of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:” (CSB’17 Matthew 1:1) followed by mind-numbing names.Boring if you are not a Jew. Hidden to Gentiles in plain sight are:• 4 of the most important promises made.• 3 promises made to one man.• […]

Category: Matthew | Comments Off on Matthew 1:1 – History and Hope
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PHall | November 9, 2019

Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do good things happen to bad people? “Free will” is one very good answer; but that is an answer which has God backing away, necessarily, in order for free will to exist. God is not Deistic, because He is both immanent and transcendent. Free will hinges […]

Category: Matthew, Numbers | Comments Off on Numbers 14:9 – Why Things Happen both Good and Bad
Tags: Free Will, Problem of Evil, Suffering

PHall | October 7, 2019

If we can – join the church of our choice, choose which worship style fits us, and all that matters is we are sincere – then we have become our own God.This is one of the temptations within all three Jesus faced in the Wilderness:1. Turn the stones to bread instead of relying on God […]

Category: Matthew | Comments Off on Matthew 4 – The Church of You
Tags: Denominationalism