Drew Downs
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Knowing Jesus, Knowing GOD
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10 min read
Wisdom to the Hebrew people wasn’t just learning, but was expressed in proverbs, teachings that could be memorized and shared. The more wisdom you had memorized, the wiser you were. the pursuit of wisdom, spirituality today Proper 15B | 1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14 & John 6:51-58 What is wisdom? Before we talk about Solomon’s legendary wisdom,…
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The Real Reason a Church Needs an Obvious Purpose
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5 min read
So, mission statements aren’t perfect. Like many people, I believe they are kind of overrated. Particularly for churches. Most statements come out like: Love. Serve. Give. Doing our most for those with the least. Sharing the love of Christ given to us without regard for anything we might have done so that others may also…
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Oversimplifying the problem is killing us
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2 min read
We are fond of the dialectic method of arguing. In this, there is always “us and them” and things are always “black and white”. We assign sides and it is simple and clean. Life is never so simple and clean. Those raising concerns about systemic violence in the criminal justice system, particularly toward young, unarmed, black…
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Broken bread, a broken father
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8 min read
Everyone who reads this story thinks Joab acted wisely. Everyone. We believe Joab was saving David from himself and was right for doing it. I’m not sure the text does, though. And I’m not sure GOD does. A vision of GOD through David and Jesus Proper 14B | 2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33; John 6:35, 41-51 For his own…
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King David’s Faithiness
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4 min read
When David was creeping on the roof, looking in windows like a perv, he saw this woman, naked, bathing. And in true Biblical form we’ll say that “lust was in his heart”. Which just sounds like the euphemistic excusing “boys will be boys” of Biblical interpretation. It makes David seem so innocent to his urges:…
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How the guards protect the city from GOD.
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5 min read
Scholars speak of the book, Song of Songs as love poetry to GOD. That it takes its form from the romantic poetry genre and applies it to love of GOD. It possesses a certain sensuality that is scandalous, if for no other reason than it talks about breasts and sex in ways that would make…