Finding Your Soul by David Anderson
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The Burning Bush
Exodus 3: 1-12 “And Moses said, ‘I will turn aside and seethis great sight, why the bush is not burnt.” The story of the Burning Bush begins with a murder. The only reason Moses is out here in the wilderness is because, in his zeal and anger, he killed an Egyptian slave master who was…
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The Straight Highway
Isaiah 40:1-8 “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” I want to go home. If you’ve ever been far from home, felt lost or trapped in the wrong place, you know how the people of Israel felt in exile. They want to go home,…
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John The Baptist
Matthew 3:1-12 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is comingafter me . . . he will baptize you with fire.” One of the truest rock ‘n roll songs I know is AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell.” It’s an anthem of excess that screams, If “livin’ easy, livin’ free” lands me in hell,…
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The Lion, The Wolf and The Lamb
Isaiah 65:17-25 “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like an ox.” Edward Hicks, the Quaker minister and primitive American painter, painted 62 versions of his “Peaceable Kingdom,” in which a child pets a lion with one hand, and a tiger with the other. The cow lies with the…
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Noah’s Ark
Genesis 7: 11-24 “They went into the ark with Noah, two and twoof all flesh…and God shut him in.” On Noah’s ark there was no rudder. God gave Noah incredibly detailed instructions for constructing this floating zoo, dimensions of roofs and decks, but no steering mechanism. Have you ever noticed this? Noah doesn’t need to…
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Jesse’s Branch
Isaiah 11:1-16 “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,and a branch shall grow out of his roots.” By all rational accounts, Isaiah’s prophecy is a beautiful and poetic crock. Jesse, you may recall, is the father of the legendary King David. And in Isaiah’s time, David is long dead and so is…
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The Visitation
Luke 1: 39-45 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to acity of Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. In Luke’s telling, the first thing Mary does after Gabriel’s stunning announcement, is to pack a bag and head for her older cousin’s home. Elizabeth…
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Annunciation
Luke 1:26-38 (The Message) And Mary said,Yes, I see it all now:I’m the Lord’s maid,ready to serve.Let it be with mejust as you say. The tales of Greek and Roman gods appearing to mortal women are almost always forceful. Whatever they want you to do—is done. You can’t say no. Yet when our God seeks…
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The Wreath
Isaiah 61:3-11 “to give them a garland instead of ashes” The wreaths in our homes at Advent and Christmas are often only decorative—pretty. But there’s an ancient Nordic and Celtic tradition of making wreaths from wagon wheels. When the sun disappeared in winter, these sun-worshipping people had a beautiful way of wooing it, beckoning back…