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Listen

 James 1:19 ESV  Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;  As the Turkish proverbs goes, if speaking is silver, listening is golden. Speaking is easy; listening is hard. James calls us to be quick to listen and slow to speak. We have two ears and one mouth. This suggests that we should listen about twice as much as we speak! We have a good record of Jesus's words, but he is the ultimate listener too, to respond appropriately to his hearers. James isn't just telling us to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, or even to seek to emulate Christ. He reminds us that we're brethren. We're adopted into God's family through faith in Jesus. Anger isn't necessarily wrong. In our anger we're not to sin. We're not to be quick tempered. 'Abba God, we praise you for adopting us into your family. Please help us to display the family characteristics: to be good, temperate listeners. For the glory of your name, a...
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Power

 But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.Exodus 9:16 ESVhttps://bible.com/bible/59/exo.9.16.ESV  Secular historians point to the lack of extra-biblical evidence of Hebrew slavery in Egypt and ensuing exodus. But here in this verse, God describes how this anonymous Pharoah has been immortalised in the annals of the Hebrews, so that God is proclaimed in all the earth. The mighty men of the world might think they can stand against God and win, but resistance is futile!  The more stubborn Pharoah was, the more the Lord was able to display His power. The more insistent Pharoah was of keeping his slaves, the more unreasonable he appeared. It was a battle of wills, and the will of Yahweh prevailed.  In the end, Pharoah will have been broken by the plagues. In the final plague, his own firstborn son was killed, the next in line to the throne of the world superpower. He might have tried to put a brave...
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Burdens

 Galatians 6:2 ESV  Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.  We all have burdens. We sometimes talk about people who don't seem to have a care in the world, but we all do. Even if we feel carefree, we're blinkered to all the concerning things going on around us. Although we shouldn't be worried and anxious, neither should we be careless or stoical, gritting our teeth or being blinkered to the difficulties of life. Instead, we ought to help one another. After all, Christ has born the burden of our sins, so helping one another is the least we can do! The law of Christ is to love one another as he has loved us. Love isn't just a warm, mushy feeling. It's a verb, a doing word: love is action, like bearing one another's burdens. In a nearby verse the Apostle Paul says we each have to carry our own burdens. There's only so much that others can do for us. We have to take responsibility for ourselves. 'Dear Lord God, thank you for bearing o...
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