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	<title>Reading... and Thinking</title>
	<link>http://reading.hopeinchampaign.com</link>
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		<title>God&#8217;s righteousness</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Paul's letter to the Romans has a lot in it. You can profitably spend weeks on it. Among other things, it is one of our major sources of information about the atonement. That is, God working through Jesus Christ to bring about reconciliation between Himself and us.]]></description>
		<link>http://reading.hopeinchampaign.com/2012/02/03/gods-righteousness/</link>
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		<title>Planted by streams of water</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The first Psalm is a favorite of many Christians, and it has been the subject of countless devotionals, articles, and Sunday morning talks. So what can we say about it that's new? The question highlights a more general problem we have whenever we read a passage that's very familiar. Our eyes go over the words all right, but a lot of the time the words don't sink into our minds.]]></description>
		<link>http://reading.hopeinchampaign.com/2012/01/27/planted-by-streams-of-water/</link>
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		<title>Mercy, not sacrifice</title>
		<description><![CDATA[When Jesus heard the Pharisees' complaint about who he chose to eat with, he could have rebuked them by quoting any of several Old Testament prophets. But instead of something stinging, which might have just produced anger, he gave them a puzzle. He quoted the prophet Hosea and said, "Go learn what this means."]]></description>
		<link>http://reading.hopeinchampaign.com/2012/01/20/mercy-not-sacrifice/</link>
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		<title>Lion of the tribe of Judah</title>
		<description><![CDATA[In Revelation 5:5, Jesus is called "the lion of the tribe of Judah". This figure (like virtually all the other figures in Revelation) comes out of the Old Testament. In this case it's from Genesis 49, where Jacob is on his deathbed, and blesses his 12 sons. Jacob's blessings aren't just the nice wishes of an old man -- they are prophecies.]]></description>
		<link>http://reading.hopeinchampaign.com/2012/01/13/lion-of-the-tribe-of-judah/</link>
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		<title>Heavens &amp; earth</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Is the account of the great flood in Genesis a historical account, or is it a legend?  Careful -- the Lord Jesus treated it as literal history, as did the writer to the Hebrews, and especially the apostle Peter.]]></description>
		<link>http://reading.hopeinchampaign.com/2012/01/06/heavens-earth/</link>
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		<title>Messiah reigns! (part 2)</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Both Old and New Testaments conclude with prophecies of Messiah's reign over all the earth. The final word is the Revelation. A lot of folks are unnecessarily intimidated by Revelation, and some other folks aren't as afraid of it as they should be!]]></description>
		<link>http://reading.hopeinchampaign.com/2011/12/30/messiah-reigns-part-2/</link>
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		<title>Messiah reigns!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[At this season we hear a lot about Messiah reigning -- and sadly we hardly hear anything about it any other time!  The fact is that about a third of the Bible is prophecy, and a lot of it revolves around Messiah's coming, and his reign over all the earth.]]></description>
		<link>http://reading.hopeinchampaign.com/2011/12/23/messiah-reigns/</link>
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		<title>The sign of Jonah</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Was it a fish or a whale?  Ancient Hebrew taxonomy wasn't quite the same as our system. To the Hebrews, "fish" meant "animal that lives in the water". But precisely what animal swallowed Jonah doesn't matter much. A much more critical question is: How did Jonah stay alive?  The answer, I think, is that he didn't.]]></description>
		<link>http://reading.hopeinchampaign.com/2011/12/16/the-sign-of-jonah/</link>
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		<title>The course</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Few of us have a course set out before us like that of the apostle Paul. Perhaps we feel it's because few of us could possibly complete such a course.]]></description>
		<link>http://reading.hopeinchampaign.com/2011/12/09/the-course/</link>
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		<title>Enemy of God</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It seems doubtful that the people in James's audience were literally murderers, or fighting wars. Similarly, they may not have literally been adulterers. What is beyond doubt, however, is that they did literally covet. The usage of war and murder and adultery is to make us understand how serious this coveting problem is. It makes us enemies of God!]]></description>
		<link>http://reading.hopeinchampaign.com/2011/12/02/enemy-of-god/</link>
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