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Twisted Scripture · The Reading Instruction Show

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  I'm Andy Johnson. Welcome to the Church of Biblical
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  Sanity. Topic of today's mini sermon is called
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  Twisted Scripture. Someone accused me of twisting
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  scripture to fit my political perspective. You
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  twist the meaning of scripture, they said, to
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  fit your political perspective. Now, I didn't
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  know that wanting to stop the bullying and the
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  beating, the imprisonment and killing was a political
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  perspective. I didn't know that wanting to feed
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  the hungry, attend to the sick and poor was a
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  political perspective. I've been accused of twisting
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  scripture, but what scripture was twisted? And
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  how did I twist it? And perhaps I might be provided
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  with a straightened version. If the new wine
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  does not fit into your old wine skin, you say
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  that the new wine twists biblical scripture and
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  you throw it out. So let me twist some scripture
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  at you. Psalms 51 .10 says, O God, and renew
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  a right spirit within me. A clean heart. The
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  heart is a metaphor for emotions and dispositions.
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  A disposition is a state of mind that creates
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  an inclination to think or act in certain ways.
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  And renewal speaks to transformation. The twisted
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  scriptures that I read cause for us to be disposed
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  to perceive, to react, to emote in ways that
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  nurture others, that nurture the self, that nurture
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  the community. We are disposed to take care of,
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  to be responsible for. Jesus and St. Paul had
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  much to say about the conditions of the heart.
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  So let me twist some more scripture at you. Jesus
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  said in Matthew 5 -8, the Beatitudes, blessed
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  are the pure and heart, for they shall see God.
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  The Gospels and the Epistles. call for us to
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  take care of each other, to be responsible for
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  each other. That person hiding in the basement
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  is trying to feed our family. They escaped from
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  conditions of poverty, lawlessness, and violence
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  to feed our children, to give our children a
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  better life. And if it were your son or daughter,
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  your husband or wife, your mother or father hiding
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  in the basement, would the conditions of your
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  heart change a little bit? Here's some more twisted
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  scripture for you. Matthew 12, 34, Jesus says,
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  you brood of vipers. How can you speak of good
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  when you are evil? For out of the abundance of
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  the heart, the mouth speaks. You, my fine conservative
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  Christian friends, you speak about the love of
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  Jesus, yet you would deny food to the hungry
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  and health care to the sick and poor. Who's twisting
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  scripture? Matthew 15, 18 to 20, Jesus says,
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  but what comes out of the mouth proceeds from
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  the heart. And this defiles a person, for out
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  of the heart comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery,
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  sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.
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  These, Jesus says, are what defile a person.
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  Now, my fine conservative Christian friends,
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  you seem to focus a lot on adultery and sexual
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  immorality, making me wonder what's in your heart.
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  And you conveniently ignore all the Trump administration
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  is blatantly doing. The murder, the theft, the
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  false witness, and the slander. You don't seem
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  to get too worked up about these things. You
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  have selected umbrage. Matthew 5, 8, Jesus says
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  again, blessed are the pure in heart for they
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  will see God. You talk of law and order, of human
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  decency. Yet, you turn your backs on the girls
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  who are raped and trafficked, and you protect
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  the rich and powerful. You support Trump. You
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  do this by proxy. St. Paul tells us, put on your
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  new self. We've been made in the likeness of
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  God. And I would invite people of all faith traditions
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  and of no faith traditions to put on those new
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  self -suits and listen. Listen to the likeness.
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  Renew a right spirit within you. Be pure in heart
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  and see God. See God in the actions and the interactions.
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  of people.