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"Born Again Christian" is a label you wear proudly or are very leery about it. This dichotomy is intentional and says a lot about how you see scripture and salvation. Most people think of evangelical Christians being Born Again. So why do some Christians, like myself, bristle at the label. It all has to do with a pun, that you only really see in Greek. It gets to the playfulness of the language in the Gospel of John. It also shows us that the way Nicodemus saw salvation isn't so much different than modern Christians do. I then talk about the most famous verse in the New Testament, John 3:16. You see it on billboards and t-shirts. It seems to have magical powers of evangelism and conversion. But again, it is a little different in Greek and not nearly as conditional sounding. You only have to look one verse later to see why.

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The Lord’s Prayer is a central feature of Christian worship. Why? There’s a long history and it’s part of a bigger question of why the Sermon on the Mount is so crucial. This is critical in today’s Christianity. Many Christians are openly disdainful of the central message of the sermon and the prayer. I think a better understanding of the Lord’s Prayer can help return us to a sense of balance. I go through the prayer line by line in Greek to show how.

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Wait a minute, I thought Jesus was sinless, in Hebrews 4:15! If you ever want to smoke out religious bullies, this is one of the best ways to do it. Most people understand that strict application of the law and being faithful to the intent of the law are not the same thing. According to the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus was a big law breaker, but we know that Jesus was on the right side of the kingdom of heaven. I compare two ways of reading the Sermon on the Mount to show that we are surrounded by Pharisees today who want to use the law as a weapon instead of freedom. I also talk about the New Covenant and why it is more important than ever to understand it.

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