Chad Bird @birdchadlouis Twitter profile | Pikagi

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Chad Bird

@birdchadlouis

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Scholar in Residence at @1517

Tyler, TX

https://t.co/ynSljKEhvP

Joined March 2014

Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.

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@birdchadlouis

Chad Bird

3 months

Resources for Bible Study For those of you who are new to this page, Welcome! In my work as a Scholar in Residence for 1517, I produce materials that aid you in understanding the Scriptures, as well as Christ's centrality in those Scriptures. Here is a brief list and description…

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@birdchadlouis

Chad Bird

2 years

Luke is my son, a baptized, beloved child of God. We grieve, we grieve deeply, but as those who place our hope in the One who is the Resurrection and the Life. Luke was everything a father would want in a son, and so much more. He was, and remains, a gift of God to us all.

@NavalAcademy

U.S. Naval Academy

2 years

USNA IDENTIFIES DECEASED MIDSHIPMAN “We are incredibly saddened by the tragic loss of Midshipman Luke Bird this weekend,” -VADM Sean Buck “He greatly exemplified the hard working midshipman who helps anyone at the drop of a hat,” -1/C Travis Delgado

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Chad Bird

1 year

Six months ago today, my son, Luke, was received into the church triumphant. A baptized child of our Father, he closed his eyes to this life and opened them to see Christ. We grieve. We hurt. We hope and believe. Luke is not dead. He lives. Praise be to God.

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Chad Bird

11 months

The Audacity of Calling God “Father” If I call God “God” I speak truthfully. If I call God “Lord” I speak submissively. If I call God “King” I speak servilely. But if I dare to call God “my Father,” I speak with a brassy audacity, chutzpah, that is shockingly familiar and…

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Chad Bird

1 year

For Now Buried in the earth in Annapolis, Maryland, uniformed as a midshipman in the United States Naval Academy, the body of my young son, Luke Gabriel Bird, lays at rest. For now. Having finished the race and kept the faith, my elderly father, Carson Wayne Bird, departed…

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Chad Bird

10 months

One Year Later: Luke Gabriel Bird October 20, 2000 – July 16, 2022 When the phone rang a year ago today, I remember where I was standing. I can still hear the conversation. I know exactly where I crumpled to the floor in utter terror. There are things you cannot unhear. There…

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Chad Bird

6 years

The absolution is absolute. Forgiveness is final. God doesn’t keep score. It really is finished.

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Chad Bird

5 months

The Dumpster Sermon I heard one of the shortest but most memorable sermons not from a pulpit but from beside a dumpster. I had pulled my semi up behind a convenience store to grab a cup of coffee. As I climbed out of the truck, a woman walked up to me. Her face burned a deep…

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Chad Bird

8 months

A Double Meaning in John 3:16? Most of us memorized John 3:16 in the King James Version: “For God so loved the world….” That little word “so” in Greek is οὕτως (houtōs). But that word can be understood in two ways. The KJV and most English translations that render houtōs as…

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Chad Bird

6 months

The Hebrew Meaning of Repentance When learning Hebrew, one of the first verbs that students memorize is שׁוב (shuv). Since it occurs over 1,000 in the Old Testament, it ranks as one of the most common words. Like all words, it has a range of meanings, depending upon the context,…

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Chad Bird

5 months

How in God’s name are we to prepare for the end of the world? C. S. Lewis has some good advice: “If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music,…

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Chad Bird

11 months

Thanksgiving and Weeping on this Father’s Day This is the first Father’s Day I won’t be able to call my Dad and tell him I love him. And it is the first Father’s Day when I won’t get a call or visit from my son, Luke, and hear from him that he loves me. What do you do on a…

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Chad Bird

2 years

God's first words after the Fall were, "Where are you?" It's only one word in Hebrew: אַיֶּכָּה (ayyekkah). In that one word is compressed a whole theology: -God seeks out the lost sinner. -God welcomes him to confess. -God desires his restoration. -God works his redemption.

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Chad Bird

10 months

Divorce Years ago, when I went through divorce, I did not come out on the other side a better Christian (whatever that means), a better person, or a stronger person. But I did grasp more fully that, in and of myself, I am nothing. I have zilch to offer God. I have nothing of my…

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Chad Bird

2 years

At Lazarus's grave, Jesus did not say, “Death is natural, a normal part of the cycle of life.” No, he wept. Then he kicked death in the teeth.

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Chad Bird

8 months

A Hebrew Surprise in Psalm 147 In Psalm 147, there is a Hebrew surprise that is not obvious in translation. Notice these two verses (4&5): “He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names. Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding…

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Chad Bird

10 months

Which OT book is quoted more in the NT than any other? Psalms. Which OT verse is quoted more in the NT than any other? Psalm 110:1. Which OT book did Jesus quote when he was being crucified? Psalms. Why are the psalms the heart of Scripture? Because, as Martin Franzmann said,…

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Chad Bird

9 months

The Beating Heart of Psalm 23 Psalm 23 has 55 Hebrew words in it. What’s fascinating is what forms the numerical center of this psalm. At the heart of Psalm 23 are the words, “For Thou art with me.” There are 26 Hebrew words before that phrase, and 26 words after it. What’s…

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Chad Bird

4 months

Why Am I Still Struggling Against the Same Sins? If you, as a disciple of Jesus, find yourself, five or ten or even fifty years after you started following Jesus, still weak in the same areas of life, still struggling with lust or anger or greed or hatred, then welcome to the…

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Chad Bird

6 months

God's first words after the Fall were, "Where are you?" It's only one word in Hebrew: אַיֶּכָּה (ayyekkah). In that one word is compressed a whole theology: -God seeks out the lost sinner. -God welcomes him to confess. -God desires his restoration. -God works his redemption.

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Chad Bird

1 year

In the Hebrew of Psalm 23, “goodness and mercy” do not “follow” us all the days of our lives. That translation is far too bloodless for the verb radaf (רדף). It means to chase after, to pursue. They don’t follow us like a good little puppy dog, but stay hot on our heels like the…

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Chad Bird

2 years

Names are written in the Book of Life. Résumés are not included.

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Chad Bird

1 year

Two sinners, hiding in Eden. God walks up and asks, “Where are you?” Two sinners, heading toward Emmaus. God walks up and asks, “What are you discussing?” Our God seeks us out when we’re in the wrong place. And his questions summon us home.

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Chad Bird

6 months

The Eyelid and God I worked for a farmer named Johnny when I was a teenager. Among other skills, he taught me how to weld—a necessary talent on any farm since equipment is always in need of repair. One day, having completed his weld, Johnny was chipping away at the hot slag over…

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Chad Bird

1 month

Today we remember that God washes our feet. The fingers that crafted the universe scrub scum from between toes. The hands that painted the cosmos wash feet painted with dirt and sweat. The One before whom all angels bow gets on his knees to labor as a slave. We become clean,…

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Chad Bird

8 months

Drinking from the Lord’s Cup Can Be Dangerous The Hebrew word for “cup” is כּוֹס (kôs). If people associate the Lord’s cup with any verse in the Old Testament, it’s usually Psalm 23:5, “My cup runneth over.” Of course, this is a positive image. In the majority of Old Testament…

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Chad Bird

2 years

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Chad Bird

10 months

What gets me through some of the hardest weeks and darkest days? What gives me joy in some of the best weeks and brightest days? It's this: Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my…

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Chad Bird

11 months

Lord, I believe. Help Thou my unbelief. That is our table prayer, our bedside prayer, our office prayer, our driving prayer, our 24/7 petition. Lord, I do believe, but I also don’t believe. I am a cocktail of contradictions: double-hearted, forked-tongued, pulled heavenward and…

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Chad Bird

6 months

David’s first and last recorded words have to do with killing someone. When we first meet the teenager David, visiting his brothers on the battlefield, he is asking, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel?” (1 Sam.…

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Chad Bird

24 days

Not a single word from Abel is recorded in Scripture. Cain murders him, and Cain has something to say. But the victim of violence? the recipient of hate? the righteous one? Not a syllable. Cain has words, Abel none. But Abel does speak in a different language. He utters crimson…

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Chad Bird

7 months

Martin Luther once said that a theologian is made by three things: 1. Oratio (Prayer) 2. Meditatio (Reflection/Meditation) 3. Tentatio (Suffering and Affliction) The first two of these, prayer and meditation, are the duty and delight of the children of God. Christians are all…

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Chad Bird

2 years

On days like today, when the dark horror of my son's death seeks to suffocate me, there is only solution: Hold high the blazing torch of Christ's resurrection. That and that alone defeats the darkness.

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Chad Bird

3 months

When the Father sees us, he sees his Son. Period. Full stop. He doesn’t see a glowing success or an embarrassing failure, he sees Jesus. “You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). And there’s no safer hiding place in the world than there.

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Chad Bird

11 months

The Remarkable Spread of Christianity in the First Hundred Years One of the most remarkable facts about Christianity is the speed by which it spread over the Roman world. Think about it: in about AD 25, all we see is an oddball preacher in the Judean desert and his slightly…

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Chad Bird

10 months

When Elijah was depressed, exhausted, and weary of life, what did God first do? He sent an angel to deliver the prophet a meal (1 Kings 19). -Nothing extraordinary. -Nothing really theological. Just a tangible expression of love and mercy to a deeply troubled soul. A valuable…

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Chad Bird

1 year

I always knew that Jesus died for vile and deeply flawed sinners. It was only later in life that I realized I was in that group.

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Chad Bird

2 months

Only after the death of my son, Luke, did I realize how unpredictable and vacillating emotions can be, including how we feel toward God. There were moments, almost mystical in nature, where God seemed as close as my eyes to my tears. Touching. Intimate. And there were…

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Chad Bird

7 months

Gaza: A Biblical Perspective

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Chad Bird

6 months

For the first 17 years of Joseph's life, he was with his father, Jacob. And for the last 17 years of Jacob's life, he was with his son, Joseph. During the in-between years, both father and son suffered. They waited. They grieved. Eventually, they learned that our Lord has his…

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Chad Bird

3 months

Even a Tiny Faith Has the Full Christ One of the most comforting verses in all Scripture is Isaiah 42:3, “A bruised reed He will not break; and a smoldering wick He will not snuff out.” Our Father is not the kind of God who weeds people out of His kingdom who don’t have faith…

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Chad Bird

5 months

We say, “I can’t go on.” Jesus says, “I will hold you so you can.” We say, “But I don’t think I can even believe that.” Jesus says, “Even when you are faithless, I will be faithful to you.” We say, “But I feel so alone.” Jesus says, “I am Immanuel, God-with-you,…

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Chad Bird

5 months

Yesterday was bittersweet for me and Stacy. When I moved to San Antonio, TX, in 2011, I was a single man, and not a well one. The U-Haul was packed not only with boxes but also more than a few skeletons in my closet. I needed more than a fresh start in a new city. I needed a…

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Chad Bird

2 months

St. Patrick: From Slave to Preacher When Patrick was a teenager, he was kidnapped during a raid on Britain and taken to Ireland to serve as a slave. After six years in captivity, he escaped, made his way back home, and eventually was ordained into the priesthood. Then, in his…

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Chad Bird

2 months

Let us thank God for all the ordinary Christians who daily love their neighbors and live by faith in the resurrected Christ. They are the secret and sacred agents in the kingdom of God. The world will never know them, and it’s much better that way. They work openly, yet in…

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Chad Bird

1 month

Christ is risen! A blessed Easter day to all of you. This Resurrection Sunday was extra special since our grandson Colt was baptized this morning, and our daughter Auriana was here to celebrate with us. Jesus be praised!

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Chad Bird

1 year

Can God Count? The boy counted everything. Socks in his drawer, peas on his plate, cars on the highway. He loved numbers. He loved to count. One day he asked his father, “Daddy, can God count?” His father said, “Yes, son, God can count.” “What does he count?” “He counts the…

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Chad Bird

2 months

Jesus says, "Ask…seek…knock." The Greek verbs could be translated as "keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking." Christ is wanting an ongoing conversation, not just a one-time request.

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Chad Bird

1 month

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Chad Bird

7 months

There comes a point in every believer’s life when you realize you had everything backward: you thought you were holding on to the promises of God and you realize, no, those promises were holding on to you with an iron grip. You supposed that were striding along the path of…

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Chad Bird

10 months

Pay careful attention to what Luke does here: Jesus says to the man from whom he has cast out a legion of demons, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him. (Luke…

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Chad Bird

1 month

The closing verse of Job is this: “And Job died, an old man, and full of days.” But if had God given Job what he wanted, that never would have happened. Job had wanted to die. To die soon. To die immediately. He wondered, “Why did I not die at birth?” (3:11). He would have…

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Chad Bird

2 years

"The most important people in our lives are the ones we can look at and say, 'My life is better because of what you have done for me.' Be that person." My son, Luke, spoke those words in his high school graduation speech. "That person" is who Luke was. Rest in Christ, son.

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Chad Bird

7 months

When God warned Abimelech not to have sex with Sarah, the king complained that Abraham’s lies had almost brought on him and his kingdom “a great sin” (Gen. 20:9). In calling this “a great sin,” Abimelech was echoing the name given to adultery in some ancient law codes. In the OT,…

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Chad Bird

7 months

All the years that Jacob assumed Joseph was dead and gone, he was actually being used by God to prepare for saving everyone else’s life. Our Lord often does his best work when we suppose all hope is lost.

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Chad Bird

9 months

Notice how these two verses perfectly complement each other: Hide your face from my sins (Ps 51:9). Do not hide your face from me (Ps 27:9). In both verses, the Hebrew verb for hide [סָתַר] and face [פָּנִים] are the same. Heavenly Father: Cast my sins behind you. See them no…

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Chad Bird

4 months

One man asked a priest: "If God is everywhere, what do I go to Church for?" To which the priest replied: "The whole atmosphere is filled with water; but when you want to drink you have to go to a fountain or a well." --from Orthodox Christianity's FB Page

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Chad Bird

4 months

If you’ve ever wondered how far the Lord would go to make sure you were his own, -look down into the manger -look up onto the cross There’s your answer.

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Chad Bird

9 months

God's first words after the Fall were, "Where are you?" It is only one word in Hebrew, אַיֶּֽכָּה, (ayyekah). In that one word is compressed a whole theology: +God seeks out lost sinners +God welcomes them to confess +God desires their restoration +God works their redemption

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Chad Bird

11 months

A number of years ago, the Orthodox theologian, Fr. Thomas Hopko, composed 55 maxims to guide Christians in their daily lives and struggles. Here are ten of my favorites. 1. Be always with Christ. 2. Have a short prayer that you constantly repeat when your mind is not occupied…

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Chad Bird

10 months

Here are six interesting facts from Genesis 5 about overlapping lifespans, etc. 1. Adam lived to see the birth of Noah's father. 2. Seth, Adam's son, lived to see the "taking" of Enoch and died shortly before the birth of Noah. 3. Noah outlived Abraham's grandfather, Nahor.…

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Chad Bird

3 months

Does the “Eye of a Needle” Refer to a Small Gate that a Camel Can Barely Squeeze Through? “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” Three of the Gospel writers record versions of this striking statement of…

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Chad Bird

1 month

Good Friday That head, which angels with ceaseless praise adorn, Is pierced with crowded thorns. That face, which our God with grace and beauty lit, Is marred by sinners’ spit. Those eyes, outshining the sun’s most piercing light, Are dull as sable night. Those ears,…

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Chad Bird

4 months

Stacy and I pray you all had a Blessed and Merry Christmas! Thanks be to our Father for the gift of his Son, our Hope, our Salvation, our Life.

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Chad Bird

1 month

Holy Week is the greatest week in the history of the world, re-preached, relived, regifted annually, so we never forget how far Jesus goes to get us home to our Father.

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Chad Bird

10 months

For some people, this week was just the ordinary grind of work and home and sleep on repeat. For others, there were nights of tossing and turning, panic attacks, and that looming sense that something terrible is always around the corner. For others, this is the week they will…

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Chad Bird

1 year

Let us thank God for all the ordinary Christians who daily love their neighbors and live by faith in the resurrected Christ. They are the secret and sacred agents in the kingdom of God. The world will never know them, and it’s much better that way. They work openly, yet in…

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Chad Bird

6 months

Instead of theorizing and speculating about what God might be like, fix your eyes on Jesus. He is the full revelation of God, in the flesh, all for you.

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Chad Bird

1 year

Two of Satan’s favorite lies: 1) with enough effort, you can do the Law. 2) with enough sin, you can undo the Gospel.

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Chad Bird

7 months

Our Life in the Wilderness The Bible begins in a garden (Eden) and ends in a city (New Jerusalem). In between, there’s lots of time in that dry, desert territory known in Hebrew as the מִדְבָּר (midbar). The midbar is usually translated as “wilderness” or “desert.” Israel spent…

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Chad Bird

6 years

One man asked a priest: "If God is everywhere, what do I go to Church for?" To which the priest replied: "The whole atmosphere is filled with water; but when you want to drink you have to go to a fountain or a well." --from Orthodox Christianity's FB Page

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Chad Bird

7 months

There Will Come a Day There will come a day when the sap of shame that sticks to our souls will finally and irrevocably be washed away as we stand smiling before the God who has made us whole. There will come a day when parents will not slump beside a coffin that encases the…

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Chad Bird

8 months

When you approach God in prayer, don’t think of a majestic, almighty old man in the clouds. Picture a man with —scars of suffering —eyes that have wept —ears that have heard hate —a mouth that’s hungered —a heart that’s bled There is no more sympathetic listener than Christ.

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Chad Bird

7 months

Why Was Christianity’s First Name “The Way”? Long before Christianity was known as Christianity, it was simply called The Way. In Acts, for instance, Saul was hunting down men and women “belonging to the Way” (9:2). In Ephesus, there was an uproar over those who were part of…

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Chad Bird

4 months

Every time I want to pat myself on the back for not caving in to temptation, for standing firm against sin’s allurement, I eat some humble pie alongside Abimelech. We read about Abimelech in Genesis 20, one of the chapters we covered today if you are doing Bible in One Year…

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Chad Bird

2 years

Here is my son’s obituary. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever written. My family and I thank God for all of you who have left messages and comments. Service times will be announced later. Christ’s peace to you all.

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Luke Bird Obituary - New Braunfels, TX

Celebrate the life of Luke Bird, leave a kind word or memory and get funeral service information care of Zoeller Funeral Home.

www.dignitymemorial.com

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Chad Bird

10 months

It seems to me that there are two equally dangerous and false extremes that we can fall into about America. One is that it is the new promised land, a utopia, God’s favorite nation on earth. This fosters a kind of religious nationalism that is both idolatrous and willfully…

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Chad Bird

6 months

The Object Lesson of Once-Powerful Nineveh It was rich. It was powerful. It was famous. By worldly standards, the city of Nineveh had everything going for it. Nineveh, one of the oldest cities in the world, was located on the outskirts of modern-day Mosul, Iraq. When the…

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Chad Bird

1 year

The Hebrew verb yarad means “to go down.” Jonah yarads big time. When God commands him to go to Nineveh, Jonah goes down to Joppa, goes down to a ship, and goes down into the hold of the ship. Each time yarad is used. But Jonah isn't finished. He finally goes down into the sea,…

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Chad Bird

11 months

A Hebrew Kind of Forgetting When I was in my early 20’s, I forgot to pick someone up from the airport. Today, this situation would be easily resolved by a quick phone call. But this was well before the age of cell phones. By the time my friend fed several quarters into a…

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Chad Bird

4 months

Babel: The Butt of God’s Joke Sometimes there is an inside joke in Hebrew. For example, at the Tower of Babel, God says, “Let us go down and confuse [נבלה] their speech” (Gen. 11:7). As Jewish scholar Nahum Sarna points out, the Hebrew consonants in this form of the verb for…

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Chad Bird

1 year

At Lazarus' grave, Jesus did not say, “Death is natural, a normal part of the cycle of life.” No, he wept. Then he kicked death in the teeth.

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Chad Bird

11 months

Suggestions on How to Pray Many of you are probably familiar with the expression, “Lord, teach us to pray…” from Luke 11. What you might not be as familiar with is the rest of the sentence, “…as John taught his disciples.” As John taught his disciples. What are the…

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Chad Bird

3 months

Repentance does not cause God to accept us. God's kind acceptance of us in Christ leads us to repentance (Rom 2:4).

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Chad Bird

6 months

Our greatest weaknesses are often the raw material God uses to demonstrate his strength. He uses our losses, struggles, and deficiencies as the vehicles for his kind of success in our life. So we wrestle with weaknesses. So our closets have enough skeletons to populate a…

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Chad Bird

7 months

Color the ordinary black-and-white activities of your daily life with prayer. While washing your hands or taking a drink: “Thank you, dear Father, for clean water.” While getting dressed: “Clothe me in your righteousness, O Christ.” While talking with a friend or stranger,…

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Chad Bird

5 months

Gird the Loins of Your Mind? A Odd and Meaningful Biblical Expression Peter uses an odd—and rather humorous—image when he tells his readers, “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the…

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Chad Bird

4 months

Genesis 1 is Part of God’s Preparation for Our Salvation When God planted the trees in Eden, he was making sure there would be wood for both a manger and a cross. When God poured out oceans and rivers, he was preparing for our baptism into Christ in the waters of the Jordan.…

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Chad Bird

5 months

Jesus rarely gives the kind of answer we expect. For instance, when John was in prison, and sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” (Luke 7:19), I would have expected Jesus to say, “Go and tell John, ‘Yes, I am the…

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Chad Bird

6 months

Womb-Like Compassion in Hebrew When we want to describe emotional pain or pleasure, joy or grief, we often turn inward—I mean, literally *turn inward,* to the organs inside our bodies. In older English, people used to say someone was “venting their spleen” when they expressed…

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Chad Bird

1 month

When you approach God in prayer, don't think of a majestic, almighty, old man in the clouds. Picture a man with: •scars of suffering •eyes that have wept •ears that have heard hate •a mouth that's hungered •a heart that's bled There is no more sympathetic listener than…

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Chad Bird

1 year

The Aaronic or Priestly blessing is one of the most ancient benedictions in the world (Numbers 6:24-26). It has been spoken over the people of God for millennia. In many churches, including my own, these words conclude every Sunday service as our pastor speaks them over us. The…

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Chad Bird

2 years

Ezekiel's favorite word for "idols" is גִלּוּלִים (gillulim), which means "dung deities" or "crap gods." In fact, Hebrew uses many pejorative words for false gods. The Scriptures show no mercy, no grace, no respect to idols. Let us give heed.

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Chad Bird

2 months

Not on your good days or bad days or worst of days was salvation up to you. It was always up to Jesus alone.

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Chad Bird

6 months

Emmanuel, Our Flesh-and-Blood God Emmanuel is two words in Hebrew, Immanu (“with us”) and El (“God”). This child is the “with-us-God” or, as we say in better English, “God with us.” Ages before this God-with-us boy was born, he was already with his people, but not in a…

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Chad Bird

3 months

Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good - above all, that we are better than someone else - I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil. C. S. Lewis Mere Christianity

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Chad Bird

11 months

While translating Luke's opening chapter the last couple of mornings, I was once again struck by how "Old Testament-ish" his words and narrative are. We meet a priest and his wife, who are old and childless but are promised a baby boy, like so many prominent aged couples in the…

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Chad Bird

7 months

Brutally Honest Prayer We can be brutally honest with our Father. We not only can; he wants us to be. No sugarcoating. No tiptoeing around something that’s bothering us. Just lay it all out before him. That’s what Asaph does in Psalm 77. He can’t sleep. His life is in turmoil.…

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Chad Bird

7 months

Jonah is literally a downer. The Hebrew verb, yarad (“to go down”), is used repeatedly in the first half of his story: •He goes down to Joppa •He goes down into the ship •He goes down to the inner part of the ship •In the fish, he goes down to the depths of the sea. Finally,…

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Chad Bird

10 months

How Long, O Lord? It is no surprise that one of the most common questions in the Psalms is, “O Lord, how long….?” O Lord, how long until you take away the cancer that’s attacking my body? O Lord, how long will I get turned away from every company I apply to? O Lord, how long…

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Chad Bird

6 months

Peter alone walked on water to Jesus, but we tend to focus on him sinking. Thomas alone said they should go with Jesus, even if they died, but we tend to focus on his later unbelief. Lord, help us not to fixate on people’s failures but rejoice in their fidelities.

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