2 Corinthians, 2026, Colossians, KWT Paraphrasing

New and Renewed

I want us to first read Colossians 3:10.

10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, (link to the Text)

Now 2 Corinthians 5: 17
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (link to the Text)

Can we agree that new man and new creation mean the same? Good.

This is shaping up to be another backdoor approach to the Text (if you missed yesterday’s post, click here). It seems to me from these verses that we who are in Christ are new men and new women. And from verse 10, we, the new man and new woman, from time to time need renewing. So, do we get dull or something?

But how?
And what could bring renewal to the new? Correct me if I am wrong, but it seems to me that verse 10 says that the new man can (in a sense) become not so new if the man (or woman) does not practice learning Him who rebirthed them.
We need to keep on knowing (learning) JESUS.
And how do we do that?
Only one way I know: conversing with Him in the pages of His Word, continuously.
Which is why I keep coming day after day, year after year, to this digital screen, because I want to keep on knowing/learning Him, and I want to encourage you to keep on knowing/learning Him too.
I hope I am.

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2026, Ephesians, Gospel of Matthew, KWT Paraphrasing

The Back Door

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Sometimes I come at Scripture backwards, shall we say, like coming in the back door. Let me explain.

Matthew 22: 37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’  Link to Text

I am thinking in this moment that is exactly what we do, especially when we have a god other than Him.
(Remember now, I said backwards . . . back door.)
The evil one does all he can to see to it that we put other gods before GOD, that we give those gods our heart, mind, and soul. I mean, we go after those little g gods with all we got — careers, cars, houses, prestige, making money, pleasures, comforts, etc., etc.

So, this being true, take heart, my dear Friends, because when we give our allegiance to the LORD GOD, when we surrender to His LORDSHIP, to the GOD and Savior, HE WILL do exceedingly, abundantly more than we can think or ask (Ephesians 3:20-21) to enable us to do just what He said: love Him with all our hearts, soul, and mind. We can REST in this. We can believe this. We can receive this with great joy!

Is my back door making sense to you?
We know from experience that the evil one gives us more help than we want to do the opposite of what GOD says to do.
SO, since the evil one does that, we KNOW the Father will go infinitely beyond and in the other direction to enable us to obey His Word.

Of course! He is going to help us to do every good thing He wants us to do!

And to all that, I can only say, Thank You, Father; we are depending on You.

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2026, Gospel of Luke, Questions

Sink In

Let That Sink In

I have something for us to let sink in today.

Luke 8:
9 Then His disciples asked Him, saying, “What does this parable mean?”
10 And He said, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that
‘Seeing they may not see,
And hearing they may not understand.’

I’d like to concentrate on just a few words from verse 10 today. The rest of verse 10, perhaps another day.

And He said, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God,

In the Text, at the time it was spoken, He was speaking to His disciples. What is a disciple, anyway?

Free Dictionary dot com says: One who embraces and assists in spreading the teachings of another, and an active adherent, as of a movement or philosophy. Link

According to that definition, does He still have disciples today? Moreover, are you one of them? Am I?

And if so, what does this Text say about us?

“To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God,

It has been given for us to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of GOD! Not that it may be given, but it has! Father GOD is not hiding His Kingdom from us- how it functions, why He has a Kingdom, etc.
He wants us to know!

So, what’s holding us up? Let that sink in!

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2026, Deuteronomy, Philippians, Scripture Pics from You Version

Peace

Image crafted at YouVersion

A week ago, while reading Deuteronomy, I said to Father, I should like to learn to worship You as You desire.
Yes, that is just the way I wrote it — sometimes I like to turn a phrase differently. 😊

Would you expect to find in Deuteronomy a way we today can worship the LORD?
And why do I bring this up here when our verses today are found in Philippians? Bear with me, and I think you shall see.

10 and now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land which you, O Lord, have given me.’ “Then you shall set it before the Lord your God, and worship before the Lord your God. 

There’s our word: worship. Now moving on to verse 11.  

11 So you shall rejoice in every good thing which the Lord your God has given to you and your house, you and the Levite and the stranger who is among you. Link to Source

There’s today’s word: rejoice.
Rejoicing for every good thing the LORD brings our way is worship!
And may I add, rejoicing that He is with us when bitter things come our way is worship too!

I hope this is helpful to you today. It’s been a blessing for me to muse on since last week!

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We are glad you are here; stay a while, look around, and be encouraged. There are over 3,500 posts here at The White Stone Blog. Please know my hope is ALWAYS to help and NEVER harm. I have voiced many opinions and thoughts here since 2007 and by now I MAY NOT EVEN AGREE with all of them and some of my grammar and punctuation likely needs editing. But this is changeless: JESUS is our ONLY Savior and Hope. Do you KNOW Him?