WEEKLY BIBLE STUDY

[B-Man]

 

 

A needed laugh.

 

[Cinga]

Feb 27

When we left off on John before, he had met the Samaritan woman at the well and in conversation, had admitted to her the He was the Messiah they were expecting. We know prior to this that many knew who He was thanks to John the Baptist, but this is the first instance we know of that he admitted it. Think on that for a minute and realize that He first did this with a non-Jew! But there is a bit more to this as well, since it was against Rabbinical thought at the time, for Him to even be speaking to the woman let alone apparently, teaching her

My comments are in italics.

 

²⁷ Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” – As mentioned in the intro, it was thought of as somewhat scandalous, especially of one of such high regard, to be speaking to a woman let alone a woman of questionable repute.

 

²⁸ Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” ³⁰ They came out of the town and made their way toward him. – We don’t know how many people this was but considering a town at Jacob’s well I would think it was a sizable Samaritan town. And He told her everything she did, note they were one on one, and He told her of her own deepest darkest secrets. In verse 19 we know she thought of Him as a prophet but is now looking for some kind of confirmation from her neighbors that He is indeed the Messiah. But note too that the men were moved, perhaps by the woman’s words, or perhaps by the Holy Spirit to go investigate this for themselves.

 

³¹ Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” ³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” ³³ Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” – While the woman was away, and before the men of the town came, the disciples laid out some food they had acquired. We can assume He was tired and in need of some sustenance since He stayed by the well while they went to buy food but now He wasn’t eating what they brought and thought maybe someone else had come along and fed Him something.

 

³⁴ “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. – This is to tell them that through this spiritual interaction, His physical hunger had been satisfied. But also remember the end of that statement please, “….to finish His work” which could also be interpreted as to do His Will.

 

³⁵ Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. –  A normal harvest may be from the time of planting the seed, until the time of harvest, about 4 months. But here He is telling the disciples that there is a harvest at hand in the people of the town of the way to meet with Him.

 

³⁶ Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. – This is before the Samaritans return, but He is referring to them here, as ready for a harvest that will bring them eternal life.

 

³⁷ Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. ³⁸ I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.” – A dual meaning here… The disciples did go to town to purchase the fruits of someone else labor. But we also know that while they were away He worked as the Sower, planting the seed with the woman, and now knew the harvest of that labor was at hand in the people of the town.

 

³⁹ Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” – Amazingly, moved by the Spirit and the woman’s words, many in the town believed the woman even without coming to see Jesus for themselves yet.

 

⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. ⁴¹ And because of his words many more became believers. – As we learn here that He and the disciples stayed with them for a couple days, I want to remind you from the beginning of the chapter there was no love lost between Jews and Samaritans so staying and sharing the Good News of salvation with them as more became believers, is a powerful testimony to Jesus ministry.

 

⁴² They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

As we close for the week, I hope you take a couple things from this lesson this week. First, that Salvation, even from the beginning was not only for the Jews, but for everyone. Later we will see in Acts 10 that the Lord  teaches Peter of just that through a vision even though he must have surely known already from this  encounter.

The other is that while some people even during Jesus’ time on earth with us, got to see with their own eyes the wonders He performed. But many of the other’s came to believe just as we do today, merely based on the eyewitness accounts of others. Remember our lesson of Lazarus and the rich man from Oct 17 from Luke 16?

May you and yours have a Blessed week!

[Fansince88]

For the prayer warriors this morning. Let you focus be " Lord expose what is done in secret. Let the light overtake the darkness" 

[Cinga]

March 13

 

Apologies for missing last week, I had too many distractions going on to be able to focus enough on the  lesson

Before we go into the Cain and Able story, I want to take a break and just discuss a little more on what we have studied to this point.

So far in Genesis, we have witnessed, through God’s eyes, the 6 literal days of Creation, walked through the Garden in the cool of the evening with the Lord, and been kicked out of the Garden after introducing sin and death into Creation by disobeying God.

But understand here the depths of what we have read and experienced so far. In the Beginning, everything was perfect, and God had only given them one single command; not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil or they would surely die. It was at that very moment that not only sin and death were introduced into what had been a perfect Creation, but both emotional and physical struggles. Greed, anger, jealousy along with bad bacteria’s, thorns, drought, pestilence and so much more.  

I think almost everyone on the planet is familiar with the 10 Commandments however when we get to the Book of Leviticus (translated the Book of Laws) we will see God sets over 600 laws dealing with everything from bacteria (destroy and throw away cracked pottery) to hygiene (gather cooking water upstream from where you wash).

But the point is, none of this was necessary prior to the fall.

 

My comments are in italics

 

⁸ Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. – Jealous? Rage? Murder? We run the gauntlet of what we think of as bad sins here but I want to establish with you that the hierarchy of some sins worse that others is man-made. God views ALL sin as abhorrent and we as Christians should as well.

 

⁹ Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” – First, God is still walking among them here, and of course is well aware of what has happened to Abel. Remember something similar with Adam and Eve as if He was giving them a chance of confession for their sin.

 

“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” – In his lying to God, he not only sins again, but has thrown away that chance of redemption he may have gotten through honesty and confession. But it is also up to us, in our search for redemption, to first accuse ourselves of wrongdoing, and then ask for forgiveness.  So does Cain even realize what he has done wrong?

 

¹⁰ The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. ¹¹ Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. ¹² When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.” – Cain had been a farmer, tilling and working the soil to create a harvest. But is now the first person cursed, for as he contaminated the ground with his brother’s blood, the soil will no longer produce for him and he is sent away as a wanderer. Wanderer here is na, and could also mean fugitive which may help make more sense of these next verses. Some versions use both, saying Cain would be a fugitive and wanderer.

 

¹³ Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear. ¹⁴ Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” – This is the first, but certainly not the last that  we will see that sin is what separates us from God. This is my opinion but I think to be eternally condemned to hell is one thing, but the true hell is to be eternally separated from God. Notice how Cain mentions this punishment first before, almost as an afterthought, and oh yeah, someone might kill me.

 

¹⁵ But the Lord said to him, “Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. – Speculation is rampant over what this mark may have been with nothing to really base these presumptions on. But the original for put on is wayyasem which can also be set, or appoint and is also used when God sets the rainbow as a reminder to Himself as a miraculous sign.

 

¹⁶ So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

¹⁷ Cain made love to his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch. – Don’t get hung up on the incest thing here as so many do, yes, this would have been a sister, niece, or other relative. In modern times we know there can be consequences of it but Cain is only a generation descended from the perfection Adam and Eve were at the beginning of Creation. The really interesting part of this is Cain began to build a city. I’m going to establish soon that due to the long life of people then, the population grows quickly. However this is so soon after Creation it hadn’t built much yet, but Cain had the foresight to begin to build already for that population explosion.

 

¹⁸ To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael was the father of Methushael, and Methushael was the father of Lamech.

¹⁹ Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah. ²⁰ Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock. ²¹ His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play stringed instruments and pipes. ²² Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron. Tubal-Cain’s sister was Naamah.

When Biblical Historians discus the age of Creation, we do so based off the dedication the writers of Scripture have to documenting the generations throughout. So specific in parts as we will see soon and I’ve referred to before, in the generations from Adam to Noah we can calculate there were 1656 years between Creation, and the Flood of Noah.

 

²³ Lamech said to his wives,

“Adah and Zillah, listen to me;
    wives of Lamech, hear my words.
I have killed a man for wounding me,
    a young man for injuring me.
²⁴ If Cain is avenged seven times,
    then Lamech seventy-seven times.”

Let’s unwrap this a minute. Cain killed Abel, and while he was sent away from God’s presence, it was also established that anyone who killed him would see 7fold vengeance by God. Here however we see Lamech killed a young man, but the original is weyeled which really means child, offspring, or boy. Perhaps his own child? However, to declare that anyone who might try to punish him might face 77 times vengeance gives you a hint of the decay quickly taking place among Cain descendants, and possibly in the whole of Creation.

 

²⁵ Adam made love to his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, “God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.” ²⁶ Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. - At that time people began to call on the name of the Lord.

We’ll read next chapter that Adam is 130 when they have Seth, and later we will learn that it is through Seth lineage that Noah is descended, and ultimately Jesus directly but also all of mankind we know of today. Also we know of Cain and Abel birth and that they were probably soon after the fall, but don’t get hung up on thinking Seth was the 3^rd born as we can be sure Adam and Eve had many other children and quite probably more between Abel and Seth.

May you and yours have a Blessed week!

[Cinga]

Mar 20

When we left Jesus last in John 4 He and the disciples had taken the time to stay in a Samaritan town and we saw early in His Ministry that Jesus here not only for the Salvation of the Jews, but for the Gentiles (non-Jews) as well. This is one of those examples when you learn something but it seems hidden until a later time when it suddenly (the Spirit awakens) makes sense and you remember. This lesson is one of those for the disciples as it will take a reminder after Jesus has been crucified for them to remember. But we're about to also see the contrast between the Samaritans who believed without seeing, and the Galileans, many of whom had to see before believing. 

My comments are in italics

 

⁴³ After the two days he left for Galilee. ⁴⁴ (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) ⁴⁵ When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. – Remember, while Jesus was born in Bethlehem near Jerusalem when they returned from Egypt Joseph settled with them in Nazareth which is in Galilee and is what He was referring to. However, in Luke he tells us that Jesus returns to Galilee in Power, we think meaning He had Miracles and Wisdom to back Him up in His Ministry.

 

They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there. – Here again we have people that believed because they had seen the miracles for themselves.

 

⁴⁶ Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. – Back in October we covered the Wedding at Can where Jesus mother had Him turn water into wine

 

And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. - – I think it obvious that word of the Miracles Jesus had worked had traveled through Galilee so of course royal officials would have heard. The original is basilikos and used only here in the Bible so it’s meaning is somewhat questioned as it could mean kings man or military officer if we use the popular writings of the historian Josephus. But we also see through this that honors and titles are no protect from sickness or death, nor keeps us from the Grace of God

 

⁴⁷ When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.  ⁴⁸ “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.” – So Jesus hears the man beg Him to come heal his son, and Jesus questions his Faith in a sort of, why do you think I need to come if you believe? While commentary on this will tell you the signs and wonders statement was intended for the Jews of the day, this is also I believe a direct question to each and every one of us. Do you really have to see to believe, or is the word of Moses and the prophets enough?

 

⁴⁹ The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” – In this request to the Lord, he must have been firm and confident in his Faith for what follows

 

⁵⁰ “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.” – Astounding! Jesus saw the man’s Faith was sincere and strong and granted the Miracle even without His presence! But even more so see that the Lord is Faithful Himself to those who believe!

 

The man took Jesus at his word and departed. ⁵¹ While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. – Think of this revelation and the urgency this official knew he needed Jesus help. It seems the boy was so sick; the man may not even make it back it time with Jesus to save him.

 

⁵² When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.” ⁵³ Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed.

⁵⁴ This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.

 

So we’ve seen 2 extremes here the last few weeks as we had the Samaritans, many of whom believed only on the words of the woman at the well, then the Galileans who only believed because they had seen. The official however brings us meaning of the lesson, and shows us what we should be as Christians, believe in Him, and trust in His Grace.

To end for this week, I want to expand more on verse 48. Please don’t get caught up in the many dogmas that seem to try to blame everything on the Jews. While yes, the Jews of the day were reluctant to accept who Jesus was, I would argue it was because of the many dogmas of that day that demanded a Messiah who would lead them in war against their oppressors. There is a good chance this official was a Jew who believed, and of course the disciples are all Jews. But understand first that Jesus came here to save all of us, to sacrifice Himself for the redemption of both Jews and Gentiles alike.

How many times have you heard that the Jews or the Roman crucified Christ? How many of us have repeated the same thing over the years? But is this true? Think of it…. If He truly came for all our Salvation, wasn’t it me that crucified Him? He died for the atonement of my sins so in truth, that make ME the guilty man.

I nailed Him to the Cross….

May you and yours have a Blessed week!

[Cinga]

MAR 27

 

Some of the chapters of Genesis will go quickly now as they are much smaller that the previous ones.

As I said early on with this, we are not going to debate old earth evolution with young earth Creation. However, we have proven the Truth of God’s Word, so for our lesson here we are strictly following the relatively young earth that is calculated through Biblical genealogy. It’s generally accepted among Judeo/Christian Scholars that Abraham was about 2000 years before Christ, and of course we also know there has been about 2000 years since Christ. So then the only thing left to calculate is the time from Creation, through Noah, and eventually to Abraham and of course we have the genealogies that lead up to that to help us there. During that time, while most accept it was about another 2000 years, there are what some claim to be “gap theories” in there that might extend that time.

But make no mistake, those supposed gaps do not, and cannot make up the difference of billions of years between old, and young earth thought and so our focus will remain with the young earth because we believe in the Word of God and his Prophets. While this is just my own humble opinion, I find it preposterous that historians think of the writings of people like Homer, Plato, Socrates, and many others as fact, yet question the writings of the prophets of Scripture.

Here is one of those geological accounts that leads us to the point of time, just a few years before the flood. It doesn’t require a lot of comment, but at every generation we will total the number of years. All except for one will begin with how long they lived, before giving birth to a descendant who will be the line that takes us to Noah, and from there, on to Abraham. It then gives us the total number of years they lived. Please note that just as with Seth is not the first born of Adam as we know, the others most likely had other children as well before the one that is named. As we go through however, imagine the sheer number of children each one of them had given the longevity of their life!

My comments in italics

 

This is the written account of Adam’s family line.

When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. ² He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them “Mankind” when they were created. – They are both, man and woman, Created in His image and named Mankind. Can we stop with this inferiority nonsense that some perceive of women? Both are just as important in Creation as the other, and neither exists without the other

 

³ When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. ⁴ After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. ⁵ Altogether, Adam lived a total of 930 years, and then he died.

130 years from the beginning of Creation and Seth birth, but also remember Adam lives 930 years

 

⁶ When Seth had lived 105 years, he became the father of Enosh. ⁷ After he became the father of Enosh, Seth lived 807 years and had other sons and daughters. ⁸ Altogether, Seth lived a total of 912 years, and then he died.

130 years, plus 105 is 235 since the Beginning

 

⁹ When Enosh had lived 90 years, he became the father of Kenan. ¹⁰ After he became the father of Kenan, Enosh lived 815 years and had other sons and daughters. ¹¹ Altogether, Enosh lived a total of 905 years, and then he died.

235 plus 90 is 325 years

 

¹² When Kenan had lived 70 years, he became the father of Mahalalel. ¹³ After he became the father of Mahalalel, Kenan lived 840 years and had other sons and daughters. ¹⁴ Altogether, Kenan lived a total of 910 years, and then he died.

325 plus 70 is 395 years

 

¹⁵ When Mahalalel had lived 65 years, he became the father of Jared. ¹⁶ After he became the father of Jared, Mahalalel lived 830 years and had other sons and daughters. ¹⁷ Altogether, Mahalalel lived a total of 895 years, and then he died.

395 plus 65 is 460 years

 

¹⁸ When Jared had lived 162 years, he became the father of Enoch. ¹⁹ After he became the father of Enoch, Jared lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. ²⁰ Altogether, Jared lived a total of 962 years, and then he died.

460 plus 162 is 622

 

²¹ When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. ²² After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. ²³ Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years. ²⁴ Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.

622 plus 65 is 687 years. And notice in the commentary that God still walked the earth with Creation at this time, and we see here that Enoch was so Faithful he didn’t die! God took him directly to Heaven instead and is one of only 2 we know for sure were taken up like this.

 

²⁵ When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he became the father of Lamech. ²⁶ After he became the father of Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years and had other sons and daughters. ²⁷ Altogether, Methuselah lived a total of 969 years, and then he died.

687 plus 187 is 874 years since the Beginning, and up until now, Adam is still alive and having other sons and daughters! Methuselah is the longest living person that we know of at 969 years.

 

²⁸ When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. ²⁹ He named him Noah and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.” ³⁰ After Noah was born, Lamech lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters. ³¹ Altogether, Lamech lived a total of 777 years, and then he died.

874 plus 182 is 1,056 years

 

³² After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth

1056 plus 500 is 1556 and the flood would come when Noah was 600, in the year 1656 from Creation. If you continue to do the math through all of them, you will find all the forefathers will die before the flood except for Enoch of course. Methuselah will be the last, dying just before the flood.

God knew the attacks that would come against Scripture, and many of those are of course focused on Genesis and the accounts of Creation. But I hope you have seen as we’ve gone, how detailed God was in the account He gave to Moses to pass down to us.

 

May you and yours have a Blessed week!

[Cinga]

April 10

 

Apologies for missing last week, I was not in a good state of mind, missing my wife terribly and found myself writing with anger at God in my heart and that is not a time to ask the Spirit to guide me.

As we return to John this week I hope you realize the significance of one on one interactions we are witnessing with Jesus as we get ready to learn of another one.

But first, a couple notes for what is coming. First, the language at the time, and what Jesus and other Jews of the time spoke was Aramaic and not Hebrew. It was a kind of blend of dialects at the time, originating in nearby Syria. Of course, the Jewish scholars also knew Hebrew with Aramaic being sort of the laymen’s language. The other is this pool of Bethesda which also means House of Mercy. We’re not going to discuss the debate of where the pool was, but you need to know that every once in a while, the waters would be stirred up by an angel, and it was believed the first one in the pool when it happened would be healed of whatever infirmity they had.

My comments are in italics

 

Sometime later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. ² Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. ³ Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed and they waited for the moving of the waters. – Each of these people were there to see the pool stir and try to be the first into it to be healed. While in our minds it might be a place of wonder because of the healing but it may have very well been a place of sickness and death as people from all around came here to try to be the first.

 

⁴ From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease they had – Some newer translations leave this verse out and while I don’t want to get into the debate of which is correct, some think this pool was a kind of mineral bath, and the stirring in the water was a resurgence of minerals naturally flowing into the pool. However, I have yet to see a mineral spring that can cure paralysis or some of the other inflictions mentioned.

 

⁵ One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. – Let’s get past the sympathy a moment, and wonder together why, in 38 years, he hadn’t been healed yet? It seems he can get around somewhat, or he wouldn’t be by the pool.

 

⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” – Does it seem perhaps Jesus is thinking the same thing by this question? But this could also be a question He is asking each and every one of us. Do you want to get well? Do each of us want His healing that comes with Salvation?

 

⁷ “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” – This is actually a non-answer to the question asked of him, isn’t it? Can we call it an excuse? Has he ever asked for help? Or maybe the better question is, had he ever asked God for help?  

 

⁸ Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” ⁹ At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. – This almost seems as if the Lord is frustrated with his answer, but let’s realize for a minute that of all the people at the pool, Jesus chose this man to show us God’s Glory through and with no ceremony simply commanded him to pick up his mat and walk as he was instantly cured of his affliction.

 

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, ¹⁰ and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.” ¹¹ But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ” – This is a bit extreme actually of Jewish law, and certainly not the only time Jesus will do something to offend the priest of the day with regard to Shabatt, or the Sabbath. The are forbidden from any work that day, as God deemed it to be a day of rest as He rested on the 7^th day.

 

¹² So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?” ¹³ The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

¹⁴ Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” ¹⁵ The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.

 

As Jesus goes through His ministry here on earth, there will be more times he tells people to stop sinning as He heals them. We’ll learn more about this as we continue through the Scripture, but here Jesus is also giving us a look at our own healing of Salvation through Him. Since when we are saved, we are also commanded to stop sinning and to try to be more like Christ. Of course, as Christians we are far from perfect and we stumble often in our daily walk. Then however we repent, ask forgiveness and are renewed in Him.

Someone once told me the difference between being saved or not could be summed up in an image. Picture 2 men walking though a swampy mire. On the one hand, a man not saved is often dragged under, and soon is walking through life dragging the mud accumulated over his life. This hardens a man’s heart as we have discussed before as he has become weighted down by the things of this world.  For the Christian though, as he is sure to stumble, he gets back up again and in cleaned, renewed in Christ.

I’m going to leave you for the week with my favorite “Forgiveness” painting by Thomas Blackshear and I pray you take a moment to recognize the significance of everything he did in this image.

May you and yours have a Blessed week!

 

[B-Man]

 

 

A blessed Palm Sunday to all my Billsfans brothers and sisters, believers and non-believers.

 

 

 

 

[Billsandhorns]

My favorite poem of all time is Footprints and the imagery that goes along with it. Two set of prints and then one set of prints in the sand. 

[devnull]

On 4/10/2022 at 10:17 AM, Cinga said:

 

 

Is that Jesus carrying Mel Gibson?

[Cinga]

1 hour ago, devnull said:

 

Is that Jesus carrying Mel Gibson?

 

It could be, and anyone else that accepts Salvation through Him so I guess you could say, it's all of us....

[Fansince88]

5 hours ago, devnull said:

 

Is that Jesus carrying Mel Gibson?

 

4 hours ago, Cinga said:

 

It could be, and anyone else that accepts Salvation through Him so I guess you could say, it's all of us....

Wow! Loved this photo. Speaks so much. Notice, he is holding him although the hammer and nail is still in his hands. This displays the love that the God/man had to have to lay it all down for you and I. 

[Cinga]

2 hours ago, Fansince88 said:

 

Wow! Loved this photo. Speaks so much. Notice, he is holding him although the hammer and nail is still in his hands. This displays the love that the God/man had to have to lay it all down for you and I. 

 

Yup, while standing in a small stream of the Blood of the Lamb, he is also being cleansed from head to foot as well. I saw the print in a Christian store back in the late 90s or early oughts and of course had to have it. Used to be able to get card size copies years ago but not sure if you still can. 

Just made me remember, and I just looked. Cindy always kept 2 in her wallet and they're still there. :-(

[Fansince88]

20 minutes ago, Cinga said:

 

Yup, while standing in a small stream of the Blood of the Lamb, he is also being cleansed from head to foot as well. I saw the print in a Christian store back in the late 90s or early oughts and of course had to have it. Used to be able to get card size copies years ago but not sure if you still can. 

Just made me remember, and I just looked. Cindy always kept 2 in her wallet and they're still there. 😞

When I post this picture tomorrow I would like to use 2 Corinthians 5:17 with your permission. So much hope in that verse

[Cinga]

6 minutes ago, Fansince88 said:

When I post this picture tomorrow I would like to use 2 Corinthians 5:17 with your permission. So much hope in that verse

 

Of course! It's a gift that belongs to everyone!

[devnull]

7 hours ago, Cinga said:

 

It could be, and anyone else that accepts Salvation through Him so I guess you could say, it's all of us....

 

[IDBillzFan]

On 4/12/2022 at 2:09 PM, devnull said:

 

 

Have you seen this movie?

 

It absolutely changed Caviezel's entire life, but it is also one of the most powerful movies I've ever seen. When you're raised Catholic, you see a lot of windows depicting Christ's crucifixion, but Gibson opted to not spare a moment of truth, and it is absolutely gut-wrenching to watch. By the time you watch them nail him to the cross, and then start to slide Him and His cross into the hole they dug, it can absolutely wreck you.

 

Unless you just posted this to mock the discussion, in which case, that's pretty disappointing. 

[B-Man]

 

"It is finished."

 

 

 

 

[Cinga]

On 4/15/2022 at 3:05 PM, B-Man said:

 

"It is finished."

 

 

 

 

 

From Matt 27

 

From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. 46About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli,h lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

 

47When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He is calling Elijah.” 48One of them quickly ran and brought a sponge. He filled it with sour wine, put it on a reed, and held it up for Jesus to drink.

 

49But the others said, “Leave Him alone. Let us see if Elijah comes to save Him.”

 

50When Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, He yielded up His spirit. 51At that moment the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked and the rocks were split. 52The tombs broke open, and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised. 53After Jesus’ resurrection, when they had come out of the tombs, they entered the holy city and appeared to many people.

Edited April 17, 2022 by Cinga

[B-Man]