WEEKLY BIBLE STUDY

[Fansince88]

8 hours ago, SackMan518 said:

 

Me too. I was troubled like him in my youth and received the sacraments this past Easter.

More importantly did you receive life from the one who provided the sacraments? Jesus said, I have come that you might have Life and that more abundantly. 

Edited September 4, 2022 by Fansince88

[SackMan518]

1 hour ago, Fansince88 said:

More importantly did you receive life from the one who provided the sacraments? Jesus said, I have come that you might have Life and that more abundantly. 

 

Hoping so. I'm a confirmed Catholic now and went through the whole deal (confirmation, first communion) after completing RCIA. I was baptized Catholic as an infant. In my 20s I was into all that nonsense New Age bullshit but had many mini revelations since then that drew me into the faith.

[Fansince88]

1 minute ago, SackMan518 said:

 

Hoping so. I'm a confirmed Catholic now and went through the whole deal (confirmation, first communion) after completing RCIA. I was baptized Catholic as an infant. In my 20s I was into all that nonsense New Age bullshit but had many mini revelations since then that drew me into the faith.

You can go much further than just hope. Its much bigger than a church or denomination.  It is all about a relationship. Jesus said it this simpy. Only believe. Paul, the one that wrote most of the New Testament in Scripture wrote throughout 2 Corintians 11 the boasting of what he accomplished.  He was being obviously sarcastic because in Chapter 12 he says all he really say of himself is he has weaknesses. And says he is strong because of his weaknesses. Strong in Christ. This same auther says, "for the wages of sins is death but the GIFT OF GOD is eternal life through Jesus. We can have abundant life because and only because of what He did on the cross. He says "if we confess with our mouth and believe in our hearts that Jesus christ is Lord we will be saved". It is really as easy as knowing that I am not perfect but He is and He redeemed my imperfection.  That is the Life I spoke of. We cant get that from an act of works. Only from and act of obedience. 

[Cinga]

Okay, I need some advice from my Brothers and Sisters here as I'm struggling with the way this BIBL-104 class is going, not the content, but some of the lesons it contains.

I'm in the 2nd week and have run into a few inconsistencies, like Noah Flood lasting 371 days, but then next a video that says the common thought 40 days. On a quiz where you place the tiles in the right sections, a couple of them have you placing OT prophets or Kings in chronological order, problem is there is no way to see all of them since they are a single stack and the only way to see the next one is to place the one on top. So if you have 5 blocks to place 5 kings in order, how can you do it without knowing all 5 in the stack of tiles? Yeah, you can do them over but that's not the point

Now it's about sentence structure and interpretation and they are recommending to help with interpretation you might want to check 5 to 6 different versions of the Bible and a current assignment has us comparing 2 versions against each other.

My issue with this is twofold... First, why look to other versions when you can go directly to the source? A version of the Bible, though carefully translated by committees and compared to other versions, are still a translation of the source we can find in a Concordance as I often reference in our studies on here. The other issue is in questioning your understanding of what you read I think can also be a mistrusting of the Spirit, as we know ALL understanding of the Word of God comes from the Spirit and I don't believe any version is wrong, as I believe that Jesus is the Word of God, and Jesus cannot be corrupted unless you take it out of context. I think you all know by now I am almost fanatical with study in context to make sure we are getting a good understanding of what we are reading. 

 

In the study I will post below, the issue of context is an important discussion and one I drag out a bit in this study as well as in my comments at the end of it.

Anyway, I might give it another week but I'm thinking of dropping the course as I'm a good bit disappointed with it so far and I'd appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers on it as I try to decide what to do next with this. Maybe send an email to the professor and mention these concerns? Drop the class and study Hebrew instead since I don't know anything closer to the source than that?

 

Edited September 5, 2022 by Cinga

[Cinga]

Sep 4

If you go back 2 weeks and read Gen 10:8-10 once again it will help to see what is happening here in the beginning of chapter 11 and the tower of Babel. Cush was the son of Ham, and Nimrod the son of Cush. Note in 10 their people established Nimrod kingdom in Babylon, Uruk, Akkad, and Kalneh in Shinar. It is in Shinar we pick up the story of Nimrod’s people and see how quickly after the flood they fall into sin once again.

My comments are in italics

 

11 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. Makes sense, right? Nimrod would be only 2 generations removed from Ham and the flood and everyone still speaks the same language.

 

² As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinarand settled there. – Derived from Sinar which is the country of 2 rivers and the ancient name for Babylonia or Chaldea.

 

³ They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” Nilbenah is let us make, meaning to make white, or purify to make harder with more compression value than normal red brick from a study I read of done in Indonesia.

 

They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. – Not sure of the tar instead, assuming to add elasticity but also to solidify the bond as mortar can be cracked and bricks removed, tar would be a stronger bond

 

⁴ Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, - And this is why they needed stronger bricks and a stronger bond that added elasticity since as you know, the taller the building the more it will sway from wind or seismic activity as well as the shear weight the higher it goes. The original Hebrew lends to the thought that it was meant to reach into the sky sort of as a beacon, not necessarily the Heavenly domain of God that is a common misconception of the story. Keep in mind there are 3 Heavens referenced in the Bible; lower being the sky, upper being space, and finally, the Abode of God where we all want to be.

 

so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” – This again seems to support the beacon idea, to give future generations a specific point of reference for all of them to return to. God had commanded to multiply and fill the earth, while these people seemed determined to stay nearby this specific area.

 

⁵ But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. – The Lord in the singular Yahweh or Jehovah

 

⁶ The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. – The command to fill the earth will not be done if they all still speak the same language, and have no desire to explore and expand and their arrogance may suggest they decide to challenge God Himself

 

⁷ Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”⁸ So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. – And by association, they quit building the tower and the lack of communication between them made them explore off on their own to establish more nations and ethnicities.

 

⁹ That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

 

I know this interpretive word is different than many of you probably thought of Babel, and I pray that highlights to you the importance of word for word study within the context of what you are reading. As I know you remember as well, the story of Noah Flood is almost always told as 40 days and 40 nights however you saw they were really on the Ark for just over a full year. However also keep in mind neither story changed the theme or purpose of the story. The flood still killed off all living creatures and the tower whether intent to reach Heaven or to act as a kind of beacon or lighthouse so they could always find their way back, the act to confuse their tongue and force them to scatter to all corners of the earth was still the objective.

For another example, jump ahead to the story of Jonah and of course you know the popular version says he lived inside the belly of a fish for 3 days…… But no, he didn’t, live that is… Go to chapter 2 and in verse 2 you see he cried out to the Lord from Sheol, the realm of the dead, or the grave. You see, Jonah was dead inside the fish and the Lord resurrected him after 3 days just as Jesus was resurrected 3 days later from the tomb. Yet again, it still doesn’t change the purpose which in this story it was the redemption of the city of Nineveh. It will also help to explain what you will read in Matt 12:40 when Jesus said, “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” As I pray this parallel makes more sense now.

May you and yours have a Blessed Week!

[SackMan518]

14 hours ago, Fansince88 said:

It is really as easy as knowing that I am not perfect but He is and He redeemed my imperfection.  That is the Life I spoke of. We cant get that from an act of works. Only from and act of obedience. 

 

100%. I'm with you there. While I do like going to church and the services comfort me the relationship is completely between Jesus and I.

[Fansince88]

10 hours ago, Cinga said:

Okay, I need some advice from my Brothers and Sisters here as I'm struggling with the way this BIBL-104 class is going, not the content, but some of the lesons it contains.

I'm in the 2nd week and have run into a few inconsistencies, like Noah Flood lasting 371 days, but then next a video that says the common thought 40 days. On a quiz where you place the tiles in the right sections, a couple of them have you placing OT prophets or Kings in chronological order, problem is there is no way to see all of them since they are a single stack and the only way to see the next one is to place the one on top. So if you have 5 blocks to place 5 kings in order, how can you do it without knowing all 5 in the stack of tiles? Yeah, you can do them over but that's not the point

Now it's about sentence structure and interpretation and they are recommending to help with interpretation you might want to check 5 to 6 different versions of the Bible and a current assignment has us comparing 2 versions against each other.

My issue with this is twofold... First, why look to other versions when you can go directly to the source? A version of the Bible, though carefully translated by committees and compared to other versions, are still a translation of the source we can find in a Concordance as I often reference in our studies on here. The other issue is in questioning your understanding of what you read I think can also be a mistrusting of the Spirit, as we know ALL understanding of the Word of God comes from the Spirit and I don't believe any version is wrong, as I believe that Jesus is the Word of God, and Jesus cannot be corrupted unless you take it out of context. I think you all know by now I am almost fanatical with study in context to make sure we are getting a good understanding of what we are reading. 

 

In the study I will post below, the issue of context is an important discussion and one I drag out a bit in this study as well as in my comments at the end of it.

Anyway, I might give it another week but I'm thinking of dropping the course as I'm a good bit disappointed with it so far and I'd appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers on it as I try to decide what to do next with this. Maybe send an email to the professor and mention these concerns? Drop the class and study Hebrew instead since I don't know anything closer to the source than that?

 

And now you know why they coin it the cemetery. If it was me I would spend the time learning Greek and Hebrew. Then draw it out yourself. I always go back to the old prophet and the young prophet in 1 Kings 13. No matter what "the elder" tells you it is better to do as the Spirit leads you. I have been rebuked by many in the institution for standing on that and that's ok with me. I would rather be rebuked than destroyed.

[B-Man]

 

 

Which brother are we -- and which do we want to be? Sunday reflection

 

ED MORRISSEY Sep 11, 2022 11:31 AM ET

 

[Cinga]

2 hours ago, B-Man said:

 

 

Which brother are we -- and which do we want to be? Sunday reflection

 

ED MORRISSEY Sep 11, 2022 11:31 AM ET

 

 

And a beautiful reflection of the prodigal son as it also relates to the first story of the lost sheep. The Lord will indeed go out of His way to find the lost and Heaven rejoices in each of us being found

 

I think I've shared this before, but this was my wife's favorite song and she could listen to it over and over again. Aren't we all prodigal sons after all?

 

 

 

[Fansince88]

3 minutes ago, Cinga said:

 

And a beautiful reflection of the prodigal son as it also relates to the first story of the lost sheep. The Lord will indeed go out of His way to find the lost and Heaven rejoices in each of us being found

 

I think I've shared this before, but this was my wife's favorite song and she could listen to it over and over again. Aren't we all prodigal sons after all?

 

 

 

You beat me to it bro!

[SackMan518]

On 9/11/2022 at 11:56 AM, B-Man said:

 

 

Which brother are we -- and which do we want to be? Sunday reflection

 

ED MORRISSEY Sep 11, 2022 11:31 AM ET

 

 

We just had a sermon about this story at Sunday Mass. Our priest asked us - Who was the sorriest character in this story? Most of the congregation said the younger brother who just wasn't accepting of the fact that his older brother received such good treatment after everything he'd done. The priest said it was the cow who was slaughtered. LOL.

[Cinga]

Sep 18

Three weeks ago I mentioned how the miracles Jesus performed while cool, were also a confirmation that He was who He said He was. This week we look at another kind of confirmation besides the healings and such He did as we see Him walk on water. This is also told in Matthew 14 and Mark 6 and I’m going to discuss a part in Matt not covered here in John at the end if this as Peter joins the Lord on the water.

My comments are in italics.

 

¹⁶ When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, - in the other versions Jesus sent them on their way as He took time to pray separate from everyone. As He did, He saw their distress on the sea

 

¹⁷ where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them. – Note here that the author tells us Jesus had not yet joined them, knowing that the Lord would without knowing how He would get there since they had taken the boat

 

¹⁸ A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. – These rough seas is what was causing their distress

 

¹⁹ When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were frightened. – We can all afraid of what we don’t understand sometimes and the disciples, even knowing Jesus as well as they did, were no different. In other versions they thought He was a ghost, and in Matt is the story of Peter we will discuss below a little

 

²⁰ But he said to them, “It is I; don’t be afraid.” ²¹ Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading. – As you see, a second miracle was performed here that seems drown out at times by the walking on water and that is they were immediately at their destination once Jesus joined them in the boat

 

²² The next day the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore of the lake realized that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples, but that they had gone away alone. ²³ Then some boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. ²⁴ Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.

 

I wanted to take a moment to discuss Matt 14:28-31. This happens when they see Jesus walking on water and think He might be a ghost. He has told them who He is, and not to be afraid. But Peter doesn’t seem satisfied with this and throws down a Gideon like challenge to the Lord.

 

²⁸ “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

²⁹ “Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. ³⁰ But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

³¹ Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

 

I wanted to bring this up for a couple reasons. First, if you are familiar with Gideon, he was one of the Judges (Chapters 6-8) of the OT but he was also a man of little to no courage. Well okay, he was a coward that was threshing wheat, hidden in a winepress when God called him. In his story, whenever God wanted him to do something, Gideon would throw down a challenge to be sure it was God asking this of him. Here we have Peter doing something similar with his “If it’s you” challenge. What I pray you take from this is that God doesn’t mind. If you feel He is telling you something, you can ask Him for confirmation that the direction is from Him but just as important we must keep out focus on Him.

The other is doubt. As you can see in the story Peter was fine and walked on water himself as long as he kept his eyes and focus on Jesus. It was when the storm raging around them distracted him did he become fearful and begin to sink. I pray you take this to heart Brothers and Sisters in Christ, especially in a time like this. There is no doubt that we live in treacherous times, and as things get even worse it’s going to be doubly important for us to keep out eyes, mind, and heart, focused on Christ.

May you and yours have a Blessed week!

[Cinga]

Oct 2

As we continue in Genesis chapter 11, I want to remind you that in Gen 6:2, God had decided to limit man mortal life to 120 years. From here, we are going to begin to see a steady decline in age until we reach that 120. Scientifically if you have been following, remember there was a water barrier above the sky. That barrier would have effectively blocked out UV rays which it is thought today is one of the main contributors to the aging process.

Not a lot of commentary on the first part but pay attention to the ages when they died.

My comments are in italics

 

¹⁰ This is the account of Shem’s family line.

Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the fatherof Arphaxad. ¹¹ And after he became the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters. - Keep in mind as well that Noah lived 300 more years after the flood as well for a total of 900 years. Your also seeing by this, since Shem was 98 the year of the flood, Noah would have already started to build the Ark.

 

¹² When Arphaxad had lived 35 years, he became the father of Shelah. ¹³ And after he became the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters. – Noah would be 637, Shem was 135

 

¹⁴ When Shelah had lived 30 years, he became the father of Eber. ¹⁵ And after he became the father of Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters. – Noah would be 667, Shem was 165

 

¹⁶ When Eber had lived 34 years, he became the father of Peleg. ¹⁷ And after he became the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters. – Noah is 701 and Shem is 199

 

¹⁸ When Peleg had lived 30 years, he became the father of Reu. ¹⁹ And after he became the father of Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters. – Noah is 731, Shem  is 229

 

²⁰ When Reu had lived 32 years, he became the father of Serug. ²¹ And after he became the father of Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters. Noah is 763 and Shem is 261

 

²² When Serug had lived 30 years, he became the father of Nahor. ²³ And after he became the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters. – Noah is 793 and Shem is 291

 

²⁴ When Nahor had lived 29 years, he became the father of Terah. ²⁵ And after he became the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters. – Noah is 822 and Shem is 320.

 

²⁶ After Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. – Abram is a name we are going to get to know much better as Abraham the Father of the Hebrews through his son Isaac, and the Arab nations through his son Ishmael. Noah would be 892 now, but he would have lived long enough to see 9 generations of his descendants and Shem, now 390 will not quite live long enough to know Abraham’s son Isaac.

 

²⁷ This is the account of Terah’s family line.

Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. ²⁸ While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth. – This is going be an important distinction going forward as Terah, then Abam takes Lot under his wing so to speak after Abram’s brother Haran, and Lot’s father dies.  

 

²⁹ Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milkah; she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milkah and Iskah. ³⁰ Now Sarai was childless because she was not able to conceive. – So Milkah was the daughter of Haran, the brother that died, so she would also be Lot’s sister and of course by association Nahor’s niece. We will also learn see the Grace of God in Sarai inability to conceive.

 

³¹ Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Harran, they settled there.

³² Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Harran.

 

As you can see, the decrease in the aging process was not only gradual, but it staggered somewhat in the early stages as Terah lived almost 100 years longer than his father Nahor though the Bible does not tell us how Nahor died either.

As we leave the narrative of Creation and the Fall and begin to explore God’s plan for Recovery and Redemption take shape through Abram/Abraham I want to leave you with another thought. I had previously mentioned the 2^nd Law of Thermodynamics, otherwise known of as the Law of Entropy. It means that progressively since the Fall, Creation has been descending into chaos. There is no such thing as evolving into a greater thing or being and this LAW bears that out. Science seems dumbfounded that both the earth rotation on it’s axis, and our yearly travel around the sun seems to be slowing. But it all just further proves the Law of Entropy.

May You and Yours have a Blessed week!

[Cinga]

Oct 9

When we left off on John, Jesus had come to the disciples walking on water, but apparently here hadn’t stayed with them and must have continued on His way to arrive ahead of them. Seems fitting to the entire narrative since the fall as Jesus has gone ahead of us to prepare a way to Restore us to His Grace and Redeem us through His Sacrifice

My comments are in italics

 

²⁵ When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” – Notice they asked when, not how did He get there as they already knew He walked

 

²⁶ Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. – Notice in the first, He chastises them that even though they saw Him performs signs and wonders, they hadn’t tried to enter into a Spiritual relationship with Him yet, and were only looking to the physical as portrayed by His comment about the loaves.

 

²⁷ Do not work for food that spoils, - some translations say meat that spoils but the original is brosin which translates literally to food or meal. But as you know, all food with the possible exception of honey, will spoil.

 

but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” – And here again He speaks of the Spiritual nourishment we find in Him that will last forever

 

²⁸ Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” – They had seen these works in the miracles and wonders of the Lord so the question is asking how can they obtain that ability to also work those miracles.

 

²⁹ Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” – Sound simple right? To believe on Jesus Christ who was sent by God for our Redemption….. Have Faith in Him but to also constantly work on that Faith. Faith is work!

 

³⁰ So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? – So, after all of this, and after all they had witnessed, they still ask for a sign?

 

³¹ Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” – The miracles of the loaves was a miracle of one day and they are challenging Jesus with the story from the Book of Exodus where God provides the Hebrews with Manna from Heaven as sustenance over the 40 years of wandering in the desert. But they are asking, if Moses was able to provide this during the 40 years, how can that compare to what Jesus did. Isn’t the Messiah supposed to be greater than Moses?

 

³² Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, - Jesus is drawing a distinction once again between the physical and spiritual, to get the conversation back to His point as Manna, as wonderful as the miracle was; it was still a physical food, and in fact if you read Exodus, it spoiled at the end of every day just as many foods will without some kind of preservation process.

 

but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. ³³ For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” – This may seem confusing to them at first, as they know that Manna fell from Heaven too

 

³⁴ “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.” – to this point it is safe to assume they are still thinking of a physical bread like the loaves or Manna

 

³⁵ Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 

This is the disciples and our own, introduction of Jesus being the Bread of Life as Jesus comes right out and tells them directly. He came from Heaven just as the Manna did, but this Bread will never spoil and will always satisfy out Spiritual hunger.  This is later along with wine as the Blood of Jesus, going t become known to us as Communion which can sometimes be misunderstood as drawing us closer to Jesus physically but is intended to be symbolic of our Spiritual relationship with Him

May you and yours have a Blessed week!

[Cinga]

I'm going to step back, and just leave you all with a thought for the week.

 

For decades Christians have been walking on egg shells, afraid to speak out in Faith and Christian candidates for office have assured the masses they won't use their Faith when making decisions. You've heard it, "well, that's not a very Christian thing to say or do", we all have. But isn't it ironic that many of the people telling us to be quite, to take our prayers to our closet don't even believe in Him? The evil one has been using Scripture out of context to keep us quiet and we have let it happen! Things like abortion would never have been allowed in this nation if people of Faith had taken a stand against it. Leaders who claim to be people of Faith who allowed it SHOULD have been held accountable by their own churches AND people of Faith in their districts except they fell for the lie of separation. 

 

And it's way past time for this nonsense to stop!

 

We need to consider our Faith in everything we do, and make God a part of every decision we  make. Every step we take, every word we say, Christ should be at the very center of it, and aways at the center of our life, our marriage, our business decisions! Separation of Church and State? Turn it back on them! How can it possibly be separation if they tell me what I can or can't do in my Faith? Of course it isn't when that happens, because that state is then controlling my religion and ia the antithesis of separation!

 

No, the time has come for people of Faith to make a stand, and in a Mighty Roar, push back on those who try to tell us when and where we can worship. Remember Jesus turning the tables on the money changers in His RIGHTIOUS ANGER! I truly feel that God is calling us to stop being sheepish and quiet in our Faith, to proclaim it loudly as time is short, and the more people see us standing tall for the Lord, many of them are going to wonder, and I pray they decide they too want some of that Love and Faith that we have!

 

In Faith, Prepare the way for the Lord!

 

 

[B-Man]

 

A Warrior's Prayer With the Armor of God

Heavenly Father, Your warrior prepares for battle. Today I claim victory over Satan by putting on the whole armor of God!

I put on the Girdle of Truth! May I stand firm in the truth of Your Word so I will not be a victim of Satan’s lies.

I put on the Breastplate of Righteousness!May it guard my heart from evil so I will remain pure and holy, protected under the blood of Jesus Christ.

I put on the Shoes of Peace! May I stand firm in the Good News of the Gospel so Your peace will shine through me and be a light to all I encounter.

I take the Shield of Faith! May I discern Satan’s fiery darts of doubt, denial, and deceit so I will not be vulnerable to spiritual defeat.

I put on the Helmet of Salvation! May I keep my mind focused on You so Satan will not have a stronghold on my thoughts.

I take the Sword of the Spirit! May the two-edged sword of Your Word be ready in my hands so I can expose the tempting words of Satan.

By faith your warrior has put on the whole armor of God! I am prepared to live this day in spiritual victory! Amen. - David Jeremiah

[Cinga]

1 hour ago, B-Man said:

 

A Warrior's Prayer With the Armor of God

Heavenly Father, Your warrior prepares for battle. Today I claim victory over Satan by putting on the whole armor of God!

I put on the Girdle of Truth! May I stand firm in the truth of Your Word so I will not be a victim of Satan’s lies.

I put on the Breastplate of Righteousness!May it guard my heart from evil so I will remain pure and holy, protected under the blood of Jesus Christ.

I put on the Shoes of Peace! May I stand firm in the Good News of the Gospel so Your peace will shine through me and be a light to all I encounter.

I take the Shield of Faith! May I discern Satan’s fiery darts of doubt, denial, and deceit so I will not be vulnerable to spiritual defeat.

I put on the Helmet of Salvation! May I keep my mind focused on You so Satan will not have a stronghold on my thoughts.

I take the Sword of the Spirit! May the two-edged sword of Your Word be ready in my hands so I can expose the tempting words of Satan.

By faith your warrior has put on the whole armor of God! I am prepared to live this day in spiritual victory! Amen. - David Jeremiah

 

So fitting for the days we're in, thank you for this! The enemy has read The Book and he knows how it ends. His time is short and he has grown desperate. 

[SackMan518]

Coach McDermott knows what's up:

 

"Glory to God man, honestly. Honestly, that's where all - first all glory belongs to God."

 

 

[Cinga]

Oct 23

Noah was our introduction to the Lord using people, even with all our flaws and faults, to fulfill His plan of rescue and redemption of a fallen Creation. This pattern is going to continue as we move into the story of Abraham, but also throughout Scripture with Prophets to speak His Word, and Leaders to heed those Words and guide us through this rescue period and culminate in our Redemption through Christ. Even today I have learned from someone here that God is once again raising up Prophets to give counsel to us, and our leaders.

Sometimes during the course of the Word, and in our own life, that direction God gives us to  step out of our comfort zone, and into the unknown as a way to grow our Faith in Him. This story of Abraham is one of those times

My comments are in italics

 

The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. – So right off the bat as we are introduced to Abram (later to be called Abraham) God is calling him to leave his family, his comfort zone. There is some debate here of whether this was done by literal manifestation or just a voice Abram heard, but let me just comment there will be other instances where Yahweh, the Lord, does indeed manifest Himself the Abram

 

² “I will make you into a great nation,

and I will bless you;

I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.

While we don’t know it yet, Abram as Abraham becomes the father of the Hebrew Nation but I’ll go a step further. If you look to Galatians 3:29 it says “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham seed, and heirs according to the promise” so I would make the argument that Abraham is the father of the Church, the body of Christ, a great nation indeed!
    

³ I will bless those who bless you,
    and whoever curses you I will curse;

and all peoples on earth
    will be blessed through you.”  -

All people can also be interpreted to mean all families and the Blessing can be taken in a passive sense through his descendants and eventually to the Blessing we can all receive through Jesus Christ.

 

⁴ So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. – Remember that Terah, Abram’s father left his family and took Abram and Lot with him. Lot was the son of Abram brother Haran who had died

 

Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. – Not exactly a teenager anymore leaving his home for the first time. Some commentary thinks Abram is now just continuing the journey Terah had started to go to Ur and think perhaps Terah had passed. But look at the genealogy again, Terah was 70 when Abram was born, so 75 years later is 145 but he lives to be 205 lending this theory no credibility.  But we’ll also see soon that 75 then certainly isn’t what 75 is today

 

⁵ He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. – All of the wealth they had acquired but the people were most likely including many people they had converted to Faith in the one True God.

 

⁶ Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. – Bear with me on this one…. Great tree is elown which can mean this, great oak, but also great plain. The area of Morah includes 2 peaks, Ebal and Gerizm with a valley between so it is very probable plain is the correct translation however we are approaching 400 years since the flood so as you know, there would be gigantic trees by now.

 

At that time the Canaanites were in the land. – Canaan and the Canaanites will be with us for a while as we continue through His Word.

 

⁷ The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. – No doubt on this one, appear is from the word way-yera which literally translates to see, look at, observe or visible.

 

⁸ From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.

⁹ Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.

 

As Noah did when they came out of the Ark, notice that Abram is also building altars for sacrifice during every main stage of his trip. This helps us to understand not only the depth of His Faith, but to confirm those that are travelling with him are also believers in Yahweh as the one true God

May you and yours have a Blessed week!

[Cinga]

Oct 30

When we left off John 6 Jesus had told the disciple that He was the Bread of Life and unlike Manna from heaven which only lasted the day, His Bread would last forever. Throughout His ministry on earth, this is a pattern you will unfortunately see often, even people who know the Word, question even when it is right in front of them.

My comments are in italics

 

³⁶ But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. – Pattern established and He even calls them out on it

 

³⁷ All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. – This is going in a new direction and is one of the pretext of what is called predetermination, that thinks that our fate for eternity has been predetermined by God. I’m not going into this in depth but in my opinion, predetermination ignores human free will and the omnipresence of God. If He knew you before setting the Foundations of Creation, don’t you think He also already knew what choices you would make in life, including the choice to accept salvation or not?

 

³⁸ For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. – This shows us a part of the difference between all powerful God in Heaven who sits outside of Creation, to Jesus, God who submitted Himself into Creation and arguably, limiting Himself in human form to that same Creation. However Jesus knows while working the will of Father in Heaven He can rely on the power and guidance of the Father in Heaven

 

³⁹ And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. – This not only feeds the common narrative that once you’ve been saved, you can’t lose your salvation, but I also want to address the term “all” here as the accusative neuter and referring to all times, all peoples, all places, and nations. Kind of an exclamation mark of ALL who are saved.

 

⁴⁰ For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” – To believe in Him is a simplified version of the Sinner’s Prayer of Salvation and rather profound. Simple belief? But let me emphasis too however that it is the belief in Him that makes us want to know Him better, and ask forgiveness for the things He died to redeem us from.

 

⁴¹ At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” ⁴² They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?” – Common today I think as well, when someone has seen and heard the Truth yet they challenge instead the things right in front of them that they don’t understand instead. Many in the crowd we can be sure have known Him, and His family for many years. So, as you see, discuss what they see instead of what they also know is in the prophecies of His comingi

 

⁴³ “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. ⁴⁴ “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. ⁴⁵ It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. – And here the Lord even tells them if they would look to the prophecies of His coming, they might understand the teachings of God

 

⁴⁶ No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. ⁴⁷ Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸ I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. ⁵⁰ But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

⁵² Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” -  We’re continuing their inability to understand the concept that just as God sent Manna from Heaven, so did He send Jesus from Heaven though Manna was for physical sustenance, He offered spiritual sustenance through His sacrifice yet to come.

 

⁵³ Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. ⁵⁶ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. ⁵⁷ Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” ⁵⁹ He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

 

We finish here with the introduction of what we refer to today as Holy Communion, using the bread, or a wafer/cracker to symbolize unleavened bread, and wine as the substitute for His body and blood in remembrance of His ultimate sacrifice for us.

I would also like to lay out another thought for you to carry into your week we can learn from this. Notice how the opposition to what Jesus is teaching them (and us) is focused on what they see here as we also do now in the world. All of them, just as we do had access to the Word of God through the Prophets and some of them were priests of the day, well versed in Scripture. However they were easily distracted, and I would argue deceived by the evil one as well by what I call the noises of the world. It’s a real struggle I think we all know, to give in to the distractions and lose focus on the One who can carry us through those distractions and deceptions.

May you and yours have a Blessed week!