"In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion."
- Psalms 71:1
May you guide me on my journey toward enlightenment. May you walk with me, and hold my hand, and steer me in the right directions. Allow me to glean from your morsels the information that you intend, and help me to make good and proper use of each. All things in you, Amen.
"He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see."
- John 9:25
Monday, April 28, 2014
Jesus Calling by Sarah Young
April 28th
As you look into the day that stretches out before you, you see many choice-points along the way. The myriad possibilities these choices present can confuse you. Draw your mind back to the threshold of this day, where I stand beside you, lovingly preparing you for what is ahead.
You must make your choices one at a time, since each is contingent upon the decision that preceeds it. Instead of trying to create a mental map of your path through this day, focus on My loving Presence with you. I will equip you as you go, so that you can handle whatever comes your way. Trust me to supply what you need when you need it.
Lamentations 3:22-26; Psalm: 34:8
As you look into the day that stretches out before you, you see many choice-points along the way. The myriad possibilities these choices present can confuse you. Draw your mind back to the threshold of this day, where I stand beside you, lovingly preparing you for what is ahead.
You must make your choices one at a time, since each is contingent upon the decision that preceeds it. Instead of trying to create a mental map of your path through this day, focus on My loving Presence with you. I will equip you as you go, so that you can handle whatever comes your way. Trust me to supply what you need when you need it.
Lamentations 3:22-26; Psalm: 34:8
Rooted ~ Josh Foliart Part 2
Josh Foliart did visit my church a while back. To be totally honest I don't remember him at all, I do remember buying his book. Of which I just spent the last week or so reading. I normally review my read books on a separate blog, but feel the nature of this one should be here instead. AND there is a lot of it I want to revisit. Sooooo, forewarning, MOST of what I'm going to share is word for word from the book. There are 7 sections in the book, so this will be multi-part posting. I will be posting here what I took from the book and the stuff I want to revisit, any quotes that are not specified from other sources, are quoted from the book Rooted by Josh Foliart.
Section 1
"Recently, dream researchers identified the twelve most common dream themes of people from all around the world."
"It's time to prepare!"
"For some, the Sermon on the Mount raises a question of whether or not one may lose their salvation. I am convinced that we expose our hearts when dwelling on questions like that."
Always Forward!!!
Section 2
"If you hear hooves prancing outside that window, it's probably a horse. I guess it could be a zebra, but most likely, it's a horse." With God, Zebras can happen.
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, a one-of-a-kind jewel of american art history. Life-sized portrayal of the Last Supper. Made from over 17,000 spools of thread and has to viewed through a crystal cause it's upside down.
Whoever finds their life will lost it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. Matthew 10:39
"When Jesus washed Judas' feet, He extended His kindness to an enemy whose heart was set on betrayal." When we see clearly, we can act courageously. Proverbs 29:18
A DIFFERENT DRUMMER
"Hungry hearts have always been the breeding ground for revolutionary leaders. Henry David Thoreau once said, in his book Walden: "If a man loses pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music in which he hears, however measured, or far away." Jesus wasn't trying to lose pace with His companions. On the contrary, He was trying to open their ears to the heavenly music that is sung daily over the hurting and the hopeless."
"When you are too close to a situation, it is difficult to be objective about it"
In his book Culture of the Kingdom, Billy Humphrey has said: "Jesus was not giving us a list of do's and don't's, He simply expressed his heart by revealing what was and is important to Him and His Father. While many regard these as a list of rules and regulations, I like to think of them as the core values of the Kingdom."
"It's called love. True love. "
"When a man finds himself at the end of his rope and without natural strength, he finds the need to approach the bridge through the gateway of humility"
"We cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven or partake in its pleasures with our pride sitting in the driver's seat of our lives."
"Holiness is not so much the ability to abstain from evil, but more the ability to act and think like a son or daughter of God."
Section 2
"If you hear hooves prancing outside that window, it's probably a horse. I guess it could be a zebra, but most likely, it's a horse." With God, Zebras can happen.
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, a one-of-a-kind jewel of american art history. Life-sized portrayal of the Last Supper. Made from over 17,000 spools of thread and has to viewed through a crystal cause it's upside down.
Whoever finds their life will lost it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. Matthew 10:39
"When Jesus washed Judas' feet, He extended His kindness to an enemy whose heart was set on betrayal." When we see clearly, we can act courageously. Proverbs 29:18
A DIFFERENT DRUMMER
"Hungry hearts have always been the breeding ground for revolutionary leaders. Henry David Thoreau once said, in his book Walden: "If a man loses pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music in which he hears, however measured, or far away." Jesus wasn't trying to lose pace with His companions. On the contrary, He was trying to open their ears to the heavenly music that is sung daily over the hurting and the hopeless."
"When you are too close to a situation, it is difficult to be objective about it"
In his book Culture of the Kingdom, Billy Humphrey has said: "Jesus was not giving us a list of do's and don't's, He simply expressed his heart by revealing what was and is important to Him and His Father. While many regard these as a list of rules and regulations, I like to think of them as the core values of the Kingdom."
"It's called love. True love. "
"When a man finds himself at the end of his rope and without natural strength, he finds the need to approach the bridge through the gateway of humility"
"We cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven or partake in its pleasures with our pride sitting in the driver's seat of our lives."
"Holiness is not so much the ability to abstain from evil, but more the ability to act and think like a son or daughter of God."
The Blood Moon Prophecy
Pastor Wes discussed Blood Moon Tetrads in his lecture April 13, 2014 titled The Signs of His Coming! And he gave me much information to think about. I pulled the Blood moon Prophecy off of wikipedia. I can see why and how this prophecy came about, but think they are flawed just a wee bit. Let me explain.
1st yes we can use the heavens to predict the future. God told us this in Genesis 1:14 "And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years" And let them be for signs....... what kind of signs? and for seasons..... what kind of seasons? Quite simply this means Sacred Times.
Joel 2:31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood: before the great and dreadful day of the Lord doth come.
Revelation 6: [12] And I saw, when he had opened the sixth seal, and behold there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair: and the whole moon became as blood:[13] And the stars from heaven fell upon the earth, as the fig tree casteth its green figs when it is shaken by a great wind: [14] And the heaven departed as a book folded up: and every mountain, and the islands were moved out of their places.
These two references, one old and one new testament, tells you exactly what signs in the heavens to look for.
Even the wise men, on the night of Christ's birth followed the heavens to his location.
Even the wise men, on the night of Christ's birth followed the heavens to his location.
Matthew 24:36 "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone
According to our Jewish friends this refers specifically to the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashana) whose day and hour no one knows until the signs from the heavens are seen and reported back, confirmed, and then the trumpets are sounded. Celebrated yearly on the 1st day of Tishra.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem” (Isa. 27:12-13).
NOW...... the question remains, do the signs have to be visible from Israel? 62 tetrads since 1 AD, 8 of them falling on the Feasts, most of which not visible from Biblical Israel.
With the information that I have gathered thus far, I surmise that indeed the end times will occur when there is an eclipse during the Feast of the Trumpets. I have not unearthed enough information in order to predict which one it will happen at. I will go out on a limb and say that I feel that the eclipse will be visible from somewhere in the world, not just the Biblical Israel, because in my opinion "Israel" is the land of God's people, and those of us that believe in him are his people, and we are scattered throughout the world. Contrary to what most think, I personally don't think God's land is limited by people, geography, or borders.
The Blood Moon Prophecy is an idea popularized by Christian pastors John Hagee and Mark Biltz, which states that an ongoing tetrad (a series of four consecutive total lunar eclipses, with six full moons in between, and no intervening partial lunar eclipses) which began with the April 2014 lunar eclipse is a sign of the end times.
Overview
On April 15, 2014, there was a total lunar eclipse. It was the first of four consecutive total eclipses in a series, known as a tetrad (the remaining three eclipses will take place on October 8, 2014, April 4, 2015, and September 28, 2015). It is one of eight tetrads during the 21st century AD. As with most eclipses, the moon appeared red during the April 15 eclipse. The red color is caused by Rayleigh scattering of sunlight through the Earth's atmosphere, the same effect that causes sunsets to appear red.
Around 2008, Biltz began predicting that the Second Coming of Jesus would occur in the fall of 2015. He said he had "discovered" an astronomical pattern that predicted the next tetrad would coincide with the end times. When the prediction failed, he pulled the article from his website, but continued to teach on the "significance" of the tetrad.
Four Blood Moons became a best seller, spending more than 150 days in Amazon.com's top 150 by April 2014 For the week ending March 30, 2014, it was the ninth best selling paperback, according to Publishers Weekly. By mid-April, Hagee's book had hit #4 on the The New York Times best-seller list in the advice category. As the eclipse approached, Hagee and Biltz's speculations gained mainstream media attention in publications such as USA Today and the International Business Times. Earth & Skyreported receiving "a number of inquiries about Blood Moon", prompting a response.
Despite the attention, it is not clear if many people actually believe the ideas. According to Christian Today, only a "small group of Christians" saw the eclipse as significant.
Writing for Earth & Sky Bruce McClure and Deborah Byrd point out that the referenced verse also says the "sun will be turned into darkness", an apparent reference to a solareclipse. They note that since the Jewish Calendar is lunar, one sixth of all eclipses will occur during Passover or Sukkot. Furthermore, there have been 62 tetrads since the first century AD and eight of them have coincided with both the feasts. Thus, the event is not as unusual as Hagee and Biltz imply. Additionally, three of the four eclipses in the tetrad will not even be visible in the biblical homeland of Israel, casting further doubt on Hagee and Biltz's interpretation. Writing for Space.com, Geoff Gaherty said he saddened that "'prophets of doom' ... view these life-enriching events as portents of disaster" and said the eclipse was "hardly something to be concerned about".
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Rooted ~ Josh Foliart Part 1
Josh Foliart did visit my church a while back. To be totally honest I don't remember him at all, I do remember buying his book. Of which I just spent the last week or so reading. I normally review my read books on a separate blog, but feel the nature of this one should be here instead. AND there is a lot of it I want to revisit. Sooooo, forewarning, MOST of what I'm going to share is word for word from the book. There are 7 sections in the book, so this will be multi-part posting. I will be posting here what I took from the book and the stuff I want to revisit, any quotes that are not specified from other sources, are quoted from the book Rooted by Josh Foliart.
The book opens with the Sermon On The Mount, Matthew Chapter 5.
I considered putting Chapter 5 of Matthew here, because it is so very important, but opted out of that idea, as the amount of space that it takes. There are links right now to your right to 3 or 4 different versions of the Bible, please click on one of those and read the Sermon on the Mount.
But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit. (Jeremiah 17:8)
"As our understanding deepens, we will notice the laser focus of Jesus' instruction to His followers. This is no haphazard hodgepodge of religious jargon, useful only for theory and debate. This is the retelling of an ancient story* that has been interpreted wrongly by the religious elite. It is God replanting His life into mankind. Like a wise general instructing the future commanders of an army, Jesus is interested in a sustainable movement that will long outlast His physical presence."
These are the things I took away from the introduction. By NO means am I suggesting that you not get and read this book. There is a plethora of good stuff to glean from it. These are the morsels that I want to remember.
I considered putting Chapter 5 of Matthew here, because it is so very important, but opted out of that idea, as the amount of space that it takes. There are links right now to your right to 3 or 4 different versions of the Bible, please click on one of those and read the Sermon on the Mount.
But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit. (Jeremiah 17:8)
"As our understanding deepens, we will notice the laser focus of Jesus' instruction to His followers. This is no haphazard hodgepodge of religious jargon, useful only for theory and debate. This is the retelling of an ancient story* that has been interpreted wrongly by the religious elite. It is God replanting His life into mankind. Like a wise general instructing the future commanders of an army, Jesus is interested in a sustainable movement that will long outlast His physical presence."
These are the things I took away from the introduction. By NO means am I suggesting that you not get and read this book. There is a plethora of good stuff to glean from it. These are the morsels that I want to remember.
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
First Person to see The Risen Christ
Mary Magdalene: The First Person to See the Risen Christ
TEXT: Mark 16:1-9
On this Resurrection Sunday, we come to the final person in our Unsung Heroes of Easter series — Mary Magdalene, the first person to see Jesus Christ after he rose from the dead. She is one of the more popular figures in the Gospel narratives and is mentioned in all four Gospels. She is the woman out of whom Christ cast seven devils. Some have identified Mary Magdalene as the prostitute or “sinful woman” who washed Jesus’ feet. However, the Bible does not explicitly state that. We do know that Mary Magdalene was a woman of some means because the Bible says that she attended to Christ and helped provide for the needs of his ministry. Luke 8:2-3 states, “And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, And Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, ministered unto him of their substance.”
To many scholars and theologians down through the years, it has been significant that Jesus Christ chose to appear to a woman, and especially to Mary Magdalene, after his resurrection. Let’s look at some possible reasons why.
1. The first reason why Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene before anyone else could be because Mary Magdalene represented a direct triumph over the devil and his plan. Mark 16:9 states, “Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene…” Of course, we can be content to know that Christ simply appeared to Mary Magdalene first because he chose to do so. But I believe it is safe for us to say that Christ appeared to a woman first as a symbolic expression that the curse of sin that had been brought on humanity by the actions of a woman had been completely removed.
2. The second reason why Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene first could be because Jesus wanted to show that he died and rose from the dead FOR SINNERS. Verse 9 of our passage notes that Mary Magdalene is the one “out of whom Christ had cast seven devils.” Most of the passages which refer to Mary Magdalene never leave out this detail. And, I believe this detail gives us another reason why Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene first after his resurrection — Jesus wanted to make it clear that he came to rescue SINNERS.
3. The third reason why Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene first could be because Jesus always comes to those who are searching for him. John 20, verse 1 says, “The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark…” Remember that Joseph and Nicodemus had to bury Jesus hastily on Friday evening because the Sabbath was about to begin. Even though they wrapped Jesus’ body in linen and embalmed it with expensive spices, Mary and Mary Magdalene still wanted to anoint the body themselves. In their minds, it was probably the least they could do for the Saviour who had done so much for them
You can find this post and more here: Gospel Light Minute
Monday, March 31, 2014
Those Controversial Gifts by Wes Hilliard
Speaking in Tongues has been a controversial topic for many ages. My Pastor this past Sunday hit on it briefly, but did an in depth sermon four years ago, posted on vimeo. Check it out.
Wes Hilliard - Heritage United Methodist Church, Van Buren
Finally got a chance to listen all the way through. Found it very enlightening, with new information to me. Very much Worth a listen by all!!!
Wes Hilliard - Heritage United Methodist Church, Van Buren
Finally got a chance to listen all the way through. Found it very enlightening, with new information to me. Very much Worth a listen by all!!!
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