VERSE 1
Accepted in the Beloved
Scripture and thoughts to encourage or help us to search the Scriptures more.
COPYRIGHT
Tuesday 15 March 2022
He will hold me fast (Hymn by Ada Habershon)
Tuesday 29 June 2021
Jesus died for His enemies! In love He went to the cross for those who hated Him!
Was thinking this morning (27th June 2021) about the compassion of Christ! How much He endured to save a people for Himself!
No other figure in any religion EVER endured so much suffering for their enemies!
Jesus Christ went to the cross to take the penalty (death) for those who naturally hate Him!
The compassion He showed! Not just those people in His day, but millions, if not billions throughout the ages!
He suffered the shame of a cruel death, a painful death so that He may win a people for Himself!
Romans 3:23 tells us that we have ALL sinned and fall short of God's glory, then Romans 6:23 tells us that the penalty (wages) for those sins is death (eternal death), but Jesus Christ took God's wrath and judgement upon Himself so that His people may have everlasting life and stand faultless before the throne!
Who else has done that for their friends, let alone their enemies?
Mohammed went through the Arabian Peninsular massacring people who wouldn't accept his new religion - Jesus Christ bore OUR punishment on the cross - He died that His people might live!
Buddha exchanged clothes with a poor man but he didn't die for his enemies - in fact Jesus became poor that WE might become rich! Jesus Christ gives us His robes of righteousness so that we are acceptable in His Father's sight.
The gods of the world don't die for their enemies - only Jesus had a heart overflowing with compassion for His enemies, so much so that He endured the cross and suffered the pain and anguish of God (His Father) turning His back upon Him so that God wouldn't turn His back on sinners!
THIS is the message of Christianity - God so LOVED the world (the world which hates Him) that He GAVE His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should NOT perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16)!
No religious figure has died for those who despised and hated them, but Jesus Christ died for those who despised and hated Him - He looked down from the cross and said "Father forgive them (those who mocked, scorned, scourged Him and who hammered big iron nails into His hands and feet), for they know not what they do!"
Would you die for your enemies? Would you die for the people who hate you, the people who annoy you? Jesus died for those who hated Him - such love!!
Tuesday 21 July 2020
The Feeding of the 5,000 and the Feeding of the 4,000 - Same miracles? or Different?
Let's take the first account - The Feeding of the Five Thousand Matthew 14:13-21:
Back in Chapter 13 and verse 54 we are told when He had come to His own country... [Nazareth - about 25km approx 15.5 miles West of the Sea of Galilee]. Chapter 14:1-12 tells of the beheading of Jesus' cousin, John the Baptist. From verse 13 the account of the Feeding of the Five Thousand begins.
When Jesus heard it, He departed from there by boat to a deserted place by Himself.(14:1a) - we're not told where the deserted place was, but there was more than likely a lot of deserted places in that area.
The multitudes heard where Jesus was and came to Him with their sick and healed them.
In v 15 we see it's evening and the disciples wanted Jesus to send the people away to buy food for themselves as they [the multitudes] would have been hungry.
Jesus was going to test the disciples' faith - they had seen many miracles (even that day they had seen Jesus healing many sick), so here was going to be an amazing one. Jesus tells the disciples to give them something to eat, but they only had five loaves and two fish and that wouldn't feed five thousand+ people!
Jesus commanded the people to sit down on the grass [Greek word 'chortos'] [chortos means: (1)the place where grass grows and animals graze; (2) grass, herbage, hay, provender [of green grass; of growing crops] ]
The disciples took the bread and fish to Jesus and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. Matthew 14:19b
After the people had eaten the disciples ...took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained. Matthew 14:20b
Verse 21 tells the reader how many people had been fed. Now those who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children. So in fact there were more than 5,000 fed, that day.
Let's look at the second account - The Feeding of the Four Thousand Matthew 15:32-38
Jesus had come from Tyre and Sidon (Matthew 15:21), He skirted [NKJV] (came nigh [KJV]) the Sea of Galilee and went on a mountain and sat down there. Again great multitudes came to Him and there is a list of those whom they brought to Jesus (v30): lame, blind, mute, maimed and many others. The multitude marveled at the miracles Jesus performed and they glorified the God of Israel.
In verse 32 Jesus said I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way. Now comes the test for the disciples who had seen the previous miracle - will they turn to Jesus and say - guess what we have bread and fish again, or will they not have remembered/learned from the last time?
Verse 33: Then His disciples said to Him, "Where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude?"
Oh dear they had forgotten! This time there were 7 loaves and a few little fish (v34)
v35 says: So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground [Greek word ge] [ge means: (1) arable land; (2) the ground, the earth as a standing place; (3) the main land as opposed to the sea or water; (4) the earth as a whole [the earth as opposed to the heavens; the inhabited earth, the abode of men and animals] (5) a country, land enclosed within fixed boundaries, a tract of land, territory, region]
v36: And He took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to His disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitude
v37: So they all ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets full of fragments that were left.
v38: Now those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children. Again there were more than 4,000 who were fed.
Let's look at both these accounts now:
Matthew 13 - Jesus had come from Nazareth (v54)
Matthew 15 - Jesus had come from Tyre and Sidon (v21)
Matthew 14 - Jesus went to a deserted place [eremos]
Matthew 15 - Jesus went to a mountain [oros]
Matthew 14 - it was evening and the people had only been with Jesus that day
Matthew 15 - the people had been following Jesus for 3 days
Matthew 14 - they had five [pente] loaves and 2 fish [dyo ichthys]
Matthew 15 - they had seven [hepta] loaves and a few little fish [ichthydion]
Matthew 14 - Jesus told them to sit on the grass [chortos]
Matthew 15 - Jesus told them to sit on the ground [ge]
Matthew 14 - 12 [dodeka] baskets of fragments remained
Matthew 15 - 7 [hepta] baskets of fragments remained
Matthew 14 - 5,000 [pentakischolioi] men were fed (besides women and children)
Matthew 15 - 4,000 [tetrakischilioi] men were fed (besides women and children)
As we see from the passages and the comparison above - these were 2 different occurrences. The disciples had to learn lessons over and over again (as we all do). We also have to remember that although these events were only 1 chapter apart - it could have been months between each one and as Jesus was performing many miracles all the time, the disciples could have easily forgotten the former one.
Friday 5 June 2020
Unity and All Lives Matter
I have been a Christian for nearly 30 years, this year and as I have gone on with my walk, I have grown to understand so much of the gospel. Christ's coming to earth and what He has done for millions (if not billions) of people throughout the past 2,000+ years. One of the things He has done is to UNITE different groups of people together.
It doesn't matter whether you are Jew, Gentile, Male, Female, Slave, Free, Black, White - Jesus UNITES those people groups who may not have got on before.
I remember hearing a missionary who worked for Christian Witness Israel, saying that in Israel there are former Jews and Muslims (Israelis and Arabs) worshipping together, fellowshipping together, loving one another because of Christ!
In the church I attend we have blacks, whites and Asians worshipping together, loving one another, having fellowship with one another.
I read in Corrie ten Boom's book The Hiding Place, that after the war she went around places preaching the love and forgiveness of Christ in churches. After one talk a man came up to her to shake her hand - he was one of the guards in Ravensbruck, the concentration camp where Corrie and her sister Betsie were put because they hid Jews in their house/watch shop. Her sister Betsie died in the camp! She found it difficult, at first, to shake his hand, as she remembered the horrors of the camp, but after praying for a heart of forgiveness, she shook his hand and felt the warmth of Christ's love flowing through her! Jesus unites, heals and repairs relationships!
ALL Lives Matter and if only people would build bridges instead of thick walls...
Jesus built a bridge between God and man! In our natural state we are enemies of God and there is a massive gulf caused by our sin which only Christ through His death on the cross can bridge!
Thursday 7 May 2020
Why Christianity?
Friday 24 April 2020
Dynamic faith
When somebody accepts the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour, something wonderful happens - they are raised from spiritual deadness into everlasting life through Jesus Christ. Not only are they raised from spiritual deadness, but their spiritual eyes are opened and they receive new and dynamic sight, not only into the present hope, but into a future hope of glory. Their perspective broadens.
The Holy Spirit enters their souls and they become a temple of the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament God dwelt in the tabernacle (first of all) and then the temple. Only the High Priest could enter into the Holy of Holies, once a year, to offer atonement for the sins of Israel. God's Shekinah glory was in the Holy of Holies, but during Christ's crucifixion, the veil into the Holy of Holies was ripped from top to bottom because it was no longer needed. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in every redeemed believer! Now every believer can gain entry into the very courts of heaven and bring their prayers and petitions to God their Father because of Christ's finished work and because they have God dwelling within them.
1 Corinthians 6:19,20 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.
John 14:15-18,26 If you love Me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever - the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you.
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
Hebrews 4:14-16 Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathise with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Every believer is brought out of spiritual darkness into a glorious spiritual light!
Matthew 5:14a You are the light of the world...
Ephesians 5:8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord...
1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Sunday 17 November 2019
It's this time of year again...
Months of the year:
January - named after the Roman god Janus
February - named after the Roman festival of purification - Februa
March - named after the Roman god of war - Mars
April - taken from the Latin word for open (as flowers do in spring) - aperire
May - named after the Greek goddess Maia
June - named after the Roman goddess Juno
July - named after Julius Caesar
August - named after Caesar Augustus
September - 7th month (in Roman calendar)
October - 8th month (in Roman calendar)
November - 9th month (in Roman calendar)
December - 10th month (in Roman calendar)
The days of the week:
Monday - Moon's Day
Tuesday - Tyr's Day (Tyr was a Germanic/Norse god of war and sky)
Wednesday - Wodin's Day (the Norse all-father god and master of runes)
Thursday - Thor's Day (Thor was the Norse god of battle and strength)
Friday - Frigg's Day (Odin's wife and goddess of fertility)
Saturday - Saturn's Day
Sunday - Sun Day
The above have pagan origins yet I don't hear any Christians kicking up a stink about those!
I celebrate the incarnation of Christ - not His birthday, just the fact He came from heaven (we don't know when He was born, but personally, I think a dank, dark, dreary time of year is a great time to celebrate The Light of the World bursting onto the scene to forgive our sins).
Hebrew Days of the week and their meanings
Sunday | Yom Reeshone יום רשון | First day |
Monday | Yom Shaynee יום שיני | Second day |
Tuesday | Yom Shlee´shee יום שלישי | Third day |
Wednesday | Yom Revee´ee יום רביעי | Fourth day |
Thursday | Yom Khah´mee´shee יום חמישי | Fifth day |
Friday | Yom Shee´shee יום ששי | Sixth day |
Saturday | Shabbat שבת | Rest |
source [above and below]: http://www.yashanet.com/library/hebrew-days-and-months.html
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There are 7 leap years in a 19 year cycle.
Monday 3 December 2018
Christmas - symbols
Tree - and it can remind us that Jesus came to die on a 'tree' for our sins.
Each branch could be a picture of the church, with Christ being the trunk (vine) and His people, the branches.
Red baubles could be symbolic of His blood,
Gold for His kingship,
Purple for royalty too,
Silver for the price paid at Calvary.
Green is a peaceful colour so could remind us that He is the Prince of Peace,
Blue, the colour of the heavens, where He resides!
Star on top, symbolises the star from the east or even the Bright and Morning Star*!
Ok maybe it might be spiritualising it somewhat, but it doesn't have to be pagan!
*Jesus is called the Bright and Morning Star so maybe the star the wise men followed, was visible during the day and that's what made it unusual!
Revelation 22:16 “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.”
Saturday 1 September 2018
2 ladders in 2 pits (posted on my FB status)
Monday 29 May 2017
A shiny penny or £2 coin
Was thinking today that the world is like a little child who is offered a choice between a dull £2 coin or a bright, shiny penny.
Despite the £2 coin being worth 200 times more than the shiny penny, they choose the penny because it's shiny, bright and looks pretty!
The world is like this with Christ. He is worth infinitely much more than the world could EVER offer, but the way of Christ looks dull and boring. The way of world seems much more exciting with its disco lights, its pleasure parks, its parties and such - they last for a moment and I'm not saying that going to pleasure parks or parties is wrong, but compared to Christ they are passing follies!
Years ago (before becoming a Christian), I built my life on the shiny penny principle - it was great fun going out with friends, but the fun only lasted a few drinks, before I was spent out. Or a few dances, before I went home smelling of cigarette smoke and with hurting feet. It seemed like fun, but really these things are just distant memories.
On 10th December 1990 I committed my life to Christ and now I LIVE - not just now, but in eternity! My perspective on things changed. My definition of fun changed! I would much rather have a seemingly dull £2 coin than a worthless bright penny which can't buy anything, nor give any returns!
For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Colossians 3:3-4
Tuesday 18 April 2017
There is forgiveness at the Cross
This is my view on this: I believe Jesus was looking into the future too and asking His Father to forgive ALL of His people - the ones He chose before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4a).
Wednesday 8 February 2017
Is Jesus a Myth? A copy of pagan religions?
Question: "Is Jesus a myth? Is Jesus just a copy of the pagan gods of other ancient religions?"
Answer: There are a number of people claiming that the accounts of Jesus as recorded in the New Testament are simply myths borrowed from pagan folklore, such as the stories of Osiris, Dionysus, Adonis, Attis, and Mithras. The claim is that these myths are essentially the same story as the New Testament’s narrative of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. As Dan Brown claims in The Da Vinci Code, “Nothing in Christianity is original.”
To discover the truth about the claim that the Gospel writers borrowed from mythology, it is important to (1) unearth the history behind the assertions, (2) examine the actual portrayals of the false gods being compared to Christ, (3) expose any logical fallacies being made, and (4) look at why the New Testament Gospels are trustworthy depictions of the true and historical Jesus Christ.
The claim that Jesus was a myth or an exaggeration originated in the writings of liberal German theologians in the nineteenth century. They essentially said that Jesus was nothing more than a copy of popular dying-and-rising fertility gods in various places—Tammuz in Mesopotamia, Adonis in Syria, Attis in Asia Minor, and Horus in Egypt. Of note is the fact that none of the books containing these theories were taken seriously by the academics of the day. The assertion that Jesus was a recycled Tammuz, for example, was investigated by contemporary scholars and determined to be completely baseless. It has only been recently that these assertions have been resurrected, primarily due to the rise of the Internet and the mass distribution of information from unaccountable sources.
This leads us to the next area of investigation—do the mythological gods of antiquity really mirror the person of Jesus Christ? As an example, the Zeitgeist movie makes these claims about the Egyptian god Horus:
• He was born on December 25 of a virgin: Isis Mary
• A star in the East proclaimed his arrival
• Three kings came to adore the newborn “savior”
• He became a child prodigy teacher at age 12
• At age 30 he was “baptized” and began a “ministry”
• Horus had twelve “disciples”
• Horus was betrayed
• He was crucified
• He was buried for three days
• He was resurrected after three days
However, when the actual writings about Horus are competently examined, this is what we find:
• Horus was born to Isis; there is no mention in history of her being called “Mary.” Moreover, “Mary” is our Anglicized form of her real name, Miryam or Miriam. “Mary” was not even used in the original texts of Scripture.
• Isis was not a virgin; she was the widow of Osiris and conceived Horus with Osiris.
• Horus was born during month of Khoiak (Oct/Nov), not December 25. Further, there is no mention in the Bible as to Christ’s actual birth date.
• There is no record of three kings visiting Horus at his birth. The Bible never states the actual number of magi that came to see Christ.
• Horus is not a “savior” in any way; he did not die for anyone.
• There are no accounts of Horus being a teacher at the age of 12.
• Horus was not “baptized.” The only account of Horus that involves water is one story where Horus is torn to pieces, with Isis requesting the crocodile god to fish him out of the water.
• Horus did not have a “ministry.”
• Horus did not have 12 disciples. According to the Horus accounts, Horus had four demigods that followed him, and there are some indications of 16 human followers and an unknown number of blacksmiths that went into battle with him.
• There is no account of Horus being betrayed by a friend.
• Horus did not die by crucifixion. There are various accounts of Horus’ death, but none of them involve crucifixion.
• There is no account of Horus being buried for three days.
• Horus was not resurrected. There is no account of Horus coming out of the grave with the body he went in with. Some accounts have Horus/Osiris being brought back to life by Isis and then becoming the lord of the underworld.
When compared side by side, Jesus and Horus bear little, if any, resemblance to one another.
Jesus is also compared to Mithras by those claiming that Jesus Christ is a myth. All the above descriptions of Horus are applied to Mithras (e.g., born of a virgin, being crucified, rising in three days, etc.). But what does the Mithras myth actually say?
• He was born out of a solid rock, not from any woman.
• He battled first with the sun and then with a primeval bull, thought to be the first act of creation. Mithras killed the bull, which then became the ground of life for the human race.
• Mithras’s birth was celebrated on December 25, along with winter solstice.
• There is no mention of his being a great teacher.
• There is no mention of Mithras having 12 disciples. The idea that Mithras had 12 disciples may have come from a mural in which Mithras is surrounded by the twelve signs of the zodiac.
• Mithras had no bodily resurrection. Rather, when Mithras completed his earthly mission, he was taken to paradise in a chariot, alive and well. The early Christian writer Tertullian did write about Mithraic cultists re-enacting resurrection scenes, but this occurred well after New Testament times, so if any copycatting was done, it was Mithraism copying Christianity.
More examples can be given of Krishna, Attis, Dionysus, and other mythological gods, but the result is the same. In the end, the historical Jesus portrayed in the Bible is unique. The alleged similarities of Jesus’ story to pagan myths are greatly exaggerated. Further, while tales of Horus, Mithras, and others pre-date Christianity, there is very little historical record of the pre-Christian beliefs of those religions. The vast majority of the earliest writings of these religions date from the third and fourth centuries A.D. To assume that the pre-Christian beliefs of these religions (of which there is no record) were identical to their post-Christian beliefs is naive. It is more logical to attribute any similarities between these religions and Christianity to the religions’ copying Christian teaching about Jesus.
This leads us to the next area to examine: the logical fallacies committed by those claiming that Christianity borrowed from pagan mystery religions. We’ll consider two fallacies in particular: the fallacy of the false cause and the terminological fallacy.
If one thing precedes another, some conclude that the first thing must have caused the second. This is the fallacy of the false cause. A rooster may crow before the sunrise every morning, but that does not mean the rooster causes the sun to rise. Even if pre-Christian accounts of mythological gods closely resembled Christ (and they do not), it does not mean they caused the Gospel writers to invent a false Jesus. Making such a claim is akin to saying the TV series Star Trek caused the NASA Space Shuttle program.
The terminological fallacy occurs when words are redefined to prove a point. For example, the Zeitgeist movie says that Horus “began his ministry,” but the word ministry is being redefined. Horus had no actual “ministry”—nothing like that of Christ’s ministry. Those claiming a link between Mithras and Jesus talk about the “baptism” that initiated prospects into the Mithras cult, but what was it actually? Mithraic priests would place initiates into a pit, suspend a bull over the pit, and slit the bull’s stomach, covering the initiates in blood and gore. Such a practice bears no resemblance whatsoever to Christian baptism—a person going under water (symbolizing the death of Christ) and then coming back out of the water (symbolizing Christ’s resurrection). But advocates of a mythological Jesus deceptively use the same term, “baptism,” to describe both rites in hopes of linking the two.
This brings us to the subject of the truthfulness of the New Testament. No other work of antiquity has more evidence to its historical veracity than the New Testament. The New Testament has more writers (nine), better writers, and earlier writers than any other document from that era. Further, history testifies that these writers went to their deaths claiming that Jesus had risen from the dead. While some may die for a lie they think is true, no person dies for a lie he knows to be false. Think about it—if someone was about to crucify you upside down, as happened to the apostle Peter, and all you had to do to save your life was renounce a lie you had knowingly told, what would you do?
In addition, history has shown that it takes at least two generations to pass before myth can enter a historical account. That’s because, as long as there are eyewitnesses to an event, errors can be refuted and mythical embellishments can be exposed. All the Gospels of the New Testament were written during the lifetime of the eyewitnesses, with some of Paul’s Epistles being written as early as A.D. 50. Paul directly appeals to contemporary eyewitnesses to verify his testimony (1 Corinthians 15:6).
The New Testament attests to the fact that, in the first century, Jesus was not mistaken for any other god. When Paul preached in Athens, the elite thinkers of that city said, “‘He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,’—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, ‘May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean’” (Acts 17:18–20, NASB). Clearly, if Paul were simply rehashing stories of other gods, the Athenians would not have referred to his doctrine as a “new” and “strange” teaching. If dying-and-rising gods were plentiful in the first century, why, when the apostle Paul preached Jesus rising from the dead, did the Epicureans and Stoics not remark, “Ah, just like Horus and Mithras”?
In conclusion, the claim that Jesus is a copy of mythological gods originated with authors whose works have been discounted by academia, contain logical fallacies, and cannot compare to the New Testament Gospels, which have withstood nearly 2,000 years of intense scrutiny. The alleged parallels between Jesus and other gods disappear when the original myths are examined. The Jesus-is-a-myth theory relies on selective descriptions, redefined words, and false assumptions.
Jesus Christ is unique in history, with His voice rising above all false gods’ as He asks the question that ultimately determines a person’s eternal destiny: “Who do you say I am?” (Matthew 16:15).