Continuing from last week blog,  we will examine the key themes of the prayer. For your reference information the prayer can be found in the book of Nehemiah chapter 1 verses 5–11. We will break the prayer down in the four different sections by the verses in each of those sections. The very first will be adoration and praise which we can find in verse five.

-the very first thing that Nehemiah does is to acknowledge God’s supreme power. He makes it a point to refer to God as great and awesome. And he remembers God’s faithful covenant.

-the next is the confession of sin we find that in versus 6–7. Jeremiah assumes responsibility for much of what has happened, and he repents on behalf of Israel. He includes himself and his family, and he confesses that both Israel and his family broke God’s commands.

–remembrance of God’s word is addressed in versus eight through 10. Nehemiah quotes God’s promises to Moses, he remembers the warning of exile, and he claims the promise of restoration. We will come back to those promises in just a few paragraphs.

-as we begin reading in verse 11 Nehemiah, begs God to listen now, he asked for success that day, and he requests favor before King Artaxerxes.

I want to go back to the promises between God and Moses. God made several profound promises to Moses primarily centered on deliverance, Devine presence, and inheritance. God assures Moses of his continued presence. “My presence will go with you and I will give you rest.” He speaks of deliverance he vows to rescue the Israelites from Egyptian slavery and redeem them with mighty acts. There’s a promise of the promised land… God promises to bring the Israelites into the land of Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey. It is a unique covenant for God has stated that if Israel keeps his covenant, they would be his treasured possession, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. And lastly, in response to Moses request, God promised to make all His “goodness pass before” him. 

Using what we have looked at so far I suppose a proper step or direction would be to look at our prayer life and what we need to be doing today. Our prayers today should focus on seeking God’s guidance, peace and strength in our daily lives.  

-the very first thing we should does we pray is to acknowledge God’s goodness, we simply need to remind ourselves that God’s love is better than life itself and we need to praise him for this day.

-we need to thank God for his gifts. Thank Him for the very air we breathe, the roof over our head and the people that surround us that we love.

-we should confess our shortcomings and ask for God’s help to improve the way that we live and serve him. We need to pray for the strength to overcome the anxiety and stress of this life today that we may remain calm and focused on that which God would have us do.

-and while it will not be an easy thing to do because of human nature, we need to put our total trust into God and let him control our daily lives and lead us to the truth that will sustain our efforts to walk in The Good Way.

-and when our day comes to an end, we should express our gratitude. Maybe there was a specific blessing or a moment of peace that we experienced today and we need to thank God for that.

-and then, we should lay down the burdens and unfinished tasks for that day, and pray that God will grant us a restful night of sleep and restore our spirit to continue to do the Lord’s will. 

And I pray and give thanks for each one of you each week, that take some of your time to spend with us here in The Pew. May God bless you and your family, may He strengthen you, giving you peace in these stressful times.

Life is Good…God is Good

jk

What is that other wall?…it is the wall of Faith. Faith is something that stretches or reaches far beyond just mere belief, it’s the core of our Christian life,  a simple acknowledgment that God exists, and there is a definite realm of trust required. Without getting into a whole discussion of exactly what faith is a very simple explanation would be that it involves abandoning all of our human reliance on self efforts and placing total dependence upon God’s character, his actions and promises as revealed in his word. In just these few words, you should have grasped the concept that this wall we’re talking about is bigger than life itself. So at this point, I suppose I will share with you that we’re going to do. We are going to take one of those “holy stretches.”we’re going to draw today’s blog, material or subject from the book of Nehemiah chapters 1-2 and 3, so join me and stretch just a little.

Chapters 1–3 of Nehemiah detail how Nehemiah, a Jewish cup bearer to the Persian King, learns of Jerusalem’s ruined walls. He responds with a deep prayer, receives royal permission to travel and rebuild, and organizes the local community to successfully begin the reconstruction.

The key verse from Nehemiah is Nehemiah 1:11:

“Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.”

What brought Nehemiah to his knees was a devastating report from his brother that the walls of Jerusalem are broken down and the gates destroyed by fire, leaving the returning Jewish remnant vulnerable, and in disgrace. As we go through this today, I will take a few opportunities to do a little parallel stretching. Our wall of faith today is broken down and in some places destroyed completely and we are vulnerable to the many sins and calamities of this world we live in today, and unfortunately, in some instances, it has destroyed many believers faith and I would remind you that we’re speaking of not only our personal faith, but we’re speaking of our country’s faith, One Nation Under God, I doubt very seriously if we can say that anymore with any assurance. You can find Nehemiah’s prayer in its entirety in the book of Nehemiah chapter 1:5–11 and it follows a very structured model of faith, humility, and urgency. Next week, the Pew will follow Nehemiah’s prayer and examine it in more detail looking at how it is structured and model of faith, humility, and urgency, and we’ll look at that next week.

OK, for now let’s get back to kind of an overview of chapters 1–3 the book of Nehemiah. As we’ve written, he was in service to the Persian King and he learns of Jerusalem walls. He responds with deep prayer, receives royal permission to travel and rebuild and organize the community to successfully begin reconstruction. We find the account of that in chapter 1 when we moved to chapter 2 after we have observed a more detailed account of the deep sadness of Nehemiah’s concerning the wall. The King asked what he wants and Nehemiah, after praying to God silently, he asks the king for permission to return to Judah to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls and the king grants his request and provides safe conduct letters. This occurs in chapter 2. When Nehemiah arrives in Jerusalem, he secretly inspects the ruin walls at night and afterwards he reveals his mission to the Jewish people and urges them to rebuild despite the early mockery and some opposition from local adversaries. The people resolved to start the work. And then we get to chapter 3, and we discover a community effort,  this chapter provides a detailed organized roster of who built which sections of the wall. Unity and teamwork and a diverse group of people working side-by-side. The list includes priest and goldsmiths, perfumers, merchants, rulers, and everyday citizens working on the segments closest to their own homes and professions. Stay with me now as we proceed to wrap this week’s blog up. As you remember at the very beginning, I wrote about doing some “holy stretches.” And now I’m going to make a little bit of a U-turn and we’re going to look at something called an allegory. We have so far in the summaries of the first three chapters of Jeremiah, shared the the literal story, the actual plot, characters, and setting of the story and what we’re gonna do now is we’re going to look at the symbolic level, the hidden deeper meaning, the real world concept that the literal story represents in my mind.

I guess I would ask the question… where is our Nehemiah? Our country is so divided by so many social justice groups, and people with special agendas that we can’t come together really for most anything. But the thing that bothers me the most is what I had written earlier, this is no longer One Nation Under God, that just doesn’t apply to us now. We’ve lost our wall of faith and we need to restore it. So I close out I simply re-asking that question…Where is our Nehemiah? Ponder that.

Life is. Good

jk

As you know the past few months, the Pew has been looking at the Good Way, today we continue that journey by taking just a few moments to look at this quest for knowledge and wisdom that sometimes can compromise the road to the Good Way.

We’re going to go out on the limb today so to speak and simply say that in our opinion, there are three components to the subject we’re looking at today. There is a new phenomenon known as AI, add to that just plain knowledge and round that out with God’s wisdom. Artificial intelligence is a computer technology that is designed to simulate human intelligence. It enables machines to learn from data, recognize patterns, solve problems, and to literally make decisions. What’s unusual about this particular system is that it allows itself to adapt, analyze the information, and perform tasks that typically require human input. But it becomes even more amazing once you consider the fact that the traditional computer software that we use nowadays follow strict rules, and is programed by humans. But the new AI on the other hand operates by analyzing vast amounts of information, examples and data rather than explicit instructions. It looks at trends and data to make educated predictions, and it understands spoken language and if that’s not enough, it identifies objects in images.

Knowledge, on other hand is the confident understanding, awareness, or familiarity of a subject, concept, or skill. It’s acquired, you get there through study, observation, or experience, the bridge between raw information and actionable insight. Gaining knowledge can really be broken down into some procedural steps, so to speak the core types of knowledge. One of course, is procedural, knowing how to perform a task, then there’s conceptional the understanding of theories and mental models. And then the next is pretty common for most of us and that’s factual familiarity with the specific objective data, and any information that is provided for that. Then there is the  knowledge that is gained from experience that is often difficult to transfer to others. Here is interesting fact about knowledge which is pretty well understood to be defined as justified true belief. To know something you must believe it and it must be true and you must have valid reasons or just reasons for that belief and that brings us to the last topic of these concepts. That of course, being God’s wisdom.

I’ve done quite a bit of research trying to find ways to write about this topic and the best I could find, the one that I feel comfortable with would be found on gotquestions.org . The information that I shared with you in this blog, a large part of it came from the website I just listed. I chose that because there are a number of biblical verses that were used in the explanation about God’s wisdom. And there is no better place to learn about that wisdom than the Bible itself. According to the Bible, God’s wisdom is the perfect divine insight, of moral purity, and understanding that governs the universe. Unlike worldly knowledge which relies heavily on self promotion, God, the wisdom is rooted in reference for the Lord and is characterized by a lifestyle of righteousness, humility, and peace. It’s interesting to note that one of the first points made in this article is the fact that the starting point would be the book of proverbs which states that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Simply said it means that we’re acknowledging God’s sovereignty, obeying his commands, and relying on His truth rather than human intellect. Consider 

James 3:17…But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Next we find in 1 Corinthians 1:24-25…but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. Paul wrote this to symbolically state that the power of God and the wisdom of God could be found in Jesus Christ among us. The Bible is very plain about Godly versus earthly wisdom. The Bible simply describes earthly wisdom as being foolish. Earthly wisdom relies on pride and self interest, and shortsightedness, whereas Gods is the wisdom to live from an eternal perspective and prioritize God’s will. I could continue on and overwhelm you with scripture, but it’s true in my opinion that the things we learn and retain are the things that we have in our heart. Godly wisdom is from God and it honors God, the wisdom starts with fear of God and results in a holy life, but if we see the wisdom of this world, and we’re not concerned with honoring God, but with pleasing our self, we’re gonna get in big trouble. With worldly wisdom we may become educated, smart, and have common sense that enables us to play the world’s game successfully. But when we look at the difference and look at Godly wisdom, we see that it will prepare us for eternity. With Godly wisdom, we trade earthly values for biblical values, and we recognize that we are truly citizens of another kingdom and the choices we make will reflect that allegiance. I’ll wrap this up by simply asking you to go to this website which I’ve included. Read this and think heavily about the direction you are traveling. Is it a Good Way…God’s Way?

https://www.gotquestions.org/godly-wisdom.html 

Life is Good

jk

“Spiritual parallels involve using everyday events, ancient stories, or natural laws to understand deeper spiritual truths. These metaphors help translate complex, unseen concepts into relatable word pictures, allowing individuals to connect with their faith or personal philosophy in a more practical way.”

As a simple layman I have often found myself wondering about spiritual parallels and if the truth be known, that is not an accurate statement. First of all, let’s take a look at the I guess you would say theological rendering of exactly what is it that I’m trying to do here. Well here is the textbook explanation.

The church terminology for relating ancient biblical texts to modern situations is called biblical application or contextualization. This process is deeply rooted in hermeneutics, which is the study of interpreting and bridging the gap between the original biblical world and our lives today.  

My explanation and what I’m trying to do is simple, I’m just trying to bring the scripture verses that are today’s subject into a context that we can understand relates to our daily living today. Now both of these explanations are kind of long winded and worthy, but I hope you can kinda get the gist of where we’re going. One of the study groups that I am involved with are in the midst of a biblical study of the book of Exodus. Just a couple of days ago, we begin looking at chapter 13 in the book of Exodus. I read a statement that simply said. “the wilderness journey is ultimate biblical blueprint for the modern Christian life, representing the crucial transition phase between initial salvation and the ultimate spiritual maturity.” As we read and study the Bible I think the goal for most of us is to gain some spiritual maturity. There are some who believe that in chapter 13 of Exodus we find a transitional period. A a road map of the wilderness journey shows us how it can be compared to a transitional state. Egypt represents a past life of sin and Canaan presents the promised land of spiritual abundance. The wilderness is in between and that’s where God transformed slaves into citizens of his kingdom. Now you can always find folks that are going to say this journey through the wilderness was the result of quite a few mistakes, but it was not a mistake. It was kind of a divine classroom. And Deuteronomy 8:2 we know that God led Israel into the wilderness to humble them and test what was in their hearts mirroring how modern trials expose believers true belief. Have you felt your belief tested from some of the trials we face in this world today? It’s interesting to know that God did not take the Israelites the short coastal route because they were not ready for war. What we get from this is that God often delays a believers’s blessings and ultimate calling to protect them from the battles they cannot yet handle. God didn’t forget his people, not at all. The first thing he did was provide them with provisions. He gave them Manna as a daily bread which Israel could not hoard. It rotted when kept overnight, so this forced a total reliance on God for their daily bread, parallel to Jesus, instructions to pray for our daily bread and learn to trust God one day at a time. In one of the key events while they were there in the desert when thirst threatened, God brought water from rock, now the apostle Paul explicitly states in first Corinthians 10:4 that this rock was Christ representing the spiritual refreshment available to believers in this dry environment. We find ourselves today in an environment where people thirst for the truth they thirst for peace and the place we seem to turn last is to Jesus Christ, where we will be refreshed and protected.

There is a lot of attention focused on Moses and Aaron as they led the people through the wilderness. But God didn’t leave them wandering without some direction. They followed the cloud and they only moved when the cloud moved and stayed when it stayed. From this, we can draw the parallel of having the discipline of waiting on the Holy Spirit’s timing rather than forcing our personal agendas. An interesting note is that the Tabernacle was placed at the center the of the 12 tribes which faced the tabernacle, this was a visual anchor which taught Israel that worship in the presence of God must remain a literal centerpiece of daily life. What is the center piece of our daily life without getting into a lot of details can we just simply ask, what would Jesus do, then we can ask ourselves did we do that? One question that everybody that has studied exodus always asked themselves how in the world could an 11 day journey take 40 years? It’s not really a very difficult question to answer and parallels a lot of what’s going on in our world today. It took that long simply because a generation refused to trust God’s promises. This should be a warning to us today. Those of the Christian faith, we must consider this… that a lack faith can stall spiritual growth and will delay our ultimate destiny.

Thank you for being in “the Pew” this week. Remember, that to wander aimlessly in this world today does not have to be your lot in life. Come out of that desert of sin and go to the rock where the water not only will quench your thirst, but will make you new again.

Life is Good

jk

“They stormed the beaches and saved the world. The roughly 160,000 Allied troops who landed in Nazi-occupied France on June 6, 1944, not only successfully executed the largest air, land and sea invasion in history, they did so amid daunting obstacles, terrible bloodshed and stakes that couldn’t have been higher.

“We will accept nothing less than full Victory!” their commander, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, told them. And victory, in this battle, was far from certain in the first hours of that first day.”

Continuing that quote from military records…

“1:30-2:30 a.m.

The British 6th Airborne Division and the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division and 101st Airborne Division begin the airborne assault behind enemy lines to secure objectives on the east and west flanks of the invasion area. Thick cloud cover hindered the air insertion, and some of the airborne troops were badly scattered.

More than 23,000 Allied airborne troops total landed in Normandy on D-Day, by parachute or glider.”

On this day, June 6, 1944, 2,501 American soldiers were killed across five landing beaches in Normandy the casualties, the most fatalities were at Omaha Beach, where American forces suffered roughly 2,400 total casualties killed wounded and missing with actual US battle death on this beach estimated between 600 and 900. As best as we know from figures from that era 183,600 American service members were killed in action in the European theater of operations during World War II with overall military deaths, including combat, accidents and disease reaching approximately 250,000 which by comparison with the pacific Theatre were 108,500 died. 

So to all of those people in the United States today, who find fault with our country, who hate it, disparage it, and make light of the sacrifice made in years past. I share with you this one reminder. All we as a nation ever asked, was for enough ground to bury our dead.

My God bless those who gave their life for a cause such as this. Their generation, their likes as it has been said before “will never be seen again.”

May God bless and have mercy on the USA…

jk

Just Don’t Do It! …Luke 11:27-32

We are close to moving to the sixth month of the year and these past five months have been busy months for the Christian faith.  The question The Pew asks you today is “what’s next”. If everything goes as it normally does within the church calendar, we’ll pack these particular occasions away until again next year. Let’s take a few moments to look at what we’ve covered in the Christian faith. We know that on the third day after Jesus was crucified he rose from the dead, and according to the New Testament, the Ascension of Christ occurred 40 days after his resurrection. We are told his resurrection took place on the third day following the crucifixion. The ascension happened approximately 43 days after his crucifixion so here’s the fact we want to take from that…the 40 day post Resurrection Is explicitly detailed in the book of acts chapter 1:3. Jesus remained on earth to teach the apostles and give them the final instructions before ascending to heaven. Now I need to kind of go a little bit slow here because I too get confused at times about the chronology of these events. So I suppose what we need to do here is to be sure that we make note of the fact of the Great Commission, now bear with me here so we don’t get lost, but the Great commission was given before Pentecost and Jesus issued the command after his resurrection, but before the ascension. So we need to define at this point exactly what was the Great Commission? That can be found in Matthew 28:19–20 and is Jesus’s final command to his followers. It instructed them to go to all nations, make disciples, baptize them, and teach them his commandments with the reassuring promise of his continual presence and authority. Now this is important because the core mission is not to just get converts, but to train devoted followers. In a sense, it underlines the fact that God’s message is for everyone, regardless of cultural or ethnic background. They are instructed to baptize these people in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit – a public declaration of faith and a symbol of a believer’s new identity, uniting them with the trinity. There is still  another part of this that needs to be said and understood. They are to teach them to observe all that Jesus has commanded – it must be made known to them that a discipleship requires active learning and obedience, and that believers follow Jesus’s ethical teachings and lifestyle. That’s quite a bit to digest, but there is a little caveat there at the end … “behold, I am with you always even to the end of the age”. It’s a comforting assurance that Jesus remains present to guide, empower and protect His followers as they carry out this mission. And now to the last thing. Pentecost, it is at Pentecost that these disciples and people within that room and others that would come behind them were empowered with the Holy Spirit that would enable them to actually carry out the mission that lay ahead. This is the point that I would like to make there is never any end to the Christian mission. The death of Christ on the cross, the resurrection, the ascension and Pentecost are not the end of the story. 

Ever wonder where these people went after Pentecost? This is one of the better responses I came across. This is an AI summary  of those events. I want to be clear that it has been fact checked, it is not my writings and is an accumulation of information from many sources. 

After Pentecost, the twelve apostles dispersed from Jerusalem to spread the Gospel. While the specific locations varied, some notable destinations and individuals include Peter traveling to Palestine, Asia Minor, and eventually Rome; Thomas going to India;Andrew going to Greece and the regions of the Black Sea; and James the Greater potentially going to Spain.  

Here’s a more detailed look at some of the apostles and their potential destinations: 

• Peter: Known for his leadership after Pentecost, Peter traveled extensively, including to Palestine, Asia Minor, and eventually Rome where he became the first bishop and was crucified upside down.  
• Andrew: Tradition holds that Andrew went to Scythia, then to Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) and Greece, where he is said to have been crucified.     
• Thomas: Thomas is traditionally believed to have evangelized in Osroene (eastern Turkey) and then went to India, where his tomb is located. 
• James the Greater: While his exact route to Spain is not explicitly mentioned in scripture, the tradition is that he eventually traveled to Spain and was martyred. 
• Philip: Philip is said to have traveled to Scythia (near the Black Sea) and then to Phrygia (in modern-day Turkey). 
• Bartholomew: Bartholomew is linked to Armenia and India, and some accounts say he may have also traveled to Mesopotamia, Persia, and Egypt.   
• Matthew: Matthew is said to have ministered to Jewish communities in Palestine and later traveled to Syria, Media, Persia, Parthia, and Ethiopia.  

They were followed by a group of converts and redeemed believers. In the weeks ahead we will get to know the people who went forth at great risk to their personal well being…and carried out the Great Commission. 

 

Matthew 28:19-20, to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

Are you as it is sometimes said, are you willing to walk the walk? See you next week 

Life is Good

jk

A diaspora refers to a population of people dispersed from their original homeland across multiple regions. It describes a scattered group who maintain a strong cultural, emotional, or political connection to their ancestral home while living.

The Jewish Diaspora occurred primarily due to forced exile, military, defeats, and persecution by occupying empires. It started with the Babylonian exile in 586 BCE. That was followed by Roman conquest and destruction following the revolt against Roman rule, the Roman army destroyed the second temple and systematically forced them out of Judea, many of them were turned into slaves, being taken captive during that conquest. Jewish communities over the centuries, particularly during the dysphoria have faced, sustained often, violent, and tense situations and expulsion from countless countries across Europe and the Middle East, leading to further migration. We must make note of the fact that there was also some voluntary dispersion, which was driven by trade, commerce, and the settlement in major cities across the Roman empire. So by the first century significant Jewish communities were already established outside of Judea in areas like Egypt, Syria, and Babylonia, which allows for continued religious and cultural survival away from the holy land.

Now fast forward to and we find ourselves in the upper room, used to share the Last Supper and where his followers gathered after his ascension. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended upon them. It was here at this time, in this place where the birth of the Christian Church occurs. According to Acts 1, there were approximately 120 believers gathered in this upper room. Let’s take a look at the core group.  There were the 11 apostles, Mary, the mother of Jesus, the brothers of Jesus, and a group of faithful women who have followed Jesus from the very beginning. While the apostles are specifically highlighted in the narrative the entire group of 120 believers were present and empowered by the Holy Spirit to speak in other tongues.

Most all Christians are aware of the story about Pentecost that we read in Acts, but as the Pew often does, we are going to go beyond the words. We’ll start by first remembering the apostle Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost, which can be read in Acts 2:14–41. Peter’s sermon was quite a breakthrough for the Christian faith. It was the first major proclamation of the Christian church. There was an international crowd in Jerusalem, and Peter explained that the Holy Spirits arrival fulfilled the Old Testament prophecy of Joel. He then testified to Jesus’, life, death and resurrection, declaring him both Lord and Messiah. Peter’s message impacted many of his listeners, powerful it led to the baptism of about 3000 people and effectively marked the birth of the Christian church. Those in the upper room spilled into the streets and were accused of being drunk, and they made fun of them, but when the Holy Spirit arrived believers began speaking in tongues and causing amazement and confusion, and their amazement and joy went with them into that street, and it was at this point that the people accuse them of being drunk, and Peter stepped forward. Peter, stepped forward with the other apostles and defended the believers. He noted. It was only 9 o’clock in the morning and they were not intoxicated. He gave them an explanation for this miraculous event, he highlighted that God was pouring out his spirit on all people, regardless of age, gender, or social status to empower them in the last days. This is a rather remarkable speech that Peter made after being empowered by the Holy Spirit he recounted the early ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, he highlighted the miracles, wonders and signs that have been performed. Then he confronted the crowd directly studying that they handed Jesus over to be crucified by lawless men, so Peter explained God’s plan. Then Peter quoted King David from songs 16:8–11…. He reminded the crowd that David died and was buried, but prophesies that the Messiah would not see corruption. Peter testified that God raised Jesus from the dead and exalted him to the right hand of God. It is remarkable that Peter and the other apostles step forward to confront this crowd, and the result was even more remarkable. They were deeply convicted by his words, and they asked Peter and the other apostles “what shall we do”. Peter told them to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins promising they would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. As we have written earlier that the Bible records about 3000 people who accepted that message  and were baptized and devoted themselves to the apostles, teaching and fellowship.

This takes us to the present day and the explanation about that Christian Diaspora.  As we shared with you earlier at the very first of this blog, the definition says…  

A diaspora refers to a population of people dispersed from their original homeland across multiple regions. It describes a scattered group who maintain a strong cultural, emotional, or political connection to their ancestral home while living.

These people had fled in fear, and also in hopes of survival in a world that was hostile, not only to them as a people, but as to their customs and faith. What happens at Pentecost is the beginning of the Christian Diaspora, but this scattering of God’s people,  this going out among other nations, and this taking their customs and their faith with them was one of faith, joy, and hope for the world. Just as our ancestors and those before them had carried their faith and their customs with them wherever they were dispersed to, and he kept them alive through their faith and perseverance now the Christian church was standing up, moving out and taking with them God’s word just as they had been instructed to do, but as I wrote a few words ago, it was quite a different diaspora. For the first time in a long time they had hope and their faith strengthened by the Holy Spirit took them and lifted them up from their despair or suffering, and gave them a chance to once again be whole. I wrote a blog sometime ago about where these apostles went the countries and cities and towns, and all the areas that they covered following Jesus’s command to go forth and take the word, they did just that. The followers that had been with Jesus from the very beginning, they too continued on telling everyone they could about this new faith this new way a better way the good news… however, you want to phrase it so as we celebrate Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit dwelling upon us, giving us hope for the future, we must remember that that call then is alive and well today and we go forth in quite a different attitude. God bless and thank you for joining us this week in The Pew.

Life is Good

jk

When we speak of the God that we serve, there is a plan, an order of things and all of it is structured to bring glory to our God, the Father Almighty. Pentecost is a major Christian festival and it’s normally celebrated 50 days after Easter. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles and followers of Jesus in Jerusalem. When we speak of plans and structure, I guess we need to make the note that being a movable feast this year in 2026 western Christians will celebrate  on May 24, while eastern orthodox Christians celebrate on May 31. Don’t know if that means a whole lot but it’s just a little something I threw in. There are some details about Pentecost that we will be looking at for these next two blogs. It commemorates the fulfillment of Jesus’s promise to send the Holy Spirit as a helper and guide and that’s described to us in Acts 2:1–31. One of the things that is associated with that period of time involves a sound like rushing wind, and there were tongues of fire resting on the believers which enabled them to speak in different languages. Now the name comes from a Greek word meaning 50th and it was originally rooted in the Jewish festival of Shavuot, familiar to us as the feast of weeks, which occurred 50 days after the Passover. It has other names sometimes it’s referred to as Whitsunday or White Sunday in the UK and Ireland, to avoid any undo excitement I will explain that white garments worn by those baptized on this day and is the reason that it is referred to by the above names. Red is the liturgical color which symbolizes the Holy Spirit.

There are three aspects that I would like to share with you concerning this very special day. Pentecost brings to us three values that are very important to our Christian health. 

-It brings to us the ability to have a spirit empowered life, which simply means the spirit provides us with the supernatural ability to accomplish spiritual tasks that exceed our human limitations. But it does require a surrender. It requires active daily yielding to the spirits leading, not just occasional recognition. It enables us to move past our human frustration to divine victory. Therefore empowering us with the courage to face spiritual battles, and to be effective witnesses to Jesus. To do so we must pursue actively seeking the Holy Spirit in studying the word so that we as believers come to understand the identity we have in Christ and it changes our mindset to align with God’s word rather than worldly thinking. It is essential part of our transformation.

-Pentecost Marks the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, Mary, and other followers in Jerusalem, fulfilling Jesus’s promise. Pentecost also was a biblical fulfillment. It fulfills the prophecy in Joel 2:28–31 and it also fills Jesus’s promise of an advocate which we read about in John 14:16–17. The strength of this empowerment was total, he transformed the disciples from fear to boldness, enabling them to preach the gospel.

-it has come to be designated “the birth of the church.” The Holy Spirit descended on them, empowering them to spread Jesus’s message. It is indeed the transition from Jesus’s earthly ministry to the public ministry mission of the church and was marked by unity, preaching, and the fellowship of believers. The believers had gathered filled with the Holy Spirit and that resulted in speaking in different languages and the start of a widespread evangelism. We must remember that Pentecost was not just the beginning, but was the moment the church was empowered to take the message of reconciliation to the world. And this early church devoted itself to the apostles, teaching, fellowship, breaking the bread and prayer. There’s a visual structure, founded by Jesus who established the 12 apostles with Peter as a leader, preparing the foundation for this moment it was this moment in that room on that day that an event took place that profoundly impacted the history of the world.

Hope to see you here in “The Pew” next week…for a special Pentecost post.

Life is Good

jk

Proverbs 14…consider that Proverbs 14:15–16 gives us a biblical mandate precaution. It is simply saying that while the naïve believe everything, the sensible person considers their steps and turns away from evil.

15 

The simple believe anything,
but the prudent give thought to their steps.

16 

The wise fear the Lord and shun evil,
but a fool is hotheaded and yet feels secure.

When we read Matthew 10:16, it is encouraging us to stay alert to physical danger to protect oneself and others, while also discerning, spiritual, cultural, relational circumstances, to act in accordance with God’s will and purpose. Situational Awareness is much larger than just an individual piece of advice and it should also apply to churches and their congregations and into our faith overall. Now more than ever the church, the faith, and the people of the way, the good way need to have that awareness. Some of the research that I’ve done suggest it maybe we should look at it from the standpoint of spiritual vigilance. 1 Peter 5:8-9 

8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. It requires believers to be vigilant against spiritual attacks. Reading Ephesians 5:15–16 the instructions that we walk carefully and it’s not just about our physical safety but making the most of time and opportunities in a broken world. Think about how long ago Paul wrote that and we’re still living in a broken world. There are other things to be considered and one of the most difficult is for us to be able to recognize God’s hand in a situation. True awareness includes discerning what God is doing in a given situation and then cooperating with his timing. There are a lot of adjectives that we can use to to describe a very common reaction for many of us have our heads in the sand. One of the hardest things to get by is denial. The biggest obstacle to awareness is denying that there are potential threats and to believe a dangerous situation isn’t actually dangerous, but to be fair, we must admit that sometimes the media helps us along with engaging  in fearful scenarios, and all it really accomplishes is making people scared of something they don’t completely understand. So it is very good practical advice to actively observe those things that are around us, being aware of what’s going on not being oblivious to a problem or panicked by it. Sometimes when I get into the subjects and I start researching a little bit there are some biblical things that come to mind that helped me deal with situations around me. I prefer to think about the good things and not dwell on those things which tear down the human spirit or leave us fearful and uncertain about our future. Being attentive, can also apply to communities and churches of being able to identify hazards and things that we might share with each other to make our days, all our days a little bit better. So the conclusion to all of this…situational awareness in a Christian context should not be driven by fear, but by a desire to live and enjoy our lives as God desires us to do and be effective in God’s service, using discernment or nice other way of putting it, good judgment to navigate physical risk and spiritual realities alike.

 Some of the key aspects of awareness encourages us to examine our own heart and faith. We read about that in 2 Corinthians 13:5, we are encouraged to avoid pride and recognize the need for repentance. Now this involves knowing our true standing in relationship to God and our dependence on him rather than focusing on self-centered consciousness, he calls for a spiritual awareness. They kinda asked us to wake up from our slumber and recognize the reality of the spiritual kingdom. We must understand the all struggles aren’t merely physical. The two scriptures that apply would be Ephesians 6:12 and Romans 13:11 and by reading scripture believers are made aware of and encouraged to be alert to traps that the enemy sets for us, the temptations of the world and the uncertainty of the time that we live in today, just as then.1Corinthians 16:13, 1 Peter 5:8. It is important that we encourage fellowship and spending time with others particularly with those of the faith, but we have to have the awareness that develops a conscious, loving awareness of others which will result in compassion and the ability to serve just as Jesus demonstrated in John 4:35.

Thank you for joining us in the Pew here today pray it will result with the understanding of the biblical awareness that is designed to move us to repentance, deeper love for God and encourage better relationships with other people.

Life is Good

jk