When I started to write this I made at least several do-overs because I am having difficultly transitioning from the Bible and scripture to our world today, using such a basis. There was a movie some years back…”God’s Little Acre” and if you remember it you have been around a long time. Read this short summation:

The story remains that of a Georgia farmer who believes he can find gold on his farm. In the book it was a gold mine; in the picture it is buried treasure. Ryan has spent years of his life digging for it, all his energies and those of his two sons go into the search and the dream it represents. The hunt leads everywhere on their farm except on the one acre Ryan has set aside, in the olden way of tithing, for God. 

Fast forward to now and once more men are in a dispute with each other and God over “God’s Little Acre” but it is now much larger than an acre. They are fighting over what belongs to God and His people. Stay with me now…

Genesis 12:6-7 6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring[c] I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 

Genesis 17:1-8 7 I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. 8 The whole land of Canaan, where you

now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”

The war between Israel and Iran is a complex situation. And it becomes even more complex as we try to understand it in relation to the ancient land of Canaan biblically speaking. Now I will try to be very careful here and please be advised if you find something that doesn’t seem right or it doesn’t sound right please let me know. There are definite, religious claims and historical claims to the land of Canaan the ancient land of Canaan is significant to both Jewish and Palestinian communities because for both of them it is an historical and religious symbol. There are definitely different perspectives for the Jewish people. The territory is a biblical promised land to their ancestors after the exit from Egypt, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David, this territory at that time was their promised land. From a Palestinian perspective many Palestinians would trace their origins back to the ancient Canaanites and Philistines, and they use that to assert their connection to the land based on this historical heritage. It may be very hard for us to understand how after all of these years and there are many of them that the connection to this land is rooted in biblical narrative and historical claims, but that’s the way it is and overall the conflict serves as a crucial underlying factor. I guess if I were to put this in what you might say laymen’s language or something that’s a little easier to understand that this is a rivalry with very deep roots. The tensions that we’re witnessing now between Iran and Israel extend far beyond recent conflicts. There is so much here that it is really difficult to break it all down. There isn’t time or space in a blog to do something like that but biblical narratives and biblical text will provide us insight into the nature of this rivalry  which suggests it’s not solely political or territorial. Now here’s a word I ran across while assembling all this research to share some of these points with you… Geopolitical… meaning simply that geopolitical focus on the location which encompass the ancient Canaan present day Israel, and the Palestinian territories hold an immense strategic importance. We know that Iran has vowed to wipe Israel, the nation of Israel off the map. It’s a contested area so to speak, and Iran has conducted proxy wars throughout the whole region, and it’s all directed at their desire to eliminate Israel, these cultural and ideological wars waged by proxies fuse and create the instability, and the regional tensions. We have already written that the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran takes place in a part of what is referred to as the biblical lands. They are historically known as Israel are Canaan, and are significant in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, it is where many biblical events and stories took place. The modern countries that cover these biblical lands include Iraq Syria Turkey Jordan, Egypt, Israel, Palestine.  I may have said that already and apologize if I’m being repetitive, but that the region has a long-standing historical and religious roots with various perspectives on which our  understanding of is significance in relation to the biblical prophecies are interwoven.

Consider this… You can say with confidence that “God’s Little Acre” is really a lot larger than that and we just keep digging it up and tearing it apart…In reality it all belongs to God.

Life is Good

jk

Welcome to the Porch, it is a “porch  sitting evening” for sure. The heat dome that we’ve all been reading about the past week or so has certainly put its mark on our community here on the plateau. We’ve been mid 90s for at least six days now and when you combine that with good old southern humidity, well that’s a good time to sit on the porch and raise a nice cold glass of iced tea, sweet tea. I remember years ago when I would be visiting with my grandmother during the summer those old hot, lazy summer days never kept us from getting out and going to the playground and ball field. Now a days the kids are in the house in the air conditioning and playing their games. But what I seem to remember is that every day about 1 o’clock, we’d have a terrible terrible thunderstorm and when that rain got done it was just like walking around in a steam tunnel somewhere for a little while, but oh that fresh smell, fresh clean smell of rain. It was really refreshing. I don’t think I’m wrong and I can still remember it. You could smell the rain coming, see it and nowadays with all the weather forecasting equipment that we have everything is a big storm or everything is something we need to worry about. I remember in my younger days, my grandmother would sometimes tell us that thunder was the Angels bowling. I didn’t really know what she was talking about then, but it made me feel a little bit better. 

I really have been looking forward to coming out here on the porch this evening I needed that quiet time or at least the time of fellowship to sit around and ponder over a few things. I haven’t really taken a lot of time to ponder before coming out here this evening and I guess when that’s the case your mind kind of wanders back in time and you like to remember things and as you get older, it’s just the way the day goes for most of us we like to remember how it used to be and we always say those were the good old days. I’ll let you be the judge of that. I guess I was about nine years old and the neighborhood that my grandmother lived in had a playground. Can you imagine that, yeah a playground and all kinds of things, swings monkey bars, slides, they even had a really first class softball field with a backstop and everything. Usually on Wednesdays every week a lady would come and teach Bible. As soon as enough guys showed up, we would start forming teams and begin to play softball usually about 10:30 or 11 o’clock in the morning and we would play up until that “every day 1 o’clock rain” came along. Now let me explain to you about that rain. That rain was one of those old-fashioned southern summer rains. When it was done, it was like walking around in a steam chamber I guess for a little bit, but that fresh smell everything was so clean and it cooled things off, but you know what it never did make that softball field unplayable and I thought that was remarkable. Well, I suppose we didn’t get a whole lot of pondering done this time, but it was nice, the fellowship and the opportunity to share our thoughts away from the constant protest, complaining, and whining, and moaning that our society has become. You know what I may have just stumbled upon a ponder to leave you with. I have never seen so many mad people, unhappy, and unsure of what is yet to come. God is good. Life is good so I’ll leave you with this Ponder for today. From an old magazine and cartoon character you may or may not remember… Ponder This. “What, Me Worry?”

Kurt

I removed the first issue because I had shared with you some incorrect information. This is a reprint of the oringal with the correction. After suggesting to you how important it was to know what we believe, why we believe it and what was our source…I did just the opposite. Read the comment I received this evening below:

Just an fyi on your blog tonight: most scholars believe Luke never met Jesus.  He was a doctor and definitely not one of the disciples.  Also, mark at best observed Jesus from a distance as he was a young boy during Jesus’ earthly ministry and likely wrote himself in his account as the young boy following Jesus to crucifixion and when grabbed ran away naked. Matthew was the only disciple and fellow traveler with Jesus of the Synoptics.  Of course John was in Jesus’ inner circle.  

The Synoptic Gospels is where I got it wrong. So what are they? 

The Synoptic Gospels are the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke in the New Testament. They are called “synoptic” because they share a similar view or perspective, presenting many of the same stories, often in the same sequence and with similar wording, unlike the Gospel of John. The term “synoptic” comes from the Greek word “synoptikos ” meaning “seen together” or “able to be seen together.” This similarity suggests a literary relationship between these three Gospels, possibly through shared sources or direct copying. 

Ok, hope I haven’t confused you. We will now continue with the rest of the blog.

I believe there are times that we look upon the Bible, perhaps rather haphazardly. I’ve heard descriptions of the Bible being everything from stories, history events, just all kinds of examples of what people believe the Bible is. It is in many ways in all fairness, a history of the world, God’s World, but more importantly, it is a record of God’s relationship with us, the establishing of that relationship and the damage done to that relationship in the garden, and then a reconciliation process. It begin with Moses all the way through to the birth crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Christian Bible, God’s word to his people’s has many divisions within itself. Most Christians are familiar with the fact there is an Old Testament and there is a New Testament and it is usually the Old Testament that gets set aside more often than used and yet in our study that we had in a class I’m involved with in Genesis there are 35 quotes from the book of Genesis in the New Testament. There are some misconceptions that I think we have that have carried over through the years simply because that’s the way that the Bible has been structured by the church. For instance what was the very first book of the New Testament? The earliest New Testament book written is generally believed to be the letter to the Thessalonians or first Thessalonians by Paul, the apostle. Possibly it was written around 50 CE while the gospels are often placed first in the New Testament, scholarly consensus suggest they were written much later with Mark likely being the first gospel possibly around 65 or 70 CE. That book was followed by Matthew and Luke. You know while it may seem rather ridiculous the point is it’s very very important for us as Christians to know what we believe why we believe it and where did we get it? What is our source? Matthew and Luke are generally believed be written in the 80s CE with John coming later in the 90s CE there are as many as 50 versions of the English Bible, not counting multiple versions of the Bible in other languages. There is a lot of information we could share with you, but that is the problem. It is really very simple, this bible thing. From that foot trodden dusty small square in the city of Jerusalem they went forth, empowered by the HOLY Spirit on that day of Pentecost. Peter’s speech that day resulted in over 3000 people to join The Way that day. In time they would take the message to the known world of that day.

 Life Is Good

jk

Welcome to the porch. The weather is a bit cloudy every now and then the sun will stick out its head and give us a little break, but the rain has been pretty well constant, but we believe it’s going to let up for just a little while. Most of the time porch sitting in the rain is not a bad experience but if the wind gets up, it tends to blow it right in on us, but that being the case pull up a chair or a box and sit down and Ponder a bit. I’ve got one ponder to throw at you this evening and we’ll see what it brings about. I set out to try and determine the number of holidays that we have here in the United States in all categories and I have not had a whole lot of luck. Determining the total number of holidays of all kinds is difficult because the definition of holiday differs  significantly across cultures, countries and even within the same country. Now in “good old boy language” that would simply mean nobody knows. I was able to determine that holidays vary in our country in states, our government and non-government, religious and each has a category of their own you might say, and we celebrate them in different ways. Now remember here on the porch while we’re pondering, accuracy is not always a strong trait so keep that in mind. To the best of my knowledge there are 11 federal holidays and if you add Inauguration Day every four years, you then have 12 federal holidays. Now we all know that there’s a slew more and everybody’s got a holiday for something or some thing but in my research I found something very interesting and that is only because we’re coming up on June 19 and we now have another holiday that we celebrate. It’s called Juneteenth and it celebrates liberation of the slaves in the state of Texas. I will not bother you with a list of the federal holidays, but I found this particular one Juneteenth to be really very interesting because of the circumstances that surrounded it. Now we all know that it was Lincoln who freed the slaves, but the interesting thing about this new holiday Juneteenth is the circumstances in which it came about pacifically. It marks a day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston Texas finally learned they were free two years after the emancipation proclamation. The active recognition by the federal government signifies a broader acknowledgment of the end of slavery and the long struggle for equality faced by black Americans. 

So here is my ponder. Why don’t we by we? I mean all of us declare a Floating Holiday. We will name it Holiday Blank. You may celebrate on any day you wish but only one time a year now. You may do whatever you want on that day. Ignore whatever you want on that day. Or just pretend that it didn’t come around.  So I wish you a Happy Holiday Blank, or whenever. Now ponder that.

Kurt

As we shared with you in last weeks blog, the early church is referring to the historical period of the Christian religion from the beginning of the New Testament to the first council of Nicaea in 325 CE.  Christianity began its growth here in the eastern part of the Mediterranean with its islands and neighboring countries to include the entire Roman empire and beyond. This growth and the spread was not without cost, it would be characterized by persecution. It would include the development of Christian doctrine, to meet a growing church.

A fact that it sometimes lost in our conversations and study is that the church emerged from a Jewish tradition with Jesus and his disciples being Jewish it was only natural that the initial Christians continue to meet in synagogues, and the spread of Christianity was initially focused on the Jewish community. We won’t go into a great deal of detail here, but Paul wrote 13 of the books of the New Testament during the time of his ministry. He had four missionary journeys, and he would write between the journey, sometimes while he was in the midst of those journeys, and even when he was in prison, and he suffered a great deal in order to take the message to everyone.The early the church was also characterized by a strong focus on mission and evangelism, and it was Paul who begin to take that message to the Gentiles. Christians always were being persecuted by the Roman Empire in many ways that persecution led to them being murdered and the underground development of the church which was necessary in order to continue the work that needed to be done. As the church grew, doctrine was developed the church grappled with theological questions and they developed key doctrines to deal with them such as the Trinity and the nature of Christ through debates and councils. We have mentioned it before, but it’s worth mentioning again. The early church emphasized community among  the members, sharing meals, praying together and engaging in acts of service and charity and oddly enough, the Roman Empire played a significant role in the spread of Christianity, both through its infrastructure and political influence. I doubt that many from the early church would even be able to recognize what we call church today. The early church laid the foundation for the development of Christianity its practices, beliefs, and it still continues to influence Christian dominations today. 

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 wellbeing…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.

  Life Is Good

jk

Well, it’s a typical southern afternoon, hot, humid, and we’re waiting on the rain which has been promised later this afternoon. Things on the porch are pretty simple. It always has been, that’s why I like it so much. Couple of chairs, some good friends and some conversation that doesn’t have to really go anywhere. It’s just some time you spend together and fellowship and it  beats being alone. We have talked before and shared with you before that pondering is really the thing to do nowadays with the temperament of most people and most subjects that usually come up. When you ponder all you gotta do is just open your mind up talk about a few things, it’s nice because facts doesn’t really matter all that much and you’re not really looking for a solution. You’re just talking about life in general. Once I get off the back porch and get in the house I’m pretty much like everybody else. As far as my home is concerned we have a lot of the technical advantages that have taken place over the years to make life a little more comfortable, one of them of course is the is the Internet. It is the way us lesser informed folks get the answers we need…don’t know it…Google It! Well past couple of months I’ve had some technical difficulties here in the house. We lost our dryer of 12 years. I remember when they used to last at least 20, but that doesn’t happen anymore. I think my wife’s computer an iMac after 10 years decided that it was tired and needed a rest, so we retired it. I think someone told the folks at Apple that I was having trouble with my iPhone…you guessed it, it died and went home, wherever that might be. That brings us to today’s Ponder. What does an 82 year old geezer need with an iPhone? Ponder on that for a few moments, there are times that we wander from room to room and we wonder why we’re in the room we’re in. As I’ve gotten older I’ve also noticed that if my wife asked me who is that you were talking to I always answer her simply by saying “oh you know what’s his name.” Just ponder on this for a second. I know how to answer the phone if it rings and I know how to use the Starbucks app on the phone. That’s pretty much all I can do with this thing. After a little practice, I actually learned how to use the contacts to call somebody if I needed to speak with them, but I could only do that because my daughter loaded the contacts on the phone for me and then showed me how to do it. Oh yes, I learned how to read the news but that’s depressing and I can advise some of you, if you’re thinking about it do not get involved with the games they stick on those phones. It’s a no win and it’ll drive you crazy.

So as unreasonable as it may seem, the Ponder for today is really very simple. What does an 82 year-old geezer need with an iPhone? I’ve been told there is a less expensive phone available for us geezers, it’s called a cricket, but I don’t like bugs… take care. Be sure to join us next week on the porch.

jk  

What happened at Pentecost? We really do not know. We do know that the disciples did have an experience of power of the spirit flooding their very beings that they had never had before.  Luke was not an eyewitness to this. We find a very good account of what happened that day in Acts chapter 2:1 – 31 now to use a term that I have become rather fond of there are a lot of rabbit trails here when we start talking about how many people were in that room and who were they and where were they from. The best count that I can get in studying different commentaries and theological writings are there were 120 people in that upper room in Jerusalem, so it was pretty well crowded. Only 11 of those people were the apostles. The rest were disciples of Christ. The way Luke tells the story, the disciples had suddenly acquired the gift of speaking in foreign languages, but there are two reasons why and that is not likely one of the them that I found reasonable enough to to share with you today. It is that probably it was only necessary to speak a couple of languages. The crowd was made up of of Jews and converts, Gentiles that had accepted the Jewish religion and the Jewish way of life. But the hard part of the thing that makes the most sense is  almost all Jews spoke Arabic, and even if they were Jews of this version from a foreign land, they would speak the language which almost everyone of the world spoke at that time… Greek. There are a lot of different roads and explanations that we could go into here, but the basic and very simple fact was that the power of the Spirit was so great that It had given the disciples a message that could reach every heart. Without getting too deep into this, everybody has an opinion, of course, and many writers differ in what they believed happened in that room. There was in the early church a phenomenon which has never completely disappeared, and it was called speaking with tongues you can read it in Acts 10:46 and 19:6. Also Read 1Corinthians 14. What happened was that someone in a moment of extreme ecstasy begin to pour out a flood of unintelligible sounds in no really known language and many people believe that to be inspired by God. In later writing, we find that the apostle Paul was not a big fan of such. He believed if someone were to walk into the church at that particular time they would think that everybody was crazy. The only reason I shared this with you is it is interesting to note that when you really look at this or at least when I look at it very closely, there were only two languages that needed to be spoken and that was Arabic or Greek because most of the people in the world spoke those two languages.  William Barclay in his Daily Bible Study series puts forth the opinion that perhaps Luke became confused when writing about all of this and he confused speaking with tongues to speaking in foreign languages, but as we said earlier, what happened here was this mixed crowd was hearing the word of God in a way that struck straight home they understood what was being said because the power of the spirit was such that the disciples were able to deliver that message and reach every heart. 

It is at this point that we get out of the room and hit the road. You see the people in the streets heard  all this commotion and they begin to gather are a large crowd.They accused these people of being drunk and Peter of course set the crowd straight by telling them exactly what was happening. His message was so powerful that it is said over 3000 people became Christians on that day. There is so much material available to share with you, but it turns a blog into a thesis and that’s not what we’re going to do. After Pentecost, the apostles empowered by the Holy Spirit, begin their missionary journeys, spreading the gospel and performing miracles they went out to establish communities, guided by the spirit and continue to share their faith building the early church. So this is a very important day and an important time in the early church. It’s the birth of the church. It’s our birthday some people say.This marks the beginning of the churches growth and spread among believers, they were  devoted to the apostles, teaching fellowship and prayer. Let us take a moment to look at six important parts in summation.

-we have the missionary journeys the apostles, including Saint James and Saint Peter embarked on these missionary trips traveling throughout Judea, Gaza, and other regions. They preached  the Gospel, healed the sick, and converted many people.

-this period of time was a time of great growth for the early church. The spirit empowered the apostles to establish and nurture the early church which quickly grew from 120 believers to thousands.

-it is here we see the importance of the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The spirit continued to guide the apostles and other believers in influencing their decisions and their actions.

-there are a couple of traits that we would like to share with you. These believers devoted themselves to the apostles, teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, which we have come to know today as Holy Communion.

-they shared their possessions and resources to help those in need demonstrating their commitment to each other and to the Gospel.

-after this initial going forth following Pentecost, the church entered into what we can sometimes refer to as ordinary time. It’s the time of season focused on the life and teachings of Jesus and celebrating various feats and Saints throughout the year.

When we consider the fact that this was over 2000 years ago, when the church first began to form in some sort of order it will expose us to a wealth of information. Next week the Pew is going to take a look at the early church. The early church also known as early Christianity refers to the period of Christianity from its origins to the first council of the Nicaea, 325 AD. This is the period of time that the church began to spread out from the mideastern Mediterranean through the Roman Empire and to most of the known world. This Sunday, Pentecost Sunday for many churches is so very important because it was brought about through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, followed by  the infilling of the Holy Spirit just as Jesus had promised  and it’s spread to going forth, preaching and organizing the believers  throughout the known world at that time.

Life Is Good

jk    

Tomorrow, June 7 marks the Allied invasion of Normandy, France, during World War II. It was the largest seaborne invasion in history, involving British, Canadian, and U.S. troops landing on the heavily fortified beaches of Normandy. The invasion, code-named Operation Overlord, marked a turning point in the European theater and ultimately led to the liberation of Western Europe.

Landing on five beaches: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword, 160,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches, along with thousands of ships and aircraft in a supporting role. The invasion faced significant challenges, including heavy German fortifications, strong winds, and the potential for enemy counterattacks. …(Reference AI has been fact checked.)

My dad served in the old Army Air Core which soon became the US Air Force. He served his country for 30 years. We gave much in life and goods to the people of Europe and in return only asked for ground for our dead to be buried. Omaha Beach gets much attention and on that day at least over 2000 American soldiers lost their lives in the landing and taking of the that beach alone. Me and my friends sit on my back porch in peace and comfort today. Tomorrow June 7, we will remember those who made that possible.

Kurt

Most of you will remember a TV show called The Price Is Right… The closest contestant to the price wins it. In today’s world for many of us the price ain’t right. The wife took me out for coffee, you know I love my Starbucks and it also nice to get out of this wheel chair, leave the house… it kinda makes me feel like I am still in the game. We stoped at the Farmers Market while we were out and that’s when this price thing hit me. Green onions, $3 a bunch… may I qualify that by adding …a small bunch. Tomatoes 3…three count…$5. I am not going to bore you with a long list of items and cost, I will just assure you I thought I was was at a high end grocery store. The days of the farmer having a small vegetable stand on the side of the road are gone. I know change happens and one thing I really miss is that ole country store, on some less traveled road…You know the kind I am talking about. Old wood porch, three or two steps up, just high enough for an ole dog to crawl under to stay cool and dry or in some cases just die. There was always an old chair of some kind or a box or two to sit on. I wondered why they were always on the edge of the porch. After a few visits I found out why. If you were chewing tobacco you didn’t have to get up to spit. You entered  through a battered old screen door full of holes and if you weren’t careful you would trip over or run into that old Pickle Barrel. I was a city boy that loved the old way and I got me a pickle and all I can say is it sure gave a new definition to Pucker up. Now some but not all these stores had an good ole boy’s delight. A fried baloney sandwich. Yes Sir!! The real good ole stuff. A log of baloney cut to the thickness you want, on some good ole white bread and either a large thick slice of onion or a slice of red tomato. Pick you a soda out of that old chest box, put your coin in, slide it over and pull it up. You could do all that for less than $2. 

So Ponder This…some where along the way we lost our youth and those good ole days…Those coming along behind will age but will they have or take the time to make their own good ole days?

Kurt