Welcome to the porch, things will be a little bit different this evening on the porch as we gather to ponder any number of situations. This evening of all things it turns out that most of the guys here on the porch want to talk about and ponder free speech. This is a little deeper subject matter than what we get involved in here on the porch and to me it’s kinda like the old expression “opening a can of worms.” for those of you who are not familiar with that expression it simply means to attempt to solve one problem or to do something that creates a whole litany of other problems that were not there in the first place. OK the first thing right out of the can would be that the porch is dedicated to just pondering about something. You can even have an opinion, but we never ever have a solution. You just can’t get around the fact that many times when people get into discussions or debates about a situation sometimes, someone will always start hollering and screaming about free speech so let’s take a look at it a little closer as we ponder exactly what all this means. Freedom of speech is protected by the first amendment of the US Constitution, which states that “Congress shall make no laws abridging the freedom of speech.” The constitution itself provides a robust defense and protection of free speech, but like all things in our society today the right is not absolute and has limits and there are categories of speech that encourage violence, defamation, sin and true threats that are generally not protected. Now as we ponder this situation today on the porch, we don’t want to create a book that we have to get into to figure out what’s going on, so what exactly does the first amendment protect? Well, here’s a few… freedom of expression, political speech, the right not to speak, and some of the things that have been happening lately we see around platforms such as YouTube and the different ones like Facebook. The the first amendment applies only to government restrictions on speech, which simply means a private businesses and social media platforms and individuals can regulate or restrict speech on their platform.

The next thing to ponder would be the limitations on free speech. There are certain types of speech, which are not protected by the first amendment and government. So here is a list of a few here. Incitement to imminent lawless action, Obscenity, and Child Pornography, Defamatory statements, and threats of violence, also Fighting words which are likely to provoke an immediate violent reaction. Note, I wanted to be very specific with this one so this is a direct quote from an article I read as I researched for this weeks Porch…

• Hate Speech: The U.S. Supreme Court has found that “hate speech”—expression that targets individuals or groups based on attributes like race, religion, or gender—is generally protected by the First Amendment unless it falls into one of the unprotected categories, such as a true threat or incitement to violence.

Our next ponder would be quite natural in the sense that we want to know exactly who decides all that who decides what’s free speech and what’s not. Well, in our research we found that the parameters of free speech are primarily decided by the US Supreme Court. It is their responsibility to interpret the first amendment to define what speech is protected and what falls into unprotected categories. So the long and short of all this is that while the first amendment protects nearly all speech, the Supreme Court has established that this protection is not absolute and can be limited in certain context, requiring a compelling government interest for any restriction. Consider this: words matter, whether they are spoken or written they’re kind of like the old rule that actions have consequences. While being on the porch today might be a little bit confusing, the bottom line is many of us here on the porch are a little long in the tooth so to speak. Back in the day, a man was judged by his words and actions, I grew up under the rule of treating people the way they treated me, old-fashioned, but effective. It’s really pretty hard to get a ponder out of all of this, but I guess if I were going to give you a ponder today, it would be this.

Ponder this… don’t let your words and actions overwhelm your ability to endure. Remember, there is no such thing as free and that includes Speech. 

Kurt

 I would like to thank all of you who stayed with us on the last series of the dispersal of the apostles after Pentecost. I greatly appreciate your support by reading these blogs thank you. This week. We start a new journey looking for The Good Way and we’re going to begin our journey with the 10 Commandments.

10 Commandments, also known as the Decalogue, a basic set of rules carrying binding authority. Old Testament law consisted of 613 laws and the Ten Commandments are viewed as a summary of them. If we decide to kinda break them down into segments, the first four Commandments deal with our relationship with God. The last six Commandments deal with our relationships with one another. The 10 Commandments are recorded in the Bible in Exodus 20: 1–17 and Deuteronomy 5:6–21. First thought to pass along to you would be these are not rules that if you follow them, it’ll be a guarantee that you’ll get into heaven. Laws often tell us the things we are not to be doing, and we know as Christians that  no one was perfect, except Jesus Christ. The Christian perspective would be that the believers cannot perfectly obey the law and therefore are in need of God’s grace and mercy as written in Romans, 7:7–11. Consider this… the 10 Commandments demonstrate that we’ve all sinned  and therefore are in need of God’s mercy and grace, which is only available through faith in Jesus Christ. (Romans chapter 3: 23.) 

The term Ten Commandments does not appear in the New Testament, but nine of the original 10 are restated and are alluded to throughout the New Testament with of course, the exception of the Sabbath commandment. Jesus summarized the 10 Commandments into two great Commandments, and that was recorded in the New Testament book of Matthew 22:37–40 and it reads as such “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself.” …he finished that discourse by adding to that…. all the law and the prophets depended on these two principles. Whenever I consider where to begin when we start looking for the good way, I am convinced that it starts with the 10 Commandments. Let’s take a quick look at those. In that first commandment Jesus affirms that only God should be worshiped, Jesus condemns idolatry in the second Commandment under the third commandment Jesus teaches about using God’s name in a vain manner. Moving to the fourth commandment, the Sabbath commandment is the only one as we mentioned before that is not repeatedly used in the New Testament as a new covenant command for Christians. We are instructed next in the fifth commandment to honor our parents, and that is still part of our culture today… in the six commandment Jesus confirms that the prohibition against murder still applies. The seventh commandment, the commandment against adultery is  upheld, and the eighth commandment the prohibition against stealing continues to be relevant. In looking at the ninth commandment, Jesus includes the prohibition against false witness or lying and then the last commandment here is against coveting which is also mentioned in New Testament teachings on desire and sin.

Jesus came to take the law off the tablets and put them into the people’s hearts. Jesus himself says he did not come to destroy the law and the prophets but to do something even more striking: fulfill them, that is fulfill the prophecy. The Commandments are one of many things God has given us and they perfectly conform with God’s law and display His holy character. They are the first steps we take as we start or search for The Good Way.

Life is Good

jk

This week will bring to a close our dispersal series about the apostles after Pentecost. He became known as Saint James the Great and he was one of Jesus’s 12 apostles, brother of John, the apostle and the son of Zebedee.   He was the first of the apostles to be murdered, beheaded by King Agrippa. His death took place in Jerusalem around 44 A.D His body was eventually placed in a tomb in Santiago de Compostela, Spain which became a major pilgrimage site. We know that eventually his identity was known as James the Great and the son of Zebedee and Salome and brother of John the evangelist. He was of course, one of the 12 apostles of Jesus and was part of the inner circle, which also included Peter. Both James and John his brother were referred to by Jesus as the sons of thunder and It was meant to reflect their active zeal in the ministry. As we have mentioned above, he was the first apostle to be martyred,  killed by King Herod. James became a Patron Saint of Spain and tradition holds  that he preached in Spain, where he is now buried. Taking time to look at his key events in his life. He was called by Jesus while he and his brother were fishing on the sea of Galilee, they both immediately followed him. He was one of the few disciples that Jesus took to witness his transfiguration. After the resurrection of Jesus,James was involved in spreading the gospel and was prominent in the early church in Jerusalem, we find in the book of Acts of the Apostles that King Herod ordered his execution and he became as we have mentioned one of the first apostles to suffer Martyrdom. As we close this one out we add one more interesting fact from gotquestions.org 

“The lack of information about James the son of Alphaeus is a lesson in itself. This James was just as much an apostle as were Peter and John. He will sit on a throne in Jesus’ earthly kingdom (Matthew 19:28) with as much authority and honor as the other apostles. His name will be engraved in a foundation of the walls of the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:14). James will not be considered “less” in eternity because he was faithful to his calling on earth.”

Next, we move to Andrew. Andrew was a disciple of Jesus and he was also Simon Peter’s brother and they were both called at the same time. Just like Peter, Andrew was a fisherman by trade, and he and his brother made a living on the sea of Galilee. They were both from the city of Bethsaida which is located on the North West Coast of Galilee. There’s a neat little memorable twist here to the story. Andrew and John were originally disciples of John the Baptist and they were present when John the Baptist pointed out Jesus as the lamb of God and they followed after Jesus. Jesus noted that Andrew and John had been following him and invited them to spend the day with him and after spending time with Jesus Andrew became convinced that this was the Messiah and he took action. Well, the first thing that Andrew did was to find his brother and tell him we have found the Messiah and he brought him to Jesus. Thus Andrew was one of the first of Jesus’s followers to bring another person to him. In Matthew chapter 4:19 Jesus found Andrew and Peter as they were fishing, casting their nets, and Jesus called to them, “follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” It is here in this story that we also find an example of what you might say is just all in Christianity, when they were called, they left immediately the family business and everything in order to follow Jesus. Well, it may not be practical in today’s time to do just that many people do, but the example here is not to let anything stand in our way to serve Jesus. One thing about Andrew that is recorded in the Bible is that there was a group of Greeks that approached Philip one of Andrew’s fellow disciples saying they wanted to see Jesus.   You can read about that in John chapter 12:20–21. Andrew and Philip together went to Jesus. Two things here, Andrew knew that Jesus would want to see these men, and it can be reasonably assumed that Andrew was one of the very first of the apostles to understand that Jesus had come for all men. The incident with the Greeks, which you can read about in Acts chapter 10:1- 48, anticipates the day when all people will be welcome to come to Jesus.

I hope you have enjoyed this series on “The Few Who Took The Message To The Many.” I hope you will join us next week here in the pew as we continue our mission of taking the message to the many as we look for  “The Good Way.”

Back on the porch again, but it seems like I’m not very far from the pew. Truth is I really don’t want to be far from the pew, I do not want to be far from my God. If you didn’t know or were not familiar with who Charlie Kirk was you’re probably in my estimation very much average. Oh I knew some things about Charlie Kirk about his ministry to the youth on campuses his willingness to discuss and have a dialogue with people who in some instances hated him, but he tried to establish some kind of a dialogue where we could learn to talk to each other, instead of shooting each other. Now if that wasn’t enough right on the heels of that horrific event, there was another school shooting again…hate and violence took the place of reason and respect. You know if you dwell on this long enough, you can get pretty well down. It’s not easy to understand the actions of other people, but it’s even harder to understand why we continue to tolerate this business. All of us here on the porch really don’t want to offer any solutions, we have an opinion and we’ll talk about it among ourselves and will ponder what maybe might be a solution but when it’s all said and done, I find myself going back to the pew. Going back to God for comfort and hopefully for our enlightenment . Consider this, it is important to mention in anything we write or say about this past event that Charlie Kirk was a man of God, and he went to these campuses to discuss with these students their beliefs, always encouraging them to share. But he always had time to hear every one of them that wanted to step up to that microphone and he was never disrespectful of any of them. I think it was a big enough deal, his assassination and that’s what I’m going to call it, it has made an impression on a lot of different people in a lot of different ways, but I look at that assassination of that man to be just one more time when we lost our way. We have a fairly diverse group of folks to share on the porch, not the same ones every week, but we get together pretty much on a regular basis. So what I want to share with you this week is that this particular incident followed by the shooting of school students has become a turning point for us. Which direction will we go? I’m sure they will differ, for me my direction can be found in the Scriptures.

Philippians 

4:8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. 

I can only speak for myself, but I can say without any hesitation that I have reached a crossroad in my life. Again the answer for me can be found in the Scriptures.

Jeremiah 6:16

16 

This is what the Lord says:
“Stop at the crossroads and look around.
Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it.
Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls…….
 

Ponder That!  What direction will you take?

Kurt

We know very little about Matthias and in some respects less about Joseph Barsabbas…one of two candidates qualified to be chosen for the office of apostle after Judas Iscariot lost his apostleship when he betrayed Jesus and died by suicide. Both Joseph and Matthias had been followers of Jesus from the very beginning, both of these men were present at Jesus’s baptism, and both continued as a member, a larger company of disciples, even to the time that Jesus was taken up from them.The point that we want to be sure and make is that the selection of Matthias to fill the spot needed to make 12 the number again of apostles was not a random thing. How the apostles arrived at that choice is a matter of biblical record. You may find that in Acts 1: 21-26. Anything else that I might add would put this song on certain ground but in Christian tradition he was numbered among the 70 disciples mentioned in Luke chapter 10. Now having written of this, let’s move on and take a closer look at Matthias.

I wanted to share you before we get too far into looking at Matthias, the meaning of this word tradition. We read a lot of things when we’re doing research about the tradition was or in the tradition of the old and so on and so forth, so exactly what is a biblical application of the word tradition? Well, I discovered about that word…tradition. Biblical tradition refers to the body of teachings practices and beliefs, passed down through generations, which can either be divine in origin like the apostles, teachings or later human constructs we see the role in authority of tradition, very across Christian denominations. The apostle Matthias was a replacement for Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus and later committed suicide. After Jesus had died and the resurrection, the remaining 11 apostles decided to choose successor as we shared with you earlier you can read how that came about in Acts  1:21–26. One of the requirements that were necessary for an apostle was to have been a witnesses ofJesus’s resurrection and Matthias had that requirement. We really don’t know a whole lot about him, but as it’s been stated and it’s been made very plain  a couple of times and the research that he was with Jesus or was a follower of Jesus from the start of his public ministry. He was known for preaching Martyrdom, various traditions claim that he preached the gospel in different regions such as Cappadocia and the shores of the Caspian Sea, it is said that he was eventually murdered for his faith. Consider this, his selection is considered a foundational example of apostolic succession on the belief that bishops are in a direct line of continuity from the apostles. We really can’t put a big period on the end of this without first asking ourselves was Matthias Gods choice to replace Judas as the 12th apostle? Well, first of all, let’s look at the requirements which said the man had had to have been with them the entire time of Jesus’s ministry, and to have been a witness of the resurrection and the ascension apparently they were only two men who met those requirements. One being Joseph called, Barsabbas and Matthias. So now I ask you to consider this old country tradition and chew on this for a moment. There have been articles written that asked the question… suppose Paul and not Matthias was God’s choice for the 12th apostle. The argument here being that Jesus had told the apostles wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit, Acts 1:8, so from this is determined by some  the casting of lots is not how the disciples should have made the decision. What I’m sharing with you is from an article from gotquestions.com . It is pointed out by some that Matthias is never again mentioned in the New Testament, but then the same can be said for most of the other 11 apostles and Paul was definitely more prominent than Matthias even more prominent than some of the apostles except for maybe Peter and John. But it’s also noted that Paul was not qualified based on the apostles’s criteria. So if we follow that particular path we end up without a conclusive biblical case being made against the apostles for their choice or the way they did it. There is so much that we really don’t know about that took place in those times, but we have to recognize the fact that nowhere nowhere in the Bible will you find condemnation of Matthias being chosen for the 12th apostle. Thanks for joining us in the pew today. We hope that you’ve learned some things or have found some of the things that we have shared with you to be interesting and please come back next week.

Life is Good 

jk

There is no one on the back porch tonight just me. So I guess I get to ponder on my own. I start that I have noticed after this terrible event in Utah this morning the nation is in the state of shock that has reached into all segments of our society. This was a man who had a significant following who spoke his mind, but he had one trait that many people of that nature don’t have… he was interested in and encouraged others to share their viewpoint with him and together they try to understand each other better. I took note of the fact that given his notoriety, and given the fact that he could be controversial in his views because of the political climate in our country today and I looked around and I saw something really amazing. Sometimes evil brings to the forefront the obvious that we really don’t want to talk about. 

I think I will break the rules here on the porch by simply telling you that I have an opinion, it is not a ponder. I have noticed in the past few years controversies that involved companies, of course our government and many organizations always have one thing in common. They are usually the result of poor leadership or I could really just truthfully say bad leadership. Now I leave you to recall some of the controversies that we faced in the past few years within organizations and government things of that nature just pick the one that might be your example of poor leadership. We live in a time of great means of communication, there’s all kinds of ways to communicate with people to get our message across to share something whatever it is. So the point here is that you just can’t throw words around or attitudes or lack of responsibility and expect anything good to come of it. The majority of our people in this country are hard-working decent honest people who I believe are simply frustrated by how hard it is to be good, decent, honest people. So I’m going to leave you with this opinion… again not a ponder… I believe the leadership of the Democratic Party is responsible for this attitude of violence and hate that is prevalent in our country. The instances that I could include here are numerous and really there’s not enough time or space to do it. But ponder this. There’s something a little bit different in this situation. We find ourselves in this morning after the horrific murder of Charlie Kirk that people are lighting candles instead of starting fires, people are kneeling, not everyone for prayer but for just respect instead of trying to pull somebody else down. I apologize realizing that this session on the back porch isn’t all that great but like many of you I’m frustrated. I don’t know what else could possibly happen as far as people and opinions and a culture that lacks decent honest working leadership. I’ve written this before, but I’m going to write it again because I think it’s appropriate. It’s stuck with me for a number of years. The man’s name is not important but what he said is I believe the Ponder Of The Century… “Can’t We All Just Get Along?”

Kurt

In 2016 I published a blog remembering 9/11. I have decided to insert some of that blog here today. I also include some excerpts from another blog written in July of 2021. Time has not been kind to us as a nation the last few years and Pogo said it best “the enemy is us.” I would never attribute something as atrocious as 9/11 as being God’s will…a punishment so to speak to us as a nation. It is true that we can no longer truthfully say we are a nation under God.  

There will be many words today, few will be able to capture the impact in loss of life and the realization that our enemies now had the ability to bring the horror of war to our soil. Here are a couple of things I take away from that day.   Death is never an easy thing to cope with and I don’t hold much with the advice that “things will be better in time; every day it will get a little better.” Don’t believe that, I believe we just learn how to live with it or for lack of a better term tolerate the loss. Like everyone else I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing. Been  a few years now and I still can close my eyes and see those people jumping from the towers. Now after all these years’ history is slowly being rewritten in that many films have been edited to remove those pictures. Why is that important? To me it is important because while I can’t say what was in their mind at that time, I prefer to believe in that moment of extreme despair they chose how they would die. First take away, how much easier is it for us who only have to choose how to live. After all this time we still are not doing a good job of that. We right now are in a world of hurt…as us old folks would say. But guess what? It is not the political state of things but rather the state of or souls, and the soul of our nation. Church people say ‘we are the church’…When it comes to our nation… ‘we are our nation’ and we need God.

One of the first things that happened after it was determined that this was not a terrible mishap but was indeed a deliberate attack, was a no fly order issued for the whole country. All flights except those of military origin were grounded throughout the USA. I remember standing outside at work that afternoon and the next few days and looking up at the sky above. My second take away was that those contrails left by planes were absent from the sky. How odd it seemed. Just as a room becomes quite, no one speaking, their absence marked the silence of the skies. It was as if I was waiting to see something there that would tell me everything was going to be alright. My third take away is perhaps the one that is most imprinted on my mind and heart. As the towers fell the dust and debris of this awful destruction blotted the sun from the sky and blinded all those trapped by it. Everyone was covered to the point that there was no way to distinguish skin color or ethnicity, all were caught in a world of gray horror, dependent on the help and mercies of those closest to them. Somehow the need to take or offer a hand, to cover and shield another from the debris, to offer self in defense of another was the most striking thing I saw. We came together as a people, there was no time to shout USA, USA as would be heard much over the next few days. This may not make sense and I stand to be corrected. I believe on that day we were Americans all and in that moment we all became God’s children. (Matthew 22:39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.”)

There is no way I could ever put to words the sacrifice of NYFD or Police, EMS or the hundreds of medical and civilian responders, there are no words that could do honor to their sacrifice. So how or where do we go from here? As a nation and a people we need to return to the good way, we need God and there is only one way…..John 14:6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. 

Life is Good…  Bless our Nation…

jk

I have needed to write this for a while now and I hope that I do not in any way offend anyone. I have worked really very hard and as best as I could to make the”Pew” a source of information about biblical writings. It has always been my hope that some little phrase some little turn something that somehow or another would encourage a reader to seek a deeper relationship with God. I have tried to shy away from politics, both religious and secular. I am just a layman and my theological knowledge is very limited, but I do believe myself to be knowledgeable enough to search for the right answers and for me a search for the right answers means to pray. About that elephant I know I’m not very good at dates so I’m going to kind of refrain from trying to put date and time to things but sometime back the Pew begin to recognize the elephant that was in the room which was my way of saying that issues within the church, the United Methodist Church to be exact were reaching a crucial point. This issue had plagued the United Methodist Church for 40 years and I was around for a lot of it so you can deduce from that, I’m kind of an old bird so to speak. It pains me to even write this now, as I have worked very hard to put this behind me on a personal basis. The split in the United Methodist Church in the United States, resulted in significant loss of congregations and members that particularly occurred in the south and in the Midwest, with a quarter of all US churches, leaving the domination to form new more traditional groups like the Global Methodist Church. For the Methodist Church, it was kinda like the wilderness thing all over again. We wandered in debate, disillusionment and despair. This dispute and these departures were driven by a long-standing theological disagreement over LGBTQ + inclusion. I’m not going to get into numbers here, but I can assure you that it had a very very serious impact on the United Methodist Church that I knew both financially and membership wise. Now there are those and they are many that would have you believe that all of this uproar and all of these things that have happened to our denomination began in 1972 with the statement that the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. Now there were a lot of other restrictions that came along with that to be perfectly honest there was a ban against the performance of same-sex weddings, distinction that was drawn between sexual orientation and homosexual practice was not condoned. A nice, neat, concise little package that tore apart what was pretty much recognized as one of the third largest denominations in existence in the USA. The Methodist Church was not the first main line denomination to have this problem before us. There  was the Presbyterian’s and the Lutheran and a bunch of other others I guess but those two I remember more than the others. I believe it was in April 2024 that it all came to head for us. Things changed and quite frankly not for the best in my perspective. Now they would like for you to believe that this LGBTQ+ effort to change the church was the reason for the split. I believe that there is some truth to that maybe more than we would really like to recognize and admit, but I don’t look at it like that. To me, it was a simple fact of the problem that plagues us even today within our country. It’s about discipline, respect, and the law. keep in mind now I’m just a layman, but from what I could see this disrespect and unwillingness to enforce the doctrine that had been a part of the Methodist Church many years, for as long as I can remember, begin with our bishops, our districts, and those that would lead us in those positions. Somewhere along the way it really became about properties, monies and control. For many years, we kicked  the can down the road so to speak, and the issue became one of failed leadership. Consider this… the split in the United Methodist Church in Africa, caused a great deal of violence in some of those regions, such as Nigeria as members have clashes over disagreements about this LGBTQ + inclusion right after the shift in the United Methodist Church’s stance. There’s a lot of history here and I’m not going to get into it because it’s just rehashing something that’s over and done with but not forgotten. But I had to write this to kind of put a period on this whole mess. I’m sad about what has happened to the church  I spent most of my life in and I regret the friendships lost, and the community that I once cherished very much. I know what I believe and I know to whom I belong. The last few years for me have been rather difficult. I’m now in a wheelchair and I can say that it kind of limits my ability to get out and about and around. One of the things that man needs is fellowship. But I feel very much alone. Oh yes, I suppose I should answer a question I’m sure some of you are asking… did I leave the church? The answer is no I am still a United Methodist, but but the church the denomination are now secondary in my life because the most important thing of course is my relationship with God and the fellowship I have with the people that are at the church I attend. I have reached a crossroad in my life…

Jeremiah 6:16 

“Thus says the Lord: Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it'”. 

I have chosen to walk in it…Amen

jk

This week we continue our study of the dispersal of the apostles after Pentecost. This week, we also have a rather unusual situation, simply put two for one? Well, not exactly what we’re looking at here would be Simon and Jude who both were two of the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ. They’re known for their work as  missionaries often in Persia. It is written that Simon was often called the zealot and was considered to have been a former Jewish nationalist revolutionary. Jude is sometimes confused with Judas Iscariot but was likely a relative of Jesus. Now Jude, he is relieved to have been a brother of Saint James the greater making him a cousin of Christ, the epistle Jude in the New Testament is traditionally attributed to him and here again we run into the word tradition which states that Simon and Jude traveled together on a mission to spread the gospel. Tradition holds that they ministered in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and ancient Persia, which is now the modern Iran.We wish to be very careful here how we put all this and remind you that we’re trying our best to be as accurate as we possibly can. Records indicate that the two of them together suffered martyrdom in Persia after being arrested because they refused to deny Christ, and of course they would not worship pagan deities. 

Now let’s focused for a moment on the apostle Simon. He was one of the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ. There seems to be a debate as to whether or not the name, zealot distinguishes him as a person who opposed the Roman occupation or was it because he was so zealous about the gospel and his dedication to Jesus Christ. Either way that’s a pretty good description and one he could be proud of. We always run across little bits and pieces as we do the research for these blogs and one that caught my eye was that Simon is mentioned in the New Testament only in the list of the 12 apostles such as in Matthew 10:4, mark 3:18, Luke 6:15 and Acts 1:13. Remember the wedding in Cana, according to tradition, Simon was the groom at the wedding in Cana, where Jesus turned water into wine. There are those who believe having witnessed such a miracle only solidified his commitment to follow Jesus Christ. Now we will return to the subject of his preaching and Martyrdom. It is written and tradition states that he preached the gospel in various places, including Egypt, North Africa and Persia, it is also written that different descriptions of his death included crucifixion or being sawed in half. I guess we can wrap this up on Simon by saying that he still remains one of the more mysterious disciples of Christ with much of his story coming from non-biblical tradition rather than direct spiritual accounts. One thing that is obvious here is that the power of God through Jesus Christ enabled Simon to become a powerful voice for Jesus Christ and his ministry.

Jude and Thaddeus, two different men are the same person? Well, the answer seems to be that. Yes Jude and Thaddeus are widely believed to be the same person, one of the original 12 apostles of Jesus. And there is some evidence that has raised some debate as to the identification of such due to inconsistencies in the gospel accounts. But we will not get into that. What we look at is the evidence for Jude and Thaddeus being the same person. In Matthew and Mark in the gospels Thaddeus is included as a disciple. The name is used there, however in the corresponding list in the gospel of Luke and Acts, it’s Judas son of James, however, many of the early Christians and scholars have concluded that these are the same individual. Remember Judas Iscariot the apostle that betrayed Jesus, well again the scholars believed that the names Jude, or Thaddeus, which, by the way is an Aramaic word meaning “heart” or “courageous” but they used these to distinguish this disciple from the one who had betrayed Jesus. Now there are more explanations, but I think I’ll just try to conclude this by simply bringing it down to this… the linking of the name, Jude and Thaddeus was used to distinguish this apostle from Judas Iscariot. To kinda wrap it up if we can and not be too confused… the Jude who traveled with Simon to Peugeot was Saint Jude sometimes known as Jude Thaddeus, also known as the apostle Jude. After Christ’s Ascension Jude traveled to Mesopotamia while Simon went to Egypt and they eventually met and joined forces in Persia. As to be expected, their preaching in Persia was met with intense opposition from local rulers and priests, who then released charmed serpents against them. However, it is written the apostles performed miracles with the serpents, turning them on their masters, leading to the conversion of many Persians and their king, and it was here in Persia, just as Simon was, Jude was also martyred.

Please join us next week as we follow The Few as they take the Good News to The Many.

Life is Good

jk

There are times  that I find myself alone on the Porch  and as we age it is times like this that we tend to reflect more on what was. One danger in this is that we turn to self reflection… an old man’s check sheet so to speak. With me it is always about missed opportunities and that leads to better things.It is here that I messed up often. One thing that always is at the top of my list would be my not understanding the value of working harder in school, it wasn’t until my late thirties that I developed this attitude of wanting to learn more about things. Now let me preface this before writing this…I had a good home and good parents but I was never encouraged to do well in school. The importance of education beyond the ABC’s and simple math was never a subject of conversation in our home, sad to say just getting by was ok. We went to church and Sunday School every week, but I didn’t know why, it was just something good people did. Well I know better now… and I am ashamed to admit even in the mist of attending church regularly I didn’t see God. Oh I knew all the Sunday School stories, I was an acolyte, active in church services and in time knowledgable of doctrine and precepts of the liturgy in the church but I did not know God… When I think of missed opportunities, this is the one I regret most. I started writing this not knowing where It would go, kinda like I lived most of my life. 

According to the word counter there are 274 words on the page and I will add just a few more. Life is nothing more than a series of opportunities that present choices and require action. Some we grab but most are left to linger in indifference because of the effort they require. I end all my Pew Blogs with the tag line…Life is Good…and I agree with that! Ponder This! … “Life is God” …

The giver and sustainer of all life. Grab the opportunity to put GOD in your life and all those opportunities will fall into place.

Kurt