It is State Fair time and the place we gather is Lebanon Tn. One of my morning devotionals is Our Daily Bread and this morning’s subject was a devotion which was right on time. I have been struggling to pick a topic for this weeks blog and there it was. Some day I will share with you the process I go through to gather a subject for each week. First a quick trip encyclopedia.com 

“Fairs have existed for centuries and can even be dated back to ancient Mesopotamia in 3000 B.C. Modern American fairs grew out of an 1807 idea by Elkanah Watson, a banker and farmer in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He decided that the best way to convince other farmers to raise sheep was to show them his own animals.By the 1990s state fairs have come to represent a nostalgic, “old-fashioned” form of family entertainment that emphasizes state and national pride, agricultural roots, and good times.” (encyclopedia.com)

After attending some large events in the UK and US, researcher Daniel Yudkin and fellow researchers found that these large festivals do have an impact on our moral views and in most cases increase our willingness to share time and resources with others. In ancient times you might say Festivals were their fairs but they were a part of a means of communing with God. People experienced that connection to God when they gathered in Jerusalem for their sacred festivals throughout the year. There were three festivals and Jews traveled from far and wide with no convince of our modern transportation systems to be there for each one of them. These sacred festivals also attracted people from all walks of life and beliefs. The festivals were as follows…

“the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles”, more about those in a moment. 

16:16 NIV16 Three times a year all your men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles.^u No one should appear before the Lord empty-handed:

“These gatherings were times of solemn remembrance, worship, and rejoicing “before the Lord” with family, servants, foreigners, and others” (Kirsten Holmberg) We should also take note all of verse 11, which gives us insight as to others that were drawn to the festivals…

 And rejoice before the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites in your towns, and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows living among you (Deuteronomy 16:11)

Now about those festivals…I have taken the liberty to insert information on each and have listed their source for you to continue more study if you wish.

 Festival of Unleavened Bread is a celebration of the liberation of the Children of Israel from slavery in Egypt.This feast lasts seven days, beginning with Passover. (christianity.com)

Festival of Weeks… Shavuot, or Shvu’es in some Ashkenazi usage, commonly known in English as the Feast of Weeks, is a major Jewish holiday, one of the three pilgrimage festivals, that occurs on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan. In the Bible, Shavuot marked the wheat harvest in the Land of Israel. Wikipedia

Festival of Tabernacles…The Feast of Tabernacles, also known as the Feast of Booths and Sukkot, is the seventh and last feast that the Lord commanded Israel to observe and one of the three feasts that Jews were to observe each year by going to “appear before the Lord your God in the place which He shall choose” (Deuteronomy 16:16). The importance of the Feast of Tabernacles can be seen in how many places it is mentioned in Scripture. In the Bible we see many important events that took place at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. For one thing, it was at this time that Solomon’s Temple was dedicated to the Lord (1 Kings 8:2). (gotquestions.com)

Back in the day there were tent meetings and revivals where the faithful would gather to commune with God…often referred to as a time to get right with God. Things have changed and now we look to church conferences, youth conferences, denominational meetings and such to get us on the right path again. Yes it is State Fair time in Tennessee and we will come together to celebrate “old-fashioned” form of family entertainment that emphasizes state and national pride, agricultural roots, and good times.” As a foot note: According to fair officials, 776,195 visitors attended the state fair this year which is 295,000 more attendees than last year and 186,966 more people than a previous record that was met in 2013. (These numbers are for 2022)

829 words or so to simply say…We need to have more Festivals to remind us of what our God has done for us.

Life is Good

jk

Seems like when I come out here this porch becomes a time machine. Please excuse us old folks, we tend to remember the “good ole days” a bit to much I guess. Where I used to live the back porch had a view of a small valley rising gently to a ridge that separated us from Dalton Pike and just for logistics south of me at the far end of Blue Springs Rd was Red Clay State Park, where the Cherokee held their council meetings back in the day. If you went over that ridge on a clear day you could see Big Frog Mountain…at the entrance of The Cherokee National Forest…well that is another story to be remembered and told some other evening here on the back porch. There is always somethings comforting about the past, might be we been there and it can’t hold any surprises for us. The past is sorta like an old winter coat, worn and frayed but always filimilar and warm. So here we go again…

One of my favorite comedians James Gregory has had some hard times lately, health wise but I can understand that. James is about 77 years old and I slide in at 80…Age is a gift and at my age seeing as how God has my time listed in the book of life…I thank Him for this longevity, it wasn’t anything I did. One of James Gregory’s thoughts about life is always on my mind when I come out here on the back porch. What happened to the Front Porch? It is Mr. Gregory’s theory that the world changed not for the good…ever since we moved to that Deck…a Deck on the back of the house. It is his contention that you can’t see nothing from that deck…nothing at all. You know he is right! Also for us old folks the memories of the front porch can give some comfort in these days. Now my grandmother, whom I will from this point on refer to as Nonie, may she forgive me but I am not sure that is the right spelling but I am going with it because in the interest of space it is shorter than the other. Nonie and Pop lived in Chattanooga, Glenwood to be exact. They had one of those uptown front porches, the kind that had these fancy double glass doors that opened off the living room to the porch. The porch was screened in and on the end of the house, with the driveway running beside it to the garage. Stay with me now…believe me all this is important. Nonie and Pop’s house was right where Derby Circle and 4th street came together. This is important because one of the main roads into downtown Chattanooga was Third street and it sat exactly dead center of the best seat on the porch, even though it was a good three blocks away but the view was unobstructed. Also right there is where the bus stop was. How long ago was this? Here is a hint…every morning M-F about 8:30 all the maids, well most of them would get of the bus and head to their respective houses. Now Nonie if she were on that porch would count those maids and that would follow with a comment, one way or the other…somebody is short a maid, or somebody got a new maid! Just like James said…”you can’t see nothing from that deck”. When I started to write this I wanted to be as accurate as possible. This would have been in the early fifties and segregation was a big thing in the south. Pop would sit on that front porch and watch every person who walked by in any direction. If he didn’t recognize them, he would give them that long stare. But here is the difference. If that person was black…let me make that brutally clear…a negro, well Pop would stand up, raise his voice a little and say “what are they doing here…they don’t belong here!” Some things about the good ole days weren’t all that good. Some of you will remember those porch swings, not the one that hung from the ceiling but those metal slatted ones that rocked and if the sun got to them when you sat down they could leave a mark. The swing was for Nonie and Aunt Mattie when she was there…Pop got the sway back metal slat chair. If you had company you brought some chairs out from the kitchen. It would have been a mortal sin to bring one from the dinning room…those were the fancy ones for special dinners and such. We kids, well we sat or reclined on the floor which could be tile or painted concrete. Nonie’s house was on the lower end of Glenwood, it had concrete.

Well I could write a lot more but it is getting late. I’ll go in and get to bed but leave you with this thought. One wonderful memory of those evenings on the front porch… the Katydids as the night began to set in and another late summer day wound down they would began their rhythmic song. I always thought of it as my song of the south.

May God Bless Us All

Kurt 

Last week we examined how the Law, God’s Law, impacted our lives as Christians. This week we deal with the Suffocation of Faith by of all things Doctrine. The best way to proceed would be to understand what is doctrine?  

Doctrine is a codification of beliefs or a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the essence of teachings in a given branch of knowledge or in a belief system. The etymological Greek analogue is “catechism”. Wikipedia

Applied to our faith and in simple terms…a belief or set of beliefs held and taught by a Church. (Oxford Dictionary) What is the meaning of doctrine in the Bible? The basic meaning of the term doctrine is “teaching.” Christian doctrine, accordingly, is the attempt to state in intellectually responsible terms the message of the gospel and the content of the faith it elicits.The doctrine, therefore encompasses both the substance of what is taught and the act of setting that substance forth. (Britannica) What is the meaning of doctrine in church? Those would be the  Definitions of church doctrine which can differ from one denomination to another and are the written body of teachings of a religious group that are generally accepted by that group. synonyms: creed, gospel, religious doctrine. Confused.. Somewhere along the way faith has been smothered by doctrine. Why you might ask is my focus so tepid in regard to Doctrine? Simple answer is Christian Doctrine can be divisive. To many Christians it is not a popular word or procedure and many believe it should be avoided. The main thought being that it does create divisions and Jesus spoke about this in…

John 17:21  that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

Paul knew that there would be differences and he addresses those in 2 Timothy 4:3

3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,

Most Christian doctrines will include, what you must believe, what you must not reject and of course what you should believe. Christian Faith is heavily guided by doctrine. The most important being the deity of Christ, Christ on the cross, the resurrection and salvation by grace through faith. For most Christians these doctrines are not expendable.To remove anyone of these would leave us with a faith which is empty and void of any meaning. There is also the Trinity, also the importance of scripture to inspire and teach us and to make us aware of the eternal promise that God has made to us. Paul felt that if any of these things were causing divisions among us it was not  good… Paul believed If Christian doctrine is causing division on any of these points, so be it, as those who deny these doctrines need to be separated from us. I guess we can from this, tag these doctrines to be crucial to the body as a whole. When I decided to write this I was not prepared for the depth and width of the meaningful part that doctrine was to the core foundations of our faith. I wanted to stay away from lists but my research made that impossible. There are others, for example… the timing of the rapture, the more charismatic approach to worship and faith programs of an inclusitivioty manner but we must remember Christian doctrines are important and every Christian doctrine carries some importance. Here is the hard part…not every one of these doctrines should be a reason for division within the Christian faith. As hard as it may be, it would be better if we sometimes went elsewhere and not become a reason for division within one particular body.

So is there an answer to the problem? The way I see it the problem is as Pogo once said…”we have searched for the enemy and have found them…and “they is us!”  It has been my experience that the first four of The Doctrine, the deity of Christ, Christ on the cross, the resurrection and salvation by grace through faith are pretty much universally accepted. So…if we could just accept the Christian doctrines the Bible teaches, division would not be a problem. These core doctrines are worth dividing for. We all are sinners… Romans 3:23 (ESV) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…Bottom line…Not understanding and submitting to Christian doctrine is the main driver of the divisions we become entangled in, it is not the doctrine in itself. The harsh truth is this…Christian doctrine, in reality, is the only way to true, full, and biblical unity within the Body of Christ.(gotquestions.org) All of this is driven by FAITH.

Life is Good

jk

Welcome to porch… Which by the way has been cooler than my house. Our air conditioner has gone home, wherever that is. We were lucky to get a new one installed in about two days.  The heat and the humidity was absolute misery… I recall when I was growing up you were up-town if you had a window fan and if you owned any kind of an air conditioner, you most likely owned the town. Progress is great and we certainty have come a long way in making life comfortable for ourselves but at what cost. We have become a nation of whiners, moaners and groaners. We worship convenience and comfort at any price. My generation…yes I am going to go there, we  took what life gave us and made the best of it. The weather was just a source of conversation in my day and believe it are not it always started and ended with these words… why, I remember when… In the world we live in today it is the agenda of Government Committee Hearings and a source of enrichment for those who are experts of Global Warming or Climate Change. Here I go…when it got really hot my grandmother would pull the curtains back, raise the shades if you had them, open the window and you would sleep in your underwear on top of the sheet. Oh yes a note about that window screen. By mid August there would be a few balls of cotton  stuck in the holes to keep the varmints out. That was one way we coped with climate change.

While I am writing this it occurred to me that having come as far as we have, there is one amazing commonality among us. We are better off now than we were but we are also weaker than before. We can no longer tolerate adversity very well and we are always looking for who or what we can blame for it. I have reason to believe that the storm Sunday am caused a power surge that caused the compressor in the unit to weld the contacts together. I add this not because it is important, Just thought you might like to know that. The insurance company didn’t agree. I might call Al Gore and see if it is possible it could have been climate change.

Thanks for coming by and hope to see you on the porch next time.

Kurt

The Pew will spend the next two weeks looking at each of the above. This week we will examine The Law… how much of a burden is it on the believers. Of course here in the Pew we are discussing God’s Law. So we understand the difference between civil law and God’s Law. To keep it brief civil law would be a collection of standards or behavior we as a society find as a whole to be acceptable and hold others accountable to it. God’s law is a gift of grace. God’s law does not produce sin; it only names it for what it is. (Sheila Alewine) 

Galatians 3:24 – “Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.”

In many ways the law teaches us God’s will in our daily lives. It is a mirror of the character of God. In the simplest of terms it is what God requires of us and expects of us in respect to words, attitude and behavior. The law is intended too expose sin and turn us away from it. The law has always been a source of debate among God’s people. The Law and Grace may in some instances be polarizing points but both are a major part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Many tend to place the Law in a box…the Old Testament, safely tucked away, a thing of the past. We could spend some time exploring this theory but Jesus in his own words saved us the time…NKJV “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill”. God through all the Bible and long before Moses and the Ten Commandments spoke to his people most of the time through instructions and at times precise instructions. In Genesis we find what is most likely the very first law or if you prefer a direct instruction… 

Genesis 2:16-17

16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;

17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

I suppose we can best sum this up by the following…Faith…We must not allow our faith In Jesus Christ to be burdened by the Law. There is that gift of Grace…We who place our faith in Jesus Christ are freed of our sins, not to be judged by the Law. The sanctifying blood Jesus shed on the cross allows us to be presented blameless before our God. In the old Testament it is written that a Jew shall keep the word of God close to his heart and ever foremost in his head. The forgiving Grace of God through the  blood of Jesus on the Cross is a gift we cannot earn…

NLT

13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

As Christians we are not to accept the Law as a burden but rather use it to expose those things that dishonor and displeases God.  May you grow every day in Faith through the Grace of God and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Life is Good

jk

Welcome back…been so hot and the humidity so bad I was waiting for it to cool off a bit. This evening is perfect back porch  pondering weather… 81 degrees and a cool breeze. I have been trying to clear my head some but one thought won’t go away. We all are aware of this gender uproar, which by the way I am now trying to just ignore. I like to attribute by attitude not to politeness but to that old John Wayne axiom, “Man gotta do what a man gotta do” and in this case that goes for the ladies also. Even this way of thinking does not relieve me of the questions…why does a middle age man desire to dress like a woman and to make it harder to understand…Why seek to expose young children to their chosen …whatever it is? What this gender mess leads me to believe is that a lot of folks are not happy with who they are and of course nobody thought to ask God about this mess, after all God created you as you are. That is another thing to ponder here on the back porch and that leads me to this…The things we do to destroy anything that doesn’t fit the narrative.

I don’t know how you folks feel about this Woke stuff but I want to go on record as saying it ain’t anything new. The damage it has done to history and the preserving of the great cultural heritage’s that have shaped our nation is a terrible tragedy. Two things I want to share with you this evening. Back to the fifties, I was still in high school when I was first introduced to these two treasures.  

Song of the South is a 1946 American live-action/animated  drama film directed by Harve Foster and Wilfred Jackson; produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures. It is based on the Uncle Remus stories as adapted by Joel Chandler Harris, and stars James Baskett as Uncle Remus in his final film role. Johnny befriends Uncle Remus, an elderly worker on the plantation, and takes joy in hearing his tales about the adventures of Br’er Rabbit, Br’er Fox, and Br’er Bear. Johnny learns from the stories how to cope with the challenges he is experiencing while living on the plantation.

(Wikipedia) 

This film should be a national treasure, the music score and the the absolute brilliance of the performance of James Baskett, the talent of Walt Disney and his people leaves us with some lessons of life that are priceless. This is an early example of woke and the destruction it leaves in its path, when reason is kidnaped by social justice warriors to further their agendas. 

This is a tough one… Every afternoon I would rush home from school to see this show. It was and still is one of my favorite TV shows of the early days. This is a piece from  https://en.wikipedia.org. Amos ’n” Andy is an American radio sitcom about black characters, initially set in Chicago and later in the Harlem section of New York City. In 1951 CBS launched the Amos ‘n’ Andy television series, with African American actors Alvin Childress and Spencer Williams, Jr., playing Amos and Andy, respectively. The show was the first TV series to feature an all-black cast.

It is tough because the tensions of the time do lend some reality to the action taken.That said, the price we paid was not being able to laugh at these people…but being denied the chance to laugh with them. Such a rich culture and perseverance they had to make the best out of every day life. The acting and the writing were superb and I never felt like they were being belittled or being made fun of…this show made my day better every time I watched it. It is a shame that we can no longer laugh together…that is what we should Wake up to! 

See you on the back porch next time, you are always welcome

jk

“Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income” (Ecclesiastes 5:10).

Solomon came to the conclusion that we are to “fear God, and keep His commandments. For this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

Solomon was not only a great king, he also had great wealth. Wealth also converts into stuff…  Interesting to note that Solomon…who by my his own reckoning had everything he needed and yet he found it was all worthless. There are those of us who do not feel we have everything we need or want, which leads us to fall into the trap of everything we have is everything to us and in some cases we are still driven to obtain more. One view of materialism would be to put more value in stuff with less emphasis on on things of spiritual value and behavior. You could go as far as saying having preoccupation with acquiring material things or wealth. It is a tough road we as Christians are expected to walk but the truth is, obsession or fascination with anything other than God is sinful and is displeasing to God. We are to “love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5). There will always be stuff that will make life easier, some of which does do just that…so what is the determining factor? I believe it is determined by the two words highlighted above. In Mathew 22:37-38 Jesus underscores that point. 

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. ³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. NKJV

God should become a habit in our lives… a settled or regular tendency or practice, He who alone is worthy of our complete attention, love and service. We must learn this lesson, wealth is a deceiver. It can lead us to places or things we don’t need, causing us to chase those things that we believe will make us happy and fulfilled.

(Mark 4:19)19 but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.

We have read in scripture from Luke 16:13 that we can not serve both God and Money.  Contentment, a state of happiness and satisfaction will not be present in our rush to acquire stuff. Materialism causes us to strive for more and more and more, as if this will satisfy all our needs and dreams. Wealth and an abundance of  the stuff we possess is not the answer to all our needs and dreams. Simply said “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33).

Life is Good

jk

(Toransufōmā) is a line of mecha toys produced by Japanese company Takara (now known as Takara Tomy) and American toy company Hasbro. Initially a line of transforming mecha toys rebranded from Takara’s Diaclone and Micro Change toy lines, it spawned the Transformers media franchise. The premise behind the Transformers toy line is that an individual toy’s parts can be shifted about to change it from a vehicle, a device, or an animal, to a robot action figure and back again.  

 Did you know that the Bible is full of transformers? Perhaps a more comfortable word might be,Transform. What does transform mean in the King’s English: An act, process, or instance of transforming or being transformed. A synonym of the word transform would be the word conversion: the act of converting, the state of being converted. Jesus told his disciples, some who were  fishermen that he would make them fishers of men.These two words transform and convert, both mean to change, being made new would be a biblical way to see it. We must understand that there were transformers in both the old Testament and the New Testament.  

Let’s start with John the Baptist whom I often describe as that guy in the desert who wore animalskins and ate insects. John the Baptist is mentioned in all four canonical Gospels and the non-canonical Gospel of the Nazarenes. The Synoptic Gospels (Mark, Matthew and Luke) describe John baptising Jesus; in the Gospel of John this is inferred by many to be found in John 1:32.(Wikipedia)gotquestions.org acknowledges that John “the Baptist,” was in fact the first prophet called by God since Malachi some 400 years earlier. He was known as a “lone voice in the wilderness” (John 1:23) who was telling the people which were suffering and needed a Savior that the Messiah was coming. His word was repent and that meant transforming the way they were living and admit their sins and be “baptized”.

 Luke was a close companion of the Apostle Paul and also a doctor. Luke is credited with writing two books of the NT, Acts and Luke. The number here is not really important but the fact that he is the only non Jew to have a book in the Bible but also to have had two of them! The Book of Acts tells of the early church and without Luke we would not know about the struggles of the early Saints to establish the foundation of the church and organize it into a form to grow and survive. In the Book Luke we see Jesus Christ as offering salvation to all people…Jew and Gentile.

Stephen is traditionally venerated as the first martyr of Christianity. According to the Acts of the Apostles, he was a deacon in the early Church at Jerusalem who angered members of various synagogues by his teachings. (Wikipedia) We are introduced to Stephen in Acts 6:5. A faithful man of God named Stephen: “a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.” His actions were such that many of the Jews were unhappy with his teachings… So much so that that they stirred up the people and even had some give false testimony that Stephen had spoken blasphemous words against Moses and God. These people seized Stephen and brought him before the Council. Stephen spoke in his own defense before the Council…you can read his speech in Acts 7. They were so enraged with what he said that they took him out and stoned him. When they prepared to stone him they lay their cloaks at the feet of a man whose name was Saul. Next we meet a man named Paul who had changed his name from Saul…the very man who had guarded the cloaks of those who had stoned Stephen. 

Paul  (also named Saul of Tarsus; c. 5 – c. 64/65 AD), commonly known as Paul the Apostle  and Saint Paul, was a Christian apostle who spread the teachings of Jesus in the first-century world.  Generally regarded as one of the most important figures of the Apostolic Age, he founded several Christian communities in Asia Minor and Europe.(Wikipedia) He was well educated and a Jew of great influence in his community.  Paul studied under Gamaliel who was a first-century Jewish rabbi and a leader in the Jewish Sanhedrin and was also a Pharisee. Gamaliel is mentioned a couple of times in Scripture as a famous and well-respected teacher. Indirectly, Gamaliel had a profound effect on the early church. Paul wrote thirteen of the books of the New Testament and some have even tried to include in that number Hebrews which would have made it fourteen. He made three missionary journeys covering at least 10,000 miles, organizing churches and preaching the Good News. 

These are just a few of the examples of Biblical Transformers…  people who changed the world and established God’s word among his people. While it is not a movie or a well known toy it is a good example, visually to show change. But the change, the transformation we all need in our lives is real and critical to our salvation… Have you allowed Christ to transform you…have you experienced a conversion?

Lofe is Good

jk

Welcome…come on up and join in. Pastor last Sunday suggested that we prepare for our prayer time by just clearing our minds, say nothing for at least five minutes. Try it, sorta like waiting for God to speak to us. That is most likely a crude way to put it. Best said I suppose as waiting for the spirit  to lead us. Every night I come out here on the back porch to clear my mind and as the old folks say ponder about nothing particular. It never works for me. There is always something that has happened or been said that lingers on my mind. Today for some reason the thought came to me that God is everywhere. He knows every thought on our mind, each and every action we have or plan to take…why the scripture says He even knew us while we were still in the womb. That alone is a good reason to want to know God. What pleases God, what would he have us do? Pretty important stuff considering He sent His only son Jesus Christ to share the Good News with us and teach us how to live a Godly life. It was so important that Christ died for us so that those who would repent and sin no more would receive salvation and life everlasting. They will be free of the pain, suffering of this world that sin and disobedience to the Father brings upon us. 

Sounds like a good deal to me. I am going to turn the tables on you this week… Go home and sit on your back porch and ponder…Where have all the people been?

Keep Rocking…God Bless

jk

The Christian faith today is under attack, our churches are losing worshipers, we no longer have a place at the table of public opinion and Christian morals are considered to be outdated and hold little influence within our communities and sad to say in many of our churches. While it might seem old school false prophets are left to spew forth their lies and misinformation with very little challenge from the faith community. The saddest part of all this is the relentless marginalizing of the Bible…God’s word, being perverted to enable agendas that are in no way pleasing in God’s eyes. We could spend a lot time with opinions but let’s just spend time with God’s word and couple of guys who were called to defend the faith.

The best known Biblical figure bearing the name Zephaniah is the son of Cushi, and great-great grandson of King^[2] Hezekiah, ninth in the literary order of the Twelve Minor Prophets. The unique source containing the minimal knowledge of his personality and rhetorical and literary qualities is the short, three chapter book of the Old Testament which bears his name.^[1] The scene of his activity was the city of Jerusalem, which he seems to know well.^[1](Wikipedia)

God hates sin most in those nearest to him. If we today continue to live in sin, while seeking the good things God brings to us, we can well expect to experience harsh times and future judgements will be harsh. We have today the Word of God which gives us all the advantages of knowing his will, with the strongest reasons to do it; still we persist in disobedience. We spend more of our time in doing wickedness than doing good. Just as written in Zephaniah there would be a judgement against the Jewish nation, so can we expect the same to the nations of the world in this time…it is written in God’s word.

 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

A very specific accounting of behaviors and the fate of those who persist in such behaviors. We can and must push aside all the word play and  agenda spewing rhetoric and through prayer and the Holy Spirit understand the intent of the Gospel.

2 Timothy 3:16-17

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

This weeks blog is short, sweet and to the point…read the Gospel…immerse yourself in God’s word so that…

Galatians 2:16

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. 

Have a great week and never leave your faith to false prophecy or the selfish agendas that seek to divide us in the faith. 

Life is Good

jk