Chilly evenings here and lots of wind, not much of an incentive to gather on the Back Porch. But here is a short ponder for you today. My luck with electrical appliances is not all that good…or might be that they don’t make them like they used to. I won’t get into brands but stoves and refrigerators keep me in financial peril. Our stove which is six years old by the way, the oven no longer works in it. No my wife and I both sit down and talk this over and discovered that to get the oven repaired would entail two huge problems. Because of the excessive cost of operating a business nowadays a standard service call if you do not have the service contract on the appliance is about $150, yes you heard me right, now there may be some out there that are much less but in my area where I live the standard call is $150.  I’m gonna try to get this correct, it is confusing but when the service determines what’s wrong with the appliance and they order the parts to fix it the cost of those parts plus the labor to put back in the appliance that’s your bill, in most cases they graciously do not charge you the 150. So what happens if they come out and do not find anything wrong after examining the appliance and doing whatever it is that they do, you will owe them $150. Now, we have a refrigerator that the lights inside of the refrigerator on all levels they go out periodically. We have a service contract on that and we call, they come out, they replace one small part because it’s not the bulbs that are going out. It has something to do with the system. But anyway they replaced that part and the refrigerator runs. We’ve had it three years. In those three years we’ve had at least four calls to come out and fix the lights. Our warranty on the refrigerator is due to be renewed at the fine cost of $600 for three years. We have decided not to renew that warranty. Well refrigerator got to making a strange noise and my wife who is ever vigilant about these things suggested that we get that checked out. We both know that the warranty has not been reinstated so we ended up paying $150 for a service call from a local business to tell us there wasn’t anything wrong. My wife and I decided since there was no warranty on the stove it expired, we won’t go mess around with this business anymore because we’ve had trouble with that brand of appliance in the past so we just decided we’d buy a new stove. Now be patient because we’re almost to the ponder. We found a stove which met our needs at a reasonable price excellent delivery and set up service so we bought it and I’m happy to say that we bought it from a local business that made me even happier. Now here is the ponder. You know that old saying, keep it simple stupid, well why can’t women do that? After the stove was installed we both were pleased with the way it operated the controls and everything about it except this particular stove, did not have that high back on it with the clock, and all that stuff, the controls up on the back sitting behind the stove. All of the controls for this particular stove were located right above where the oven door is easily seen, easily got to, I thought fairly simple and very effective. But you guessed it my wife was absolutely intrigued by the fact that there was a bare wall back there where there had always been a stove top the upper part with the controls. She worried about that for several days and finally, we decided that maybe we could put some kind of a backsplash back there which is smart and reasonable. But then we decided, she decided that right behind the stove was not good enough we needed to extend it out on both sides. Work was balanced so that meant we had to do a wall. Now when we looked at that wall across from the stove and I have a galley style kitchen, so you know what I’m speaking of there’s another wall close by, naturally cabinets over it and such but it’s major wall, so to match the wall we just tiled, We decided to tile a backsplash behind the sink in the counter space there. I hope you’re still with me and I didn’t mean to confuse anybody. I was having a hard time for one thing figuring out what I could share with you this week from the porch and you know how desperate I am because this is the best I could do. Go back to the kitchen again.We picked out a tile, we found a local gentleman that did excellent tile work because we knew several people he had worked for and so we had him over. He gave us the estimate and a reasonable time frame to do the job with tiles that my wife picked out and so we said OK let’s do it. So let’s wrap this up. It’s really very simple. The two walls cost me more than a stove, but my wife is extremely happy with the ambience that it has created. So before I get to the final ponder, let me make one disclaimer. When I say we concerning these decisions as to what we were going to do, I would like to inform you that we was one and that one was my wife and I agreed in a spirit of love and cooperation. So here’s my Ponder…. Why do they do that?

Kurt

As we continue this journey seeking the good way, let’s continue to remember the 10 Commandments, last weeks reminder from Jeremiah 616 was that we have reached the crossroads, we need to stop to think and consider and to pray and then continue on our journey to seek the good way, hopefully having chosen the right path. This week we will add to those two pieces of information this, the importance of unity within the faith and among the body of believers. Our scripture this week can be found in Ephesians chapter 4 versus one through three and verses 15 and 16.

“Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. 2 Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. 3 Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.”

Ephesians 4: 1-3 calls for believers to live a life worthy of their Christian, calling by practicing virtues, like humility, gentleness, and patience, while bearing with one another in love to maintain the spiritual unity of the church. It urges believers to make every effort to preserve the unity of the spirit through peace. If we take the time to detail that just a bit, we might say that Paul, who is a prisoner for Christ urges believers to live in a way that is consistent with the high calling they have received from God. Paul goes on to remind them about the key virtues of this life that would make that possible, they are listed above, but shortly speaking, just humility, gentleness, and patience towards others goes a long way to enhance the unity of the faith. It’s important that we maintain that unity of the faith in love, a crucial aspect of this conduct is to be patient, and bear with one another in love, and make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Now all of this is fine, but it requires one thing that is sometimes missing within the church today, an active effort is required. The passage itself emphasizes that maintaining unity isn’t automatic; it requires a diligent effort and making a conscious choice to forgive and work through conflict.

Now let’s move onto that second set of versus Ephesians 4:15–16.

“15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”

In these verses, Paul describes the church as the body of Christ united under Christ as the head, and explains that it grows in maturity by every member working together in love. He challenges believers to speak the truth to one another, but to do so in love, which helps the entire body mature into the likeness of Christ. This growth is facilitated as each part contributes to the hole, enabling the body to build itself up in love. A quick walk-through reveals the goal is for all believers to grow up in all aspects unto him who is the head that is Christ. We do so by speaking the truth in love. The method for growth is speaking the truth in love. This means honesty and kindly correcting and encouraging one another for the good of the whole body. Many the churches from the past and at least a few of the denominations today practice this interconnectedness. Paul by using the example of the body shows that every part is essential and connected with joints, holding the body together and supplying what is needed. Therefore, each members role within the body, contributes to the bodies growth by working properly and doing its part. So the combined efforts of each member working together in love results in the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

Just a few thoughts to close on. On the way to “The Good Way” we can now add the unity of the body of believers as a sign we are on “The Good Way”. Please rejoin us next week as we continue this journey here in The Pew.

Life is Good

jk

I have no idea where this Ponder will go but pull up your chairs, crates or whatever and enjoy this nice fall evening. Anyone here familiar with Marconi Sports Peppers? They are Chicago style peppers, primarily to use with hot dogs, but I’ve also found that they go well with sub sandwiches of most any kind and a sandwich, say bologna… fried bologna now that’s a good pair. I first ran into them at the Publix and they were pretty expensive 16 ounce jar. I think it started out around $4.50. Well that lasted for about a year then they disappeared couldn’t find them there. They never had them stocked then they came back and they went first to $5.70. and then on up finally they topped out at $7.50. My wife has always been very attentive to keeping in stock some things here at the house that I particularly like to have with sandwiches or snacks. But they broke her tolerance level when they reached $6.50 mark so to speak for a jar of hot peppers… so I guess it doesn’t really need to be repeated, but we quit buying them, or she did. Now it’s real funny how the human mind works, but I just couldn’t get those Marconi sports peppers off my mind or out of my taste locker. Like I said with some fried bologna and believe it or not, with some fried spam they were pretty good. Now before I get too carried away, they didn’t hardly come up to and certainly did not surpass a really fine garden tomato with mayonnaise on light bread with some fresh cayenne pepper out of the garden… I have been told that it was even responsible for some Yankees relocating here to the south. Back to the story. I could not put those peppers out of my mind so I started looking for them again, went online and checked the grocery stores here where I live, Kroger and Publix and Aldi and Walmart even went so far as to check Costco but nobody had them, well nobody had them in stock.You could order them from Walmart but when they added the shipping fee onto them, it was $15 and some odd cents for 16 ounce jar. You couldn’t sell that to my wife with two complementary tickets to a QVC studio show. I found some other values elsewhere, but one that I almost fell for was six jars for $35. Shipping was free but the catch was they were 8 ounce jars. But I just couldn’t and wouldn’t give up and finally my wife found those beautiful Marconi sports peppers somewhere on Amazon for nine dollars and something 16 ounce jar… bingo, love her heart, with the shipping fee added it came to $13 and a few pennies and she went ahead and got them. It might be hard to believe, but them suckers came to my front door overnight, I had made some chicken salad homemade the other day and because I was in such a hurry I didn’t feel like frying any bologna up, I went ahead and just made me a nice chicken salad sandwich and got some of them peppers out and everything was wonderful. Now I’m sure you’re asking by now. What’s all that about? I also guess you’re trying to figure out what kind of a ponder can we possibly get out of this? Here is your Ponder for the day… Never let a good pepper get away!

Kurt

Philippians 4:8

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things

As we continue our journey looking for the good way, let’s remember two of the points that we have picked up so far. Let the words of the 10 Commandments come forth from your lips,  stored in your mind and be strong in your heart. And when you reach this crossroad where we’re at, stop, seek God’s words and instructions and then start out on the good way. Last week our key scripture was Jeremiah 6:16 this week we’re going to be looking at Philippians 4:8 as our lead scripture as we continue this journey. Philippians 4:8 is an instruction for believers to focus your thoughts on positive and virtuous qualities, including what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, excellent, and praiseworthy and yes that is quite a list. Actually what the scripture is asking us to do is to deliberate, and choose dwelling on uplifting things, which can improve one’s mental, emotional, and relational health by shifting focus away from the negative or deceitful thoughts that are so prevalent in our society today. The goal of all of this is to cultivate a thought process in our life that reflects God’s peace and character.

Consider this, as we mentioned above just a moment ago, the verse provides a specific list of qualities to meditate on just for future reference and because repetition is often a good way to remember let’s go through them. When we seek out true thoughts, we’re really trying to look for things that align with the reality of God’s nature those things which are noble and honorable that are dignified, respectful, and of good character. We’re looking for thoughts that are fair and righteous, just, pure in intent and innocent undefiled and not mixed with sin. Just an umbrella of lovely thoughts that are pleasant and attractive and encourage love. We’re looking for things that are commendable that are spoken of to have had and do have a good reputation. The next one is really very easy, think about things that are outstanding and admirable and possess moral excellence. We are also seeking thoughts worthy of praise, admiration, and celebration. Let’s wrap this section up by touching on a few points to lead us in the direction we need to go. We need to filter our thoughts, do what it says, look for things that are good and constructive. We need to cultivate a positive mindset, and that means that we’re going to actively choose to think about uplifting things to develop a more positive outlook on life. Perhaps one that will be difficult for all of us is to be aligned with God’s character by focusing on these qualities, you align your thoughts with God’s own nature. And finally be mindful of your intake. In other words, be aware of the things you see hear and read, and ensure they align with the various standards set by Philippians 4:8.

Consider this as we close this week’s blog. We live in a world that is not exactly compatible with God’s word. Good Christians can sometimes even begin to think in secular rather than biblical terms and they allow secular culture and values to overwhelm their Christian values. The apostle Paul reminds us that we must constantly reject those things that do not draw us closer to God and consciously focus on the things that do. We have the ability to choose what we think about. There is of course, the onslaught of media material. We could go through a lot here and talk about different things, but the key I believe is simply this, if we kinda look at things and use Philippians 4:8 as a guide it’s probably very likely that our media consumption habits would have to change. So add this to our list to go on our map to help us find the “Good Way.” Remember Philippians 4:8, think about the good things and thank God that we are blessed with so many.

Life is Good

jk

Welcome to the Back Porch. We usually try to meet a little earlier in the week, but we just haven’t been able to do that for the past couple of months so please please forgive us and stick around a little while. Pull up a chair and get a box whatever you can find and have a seat, the weather here has been just absolutely wonderful for the past few days, temperatures in the 70s plenty of sunshine… just real pleasant. I guess as many of us here on the porch have noticed that’s about where the good news ends. I tried to stay away from Facebook even YouTube, but I do like to read the news at least keep up with what’s going on, but even that has gotten to be a real chore here lately. The government shut down is rolling right along. It seems like there’ll be no end to it, so then when you start reading the headlines, wherever your choice of news takes you there is not really a whole lot of good news to be had. Here’s a quick look at some of the things that I’ve been looking at on the news. New York, Attorney General Letitia James has been indicted for mortgage fraud. Now I’m not going to get into the politics of it. This is the same lady, that indicted Trump and spent 2 to 3 years trying to drag him down as best she could and she succeeded. She got a huge judgment against the Trump organization and against Trump. Now she’s been indicted for the same behavior that she charged Trump with being responsible for, but what amazes me about all of this kind of stuff, is that for some reason or other all of these public figures seem to discount the existence of the new digital wave within our country. Things that have been said years ago come back to haunt them again because it’s all been recorded and I can go back and look and find it and it has to be embarrassing for some of them, but that’s rather strange that they don’t recognize the fact that words do matter. Then there’s my favorite ongoing drama of the news for the past week or so maybe a longer really, we have the Republicans and the Democrats in both houses Senate and Congress at odds with each other about this continuing resolution. Now this is the resolution that Schumer got in trouble with because he backed it here just a few weeks ago, and they voted for a continuing resolution, but it didn’t hold long because there’s too many others that are against it. It seems that those we have elected to carry out the nations business have decided just simply to shut the government down. The congressional speaker of the house and the minority speaker of the house had decided they will engage in a world of accusations. And then step right up to the Senate and you have the majority leader along with the minority leader that have also decided that it’s best to have a world of accusations and prohibited attachments full of misleading words and ideas that have no chance of passing either side. Please accept my apology for spending this many words and taking up your time for this senseless dribble. I’ll slide on down on the news page because I found one thing that you might be interested in. Florida supermarkets have decided to let customers knock back and drink a cold one while shopping. I forecast there will be a lot more husbands going along with their wives on their next shopping expedition. And one major food chain there in Florida has now announced that people can carry firearms in their store. What a wonderful mixture, firearms, alcohol an escalating food prices. Oh my it seems like I can’t just let all this go and quit bothering you like this, but I just now pulled up a story about Dan Rather. He’s retired. You know he was a CBS News actor for many many years and he’s upset over some of the things going on at the old channel, but this is a guy if I’m not mistaken that had a conversation with aliens so you know I don’t know. Maybe you have an answer for it. So where is the ponder in all of this? Well this week it’s a rather shameless one. The guys here on the porch would like to invite you to join us in The Pew this coming weekend as we continue to examine the path that will take us to the good way. It’s really very simple if you want to have a little bit of good news in your life, get into the word, read the Bible and join us this weekend for another addition of The Pew as we seek to explore the meaning of the God’s word from a layman’s point of view.

Kurt

We continue our series this week “Looking for the Good Way” with the verse that brought us to this subject, Jeremiah 6:16.

16 This is what the Lord says:

“Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls.
But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

We will start our journey with God’s instructions to the people of Judah to pause at a time of decision and look for the old, proven paths of God’s word and wisdom, and walking in them to find true rest for our souls. The contrast here is very simple. We’re looking at the good way of God compared to the our rebellious corrupt ways in which we reject God’s guidance and it leads to the destructive consequences while we instead choose to refuse the path that is offered to salvation. I suppose that’s a rather fancy way of saying we’re just not living as God would have us live as a people or a nation, and we are in danger of God’s wrath. The ways of this world are without doubt, not compatible with God’s will for his people. As Christians, we are called out to be different to serve, and to be mindful of God’s will in our lives. Let’s look at some of the key elements of this verse that we are highlighting today. The simple sentence stand at the crossroads and look is pure imagery, which we find a lot in the Bible that signifies a crucial point of decision where people must stop reflect and consider their options. I prefer to use the word direction… So where are we to find that correct direction? We are to ask God, to seek God’s will, to look for the ancient paths because that’s where the good way lies. It’s really rather basic. We are called to seek our God’s long established ways and pay attention to his timeless wisdom which in this day and time are contrasted with the new, corrupt path that we as a people are following. This verse makes it very clear that we must change our direction.. It’s not that difficult to understand that following God’s ancient ways will lead us to a spiritual peace and rest that contrasted to the false peace promised by our corrupted ways that dominate our daily lives now. Just as the people of Judah had become corrupt and materialistic and filled with immorality so have we. We, as the people have been subjected to assurance of peace and safety misleading the people while God’s judgment is a real promise of what is to come. We as a people have rejected God’s true warnings, the council of his word, choosing instead to walk in our own destructive ways. This verse offers us very practical wisdom for navigating what’s going on in our world today. We are encouraged to seek God’s guidance and we do so by turning to the good way rather than following current trends. There are many distractions in our world today, but we can find true peace by following God’s establish ways rather than following or pursuing these worldly distractions. And we are reminded, just as Judah faced disaster for rejecting God’s wisdom so long ago, we’re very much guilty of doing very same thing in our circumstances in today’s time. Ignoring God’s ways has severe consequences both here in our world now and in the world to come.

So we add these two directions to our map to the Good Way. Remember the 10 Commandments, seek and understand God’s word and instructions, and then start out on the good way.

Life is Good

jk

To those of you who read The Pew and those of you who drop in and visit the Pew every now and then this is kind of a heads up on what’s coming this weekend in our regular From The Pew post. The Pew is beginning a series of Looking for the Good Way. My post last week indicated that one of the starting points that I believe very much to be important would be the Ten Commandments. This week’s post will begin our journey looking for the Good Way, and there was a mention in some of the materials that I used of the law of Moses and I need, we need to understand exactly what that was. Now, according to the Bible, the law of Moses refers to the Torah, the first five books of the old testament and includes the 10 Commandments. There are also the ceremonial laws for worship and civil laws governing society. These laws were given by God through Moses to the ancient Israelites it kind of established guidelines for a righteous life, revealed human sinfulness, and set Israel apart as a holy nation.  There was much more to that, the law provided a system for atonement through sacrifices and established religious community festivals to teach God’s love and his people’s duty to him. It is important in our way forward to understand a little bit about the law Moses. They were components of the law of  Moses and we’re going to look at a few of those.There’s a Moral Law which was the foundational part, including the 10 Commandments. It provided ethical principles and moral guidelines. There was a Ceremonial Law, and it contained detailed instructions for sacrifices, temple rituals, Priestly duties which provided a way for the community to atone for sin and approach God. Then we look at the Civil Law, laws governing daily life in ancient Israel, addressing issues, such as property rights, care for the poor and vulnerable, family matters and judicial proceedings. There’s a lot of material just right here and I am not going to take the time right now to look at all of it, but the truth is even in our society today the structure is pretty much in place but in different ways for different people. We have to really look at the purpose of the law. It was designed to set Israel, apart, to distinguish Israel as a holy nation that was chosen by God. It was meant to reveal God’s character, to show God’s holiness, justice in love and to instruct his people to love him in return. There was a principle of righteousness, to guide people in living a life of morality, justice, and faithfulness and it was designed to expose sins, to make humanity, aware of their inherent, selfishness and sinfulness, and they’re inability to achieve righteousness on their own. Again, a pretty fancy way of just simply saying, we are not living as we should live as God would have us live in our relationship relationships with him and other people. But in my mind, one of the main purposes of the law was to prepare for the savior to serve as a preparatory gospel and point to the ultimate need for a savior, a roll fulfilled by Jesus Christ.

Hope to see you in the Pew this weekend.

Life is Good

jk

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.”