Life and Death

Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #3 Voice of God #6 Words to feed and communicate

Posted on February 17, 2013. Filed under: Bible Study and Bible Reading, Jehovah יהוה YHWH JHVH God Elohim Yahweh Jahweh, Jesus Christ Jeshua the Messiah Jahushua, Life and Death, Suffering | Tags: Answer from God, Attitude, Bible, Bible Reading, Bible Study, Biblical Contemplation, Biblical guidance, Book of Life, Books of books, Breath of God, Breath of life, Christ, Conversation with God, Decree of God, Elohim, God, God near us, God the Father, Guidance, Holy Scriptures, Holy Spirit, Instructions, Jehovah, Law of God, Listen to God, Lord of lords, Love for God, Love for Word of God, Love of God, Man of God, Meditate, Meditation, Messiah, Name of God, Ponder, Prayer, Problems, Reflect, Reprove, Revelation, Revelation of God, Seek God, Strength, Study Bible, Torah, Voice of God, Way of God, Way of man, Will of God, Word of God |

Trust, Faith and Prayer

Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #3 voice of God

Hearing the Voice in the Holy Scriptures

Words to feed

Continuing reading the Words of God in the Holy Scriptures the Holy Spirit shall feed us. He shall be prepared to come close to us and to answer our questions or prayers. But for being able to hear the Voice of God we do need to take on the right attitude. We must humbly let the Scriptures teach us, reprove us, set things straight for us, and discipline us in righteousness. Jehovah knows what we need, for His thoughts are so much higher than our thoughts. By His inspired Scriptures, He tells us what is beneficial for us so that we may be fully equipped and competent for the good work of witnessing to His name and Kingdom. Paul gives this outstanding advice in the context of describing the “critical times” that come “in the last days”: “All Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness that the man of God may be fully competent, completely equipped for every good work.” May all of us survive these critical times by giving heed to this inspired advice! (Romans 15:4; 2 Timothy 3:16-17)

The title page to the 1611 first edition of the Authorized Version Bible. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

6 Seek יהוה {Jehovah} while He is to be found, call on Him while He is near. 7 Let the wrong forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to יהוה {Jehovah}, who has compassion on him, and to our Elohim, for He pardons much. 8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares יהוה {Jehovah}.9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. 10 “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from the heavens, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, and give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so is My Word that goes forth from My mouth – it does not return to Me empty, but shall do what I please, and shall certainly accomplish what I sent it for. 12 “For with joy you go out, and with peace you are brought in – the mountains and the hills break forth into singing before you, and all the trees of the field clap the hands. 13 “Instead of the thorn the cypress comes up, and instead of the nettle the myrtle comes up. And it shall be to יהוה {Jehovah} for a name, for an everlasting sign which is not cut off.” (Isaiah 55:6-13 The Scriptures 1998+)

When we read the Bible we can listen to God His Word. By listening to His voice and by sticking to Him we shall be able to get answers and to get full breath of life, for He is your life and the length of your days.

19 “I have called the heavens and the earth as witnesses today against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore you shall choose life, so that you live, both you and your seed, 20 to love יהוה {Jehovah} your Elohim, to obey His voice, and to cling to Him – for He is your life and the length of your days – to dwell in the land which יהוה {Jehovah} swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Yitsḥaq, and to Ya’aqob, to give them.” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20 The Scriptures 1998+)

Great should be our joy and gratitude that we can read and reread, study and restudy, and meditate on these precious truths, for truly “all Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial,” leading on to eternal life either in heaven or on a paradise earth. (John 17:3; Ephesians 1:9-11) Then everything will be ‘holiness to Jehovah.’(Zechariah 14:20; Rev. 4:8.)

Bible part of the free conversation

With the Word of God in the Holy Scriptures Jehovah, the Creator of all things, provided a means to get in conversation with Him. In the Holy Scriptures we are able to find answers to our many questions. It would be wrong just to take the writings as uninspired human penstrokes. We may not simply read words. When we encounter the words on paper in front of us, we should remember that it was the Voice of God who inspired the human writers to put down the Words of God.

We should visualize the situations about which we read, imagining the voices of those who are quoted.

As you read the opening chapters of the Bible, hear Jehovah Himself reveal, step by step, what is done in making the earth fit for man. Listen as He tells that the time has come to bring the first humans into existence. Picture the scene: Adam and Eve rebel, God passes judgment on them and, subsequently, He ousts them from Paradise. (Genesis, chaps. 1-3) Feel a sense of awe when you read that a Voice from heaven identifies Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the beloved, the one sent by God to lay down his life for mankind. (Matthew 3:16, 17) Try to imagine the apostle John’s reaction when he hears Jehovah declare: “Look! I am making all things new.” (Revelation 21:5)

With the 66 books of books God gave the world the Book of Life. We should not for a minute let this Book of The Revelation be out of our mind. This Book full of instructions and laws shows us the way how to live and how to survive. We should ponder and meditate on it day and night, making sure we practice everything written in it. Then we shall get where we’re going; then we shall succeed and find out that our way may be prosperous.

“Do not let this Book of the Torah depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you guard to do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and act wisely. (Joshua 1:8 The Scriptures 1998+)

Coming together to study the Word of God in the Holy Scriptures

The Biblical contemplation of nature and man starts from and ends in God and is kept alive by the Breath and the Voice of God. The very smallness of man makes the revelation of God in His dealings with him great. For every Christian Jehovah God, should be the only One brilliant Lord of Lord of lords and a household name. We might be a shimmering reflection, visible to every eye upturned from “this dim spot which men call earth.” But we should know that the Creator does find it important that people get to know Him by His Name and would love to see it shine all over the earth as the majestic name in all the earth.

O יהוה {Jehovah}, our Master, how excellent is Your Name in all the earth, You who set Your splendour above the heavens! (Psalms 8:1 The Scriptures 1998+)

5 Let them praise the Name of יהוה {Jehovah}, For He commanded and they were created. 6 And He established them forever and ever, He gave a law and they pass not beyond. 7 Praise יהוה {Jehovah}, from the earth, You great sea creatures and all the depths, 8 Fire and hail, snow and clouds, Stormy wind that does His word, 9 The mountains and all hills, Fruit tree and all cedars, 10 Wild beasts and all cattle, Creeping creatures and flying birds, 11 Sovereigns of the earth and all peoples, Rulers and all judges of the earth, 12 Both young men and maidens, Old men and children. 13 Let them praise the Name of יהוה {Jehovah}, For His Name alone is exalted, His splendour is above the earth and heavens. 14 He also lifts up the horn of His people, The praise of all His kind ones; Of the children of Yisra’ĕl, A people near to Him. Praise Yah! (Psalms 148:5-14 The Scriptures 1998+)

We are best to act wisely by directing our eyes onto the Words of God in the Holy Scriptures. When we allow those Words from God come from the paper into our heart we shall feel that God shall come with us and shall be willing to come to our aid to understand the many words in those Holy books. The more time you spend reading the Bible, the greater will be your satisfaction as you grow in knowledge of God’s will for you. You shall become less frightened because you shall know that God is close to you. You shall not have so many moments to panic. The assurance that God is with you shall make life so much easier. There’s no need to fear for Jehovah is your God when you are willing to accept Him as the Only One God. He shall give you strength. He shall help you. He shall hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you.

‘Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not look around, for I am your Elohim. I shall strengthen you, I shall also help you, I shall also uphold you with the right hand of My righteousness.’ (Isaiah 41:10 The Scriptures 1998+)

When you listen to all those words coming from the Most High Powerful God, you shall feel that reading the Bible is as going into a very deep conversation. Such a conversation can also be called a prayer. Going into deep meditation about what is written in the Bible, shall bring you closer to your Creator. Truly, reading God’s Word in this way is a delightful experience!

When you do your Bible reading, take time to ponder the meaning of what you read — what it tells you about Jehovah, how it can influence your life beneficially, and how you can use it to help others.

When your regular reading provides you the help you need to deal wisely with problems, you will feel like the psalmist who said: “Your reminders are wonderful. That is why my soul has observed them.” (Psalm 119:129) You too will rejoice as you discern from the Scriptures principles that help to mould your thinking and your desires in a godly way. It might surprise you that Gods way shall not always be your way, but that when you follow God’s way you shall find it to be the most easiest way. But remember that Jehovah does not think the way you think. The way you work isn’t the way He works. God His thoughts are most sublime and His ways our much higher than our ways. Jehovah His Decree should be the most important one to follow for us and should enable us to return or to come closer to the Almighty Elohim Jehovah God.

6 Seek יהוה {Jehovah}, while He is to be found, call on Him while He is near. 7 Let the wrong forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to יהוה {Jehovah}, who has compassion on him, and to our Elohim, for He pardons much. 8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares יהוה {Jehovah}. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. 10 “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from the heavens, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, and give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so is My Word that goes forth from My mouth – it does not return to Me empty, but shall do what I please, and shall certainly accomplish what I sent it for. (Isaiah 55:6-11 The Scriptures 1998+)

Continue reading the inspired record, and you will come to know Jehovah as a Majestic and Awe-inspiring Person. You will feel strongly drawn to this One who loves us, deals mercifully with us, helps us if we humbly keep trying to do His will, and shows us how to enjoy success in all that we do.

As we read the Bible, we will sense that Jehovah is coming near to us and that He, as a loving Father, who knows what problems will result when we give in to imperfect fleshly desires, provides moral guidance that shields us from harm and shows us the right way. He does not want us to suffer the terrible consequences that will inevitably come from flouting His high moral standards. Jehovah God is a loving caring Father who wants us to enjoy the best way of life. Our reading of His Word helps us to appreciate more fully what a blessing it is to have him as our God and heavenly Father.

Daily Words of comfort

When we do love God, we shall be prepared to listen to His Wise Words regularly. We do not have to go to theological colleges or to hang out at Sin Saloon, not slinking along Dead-End Road, not going to Smart-Mouth College. Instead you thrill to God’s Word, you chew on Scripture day and night. You would not mind becoming a tree replanted in Eden, bearing fresh fruit every month, Never dropping a leaf, always in blossom. You do not want to be like the common wicked people, who are mere windblown dust.

1 Blessed is the man who shall not walk in the counsel of the wrong, And shall not stand in the path of sinners, And shall not sit in the seat of scoffers, 2 But his delight is in the Torah of יהוה {Jehovah}, And he meditates in His Torah day and night. 3 For he shall be as a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That yields its fruit in its season, And whose leaf does not wither, And whatever he does prospers. 4 The wrong are not so, But are like the chaff which the wind blows away. 5 Therefore the wrong shall not rise in the judgment, Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. 6 For יהוה {Jehovah}knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wrong comes to naught. (Psalms 1:1-6 The Scriptures 1998+)

Daily Bible reading shall bring Gods Word every day close into our heart and shall feed us as the necessary breast-feeding for the baby. Regular reading and application of what is in God’s Word will enable us to succeed in everything that involves our relationship with Jehovah.

Getting together at the Ecclesia in Brussels hotel to study the Bible and have a service of Breaking of the Bread

Even when we do not see it any more in this world and cannot follow this world we shall find the necessary solution in the readings of the day and will be blessed when we’re at the end of our rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule. Others may call us the poor ones, but we should not mind. We may be the poor in spirit, but knowing our spiritual need, we shall be the ones looking forward to the hope coming true, for God His kingdom may be ours. (Matthew 5:3)

This shall only be true if we are prepared to adjust ourselves to that Word of God. If we adjust our priorities so as to read a portion of the Bible each day, we should think about those words we read, and put them to work in our lives. We should receive the Word with all readiness of mind and search the Scriptures daily to see if those things were and are so. (Acts 17:11)

As the first Christians let us follow their example and also have open minds, recognition of need, searching minds, daily application, and enthusiasm.

“You search the Scriptures, because you think you possess everlasting life in them. And these are the ones that bear witness of Me. (John 5:39 The Scriptures 1998+)

It is never enough to be knowledgeable in the Scriptures in a theoretical sense. The study of God’s Word must lead us to find who is the Messiah and to embrace Christ, with our whole heart and mind. Knowledge by itself is sterile. But intimate, personal experience of Christ brings about deep and lasting changes in our lives, and leads on to the eternal life that may be possessed only through him.

“Scripture is the royal chariot in which Jesus rides, and it is paved with love for the daughters of Jerusalem. The Scriptures are the swaddling bands of the holy child Jesus; unroll them and you find your Saviour. The quintessence of the word of God is Christ” (CHS).

Preceding:

Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #3 Voice of God #1 Creator and His Prophets

Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #3 Voice of God #2 Instructions and Laws

Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #3 Voice of God #3 A voice to be taken Seriously

Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #3 Voice of God #4 Words in Scripture

Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #3 Voice of God #5 To meditate and Transform

Next: Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #4 Transitoriness

Dutch version / Nederlandse versie: Vertrouwen, Geloof, Roepen en Toeschrijving aan Jehovah #3 Stem van God #6 Woorden tot voedsel en communicatie

Please do find also to read:

+++

Genesis 15 (habilishomilarium.com)
Does God Have a Name? (bkirbykeith.wordpress.com)
If God had a name, what would it be / And would you call it to His face?

Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 9 so far )

Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #3 Voice of God #1 Creator and His Prophets

Posted on January 27, 2013. Filed under: Environment and Ecology, History, Jehovah יהוה YHWH JHVH God Elohim Yahweh Jahweh, Life and Death, World | Tags: Adam, Beginning, beginning of the universe, Cherubim, Creation, Descendants, Earth, Elohim, Esteem of God, Eve, Existence, Garden of Eden, genesis 1, God, Heaven, I Am that I Am, Inspiration, Jehovah, Likeness of God, Voice of God, Work of God |

Trust, Faith and Prayer

Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #3 voice of God

Speaking and bringing unto being

The “I Am who I am” or the “I am that I am”, at the beginning of the universe let His voice come over everything, so that it came into being.

In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth. And the earth came to be {1} formless and empty, and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of Elohim was moving on the face of the waters. {Footnote: 1Or the earth became}. And Elohim said, “Let light come to be,” and light came to be. (Genesis 1:1-3 The Scriptures 1998+)

The Creator of everything said each time that it had to come to be and it became. Over which His breath came He also gave a name. Elohim called the light ‘day’ and the darkness He called ‘night.’ He called the expanse ‘heavens.’ Elohim called the dry land ‘earth,’ and the collection of the waters He called ‘seas.’ He soon came to give with His voice blessing over the all earth.

An artist’s impression of a protoplanetary disk (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

11 And Elohim said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the plant that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth.” And it came to be so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, the plant that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And Elohim saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:11-12 The Scriptures 1998+)

20 And Elohim said, “Let the waters teem with shoals of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth on the face of the expanse of the heavens.” 21 And Elohim created great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters teemed, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. 22 And Elohim saw that it was good. And Elohim blessed them, saying, “Bear fruit and increase, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” 23 And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, the fifth day. (Genesis 1:20-23 The Scriptures 1998+)

A voice calling in the Garden

The things which came into existence by the Voice of God pleased Him. He always looked at what came into being and saw that it was good. So God decided to make human beings; which would be like Him and resemble Him, what does not mean they would become like Him. Adam, Eve, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Jesus, were all made in the image of that One and Only One God. They received power over the fish, the birds, and all animals, domestic and wild, large and small. Male and female were created and blessed. To those first human beings God said to have many children, so that their descendants will live all over the earth and bring it under their control. It was the Creator God who put those human creatures in charge of the earth, the fish, the birds, and all the wild animals. From the beginning the Elohim God also provided all kinds of grain and all kinds of fruit for them to eat.

25 And Elohim made the beast of the earth according to its kind, livestock according to its kind, and all that creep on the earth according to its kind. And Elohim saw that it was good. 26 And Elohim said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth and over all the creeping creatures that creep on the earth.” 27 And Elohim created the man in His image, in the image of Elohim He created him – male and female He created them. 28 And Elohim blessed them, and Elohim said to them, “Bear fruit and increase, and fill the earth and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over all creatures moving on the earth.” 29 And Elohim said, “See, I have given you every plant that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed, to you it is for food. (Genesis 1:25-29 The Scriptures 1998+)

Adam and Eve heard the Voice of Jehovah God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. In the beginning it looked like the Voice of God was soft and caring, creating all goodness. But after the wrong going by Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah God in the middle of the trees of the garden (Genesis 3:8), more than once God had to let His Voice be like thunder.

The story of the Eden Garden. The temptation of Adam & Eve by the devil. Pedestal of the statue of Madonna with Child, western portal (of the Virgin), of Notre-Dame de Paris (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“יהוה {Jehovah} thundered from the heavens, And the Most High sent forth His voice. (2 Samuel 22:14 The Scriptures 1998+)

2 Listen, listen to the trembling of His voice, and the sound that comes from His mouth. 3 He lets it loose under all the heavens, and His lightning to the ends of the earth. 4 After it a voice roars. He thunders with the voice of His excellency, and He does not hold them back when His voice is heard. 5 Ěl thunders wondrously with His voice; doing great deeds, which we do not understand. 6 For He says to the snow, ‘Be on the earth,’ also to the gentle rain and the heavy rain of His strength. 7 He seals up the hand of every man, for all men to know His work. (Job 37:2-7 The Scriptures 1998+)

Prophets hearing the Voice

Many prophets heard the voice of God, some, like Ezekiel as the sound of wings, like the sound of roaring water and wrote down what the voice of the Almighty dictated to them. God’s glory rose above the cherubs and filled God’s House (the temple) with the brilliance of the Creator’s glory. The sound of the wings of the cherubim, reminiscent of the voice of the Sovereign God when he speaks, could be heard as far as the outer court of the temple.

4 And the esteem of יהוה {Jehovah} went up from the keruḇ, over the threshold of the House. And the House was filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the brightness of the esteem of יהוה {Jehovah}. 5 And the sound of the wings of the keruḇim was heard in the outer court, like the voice of Ěl Shaddai when He speaks. (Ezekiel 10:4-5 The Scriptures 1998+)

And see, the esteem of the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl came from the way of the east. And His voice was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone from His esteem. And His voice was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone from His esteem. (Ezekiel 43:2 The Scriptures 1998+)

It was this Voice of God that could lift up the prophets and give them inspiration to write down that what God wanted them His people to know. By way of His Voice God gave His commandments and asked people to do certain things for Him.

And the Spirit took me up and brought me into the inner courtyard. And see, the esteem of יהוה filled the House. (Ezekiel 43:5 The Scriptures 1998+)

Preceding article: Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #2 Calling upon the Name of God

Dutch version: Vertrouwen, Geloof, Roepen en Toeschrijving aan Jehovah #3 Stem van God #1 Schepper en Zijn profeten

Continued: Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #3 Voice of God #2 Instructions and Laws

Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #2 Calling upon the Name of God

Posted on January 21, 2013. Filed under: Endtimes, Faith, Jehovah יהוה YHWH JHVH God Elohim Yahweh Jahweh, Life and Death, Naam van God | Tags: Adonai, Call upon Jehovah, Commandments of God, Creator, Creator deity, David, Day of Judgement, El Shaddai, Elohim, Endtimes, Fear God, Glory of God, Glory to God, God, Gods, Help, Holiness, Holy, Honour God, I Am that I Am, Jehovah, Jehovah-Jireh, King Jehovah of hosts, Mount Zion, Name of God, Names of God, Old Testament, One God, Pray, Prayer, Proclaim, Provider, Refuge, Repose, Sovereign of all, Strength, Tetragrammaton, Trust God, Voice of God, Will of God, Witness, Worship |

Trust, Faith and Prayer

Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #2 Calling upon the Name of God

Soon in the time of the created universe people got to understand they had to call upon God. Men began to call upon the name of the Most High Elohim יהוה Jehovah. More than once things went wrong and more than once men opposed to their Creator, but every time He was willing to come to them and to help them. At the early times they knew the importance of calling the Creator God by His Name, who was Holy.

“And to Shĕth, to him also a son was born. And he called his name Enosh. Then it was begun to call on the Name of יהוה {Jehovah}{1}. {Footnote: 1The first record of “calling on the Name of יהוה {Jehovah}” (Genesis 4:26 The Scriptures 1998+)

English: The Geneva Bible (1560): God’s name Iehouah (in older Latin transcription form), that is Jehovah. Greek/Ελληνικά: Η μεταγραφή Ιεχουά (Ιεχωβά) στο εδάφιο Ψαλμός 83:18, από την Βίβλο της Γενεύης (Geneva Bible) του 1560. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“So Aḇram left, as יהוה had commanded him, and Lot went with him. And Aḇram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Ḥaran.” (Genesis 12:4 The Scriptures 1998+)

“ 7 And יהוה {Jehovah} appeared to Aḇram and said, “To your seed I give this land.” And he built there an altar to יהוה{Jehovah}, who had appeared to him. 8 And from there he moved to the mountain east of Bĕyth Ěl, and he pitched his tent, with Bĕyth Ěl on the west and Ai on the east. And he built there an altar to יהוה{Jehovah}, and called on the Name of יהוה{Jehovah}.” (Genesis 12: 7-8: The Scriptures 1998+)

Many times people were wrestling with many problems, often caused by themselves because they did not keep to the Commandments of God or did not listen to His Voice. Multitudes of commands and myriads of promises were given to God His people. Many blessings came over them, but oh so often they forgot quickly what He had done for them.

But every time God was there again to come close to them and several times God appeared to His chosen people to tell them what to do and to tell them about future happenings.

“23 And from there he went up to Be’ĕrsheḇa. 24 And יהוה {Jehovah}appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the Elohim of your father Aḇraham. Do not fear, for I am with you, and shall bless you and increase your seed for My servant Aḇraham’s sake.”
25 And he built an altar there, and called on the Name of יהוה {Jehovah}, and he pitched his tent there, and the servants of Yitsḥaq dug a well there. “ (Genesis 26: 23-25: The Scriptures 1998+)

The Creator told His chosen people how He was to be called and that His Name should be known all over the world.

And He said, “I am the Elohim of your father, the Elohim of Aḇraham, the Elohim of Yitsḥaq, and the Elohim of Ya’aqoḇ.” And Mosheh hid his face, for he was afraid to look at Elohim” (Exodus 3:6 The Scriptures 1998+)

“And now, see, the cry of the children of Yisra’ĕl has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Mitsrites oppress them.” (Exodus 3:9 The Scriptures 1998+)

“14 And Elohim said to Mosheh, “I am that which I am.”{1 } And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Yisra’ĕl, ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ” {Footnote: 1The Heḇrew text reads: ’eyeh ’asher ’eyeh, the word ’eyeh being derived from hayah which means to be, to exist, but the Aramaic text here in v. 14 reads: ayah ashar ayah. This is not His Name, but it is an explanation that leads up to the revelation of His Name in v. 15, namely: יהוה (Jehovah). } 15 And Elohim said further to Mosheh, “Thus you are to say to the children of Yisra’ĕl, ‘יהוה {Jehovah } Elohim of your fathers, the Elohim of Aḇraham, the Elohim of Yitsḥaq, and the Elohim of Ya’aqoḇ, has sent me to you. This is My Name forever, and this is My remembrance to all generations.’ ” (Exodus 3:14-15 The Scriptures 1998+)

“Jehovah” at Exodus 6:3 (1611 King James Version) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“2 And Elohim spoke to Mosheh and said to him, “I am יהוה {Jehovah}.” 3 “And I appeared to Aḇraham {Abraham}, to Yitsḥaq {Isaac}, and to Ya’aqoḇ {Jakob}, as Ěl Shaddai {The One Most High; The Almighty}. And by My Name, יהוה {Jehovah }, was I not known to them? 4 “And I also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Kena’an, the land of their sojournings, in which they have sojourned. 5 “And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Yisra’ĕl whom the Mitsrites are enslaving, and I have remembered My covenant. 6 “Say, therefore, to the children of Yisra’ĕl, ‘I am יהוה {Jehovah}, and I shall bring you out from under the burdens of the Mitsrites, and shall deliver you from their enslaving, and shall redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments, 7 and shall take you as My people, and I shall be your Elohim. And you shall know that I am יהוה {Jehovah} your Elohim who is bringing you out from under the burdens of the Mitsrites. 8 ‘And I shall bring you into the land which I swore to give to Aḇraham, to Yitsḥaq, and to Ya’aqoḇ {Jakob}, to give it to you as an inheritance. I am יהוה {Jehovah}.’ ” (Exodus 6:2-8 The Scriptures 1998+) (Exodus 6:2-7 The Scriptures 1998+)

“Go, and you shall gather the elders of Yisra’ĕl together, and say to them, ‘יהוה {Jehovah} Elohim of your fathers, the Elohim of Aḇraham, of Yitsḥaq, and of Ya’aqoḇ, appeared to me, saying, “I have indeed visited you and seen what is done to you in Mitsrayim; (Exodus 3:16 The Scriptures 1998+)

“And in that day you shall say, “Praise יהוה {Jehovah}, call upon His Name; make known His deeds among the peoples, make mention that His Name is exalted.” (Isaiah 12:4 The Scriptures 1998+)

“13 For “everyone who calls on the Name of יהוה {Jehovah} shall be saved.” 14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without one proclaiming? 15 And how shall they proclaim if they are not sent? As it has been written, “How pleasant are the feet of those who bring the Good News of peace, who bring the Good News of the good!” 16 However, not all obeyed the Good News. For Yeshayahu {Isaiah} says, {Jehovah } “יהוה, who has believed our report?” 17 So then belief comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Elohim.” (Romans 10:13-17 The Scriptures 1998+)

Whatever God has made prominent in his Word, He intended to be conspicuous in our lives. He wanted us to get to know Him properly and to choose out of our own free will, to go for Him and to call upon His Name.

God insisted that people followed His Words and that they would call upon Him and not on other gods. More than ones He showed others how useless it was to call upon the gods of the earth. In the many stories of the Old Testament we can see how even great people, being ‘gods’ in their time did not manage to compete against the God of gods in heaven.

““And you shall call on the name of your mighty one, and I, I call on the Name of יהוה {Jehovah}. And the Elohim who answers by fire, He is Elohim.” So all the people answered and said, “The word is good.” (1 Kings 18:24 The Scriptures 1998+)

Moabite Stone or Mesha Stele: YHWH, the god of Israelites as mentioned in the Moabite inscription in line 18 (context: and I took from there t[he ves]sels (or [altar he]arths) of YHWH and I dragged them before the face of Kemosh). Transliteration (modern Hebrew characters): יהוה

Ordinary people but also higher placed people, priest s and kings had to remember Jehovah, who is great and terrible, (Nehemiah 4:14). The great King David knew that Jehovah God was the El Shaddai, Almighty One God to whom he always was ready to offer the thanksgiving sacrifice and pray in the name of the Adonai Elohim Jehovah. And for those who called on His Name, God was willing to pour out His Spirit. The ones who loved Him dear He promised that their young men will see visions and that He even will pour out His Spirit on the servants, men and women both. He’ll set wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth below. Before the Judgement Day of God, the Day tremendous and awesome. Whoever calls, ‘Help, Jehovah!’ gets help. On Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be a great rescue — just as the Elohim God said.

“16 O יהוה {Jehovha}, I am truly Your servant, I am Your servant, the son of Your female servant; You have loosed my bonds. 17 I bring You a slaughtering of thanksgiving, And call upon the Name of יהוה {Jehovah}. 18 I pay my vows to יהוה {Jehovha} In the presence of all His people, 19 In the courts of the House of יהוה {Jehovah}, In your midst, O Yerushalayim. Praise Yah! “(Psalms 116:16-19 The Scriptures 1998+).

Excerpt of the book of Exodus from the The Great Bible (entitled The Byble in Englyshe), publ. 1540. The English form Iehovah (Jehovah as the “J” stands for both I and the later J) is used for the Tetragrammaton at Exodus 6:3. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Jesus also learned the people around him to pray to his Father and to tell that His Name is Holy and should be honoured as the Holy Name.

““This, then, is the way you should pray: ‘Our Father who is in the heavens, let Your Name be set-apart,” (Matthew 6:9 The Scriptures 1998+)

“And He said to them, “When you pray, say: Our Father in the heavens, let Your Name be set-apart, let Your reign come, let Your desire be done on earth as it is in heaven..” (Luke 11:2 The Scriptures 1998+)

“Then Mosheh said to Aharon, “This is what יהוה {Jehovah} spoke, saying, ‘By those who come near Me let Me be set-apart! And before all the people let Me be esteemed!’ ” And Aharon was silent.” (Leviticus 10:3 The Scriptures 1998+)

“26 “And let Your Name be made great forever, saying, ‘יהוה {Jehovah} of hosts is the Elohim over Yisra’ĕl.’ And let the house of Your servant Dawid be established before You. 27 “For You, O יהוה {Jehovah} of hosts, the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, have revealed this to Your servant, saying, ‘I build you a house.’ Therefore Your servant has taken heart to pray this prayer to You. 28 “And now, O Master {Jehovah} יהוה, You are Elohim, and Your words are true, and You have spoken this goodness to Your servant. ” (2 Samuel 7:26 The Scriptures 1998+)

“24 So let it stand fast, and Your Name be great forever, saying, ‘יהוה {Jehovah} of hosts, Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, is Elohim to Yisra’ĕl. And let the house of Your servant Dawid be established before You.’ 25 “For You, O my Elohim, have revealed to Your servant to build a house for him. Therefore Your servant has found courage to pray before You. 26 “And now, {Jehovah} יהוה, You are Elohim, and have promised this goodness to Your servant. 27 “And now, You have been pleased to bless the house of Your servant to be before You forever. For You have blessed it, O יהוה {Jehovah}, and it is blessed forever.”.” (1 Chronicles 17:24-27 The Scriptures 1998+)

“4 Then Yĕshua and Bani, Qadmi’ĕl, Shebanyah, Bunni, Shĕrĕbyah, Bani, Kenani stood on the stairs of the Lĕwites and cried out with a loud voice to יהוה their Elohim. 5 Then the Lĕwites, Yĕshua and Qadmi’ĕl, Bani, Ḥashabneyah, Shĕrĕbyah, Hodiyah, Shebanyah, Pethaḥyah, said, “Rise, bless יהוה {Jehovah}, your Elohim forever and ever! And let them bless Your esteemed Name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise! 6 “You are יהוה {Jehovah}, You alone. You have made the heavens, the heavens of the heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that are on it, the seas and all that are in them, and You give life to them all. And the host of the heavens are bowing themselves to You.
7 “You are יהוה {Jehovah}, the Elohim who chose Abram, and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gave him the name of Abraham, 8 and found his heart trustworthy before You, and made a covenant with him to give the land of the Kena’anites, the Ḥittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Yebusites, and the Girgashites – to give it to his seed. And You have established Your words, for You are righteous,” (Nehemiah 9:4-8 The Scriptures 1998+)

“17 Let His Name be forever, His Name continue before the sun; And let them bless themselves in Him; Let all nations call Him blessed. 18 Blessed be יהוה {Jehovah} Elohim, Elohim {The Most High} of Yisra’ĕl, He alone is doing wonders! 19 And blessed be His esteemed Name forever! And let all the earth Be filled with His esteem. Amĕn and Amĕn. .” (Psalms 72:18 The Scriptures 1998+)

God provided His only son so that a ransom could be paid for His people, so that none of His children would perish. There is no greater sacrifice than giving up your only son for the sake of our salvation. That is truly the greatest provision that our Heavenly Father has given us. He ordered His Covenant kept forever. He’s so personal and holy, that we too should call upon Him and call back and forth one to the other, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Most High God, Jehovah-of-the-Angel-Armies. His bright glory fills the whole earth.

“9 He sent redemption to His people, He has commanded His covenant forever. Set-apart and awesome is His Name. 10 The fear of יהוה {Jehovah} is the beginning of wisdom, All those doing them have a good understanding. His praise is standing forever. ” (Psalms 111:9-10 The Scriptures 1998+)

“And one cried to another and said, “Set-apart, set-apart, set-apart is יהוה {Jehovah} of hosts; all the earth is filled with His esteem!”” (Isaiah 6:3 The Scriptures 1998+)

We also should put His great and holy Name that has been ruined in so many countries, the name that so many blackened wherever they went, on display. Today it is more than high time that the nations will realize who the God of gods is. The whole world should get to know the Only One Almighty God. Who He really is, that He, Jehovah is God. When He shall show His holiness through us, we shall be pleased that they can see it with their own eyes.
Perhaps it will not take long any more that God will show the world how great He is, how holy He is, because He, the Adonai will make Himself known all over the world. Then they’ll realize that He is GOD. Jehovah God will be king over all the earth, one GOD and only one. What a Day that will be! He shall be honoured all over the world. And there are people who know how to worship Him all over the world, who honour Him by bringing their best to Him. They’re saying it everywhere: “God is greater, this GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies.” “Jehovah His Name shall be The One, Great under all nations”.

“And I shall set apart My great Name, which has been profaned among the gentiles, which you have profaned in their midst. And the gentiles shall know that I am יהוה {Jehovah},” declares the Master יהוה {Jehovah}, “when I am set-apart in you before their eyes. (Ezekiel 36:23 The Scriptures 1998+)

“for the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the esteem of יהוה {Jehovah}, as the waters cover the sea {^1}! {Footnote: ¹Isa. 11:9.}” (Habakkuk 2:14 The Scriptures 1998+)

“And יהוה {Jehovah} shall be Sovereign over all the earth {^1}. In that day there shall be one יהוה {Jehovah}, and His Name one. {Footnote: ¹Isa. 24:23, Dan. 2:44, Rev. 11:15.} .” (Zechariah 14:9 The Scriptures 1998+)

“For from the rising of the sun, even to its going down, My Name is great among nations. And in every place incense is presented to My Name, and a clean offering. For My Name is great among nations,” said יהוה {Jehovah} of hosts..” (Malachi 1:11 The Scriptures 1998+)

“28 “And after this it shall be that I pour out My Spirit on all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men dream dreams, your young men see visions. 29 “And also on the male servants and on the female servants I shall pour out My Spirit in those days.
30 “And I shall give signs in the heavens and upon the earth: blood and fire and columns of smoke, 31 the sun is turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of יהוה.
32 “And it shall be that everyone who calls on the Name of יהוה shall be delivered {^1}. For on Mount Tsiyon and in Yerushalayim there shall be an escape {^2} as יהוה has said, and among the survivors whom יהוה {Jehovah} calls. {Footnotes: ¹Acts 2:21, Rom. 10:13. ²Isa. 4:2-3, Obad. v. 17, Rev. 14:1.} ” (Joel 2:28-32 The Scriptures 1998+)

Coming closer to those End-times it is begetting more important that people call upon Jehovah. For the Time is near. But you don’t have to be unprepared for the tests and trials when they come.

In these times we have to look forward to the Jehovah Jireh, God the provider, the One who provides in all things pertaining to life, the Rock which we stand upon. But we do have to show to Him that we are willing to stand on Him. If we are prepared to give ourselves to Him He is willing to accept our being with all its faults and deficiencies. So, we do better ask God and trust that He, as a loving Father, will listen to us. In prayer we can build up our life and prepare ourselves for times coming. By prayer we are preparing our heart and our mind for the battle ahead. Let us rest ourselves upon Him. He is our refuge, let us hide in Him; He is our strength, let us array ourselves with Him; He is our help, let us lean upon Him; He is our very present help, let us repose in Him now.

en: The Holy Bible in Modern Greek by Neofitos Vamvas. At Exodus 6:3 the divine name of God, the sacred Tetragrammaton, is rendered “Ιεχωβά” (Ieová/Jehovah). La Cle publications, 1979. el: Το όνομα Ιεοβά (Ιεχωβά) στην Παλαιά Διαθήκη. Νεοελληνική Μετάφραση (Βάμβα), έκδοση La Cle, 1979. Απόσπασμα από το βιβλίο της Εξόδου. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We must give to God the necessary appropriate glory which He deserves and is worthy off. We must follow His wishes. Under those wishes it has been confessed to make God His name be known. Concerning His Name God wishes that His name be known all over the earth. We can work for it and must help with that. We do have to love Gods name and give it all honour. We should consecrate His name above all names, declaring it to be holy, set apart, sanctified. Above all names we must esteem This One highly. This totally different god than the many gods worshipped at the moment, all over the earth, is the Elohim, Most High over all, the אהיה אשר אהיה “I AM WHO I AM” the very Source of life and of all good that is made up in this world.

We should want to give God this glory, in our speech and foremost in our prayer, especially because this stipulates the tone for the rest of our prayer. It requires of us to shrink back in apprehension for the omnipotent God. It does make us tremble our for this big and most important God, who we all have to give honour and to whom we are conversing with by His grace. He is the only person to whom we should pray and must take our refuge. He is the One to whom we can confide everything and commit everything to His charge. If we know His value and Greatness and Power and realise what He has already done and still can do for us, we will not doubt make work of it to address Him regularly in love. We then will not recoil with Him to step in conversation. Also we will not recoil to converse by His grace. To him we all must bring praise for no other reason then that He exists in independence and holiness, contains Power and Love, which we cannot quite comprehend. It is not that we must pray from apprehension, fearing God, but of respect and with faith that He wants to be as the most perfect Father, who is prepared to listen to His children and to give them what they need.

“And I say to you: ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you. (Luke 11:9 The Scriptures 1998+)

Preceding: Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #1 Kings Faith

Next: Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #3 Voice of God

Find more on the Name of the Most High God:

+++

What’s in a name? (quest4light.net)
Names Of God (mychristiancoffeeshop.wordpress.com)
A Few Names of Jesus (raymondjclements.wordpress.com)
Song of Praise for the Elohim Set-Apart (christadelphians.wordpress.com)
True Peacemakers of Elohim (daileytalks.wordpress.com)

Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 13 so far )

A day without taking the symbols

Posted on November 15, 2012. Filed under: Being Christian, following Jesus Christ, Breaking of the Bread, Life and Death, World | Tags: Belgium, Breaking of the Bread, Communion Service, Destination, ecclesia, England, Flanders, Gathering, Great War, Greed, Hardship, Holland, Hope in God, Human Flesh, John McCrae, meeting, Ransom, Remembrance Poppy, Remembrance Service, Saviour, Shortage, Symbol, War, War Memorial, World War I |

The previous weekends our thought were with the many people who died in the many wars. In World War I it looked for many as if the world would come to an end. And after the horrible battle was finished many thought it would never happen again.

Poppies between the grass and cornflowers in Flanders, Belgium

Chris Adwards, in the first weekend of November talked about the remembrance poppy, which originally in Flanders was a sign of conquest and possibility of preponderance, because the flower was so strong it came back every year again and if nothing was done at the fields seemed to grow with thousands.

During the First World War the Canadian physician and Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae was also astonished by the beauty of that wild flower. This red rose inspired him to write a war poem in the form of a rondeau. “In Flanders fields the poppies blow / Between the crosses, row on row, / That mark our place; and in the sky / The larks, still bravely singing, fly / Scarce heard amid the guns below.”

Soldiers could take up their quarrel with the foe but no matter what happened and how the ground was filled with holes form the bombs, this beuatifu flower brought the only fresh colour next to the blood, into the fields. Many blood was shed and mingled with the red of the flowers which still kept growing as if the world could not harm it.

In Flanders for centuries there has been a battlefield for many countries.

At those battles strangely enough many called to God to help them and where sure that God was on their side. At times, on Christmas night they took time off and came together to sing songs and to remember the birth of Jesus Christ, whom they all called their saviour.

After Jesus had died his followers came together at regular times to remember a more important day than his birth. The day before Jesus was going to die should be the more important day for all Christians. On that night Jesus took bread and wine and asked his disciples to remember what he was doing that night. Later, in the breaking of the bread others could see the sign of Christ.

Jesus had declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” His followers had to remember his actions and do the breaking of bread as a remembrance of the last meal the apostles and Christ had together, but in the first place as the sign of the New Covenant.

Normally on several days in the year we come together to remember the death of Christ and this breaking of bread on the night before he died.

Bread and wine are also symbols of life and of the products of the earth and the products of God the Creator. It is also a symbol of unification. In a family the members come together to eat with each other and to share the wine. Most welcome friends are also invited at the table. People are not able to live without food, and Jesus has become our food. God has provided the food for life and we can accept Jesus peace offering by sharing the bread and wine with each other.

In the ecclesia we come together as brothers and sisters and invite others to come and join us. The gathering is about welcome, meeting our desperate need, recognising Jesus, compassion, acceptance, undeserved love, God’s provision and the right response of our hearts. This time of the year we not only think about Jesus’ death, but about many who lost their life in ridiculous battles, which could have been avoided when people would have lived more according to the Will of God and not according to their lusts.

Greed and want are those things which bring problems and let other people want to have property what does not originally belong to them. It makes people wanting more than that what God has already given them.

Perhaps therefore it is not bad to stand still and think about our wishes and about our greed and wrong intentions. Even when people where saved from slavery and on their way to the promised land they where not pleased whit what God gave them. Some of them also preferred to take more manna than needed. Israel was given manna and quails when they had no other food in the wilderness. They got fed up with it and we must be careful that our remembrance services don’t become ordinary and turn the special privilege we have of remembering Jesus in bread and wine into the mundane.

Therefore last Sunday we contemplated and we remembered the difficult moments Christ had to go through and the horrible nightmare which befell so many youngsters when they had to go the war in the Great War. We thought of the storm Paul and the members on the ship had to face (Reading of the day: Acts chapters 26-27)

English: A remembrance poppy from Canada, worn on the lapel of a men’s suit. In many Commonwealth countries, poppies are worn to commemorate soldiers who have died in war, with usage most common in the week leading up to Remembrance Day (and Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand). The use of the poppy was inspired by the World War I poem In Flanders Fields, written by Canadian physician and Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Accused by the Jews of being a “pestilent fellow … a mover of sedition … and the ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes … [who had] gone about to profane the temple” (Acts 24:5, 6), Paul took his stand, as a follower of Jesus Christ, on the basis of the promises to Israel. The focus of the apostle’s faith was on the promises to the fathers of Israel. On those promises we need to meditate more often.

In all those previous time people did not listen to God and did not have their eyes focused on the love of Christ. Today we still see these people who are blockheads and stick their fingers in their ears so they won’t have to listen. They screw their eyes shut so they won’t have to look, so they won’t have to deal with me face-to-face and let me heal them. (Acts 28:27)

Sunday the 11th of November those who lost their lives fighting in two world wars were remembered at war memorials throughout the world. Not only at war memorials but in hundreds of thousands of homes across the world the eye may have rest for more than a moment on a fading photo of seventy years ago: so too the fresher photos of those lost in many conflicts since. Not only are the soldiers remembered but the many civilians too who lost their lives because of enemy action. Many people in wars were bullied or even killed because of their believes. Our thoughts were with those who gave their live for not giving in to false teachings and for wanting to serve the only One God.

Only those over about seventy-five years-of-age will perhaps recall the joyful release of 1945. Like people imprisoned and delivered from a tremendous storm, people spilled out onto the streets in joyful celebration as the news spread that hostilities had finally ceased. The restrictions, dangers and distresses of six years of war seemed to be over. But it took years to recover. For years in the schools pupils had to share one book with three pupils and ot be happy to have enough chalk to write on the slates. In Belgium, Holland, France and Britain many items that we now take for granted remained rationed for several years. For a decade or more, buildings gutted by bombing remained as silent witnesses.

It took more forty years after the end of the war to pay the U.S. for the loan provided by their government to help economic recovery.

The winter of 1946-47 was the coldest for half a century in England, Holland and Belgium had to face a terrible storm and flood in 1953. Combined with consequent power shortages, post-war life was hard. Normal life did not return for a long time.

At our time of wealth it is not bad to take a moment to stand still at all those hardships.

Because there is still so much trouble in the world, we had a special talk on the Paris meeting on the 17th of October with a collection for the help funds. On the 11th of November we took distance of partaking the breaking of bread at the service, because it was a moment of silence and part of coming to proper understanding of what Jesus had done and why.

As children of God, we have a destination. There are, and have been many storms on the way. We may have suffered loss of property. We, or those near to us, may have been (or are) ill. The record in Acts 27 does not say that Paul was ill, but few people can resist the violent motion of the heaving sea on their stomachs. The people around Paul were afraid of ‘the sea and waves roaring’ but he remained calm. So should we. So must we. The tyrants and the terrors of this world must necessarily come and go but the Word of the Lord remains sure. Peter writes:

And although it wasn’t revealed to them, [it was] to you. For they were just servants of things that those who preached the good news to you have shown you, through the Holy Breath that was sent from heaven, and which even the messengers [of God] want to learn more about. As the result, prepare your minds to understand! Be perfectly sober about your hope of the loving care that will be conveyed to you at the revelation of Jesus the Anointed One. As obedient children, don’t go back to being what you used to be by desiring ignorant things. But, like the Holy One who called you, become holy in all your ways. For it is written, ‘You must be holy, because I am holy!’ So, if you are calling on this Father (who doesn’t discriminate, but judges each one by what he does), it’s time for you to fearfully turn back from your isolation. For, you must recognize that the ransom, which was paid to release you from the worthless way of life that you learned from your fathers, wasn’t paid for with things that corrode, like silver or gold. It was [paid for] with the precious blood of the Anointed One, who is like a spotless and perfect lamb. Although he was known before the arrangement was established, he is being recognized in you at the end of this period in time, whenever you (through him) are being faithful to God (He who raised him from the dead and glorified him), so that your faith and hope will be in God. Now that obedience to the truth has purified your lives; truly care about your brothers and reach out in sincere love for them with your whole hearts. For, you weren’t regenerated as seeds that rot, but by something that doesn’t decay… the promises of the living and enduring God. Because, ‘All flesh is like grass, and its glory is like flowers in a field. Grass dries up and flowers drop, but the words of Jehovah are age-long.’ These are the words that we preached to you as good news.
(1 Peter 1:12-25 2001)

Because our flesh is as grass, and all the esteem of man as the poppyflower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the Word of Elohim, the Most High God remains forever.

As in the Newburry ecclesia where they also celebrated their communion service in a different way from the usual, we only remembered the symbols symbolically. In Newburry their lunch beforehand included bread and wine but they didn’t eat all of it. We also left over for the needy ones and had our thoughts with all the people in distress and need.

But we were very pleased to have been together in a series of an inspired meetings about life and death. The abstinence of something which seems so obvious was not a bad idea to remember all of what God has given us and that we may be blessed to have the Word, announced as Good News to us all.

No Mans Land, Flanders Field, France, 1919 (LOC) (Photo credit: The Library of Congress)

Sheol, Sheool, Sjeool, Hades, Hell, Grave, Tomb, Sepulchre

Posted on October 29, 2012. Filed under: History, Life and Death, Suffering | Tags: Burial, Burial Ground, Burial Vault, Cemetry, Crypt, Death, Decay, Dust, Gadisj, Gehenna, God's Acre, Golghotha, Grafheuvel, grave, graveyard, Hades, Hell, Hellfire, Mausoleum, Ossarium, Sepulchre, Sepulcrum, Sheol, Sheool, Sin, Sjeool, Taphos, Tartarus, Tempelgraf, Tomb, Tumulus, Underworld, Vault, Wages of sin |

Sheol (“Sheool”, “Sjeool”), Hades

Under the tags “graf” = “grave, tomb, sepulchre” you will find links to articles about the place to put away, stow away or store dead bodies, corpses or cadavers. Under those words you shall be able to find more information about those “opbergplaatsen or “opbergruimten” storage areas/rooms or vaults as well on the places were those corpses are brought and been put in a burial pit or brought to interment, entombment or sepulchre. The tomb, vault, crypt, sepulchre, burial chamber, monumental/memorial grave, monumental/memorial tomb, the burial place or resting place.

[Old English græf; related to Old Frisian gref, Old High German grab, Old Slavonic grobǔ; ] (Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition )
O.E. græf “grave, ditch,” from P.Gmc. *graban (cf. O.S. graf, O.Fris. gref, O.H.G. grab “grave, tomb;” O.N. gröf “cave,” Goth. graba “ditch”), from PIE base *ghrebh-/*ghrobh- “to dig, to scratch, to scrape” (cf. O.C.S. grobu “grave, tomb”); related to grafan “to dig”). (Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper )
1150–1200; ME sepulcre < OF < L sepulcrum, equiv. to sepul- (var. stem of sepelīre to bury) + -crum n. suffix of place (Dictionary.com Unabridged )
tomb: 1225–75; ME tumbe < AF; OF tombe < LL tumba < Gk týmbos burial mound; akin to L tumēre to swell. (Dictionary.com Unabridged )
from Old French tombe, from Late Latin tumba burial mound, from Greek tumbos; related to Latin tumēre to swell, Middle Irish tomm hill (Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition )
tomb

c.1275, from Anglo-Fr. tumbe, O.Fr. tombe (12c.), from L.L. tumba (cf. It. tomba , Fr. tombe , Sp. tumba ), from Gk. tymbos “burial mound, grave, tomb,” from PIE base *teu- “to swell” (see thigh). The final -b began to be silent 14c. (cf. lamb, dumb). … A tombstone (1565) originally was a horizontal stone covering a grave (or the lid of a stone coffin); meaning “gravestone, headstone” is attested from 1711.

sepulchre – a chamber that is used as a grave

burial chamber, sepulcher, sepulture

chamber – a natural or artificial enclosed space

crypt – a cellar or vault or underground burial chamber (especially beneath a church)

tomb, grave – a place for the burial of a corpse (especially beneath the ground and marked by a tombstone); “he put flowers on his mother’s grave”

mausoleum – a large burial chamber, usually above ground

monument, repository – a burial vault (usually for some famous person)

burial vault, vault – a burial chamber (usually underground)
(Collins Thesaurus of the English Language)

catacomb, crypt, final resting place, last home, mausoleum, mound, permanent address, place of interment, resting place, sepulchre, shrine, six feet under, tomb, vault

boneyard, God’s acre, Golgotha, boot hill, catacomb, cemetery, charnel, charnel house, churchyard, city of the dead, crypt, eternal home, funerary grounds, garden, grave , graveyard, marble town, memorial park, mortuary, necropolis, ossuary, polyandrium, potter’s field, resting place, sepulcher, tomb, vault

Under the tag “graf” which stand for “sjeool” or “sheool” or “Sheol” you shall be able to find articles on any excavation made in the earth in which a dead body can be buried. Any place that becomes the receptacle of what is dead, lost, or past, the last place of interment; a tomb or sepulchre.
It is about a place for the burial of a corpse, which can be beneath the ground but also above the earth in a special build construction, a cavity in a mensa, a vault or mausoleum and usually marked by a tombstone.

The sepulchre is first mentioned in the Bible as the burialplace or grave purchased by Abraham for Sarah from Ephron the Hittite (Genesis 23:20). This was the “cave of the field of Machpelah,” where also Abraham and Rebekah and Jacob and Leah were burried (79:29-32). That place was considered as the unseen world: Hades and Sheool, were since the first sin entered the wold also death came by it and therefore every element of creation had to face death and decay without any difference between plant, animal or human. (Ecclesiastes 3:19,20) All had to go to that one place, the grave, to become dust again. (Genesis 3:19; Ecclesiastes 12:7) In Acts 7:16 it is said that Jacob was “laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem.” Moses, Elisha, King David were placed in a sepulchre. Kings (1 Kings 2:10) and prophets (1 Samuel 25:1) were generally buried within cities. Graves were generally grottoes or caves, natural or hewn out in rocks (Isaia 22:16; Matthew 27:60). There were family cemeteries (Genesis 47:29; 50:5; 2 Samuel 19:37). Public burial-places like gehenna outside Jerusalem, were assigned to the poor (Jeremia 26:23; 2 Kings 23:6). Graves were usually closed with stones, which were whitewashed, to warn strangers against contact with them (Matthew 23:27), which caused ceremonial pollution (Numeri 19:16). There were no graves in Jerusalem except those of the kings, and according to tradition that of the prophetess Huldah.
Joseph of Arimathea provided his own newly made sepulchre for use of Jesus from Nazareth (Matthew 27:57-60) who also went into the hell of death.

In English there are less synonyms to be found for the word Sheol as in Dutch, and lots of people stick to the word “Hell” but taking it not as a place to bring the dead people to, but as a place of torture. This is an idea coming from imaginative thoughts of human people in previous times. Christians should stick to the Hebrew and Biblical thoughts, which is “the grave”.

Here you can find a list of Dutch translation words which are used for the Hebrew word “sheol” SHEOL (

)

of uncertain etymology (see Sheol, Critical View), from the Assyro-Babylonian loan-word, “Shu’alu, meaning “the place whither the dead are cited or bidden,” or “the place where the dead are ingathered.”, “synonym of “bor” (pit), “abaddon” and “shaḥat” (pit or destruction), and perhaps also of “tehom” (abyss), with the English translation if we could find one:

(“the cords of Sheol”)+ (“and the pains of Sheol”) = implying restraint or capture.

Clearly according texts in the Bible (see some quotes underneath):

Sheol is the place underneath in the earth where dead people are placed. For those people their live has come to an end, and they shall not be able to use anything from this world when they died. When one dies the brain stops working and the body comes to decay. They also shall not be able to think or speak or do anything in their grave or tomb. They will be in a stadium as before they were born, without any wisdom or possibility to consideration, because they will be without any thought. You can compare it with a deep sleep and is therefore also called: the sleep of the death. People can also say “they fell asleep” meaning their live ended, or “they died”.

Sheol was the place were dead bodies were either put into the ground or buried. Hades was the place underneath in the ground where the corpses found their last resort.

As such the Hebrew words Sheool and Hades got translated as: (in Dutch and English)

Graf: grave, tomb, sepulchre + een graf delven, een sheol make: to dig a grave; hij ligt in sheol/sheool/sjeool/hades: he is lying in his grave; he’s six foot under + opstaan uit sheool; uit het graf opstaan: arise from the grave

Sheool, Graf (begraafplaats): burial place, grave, tomb, sepulchre

English: Tomb within the churchyard of St Sepulchre without Newgate (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sheool; laatste rustplaats: grave, resting-place

dodenrijk, onderwereld, hades: underworld, hades, shades, sheol

Iemand/iets/ een geheim in sheool nemen: to take some one/ some thing/ a secret (with one) to the grave

begraafplaats: cemetry, graveyard, burial ground, memorial park; algemene begraafplaats: public cemetry

grafplaats:

grafakker:

Gods Akker, doden akker: (field of God), God’s acre, last resting-place of the dead

laatste rustplaats: last resting-place (of the dead)

Akker des Heren: (field of the Lord)

dodenakker: (field of the dead)

dodentempel: mortuary temple

Golghotha:

catacombe: catacomb

crypte: crypt

sarcofaag: (doodskist) sarcophagus: sarcophagus; (omhulsel): sarcophagus

sarcophaag (stenen opbergplaats), sarcophagus: (stone) sarcophagus

doodskist: sarcophagus

bijzetplaats: (place for interment)

bijzetting: interment, burial

ter aarde bestelling:

grafruimte: commit to the earth, inhume, inter

begraven, ter aarde bestellen, sheool laten toebhoren / tot sheool geven: inhume

grafstede, qeber: (Hebrew qeber)

graftombe: tomb, sepulchre

grafkuil: burial pit

aardkuil: (pit in the earth)

pottenbank

familiegraf: family grave/tomb ; (grafkelder): family vault

erfgraf: (hereditary grave)

kindergraf: children’s grave

grafspelonk:

koepelgraf: beehive tomb

keldergraf:

familiekelder: (family vault)

grafgewelf: (vault tomb)

crypte: crypt

grafgang:

eregraf: (tomb of honour, mausoleum)

praalgraf: mausoleum

mausoleum: mausoleum

tempelgraf: mausoleum

tombe: tomb

eretombe: mausoleum

pantheon: pantheon

columbarium: columbarium

urneplaats: (place for the urn)

urnemuur: (a wall for the urn)

reuzengraf: (a huge/giant grave/tomb) (mega grave/tomb) (monumental grave/tomb)

reuzenbed: dolmen, cromlech

dolmen: dolmen

A megalithic structure in Vancouver – photo: Christoffer

hunnebed: megalith, megalithic tomb, megalithic monument, megalithic grave

grafheuvel, gadisj: (burial hill), tumulus; (Hebrew “gadisj”)

grafterp: grave mound, tumulus, barrow

tumulus: tumulus

langgraf: long barrow

(doden draagbaar/berrie/burrie/lamoen): barrow

piramide: piramid

konus:

grafmonument:

cenotaaf; cenotaphium: cenotaph

gedenkteken: cenotaphgrafzuil:

grafnaald:

grafsteen: gavestone, tombstone, headstone

tombesteen: tombstone

grafgesteente:

grafzerk: gravestone, tombstone, (gave/tomb) slab, ledger

herrinneringsgraf: (Greek “taphos”: tomb)

lijkgesteente:

grafnis: burial niche

grafplaat: memorial plaque/tablet, (groot = when big) memorial slab

graftablet: memorial tablet

grafbord,

gewijde grond: sacred ground

graftuin: (grave garden) (cemetry; graveyard)

begraafplaats: cemtry, graveyard, burial ground/place, memorial park, (algemene/openbare begraafplatats): public cemetry

campo-santo:

knokelplaats, ossarium:

knekelhuis, beenderhuis, osuarium: ossuary

beenderurn, ossuarium: ossuary

beenderengrot, ossuarium: ossuary

beenderhoop:

ligplaats tussen vier planken:

ligplaats voor eeuwig: [(mooring(place) for ever]

laatste ankerplaats, laatste tolplaats, den dieperik, poort tot het eeuwig e (niets/leven), pierenkuil, put voor de gecrepeerden, put/kuil der ruste, bij de mieren zijn, plaats van ontbinding, lijkenstek, lijkenplaats,, knekelmansplaats, doodskistenplaats, kadaver plaats/ruimte,

aan de schoot der aarde toevertrouwen, onder de grond stoppen, in de put steken,een lijk bijzetten, lijken verbranden/verassen,

schimmenrijk: realm of spirits/ghosts, underworld, hades

*

Bible quotes:

“”Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depthsor in the highest heights.”” (Isaiah 7:11 NIV)“You went to Molech with olive oil and increased your perfumes. You sent your ambassadors far away; you descended to the graveitself!” (Isaiah 57:9 NIV)“Therefore no other trees by the waters are ever to tower proudly on high, lifting their tops above the thick foliage. No other trees so well-watered are ever to reach such a height; they are all destined for death, for the earth below, among mortal men, with those who go down to the pit.” (Ezekiel 31:14 NIV)“For great is your love towards me; you have delivered me from the depths of the grave.” (Psalms 86:13 NIV)“For a fire has been kindled by my wrath, one that burns to the realm of death below. It will devour the earth and its harvests and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.” (Deuteronomy 32:22 NIV)“I called on your name, O LORD, from the depths of the pit.” (Lamentations 3:55 NIV)

“then I will bring you down with those who go down to the pit, to the people of long ago. I will make you dwell in the earth below, as in ancient ruins, with those who go down to the pit, and you will not return or take your place in the land of the living.” (Ezekiel 26:20 NIV)

“”Elam is there, with all her hordes around her grave. All of them are slain, fallen by the sword. All who had spread terror in the land of the living went down uncircumcised to the earth below. They bear their shame with those who go down to the pit.” (Ezekiel 32:24 NIV)

“But little do they know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of the grave.” (Proverbs 9:18 NIV)

“You went to Molech with olive oil and increased your perfumes. You sent your ambassadors far away; you descended to the grave itself!” (Isaiah 57:9 NIV)

“But little do they know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of the grave.” (Proverbs 9:18 NIV)

“”If only you would hide me in the grave and conceal me till your anger has passed! If only you would set me a time and then remember me!” (Job 14:13 NIV)

“They went down alive into the grave, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community.” (Numbers 16:33 NIV)

“When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing.” (Psalms 146:4 NIV)

“No-one remembers you when he is dead. Who praises you from his grave?” (Psalms 6:5 NIV)

“When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people enquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?” (Isaiah 8:19 NIV)

“But your dead will live; their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead.” (Isaiah 26:19 NIV)

“For the grave cannot praise you, death cannot sing your praise; those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your faithfulness.” (Isaiah 38:18 NIV)

“10 Let no-one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practises divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, 11 or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you.” (Deuteronomy 18:10-12 NIV)

“13 Saul died because he was unfaithful to the LORD; he did not keep the word of the LORD, and even consulted a medium for guidance, 14 and did not enquire of the LORD. So the LORD put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse.” (1 Chronicles 10:13-14 NIV)

“For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5 NIV)

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.” (Ecclesiastes 9:10 NIV)

“19 Man’s fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless. 20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.” (Ecclesiastes 3:19-20 NIV)

“It is not the dead who praise the LORD, those who go down to silence;” (Psalms 115:17 NIV)

“25 David said about him: “‘I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. 26 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will live in hope, 27 because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.” (Acts 2:25-27 NIV)

“”For when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his fathers and his body decayed.” (Acts 13:36 NIV)

“The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me.” (2 Samuel 22:6 NIV)

“What man can live and not see death, or save himself from the power of the grave? Selah” (Psalms 89:48 NIV)

“18 For the grave cannot praise you, death cannot sing your praise; those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your faithfulness. 19 The living, the living—they praise you, as I am doing today; fathers tell their children about your faithfulness.” (Isaiah 38:18-19 NIV)

“7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.” (Psalms 139:7-8 NIV)

“Death and Destruction lie open before the LORD—how much more the hearts of men!” (Proverbs 15:11 NIV)

“Though they dig down to the depths of the grave, from there my hand will take them. Though they climb up to the heavens, from there I will bring them down.” (Amos 9:2 NIV)

“Like sheep they are destined for the grave, and death will feed on them. The upright will rule over them in the morning; their forms will decay in the grave, far from their princely mansions.” (Psalms 49:14 NIV)

“Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay.” (Acts 2:31 NIV)

“The wicked return to the grave, all the nations that forget God.” (Psalms 9:17 NIV)

“8 The eye that now sees me will see me no longer; you will look for me, but I will be no more. 9 As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so he who goes down to the grave does not return.” (Job 7:8-9 NIV)

“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned—” (Romans 5:12 NIV)

“For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:17 NIV)

“For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:19 NIV)

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23 NIV)

“For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:22 NIV)

Please read also:

SHEOL – JewishEncyclopedia.com
Hebrew word of uncertain etymology (see Sheol, Critical View), synonym of “bor” (pit), “abaddon” and “shaḥat” (pit or destruction), and perhaps also of “tehom” …
Dead and after
Sheol or the grave
Soul
Destination of righteous
Hellfire
Immortality, eternality – onsterfelijkheid, eeuwigheid
Dying or not
Decomposition, decay – vergaan, afsterven, ontbinding
Jesus three days in hell
Fragments from the Book of Job #1: chapters 1-12
Fragments from the Book of Job #2: chapters 12-20
Fragments from the Book of Job #3: chapters 21-26
Fragments from the Book of Job #4: chapters 27-31
Fragments from the Book of Job #5: chapters 32-37
Another way looking at a language #3 Abraham
Fear and protection
Fear of God reason to return to Holy Scriptures
When Jesus was crucified, did he descend into hell for a period of time before rising again?
The belief that Jesus descended into hell when he died is based on a misunderstanding of three Bible passages. Here is one of them. Acts 2:25-27 (New English Translation): 25 For David says about him, ‘I saw the Lord always in front of me, for he is at my right hand so that I will [...]
Will atheists go to hell?
Most atheists are not going to be judged by God at all. No one is judged by God unless they knew and believed his law, and still broke it: Romans 4:15; 5:13;7:7; 1 John 3:4. However, no one goes to ‘hell’, as it is popularly thought of.
Who is the woman in the nether-world and why is she there?
This question is based on Proverbs 5 from the JPS translation: Proverbs 5:3-5 (JPS) For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil; But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on the nether-world; [...]
Where is hell?
In the King James Version, the word hell occurs 54 times, but in almost every case it is a translation of one of three different words, each with its own meaning. So to understand hell, we really need to understand the original Hebrew and Greek words that are translated hell. These are: Sheol, Hades and [...]
Can you be conscious and dead?
No. According to the Bible, death is a state of unconciousness as a person turns to dust. This is stated repeatedly. Here are some examples. For in death there is no remembrance of you [God]; in Sheol who will give you praise? (Psalm 6:5) The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any who [...]
Sheol
Sheol, the term in Hebrew means a grave or pit, was the place where the dead gathered, as thought by the early Hebrews, and was believed located beneath …
What is the fate of children who die?

+++

Jesus went to Hell and so will We (fredswolfe.wordpress.com)
If you have read my book or Ecclesiastes you will know that there is no memory, or thinking or imagination or any brain activity at all, in the grave “wither thou goest!”
+
The Question of Hell? (fredswolfe.wordpress.com)
Everyone with the exception of Jesus Christ, who has lived and died is now in Hell. Yes, all dead Christians, Jews, Muslims, and everyone else are there. The problem is that most people do not understand Hell. In both the Hebrew and the Greek, hell is the grave and is not to be confused with the Lake of Fire. No one is burning in hell at this moment and no one will be conscious of being in the Lake of Fire (at a future date) except the False Prophet, the Beast and the devil. If this were not so, the whole Bible would fall apart. Jesus Christ is the only person who has ever lived and died and is alive anywhere today. Everyone else is dead and in the grave.
The World After Death (socyberty.com)
Many people think that after death, people will go to Heaven or Hell. But humans are not likely to directly go to Heaven or Hell. For that we need to learn a few things about the world after death. Through a Christian magazine “Solagratia”, I found an article that discusses the world after death. Here’s a brief summary of the World After Death which are summarized by an article in the magazine “Solagratia” is.
+
GehennaThe word is derived from the Hebrew “ge Hinnom” which allegedly means “weeping”.Tarturus

This word means “dark caves”. When translated by the verb, the word means “throw into hell”.
Architecture…deconstructing Hell (thewearypilgrim.typepad.com)
Hell has become the trump card in the game of evangelism.
+
And from our earliest imagination, we construct Sheol…the exit door off the grand stage of life’s drama through which mysteriously enough every character will leave.
+
Really, Hell is of our own making. We chose a word in a place and time. Was there a better word that could have been chosen, a word with less baggage that didn’t come with cultural, and mythological influence.
Burial in Ancient Israel: Rock Cut Tombs (frstephensmuts.wordpress.com)
The dead were wrapped in a shroud (and, on occasion, placed in a coffin) and then placed on these benches. Bodies may well have been treated with oil, herbs, resins, and other methods, many of them adapted from Israel’s extensive experience of foreign cultures. As the tombs were used and reused by families over many generations, bones would be removed to make way for new bodies. (We will address what happened to them in the next post.) Thus, we have a practical connection the Biblical phrase. “And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers” (Judges 2:10 and elsewhere). People were, quite literally, gathered to their fathers.
Tombs of the Apostles: Slideshow (history.com)
archaeologists excavating the ancient Greco-Roman city of Hierapolis, located in southwestern Turkey, reported that they found a tomb believed to be that of St. Philip the Apostle.

Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 3 so far )

How shall the film of your life be?

Posted on September 14, 2012. Filed under: Being Christian, following Jesus Christ, Life and Death, Meditation | Tags: Attention for God, Attitude, Think of God, Tired; Busy |

Flash -

Will this be as the film of your life?

Picture

Too young to think of God / Too playful to think of God / Too restless to think of God

Picture

Too happy to think of God / Too much busy to think of God / Too tired to think of God

Picture

Too many concerns to think of God / Too old to think of God / Too late to think of God

Black

Nothing

Dutch version / Nederlandse versie > Hoe is jouw film van je leven?

Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )

Run for the Everlasting Cure

Posted on September 12, 2012. Filed under: Announcement, Ecclesia, Health, Life and Death | Tags: Cancer, cancer prevention and control, Charity Athlete, Conditions and Diseases, Cure, Ixelles, Race, Racing, Walk, Walking |

Since 2005, ecclesias and youth groups all over the world have participated in a yearly day of prayer, followed by a 5 KM fun Run/Walk, particularly focused on praying for our brothers and sisters (and extended family, friends and neighbours) who are struggling with cancer or other difficult diseases.

For the yearly event they choose the last Saturday in November.

Reflecting on our urgent need for the healing power of God in our lives, and the only true and lasting hope – the return of Christ as King in Jerusalem, we do come together with a feeling of unity all over the world. But this day we concentrate on those who are affected by the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the body.

We also want to be dedicated to minimizing the impact of cancer through public education, screening, patient services, financial assistance, research and advocacy, and therefore bring this disease which affects so many in the picture. Such a walk or run can offer forums, talks and campaigns to educate the public on cancer prevention and control.

The run can be done just for fun or your passion for sports can be channelled into a meaningful effort to save lives by becoming our Charity Athlete. Dedicate your participation in sporting events to our fight against cancer and you will give the less fortunate a chance to live.
Some take part in this celebration of surviving a cancer experience. Others take part in memory of a loved one or to give hope to a cancer-free future.

All can come together and share experiences. A cancer diagnosis is difficult to cope with. It is important, however, that you discuss the type, size, and location of the cancer with your doctor when you are diagnosed. You also will want to ask about treatment options, along with their benefits and risks. But next to this you often find yourself prisoned in your own body and would like to exchange some thoughts about this ‘thing’ where you do seem to be not able to do something against it. Talking about it can help. Sharing an activity together shall make it easier to talk about all sorts of things which go into you mind running like mad.

We all want to “walk it out of our body”. The importance of it for many is to feel healthy and to be around people that support them plus letting others see and feel how supportive other people can be for them.

Join our worldwide community in prayer for our friends and family in the faith who are struggling with debilitating and terrible illnesses – particularly cancer.

To add your friends, family and ecclesial members to the prayer list posted online, or for further information, write to bible@christadelphia.org.

You can also join the facebook group Run for the Everlasting Cure to correspond with other run organizers and participants around the world.
Make this your year to participate too!

The more who participate, the better!! This event has many positive sides to it. It unites us world-wide, it makes us more aware of the needs of our community, it brings us together in prayer, it includes our Father in heaven in our thoughts and prayers, it strengthens the bonds of our community locally and world-wide. It is a biblical principle put into practice to ask God’s healing (James 5:14-16) and shows those who suffer in our community that we care about them and want to support them. It allows for us to interact ecclesially in a healthy and positive way, outside enjoying God’s creation and thinking about someone other than ourselves. It fosters relationships with all age-groups within our community.

Be there in one of the participating ecclesiae: November 24, 2012

More info > The 2012 Run for the Everlasting Cure

“Cancer – Early Diagnosis Would Save 50,000 Lives Every Year” – NARA – 514027 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For those who want to be only under women, “Running for fitness and against cancer” shall have her 4^th Women’s Run– on the 23rd of September, at 10:30, around the ponds of Ixelles. the run shall be in aid of the “Friends of Institute Bordet” which assembles many experts in the quest against breast cancer.

By choosing a distance which is manageable by everyone, « La Bruxelloise » or “De Brusselse” stimulates desire, taste, curiosity and pride in all who have not yet dreamt of facing this challenge themselves. Everyone at her own rhythm, the only thing that counts is participation – the distances are 3, 6 or 9 km! More information on
http://www.la-bruxelloise.be/

En regardant la vidéo de 2011 vous ne pourrez que vous remémorer des souvenirs énormes et si vous n y étiez pas rejoignez-nous en 2012.

De resultaten van de uitgave 2011 zijn on-line u kunt ze raadplegen door deze link te volgen!

Buiten de wedstrijden word je verwacht in de Welcome Village, waar gezelligheid troef is:

crowd-waving-hands-2-210x292 Race for Life

Special Report: Outrunning Cancer

The 2012 Run for the Everlasting Cure

Cancer Carcinoma; Malignant tumor

+++

Aflac Childhood Cancer Awareness Banner (Photo credit: cbucky)

Race for the Cure in Bloomington (cinewsnow.com)
Thousands came together in the twin cities, to take a stand against breast cancer.Survivors filled the parking lot with pink at Bloomington’s State Farm Headquarters Saturday morning with matching uniforms to show support for their team, and spreading awareness of breast cancer through a 5-K walk-run.
Make art (or a cure) from my brain cancer, says TED Fellow Salvatore Iaconesi (ted.com)

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month: How to Get Involved (amsterdamprinting.com)
Many lives have been touched by breast cancer. Whether it’s a dear friend, a relative or yourself, many of us are “aware” of the threat it causes 365 days a year. But in October, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we all come together to show our support for those affected, to show that we care, and to unite together to fight it.

In the coming weeks, you’ll begin hearing about the local events, such as walks or runs, which benefit and raise awareness about breast cancer. Participation in any of these events will help cancer research and awareness organizations greatly. Awareness is the most significant factor in finding and treating any kind of cancer.

Komen “Race For The Cure” Brings Struggle Against Breast Cancer To Central Park (manhattan.ny1.com)
The 22nd Annual Susan G. Komen Greater New York City Race For The Cure made its way through Central Park.

Participants walked or ran a 5k course through the park, starting at the American Museum of Natural History and ending at the Bandshell.

The race also included a special shortened course for the disabled, elderly and those undergoing cancer treatment.

Pink-clad pooches battle breast cancer (gazette.com)
With outfits including pink feather boas, pink fairy wings, pink shirts and pink bandanas, the dogs were all dressed for the Pooches in Pink event to support the cancer-fighting charity. A few dogs strutted in pink fur or pink tutus.

“Everybody has been immediately touched by cancer,” said Maura Houston, 55. She attended Pooches in Pink with her husband and their dog, Reno.

“We just have to do something about it,” said Connie Lakin with Veronica’s Daughter.

Approximately 21,000 people took part in Sunday’s race. Every one of them is walking for a reason. Veronica Schalk comes every year. At the age of 99, she has lost five sisters to breast cancer.
+

The Pink Promise Garden holds row after row of flowers for those who have lost the battle against cancer. Breast cancer runs in Karyn Booker’s family. Her mother and aunt died from the disease several years ago. Now, Karyn is five years cancer free.

“It’s a battle but you can get through it if you have three things: God, family and friends,” Booker said.

Strangers in the crowd became fast friends on Sunday. The sisterhood that binds them together is survival and the hope for a cure to their common enemy.

Chemo worsens Cancer (biosil.wordpress.com)
Study Finds Chemotherapy Makes Cancer Far Worse
Lip Cancer Treatment & Symptoms (cancercenter.com)
The most common form of oral cancer is lip cancer. The occurrence of oral cancer is more common in climates that receive a great deal of sun. In many cases, damage caused by the sun can often turn into lip cancer. If you have lip cancer or feel that you are at risk, it is imperative that you visit a doctor.
Race for the Cure Evansville, IN I will be there will You? (solavei1.wordpress.com)
My wife Andrea challenged me to enter the Run for the Cure with her this year. I just started my weight loss journey a week ago and participating in a 5K run was not at the top of my list but I need to start somewhere. And I am one who does not turn away from a challenge.
Sebastian’s Run/Walk in Mt Laurel on Sept. 15 will fight childhood cancer (al.com)
The fight against childhood cancer will continue Saturday, Sept. 15, at Sebastian’s RunWalk For a Cure in the Town of Mt Laurel.Proceeds from the event, which began in 2009, will benefit the Alabama Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children’s of Alabama.
Cancer Birthday (holistifymelexi.wordpress.com)
Five days ago, just before her 55th birthday, my mom Sherry, was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Suddenly my world is changed. Will my mom, my best friend, soon be a weak, nauseous, wig-wearing woman? Will she be around to see my kids be born and married? Then my nurse instincts kicked in and I got to work. I never pictured my life without her being a huge part of it, and I don’t plan on that changing.
Thousands Battle Breast Cancer in Race for the Cure (fox4kc.com)
The fight against breast cancer brings thousands of people from across the metro together every year.

Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 3 so far )

Following a Compassionate Lord

Posted on September 11, 2012. Filed under: Announcement, Life and Death | Tags: Awareness, compassion, Problems |

Compassion has been defined as to be “moved to the very depth of one’s being” (Barclay).

How do we develop compassion in ourselves and how can we reflect the compassion of Jesus to others?

The aim of The Christadelphian Support Network Conference 2012 is to explore the meaning and motivation for compassion and to encourage one another in its application in our lives.

The Christadelphian Support Network always wants to bring together those in need and seeking help, and the skills and experience of brothers and sisters in the love of the Father in Christ Jesus. It also wants to raise awareness and encourage compassionate care in the brotherhood.

Bereavement, loneliness, illness, long term caring, depression, loss, guilt, personal relationships, family and marital breakdown, financial problems, crises of faith, difficulties specific to young people: the list of problems is endless…
But when there are problems you could also wonder if there can be solutions.

We do think that there are several ways to come to solutions, but ‘Compassion’ is something which shall pave the way. We are curious how are British brethren are going to look at that ‘Compassion’. As a community we are blessed with brothers and sisters who have a variety of professional expertise and others who have had personal experience of particular problems. These brothers and sisters are willing to use their knowledge and experience to help others. They all take Jesus as an example and want to follow him and be ready for others.

Jesus . . . saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, (Matt 14:14)

On Saturday 29th September 2012, the day will include an opportunity to share thoughts and reflections and to praise God together.

Welcome from 10.30 for 11.00 and the day will conclude at 6.00 pm.

Full details and booking form can be found on our web site www.chsn.org.uk. > Support Network Conference 29 September, 2012

Derby University, Kedleston Road, Derby

Speakers: Tom Gaston, Cedric Twelves and by video Richard Alleyne

+++

Downward Mobility (shewhobelieved.wordpress.com)
“The compassionate life is the life of downward mobility! In a society in which upward mobility is the norm, downward mobility is not only discouraged but even considered unwise, unhealthy, or downright stupid. Who will freely choose a low-paying job when a high-paying job is being offered? Who will choose poverty when wealth is within reach? Who will choose the hidden place when there is a place in the limelight? Who will choose to be with one person in great need when many people could be helped during the same time? Who will choose to withdraw to a place of solitude and prayer when there are so many urgent demands from all sides?
You May Not Harm (simonmarsh.org)
Weakness is a gift. An education.
+
Christians and many other women and men of goodwill can be tackled to the ground by the very Church or institution they seek to love and serve.The Church is not exempt from the selfish gene, or the self-satisfied one either. Indeed there are certain religious “types” that at times appear more selfish and self-important than most; certain religious types who seem to have forgotten the Divine call and imperative to compassion – and all encompassing embrace, much more concerned with personal tastes and pick ‘n’ mix preferences (the ones they call “biblical” usually being the most distasteful) than with the challenge to a different kind of “choice” flagged up, even unto death, by the hunted and haunted Jesus. Some of the inconsequential tripe that people argue about in and around my parish beggars belief – whilst issues of real consequence like war, greed, racism, selfishness and vanity appear almost entirely to escape their attention.
+
Heaven on Earth is delivered by the hands and hearts of those who minister affirmation, compassion, grace and hope to others – whatsoever the human detail of their religious faith (or lack of it) and wheresoever they may be.
It’s not ‘their’ problem… (jacobjuncker.wordpress.com)
Throughout the Gospel narratives, Jesus spends a lot of time with people that we identify as being on the fringe or edge of society. They were people viewed as being uncivil or inappropriate. They were people for whom society viewed with very little worth.
+
our insecurity causes us to create boundaries that separate us based upon arbitrary rules of status where certain people are valued and others are not. “In the first century, the poor, the infirm, the orphaned, the mentally ill, the alien, and many women lived with very low status.” In two thousand years, we haven’t really changed all that much. Many still look at the poor and say that if they’d only work harder—pick themselves up by their boot straps—get a job—that their lives would be better. Many still look at the sick who cannot afford healthcare and blame them for being weak.
+
The boundaries that define who has or doesn’t have value, boundaries that even Jesus got caught up in, continue to exist.
Never turn away a brother or sister (transientreflections.com)
By helping those in need we help our own selves as well, acts of kindness towards others builds a gentle spirit within. By learning to have compassion for all living things we also learn to be more understanding towards our own shortcomings and negative attributes. Love, kindness and compassion are like muscles, the more you exercise them the stronger they become. The greatest reward one can receive in return for being compassionate, loving and kindhearted is to see those you help smile and to be happy.
Blind and Deaf (citizentom.com)
{Be careful: for the links in the article we got a security warning for blocking the page: Bitdefender heeft deze pagina geblokkeerd Deze pagina is geblokkeerd door Bitdefender Cloudbeveiliging. – So be sure to have your virus and malware security on. We also wonder what is wrong with the pages as loopyloo305 is also a follower of our pages. None of her pages we knew were able to be opened securely today 11 September}
What loopyloo305 observes is that instead of worshipping God, some would rather adore the collective society of man. Yet even the combined efforts of mankind cannot solve the problem of death. Thus, to worship anything other than our Creator, the Holy One, leads to futility.
+
Those that believe in the collective, believe that only through the combined effort of all can we be saved. In order to fulfil their desires, they believe that this gives them the right to force their will, no matter how wrong, upon others, in order that all may be saved. In doing so they deny Jesus as surely as those who would deny His existence.

Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )

Feeling-good, search for hapiness and the church

Posted on September 3, 2012. Filed under: Being Christian, following Jesus Christ, Christendom en Christenheid, Faith, Family, Life and Death, Manners and Association, Religion | Tags: Baptism, Belgium, Catholic, Catholic Church, Catholicism, Choice, Christian, Confidence, Flanders, Interfaithmarriage, Kirchensteuer, Love, Making choices, Pope, Relativism, Roman Catholics, Security |

In Flanders many Roman Catholics did not feel good with the happenings in their Catholic church and asked to be written out of the community. though there is something strange with the ciphers the Church and the state are giving, which are not in accordance with certain organisations who also send request to the church to have the christening of them made unfinished.

In 2011, 1.827 Flemish requested to put a line to their registration.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Clearly they are not feeling happy. But do they have an idea what they really would like to have concerning their faith and concerning influences on their way of living?

Many people look for meaning in their lives and struggle to find it, whereas religion offers an answer to the purpose of life and a hope that things will get better. But the last few years in Belgium many people became very disappointed with their faith and with the church to which they belonged, mostly because they were baptised in it. As a so called Catholic country it was common use to have the children baptised at birth. Not many Flemish people are interested in God and the baptism is often just a formality, making part of the tradition, having the feasts marriage, baptism, first communion, second communion and confirmation.

In 2010, there where still 60% of the newborns in Belgium baptized. This number was 40 years ago still above 90%. The rate is strongly dependent on the region in which one lives. The baptism figure is significantly lower in central cities (41.8%) and significantly higher in rural municipalities or urbanized rural municipalities (81.6%). In central cities this figure is also influenced by the relatively high birth rate of the non-indigenous population. But in 2010, only 7% of the Belgian population still went to Mass every week, even though there are figures that speak of only 3%.

Not many go to church and and not many to feel affection for the Pope, which normally as Catholics they should follow. The problem often is that many do not see the difference between Christians and Catholics and between The Church, a church and a church community. To be a Christian is to “consider the others, show respect for other beliefs, religions, etc., to help people in need, …” Catholicism is often equal to violate certain religious rules (which nobody really succeeds).

Though not many follow that so-called infallible Pope, they still remain Catholic and think there is still very little for to make their Catholic infant baptism undone. Many are also afraid that they would loud chances to be happy when they brake with tradition or by not keeping to those known ‘safety bringers’ as a cross on the wall, a Christoffle in the car, etc.

While it is important to focus on the “good” in our lives, they have ideas of the goodness they can receive from burning candles or doing pilgrimage. Family, relationships, career, sexuality and spiritual psychology are matters where they are afraid of to bring something in out of tradition, because it could become deregulated by it.

Often the people are not so interested in the faith and do think it does not matter. But when there is an interfaith marriage often problems do arise because a lot of things where not thought off before. They are not sensitive to and considerate of their spouse’s feelings and belief. Because they are unable to accommodate to differences between themselves, the marriage will suffer. And this certainly includes differences in religious or spiritual beliefs.

Of course, how critical these differences will be depends upon the religious conviction each of the spouses holds. If the major decisions you make in your marriage have little to do with your religious beliefs, than your marriage won’t be very much affected.

If one or both of them has strong beliefs, however, than these beliefs play a large role in the decisions the couple and their family make in their life, in their values and practices, and how they live their life. Often they did not seriously looked into the matter how they made to live their life befor, their values, their morals.

More than once they are both “lukewarm” in their religious practices, but once married and children coming on the way they become under pressure of the family, to adjust to certain practices of tradition. In such case it could bring a solution if one of them want to consider converting to the religion of the other. Discussing it logically, rationally, and see if one of the two can convince the other of the benefits of conversion, could bring a solution. If this option makes sense, than the child-rearing concern is taken care of.

If both are attached to their particular faiths, they will need to negotiate. Beginning with an attitude of openness, acceptance and love is than very important. Talking and making no swift decisions are important than. Each of them should take turns making suggestions on how they would like to raise their children, how they would like to expose them to their respective religions. But both also consider to check their own religion and to make a balance of their faith-life. It could be interesting considering to note a turning-point in life where both choose to take another route. Both finding a new religion which should be closer to the beliefs and practices of both.

At such a point in your life it is important to look at you faith. Consider how you were introduced to your religion by your family. Was it effective? Did you embrace the choice or was it forced upon you? Did you rebel? How did you eventually decide upon your own spiritual beliefs and how strongly did you integrate them into your life?

Sometimes we need to understand what isn’t working, so that we might transcend it and move forward in our lives. We should try to put the previous traditions aside and search for what we really want and search for what is really important, either to follow people, traditions and organisations, or better to follow God, the creator of heaven and earth.

Remember, despite what you want for your children, they will eventually need to make their own choices in the world, and find their own path. This is especially true about the role of religion and spirituality in their lives. Determine ahead of time how you would like your children to be exposed to your respective religions (or even other religions as well). Eventually, they will choose what path is best for them. Give them that space!

As parents, we can point our children in the direction we would like them to go, we can expose them to many different options. Ultimately, it is how we live our lives, how we treat our family members, our friends, strangers, and ourselves, which will guide our children!Our lives are their models, not our words.

We should learn to “make things happen” and to make choice which can alternate our lives. Knowing how important it is to look at the world and the things which happen and to transpose them to our life. Never stopping questioning. Being interested and curious about yourself and about others. Don’t assume that’s “just the way it is”. Look for the choices behind your results. And to be able to find luck, you have to be able to relativate and to be interested and curious about yourself and about others. Don’t assume that’s “just the way it is”. Look for the choices behind your results. Never stopping to learn. The brain is a muscle just like any other, and it will stagnate if you let it. Make it your rule to learn something new every day. Then use what you learn to make your life better. Nurture what you want to grow. Many many people are (figuratively) wondering where the roses are in their life, yet they spend all their time planting and nourishing weeds. You reap what you sow. That’s just the way it is. there we do have to make the choice which shall bring us more goodness in life.

Very important is not to lie to yourself. Telling lies to yourself is the most harmful form of disrespect. Write out ways in which you are untruthful to yourself, and how to correct it. Never give up on life. Be interested and curious about yourself and about others. Don’t assume that’s “just the way it is”. Look for the choices behind your results.

Don’t waste your time complaining about what you can’t control (weather, other people, economy). Concentrate on what you can control, like who you hug, what you read, how much you laugh, where you go, what you do, what you think about.

And to be able to be in control you have to start with controlling yourself, and knowing which way you want to go, what you want to believe and where you want to go for.

Do you want to live your life just for the now and then are do you want to live your life because you are expecting a reward?

We think you are on the wrong track if your goal is only recognition and a reward at the end of the track.

You only live once, and it is now you have to make it. But you should be aware there could be more. There is an important promise of which you should take account and which could change your life and your future.

It is something which can enable you to “Stand like a Rock” and be sure of your life.

Instead of thinking what other people think start getting to know that it is more important to think what the Creator would think.

A feel-good factor isn’t enough for the long haul through life. You better go and look into yourself and look for the relation you want to have with everything around you and with the maker of that all.

It is first in this world we do have to find the beauty, the love and the genuine kindness. It is here that we do have to work relations. and to make our relationships work we first of all do have to build up the right relationship with the most important person in the universe. And that is the Maker of that universe Himself, who we have to get to know and to love. Without proper love to Him it shall not be so easy to have the proper love to others.

Recognising that Someone is in control is a great help to being content with your situation, whatever it is.

Many people look for meaning in their lives and struggle to find it, whereas religion offers an answer to the purpose of life and a hope that things will get better. Do not wait until tomorrow. Tackle it today. From now on make work of making choice and taking the right decisions.

This is the Burton Christadelphians new logo for their website, specially designed to show the importance we attach to reading the Bible for ourselves, individually and collectively.

Dare to question your ‘current faith’, the denomination to which you belong. Look at your church and compare it with what they do and teach with the Book they are so called following. Have a look at the doctrines at the bottom of this page of the Burton Christadelphians. There you shall the words on which Christ himself based his beliefs and of what he himself told others to belief. You should question what you want to follow if you want to be called a Christian.

On the mentioned page you shall be able to find Bible quotes. Do not just take them for guaranteed, but dare to look them up in your Bible and compare the printed words with the concordance of your Bible. As our our aim is to follow as closely as possible the teaching and example of Jesus, as recorded in the Bible, we do listen to these words written down in the Book of Books, the Bible. Can you see the importance of having Scripture to back up our beliefs?

Please do read more about it:

also of interest to read:

available until December 2012 on our Multiply sites (and afterwards to look for on our WordPress sites:

+++

The Struggle With Religion (ptl2010.com)
There is a struggle with religion in today’s church, although this struggle has been going on ever since there have been different denominations in the church. What exactly is religion anyway? What would you say religion means?
+
There are many religions out there that claim the label “Christianity”, but are not true to the definition of that label. Some don’t even understand the basic premise of true Christianity, namely the death and resurrection of Christ and that this one act purchased our freedom and eternal life.
+
Following Christ means exactly that, follow Christ…not a man. If my Pastor leaves, I am not going with him because Jesus is right where I am already. Follow Christ, not a denomination. We all have a preference in a church and their particular style of worship and so on, and that is fine. However, are you worshiping Jesus or are you worshiping or following the denomination’s particular way of worship and or ceremony?
Suffer the little children to come unto me (guardian.co.uk)
When might it be in the best interests of a Jewish 10-year-old to be baptised as a Christian? That was the question Judge Platt had to decide at Romford county court in Essex earlier this year. His judgment, released for publication at the end of last week, makes fascinating reading.It involves a couple who were divorced in 2010 after 14 years of marriage. They had two children: a girl who is now nearly 11 and a boy who is nearly six. Both parents are Jewish, as are all four grandparents.
+
What made things more complicated was that the father had decided to become a Christian. After the marriage had come to an end but while the couple were still living under the same roof, the father experienced what he described as a meeting with God. “He started attending church each Sunday which naturally excited the interest of his children,” the judge said. “They asked if they could come with him and, with the agreement of the mother, they have been attending church regularly ever since.”
+

But what was the judge to do now? By law, his “paramount consideration” must be the “child’s welfare”. The court has no power to order the girl to baptised. What the judge had to do was to decide whether he should stop the father from taking steps leading towards the child’s baptism, as the mother had asked.

In the end, the judge was satisfied that the child’s “welfare interests are best served by allowing her to be enrolled in a baptism class and to present herself for baptism into the Christian church as soon as she is ready”. However, the judge ruled that her confirmation into the church should not take place before she is 16, unless the mother agrees.
200 Years Behind the Times (from the BBC website) (sandystrachan.wordpress.com)
Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini has described the Roman Catholic Church as being “200 years behind” the times.
+
Catholics lacked confidence in the Church, he said in the interview. “Our culture has grown old, our churches are big and empty and the church bureaucracy rises up, our religious rites and the vestments we wear are pompous.”Unless the Church adopted a more generous attitude towards divorced persons, it will lose the allegiance of future generations, the cardinal added. The question, he said, is not whether divorced couples can receive holy communion, but how the Church can help complex family situations.

And the advice he leaves behind to conquer the tiredness of the Church was a “radical transformation, beginning with the Pope and his bishops”.

“The child sex scandals oblige us to undertake a journey of transformation,” Cardinal Martini says, referring to the child sex abuse that has rocked the Catholic Church in the past few years.

He was not afraid, our correspondent adds, to speak his mind on matters that the Vatican sometimes considered taboo, including the use of condoms to fight Aids and the role of women in the Church.
How Protestantism Lost Its Mind (theamericanconservative.com)
The Todd Akin flap, in which the suburban St. Louis congressman revealed a less than adequate grasp of human reproduction, could hardly have been timed better to dramatize the implications an Aug. 7 referendum giving Missouri schoolchildren the right to opt out of science classes on religious grounds. Parents should be free to keep their children out of the public school system entirely, but an a la carte approach to classwork entirely defeats the point of general education.
+
Teaching is an exercise of what the Romans, and the Roman Catholic Church, have called magisterium, a kind of authority. It always carries moral overtones, and it’s an explicitly hierarchical concept. Why the more extreme Protestant instinctively rebels against this sort of authority should be obvious enough. And when, as in the case of science education, reflexive anti-clericalism combines with doctrinal objections, the reaction is powerful.
+
Protestantism is a matter of degrees, however: between an infallible papacy and the self-ordained soapbox preacher there are many levels. But the intermediary layers that once counteracted America’s more radically Protestant tendencies have lately collapsed. Episcopalians and other old-line, more traditionally “authoritarian” churches no longer provide a common culture for the country. What has changed is not just a question of numbers but also of status. Liturgical Christians once wielded prestige out of proportion to their percentage of the population, even when that percentage was much greater. Protestant radicalization is not only a consequence of evangelicalism’s postwar growth but also an effect of cultural leveling and rebellion against privilege (at least, old sorts of class privilege) throughout the 20th century. A mass-market commercial mentality and left-wing concerns for equality have undercut the status of the old Protestant elites from a secular direction, leaving the purer Protestantism with a greater sense of self-confidence.
+
What’s more, the distinction between popular politics and the religious congregation breaks down under the influence of radical Protestantism.
Is spirituality the antithesis of religion? (joelmlay.com)
It is not uncommon – actually it is fashionable these days – to hear people express anti-religion sentiment, saying, “I am spiritual but not religious”, especially when talking to strangers or new acquaintances. (There are some good examples in Match.com). The impetus is the desire to distance oneself from formalities.
Why Can’t This Atheist Accept Her Husband’s Loss of Faith? (patheos.com)
He had “been a Christian” because his family was, too, but when he actually thought about it, he realized it was all just ridiculous.
+
Then there’s the birth of their son and the inevitable question of whether they should take him to church (correct answer: No) just so he has a “spiritual base,” even though both parents reject it.
Switzerland: Kirchensteuer Probably Deadly Wounded. (mundabor.wordpress.com)
It is a mystery to me how a person might think he is not a Catholic anymore because he refuses to pay a mafia-like monetary contribution (truly redolent of the Sicilian pizzo) to the local Church. Still, I do not come from the German-speaking world, where people tend, erm, to be a bit more rigid.Now a Swiss citizen (a true Catholic, but fed up with the local mafia) decided to stop paying the Kirchensteuer and – obviously - remain a Catholic. Unsurprisingly, the local hierarchy was not persuaded baptism and orthodoxy are enough: if you don’t pay the pizzo to us, they said to her, you aren’t Catholic anymore. Kapiert?
+
the membership to the Catholic Church is now formally separated from the support to the administrative apparatus through the Kirchensteuer. Therefore, every Swiss Catholic can refuse to pay the pizzo (the same way you and I don’t pay it) in the full knowledge of remaining as much a member of the Church as you and I are.
Christian/Catholic Priests Are The Victim Of Those They Molest (truelogic.wordpress.com)
The Catholic Church, unbelievably, continues to receive money from ~~dumb sheep~~ Christian followers. These followers apparently think that when they stand before their God on judgement day that he will not ask them; “Why did you continue to support an establishment that had done such great harm to my children?” Giving money to the Catholic Church is to support child molesters/pedophiles by assisting in the payment of their salary, assisting in defending the priest through money paid to lawyers, money to move these guilty priest from church to church to avoid punishment, paying off victims and others to avoid justice.
When Other Christians Become Catholic (doohan.id.au)
Each year, many adults who have never been baptized become Catholic. In the United States, these adults are outnumbered by baptized Christians of other denominations who seek to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church. In the minds of many Catholics – indeed, in many parish preparation programs – there is little difference between the two groups. Baptized and catechized Christians are often placed in programs with those who have not been baptized.
+
The appropriate rite is that of Reception of Baptised Catholics into the Full Communion of the Catholic Church and not the more commonly utilised Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. Although the former might be considered a ‘sub-rite’ of the latter, if only because they are found in the same ritual book, the two rites refer to two distinctive pastoral situations. The confusion of the two, and thus the use of the RCIA for those baptised Christians who are seeking to become Catholic, creates a confusion about their proper status, and thus a confusion within the person seeking to become Catholic. The other contributing factor is a belief that the same preparation process – of weekly meetings, and other activities – can cover the different ‘categories’ of those who are seeking to become Catholic.
Living ‘in the middle’, in between and keeping the peace. (1catholicsalmon.com)
England is a secular country, boasting secular values and ways of life. Living here has brought Faith issues to the fore and continues to do so on a daily basis. Because of this I ‘ve had to make a conscious decision about how I am to live as a Catholic Christian. There’s no room to manoeuvre half-heartedly through the secular mazes I’m confronted with from day-to-day. I’ve had to make my position as a Christian quite clear, and for me there’s no going back on this. It’s too important.

Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )

Determine the drive

Posted on August 24, 2012. Filed under: Being Christian, following Jesus Christ, Life and Death, Meditation, Prayers | Tags: Become like Christ, Direction, Discipline, Focus, friendship with jesus, Frustration, Input, Life, Loneliness, Motive, Output, pain, Skill, Transition |

“No steam or gas ever drives anything until it is confined.
No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled.
No life ever grows until it is focused, dedicated and disciplined.”
- Harry Emerson

Your input will determine your output,
so guard what you put in and you won’t be put out.
- Peter Sinclair

Even though times of transition are tough,
the riches of refinement are worth the pain of loneliness and frustration.
- Susannah Ince

The steady discipline of intimate friendship with Jesus
results in men becoming like Him.
- H. E. Fosdick

“It is for discipline that you have to endure.
God is treating you as sons;
for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?”
Hebrews 12:7

My God,
I look forward to the right motives.
Let me always choose the correct direction and find the right actions.
Give me the right skills to educate well,
I ask that in Christ Jesus’ name, amen.

Dutch version / Nederlandse versie > Bepaal de aandrijving

Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )

Fear and protection

Posted on August 5, 2012. Filed under: Being Christian, following Jesus Christ, Endtimes, Life and Death, Religion, Satan and Evil, World | Tags: Adam and Eve, Aurora Colorado, Case god, Cautiousness, Choice, Christianity, Commandments, Creator, Death, Evil, Garden of Eden, God, Hades, Hell, Human-Rights, Jerry Newcombe, Lake of Fire, Law of God, Listen to God, Love for God, Love God, Love of God, Massacre, Murder, natural law, Political System, Politics, Purgatory, Reason God, Refuge, Sheol, Sin, Tartarus, Theological Teachings, Trust, Trusting God, United States, Weapon, Word of God |

Massacres allowed to happen

The Aurora, Colorado massacre, brought many debates about believes and about carrying weapons. It is unbelievable that many people do really want to believe it would not be so bad in case more people would have weapons on them. Often with such massacres, we mostly can find in the United States of America, and when they occasional happen in other countries, the shooters found their example in the American shooting. In many other countries such atrocious things can not happen because ordinary people are not able to get arms so easy.

But at such occasions also many people wonder how a God can allow such things to happen. They often are not accustomed to know the history of mankind from the early beginnings in the Garden of Eden, where the first man and woman doubted the right of the position their Creator took. It is because they could not agree with His right to decide what would be best or how people had to handle, though God had given a lot which they could decide themselves. They were already allowed to name things and to take care of everything on earth. But they wanted more. For that reason God gave them more. He allowed them to take care of much more. So from the time Adam and Eve committed their first sin, they had to find out everything for themselves. All their children and their children their children had to find their own way to live. They all had received form God to make their own choices.

Masaccio, Brancacci Chapel, Adam and Eve, detail. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So still today, we all do have the opportunity to make our own choices. But we should be aware we can not blame God for the choices we made ourselves.

Choice to listen

Though, those who are wiling to listen to God, He surely shall want to help them and be with them. God protects his children from harm sometimes, but not at other times. God uses circumstances to refine the characters of his children. In case God would go into all the questions of His followers that would be not always righteous to the others, and at such time other people could say they are only following God because than they get what they want.

People should also understand that not everything is done at once. But when they do love God He shall be willing to set his love also upon them, therefore He the Most High shall be offering refuge and be as a fortress for those who trust Him. Whatever may happen to us in the world, Jehovah Yahuwah God will deliver those who are for God and honour Him. They may trust that there shall come a moment that they shall be taken away, saved from the snare of the fowler, and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover them with his pinions, and under his wings shall they be able to take refuge. His truth is a shield and a buckler, and they will feel it. For that reason we do not have to be afraid for the terror by night or day, nor for the bullets that flies by day or night. Even for the diseases, for the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor for the destruction that wastes at noonday.

The Words of God may be tried and mocked at, but they shall keep stand. God shall proof to the others that He is a bucler, who has been for ever and shall stay for ever. God can not be killed, but had to face that His son was killed and so many of his followers. He shall take into account why those followers had to die.

Trusting God

Humankind has been warned that it can be that a thousand shall fall at the side of many others, but when it happens near to us we should trust God. We better have the fear of God instead of the fear of humans, who only can bring us, in the worst instance, to a physical death. But they too shall have to die at one moment. No matter what happens everybody dies one day, and then their live shall be finished. For those living in the Lord, their shall be hope for the time when the promised Messiah shall return to the earth, to judge the living and the dead. That day shall be an important day. After we die it will be to late to prepare for it, or to change anything to become accepted. Now, when we are living beings on this planet, we have to prepare ourselves and to make sure we shall be ready and acceptable to come clean for the eyes of the judge Jesus.

We do not have to be afraid anybody would be able to escape the punishment he or she deserves. Everybody shall get their share one moment in time. Not perhaps the moment we would love to see it happen, but somewhere in future they shall get their share as well. At the mean time we shall have to be content, with the blessings we already can have today. We better count those blessings, instead of looking to those of others.

No matter what happens, at a certain time we shall behold with our eyes, and see the reward of the wicked. There shall no evil befall Gods people, nor shall any plague come near them or God shall take notice of it and He will give his [heavenly] agents charge over those who keep His ways.

“Because he cleaves to Me in love, Therefore I deliver him; I set him on high, Because he has known My Name. “When he calls on Me, I answer him; I am with him in distress; I deliver him and esteem him. “With long life I satisfy him, And show him My deliverance.”
(Psalms 91:14-16 The Scriptures 1998+)

Following

In our live we should consider the difficulties Jesus, the most beloved son of God, had to encounter; and the problems this son of men his followers had by willing to follow the Nazarene and by preaching like he had told them to do.

Jesus knew exactly his position on earth and knew who he had to follow and obey. But even when he or others knew the commandments, this would not make them good or certainly not better than somebody else. Though many Americans do want to believe the so called Christians that they are the most particular smartest group of people because they follow Christ. Instead of recognising that also other people, who do not believe or even did not hear about God or about Jesus Christ, could do good things. But doing good things does not make you a good person. The son of God never thought of himself to being a good one because for him it was clear that none is good except One, God.

Instinct

Murder in Rio

Jesus also told the people that it could be that they knew the commandments, like “You shall not commit adultery. You shall not murder. You shall not steal. You shall not testify falsely. You shall not defraud. You shall honour y our father and mother.” but that does not mean yet they would go and keep to them better than others who did not hear those commandments as being the Law of God. All people are namely created in the image of God, and therefore do have certain elements of God in them. All have, like animals, an instinct, by which they are able to know what can be good or bad for them.

The big problem with this current world is that many people do not listen to their inner voice. Lots of people do perhaps know what is best for them, but prefer to go other ways and want to take short-cuts. Often they are not so interested in the things or people around them, and want to gain as much as possible for themselves. This has become the main problem of this world, and not so much that the world is going away from Judeo-Christian Values. The Jew and Christians received the same values and Laws like everybody else in the world.

God loved so much His Creation He wanted the best for it, but it were and are still the stubborn human being who often think they can do better without Him. No matter how many think they can clear it without their Creator, God, in His love for humankind, gave His most beloved only begotten son, so that those who accept his position could have more chances to go through the small gate, to enter the Kingdom of God. But they also should know that it shall not be because they are baptised that they shall be saved for ever and be going to heaven or wherever they want to go to.

Jesus, God’s son, loved the whole world and was willing to die for all, but he was also aware that his death would not bring everybody into the Kingdom of his Father. Many would lack the requirements. He also warned the people that it is not because they would accept to follow him (Jeshua/Jesus) that everything would go smooth. No everybody had to face their problems and was still going to encounter difficulties and therefore had to take up their cross.

We may never forget that our baptism or our becoming Christian is not the freeway to be able to do whatever we want or to be higher placed than other people in this world.

We should consider in what we want to place our trust and what we do want to love from this world. We should be conscious how difficult it is for those who trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the hole of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. But today many have gone for the richness of the world, and even think, it is only possible to come to a successful world, when Judeo-Christian values are taken care off, and when people are provided with arms so that they can defend themselves.

Arming and being safe

Jesus was against arms, so that is certainly already something against the teachings of Christ, who preached love and peace, while arms shall cause more division and pain.

Instead of accepting that we can not be saved by weapons, nor by people, the majority of the humans think the solution is in their hands and their political system. Though also Jesus knew we can not be without the political system as long as the Kingdom of God is not yet fully established, but in the mean time we should listen to those who are in power. As long as they do not bring laws against the Law of God, everybody should follow those laws, and give the caesar, governor, president or king that what belongs to that ruler.

Jesus said that with men it shall be impossible to be safe, but not with God. For with God all things are possible. But as long as we are in this worldly system even the saviour Jesus could not escape from agony. Also the son of man was delivered to the chief priests and the scholars. And they condemned him to death, and delivered him to the Gentiles. And they mocked him, and scourged, and spit upon him, and killed him.

“And יהושע {Jeshua} said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except One – Elohim. “You know the commands, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not rob,’ ‘Respect your father and your mother.’ ” And he answering, said to Him, “Teacher, all these I have watched over from my youth.” And יהושע {Jeshua}, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One matter you lack: Go, sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven. And come, follow Me, taking up the stake.” But he, being sad at this word, went away grieved, for he had many possessions. And יהושע {Jeshua}, looking around, said to His taught ones, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter into the reign of Elohim!” And the taught ones were astonished at His words. And יהושע {Jeshua} responding, said to them again, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter into the reign of Elohim! “It is easier for a camel to enter through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the reign of Elohim.” And they were immeasurably astonished, saying among themselves, “Who then is able to be saved?” And looking at them, יהושע {Jeshua} said, “With men it is impossible, but not with Elohim, for with Elohim all is possible.” And Kbegan to say to Him, “See, we have left all and we have followed You.” יהושע {Jeshua} said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for the sake of Me and the Good News, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come, everlasting life. “But many who are first shall be last, and the last first.” And they were on the way, going up to Yerushalayim, and יהושע {Jeshua} was going before them. And they were astonished, and those who followed were afraid. And again He took the twelve aside and began to say to them what was about to befall Him: “See, we are going up to Yerushalayim, and the Son of Adshall be delivered to the chief priests and to the scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death and shall deliver Him to the gentiles, and they shall mock Him, and flog Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him. And the third day He shall rise again.”
(Mark 10:18-34 The Scriptures 1998+)

End according to works

Plan of Mount Purgatory as described by Dante Alighieri in the Divine Comedy

Jesus who was Wounded for our transgressions and died for all sinners was directed by humans to go into hell. The day Jesus died his soul was delivered in the hands of God, though an innocent man, who did not do any sin, he was placed in hell. What did the Holy man do when he was considered by many the Messiah Jesus three days in hell? Did he not succeed to save the people who were supposed to be there to be tortured for their sins? Was his dying on the stake to pay for all sins of humankind a measure for nothing? Because when Jesus as the Lamb of God sprinkled his blood on this world for forgiveness of all sins, it looks like God not accepting this offer when He ask the sinners first to go to purgatory or to send them to hell even before Jesus can judge them at the end times, when the Messiah would return to judge the living and the death. But when hell is the place of eternal damnation, why was Jesus placed in it and how did he escape from it?

“It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness,{1} whose end shall be according to their works!{2} {Footnotes: 1Mt. 7:15-23, 2 Peter 2:1-22. 2Mt. 13:41-42}. Again I say, let no one think me to be a fool. And if otherwise, at least receive me as a fool, for me to also boast a little. What I speak, I speak not according to the Master, but as in foolishness, in this boldness of boasting. Since many boast according to the flesh, I too shall boast. For you, being wise, put up with fools gladly! For you put up with it if anyone enslaves you, if anyone devours you, if anyone takes from you, if anyone exalts himself, if one hits you in the face. To my shame, I say that we were too weak for that! But in whatever anyone is bold – I say it in foolishness – I am bold also. Are they HebSo am I. Are they Yisra’So am I. Are they the seed of AbSo am I. Are they servants of Messiah? – I speak as beside myself – I am more, in labours much more, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths many times. Five times I received from the Yehudforty stripes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have been in the deep, in many travels, in dangers of waters, in dangers of robbers, in dangers from my own race, in dangers from the gentiles, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the desert, in dangers in the sea, in dangers among false brothers; in toil and hardship, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness, besides the matters from outside, what comes upon me daily: the anxiety for all the assemblies. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn inwardly? If I have to boast, I shall boast of matters that show up my weakness. The Elohim and Father of our Master יהושע {Jeshua} Messiah, who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. ” (2 Corinthians 11:15-31 The Scriptures 1998+)

The apostle Paul was not the only who had to suffer, though he followed Christ and lived according to the Law of God. But he was not afraid for those humans who mad his life less easy and less pleasant. He at that time knew why he was being troubled. But he knew also the country had to encounter many problems, not because they got lesser Christian beliefs followed. He also knew that it was not because they ordered God out of their schools, because in many regions school and religion were separated. Theological teachings were considered a matter of the religious teachers like the rabbi. They had to take care of the right teaching for their community in the temples. The religions had their own temples were worship was done and were people learned more about that religion. Though there were many gods praised and many more temples we do have today in the communities, there were also the military and public conversations at many places, the hell did not break loose.

Reaping

In a column in One News Now, the conservative evangelical spokesperson Jerry Newcombe wrote that the shooting in Aurora was evidence that “we’re reaping what we’ve been sowing as a society,” explaining, “Lawsuit after lawsuit, often by misguided ‘civil libertarians,’ have chased away any fear of God in the land.”

Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX) attributed the shooting to atheism and attacks on Christians. But today we are not more attacked than in previous centuries. And for sure the psychological ill person did not attack Christianity. It is wrong to always say everything is the fault because Christianity is under attack and it is not willing to defend itself.

Going through or in Hell

It is also strange that those American evangelicals often would not find it bad that people who did something against them would go to a place of torture. You can find a lot who love that idea of hell and even say that it is because so many do not believe in heel that we do have so many problems. For them it is not so bad that a Christian dies early, if a Christian dies young, it seems tragic they agree, but really it is not tragic because they are going to a wonderful place they say. But they also say that, on the other hand, if a person doesn’t know Jesus Christ… “if they knowingly rejected Jesus Christ, then, basically, they are going to a terrible place.” They would like to have everybody getting the fear for that place, so that the world can be saved.

Chart of Hell ca. 1480–1495, pen and ink on parchment, after Dante’s Divine Comedy. – Sandro Botticelli (1445-1515)

First of all, the word used for that place of which they are so afraid, is “sheol” or “hades” which means the “grave“, the place were everybody gets into when he dies. By certain people the dead are burned, by others they are cremated, in other cultures they are put in holes or in caves or mausoleums. Being put in the grave, is only been done when a person did pass away. After Jesus died, he also was put in the grave and was for three days in sheol or the hell, the place of which he warned to be aware of because there the fire would not be quenched. That fire which could be considered to be a literal fire, because at that time the people who died were brought out of the town to be burned on that hill ‘sheol’. But in Mark 9:48 the same verse says it is “where their worm does not die”. It is most unlikely that this means everlasting fires and immortal worms, and much more likely that it is a figurative expression describing the destruction that occurs in a rubbish tip.

In the Holy Scriptures is clearly written that Death is the penalty for our sins, we when we die we have paid for our sins, and God is not giving us an extra charge, having us place in a purgatory or in a hell for eternal torture. Having a feeling after death would also be against other writings in the Old Testament were is clearly indicated that the living can feel certain things but that those who died can not take anything with them or can not feel anything.

“For the living know that they shall die, but the dead know naught, nor do they have any more reward, for their remembrance is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy have now perished; and they no longer have a share in all that is done under the sun. ” (Ecclesiastes 9:5-6 The Scriptures 1998+)
“Do not put your trust in princes, In a son of man, in whom is no deliverance. His spirit goes out, he returns to his earth; In that day his plans perish. Blessed is he who has the of Yafor his help, Whose expectancy is in יהוה {Jehovah} his Elohim, Maker of the heavens and earth, The sea and all that is in them, Who is guarding truth forever, ” (Psalms 146:3-6 The Scriptures 1998+)

““See, all beings are Mine, the being of the father as well as the being of the son is Mine. The being that is sinning shall die. “But if a man is righteous and shall do right-ruling and righteousness, if he has not eaten on the mountains, nor lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Yisra’nor defiled his neighbour’s wife, nor comes near a woman during her uncleanness, if he does not oppress anyone, does return to the debtor his pledge, does not commit robbery, does give his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment, if he does not lend on interest or take increase, turns back his hand from unrighteousness, executes right-ruling in truth between man and man, if he walks in My laws, and he has guarded My right-rulings in truth – he is righteous, he shall certainly live!” declares the Master יהוה {Jehovah}. ” (Ezekiel 18:4-9 The Scriptures 1998+)

Which commandments following or ending up in hell

In the modern world it is already for ages that people, like the Americans lend money and ask or pay interest, often oppress others, come close and go in bed with women in their period. Are all those, because they do not follow those saying of God, are going to end up in hell and being tortured for ever?

For sure they all will die, like we shall die and be cremated or put in a grave to be in sheol, which is translated by many Bible-versions as ‘hell’, but is the same place where Abraham, Jacob and other holy many were placed.

“And Yatore his garments, and put sackcloth on his waist, and mourned for his son many days. And all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted, and he said, “Now let me go down into the grave to my son in mourning.” So his father wept for him. ” (Genesis 37:34-35 The Scriptures 1998+)
““And it came to be that the beggar died, and was carried by the messengers to the bosom of AbAnd the rich man also died and was buried. “And while suffering tortures in the grave, having lifted up his eyes, he saw Abfar away, and Elin his bosom. “And crying out he said, ‘Father Abhave compassion on me, and send Elto dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering in this flame.’ ” (Luke 16:22-24 The Scriptures 1998+) (Please do compare this translation with your version. In many versions sheol and hades are translated as hell, as the word for the ‘underwold’ “Tartarus”. Often, not to clash with certain teachings, different words are used, or they place the original Hebrew and Greek words untranslated to give the impression it is a proper name of a place and not a substantive.)

We can find the word γεννα (gehenna) 11 times in the Gospels, and the word αδης (hades) 10 times. By comparison, the word ουρανος (heaven) appears 141 times in the Gospels as “heaven” (the word actually shows up 153 times; 7 times translated “air,” 3 times translated “sky,” 1 time “side,” and 1 time “other”, NRSV). We should be aware that in the days of Jesus they did have an other concept of the ‘burning place’ then the Christian world has taken over form the Dante understandings of the concept of “hell.”

In case there could be a real fire also this could be the fire bringing “the second death”, spoken of in the Bible, where the wicked will be destroyed after facing judgement. That is then consistent teaching of scripture.

Sinners or opponents, fire and the lake

Lake of fire of Kilauea at night (1910) – Popular Science Monthly Volume 77

Sinners are opponents of God. They shall receive their punishment. The lake of fire, spoken of in Revelation 20:10 could be a real fire, but we notice that in verse 14 of the same chapter Death and Hades are also to be thrown into that lake of fire. It is clear in this case that the fire symbolizes destruction.

“And they came up over the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the set-apart ones and the beloved city. And fire came down from Elohim out of the heaven and consumed them. And the devil, who led them astray, was thrown into the lake of fire and sulphur where the beast and the false prophet are. And they shall be tortured day and night forever and ever. ” (Revelation 20:9-10 The Scriptures 1998+)
“And I saw a great white throne and Him who was sitting on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before the throne, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged from what was written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and the grave gave up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. And the death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death.{1} {Footnote: 1See 2:11, 20:6, 21:8}. And if anyone was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. ” (Revelation 20:11-15 The Scriptures 1998+)

Although fire is often used symbolically in this way, it is possible that God will literally use fire to destroy the wicked. For example, 2 Peter 3 contrasts destruction by water in the Flood with destruction by fire when Jesus returns:

“For they choose to have this hidden from them: that the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by the Word of Elohim,{1}{Footnote: 1Heb. 11:3}. through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. And the present heavens and the earth are treasured up by the same Word, being kept for fire, to a day of judgment and destruction of wicked men. ” (2 Peter 3:5-7 The Scriptures 1998+)

God’s judgement will be executed on those who rebel against him. It is not “souls” that are described as being tortured, but “dead bodies” as being burnt. In Old Testament times worshippers of foreign gods such as Baal and Moloch sacrificed their children in the Valley Of Hinnom just outside Jerusalem. The “hell” in Mar 9:47 is translated from the Greek word for the Valley of Hinnom. This refers to the fire which was continuously burning there in the first century, and was used to destroy rubbish and the bodies of executed criminals. The name of the Valley of Hinnom came to be despised.

This fire is not literal. Nor are the worms literal; even those people who believe in the doctrine of the immortal soul do not believe in the doctrine of the immortal worm.

Loving and fearing

We should not have hell being a reason to fear God nor to keep His commandments. We should be loving all the people around us, believers and non believers, and wishing the best for them all. Because we know that God is the best teacher and Guide to give us all the tools to make the best of our lives, we should recognise His Gracious Love and for to this end we should labour and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of them that believe.

Lets us remind Samuel, fearing God, not fearing human people:

““יהוה {Jehovah} rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands He repaid me. “For I have guarded the ways of יהוה , And have not acted wrongly against my Elohim. “For all His right-rulings are before me; As for His laws, I do not turn from them. “And I am perfect before Him, And I guard myself from my crookedness. “And יהוה repays me according to my righteousness, According to my cleanness before His eyes. “With the kind You show Yourself kind, With the perfect one You show Yourself perfect, “With the clean You show Yourself clean, And with the crooked You show Yourself twisted. “For You save the humble people, But Your eyes are on the haughty to bring them low. “For You are my lamp, O יהוה , And יהוה makes my darkness light. “For with You I run against a band, With my Elohim I leap over a wall. “The – His way is perfect; The Word of יהוה is proven; He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him. “For who is besides יהוה ? And who is a rock, besides our Elohim? “is my mighty stronghold, And He makes my way perfect, “Making my feet like the feet of deer, And sets me on my high places, “Teaching my hands for battle, So that my arms bend a bow of bronze. “And You give me the shield of Your deliverance, And Your lowliness makes me great. “You enlarge my step under me, So that my feet shall not slip. “I pursue my enemies and destroy them, And I do not turn back till they are destroyed. “And I destroy them and crush them, So that they do not rise, And fall under my feet. “And You gird me with strength for battle, You cause my adversaries to bow under me. “And You make my enemies turn their backs, Those hating me, and I cut them off. “They look but there is no saviour, Unto יהוה , but He shall not answer them. “And I beat them as dust of the earth, I beat them small as dirt in the streets – I spread them out. “And You deliver me from the strivings of my people, You safeguard me as the head of the nations; A people I have not known serve me. ” (2 Samuel 22:21-44 The Scriptures 1998+)
“For You are not an taking delight in wrong, Nor does evil dwell with You. The boasters do not stand before Your eyes; You hate all workers of wickedness. You destroy those speaking falsehood; יהוה {Jehovah} loathes a man of blood and deceit. But I, I enter Your house In the greatness of Your kindness; I bow myself toward Your set-apart Hin Your fear. O יהוה {Jehovah}, lead me in Your righteousness because of those watching me; Make Your way straight before my face. For there is no stability in their mouth; Their inward part is destruction; Their throat is an open grave; They flatter with their tongue. Declare them guilty, O Elohim! Let them fall by their own counsels; Thrust them away for their many transgressions, Because they have rebelled against You. But let all who take refuge in You rejoice; Let them ever shout for joy, because You shelter them; And let those who love Your Name exult in You. For You bless the righteous, O יהוה {Jehovah}; You surround him with favour as with a shield. ” (Psalms 5:4-12 The Scriptures 1998+)

Loosing

UN Peace keepers collecting bodies from Ahmići, Bosnia and Herzegovina in April 1993 – ICTY April 1993

The American Family Association’s Fred Jackson said concerning the Aurora shooting: “Whether it’s the Hollywood movies, whether it’s what we see on the Internet, whether it’s liberal bias in the media, whether it’s our politicians changing public policy, I think all of those somehow have fit together—and I have to say also churches who are leaving the authority of Scripture and losing their fear of God” are what “give us these kinds of incidents.” How does it come that in countries who are less evangelical or less Christian as their country there does not come up one incident were people do have to question the values of their population?

Fear and the matter of protection has been in every community. In the U.S.A. some choose to debate about gun control or the state of healthcare for the mentally ill, other stalwart truthseekers have made it their mission to get to the bottom of James Holmes’ massacre at a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises, willing to come to the core of the wrong goings in their living community. Conspiracy theories are made up for the cause to get their priorities. “Inconsistencies” easily attributed to psychosis or misreported facts, several authors find it a more reasonable explanation that this was all government coercion.

People should question in which way a person can be brainwashed or can made to act in a certain way. They should know that you have the parents, the teachers, the religious teachers or atheist teachers, the playground caretakers, sports educators, and all the friends and acquaintances a person has contact with which shall form him or her. The background a person gets shall be part of his formation.

Many times in history there have been people who wanted to take the law in their own hands. Several times in history we saw individuals or groups taking justice into their own hands.

There have been sound and well balanced people but also not level-headed persons or lunatics who either wanted to change the world, who more often wanted to make their point clear to the community.

Protecting the community

The community shall only be able to protect itself, when it has a proper eye on what is happening in her community and sees how everything is evolving. They also should know that examples in a community and social pressure are important matters which can influence a lot of persons and have their repercussions on the whole group.

We shall not deny that when more people would live according to the Law of God we shall have lesser problems. But we always shall have to be realistic, knowing that not all people shall think the same way or believe in the same things.

In the fear of God we can and should try to get others believe in the Natural Laws and natural ethics and show them or prove to them that following the Law of God can give better results in live for all. To get credibility by others, we in the first place have to show that we are trustworthy. Acting from religious conviction has to proof that the right values are chosen for and that for a Christian the love for every one is shown.

Living according rules of Freedom

When one demands freedom that shall have to include freedom of religious belief and practice as well. By many Christians we can only see that there is a lot of hatred between the denominations and many of them accuse one or the other of things which they do not want to see by them. When they who say to be followers of Christ do want to arm themselves, and do not trust God in protecting them, how can others believe in their God, when his people do not show this love they should have according to the son of that God.

As real Christians we should go for the Love and should be careful in our choices, whom we want to elect and want to allow to present certain civil laws. When we can avoid that certain civil laws, which would not be in accordance with God Laws, be voted, we can contribute ourselves to this worldly system. As long as Jesus did not return we shall have to make do.

By living according the Law of God and educating our beloved in this Law we shall be able to form a generation and group of people who shall be able to protect themselves by living according to these divine rules and by giving good examples.

To be continued:
Condemnation of the World and Illustration of Justification

Background:

+++

All trust, no fear (layeredhearts.wordpress.com)
this is how God loves us. He sees the big waves coming, and sometimes they do crash over us and that’s when He holds us tightly so we don’t drown. But then there are times when He lifts us up so we are above the circumstance. I want to learn to trust in God’s love and protection, so I have no fear, like my son trusts me.
Use Godly Power or Die Forever Broke! (muponisi.wordpress.com)
With godly power, for example, we can choose to become rich, and it would happen. The godly power is for us to do any positive thing, while we are still on earth to make our living better. We must claim all things, which God has granted us through His power.
+
Fear connotes inability to do something about a situation because one is afraid of repercussions from either the known or unknown. Yet, cautiousness denotes the notion that one is aware of shortcomings, and is avoiding possible dangers surrounding a given situation. There is a very thin line between fear and cautiousness. It is very possible to glide from cautiousness into fear without knowing.
Living the Surrendered Life (Day 20) (christlikeministriesnwa.wordpress.com)
I make mistakes on a daily basis. I have times where I doubt God. I have times where I disobey God. I am always making mistakes. I’m always missing God…and I have a lot of me that still gets in God’s way. So…if that disappoints you…I am sorry…but I’m not perfect…and never will claim to be.
August 5 (newstrength.wordpress.com)
Do you feel like you’re a target sometimes, too? It’s mentally and physically exhausting to be a target. Do you sometimes feel like you’re running out of strength? Does it sometimes seem like the enemy is closing in on you and there’s no where to turn?When it’s clear that someone is out to get you—you need strength, and you need a shield.

When you trust in the Lord with all your heart, He will become your strength and shield in every area of your life. But having complete support and protection comes from truly making God Lord of your life.
+
We all need to get better at trusting and praising instead of fussing and fearing. When we trust and praise—God’s power is magnified in our behalf. When you step on the accelerator of a gasoline powered car—it goes faster. When we choose to trust and praise, it’s like ‘stepping on the gas’. When we are all caught up with fussing and fearing—it’s like sitting still, or going in reverse. Fussing and fearing turns off the power of God.
Home Invasion…….divine Protection…….attacked by Fear……peace (unwalled.wordpress.com)
daring stealthy home invasion

failed attempt at burglary
+

attacked by tormenting fear

active focus on God and His Word

relaxing and sleeping again in delightful peace
+
I thank you for your promise that no weapon formed against us shall prosper and I trust you to continue to keep us safe and in perfect peace. I present the person(s) who invaded our home to you.
Massacres in Aleppo, Syria (EndtheLie.com)
“Responsibility to Protect” crumbles as Western-armed terror front slaughters civilians while foreign sponsors attempt to tie hands of Syrian security forces.

+
With the Western press freely admitting that their “freedom fighting” FSA is lining up “suspected government supporters” and machine gunning them en mass, it seems the massacre the West feared would unfold in Aleppohas come to pass – only it wasn’t perpetrated by the Syrian government or its security forces, but rather by NATO and the Gulf State’s very own armed and coddled FSA terrorists.
Hang Ten (hodgepodge4thesoul.wordpress.com)
Sometimes it seems that the waves are crashing all around, and you keep getting pulled under. And just when you raise your head above water, here comes another set knocking you around. It’s at those moments I’ve learnded to be still, relax, grab my board, and just ride it.
Fear (alifegivingmoment.wordpress.com)
I’m afraid of — snakes, spiders, some loud noises — but do I tell her the real things I’m afraid of? Things like …–almost every time I see a funny place on my skin I’m certain I have skin cancer that will surely end in death or …
+

I couldn’t look this little girl in the eyes and say, “It’ll be okay, honey! When you grow up you won’t be afraid of things anymore. ” I didn’t have any pat answer to give her to take all of those fears away but I could tell her that I’m afraid sometimes too and at least let her know she wasn’t alone in that battle.
Le’Andria Johnson: Sooner or Later (rhachellenicol.com)
it was easier for me to run from God and hide my face than to ask for forgiveness and continue to move forward with the plans that God had for my life. Just like Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden, it is easier to run and hide than it is to stand. I ran from the very protection and covering that I had in my life.
+
We have to be careful of the judgement that we put off on people. We do not know the relationship that she has with the Lord. The enemy will use the very aspect of your life that causes you to live in shame and fear to keep you from fulfilling the purpose that God has for your life.
Paradise, the First Sin, the Fiery Sword, and the Path to Rectification (alaskawildgirl.wordpress.com)
Fear of punishment is how the minion mind is controlled.
Anger is punishment itself, and minions live in a world of suffering which arises from their own uncontrolled, violent anger, passions, and poisons of the mind.
+
We must walk past the burning sword to reenter the garden they say. That sword is the Word, holy books, dharma, or even the fire of torment and punishment, i.e. those things which remove attachments. We must allow wisdom or karma to cut away all remnants of wanting so that we can experience true happiness. It’s not about acting upon things or living beings and expecting results, rather acting upon the self, removing judgment and fear of punishment and all other forms of fear in order to know ourselves as not just things of clay that are born and die, but beings of love that go beyond time and space.
To Tell the Truth (stefanicarmichael.wordpress.com)
perpetual lack of honesty tells something seriously askew with your child’s relationship to God. It shows your child is not truly trusting God enough to obey His commands. It could be that he fears the consequences of telling the truth more than he fears God.
+
Was the child afraid of what you would do rather than fearing the Lord? You might need to point him to God’s goodness and faithfulness to encourage him to trust God more deeply. Was the child lying to make himself look better to someone else? Maybe you need to help him understand that God’s perfect design in creating your child that is marred only by sin (and lying is a sin). He needs to see himself through the eyes of God and not his peers.
+
Whatever the situation is, you need to fight your child’s lies with God’s truth. Help them see clearly.
Tree of Life and Tree of Knowledge (theharvestprinciple.wordpress.com)
What really happened in the Garden of Eden? Was it simply a sin, or a horrendous mistake? Adam and Eve lived in the Garden in a spiritual relationship with God. In order to live in the spirit a person’s own will had to choose to deactivate and to live through God’s will or spirit.
Julian Assange is right to fear US prosecution (guardian.co.uk)
As the drama unfolds over Julian Assange’s bid for political asylum in Ecuador, a troubling irony has emerged: the besieged founder of WikiLeaks is seeking refuge in this small Andean nation because he fears persecution from the United States, a nation whose laws famously grant asylum to people in precisely Assange’s situation.
+
The US claims to lead the world in freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and the role these play as the foundations of democratic government. These freedoms do not die when governments feel threatened or are embarrassed by the publication of information. As Justices Stewart and White famously said, “the only effective restraint upon executive policy and power in the areas of national defence and international affairs may lie in an enlightened citizenry – in an informed and critical public opinion which alone can here protect the values of democratic government”.

Indeed, it is precisely those who challenge the powerful, including government, who most require the protection afforded by fundamental free speech rights. If our current administration chooses to abandon them, it may fall to Ecuador to uphold the best of American principles.

Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 13 so far )

Anointing of Christ as Prophetic Rehearsal of the Burial rites

Posted on April 5, 2012. Filed under: Jesus Christ Jeshua the Messiah Jahushua, Life and Death | Tags: Anointed, Anointing, Bethany, Christ, Cleansing, Jews, Judas Iscariot, Last Supper, Lazarus, Mary of Bethany, Messiah, Pascha, Passover, Pesach |

Eight days after his birth Jesus was anointed for the first time at his circumcision, the traditional Jewish celebration to take up the child in the community of the Jewish people, Israel, the People of God.

Jesus Anointing - 1874 Source WCG Author Alexander Bida

Six days before the Pascha /Pesach or Passover when the “crucifixion” was to take place we find Jesus with his disciples in Bethany at the house of the risen Lazarus and his two sisters Mary and Martha (John 11:1,2) This time we do not find a mention of an alabaster jar or tears as by the second anointing, but a drying with the hair and anointing of Jesus‘ feet with costly ointment of nard, of which Judas complains about wastefulness.
Jesus refers to this anointing to his coming death and burial, by which usually also the dead bodies are embalmed. Here we will find the sign of anointing and embalming the Anointed Dead as well as the detention of earthly dissolution or destruction.

“Accordingly יהושע, six days before the Passover, came to Bĕyth Anyah, where Elʽazar was, who had died, whom He raised from the dead. So they made Him a supper there, and Martha served, while Elʽazar was one of those who sat at the table with Him. Then Miryam took a pound of costly perfume of nard, anointed the feet of יהושע, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. Then one of His taught ones, Yehuḏah from Qerioth, son of Shimʽon, who was about to deliver Him up, said, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred pieces of silver and given to the poor?” And he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and he used to take what was put in it. יהושע then said, “Let her alone, she has kept this for the day of My burial. “For the poor you have with you always, but Me you do not have always.” Then a great crowd of the Yehuḏim learned that He was there. And they came, not on account of יהושע only, but also to see Elʽazar, whom He had raised from the dead. And the chief priests resolved to kill Elʽazar as well, because on account of him many of the Yehuḏim went away and believed in יהושע. ” (John 12:1-11 The Scriptures 1998+)

The lady in Bethany did not want to seek to please and honour herself. When Mary, having taken a litra [about 12 ounces or 340 grams] of very valuable, pure spikenard ointment, anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair she acted as she wanted to be a servant and clean her Master, honouring him. At the same time perhaps to become pure in heart like him who did not need a cleansing because he was without fault, but to repel all anxiety, all discontent, all discouragement.

Judas Iscariot son of Simon, the one about to betray his master Jesus asked why this ointment was not sold for three hundred denarii [i.e., 300 days' wages or a whole year's salary or a Roman legionary sixteen months' pay] and given to poor people. But Mary found her friend who raised Lazarus from the dead worth so much if not more. Also we should be aware of the costly price of Jesus, being more than the 10 months or more wages.

For them Jesus was still with them, but they had to know they would not have Jesus always around any more. “For the poor you always have with yourselves, but Me you do not always have.” (John 12:8) This is what Mary perceived with her delicate woman’s intuition and what the apostles failed to understand though repeatedly and plainly told by Jesus. For her actions this deed and woman would be remembered. For we got here a prophetic rehearsal of the burial rites.

“Truly, I say to you, wherever this Good News is proclaimed in all the world, what this woman did shall also be spoken of, to her remembrance.”
(Mark 14:9 & Matthew 26:13 The Scriptures 1998+)

Though it would have bought bread for thousands here the living bread has been prepared. And that bread would be for billions of people. And “two hundred pieces of silver worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for every one of them to receive a little. (John 6:7 The Scriptures 1998+)

The generous tone of Jesus his prediction, remarkably fulfilled, is in sharp contrast to the mean protest of the disciples. The disciples criticized this lavish praise. Then for one of the twelve, called Yehuḏah from Qerioth or Judas Iscariot it was clear that nothing material was to be gained from associating with this man he followed for several months and considered being the Messiah. The evangel his master heralded for the whole world preached sacrifice, humility, peace and absence from wealth. This Jesus had so little appreciation of the value of money. Judas had no love of the poor, (John 12:6.10-11). Jesus is far from opposing efforts to conquer pauperism; he simply remarks a fact: the disciples will have ample opportunity after he has gone to care for the poor.

While Mary sacrificed a large sum of money to show her love to Jesus, Judas sold Him for the hire of a slave and got for his treachery the equivalent of 120 denarii. The thirty pieces of silver are staters. The sum was a natural one for the priests to choose because the Law laid it down as the price for a human person (a slave; Exodus 21:32).

By this anointing of Jesus, once more the world could find in the sign of anointing that he was the promised Christ (= the anointed) or Messiah.

At the Last Supper, before his death, Jesus washes also the feet of his pupils

Later when Jesus at an other meal, his Last Supper, would take the bread to bless it we shall get the end of the Mosaic dispensation. The true Paschal Lamb was Jesus Christ, and he was now ready for the sacrifice. Yet at the very hour he was offered, unbelieving Jews were sacrificing useless blood in the temple. The Lord’s supper which takes the place of the Old Testament ceremonies, is a memorial of Christ as a gift and sacrifice, a parable of the true nature of Christianity — Christ becoming a part of us, and a prophecy of his future coming and glory.

The priests didn’t want to put Jesus to death during the Passover feast, but they will anyway. The Passover as a sacred feast, remembered the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, which was the central act of redemption in the Old Testament. Now Jesus will provide a new centre of redemption. In him we can find the most sublime Lamb and offer for God. This time not an animal and not an innocent child who can not dispute (as Isaac), but an adult man who has a free will and enough understanding to be aware of his actions and with enough insight to what is going to happen.

Dutch version / Nederlandse versie: Zalving van Christus als profetische repetitie van de begrafenisrituelen

Dutch readers can read more on the several anointments Jesus received while he was alive here on earth, in the article: Het begin van Jezus #12 Gezalfd na Johannes de Doper
+ Voor Nederlandstalige lezers wordt er in de reeks over het al of niet voorbestaan van Jezus ook dieper ingegaan op zijn tweede naamgeving, namelijk Christus of de Gezalfde. > Het begin van Jezus #12 Gezalfd na Johannes de Doper

Sequel: Anointing as a sign of Promotion

In Dutch Zalving als teken van verhoging

Please do also find:

+++

The Anointing at Bethany (tvaraj2inspirations.wordpress.com)
In Luke 7 there is an incident of a penitent woman anointing Jesus which is different.
Lent, Holy Week And (Heading For) Easter (bigcircumstance.com)
what happened to the so-called forty days of Lent?
+
If we’re lucky, we’ll only jump to Maundy Thursday with the Last Supper and the washing of feet. Some will at least jump to Good Friday. Many, though, take leave of absence until Easter Day itself, missing out the unpleasant, gory parts of the story.
+
You feel the discrepancy between Jesus and his disciples. They aren’t picking up all he has warned them about, so much so they are still arguing about status and greatness and looking forward to a good Passover meal. All the time, Jesus knows what is coming.
Passion Week (E) Wednesday Events and Judas Iscariot,the suicide of Satan and the Salvation of the World (rodiagnusdei.wordpress.com)
the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death, for they feared the people
Jesus begotten Son of God #16 Prophet to be heard (christadelphians.wordpress.com)
Holy Monday: April 2 (prayerscapes.wordpress.com)
Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him.
+
In this act by the sister of Lazarus – from a family of some means – all sorts of images are stirred for us. But among the many gifts the story has brought to the Church through all the centuries, perhaps one of the most enduring ones is created by the argument of Judas Iscariot.
Extravagant love for Jesus (worryisuseless.wordpress.com)
What Mary had done brought sweetness not only in the physical sense, but the spiritual sense as well. Her lovely deed shows the extravagance of love – a love that we cannot outmatch. The Lord Jesus showed us the extravagance of his love in giving the best he had by pouring out his own blood for our sake and by anointing us with his Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul says thatnothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:39). Do you allow the love of Christ to rule in all your thoughts and intentions, and in all your words and deeds?
The Fragrance of Holy Week (interruptingthesilence.com)
Most of our time and attention in Holy Week are given to the triduum and rightly so. The three days of that period encompass Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. They are, perhaps, the most holy days of the year. If they hold that kind of prominence, then maybe we ought to look at what leads us into those days, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of Holy Week. There are Eucharistic propers for each of those days.
Holy Week – Part 2 – The Jerusalem Establishment (sfnowak.com)
When Jesus was taken to Pilate, seeing that Jesus was a Galilean, Pilate hoped to get out of the middle and sent Him to Herod for judgment. Herod, wanting to see Jesus crucified sent Him right back to Pilate. Apparently Herod could have people stoned or crushed to death but inflicting crucifixion was strictly a Roman right.
Anointed with Purpose (youngdisciplesforchrist.wordpress.com)
From the throne of eternity God searches the hearts of men seeking to choose for Himself those who are willing to serve His purpose in their generation. From the throne of His sanctuary God speaks from the realm of heaven into the world He set apart for us to serve Him and connects with us to compel us and prompt us to live with the purpose of aligning our will with His in order to experience the fulfillment of His promises. By the authority of His name, His word and the anointing of His Holy Spirit, God seeks out those who are willing to be conformed to the image of His Son and be filled with the power and grace of the Spirit of Jesus Christ in order to serve Him in their generation to bring glory to the Most High, the Creator of the heavens and the earth.
+
Everyone who believes Jesus Christ is the Son of God has been chosen by God for His purposes to serve Him in their generation. Like David, we are anointed with the Spirit of Christ so the power and grace and truth of Christ may be manifested in and through us to affect positive change and make the world around us a better place. If you are reading this today, God wants you to embrace His purpose for you, believing you are anointed with purpose to serve Him in this generation, through faith in Christ.
Scripture for Holy Week (dumc2.wordpress.com)
The scriptures for this week are “bookends.” The first reminds us of how we began the season, with Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness. The second scripture tells the events of Jesus’ last two days: Jesus’ “anointing for burial,” predictions of coming events, his last supper with his disciples, the lonely last night when his best friends couldn’t even stay awake with him. Jesus was betrayed, arrested, denied, taken through a mockery of a trial, and crucified.
Holy Week, day 2, Monday…The anointing and cleansing of Jesus (pastormikesays.wordpress.com)
Once resolved to come to Jerusalem, Jesus is fearless. He knows only one thing, and that is to do God’s business. And God’s business and that of the religious authorities in Jerusalem are not the same.
+
As Christians we are called to cleanse our lives in the purity of Christ’s teaching. This means we keep our bodies pure as they are the temples of the Holy Spirit.
+
Holy Monday therefore demands us to examine our lives to see whether they glow with Christ’s purity and honesty, and to examine whether we live by Christ’s commandments or our own watered down version of them.
The Passion Narrative (tvaraj2inspirations.wordpress.com)
There were some who were indignant. “Why has there been this waste of perfumed oil? It could have been sold for more than three hundred days’ wages and the money given to the poor.” They were infuriated with her.
They paid him thirty pieces of silver … (tvaraj2inspirations.wordpress.com)
30 pieces of silver
30 shekels of shame
Was the price paid for Jesus
On the cross He was slain

Betrayed and forsaken
Unloved and unclaimed
In anger they pierced Him
But He died not in vein
Lenten Reflections 2012: Retreating into the wilderness with Jesus, Day 37 (vinodjohn.wordpress.com)
During the Passion Week, one incident that prominently stands out among others is Mary anointing Jesus’ feet at Bethany (please read John 12:1-11).
+
We have today, in many churches, similar people whose purpose of being around Jesus or inside the church is to somehow keep an eye on the money and to steal from it whenever the opportunity arises.

Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 17 so far )

A Great Gift commemorated

Posted on March 28, 2012. Filed under: Breaking of the Bread, Feesten, Jesus Christ Jeshua the Messiah Jahushua, Life and Death | Tags: 14 Nisan, Gift, Lamb of God, nature, New Covenant, Passover, Pesach |

When we look around us we can see many beautiful things. Nature provides us with a lot of marvellous free things. We have the earth, the sand, the water, the trees, the birds, all for nothing.

We can live here on this earth, but the only ones who demand a lot of us are the people around us, the governments, companies and organisations.

Today the majority of the people do only want to work for money. they mostly want something in return for what they have done.

About 2000 years ago there lived a man in Nazareth who did not ask something in return for all the things he did. But the words he spoke, the miracles he did, he never claimed it to be his words or his actions. He wanted the whole world to know that it was his Father who did all those things, because without his Father he could do nothing.

“therefore, Yeshua said this to them: “yes, indeed! I tell you that the son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees the father doing; whatever the father does, the son does too.” (John 5:19 CJB)
“how God anointed Yeshua from Natzeret with the \@Ruach\@ \@haKodesh\@ and with power; how Yeshua went about doing good and healing all the people oppressed by the adversary, because god was with him.” (Acts 10:38 CJB)

In many churches from the pulpit is shouted by the priests and ministers “God loves you – just as you are”.

Many times they go on pointing to the bad things or certain penalties God would bring over the people, though it is not God who brings those bad tidings to the folks. God brings Good or Glad Tidings. God loves us as His children and does understand that we are weak; even so vulnerable that He was aware that we could not stay straight in line to His commandments without help. Therefore God gave men His Word and provided many prophets to guide the people through their life. It was up to their own choice if they wanted to hear the many prophets and wanted to listen to the Words of God. But everybody got the chance.

Though God knew this was not enough and therefore He provided the possibility to become redeemed and saved by a man. To make it easier He provided this Saviour in a special way, so that he would become partly direct from God, but having grown in a human mother, having come into this world, having to grow up as every child and having to make the same choices everybody has to make in their life.

This man from Nazareth knew that God does not love evil people doing evil things. God never has and never will. Jehovah has executed judgement on wrongdoers many times in the past and many people criticize Him for taking such drastic action. Many people made God tired with all their talk. Several accused Him of loving sinners and sin alike.

“you have wearied \@ADONAI\@ with your words. yet you ask, “how have we wearied him?” by saying that anyone who does wrong is good from \@ADONAI\@‘ s perspective, and that he is delighted with them; or by asking, “where is the god of justice?”” (Malachi 2:17 CJB)

The son of God, a simple workers son, grown up in a devout Jewish close family, got such a knowledge of the Torah and was so close to his God that he could really understand very well what his God was saying and wanted the people to know. Their thoughts were so close to each other that they were as one.

““so then,” Pilate said to him, “you are a king, after all.” Yeshua answered, “you say I am a king. the reason I have been born, the reason I have come into the world, is to bear witness to the truth. every one who belongs to the truth listens to me.”” (John 18:37 CJB)
“I and the father are one.”” (John 10:30 CJB) = “I and the Father are one heart and mind.”” (John 10:30 Message)
“that they may all be one. just as you, father, are united with me and I with you, I pray that they may be united with us, so that the world may believe that you sent me.” (John 17:21 CJB)

The Last Supper of Jesus Christ at an upper room in Jerusalem - Roman Zacharij

In unification Jesus came together with his pupils-apostles and close friends to celebrate the Passover. That night he stressed that they had to be in union with him and his Father like he was with his Father, so that the world could be convinced that Jehovah God had sent him who was taking the bread of life. That night Jesus also asked not to forget what he had done but in particular to commemorate his taking the bread and the wine as a sign of the New Covenant.

“and whichever house he enters, tell him that the rabbi says, ‘where is the guest room for me, where I am to eat the \@Pesach\@ meal with my \@talmidim\@?’ he will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. make the preparations there.” the \@talmidim\@ went off, came to the city and found things just as he had told them they would be; and they prepared the \@Seder\@.” (Mark 14:14-16 CJB)

History shows that Jehovah’ chosen nation had a few special days that had the whole nation involved in it’s celebrations and was also a very emotional thing during that time. From a young age Jesus was himself involved as well as a grown man (Weddings, The Passover, and many others) these celebrations were given to the nation of Israel as a reminder of who there Saviour was ……. Jehovah God. To remember that Jesus and his friends were also together in the upper-room. But, though the apostles did not yet understand it very well, Jesus added something special to this day.

We are speaking of a day which shall be celebrated next Thursday, April 5 and should be the most important commemoration for true Christians. And yet the traditional holiday for many involves coloured eggs, hot-cross buns, and bunnies which have nothing to do with honouring Jesus nor Jehovah. Even the very name of this celebration (Easter) is the name of a pagan goddess!

Israel's Escape from Egypt, illustration from a Bible card published 1907 by the Providence Lithograph Company

Marking the time of Passover from which the Israelites began their Exodus from Egypt Jesus took that memorial day serious and knew God wanted us to remember the liberation of His People for ever. Then a worldly lamb was cut in the throat and its blood was been used to cover the families who believed in God. Now Jesus wanted to offer his blood and flesh for the grace of God and as covering for everybody their sins. Jesus prepared the exodus from sin.

Jesus and all of his followers observed Passover on the 14th of Nisan all throughout his earthly life. But then he indicated what was to be accomplished by his death by instituting new symbols for the new covenant meaning of the Passover.

Jesus was aware that it would not be easy, but he was willing to do the Will of God, and not his own will, whatever God wanted him to do and whatever how much he was going to suffer. Gods Will on earth had to be fulfilled like it was in heaven.

“may your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10 CJB)
““father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, let not my will but yours be done.”” (Luke 22:42 CJB)

“on the first day for \@matzah\@, the \@talmidim\@ came to Yeshua and asked, “where do you want us to prepare your \@Seder\@?” “go into the city, to so-and-so,” he replied, “and tell him that the rabbi says, ‘my time is near, my \@talmidim\@ and I are celebrating \@Pesach\@ at your house.’ ” the \@talmidim\@ did as Yeshua directed and prepared the \@Seder\@. when evening came, Yeshua reclined with the twelve \@talmidim\@; and as they were eating, he said, “yes, I tell you that one of you is going to betray me.” they became terribly upset and began asking him, one after the other, “lord, you don’t mean me, do you?” he answered, “the one who dips his \@matzah\@ in the dish with me is the one who will betray me. the son of man will die just as the \@Tanakh\@ says he will; but woe to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed! it would have been better for him had he never been born!” Y’hudah, the one who was betraying him, then asked, “surely, rabbi, you don’t mean me?” he answered, “the words are yours.” while they were eating, Yeshua took a piece of \@matzah\@, made the \@b’rakhah\@, broke it, gave it to the \@talmidim\@ and said, “take! eat! this is my body!” also he took a cup of wine, made the \@b’rakhah\@, and gave it to them, saying, “all of you, drink from it! for this is my blood, which ratifies the new covenant, my blood shed on behalf of many, so that they may have their sins forgiven. I tell you, I will not drink this ‘fruit of the vine’ again until the day I drink new wine with you in my father’s kingdom.” after singing the \@Hallel\@, they went out to the mount of olives.” (Matthew 26:17-30 CJB)

“when evening came, Yeshua arrived with the twelve. as they were reclining and eating, Yeshua said, “yes! I tell you that one of you is going to betray me.” they became upset and began asking him, one after the other, “you don’t mean me, do you?” “it’s one of the twelve,” he said to them, “someone dipping \@matzah\@ in the dish with me. for the son of man will die, just as the \@Tanakh\@ says he will; but woe to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed! it would have been better for him had he never been born!” while they were eating, Yeshua took a piece of \@matzah\@, made the \@b’rakhah\@, broke it, gave it to them and said, “take it! this is my body.” also he took a cup of wine, made the \@b’rakhah\@, and gave it to them; and they all drank. he said to them, “this is my blood, which ratifies the new covenant, my blood shed on behalf of many people. yes! I tell you, I will not drink this ‘fruit of the vine’ again until the day I drink new wine in the kingdom of god.” after singing the \@Hallel\@, they went out to the mount of olives.” (Mark 14:17-26 CJB)

“then came the day of \@matzah\@, on which the Passover lamb had to be killed. Yeshua sent Kefa and Yochanan, instructing them, “go and prepare our \@Seder\@, so we can eat.” they asked him, “where do you want us to prepare it?” he told them, “as you’re going into the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. follow him into the house he enters, and say to its owner, ‘the rabbi says to you, “where is the guest room, where I am to eat the \@Pesach\@ meal with my \@talmidim\@?”’ he will show you a large room upstairs already furnished; make the preparations there.” they went and found things just as Yeshua had told them they would be, and they prepared for the \@Seder\@. when the time came, Yeshua and the emissaries reclined at the table, and he said to them, “I have really wanted so much to celebrate this \@Seder\@ with you before I die! for I tell you, it is certain that I will not celebrate it again until it is given its full meaning in the kingdom of god.” then, taking a cup of wine, he made the \@b’rakhah\@ and said, “take this and share it among yourselves. for I tell you that from now on, I will not drink the ‘fruit of the vine’ until the kingdom of god comes.” also, taking a piece of \@matzah\@, he made the \@b’rakhah\@, broke it, gave it to them and said, “this is my body, which is being given for you; do this in memory of me.” he did the same with the cup after the meal, saying, “this cup is the new covenant, ratified by my blood, which is being poured out for you. “but look! the person who is betraying me is here at the table with me! the son of man is going to his death according to god’s plan, but woe to that man by whom he is being betrayed!” they began asking each other which of them could be about to do such a thing. an argument arose among them as to which of them should be considered the greatest. but Yeshua said to them, “the kings of the \@Goyim\@ lord it over them; and those in authority over them are given the title, ‘Benefactor.’ but not so with you! on the contrary, let the greater among you become like the younger, and one who rules like one who serves. for who is greater? the one reclining at the table? or the one who serves? it’s the one reclining at the table, isn’t it? but I myself am among you like one who serves. “you are the ones who have stayed with me throughout my trials. just as my father gave me the right to rule, so I give you an appointment, namely, to eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and to sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Isra’el. “Shim‘on, Shim‘on, listen! the adversary demanded to have you people for himself, to sift you like wheat! but I prayed for you, Shim‘on, that your trust might not fail. and you, once you have turned back in repentance, strengthen your brothers!” Shim‘on said to him, “lord, I am prepared to go with you both to prison and to death!” Yeshua replied, “I tell you, Kefa, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know me.” he said to them, “when I sent you out without wallet, pack or shoes, were you ever short of anything?” “not a thing,” they answered. “but now,” he said, if you have a wallet or a pack, take it; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your robe to buy one. for I tell you this: the passage from the \@Tanakh\@ that says, ‘he was counted with transgressors,’ {#Isa 53:12} has to be fulfilled in me; since what is happening to me has a purpose.” they said, “look, lord, there are two swords right here!” “enough!” he replied. on leaving, Yeshua went as usual to the mount of olives; and the \@talmidim\@ followed him.” (Luke 22:7-39 CJB)

15th century Portuguese painting of the last supper - Museu de Évora

“it was just before the festival of \@Pesach\@, and Yeshua knew that the time had come for him to pass from this world to the father. having loved his own people in the world, he loved them to the end. they were at supper, and the adversary had already put the desire to betray him into the heart of Y’hudah Ben-Shim‘on from K’riot. Yeshua was aware that the father had put everything in his power, and that he had come from god and was returning to god. so he rose from the table, removed his outer garments and wrapped a towel around his waist. then he poured some water into a basin and began to wash the feet of the \@talmidim\@ and wipe them off with the towel wrapped around him. he came to Shim‘on Kefa, who said to him, “lord! you are washing my feet?” Yeshua answered him, “you don’t understand yet what I am doing, but in time you will understand.” “no!” said Kefa, “you will never wash my feet!” Yeshua answered him, “if I don’t wash you, you have no share with me.” “lord,” Shim‘on Kefa replied, “not only my feet, but my hands and head too!” Yeshua said to him, “A man who has had a bath doesn’t need to wash, except his feet—his body is already clean. and you people are clean, but not all of you.” (he knew who was betraying him; this is why he said, “not all of you are clean.”) after he had washed their feet, taken back his clothes and returned to the table, he said to them, “do you understand what I have done to you? you call me ‘rabbi’ and ‘lord,’ and you are right, because I am. now if I, the lord and rabbi, have washed your feet, you also should wash each other’s feet. for I have set you an example, so that you may do as I have done to you. yes, indeed! I tell you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is an emissary greater than the one who sent him. if you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. “I’m not talking to all of you—I know which ones I have chosen. but the words of the \@Tanakh\@ must be fulfilled that say, ‘the one eating my bread has turned against me.’ {#Ps 41:9} I’m telling you now, before it happens; so that when it does happen, you may believe that I AM (who I say I am). yes, indeed! I tell you that a person who receives someone I send receives me, and that anyone who receives me receives the one who sent me.” after saying this, Yeshua, in deep anguish of spirit, declared, “yes, indeed! I tell you that one of you will betray me.” the \@talmidim\@ stared at one another, totally mystified—whom could he mean? one of his \@talmidim\@, the one Yeshua particularly loved, was reclining close beside him. so Shim‘on Kefa motioned to him and said, “ask which one he’s talking about.” leaning against Yeshua’s chest, he asked Yeshua, “lord, who is it?” Yeshua answered, “it’s the one to whom I give this piece of \@matzah\@ after I dip it in the dish.” so he dipped the piece of \@matzah\@ and gave it to Y’hudah Ben-Shim‘on from K’riot. as soon as Y’hudah took the piece of \@matzah\@, the adversary went into him. “what you are doing, do quickly!” Yeshua said to him. but no one at the table understood why he had said this to him. some thought that since Y’hudah was in charge of the common purse, Yeshua was telling him, “buy what we need for the festival,” or telling him to give something to the poor. as soon as he had taken the piece of \@matzah\@, Y’hudah went out, and it was night. after Y’hudah had left, Yeshua said, “now the son of man has been glorified, and god has been glorified in him. if the son has glorified god, god will himself glorify the son, and will do so without delay. little children, I will be with you only a little longer. you will look for me; and, as I said to the Judeans, ‘where I am going, you cannot come,’ now I say it to you as well. “I am giving you a new command: that you keep on loving each other. in the same way that I have loved you, you are also to keep on loving each other. everyone will know that you are my \@talmidim\@ by the fact that you have love for each other.” Shim‘on Kefa said to him, “lord, where are you going?” Yeshua answered, “where I am going, you cannot follow me now; but you will follow later.” “lord,” Kefa said to him, “why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you!” Yeshua answered, “you will lay down your life for me? yes, indeed! I tell you, before the rooster crows you will disown me three times.” (John 13:1-38 CJB)

“the “cup of blessing” over which we make the \@b’rakhah\@ —isn’t it a sharing in the bloody sacrificial death of the Messiah? the bread we break, isn’t it a sharing in the body of the Messiah? because there is one loaf of bread, we who are many constitute one body, since we all partake of the one loaf of bread. look at physical Isra’el: don’t those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? so, what am I saying? that food sacrificed to idols has any significance in itself? or that an idol has significance in itself? no, what I am saying is that the things which pagans sacrifice, they sacrifice not to god but to demons; and I don’t want you to become sharers of the demons! you can’t drink both a cup of the lord and a cup of demons, you can’t partake in both a meal of the lord and a meal of demons. or are we trying to make the lord jealous? we aren’t stronger than he is, are we?” (1 Corinthians 10:16-22 CJB)

Last Supper by painter Manuel da Costa Ataide inside the church of Caraça

“thus, when you gather together, it is not to eat a meal of the lord; because as you eat your meal, each one goes ahead on his own; so that one stays hungry while another is already drunk! don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? or are you trying to show your contempt for god’s Messianic community and embarrass those who are poor? what am I supposed to say to you? am I supposed to praise you? well, for this I don’t praise you! for what I received from the lord is just what I passed on to you—that the lord Yeshua, on the night he was betrayed, took bread; and after he had made the \@b’rakhah\@ he broke it and said, “this is my body, which is for you. do this as a memorial to me”; likewise also the cup after the meal, saying, “this cup is the new covenant effected by my blood; do this, as often as you drink it, as a memorial to me.” for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the lord, until he comes. therefore, whoever eats the lord’s bread or drinks the lord’s cup in an unworthy manner will be guilty of desecrating the body and blood of the lord! so let a person examine himself first, and then he may eat of the bread and drink from the cup; for a person who eats and drinks without recognizing the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. this is why many among you are weak and sick, and some have died! if we would examine ourselves, we would not come under judgment. but when we are judged by the lord, we are being disciplined, so that we will not be condemned along with the world. so then, my brothers, when you gather together to eat, wait for one another. if someone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you meet together it will not result in judgment. as for the other matters, I will instruct you about them when I come.” (1 Corinthians 11:20-34 CJB)

You are kindly invited to come and meet together as a group to commemorate this Last Supper Jesus had and the terrible moments he had to endure afterwards. On the 14th of Nisan we shall also take a piece of bread, give thanks to God, break it, but only partake of it when we are baptised and in Christ. This will be to remember the body of Christ Jesus (Jeshua), which is given for you and me. “Do this in memory of me” Jesus told his disciples, and after them their disciples did the same giving it unto the next generation. As long as Jesus did not return we shall continue to remember that Last Supper, taking part of the meal in unification.

While on Thursday everybody is welcome at the open service, we shall, in the same way Jesus had taken the cup after the supper, also do this only with the visiting baptised Brothers and Sisters from France, Belgium, Luxembourg and England, in Parish at the Parish Ecclesia at the Quaker House. We shall share the bread and the wine as a token of God’s new covenant, sealed with Christ his blood. Whenever we drink it, we do so in memory of the sacrifice Jesus of Nazareth brought for the whole world

By Breaking the Bread and Drinking the Wine we proclaim Jeshua’s death until he comes.

We do not have to mourn. We can be happy because after Jesus was put in the grave (or descended in the ‘hell‘ or sheol) he was lifted up by his Father and taken out of death as an example to what is going to happen to us as well. In Jesus his death and resurrection we can find the fulfilment of the promise to be saved and to have the opportunity to enter the Kingdom of God, when we are worthy of that.

“towards evening, there came a wealthy man from Ramatayim named Yosef, who was himself a \@talmid\@ of Yeshua. he approached Pilate and asked for Yeshua’s body, and Pilate ordered it to be given to him. Yosef took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen sheet, and laid it in his own tomb, which he had recently had cut out of the rock. after rolling a large stone in front of the entrance to the tomb, he went away. Miryam of Magdala and the other Miryam stayed there, sitting opposite the grave. next day, after the preparation, the head \@cohanim\@ and the \@P’rushim\@ went together to Pilate and said, “sir, we remember that that deceiver said while he was still alive, ‘after three days I will be raised.’ therefore, order that the grave be made secure till the third day; otherwise the \@talmidim\@ may come, steal him away and say to the people, ‘he was raised from the dead’; and the last deception will be worse than the first.” Pilate said to them, “you may have your guard. go and make the grave as secure as you know how.” so they went and made the grave secure by sealing the stone and putting the guard on watch.” (Matthew 27:57-66 CJB)
“after \@shabbat\@, as the next day was dawning, Miryam of Magdala and the other Miryam went to see the grave. suddenly there was a violent earthquake, for an angel of \@ADONAI\@ came down from heaven, rolled away the stone and sat on it. his appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were as white as snow. the guards were so terrified at him that they trembled and became like dead men. but the angel said to the women, “don’t be afraid. I know you are looking for Yeshua, who was executed on the stake. he is not here, because he has been raised – just as he said! come and look at the place where he lay. then go quickly and tell the \@talmidim\@, ‘he has been raised from the dead, and now he is going to the Galil ahead of you. you will see him there.’ now I have told you.”” (Matthew 28:1-7 CJB)

We can be happy because by Jesus his sacrifice we are saved.

Jesus brought to death on the wooden stake

“there is salvation in no one else! for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by whom we must be saved!”” (Acts 4:12 CJB)
“how god anointed Yeshua from Natzeret with the \@Ruach\@ \@haKodesh\@ and with power; how Yeshua went about doing good and healing all the people oppressed by the adversary, because god was with him. “as for us, we are witnesses of everything he did, both in the Judean countryside and in Yerushalayim. they did away with him by hanging him on a stake; {#de 21:23} but god raised him up on the third day and let him be seen, not by all the people, but by witnesses god had previously chosen, that is, by us, who ate and drank with him after he had risen again from the dead. “then he commanded us to proclaim and attest to the Jewish people that this man has been appointed by god to judge the living and the dead. all the prophets bear witness to him, that everyone who puts his trust in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”” (Acts 10:38-43 CJB)
“but the next day, while it was still very early, they took the spices they had prepared, went to the tomb, and found the stone rolled away from the tomb! on entering, they discovered that the body of the lord Yeshua was gone! they were standing there, not knowing what to think about it, when suddenly two men in dazzlingly bright clothing stood next to them. terror-stricken, they bowed down with their faces to the ground. the two men said to them, “why are you looking for the living among the dead? he is not here; he has been raised. remember how he told you while he was still in the Galil, ‘the son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be executed on a stake as a criminal, but on the third day be raised again’?” then they remembered his words;” (Luke 24:1-8 CJB)
“for among the first things I passed on to you was what I also received, namely this: the Messiah died for our sins, in accordance with what the \@Tanakh\@ says; and he was buried; and he was raised on the third day, in accordance with what the \@Tanakh\@ says; and he was seen by Kefa, then by the twelve; and afterwards he was seen by more than five hundred brothers at one time, the majority of whom are still alive, though some have died.” (1 Corinthians 15:3-6 CJB)
“for the Messiah himself died for sins, once and for all, a righteous person on behalf of unrighteous people, so that he might bring you to god. he was put to death in the flesh but brought to life by the spirit;” (1 Peter 3:18 CJB)

We shall be joyously remember that God has given life again to his son Jesus and gave him a higher place in heaven to become a mediator for us.

“but now the work Yeshua has been given to do is far superior to theirs, just as the covenant he mediates is better. for this covenant has been given as \@torah\@ on the basis of better promises.” (Hebrews 8:6 CJB)
“therefore god raised him to the highest place and gave him the name above every name;” (Philippians 2:9 CJB)“he has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of god, {#Ps 110:1} with angels, authorities and powers subject to him.” (1 Peter 3:22 CJB)
“for god is one; {#de 6:4} and there is but one mediator between god and humanity, Yeshua the Messiah, himself human,” (1 Timothy 2:5 CJB)
“to the mediator of a new covenant, Yeshua; and to the sprinkled blood that speaks better things than that of Hevel.” (Hebrews 12:24 CJB)

On Sunday the 8th of April we shall be glad to be together for the whole day as brothers and sisters, and not only gather together to eat the Lord’s Supper, but have also a nice meal together to fraternise. So all Christadelphians who would like to come to share the day are welcome.

In case you live to far away please do not forget to take these coming day in your memory and do not forget to come together with others to celebrate this special occasion. So make sure you shall celebrate the Passover and have some nice time together at the Easter celebrations to show your thankfulness for the marvellous gift Jesus has given for you and God has accepted for us.

This day of the Gift of Grace should never be forgotten by all on earth today. Make the world know that Jesus has died for our sins and is risen.

Preceding post: Not making a runner

Next: The Weekend that changed the world

Please do also find:

In what way were sacrifices “shadows”?

What does ‘atonement’ mean?

Jesus memorial

Why did Jesus say he wouldn’t drink wine again until the kingdom when he ate and drank other things? (Mark 14:25)

Children ate the OT passover so why not NT bread and wine?

Jesus is risen

Risen With Him

How many souls did the death of Jesus pay for?

Peter Cottontail and a Bunny laying Eastereggs

In Dutch: Gelieve volgende aansluitende artikels te vinden:

Zeggingskracht van beelden in de Bijbel #5 Voorafschaduwing

De Wet van de Liefde, basis van alle instructies

Jezus aanbod op het laatste avondmaal

Jaar van de Eucharistie

Lam van God #3c Christus stierf als onschuldig Lam NT teksten

Jezus is verrezen

Pasen, Easter- Estre

Een Konijn dat Paaseiren legt

Zondag, zonnegodsdag en zonnepartnersdag

Alles zal worden opgeslorpt door de overwinning van het goede

Een gedicht voor Pasen

+++

Blogging thru the Bible/I’m Sorry vs. Repentance (battorah.wordpress.com)
just saying you are sorry and admitting that one is a sinner certainly isn’t repentance
He Says Concerning Himself “I am the Son of Elohim” (guapotg.wordpress.com)
It has been said that there are over three hundred Messianic prophecies in the Tanak.
+
there is an amazing Messianic Prophecy found in The Wisdom of Solomon 2:12-22
12: Therefore let us trouble the Righteous One; because he is not pleasant to us, and
he stands up against our doings: and he reviles us for our transgression of the
Torah, and records against us the trespasses of our audacity.
13: He professes that the knowledge of Elohim is his: and he says concerning himself
“I am the Son of Elohim”
14: He is a rebuker of our thoughts. …
+
Like Joseph the Patriarch, Yeshua was betrayed by his own for a few pieces of silver (Gen. 37:28) he was cast into “the pit” (death) and raised back up so that he might redeem his brothers, Like Joseph, Yeshua’s teaching and revelation angered his brothers, who sought to put his claims to the test by casting him into the pit (of death).
Blogging thru the Bible/Be Separate (battorah.wordpress.com)
“Moshe said, ‘You have consecrated yourselves to Adonai, because everyone of you has been against his own son, and against his own kinsman, in order to bring a blessing on yourselves today.’” (Ex. 32:29, CJB)
The Mystery of the Passover Wine Revealed: The Yayin HaMeshumar….Yeshua said, “I shall give you what no eye has seen and what no ear has heard and what no hand has touched and what has never occurred to the mind of man. (Gospel of Thomas 17) (guapotg.wordpress.com)
The phrase “wine that has been kept” in the Hebrew is Yayin HaMeshumar “wine of keeping”. The tradition of the Yayin HaMeshumar runs deep in traditional Judaism. It is the wine that will be served at the Messianic Feast when the Messiah re-establishes the Kingdom of Israel on earth.
+
Not only is the Yayin HaMeshumar the blood of the Messiah, but it is more. It is the “mystery” of which the blood of Messiah is only part:
+
next time you partake of the cup of redemption in the Passover sader, realize that this cup is symbolic of the Yayin HeMeshumar, the wine that has been kept from the six days in the beginning, the blood of the lamb slain from the foundation which has been hidden and separated and prepared for those who love him.
The LORD Jesus Christ- Our Passover (zionsgate.wordpress.com)
Pesach (PAY-sahk) means to ‘pass over’. The Passover meal, seder (SAY der), celebrates this historic event.
+
The LORD’s supper is a remembrance of his sacrifice as the perfect Passover Lamb and the fulfillment of the new covenant between GOD and man (Luke 22:20; 1st Corinthians 5:7; Ephesians 2:11-13). Prophecy of this sacrifice is found in Psalm 22. The Hebrew prophet Isaiah also spoke of the sufferings and sacrifice of the Messiah, and how that sacrifice would be the ultimate atonement for the sins of GOD’s people (Isaiah 53).
This Week’s Torah Portion – VAYIKRA (And He Called)(terri0729.wordpress.com)
God made Nisan the first month of the year because it was the month in which
the Jewish people were freed from slavery in Egypt.

So too, may we remember our freedom from the slavery of sin and death through
Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah.
The High Holy Days for Atonement – 2012 A.D. (moshebarabraham2013.wordpress.com)
As we prepare for The High Holy Days of Midian, Israel, and Ishmael, we seek Atonement through Fasting and Prayer as handed down to us from our Ancestors under The Covenant of Abraham (COA), Ibrahiym.
Experience The Seven Blessings of Passover (jscotthusted.wordpress.com)
In this special season, a doorway to commanded blessing, God promises in His word to pour out seven specific and very powerful blessings. When we honor and observe God’s commandments, we also reap God’s blessings. But we must follow the pattern and obey the ordinances of God to see these blessings!
+
Because of the blood of Christ, we have a new life – a new beginning. Our past does not define us. Because of our covenant connection, and the blood of our ‘passover,’ Jesus Christ, we are free from sin – and when we observe God’s command to honor this special appointment with Him, we activate His seven supernatural blessings in our lives!
Passover and the Feast of Unleaven Bread (ourcommunityatfbcdc.wordpress.com)
The Passover meal is eaten on the first day. God commanded that Israel keep this feast perpetually.
+
God offers us redemption through the atoning action of Jesus Christ, God’s son who came to the earth, and suffered and died for the sins of the world. He became the Paschal lamb. Under this judgment of sin and ultimate eternal death, God freely offers to all who will believe and accept His provision for us, forgiveness of our sins and life eternal.
The Passover Type and Its Anti-type (compasschurchamman.wordpress.com)
The Old Testament (Exodus 34:18, 25) distinguishes the festivals by using the terms “Feast of Unleavened Bread” and “Passover Feast”. The New Testament (Matthew 26:17; Mark 14:1; Luke 22:1) refers to both of these as “the Passover” and the “Feast of the Unleavened Bread. These festivals were held in immediate sequence. Passover was celebrated at twilight of the 14th day of the month (Exodus 12:6) and the Feast of Unleavened Bread for the seven days following, namely, the 15th to the 21st (Exodus 12:15; Leviticus 23:5f.; Numbers 28:16ff; 2 Chronicles 35:1, 17).
+
The timing of Jesus’ death in the Passover season and the conviction that his death was the atoning death of “blood poured out for many” (Mark 14:24) assisted linking his atoning death to the Passover sacrifice. As the Israelite was delivered from the bondage of Egypt through the blood of the Passover lamb, so the Christian is saved from sin through the sacrifice of Christ; but Paul further adds that continual victory over the sins of the world means a continual observing of the Feast of Redemption.
Not making a runner (christadelphians.wordpress.com)
Exodus, The Red Sea, and New Testament Baptism (thelifechurchofdesplaines.wordpress.com)
Echoing Passover in This Worship (tbolto.wordpress.com)
The word “Seder” simply means “Order.” Everything is done in a careful order in keeping with God’s instructions in the Old Testament or Torah, as it is known by Jewish people, and with traditions that have been added to keep alive the memory of the original Passover people.
Written to recognise the Promissed One (christadelphians.wordpress.com)
YOU, Are Forgiven….. (jesusisms.wordpress.com)
Grace is the kindness & favor of Jehovah God & His Son Jesus Christ being extended to you now. You Are Forgiven
It is nothing you can earn or deserve.
Provide Yourself With a Teacher… (kingdaughter.wordpress.com)
The study of God’s Word is considered a sacred act in the service of God. It should, therefore, be approached with a sense of duty – deliberately, consistently and systematically.
+
When study is undertaken in service and worship of God, we can trust that God Himself will direct us in our pursuits by His Spirit.
+
Yeshua, when teaching his disciples in preparation for his approaching death, assures them: “ When he, the Spirit of truth is come, he shall guide you into all truth…” (John 16:13). We, too, can place our full trust in the Shepherd of our souls, now seated at the right hand of the Throne of Grace, knowing that He will guide us safely in the power of the Spirit of holiness and truth that, through His gift of grace, dwells within us.
The Crossing of the Red Sea- A Picture of the Process of Salvation…..Just as the Egyptians followed the Hebrews into the Red Sea but the Hebrews alone emerged alive, when we enter into the death burial and resurrection of Messiah as symbolized by water im (guapotg.wordpress.com)
When someone asks “are you saved”? the natural question is “saved from what?” “Saved” is a verb that begs for a direct object. Yet many who ask you “are you saved” cannot actually tell you what they mean.
Hanukkah Meditation (mishkandavid.wordpress.com)
One must wonder whether the great cloud of witnesses might include those who were tortured for their trust in Adonai during the war with Greece. We invite you to consider the story of the seven young men and their mother.

Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 18 so far )

The Soul confronted with Death

Posted on March 21, 2012. Filed under: Bible Study and Bible Reading, Jehovah יהוה YHWH JHVH God Elohim Yahweh Jahweh, Jesus Christ Jeshua the Messiah Jahushua, Kingdom of God, Life and Death | Tags: Death, Devil, Following Christ, Freedom, Humankind, Life, Messiah, Rites for the dead, Satan, Sin, Soul |

Souls

An American alligator and a Burmese python locked in a struggle to prevail in Everglades National Park - Lori Oberhofer, National Park Service

At the beginning of the times יהוה (Jehovah) God, the Creator of all things, said, “Let the waters swarm with swarmers having a soul of life; and let the birds fly over the earth, on the face of the expanse of the heavens.” And God created the great sea animals, and all that creeps, having a living soul, which roamed the waters, according to its kind; and every bird with wing according to its kind. And God, the Elohim, saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas; and let the birds multiply in the earth.” And there was evening, and there was morning the fifth day. And God said, “Let the earth bring forth the soul of life according to its kind: cattle, and creepers, and its beasts of the earth, according to its kind.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to its kind, and cattle according to its kind, and all creepers of the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God said, “let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creepers creeping on the earth. And God created the man in His own image;” in the image of God He created him. He created them male and female.
The soul was and is the body with life, and can be a man or an animal. When God formed the man of the dust of the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, man became a living soul.
All the souls are Gods, be it an animal or human being, baby, child, adolescent, adult, father or mother, so also the soul of the son–they all belong to the Creator God Almighty. Because of the first sin all souls shall have to face death. Breathshall leave the body and as such that soul does die.

“And Elohim said, “Let the waters teem with shoals of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth on the face of the expanse of the heavens.” And Elohim created great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters teemed, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And Elohim saw that it was good. And Elohim blessed them, saying, “Bear fruit and increase, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, the fifth day. And Elohim said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: livestock and creeping creatures and beasts of the earth, according to its kind.” And it came to be so. And Elohim made the beast of the earth according to its kind, livestock according to its kind, and all that creep on the earth according to its kind. And Elohim saw that it was good. And Elohim said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth and over all the creeping creatures that creep on the earth.” And Elohim created the man in His image, in the image of Elohim He created him – male and female He created them. ” (Genesis 1:20-27 The Scriptures 1998+)
“And יהוה Elohim formed the man out of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils breath of life. And the man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:7 The Scriptures 1998+)
“And so it has been written, “The first man Aḏam became a living being,” the last Aḏam a life-giving Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 15:45 The Scriptures 1998+)

“See, all beings are Mine, the being of the father as well as the being of the son is Mine. The being that is sinning shall die. ” (Ezekiel 18:4 The Scriptures 1998+)

“But Elohim proves His own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Messiah died for us. Much more then, having now been declared right by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, being enemies, we were restored to favour with Elohim through the death of His Son, much more, having been restored to favour, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in Elohim through our Master יהושע Messiah, through whom we have now received the restoration to favour. For this reason, even as through one man sin did enter into the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned – for until the Torah, sin was in the world, but sin is not reckoned when there is no Torah. But death reigned from Aḏam until Mosheh, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Aḏam, who is a type of Him who was to come. But the favourable gift is not like the trespass. For if by the one man’s trespass many died, much more the favour of Elohim, and the gift in favour of the one Man, יהושע Messiah, overflowed to many. And the favourable gift is not as by one having sinned. For indeed the judgment was of one to condemnation, but the favourable gift is of many trespasses unto righteousness. For if by the trespass of the one, death did reign through the one, much more those who receive the overflowing favour and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life through the One, יהושע Messiah. So then, as through one trespass there resulted condemnation to all men, so also through one righteous act there resulted righteous-declaring of life to all men. ” (Romans 5:8-18 The Scriptures 1998+)

“Do not put your trust in princes, In a son of man, in whom is no deliverance. His spirit goes out, he returns to his earth; In that day his plans perish. Blessed is he who has the Ěl of Yaʽaqoḇ for his help, Whose expectancy is in יהוה his Elohim, Maker of the heavens and earth, The sea and all that is in them, Who is guarding truth forever, ” (Psalms 146:3-6 The Scriptures 1998+)
“You hide Your face, they are alarmed; You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust; ” (Psalms 104:29 The Scriptures 1998+)

Whatever we try to do, one day we all shall have to face the end of our life, except those who shall still be alive when at the Last Word War, the Armageddon, would belong to those surviving who shall be there to see the return of Christ יהושע Jesus (Jeshua or Iēsoun) and be judged by him.

Cause of death

יהוה looked at His creations and gave His first commandment: “You may eat fruit from any tree in the garden, except the one that has the power to let you know the difference between right and wrong. If you eat any fruit from that tree, you will die before the day is over!” (Genesis 2:16-17 CEV) Because man did not listen to his Creator he had to feel the consequences and the day he eat fruit from that tree he saw what he had done, and knew the difference between right and wrong, just as God does.
Jehovah God punished the first man and woman, but also brought a solution to their wrong going. Because they had not obeyed, they were reprimanded and became cursed. God greatly increased the woman’s pains in childbirth and her desire will be for her husband who was going to rule over her. But the male could not escape either because he had listened to his wife and ate from the tree about which God commanded him, ‘You must not eat of it’. Cursed is the ground because of him; through painful toil we will eat of it all the days of our life. It will produce thorns and thistles for us, while we shall have to eat the plants of the field. We will eat our food by the sweat of our brow until we return to the ground. As we came from the ground, for dust we are and to dust we will return. (Genesis 3:12-19)

Jehovah said: »The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.« Therefore Jehovah God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.

First sin, eating from the tree which was forbidden by God

“And יהוה Elohim commanded the man, saying, “Eat of every tree of the garden, but do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you eat of it you shall certainly die.” ” (Genesis 2:16-17 The Scriptures 1998+)
““For Elohim knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be like Elohim, knowing good and evil.” And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, and she took of its fruit and ate. And she also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made loin coverings for themselves. ” (Genesis 3:5-7 The Scriptures 1998+)

“And the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I ate.” And יהוה Elohim said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” And יהוה Elohim said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all livestock and more than every beast of the field. On your belly you are to go, and eat dust all the days of your life. “And I put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed1. He shall crush your head, and you shall crush His heel.” Footnote: 1First promise of the Messiah. To the woman He said, “I greatly increase your sorrow and your conception – bring forth children in pain. And your desire is for your husband, and he does rule over you.” And to the man He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘Do not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground because of you, in toil you are to eat of it all the days of your life, and the ground shall bring forth thorns and thistles for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field. “By the sweat of your face you are to eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For dust you are, and to dust you return.” ” (Genesis 3:12-19 The Scriptures 1998+)

“And יהוה Elohim said, “See, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever…” so יהוה Elohim sent him out of the garden of Ěḏen to till the ground from which he was taken, and He drove the man out. And He placed keruḇim at the east of the garden of Ěḏen, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. ” (Genesis 3:22-24 The Scriptures 1998+)

It was the wrong thinking, the opposition (satan) against the orders of God. Adam and Eve had become adversaries (satan) of God. The resistance (satan) to the commandments of God brings disunity with God. Everybody who does something wrong sins and comes from this adversary (Satan, commonly called the devil). Being descendants from Adam we are damaged, born in sin and imperfect.

Humans followed their own thoughts and became we were enemies of their Creator, Jehovah God. though we were reconciled to God through the death of His son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by Jesus Christ his life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom now we received the reconciliation. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death passed to all men, because all sinned. Only Jesus managed to stay without sin, though he could sin.

By the first sin death had come into life of the souls (men and women). Until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin, because not everyone disobeyed a direct command from God, according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of ‘him who was to come’. But the free gift is not like the offence. For if by the offence of one man many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to the many.
Jesus Christ alone brought God‘s gift of kindness to many people. There is a lot of difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gift. That one sin led to punishment. But God’s gift made it possible for us to be acceptable to him, even though we have sinned many times. For the judgement which came from one offence resulted in condemnation, but the free gift from many offences resulted in justification. For if by the offence of the one man death reigned through the one man, much more those receiving the abundance of the grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

Death ruled like a king because Adam had sinned, which brought by his offence judgement to all men, resulting in condemnation. But that cannot compare with what יהושע Jesus Christ as 2° Adam has done. God has been so kind to us, and he has accepted us because of Jesus. And so we will live and rule like kings. For through the disobedience of the one man the many were constituted sinners, so also through the obedience of the One many shall be constituted righteous.

“For this reason, even as through one man sin did enter into the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned – for until the Torah, sin was in the world, but sin is not reckoned when there is no Torah. But death reigned from Aḏamm until Mosheh, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Aḏamm, who is a type of Him who was to come. But the favourable gift is not like the trespass. For if by the one man’s trespass many died, much more the favour of Elohim, and the gift in favour of the one Man, יהושע ? Messiah, overflowed to many. And the favourable gift is not as by one having sinned. For indeed the judgment was of one to condemnation, but the favourable gift is of many trespasses unto righteousness. For if by the trespass of the one, death did reign through the one, much more those who receive the overflowing favour and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life through the One, יהושע Messiah. So then, as through one trespass there resulted condemnation to all men, so also through one righteous act there resulted righteous-declaring of life to all men. For as through the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the One many shall be made righteous. ” (Romans 5:12-19 The Scriptures 1998+)

Life is short and sorrowful for every living soul. We are like flowers that fade and shadows that vanish. Like Adam and all the others after him and before us we shall have to die and become forgotten by many. Nobody is able to keep his soul alive.

When a tree is chopped down, there is always the hope that it will sprout again. Its roots and stump may rot, but at the touch of water, fresh twigs shoot up. Humans are different — we die, and that’s the end. When the breath goes out of our body it is as we fall into ‘the sleep of death’, never to rise again, having everything going to rot away and deteriorate until it all has become dust.

““Man born of woman is of few days and turmoil-filled. He comes forth like a flower and withers. He flees like a shadow and does not continue.” (Job 14:1-2 The Scriptures 1998+)
“and man shall lie down and not rise. Till the heavens are no more, they awake not, nor are aroused from their sleep.” (Job 14:12 The Scriptures 1998+)

“Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die. ” (Ezekiel 18:4 ASV)

“All the fat ones of the earth Shall eat and bow themselves; All who go down to the dust bow before Him, Even he who did not keep alive his own life. ” (Psalms 22:29 The Scriptures 1998+)

“‘And it shall be that every being who does not hear that Prophet1 shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ Footnote: 1Deut. 18:18-20. ” (Acts 3:23 The Scriptures 1998+)

Rites for the dead do nothing

Baining firedance ceremony to celebrate the birth of new children; the commencement of harvests and also a way of remembering the dead - Photo Taro Taylor

When we are alive we do not know about our selves what was before we were born and the things from our childhood stay in our mind by the recollection of our thoughts. When we are kicking and alive we do feel pain, anger and have hopefor many things. We are aware of passing time and know that we shall die, but the dead know nothing whatsoever and you could take that their state is the same as before we were born, or as in a deep sleep.

We are conscious that all that our hand finds to do, we do have to do with our vigour or with all our might, for there is no doing, nor device machination or knowledge or wisdom in the unseen (a place which is the grave or sepulchre often called Hades, Sheol or Hell) where we shall be going when we die.

“For the living know that they shall die, but the dead know naught, nor do they have any more reward, for their remembrance is forgotten. ” (Ecclesiastes 9:5 The Scriptures 1998+)
“All that your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going. ” (Ecclesiastes 9:10 The Scriptures 1998+)
“And his servants said to him, “What is this that you have done? You fasted and wept because of the living child, but when the child died, you rose up and ate food.” And he said, “While the child was alive I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows whether יהוה shows favour unto me, and the child shall live?’ “But now he is dead, why should I fast? Am I able to bring him back again? I am going to him, but he does not return to me.” ” (2 Samuel 12:21-23 The Scriptures 1998+)

Hope for the living

Mourning at a Tongan funeral - Photo James Foster

Man shall surely die, but we are given the hope of a new life in a Kingdom of God where there shall be peace for ever and no suffering, no pain, no dead any more. “Dead” Our trespasses and sins caused us to be dead toward God. (Genesis 2:17; Ephesians 2:12)

All are condemned in one representative, ransomed by one, die for Adam’s sin. God’s plan will be testified to those who want to listen knowing that their life is but short. God the Saviour has given His only begotten son. This man from Nazareth was able to stay sinless and had no reason to die, but gave his body for all sinners.

Those who want to follow this man the son of men and the son of God, and wants to be in Christ, can be made alive again, when they accept Jesus as ransom for them.

We never shall be able to escape the sentence for what we have done wrong. All the inward corruption is revealed to God, as many a saint after King David has found out by bitter experience that in our flesh there dwells no good thing. We are all shaped in iniquity and in sin.

“See, I was brought forth in crookedness, And in sin my mother conceived me. ” (Psalms 51:5 The Scriptures 1998+)

Confession and repentance shall make to what is going to happen with us. We should have a desire so fervent for renewal, a trust so humble, so filial in
the forgiving love of God, as we might surely expect from ‘the man after God’s own heart’ who is called Jeshua or Jesus from Nazareth, the Christos or Christ the Messiah. God said in Genesis 6:3, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever.” When we hear or sense the conviction of the Holy Spirit we must respond to it immediately, because it might not always be there.

“And you were dead in trespasses and sins,1 Footnote: 1v.5 and 5:14, Mt. 8:22, Rom. 8:6, Col. 2:13, 1 Tim. 5:6, 1 John 3:14, Rev. 3:1. ” (Ephesians 2:1 The Scriptures 1998+)

Man concludes that an issue is right or wrong based on the information he has at his disposal, including the Word of God. God determines that an issue is right or wrong based on His absolute Righteousness and Justice. Man’s freedom of will and the capacity to act in accord with his decisions mirrors God’s sovereignty.

We do have the capacity in us to accept, respond, understand and relate to the created world on the basis of human or physical phenomena. We ourselves are responsible for everything we do. though at first we may be lost and bound up by our transgression we can work at our ‘soul’ or our thinking every day of our life, as long as we live. So we should be ready to be able to be accepted by God before the moment comes that we shall have to face our death.

We should try to hear the Call of God and react accordingly our will. When we are willing to follow Jesus Christ, the son of God and do what the Father requires of us than God shall call us new creatures in Christ, old ambitions have passed away.

Ordinary flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable, but in Christ we are being cleansed. In case some of us would still be alive when Christ returns, not all will be in ‘the sleep,’ but believers will all be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.

“And this I say, brothers, that flesh and blood is unable to inherit the reign of Elohim, neither does corruption inherit incorruption. See, I speak a secret to you: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible has to put on incorruption, and this mortal to put on immortality. And when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall come to be the word that has been written, “Death is swallowed up in overcoming.” “O Death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your overcoming?” And the sting of death is the sin, and the power of the sin is the Torah. But thanks to Elohim who gives us the overcoming through our Master יהושע Messiah. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Master, knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Master. ” (1 Corinthians 15:50-58 The Scriptures 1998+)
Or do you not know that as many of us as were immersed into Messiah יהושע were immersed into His death? We were therefore buried with Him through immersion into death, that as Messiah was raised from the dead by the esteem of the Father, so also we should walk in newness of life. For if we have come to be grown together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also of the resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was impaled with Him, so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, to serve sin no longer. For he who has died has been made right from sin. And if we died with Messiah, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Messiah, having been raised from the dead, dies no more – death no longer rules over Him. For in that He died, He died to sin once for all; but in that He lives, He lives to Elohim. So you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to Elohim in Messiah יהושע our Master.
(Romans 6:3-11 The Scriptures 1998+)

Liberation from Adamitic death by Ransom of Christ Jesus

God has testified about the liberation from death we can enjoy, with signs, wonders, and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit. In history we can find a man placed a little lower than the angels for a little while whom Jehovah had set over the works of His hands. It is by the grace of God that this man from Nazareth tasted death for every man.

It became him giving his brethren necessary experiences to lead them to God, to glory, and to be their elder brother. It was necessary that a perfect man should die, that Adam and the race condemned in him might be released from death by a resurrection. As a fitting ransom or substitute he gave his body. He, the ransomer of all, is their Head, their Chief, the Captain of their salvation, the Inaugurator, the captain hierarch, of their salvation perfect through sufferings. In the man who was willing to pay the ransom for all we can see the sanctifier, Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.

“Therefore, set-apart brothers, partakers of the heavenly calling, closely consider the Emissary and High Priest of our confession, Messiah יהושע” (Hebrews 3:1 The Scriptures 1998+)
“But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the messengers, יהושע, because of the suffering of death crowned with esteem and respect, that by the favour of Elohim He should taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for Him, because of whom all are and through whom all are, in bringing many sons to esteem, to make the Princely Leader of their deliverance perfect through sufferings. For both He who sets apart and those who are being set apart are all of One, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, “I shall announce Your Name to My brothers,1 in the midst of the congregation I shall sing praise to You.” Footnote: 1Ps. 22:22, Ps. 45:17, John 17:6 & 26. And again, “I shall put My trust in Him.” And again, “See, I and the children whom Elohim gave Me.” Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself similarly shared in the same, so that by means of His death He might destroy him having the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver those who throughout life were held in slavery by fear of death. For, doubtless, He does not take hold of messengers, but He does take hold of the seed of Aḇraham. So in every way He had to be made like His brothers, in order to become a compassionate and trustworthy High Priest in matters related to Elohim, to make atonement for the sins of the people. For in what He had suffered, Himself being tried, He is able to help those who are tried.
(Hebrews 2:9-18 The Scriptures 1998+)

We all should know that there is only one God. He is the one who had taken care that His son could show the way to Him. God, the invisible (1 Timothy 1:17) who is our Father is also the Saviour-God, but is also the Father of Christ Jesus, who is the Saviour-man. Christ Jesus, only begotten son of God, is the only one who can bring us to God. Jesus was truly human, and he gave himself to rescue all of us.

God, the One giving life to all persons and all things, and before Christ Jesus, the one having to testify before Pontius Pilate the good confession, for us to keep the commandment spotless and blameless or, above reproach, until the Appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He will reveal in His own times and even Jesus did not know when he was going to return. The blessed and only Sovereign, the King of the ones being kings and Lord of the ones exercising lordship, the only One having immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no one of people saw nor is able to see, to whom is honour and eternal might or, dominion!
Those believing in the Only One God and in the son He has given to the world all things richly for enjoyment, to be doing good, to be growing rich in good works, and to be generous, ready to share, treasuring or, storing up for ourselves a good foundation for the coming time, so that we shall take hold of eternal life.

Jesus pulls Adam and Eve out of their graves that lead to Hell or Limbo before he resurrects. This is explained by some as the Last Judgment. - Chora Church/Museum, Istanbul,fresco,Anastasis, Harrowing of Hell and Resurrection - Photo Gunnar Bach Pedersen

God’s son is not able to be doing anything of himself. It is because the Father affectionately loves the Son and shows to him all which He Himself does, and greater works than these He will show to Him, so that every one shall be marvelling. For even as the Father has life in Himself, so He gave also to the Son to be having life in himself. For even as the Father raises the dead ones and makes alive, so also the Son makes alive whom he wills. For neither does the Father judge anyone, but He has given all judgement to the Son, so that all shall be honouring the Son just as they honour the Father.

Jesus has received everything of his Father. We should accept that he did not have it from himself. But all that the Father has given to him will come to him, and the one coming to Jesus he shall by no means cast out. Because Jesus have come down out of heaven, not so that he was going to do his own will, but the will of the One having sent him, namely his Father the Only One God Jehovah. In him who was been sent by his Father and who did the Will of the Father we should trust and know that we shall be able to find eternal life, because it is this Son of god, Jesus Christ the Messiah who will raise the believer up on the last day.

“For there is one Elohim,1 and one Mediator between Elohim and men, the Man Messiah יהושע, Foornote: 11 Cor. 8:6, Eph. 4:6, Mk. 12:29-34. who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be witnessed in its own seasons,” (1 Timothy 2:5-6 The Scriptures 1998+)
“In the sight of Elohim who gives life to all, and of Messiah יהושע who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, I charge you: that you guard the command1 spotlessly, blamelessly, until the appearing of our Master יהושע ? Messiah, Footnote: 1Command (singular) often means commands, e.g. Dt. 17:20, Ps. 19:8. which in His own seasons He shall reveal – the blessed and only Ruler, the Sovereign of sovereigns and Master of masters, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or is able to see, to whom be respect and everlasting might. Amĕn. ” (1 Timothy 6:13-16 The Scriptures 1998+)

““And whoever wishes to be first among you, let him be your servant, even as the Son of Aḏam did not come to be served, but to serve,1 and to give His life as a ransom for many.” Footnote:1See Mark 10:45 and Isa. 49:1-7.” (Matthew 20:27-28 The Scriptures 1998+)

““For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all that He Himself does. And greater works than these He is going to show Him, in order that you marvel. “For as the Father raises the dead and makes alive, even so the Son makes alive whom He wishes. “For the Father judges no one, but has given all the judgment to the Son, that all should value the Son even as they value the Father. He who does not value the Son does not value the Father who sent Him. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me possesses everlasting life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. “Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of Elohim. And those having heard shall live. “For as the Father possesses life in Himself, so He gave also to the Son to possess life in Himself, and He has given Him authority also to do judgment, because He is the Son of Ad?am. “Do not marvel at this, because the hour is coming in which all those in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come forth – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have practised evil matters, to a resurrection of judgment. “Of Myself I am unable to do any matter. As I hear, I judge, and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own desire, but the desire of the Father who sent Me. “If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true. “There is another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the witness which He witnesses of Me is true. ” (John 5:20-32 The Scriptures 1998+)

“Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone guards My Word he shall never see death at all.” (John 8:51 The Scriptures 1998+)
““All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I shall by no means cast out. “Because I have come down out of the heaven, not to do My own desire, but the desire of Him who sent Me. “This is the desire of the Father who sent Me, that all He has given Me I should not lose of it, but should raise it in the last day. “And this is the desire of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him should possess everlasting life. And I shall raise him up in the last day.” ” (John 6:37-40 The Scriptures 1998+)

Death destroyed

The Last Judgment - circa 1551 Circle of Pieter Pourbus (circa 1523/1524–1584) (1524–1584)

“If in this life only we have expectation in Messiah, we are of all men the most wretched. But now Messiah has been raised from the dead, and has become the first-fruit of those having fallen asleep. For since death is through a man, resurrection of the dead is also through a Man. For as all die in Aḏam, so also all shall be made alive in Messiah . And each in his own order: Messiah the first-fruits, then those who are of Messiah at His coming, then the end, when He delivers up the reign to Elohim the Father, when He has brought to naught all rule and all authority and power. For He has to reign until He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be brought to naught is death. For “He has put all under His feet.” But when He says “all are put under Him,” it is clear that He who put all under Him is excepted. And when all are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself shall also be subject to Him who put all under Him, in order that Elohim be all in all.” (1 Corinthians 15:19-28 The Scriptures 1998+)

““And Elohim shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, nor mourning, nor crying. And there shall be no more pain, for the former matters have passed away.” ” (Revelation 21:4 The Scriptures 1998+)
“And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and the grave gave up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. And the death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death.1 Footnote: 1See 2:11, 20:6, 21:8. ” (Revelation 20:13-14 The Scriptures 1998+)

“He shall swallow up death forever, and the Master יהוה shall wipe away tears from all faces, and take away the reproach of His people from all the earth. For יהוה has spoken. And it shall be said in that day, “See, this is our Elohim. We have waited for Him, and He saves us. This is יהוה , we have waited for Him, let us be glad and rejoice in His deliverance.” ” (Isaiah 25:8-9 The Scriptures 1998+)

The first death comes to an end by Christ Jesus, but after the thousand years shall come for some the last death to be destroyed for ever.

Those who oppose God, often called the devils or Satan that deceived others shall be into “the lake of fire and brimstone” the hell or sheol, the grave, where also the murderers, adulterers, sexual sinners, sorcerers , idolaters, all the liars, false prophets and the God haters, shall be tormented in the knowledge they were wrong and now have to diminish for ever. They shall disappear in the grave and death and Hades (the grave) will be were cast into the “lake of fire”, the destruction. This moment of devastation shall bring annihilation. This obliteration for the wicked being the second death.

“And when the thousand years have ended, Satan shall be released from his prison, and he shall go out to lead the nations astray which are in the four corners of the earth, Goḡ and Maḡoḡ, to gather them together for battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. And they came up over the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the set-apart ones and the beloved city. And fire came down from Elohim out of the heaven and consumed them. And the devil, who led them astray, was thrown into the lake of fire and sulphur where the beast and the false prophet are. And they shall be tortured day and night forever and ever. And I saw a great white throne and Him who was sitting on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before the throne, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged from what was written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and the grave gave up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. And the death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death.1 Footnote: 1See 2:11, 20:6, 21:8. And if anyone was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. ” (Revelation 20:7-15 The Scriptures 1998+)
““But as for the cowardly, and untrustworthy, and abominable, and murderers, and those who whore, and drug sorcerers, and idolaters, and all the false, their part is in the lake which burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.” ” (Revelation 21:8 The Scriptures 1998+)

Therefore let us not being corrupted, be thirsting from the ‘spring of the water of life’ Jesus Christ the Messiah without cost. Hoping to be by the ones having been written in the Scroll of Life of the Lamb of God.

Let us look forward to the Return of Christ and to the moment that Jehovah will wipe away tears from off all faces. That day when many shall see the Father of יהושע Jesus (Jeshua) and call out “this is our God”; we have waited for him, and He will save us: this is Jehovah; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

Please do find also:

In Dutch:

+++

Jesus begotten Son of God #14 Beloved Preminent Son and Mediator originating in Mary (christadelphians.wordpress.com)
Too Soon? (withapology.wordpress.com)
Yahshua also knew the goal. In order for the redemption to be just and complete Yahshua could not have been given a better shot.
+
Yahshua knowingly and willingly faced death because he knew it would benefit others, that seems like a kind of guy you would like to keep around. Yahshua, like Adam, however was tempted with the short cut.
+
We have less of an excuse then Adam did. Adam spoiled his dinner by eating from the cookie jar too soon, yet all we eat are the cookies because we refuse to do differently. A part of that is due to the sin nature. However since the death, resurrection, and ascension of Yahshua we don’t even have that excuse to fall back on. Yahshua died to give us the grace to not only overcome temptation, but to overcome the cause of temptation, the curse of the Tree of Knowledge. We do this by doing what Adam should have done.
+
Yahweh knows that knowledge is a powerful tool, and that people with powerful tools usually hurt themselves. So be patient and obey his commands. By doing so we can make the right decisions and we can then apply wisdom to our knowledge of Good and Evil.

Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 15 so far )

Another way looking at a language #3 Abraham

Posted on November 17, 2011. Filed under: Bible Study and Bible Reading, Holy Scriptures, Life and Death, Satan and Evil | Tags: Abraham, Bosom of Abraham, Devil, Dutch, Hades, Hell, Jews, Language, Lazarus, Parable, Rich man and Lazarus, Satan |

Another way looking at a language

8. Proverbs and verbatim

As today in Dutch ( Nederlands), and probably also in other languages as in English, we can find a lot of words which got a totally different or new extra meaning, so it happened in the early centuries of our Contemporary Timetable as well. Though many expressions we find in our day to day speech came originally from the Biblical times and can be found in the Bible books.

“Hij staat goed aangeschreven” or “to be in a person’s good books” can for example been tracked to Exodus 32:32 and “Zie niet aan, wat voor ogen is” to 1 Samuel 16:7 “for man looketh on the outward appearance, but Jehovah looketh on the heart.” or “zonder aanziens” “without fear or favour” from Romans 2:11, Deuteronomy 10:17 and Matthew 22:16: “For there is no acceptance of faces with God,” (Romans 2:11 YLT); “For Jehovah your God, he is God of gods, and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, and the terrible, who regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward.” (Deuteronomy 10:17 ASV); “… for thou regardest not the person of men.” (Matthew 22:16 ASV).

North door of iconostasis. Icon of Paradise: Abraham's Bosom with the Good Thief entering to the left

“Hij zit op Abrahams schoot” literally meaning “he is sitting on Abrahams lap” or “Hij is van voor Abraham” literally translated “he is from Abrahams time”, though in normal language nobody is going to think he really was born before Abraham and is still living today, though with English speaking people we do find a lot of problems in their understanding of “I was before Abraham”. When we in Dutch say “she was born before Abraham” we do not mean the same as Jesus did, because today it means that she is an old fashioned person. But you can understand it would give problems if people from another language would go and take it literally, thinking that this woman existed before Abraham.

Also when we say “Hij of zij heeft Abraham gezien” or “he or she has seen Abraham” we do not mean that that person has actually met Abraham, seen or spoken to him, but we only indicate that that person has past half a century. The person is more than 50 years old but not thousands of years old.

9. Carried away into Abraham’s bosom

The Story of Lazarus and Dives. Lazarus and the rich man are shown during life in the top register, in the middle is Lazarus in the Bosom of Abraham, and at the bottom Dives is suffering in Hades. + The word in the Greek text for "bosom" is kolpos, meaning "lap" "bay" relating to the Second Temple period practice of reclining and eating meals in proximity to other guests, the closest of whom physically was said to lie on the bosom (chest) of the host. (See John 13:23 ) - Illuminated manuscript, Codex Aureus of Echternach, c. 1035-1040. (Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg.)

In Dutch it is clear as in Yiddish and Hebrew that the person of the Aramaic or Greek writing in Luke 16:22-23 that the beggar El‘azar or Lazarus was not literally carried by angel-persons or ghosts: “And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and that he was carried away by the angels into (אברהם) Abraham’s bosom: and the rich man also died, and was buried. And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.” (Luke 16:22-23 ASV) In the East it was common to lie down at the meal, at the table on “rustbanken” or couches or settees. Often the head of one person rested against the bosom or breast of the other. After a nice meal it was not uncommon as it is still done in several ‘hot’ countries to take a little nap after dinner. The beggar did not get “Lazarus” (from “Lazarus worden” = “becoming drunk”, had drank too much alcohol) but was carried away in his death to come into Abraham his arms, meaning in the safety of our forefather.
“The rich man and Lazarus” passage is cited as a literal description of actual events (and not as a parable) Stress is often placed upon words “there was a certain rich man” to emphasize the historical character of the language used. But in Luke 16:1 the parable of the unjust steward commences with the same language. Must this parable be read literally? (Similar language is used in other parables—sees Luke 12:16) Jesus did not definitely call it a parable.

Religious bodies like the Church of Christ hold the view that disbelievers go to hell (left hand side of the divided state of Hades or Sheol ()) whereas idol worshippers go straight to the lake of fire. It should be pointed out that this view puts Abraham in the lake of fire and not in Hades since it is recorded that Abraham “was gathered unto his people” (Genesis 25:8) and his people were idol worshippers. (Joshua 24:2) Lazarus is the only character personally named in the parables of Jesus, implying that Lazarus must have been known to the audience. This parable of Jesus might have been uttered after he received news of the death of his friend, Lazarus. The parable was given at Pereae, east of the Jordan at Bethabara (where news of Lazarus’ death came to him, John 11:6 cf. John 10:40; 1:28). It was an easy day’s journey from Bethabara to Bethany. Lazarus was typical of all Jews of this day. They were deprived of even the most meagre crumbs of the bread of life from the rich man’s table. (i.e., High Priestly class, but Caiaphas in particular). However much Lazarus might patiently await the rich man’s (Caiaphas) condescension, the High Priest was incapable of dispensing even spiritual crumbs.” {The Lazarus class was like the Gentile dogs who hoped for crumbs from their Master’s table. (Matthew 15:27).}

The passage speaks about bodies not souls. e.g., eyes, bosom (vs.23) tip of finger and tongue (vs. 24). Souls are said to be immaterial (the material body being left in the grave), how then could Lazarus (if really a soul) be carried by angels? (vs.22). How could Lazarus go literally to Abraham’s bosom? Abraham (as now) was unquestionably dead and without his reward. (Hebrews 11:8, 13, 39, 40).

Lazarus dies and in the parable, the premature death of Caiaphas is made to follow. In Hades they meet but in situations reversed. Caiaphas requests Abraham (with whom he claimed privilege by virtue of ancestry, (Matthew 3:9)) to warn his five brothers. The five brothers are the five brothers-in-law of Caiaphas, the Sadduceean High Priest. Caiaphas was son-in-law of Annas who had been deposed by the Romans for openly resisting them. The request is refused on the grounds that they had not heard Moses and the Prophets (e.g. in their attitude to adultery and resurrection, Luke 16:18; 20:27–38) nor would they respond if one rose from the dead. The resurrection of Lazarus further incensed the Pharisees, chief priests and Caiaphas who feared their loss of power. (John. 11:47–57).

The parable condemns Caiaphas the chief Shepherd of Israel for his selfish irresponsibility in neglecting the spiritual and material needs of Jews in Israel. Lazarus represents this neglected class. The parable is a further indictment of the Sadducees (who denied the resurrection of the body and were about to reject the miraculous resurrection of Lazarus) in their disbelief of Moses and the prophets. The parable is presented in terms of the popular belief of the Pharisees about the death state.

Codex Aureus Epternacensis (Goldenes Evangeliar), Prunkhandschrift, Szene: Gleichnis vom reichen Prasser und vom armen Lazarus, Folio 78 recto, detail

{Sheol = synonym of “bor” (pit), “abaddon” and “shaḥat” (pit or destruction), and perhaps also of “tehom” (abyss) = and denotes a place of abandon, a place to leave someone behind or grave.}

10. Point of view

Print by Gustave Doré illustrating the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, from the Gospel of Luke (1891)

Every time we do read something in the Holy Scriptureswe do have to look from which point of view it was been written and to whom it was said with the understanding that those who listened should get the meaning from their point of view.

The same it is for having a Satan around, meaning a ‘devil‘, not indicating a monstrous figure from a place called hell, but a bad person or an opponent, adversary, enemy and sometimes also an avenger. Lots of Christians would say about one or another person that he or she is a Satan, but do still want to believe that there is a real Satan lurking around the corner, who could capture that person away and bring them to places to burn for eternally, while they sometimes really say to someone else ‘go to hell” and ” burn forever”. (Would you really think they mean that really that person has to be smoked and can be put in a non ending fire?)

Therefore it is important that we try to find out where “Abraham got the mustard” (from) “waar Abraham de mosterd heeft vandaan gehaald” which has no similar equivalent in English where they would say: “to know how many beans go to the dozen” or “…. make five”.

Continues

Previous: Another way looking at a language #2 Meanings

+++

“Needer-lands” The life of a Canadian au pair in Aerdenhout Netherlands > “The closest English word you have is “cosy” but that only covers part of it.”
Instilled with a superiority complex, I was of the mindset that anything said in another language could be translated, with its full value intact, to English; being one of the “largest and more complex” languages of the world, how could it not accurately convey the meaning of the rather “primitive counterparts”? However, upon coming to the Netherlands, my outlook as changed substantially. Not only is the word’s largest dictionary the “Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal” (Dictionary of the Dutch Language), there are words in the Dutch language that [as far as I know] English lacks – descriptions of a complex situational/emotional/societal state by a sole descriptor. You could argue that these words can be effectively translated, however in my attempts I’ve found that nearly all the depth is lost in translation – the English words sound banal in comparison.
+

Gezellig:Google Translate tells you this means cosy – it can. I’m going to quote Wikipedia for this one, they’ve worded it so well!“A perfect example of untranslatability is seen in the Dutch language through the word gezellig, which does not have an English equivalent. Literally, it means cozy, quaint, or nice, but can also connote time spent with loved ones, seeing a friend after a long absence, or general togetherness.”

Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 6 so far )

Self inflicted misery #6 Paying by death

Posted on July 29, 2011. Filed under: Life and Death, Suffering, Thought | Tags: Christ, Christ Jesus, Christendom and Christianity, Death, End Times, God, Jesus, punishment, Salvation, Times |

Self inflicted misery to bear

6. Paying by death

The people Jesus brought to live had to die again. As long as the world did not come to face the End of the Times, the world had to pay for her sins by death. You could say that is the penalty God has given us and the rest of the world. He is a loving and righteous God who does not give further punishments. The punishment of having to dieis already bad enough, and is the worst of all punishments.

An imagination by people how Jesus Christ died on a cross (instead on the stake) - Image via Wikipedia

Christ after death. - Central part of a mosaic in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem,

But God out of His love has foreseen that those who really want to go for Him can find comfort in the hope for better tidings. For us death has not to be the tragedy as it is for lots of men. It may be a solace that we may find consolation in the work of Christ Jesus the Saviour, who was willing to give his body for us all. Thanks to the offer of this man any man or woman, accepting him, may aspire to a live in God’s future Kingdom forever.

Continuous: Self inflicted misery #7 Good news to our suffering

Meaning of life

Dead and after

Destination of righteous

Gods promises

Looking for blessed hope

Offer in our suffering

Resurrection of Jesus Christ

Admittance with Christ

Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 9 so far )

Fragments from the Book of Job #3: chapters 21-26

Posted on June 19, 2011. Filed under: Bible Study and Bible Reading, Jehovah יהוה YHWH JHVH God Elohim Yahweh Jahweh, Life and Death, Satan and Evil, Suffering | Tags: Adversary, Adversary of God, Almighty, Bad people, benefits, blameless, Blessing, boldness, Book of Job, Commandments, corruption, council, Day of Vengeance, dead, Death, Deceiver, destruction, Ecclesiastes, Eliphaz, Evil, Evildoers, Exhaltation, Fear, God, Good people, grave, graveyard, hearken, Hope, Humble, humbleness, innocence, innocent, Job, judgement, Knowledge, Life, Listening, Lord, mighty, offspring, Old Testament, omnipotent, poor, power, property, Psalms, Redeemer, reproof, reward, Sin, solution, Truth, Understanding, Ungodly, Unrighteousness, Vengeance, vindication, Wicked, Wisdom |

Job and his friends agreed that God is omnipotent, omniscient, has all the wisdom and strength, is just, and perfectly good. They could bring forwards that an omniscient being knows every way in which evils can come into existence and has the power to prevent that evil from coming into existence. God can just say anything and it will happen.

The deceived and the deceiver are His, no matter what happens and how the mighty may think they can rule the earth, they shall find their end as anybody else. Perhaps even worse, because the world can turn against them. For he has crushed and abandoned the poor; he has seized a house that he did not build, he can have get to a point where those oppressed turn against him. Zophar argued that neither the wicked man (Job 20: 12–19) nor his offspring (Job 20: 10) will enjoy the benefits of what he has acquired, because he has gained it through the oppression of others (Job 20:19–21). Now Job is going to argue not only that the wicked prosper and their offspring flourish (Job 21: 7–8), but also that their lives often appear unhindered by any of the signs of judgment that the friends so confidently describe Job 21:9–13). Furthermore, Job points out that the evidence for what he is claiming is not even concealed by the wicked themselves, who choose to follow their pursuits with open indifference to and even proclaimed defiance against the Lord (Job 21:14–16).

When bad people at their time on earth managed to do evil things you can wonder how from those bad things could come good things. ( Job 14:4 ) “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?” Job describes human life as hard and short, a theme already declared to the friends in 7:1–10, and uses this question and answer to point out that no mortal is able to work outside of the limits that God has set (see also 14:5). The light of the sinner shall be put out, and the flame of his fire shall not shine any more. The steps of his strength shall have become short, and by his design destruction shall overtake him. The oh so mighty shall also be overcome by fears on every side, which shall go after him at every step. His strength shall be made feeble for need of food, and destruction shall be waiting for his falling footstep. Like all people he shall have to face the other side of life, being sent away from the light into the dark; forced out of the world. At his fate those of the west are shocked, and those of the east are overcome with fear. Truly, these are the houses of the sinner, and this is the place of him who has no knowledge of God. Yes we may be sure, nobody can escape death. Under the earth his roots are dry, and over it his branch is cut off. His memory is gone from the earth, and in the open country there is no knowledge of his name. (Job 18:5-21)

In Fragments from the Book of Job #2: chapters 12-20 we read that Eliphaz, who gives his third and last speech (Job 22:1-30), revisited the central questions of his first response (see 4:17–21): if God does not trust fully even his heavenly servants (15:15), how can Job, as a mere man (Job 15: 14), continue to protest his innocence (Job 15:16)? Though Job is a unblemished person Eliphaz portrays the wicked man to implicate Job. The evil man is in pain all his days, and the number of the years stored up for the cruel seems to be small. The wicked shall get a sound of fear in his ears; in time of peace destruction will come on him. For him there shall come a time that there shall not be any hope of coming safe out of the dark, and his fate will be the dead. Then he may be certain that the day of trouble shall be ready for him. Though many may think he is not frightened, he also shall greatly be in fear of that what shall come over him, the gloomy moments with trouble and pain.
We may be sure any adversary of God, every one who stretches his hand out against God, and lifts his heart up against the Ruler of all, shall one day have to face the consequences of it. (Job 15:21-25)

Job Speaks with His Friends (Job 2:1-13) - Doré's English Bible 1866

From the text we may see that Job his friends have failed as comforters (16:2–5), even though comfort was their original purpose for coming to him (see 2:11). Their condemnation leaves death as Job’s only hope, but to long for death is to give up on any possibility of vindication and is no hope at all (17:10–16). We, no matter what happens have received the hope of the Blessed Tidings. In case we believe in the Good Tidings and in the beautiful prospects God has promised we do not have to worry, because man can do us not as much as he thinks and cannot bring death over us. We also have to realise as Job that God alone is our hope for vindication. This was not clear to Job at first ( 16:21 distinguishes the “witness” from God but became more clear later; cf. 19:25.)

Sometimes it may look that the graveyard is ready for us. (Job 17:1) Believing that God has giving a solution and trusting in his son and that things are destined to occur (Luke 21:7), knowing that we as animals have a time for birth and a time to die or to be caught and destroyed. So let us be as the living be conscious that death will come to us, but that the dead are not conscious of anything, and they no longer have a reward, because there is no memory of them, so the evildoers shall have to face the same nothingness. Their love and their hate and their envy shall than be ended; and they have no longer a part for ever in anything which is done under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 3:19; 9:5-6; 2 Peter 2:12)

Last time Job concluded with the wish that his belief in God’s vindication of him would be inscribed in rock as a permanent witness (Job 19: 23–27) and with a warning to his friends against continuing to pursue him with such anger and certainty that they are right, lest they fall under the very sort of judgement they assume has fallen on Job (Job 19: 28–29). Job now gives his last reply to his friends (Job 27:1-31:40) with a protestation of innocence (Job 27:1-23) and a pronouncement concerning wisdom (Job 28:1-28) and a panorama of his life (Job 29:1-31:40).

Do we want to listen the council of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself? Do we know that our Redeemer lives?

Job had almost stumbled, how is it with us? do we not often have such bad moments that we are envious for the others ones’, the ones who do not believe and seem to have it so much better than us? Did our steps not nearly slipped as did Jobs and King David’s? (Psalm 73:2-3). Have we not such moments that we have the same as those examples in the Old Testament, being envious of the arrogant when we see the prosperity of the wicked?

In addition to the argument that a person’s circumstances are not necessarily a transparent indicator of blessing or judgement, there is an additional warning embedded in Job’s description: many people are fooled by the external circumstances of the evil man (who is the subject of this description, see Job 31: 30-34) into following him in life and honouring him in death.

***

Brenton Translation
1851 by Lancelot Brenton

Job Chapter 21

Job 21:1 But Job answered and said,
Job 21:2 Hear ye, hear ye my words, that I may not have this consolation from you.
Job 21:3 Raise me, and I will speak; then ye shall not laugh me to scorn.
Job 21:4 What! is my reproof of man? and why should I not be angry?

Job 21:5 Look upon me, and wonder, laying your hand upon your cheek.
Job 21:6 For even when I remember, I am alarmed, and pains seize my flesh.
Job 21:7 Wherefore do the ungodly live, and grow old even in wealth?
Job 21:8 Their seed is according to [their] desire, and their children are in [their] sight.
Job 21:9 Their houses are prosperous, neither [have they] any where [cause for] fear, neither is there a scourge from the Lord upon them.
Job 21:10 Their cow does not cast her calf, and their [beast] with young is safe, and does not miscarry.
Job 21:11 And they remain as an unfailing flock, and their children play before [them], taking up the psaltery and harp;
Job 21:12 and they rejoice at the voice of a song.
Job 21:13 And they spend their days in wealth, and fall asleep in the rest of the grave.
Job 21:14 Yet [such a man] says to the Lord, Depart from me; I desire not to know thy ways.

Job 21:15 What is the Mighty One, that we should serve him? and what profit is there that we should approach him?
Job 21:16 For their good things were in [their] hands, but he regards not the works of the ungodly.

Job 21:17 Nevertheless, the lamp of the ungodly also shall be put out, and destruction shall come upon them, and pangs of vengeance shall seize them.
Job 21:18 And they shall be as chaff before the wind, or as dust which the storm has taken up.

Job 21:19 Let his substance fail [to supply] his children: [God] shall recompense him, and he shall know it.
Job 21:20 Let his eyes see his own destruction, and let him not be saved by the Lord.
Job 21:21 For his desire is in his house with him, and the number of his months has been suddenly cut off.

Job 21:22 Is it not the Lord who teaches understanding and knowledge? and does not he judge murders?
Job 21:23 One shall die in his perfect strength, and wholly at ease and prosperous;
Job 21:24 and his inwards are full of fat, and his marrow is diffused [throughout him].
Job 21:25 And another dies in bitterness of soul, not eating any good thing.
Job 21:26 But they lie down in the earth together, and corruption covers them.

Job 21:27 So I know you, that ye presumptuously attack me:
Job 21:28 so that ye will say, Where is the house of the prince? and where is the covering of the tabernacles of the ungodly?
Job 21:29 Ask those that go by the way, and do not disown their tokens.
Job 21:30 For the wicked hastens to the day of destruction: they shall be led away for the day of his vengeance.
Job 21:31 Who will tell him his way to his face, whereas he has done [it]? who shall recompense him?
Job 21:32 And he has been led away to the tombs, and he has watched over the heaps.
Job 21:33 The stones of the valley have been sweet to him, and every man shall depart after him, and [there are] innumerable [ones] before him.

Job 21:34 How then do ye comfort me in vain? whereas I have no rest from your molestation.

Job 22:1 Then Eliphaz the Thaemanite answered and said,
Job 22:2 Is it not the Lord that teaches understanding and knowledge?
Job 22:3 For what matters it to the Lord, if thou wert blameless in [thy] works? or is it profitable that thou shouldest perfect thy way?

Job 22:4 Wilt thou maintain and plead thine own cause? and will he enter into judgment with thee?
Job 22:5 Is not thy wickedness abundant, and thy sins innumerable?
Job 22:6 And thou hast taken security of thy brethren for nothing, and hast taken away the clothing of the naked.
Job 22:7 Neither hast thou given water to the thirsty to drink, but hast taken away the morsel of the hungry.
Job 22:8 And thou hast accepted the persons of some; and thou hast established those [that were already settled] on the earth.
Job 22:9 But thou hast sent widows away empty, and has afflicted orphans.
Job 22:10 Therefore snares have compassed thee, and disastrous war has troubled thee.

Job 22:11 The light has proved darkness to thee, and water has covered thee on thy lying down.
Job 22:12 Does not he that dwells in the high places observe? and has he not brought down the proud?
Job 22:13 And thou has said, What does the Mighty One know? does he judge in the dark?
Job 22:14 A cloud is his hiding-place, and he shall not be seen; and he passes through the circle of heaven.
Job 22:15 Wilt thou [not] mark the old way, which righteous men have trodden?
Job 22:16 who were seized before their time: their foundations [are as] an overflowing stream.

Job 22:17 Who say, What will the Lord do to us? or what will the Almighty bring upon us?
Job 22:18 Yet he filled their houses with good things: but the counsel for the wicked is far from him.
Job 22:19 The righteous have seen [it], and laughed, and the blameless one has derided [them].
Job 22:20 Verily their substance has been utterly destroyed, and the fire shall devour what is left of their [property].

Job 22:21 Be firm, I pray thee, if thou canst endure; then thy fruit shall prosper.
Job 22:22 And receive a declaration from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart.

Job 22:23 And if thou shalt turn and humble thyself before the Lord, thou hast [thus] removed unrighteousness far from thy habitation.
Job 22:24 Thou shalt lay up for thyself [treasure] in a heap on the rock; and Sophir [shall be] as the rock of the torrent.

Job 22:25 So the Almighty shall be thy helper from enemies, and he shall bring thee forth pure as silver that has been tried by fire.
Job 22:26 Then shalt thou have boldness before the Lord, looking up cheerfully to heaven.
Job 22:27 And he shall hear thee when thou prayest to him, and he shall grant thee [power] to pay thy vows.
Job 22:28 And he shall establish to thee again a habitation of righteousness and there shall be light upon thy paths.
Job 22:29 Because thou hast humbled thyself; and thou shalt say, [Man] has behaved proudly, but he shall save him that is of lowly eyes.
Job 22:30 He shall deliver the innocent, and do thou save thyself by thy pure hands.

Job 23:1 Then Job answered and said,
Job 23:2 Yea, I know that pleading is out of my reach; and his hand has been made heavy upon my groaning.
Job 23:3 Who would then know that I might find him, and come to an end [of the matter]?
Job 23:4 And I would plead my own cause, and he would fill my mouth with arguments.
Job 23:5 And I would know the remedies which he would speak to me, and I would perceive what he would tell me.
Job 23:6 Though he should come on me in [his] great strength, then he would not threaten me;
Job 23:7 for truth and reproof are from him; and he would bring forth my judgment to an end.

Job 23:8 For if I shall go first, and exist no longer, still what do I know [concerning] the latter end?
Job 23:9 When he wrought on the left hand, then I observed [it] not: his right hand shall encompass me but I shall not see [it].
Job 23:10 For he knows already my way; and he has tried me as gold.

Job 23:11 And I will go forth according to his commandments, for I have kept his ways; and I shall not turn aside from his commandments,
Job 23:12 neither shall I transgress; but I have hid his words in my bosom.

Job 23:13 And if too he has thus judged, who is he that has contradicted, for he has both willed [a thing] and done it.
Job 23:14 <>
Job 23:15 (23:14) Therefore am I troubled at him; and when I was reproved, I thought of him. (23:15) Therefore let me take good heed before him: I will consider, and be afraid of him.

Job 23:16 But the Lord has softened my heart, and the Almighty has troubled me.
Job 23:17 For I knew not that darkness would come upon me, and thick darkness has covered [me] before my face.

Job 24:1 But why have the seasons been hidden from the Lord,
Job 24:2 while the ungodly have passed over the bound, carrying off the flock with the shepherd?
Job 24:3 They have led away, the ass of the fatherless, and taken the widow’s ox for a pledge.
Job 24:4 They have turned aside the weak from the right way: and the meek of the earth have hidden themselves together.
Job 24:5 And they have departed like asses in the field, having gone forth on my account according to their own order: his bread is sweet to [his] little ones.
Job 24:6 They have reaped a field that was not their own before the time: the poor have laboured in the vineyards of the ungodly without pay and without food.
Job 24:7 They have caused many naked to sleep without clothes, and they have taken away the covering of their body.
Job 24:8 They are wet with the drops of the mountains: they have embraced the rock, because they had no shelter.
Job 24:9 They have snatched the fatherless from the breast, and have afflicted the outcast.
Job 24:10 And they have wrongfully caused [others] to sleep without clothing, and taken away the morsel of the hungry.
Job 24:11 They have unrighteously laid wait in narrow places, and have not known the righteous way.

Job 24:12 Who have cast forth [the] poor from the city and their own houses, and the soul of the children has groaned aloud.
Job 24:13 Why then has he not visited these? forasmuch as they were upon the earth, and took no notice, and they knew not the way of righteousness, neither have they walked in their [appointed] paths?
Job 24:14 But having known their works, he delivered them into darkness: and in the night one will be as a thief:
Job 24:15 and the eye of the adulterer has watched [for] the darkness, saying, Eye shall not perceive me, and he puts a covering on his face.
Job 24:16 In darkness he digs through houses: by day they conceal themselves securely: they know not the light.
Job 24:17 For the morning is to them all [as] the shadow of death, for [each] will be conscious of the terror of the shadow of death.

Job 24:18 He is swift on the face of the water: let his portion be cursed on the earth; and let their plants be laid bare.
Job 24:19 [Let them be] withered upon the earth; for they have plundered the sheaves of the fatherless.
Job 24:20 Then is his sin brought to remembrance, and he vanishes like a vapour of dew: but let what he has done be recompensed to him, and let every unrighteous one be crushed like rotten wood.
Job 24:21 For he has not treated the barren woman well, and has had no pity on a feeble woman.
Job 24:22 And in wrath he has overthrown the helpless: therefore when he has arisen, [a man] will not feel secure of his own life.

Job 24:23 When he has fallen sick, let him not hope to recover: but let him perish by disease.
Job 24:24 For his exaltation has hurt many; but he has withered as mallows in the heat, or as an ear of corn falling off of itself from the stalk.
Job 24:25 But if not, who is he that says I speak falsely, and will make my words of no account?

Job 25:1 Then Baldad the Sauchite answered and said,
Job 25:2 What beginning or fear is his—even he that makes all things in the highest?
Job 25:3 For let none think that there is a respite for robbers: and upon whom will there not come a snare from him?
Job 25:4 For how shall a mortal be just before the Lord? or who that is born of a woman shall purify himself?
Job 25:5 If he gives an order to the moon, then it shines not; and the stars are not pure before him.
Job 25:6 But alas! man is corruption, and the son of man a worm.

Job 26:1 But Job answered and said,
Job 26:2 To whom dost thou attach thyself, or whom art thou going to assist? is it not he that [has] much strength, and [he] who has a strong arm?
Job 26:3 To whom hast thou given counsel? is it not to him who has all wisdom? whom wilt thou follow? is it not one who has the greatest power?
Job 26:4 To whom hast thou uttered words? and whose breath is it that has come forth from thee?

Job 26:5 Shall giants be born from under the water and the inhabitants thereof?
Job 26:6 Hell is naked before him, and destruction has no covering.
Job 26:7 He stretches out the north wind upon nothing, and he upon nothing hangs the earth;
Job 26:8 binding water in his clouds, and the cloud is not rent under it.
Job 26:9 He keeps back the face of his throne, stretching out his cloud upon it.
Job 26:10 He has encompassed the face of the water by an appointed ordinance, until the end of light and darkness.
Job 26:11 The pillars of heaven are prostrate and astonished at his rebuke.
Job 26:12 He has calmed the sea with [his] might, and by [his] wisdom the whale has been overthrown.
Job 26:13 And the barriers of heaven fear him, and by a command he has slain the apostate dragon.
Job 26:14 Behold, these are parts of his way; and we will hearken to him at the least intimation of his word: but the strength of his thunder who knows, when he shall employ [it]?

Continues: Fragments from the Book of Job #4: chapters 27-31

Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 4 so far )

Fragments from the Book of Job #2: chapters 12-20

Posted on June 18, 2011. Filed under: Bible Study and Bible Reading, Jehovah יהוה YHWH JHVH God Elohim Yahweh Jahweh, Life and Death, Satan and Evil, Suffering | Tags: Adversary, Adversary of God, Almighty, Bildad, Book of Job, courage, dead, Death, Deity, Desire, distress, dying, Eliphaz, Evil, Fear, God, God's character, grave, Hades, iniquity, injustice, Job, Life, mortal, mortality, Old Testament, Omnibenevolent, omnipotent, perish, Problems, prosper, Righteous person, Salvation, Sin, sleep, strenght, Suffering, transgression, Ungodly, Universal deity, unrighteous, Vanity, Wicked, Wisdom, Wrath, wrong doing, Zophar |

Etymologically the name Job could be related to the Hebrew word for “enemy,” with reference to either Job’s attitude to God or his response to suffering. The name might also be a contracted form of “Where is my father?”

In Fragments from the Book of Job #1: chapters 1-12 we could find the blameless and upright man in character, blessed in family and possessions, whose life embodied the fear of God both for himself and on behalf of his family (1:1–5). But then the adversaries and Job’s three friends (Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite) who came to offer sympathy and comfort, were trying to put the wrong doings from Job at the cause of his problems. These friends represent an oversimplified “orthodoxy,” based on a misreading of the wisdom tradition to the effect that all troubles are punishments for wrongdoing. Their “comfort” consists largely of applying this message to Job, urging him to identify his sin and repent of it. In so doing, these friends serve as a mirror for all readers who might be inclined to say similar things to people in distress.

An early engraving by Blake for the Book of Job

The book tries to to explain evil and placing the Universal deity that is omnibenevolent, omnipotent, and omniscient in it. Throughout the dialogue, Job tries to maintain that he is in the right while also arguing God’s character back to him in lament about why his righteousness and justice do not appear to be borne out in events on earth.

In the previous chapters a light is also shed on the wrong idea that there would be some after life. Job is aware that when we die it is finished and we become put in the ground not being able to do anything. We could look at death as Job describes it, namely as rest from the toil of life. ( Job 3:13–19) When we die we come into a state as if we sleep or as a hidden stillborn child, as infants who never see the light (Job 3:16). All cease from troubling, and there the weary can come at rest and be freed from each other and equal in the same position, to become dust. For man, when he is dead, perishes, and consumes away, what becomes of him? So man after he is asleep rises not, he shall not wake till the heavens be no more, nor rise out of his sleep. (Job 14:10-12) Therefore Job longs at a certain moment to be cut off of all his problems. so that he could rest from his suffering, knowing that he had not denied God (6:10). Job found his life unbearable on account of the empty comfort offered by his friends (6:14–30) and what he describes as the continued watchfulness of God (7:11–21).

Eliphaz wonders if Mortal Man can be in the Right before God. Jobs friends are arguing precisely that a righteous person can be in the right before God.

The friends assume that both Job’s circumstances and his response to them are indications that he is in the wrong before God and needs to acknowledge and repent of his sin. However, Job will insist not only that he is not guilty of some hidden iniquity but that it is God who ultimately has allowed and governed his circumstances. So he does not curse God’s name or accuse God of injustice but rather seeks an explanation or an account of his wrong doing.

Bildad wonders how it can be that when a man were blameless, he could show himself to be right before the God of justice (see 9:2)? And if shame and disaster are the fate of the wicked, how is it that the wicked so often appear to prosper in relative safety (see 12:6; 21:7)?

***

Coverdale Bible
1535 by Miles Coverdale

Job Chapter 12

Job 12:2 Then (no doute) ye are the men alone, and wysdome shal perish with you.
Job 12:3 But I haue vnderstodinge as well as ye, and am no lesse then ye. Yee who knoweth not these thinges?
Job 12:4 Thus he that calleth vpo God, and whom God heareth, is mocked of his neghboure: the godly & innocent man is laughed to scorne.
Job 12:5 Godlynesse is a light despysed in ye hertes of the rich, & is set for them to stomble vpon.
Job 12:6 The houses of robbers are in wealth and prosperite, & they that maliciously medle agaynst God, dwel without care: yee God geueth all thinges richely with his honde.

Matthew’s Bible
1549 by John Rogers

Job 12:6 The houses of robbers are in wealth & prosperite, and they that maliciously medle agaynst God, dwell without care: ye God geueth all thinges rychely with hys hande.

Job 12:13 Ye with God is wysdome and strength, it is he that hath councell and forknowlege.
Job 12:14 If he breake downe a thinge, who can set it vp agayne? If he shut a thing, who wyll open it?
Job 12:15 Beholde, yf he witholde the waters, they drye vp: Yf he let them go, they destroye the earth.
Job 12:16 With hym is strength and wysdome: he knoweth bothe the disceyuer & hym that is disceyued.
Job 12:17 He caryeth awaye the wyse men, as it were a spoyle, and bringeth the iudges out of their wyttes.
Job 12:18 He lowseth the gyrdle of kynges, and gyrdeth theyr loynes with a bonde.
Job 12:19 He ledeth awaye the Preastes in to captyuyte, and turneth the myghtye vpsyde downe.
Job 12:20 He taketh the verite from out of the mouth, & disapoynteth the aged of their wysdome.
Job 12:21 He poureth out confusyon vpon Princes, and comforteth them that haue bene oppressed.
Job 12:22 Loke what lyeth hyd in darcknesse, he declareth it openly: and the very shadowe of death bringet he to lyght.
Job 12:23 He bothe increaseth the people, and destroyeth them: He maketh them to multiplye and driueth them awaye.
Job 12:24 He chaungeth the herte of the Princes and Kynges of the earth and disapoynteth them: so that they go wandringe out of the waye,
Job 12:25 & grope in the darcke without light, stackeringe to and fro lyke droncken men.

Brenton Translation
1851 by Lancelot Brenton

Job Chapters 13-20

Job 13:1 Behold, mine eye has seen these things, and mine ear has heard [them].
Job 13:2 And I know all that ye too know; and I have not less understanding than you.
Job 13:3 Nevertheless I will speak to the Lord, and I will reason before him, if he will.

…

Job 13:6 But hear ye the reasoning of my mouth, and attend to the judgment of my lips.
Job 13:7 Do ye not speak before the Lord, and utter deceit before him?
Job 13:8 Or will ye draw back? nay do, ye yourselves be judges.

Job 13:9 For [it were] well if he would thoroughly search you: for though doing all things [in your power] ye should attach yourselves to him,
Job 13:10 he will not reprove you at all the less: but if moreover ye should secretly respect persons,
Job 13:11 shall not his whirlpool sweep you round, and terror from him fall upon you?
Job 13:12 And your glorying shall prove in the end to you like ashes, and your body [like a body] of clay.

…

Job 13:15 Though the Mighty One should lay hand upon me, forasmuch as he has begun, verily I will speak, and plead before him.
Job 13:16 And this shall turn to me for salvation; for fraud shall have no entrance before him.

Job 13:17 Hear, hear ye my words, for I will declare in your hearing.
Job 13:18 Behold, I am near my judgment: I know that I shall appear evidently just.

Job 13:19 For who is he that shall plead with me, that I should now be silent, and expire?
Job 13:20 But grant me two things: then I will not hide myself from thy face.
Job 13:21 Withhold [thine] hand from me: and let not thy fear terrify me.
Job 13:22 Then shalt thou call, and I will hearken to thee: or thou shalt speak, and I will give thee an answer.
Job 13:23 How many are my sins and my transgressions? teach me what they are.
Job 13:24 Wherefore hidest thou thyself from me, and deemest me thine enemy?
Job 13:25 Wilt thou be startled [at me], as [at] a leaf shaken by the wind? or wilt thou set thyself against me as against grass borne upon the breeze?
Job 13:26 for thou hast written evil things against me, and thou hast compassed me with the sins of my youth.
Job 13:27 And thou hast placed my foot in the stocks; and thou hast watched all my works, and hast penetrated my heels.
Job 13:28 [I am as] that which waxes old like a bottle, or like a moth-eaten garment.

Job 14:1 For a mortal born of a woman [is] short lived, and full of wrath.
Job 14:2 Or he falls like a flower that has bloomed; and he departs like a shadow, and cannot continue.
Job 14:3 Hast thou not taken account even of him, and caused him to enter into judgment before thee?
Job 14:4 For who shall be pure from uncleanness? not even one;
Job 14:5 if even his life should be [but] one day upon the earth: and his months are numbered by him: thou hast appointed [him] for a time, and he shall by no means exceed [it].

Job 14:6 Depart from him, that he may be quiet, and take pleasure in his life, [though] as a hireling.
Job 14:7 For there is hope for a tree, even if it should be cut down, [that] it shall blossom again, and its branch shall not fail.
Job 14:8 For though its root should grow old in the earth, and its stem die in the rock;
Job 14:9 it will blossom from the scent of water, and will produce a crop, as one newly planted.

Job 14:10 But a man that has died is utterly gone; and when a mortal has fallen, he is no more.
Job 14:11 For the sea wastes in [length of] time, and a river fails and is dried up.
Job 14:12 And man that has lain down [in death] shall certainly not rise again till the heaven be dissolved, and they shall not awake from their sleep.
Job 14:13 For oh that thou hadst kept me in the grave, and hadst hidden me until thy wrath should cease, and thou shouldest set me a time in which thou wouldest remember me!
Job 14:14 For if a man should die, shall he live [again], having accomplished the days of his life? I will wait till I exist again?
Job 14:15 Then shalt thou call, and I will hearken to thee: but do not thou reject the work of thine hands.

Job 14:16 But thou hast numbered my devices: and not one of my sins shall escape thee?
Job 14:17 An thou hast sealed up my transgressions in a bag, and marked if I have been guilty of any transgression unawares.
Job 14:18 And verily a mountain falling will utterly be destroyed, and a rock shall be worn out of its place.
Job 14:19 The waters wear the stones, and waters falling headlong [overflow] a heap of the earth: and thou destroyest the hope of man.
Job 14:20 Thou drivest him to an end, and he is gone: thou settest thy face against him, and sendest him away;
Job 14:21 and though his children be multiplied, he knows [it] not; and if they be few, he is not aware.
Job 14:22 But his flesh is in pain, and his soul mourns.

Job 15:1 Then Eliphaz the Thaemanite answered and said,
Job 15:2 Will a wise man give for answer a [mere] breath of wisdom? and does he fill up the pain of his belly,
Job 15:3 reasoning with improper sayings, and with words wherein is no profit?
Job 15:4 Hast not thou moreover cast off fear, and accomplished such words before the Lord?
Job 15:5 Thou art guilty by the words of thy mouth, neither hast thou discerned the words of the mighty.
Job 15:6 Let thine own mouth, and not me, reprove thee: and thy lips shall testify against thee.

Job 15:7 What! art thou the first man that was born? or wert thou established before the hills?
Job 15:8 Or hast thou heard the ordinance of the Lord? or has God used thee as [his] counsellor? and has wisdom come [only] to thee?
Job 15:9 For what knowest thou, that, we know not? or what understandest thou, which we do not also?
Job 15:10 Truly among us [are] both the old and very aged man, more advanced in days than thy father.
Job 15:11 Thou hast been scourged for [but] few of thy sins: thou hast spoken haughtily [and] extravagantly.
Job 15:12 What has thine heart dared? or what have thine eyes [aimed at],
Job 15:13 that thou hast vented [thy] rage before the Lord, and delivered such words from [thy] mouth?

Job 15:14 For who, being a mortal, [is such] that he shall be blameless? or, [who that is] born of a woman, that he should be just?
Job 15:15 Forasmuch as he trusts not his saints; and the heaven is not pure before him.
Job 15:16 Alas then, abominable and unclean is man, drinking unrighteousness as a draught.
Job 15:17 But I will tell thee, hearken to me; I will tell thee now what I have seen;
Job 15:18 things wise men say, and their fathers have not hidden.
Job 15:19 To them alone the earth was given, and no stranger came upon them.

Job 15:20 All the life of the ungodly [is spent] in care, and the years granted to the oppressor are numbered.
Job 15:21 And his terror is in his ears: just when he seems to be at peace, his overthrow will come.
Job 15:22 Let him not trust that he shall return from darkness, for he has been already made over to the power of the sword.
Job 15:23 And he has been appointed to be food for vultures; and he knows within himself that he is doomed to be a carcass: and a dark day shall carry him away as with a whirlwind.
Job 15:24 Distress also and anguish shall come upon him: he shall fall as a captain in the first rank.
Job 15:25 For he has lifted his hands against the Lord, and he has hardened his neck against the Almighty Lord.
Job 15:26 And he has run against him with insolence, on the thickness of the back of his shield.
Job 15:27 For he has covered his face with his fat, and made layers of fat upon his thighs.
Job 15:28 And let him lodge in desolate cities, and enter into houses without inhabitant: and what they have prepared, others shall carry away.
Job 15:29 Neither shall he at all grow rich, nor shall his substance remain: he shall not cast a shadow upon the earth.
Job 15:30 Neither shall he in any wise escape the darkness: let the wind blast his blossom, and let his flower fall off.
Job 15:31 Let him not think that he shall endure; for his end shall be vanity.
Job 15:32 His harvest shall perish before the time, and his branch shall not flourish.
Job 15:33 And let him be gathered as the unripe grape before the time, and let him fall as the blossom of the olive.

Job 15:34 For death is the witness of an ungodly man, and fire shall burn the houses of them that receive gifts.
Job 15:35 And he shall conceive sorrows, and his end shall be vanity, and his belly shall bear deceit.

Job 16:1 But Job answered and said,
Job 16:2 I have heard many such things: poor comforters are ye all.
Job 16:3 What! is there any reason in vain words? or what will hinder thee from answering?
Job 16:4 I also will speak as ye [do]: if indeed your soul were in my [soul’s] stead, (16:5) then would I insult you with words, and I would shake my head at you.
Job 16:5 (16:6) And would there were strength in my mouth, and I would not spare the movement of my lips.
Job 16:6 (16:7) For if I should speak, I shall not feel the pain of my wound: and if I should be silent, how shall I be wounded the less?

Job 16:7 (16:8) But now he has made me weary, and a worn-out fool; and thou hast laid hold of me.
Job 16:8 (16:9) My falsehood has become a testimony, and has risen up against me: it has confronted me to my face.
Job 16:9 (16:10) In his anger he has cast me down; he has gnashed his teeth upon me: the weapons of his robbers have fallen upon me.
Job 16:10 (16:11) He has attacked me with the keen glances of his eyes; with his sharp [spear] he has smitten me [down] upon my knees; and they have run upon me with one accord.
Job 16:11 (16:12) For the Lord has delivered me into the hands of unrighteous men, and thrown me upon the ungodly.
Job 16:12 (16:13) When I was at peace he distracted me: he took me by the hair of the head, and plucked it out: he set me up as a mark.

Job 16:13 (16:14) They surrounded me with spears, aiming at my reins: without sparing [me] they poured out my gall upon the ground.
Job 16:14 (16:15) They overthrew me with fall upon fall: they ran upon me in [their] might.
Job 16:15 (16:16) They sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and my strength has been spent on the ground.

Job 16:16 (16:17) My belly has been parched with wailing, and darkness is on my eyelids.
Job 16:17 (16:18) Yet there was no injustice in my hands, and my prayer is pure.
Job 16:18 (16:19) Earth, cover not over the blood of my flesh, and let my cry have no place.
Job 16:19 (16:20) And now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is on high.
Job 16:20 (16:21) Let my supplication come to the Lord, and let mine eye weep before him.
Job 16:21 (16:22) Oh that a man might plead before the Lord, even [as] the son of man with his neighbor!
Job 16:22 (16:23) But my years are numbered and [their end] come, and I shall go by the way by which I shall not return.

Job 17:1 I perish, carried away by the wind, and I seek for burial, and obtain [it] not.
Job 17:2 Weary I intreat; and what have I done? and strangers have stolen my goods.

Job 17:3 Who is this? let him join hands with me.
Job 17:4 For thou hast hid their heart from wisdom; therefore thou shalt not exalt them.
Job 17:5 He shall promise mischief to [his] companions: but [their] eyes have failed for [their] children.

Job 17:6 But thou has made me a byword amount the nations, and I am become a scorn to them.
Job 17:7 For my eyes are dimmed through pain; I have been grievously beset by all.
Job 17:8 Wonder has seized true men upon this; and let the just rise up against the transgressor.

Job 17:9 But let the faithful hold on his own way, and let him that is pure of hands take courage.
Job 17:10 Howbeit, do ye all strengthen [yourselves] and come now, for I do not find truth in you.

Job 17:11 My days have passed in groaning, and my heart-strings are broken.
Job 17:12 I have turned the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.
Job 17:13 For if I remain, Hades is my habitation: and my bed has been made in darkness.
Job 17:14 I have called upon death to be my father, and corruption [to be] my mother and sister.
Job 17:15 Where then is yet my hope? or [where] shall I see my good?
Job 17:16 Will they go down with me to Hades, or shall we go down together to the tomb?

Job 18:1 Then Baldad the Sauchite answered and said,
Job 18:2 How long wilt thou continue? forbear, that we also may speak.
Job 18:3 For wherefore have we been silent before thee like brutes?
Job 18:4 Anger has possessed thee: for what if thou shouldest die; would [the earth] under heaven be desolate? or shall the mountains be overthrown from their foundations?
Job 18:5 But the light of the ungodly shall be quenched, and their flame shall not go up.
Job 18:6 His light [shall be] darkness in [his] habitation, and his lamp shall be put out with him.
Job 18:7 Let the meanest of men spoil his goods, and let his counsel deceive [him].
Job 18:8 His foot also has been caught in a snare, [and] let it be entangled in a net.
Job 18:9 And let snares come upon him: he shall strengthen those that thirst for his destruction.
Job 18:10 His snare is hid in the earth, and that which shall take him is by the path.
Job 18:11 Let pains destroy him round about, and let many [enemies] come about him,
Job 18:12 [vex him] with distressing hunger: and a signal destruction has been prepared for him.
Job 18:13 Let the soles of his feet be devoured: and death shall consume his beauty.

Job 18:14 And let health be utterly banished from his tabernacle, and let distress seize upon him with a charge from the king.
Job 18:15 It shall dwell in his tabernacle in his night: his excellency shall be sown with brimstone.

Job 18:16 His roots shall be dried up from beneath, and his crop shall fall away from above.
Job 18:17 Let his memorial perish out of the earth, and his name shall be publicly cast out.
Job 18:18 Let [one] drive him from light into darkness.
Job 18:19 He shall not be known among his people, nor his house preserved on the earth.
Job 18:20 But strangers shall dwell in his possessions: the last groaned for him, and wonder seized the first.
Job 18:21 These are the houses of the unrighteous, and this is the place of them that know not the Lord.

Job 19:1 Then Job answered and said,
Job 19:2 How long will ye vex my soul, and destroy me with words? only know that the Lord has dealt with me thus.
Job 19:3 Ye speak against me; ye do not feel for me, but bear hard upon me.

Job 19:4 Yea verily, I have erred in truth, (but the error abides with myself) (19:4A) in having spoken words which it was not right [to speak]; and my words err, and are unreasonable.

Job 19:5 But alas! for ye magnify yourselves against me, and insult me with reproach.

Job 19:6 Know then that it is the Lord that has troubled [me], and has raised his bulwark against me.

Job 19:7 Behold, I laugh at reproach; I will not speak: [or] I will cry out, but [there is] nowhere judgment.
Job 19:8 I am fenced round about, and can by no means escape: he has set darkness before my face.
Job 19:9 And he has stripped me of my glory, and has taken the crown from my head.
Job 19:10 He has torn me around about, and I am gone: and he has cut off my hope like a tree.
Job 19:11 And he has dreadfully handled me in anger, and has counted me for an enemy.
Job 19:12 His troops also came upon me with one accord, liars in wait compassed my ways.

Job 19:13 My brethren have stood aloof from me; they have recognized strangers [rather] than me: and my friends have become pitiless.
Job 19:14 My nearest of kin have not acknowledged me, and they that knew my name, have forgotten me.
Job 19:15 [As for] my household, and my maid-servants, I was a stranger before them.
Job 19:16 I called my servant, and he hearkened not; and my mouth intreated [him].
Job 19:17 And I besought my wife, and earnestly intreated the sons of my concubines.
Job 19:18 But they rejected me for ever; whenever I rise up, they speak against me.
Job 19:19 They that saw me abhorred me: the very persons whom I had loved, rose up against me.

Job 19:20 My flesh is corrupt under my skin, and my bones are held in [my] teeth.
Job 19:21 Pity me, pity me, O friends; for it is the hand of the Lord that has touched me.
Job 19:22 Wherefore do ye persecute me as also the Lord [does], and are not satisfied with my flesh?
Job 19:23 For oh that my words were written, and that they were recorded in a book forever,
Job 19:24 with an iron pen and lead, or graven in the rocks!

Job 19:25 For I know that he is eternal who is about to deliver me,
Job 19:26 [and] to raise up upon the earth my skin that endures these [sufferings]: for these things have been accomplished to me of the Lord;
Job 19:27 which I am conscious of in myself, which mine eye has seen, and not another, but all have been fulfilled to me in [my] bosom.

Job 19:28 But if ye shall also say, What shall we say before him, and [so] find the root of the matter in him?
Job 19:29 Do ye also beware of deceit: for wrath will come upon transgressors; and then shall they know where their substance is.

Job 20:1 Then Sophar the Minaean answered and said,
Job 20:2 I did not suppose that thou wouldest answer thus: neither do ye understand more than I.
Job 20:3 I will hear my shameful reproach; and the spirit of my understanding answers me.
Job 20:4 Hast thou [not] known these things of old, from the time that man was set upon the earth?
Job 20:5 But the mirth of the ungodly is a signal downfall, and the joy of transgressors is destruction:
Job 20:6 although his gifts should go up to heaven, and his sacrifice reach the clouds.
Job 20:7 For when he shall seem to be now established, then he shall utterly perish: and they that knew him shall say, Where is he?
Job 20:8 Like a dream that has fled away, he shall not be found; and he has fled like a vision of the night.
Job 20:9 The eye has looked upon him, but shall not [see him] again; and his place shall no longer perceive him.

Job 20:10 Let [his] inferiors destroy his children, and let his hands kindle the fire of sorrow.
Job 20:11 His bones have been filled with [vigour of] his youth, and it shall lie down with him in the dust.
Job 20:12 Though evil be sweet in his mouth, [though] he will hide it under his tongue;
Job 20:13 though he will not spare it, and will not leave it, but will keep it in the midst of his throat:
Job 20:14 yet he shall not at all be able to help himself; the gall of an asp is in his belly.
Job 20:15 [His] wealth unjustly collected shall be vomited up; a messenger [of] [wrath] shall drag him out of his house.
Job 20:16 And let him suck the poison of serpents, and let the serpent’s tongue slay him.
Job 20:17 Let him not see the milk of the pastures, nor the supplies of honey and butter.

Job 20:18 He has laboured unprofitably and in vain, [for] wealth of which he shall not taste: [it is] as a lean thing, unfit for food, which he cannot swallow.
Job 20:19 For he has broken down the houses of many mighty men: and he has plundered an habitation, though he built [it] not.

Job 20:20 There is no security to his possessions; he shall not be saved by his desire.
Job 20:21 There is nothing remaining of his provisions; therefore his goods shall not flourish.

Job 20:22 But when he shall seem to be just satisfied, he shall be straitened; and all distress shall come upon him.
Job 20:23 If by any means he would fill his belly, let [God] send upon him the fury of wrath; let him bring a torrent of pains upon him.
Job 20:24 And he shall by no means escape from the power of the sword; let the brazen bow wound him.
Job 20:25 And let the arrow pierce through his body; and let the stars be against his dwelling-place: let terrors come upon him.
Job 20:26 And let all darkness wait for him: a fire that burns not out shall consume him; and let a stranger plague his house.
Job 20:27 And let the heaven reveal his iniquities, and the earth rise up against him.
Job 20:28 Let destruction bring his house to an end; let a day of wrath come upon him.
Job 20:29 This is the portion of an ungodly man from the Lord, and the possession of his goods [appointed him] by the all-seeing [God].

***

° Hades, the underground, Sjeool/Sheol = the grave or the place of : break down, corrupt, decompose, disintegrate, fester, foul, mold, molder, perish, putrefy, rot, spoil, a place where Jesus also went for three days.

Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 9 so far )

Fragments from the Book of Job #1: chapters 1-12

Posted on June 17, 2011. Filed under: Bible Study and Bible Reading, Life and Death, Satan and Evil, Suffering | Tags: blameless, Book of Job, Command of God, Confidence, Death, Devil, Eliphaz, endure, Evil, God, Hell, Hope, horror, innocence, Jehovah, Job, judgement, Knowledge, Life, Lord of lords, mortal, Old Testament, pain, power, Ransom, Religion and Spirituality, Righteous person, Sin, Sinner, Sovereign of all, strenght, Suffering, Terror, transgressor, trembling, Understanding, Ungodly, unrighteous, weak, Wicked, Wickedness, Wisdom, Worshipping, Wrath |

Fragments from the story of Job or Jobab (Job 42:17) and its numerous exegeses attempting to address the problem of evil. (Highlights ours, in purpose for the study on suffering and Gods hand in it. But please take your translation at hand and read the full chapters.)

Brenton Translation
1851 by Lancelot Brenton

Title Page for the Book of Job 1973.005.GR

Title Page for the Book of Job 1973 - Image by Black Country Museums via Flickr

Job Chapters 1-12

Job 1:1 There was a certain man in the land of Ausis, whose name [was] Job; and than man was true, blameless, righteous, [and] godly, abstaining from everything evil.
Job 1:2 And he had seven sons and three daughters.
Job 1:3 And his cattle consisted of seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred she-asses in the pastures, and a very great household, and he had a great husbandry on the earth; and that man was [most] noble of the [men] of the east.

…

Job 1:6 And it came to pass on a day, that behold, the angels of God came to stand before the Lord, and the devil (the adversary) came with them.
Job 1:7 And the Lord said to the devil, Whence art thou come? And the devil answered the Lord, and said, I am come from compassing the earth, and walking up and down in the world.
Job 1:8 And the Lord said to him, Hast thou diligently considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a man blameless, true, godly, abstaining from everything evil?
Job 1:9 Then the devil answered, and said before the Lord, Does Job worship the Lord for nothing?
Job 1:10 Hast thou not made a hedge about him, and about his household, and all his possessions round about? and hast thou not blessed the works of his hands, and multiplied his cattle upon the land?
Job 1:11 But put forth thine hand, and touch all that he has: verily he will bless thee to [thy] face.
Job 1:12 Then the Lord said to the devil, Behold, I give into thine hand all that he has, but touch not himself. So the devil went out from the presence of the Lord.

…

Job 1:20 So Job arose, and rent his garments, and shaved the hair of his head, and fell on the earth, and worshipped,
Job 1:21 and said, I myself came forth naked from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither; the Lord gave, the Lord has taken away: as it seemed good to the Lord, so has it come to pass; blessed be the name of the Lord.
Job 1:22 In all these events that befell him Job sinned not at all before the Lord, and did not impute folly to God.

Job 2:1 And it came to pass on a certain day, that the angels of God came to stand before the Lord, and the devil came among them to stand before the Lord.
Job 2:2 And the Lord, said to the devil, Whence comest thou? Then the devil said before the Lord, I (the evil) am come from going through the world, and walking about the whole earth.
Job 2:3 And the Lord said to the devil, Hast thou then observed my servant Job, that there is none of [men] upon the earth like him, a harmless, true, blameless, godly man, abstaining from all evil? and he yet cleaves to innocence, whereas thou has told [me] to destroy his substance without cause?
Job 2:4 And the devil answered and said to the Lord, Skin for skin, all that a man has will he give as a ransom for his life.
Job 2:5 Nay, but put forth thine hand, and touch his bones and his flesh: verily he will bless thee to [thy] face.
Job 2:6 And the Lord said to the devil, Behold, I deliver him up to thee; only save his life.
Job 2:7 So the devil went out from the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from [his] feet to [his] head.

…

Job 2:10 …Thou hast spoken like one of the foolish women. If we have received good things of the hand of the Lord, shall we not endure evil things? In all these things that happened to him, Job sinned not at all with his lips before God.

…

Job 3:1 After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed his day,
Job 3:2 saying,
Job 3:3 Let the day perish in which I was born, and that night in which they said, Behold a man-child!
Job 3:4 Let that night be darkness, and let not the Lord regard it from above, neither let light come upon it.
Job 3:5 But let darkness and the shadow of death seize it; let blackness come upon it;
Job 3:6 let that day and night be cursed, let darkness carry them away; let it not come into the days of the year, neither let it be numbered with the days of the months.
Job 3:7 But let that night be pain, and let not mirth come upon it, nor joy.
Job 3:8 But let him that curses that day curse it, [even] he that is ready to attack the great whale.
Job 3:9 Let the stars of that night be darkened; let it remain [dark], and not come into light; and let it not see the morning star arise:
Job 3:10 because it shut not up the gates of my mother’s womb, for [so] it would have removed sorrow from my eyes.
Job 3:11 For why died I not in the belly? and [why] did I not come forth from the womb and die immediately?
Job 3:12 and why did the knees support me? and why did I suck the breasts?
Job 3:13 Now I should have lain down and been quiet, I should have slept and been at rest,
Job 3:14 with kings [and] councillors of the earth, who gloried in [their] swords;
Job 3:15 or with rulers, whose gold was abundant, who filled their houses with silver:
Job 3:16 or [I should have been] as an untimely birth proceeding from his mother’s womb, or as infants who never saw light.
Job 3:17 There the ungodly have burnt out the fury of rage; there the wearied in body rest.

…

Job 3:23 Death [is] rest to [such] a man, for God has hedged him in.
Job 3:24 For my groaning comes before my food, and I weep being beset with terror.
Job 3:25 For the terror of which I meditated has come upon me, and that which I had feared has befallen me.
Job 3:26 I was not at peace, nor quiet, nor had I rest; yet wrath came upon me.

Job 4:5 Yet now [that] pain has come upon thee, and touched thee, thou art troubled.
Job 4:6 Is not thy fear [founded] in folly, thy hope also, and the mischief of thy way?
Job 4:7 Remember then who has perished, being pure? or when were the true-hearted utterly destroyed?
Job 4:8 Accordingly as I have seen men ploughing barren places, and they that sow them will reap sorrows for themselves.
Job 4:9 They shall perish by the command of the Lord, and shall be utterly consumed by the breath of his wrath.

…

Job 4:13 But [as when] terror falls upon men, with dread and a sound in the night,
Job 4:14 horror and trembling seized me, and caused all my bones greatly to shake.
Job 4:15 And a spirit came before my face; and my hair and flesh quivered.
Job 4:16 I arose and perceived it not: I looked, and there, was no form before my eyes: but I only heard a breath and a voice, [saying],
Job 4:17 What, shall a mortal be pure before the Lord? or a man be blameless in regard to his works?
Job 4:18 Whereas he trust not in his servants, and perceives perverseness in his angels.
Job 4:19 But [as for] them that dwell in houses of clay, of whom we also are formed of the same clay, he smites them like a moth.
Job 4:20 And from the morning to evening they no longer exist: they have perished, because they cannot help themselves.
Job 4:21 For he blows upon them, and they are withered: they have perished for lack of wisdom.

Job 5:1 But call, if any one will hearken to thee, or if thou shalt see any of the holy angels.
Job 5:2 For wrath destroys the foolish one, and envy slays him that has gone astray.
Job 5:3 And I have seen foolish ones taking root: but suddenly their habitation was devoured.
Job 5:4 Let their children be far from safety, and let them be crushed at the doors of vile men, and let there be no deliverer.
Job 5:5 For what they have collected, the just shall eat; but they shall not be delivered out of calamities: let their strength be utterly exhausted.
Job 5:6 For labour cannot by any means come out of the earth, nor shall trouble spring out of the mountains:
Job 5:7 yet man is born to labour, and [even so] the vulture’s young seek the high places.
Job 5:8 Nevertheless I will beseech the Lord, and will call upon the Lord, the sovereign of all;
Job 5:9 who does great things and untraceable, glorious things also, and marvellous, of which there is no number:
Job 5:10 who gives rain upon the earth, sending water on the earth:
Job 5:11 who exalts the lowly, and raises up them that are lost:
Job 5:12 frustrating the counsels of the crafty, and their hands shall not perform the truth:
Job 5:13 who takes the wise in their wisdom, and subverts the counsel of the crafty
Job 5:14 In the day darkness shall come upon them, and let them grope in the noon-day even as in the night:
Job 5:15 and let them perish in war, and let the weak escape from the hand of the mighty.
Job 5:16 And let the weak have hope, but the mouth of the unjust be stopped.

…

Job 5:17 But blessed [is] the man whom the Lord has reproved; and reject not thou the chastening of the Almighty.
Job 5:18 for he causes [a man] to be in pain, and restores [him] again: he smites, and his hands heal.
Job 5:19 Six time he shall deliver thee out of distresses: and in the seventh harm shall not touch thee.
Job 5:20 In famine he shall deliver thee from death: and in war he shall free thee from the power of the sword.
Job 5:21 He shall hide thee from the scourge of the tongue: and thou shalt not be afraid of coming evils.

Job 6:1 But Job answered and said,
Job 6:2 Oh that one would indeed weigh the wrath that is upon me, and take up my griefs in a balance together!
Job 6:3 And verily they would be heavier than the sand by the seashore: but, as it seems, my words are vain.
Job 6:4 For the arrows of the Lord are in my body, whose violence drinks up my blood: whenever I am going to speak, they pierce me.
Job 6:5 What then? will the wild ass bray for nothing, if he is not seeking food? or again, will the ox low at the manger, when he has a fodder?
Job 6:6 Shall bread be eaten without salt? or again, is there taste in empty words?
Job 6:7 For my wrath cannot cease; for I perceive my food as the smell of a lion [to be] loathsome.
Job 6:8 For oh that he would grant [my desire], and my petition might come, and the Lord would grant my hope!

Job 6:9 Let the Lord begin and wound me, but let him not utterly destroy me.
Job 6:10 Let the grave be my city, upon the walls of which I have leaped: I will not shrink from it; for I have not denied the holy words of my God.
Job 6:11 For what is my strength, that I continue? what is my time, that my soul endures?
Job 6:12 Is my strength the strength of stones? or is my flesh of brass?
Job 6:13 Or have I not trusted in him? but help is [far] from me.
Job 6:14 Mercy has rejected me; and the visitation of the Lord has disregarded me.
Job 6:15 My nearest relations have not regarded me; they have passed me by like a failing brook, or like a wave.
Job 6:16 They who used to reverence me, now have come against me like snow or congealed ice.
Job 6:17 When it has melted at the approach of heat, it is not known what it was.
Job 6:18 Thus I also have been deserted of all; and I am ruined, and become an outcast.

Job 7:1 Is not the life of man upon earth a state of trial? and his existence as that of a hireling by the day?
Job 7:2 Or as a servant that fears his master, and one who has grasped a shadow? or as a hireling waiting for his pay?
Job 7:3 So have I also endured months of vanity, and nights of pain have been appointed me.
Job 7:4 Whenever I lie down, I say, When [will it be] day? and whenever I rise up, again [I say] when [will it be] evening? and I am full of pains from evening to morning.
Job 7:5 And my body is covered with loathsome worms; and I waste away, scraping off clods of dust from my eruption.
Job 7:6 And my life is lighter than a word, and has perished in vain hope.
Job 7:7 Remember then that my life is breath, and mine eye shalt not yet again see good.
Job 7:8 The eye of him that sees me shall not see me [again]: thine eyes are upon me, and I am no more.
Job 7:9 [I am] as a cloud that is cleared away from the sky: for if a man go down to the grave, he shall not come up again:
Job 7:10 and he shall surely not return to his own house, neither shall his place know him any more.
Job 7:11 Then neither will I refrain my mouth: I will speak being in distress; being in anguish I will disclose the bitterness of my soul.
Job 7:12 Am I a sea, or a serpent, that thou hast set a watch over me?

…

Job 7:16 For I shall not live for ever, that I should patiently endure: depart from me, for my life [is] vain.
Job 7:17 For what is man, that thou hast magnified him? or that thou givest heed to him?
Job 7:18 Wilt thou visit him till the morning, and judge him till [the time of] rest?
Job 7:19 How long dost thou not let me alone, nor let me go, until I shall swallow down my spittle?
Job 7:20 If I have sinned, what shall I be able to do, O thou that understandest the mind of men? why hast thou made me as thine accuser, and [why] am I a burden to thee?
Job 7:21 Why hast thou not forgotten my iniquity, and purged my sin? but now I shall depart to the earth; and in the morning I am no more.

Job 8:3 Will the Lord be unjust when he judges; or will he that has made all things pervert justice?
Job 8:4 If thy sons have sinned before him, he has cast them away because of their transgression.
Job 8:5 But be thou early in prayer to the Lord Almighty.
Job 8:6 If thou art pure and true, he will hearken to thy supplication, and will restore to thee the habitation of righteousness.
Job 8:7 Though then thy beginning should be small, yet thy end should be unspeakably great.
Job 8:8 For ask of the former generation, and search diligently among the race of [our] fathers:
Job 8:9 (for we are of yesterday, and know nothing; for our life upon the earth is a shadow:)
Job 8:10 shall not these teach thee, and report [to thee], and bring out words from [their] heart?

…

Job 8:18 If [God] should destroy [him], his place shall deny him. Hast thou not seen such things,
Job 8:19 that such is the overthrow of the ungodly? and out of the earth another shall grow.
Job 8:20 For the Lord will by no means reject the harmless man; but he will not receive any gift of the ungodly.
Job 8:21 But he will fill with laughter the mouth of the sincere, and their lips with thanksgiving.
Job 8:22 But their adversaries shall clothe themselves with shame; and the habitation of the ungodly shall perish.

Job 9:1 Then Job answered and said,
Job 9:2 I know of a truth that it is so: for how shall a mortal man be just before the Lord?
Job 9:3 For if he would enter into judgment with him, [God] would not hearken to him, so that he should answer to one of his charges of a thousand.
Job 9:4 For he is wise in mind, and mighty, and great: who has hardened himself against him and endured?
Job 9:5 Who wears out the mountains, and [men] know it not: who overturns them in anger.
Job 9:6 Who shakes the [earth] under heaven from its foundations, and its pillars totter.
Job 9:7 Who commands the sun, and it rises not; and he seals up the stars.
Job 9:8 Who alone has stretched out the heavens, and walks on the sea as on firm ground.
Job 9:9 Who makes Pleias, and Hesperus, and Arcturus, and the chambers of the south.
Job 9:10 Who does great and unsearchable things; glorious also and excellent things, innumerable.

Job 9:11 If ever he should go beyond me, I shall not see him: if he should pass by me, neither thus have I known [it].
Job 9:12 If he would take away, who shall turn him back? or who shall say to him, What hast thou done?
Job 9:13 For [if] he has turned away [his] anger, the whales under heaven have stooped under him.
Job 9:14 Oh then that he would hearken to me, or judge my cause.

…

Job 9:19 For indeed he is strong in power: who then shall resist his judgment?

…

Job 9:22 Wherefore I said, Wrath slays the great and mighty man.
Job 9:23 For the worthless die, but the righteous are laughed to scorn.
Job 9:24 For they are delivered into the hands of the unrighteous [man]: he covers the faces of the judges [of the earth]: but if it be not he, who is it?

…

Job 9:33 Would that [he] our mediator were [present], and a reprover, and one who should hear [the cause] between both.
Job 9:34 Let him remove [his] rod from me, and let not his fear terrify me:
Job 9:35 so shall I not be afraid, but I will speak: for I am not thus conscious [of guilt].

Job 10:3 Is it good before thee if I be unrighteous? for thou hast disowned the work of thy hands, and attended to the counsel of the ungodly.
Job 10:4 Or dost thou see as a mortal sees? or wilt thou look as a man sees?
Job 10:5 Or is thy life human, or thy years [the years] of a man,
Job 10:6 that thou hast enquired into mine iniquity, and searched out my sins?
Job 10:7 For thou knowest that I have not committed iniquity: but who is he that can deliver out of thy hands?

Job 10:8 Thy hands have formed me and made me; afterwards thou didst change [thy mind], and smite me.
Job 10:9 Remember that thou hast made me [as] clay, and thou dost turn me again to earth.

Job 10:10 Hast thou not poured me out like milk, and curdled me like cheese?
Job 10:11 And thou didst clothe me with skin and flesh, and frame me with bones and sinews.
Job 10:12 And thou didst bestow upon me life and mercy, and thy oversight has preserved my spirit.
Job 10:13 Having these things in thyself, I know that thou canst do all things; for nothing is impossible with thee.

Job 10:14 And if I should sin, thou watchest me; and thou hast not cleared me from iniquity.
Job 10:15 Or if I should be ungodly, woe is me: and if I should be righteous, I cannot lift myself up, for I am full of dishonour.
Job 10:16 For I am hunted like a lion for slaughter; for again thou hast changed and art terribly destroying me;
Job 10:17 renewing against me my torture: and thou hast dealt with me in great anger, and thou hast brought trials upon me.

…

Job 10:20 Is not the time of my life short? suffer me to rest a little,
Job 10:21 before I go whence I shall not return, to a land of darkness and gloominess;
Job 10:22 to a land of perpetual darkness, where there is no light, neither [can any one] see the life of mortals.

Job 11:5 But oh that the Lord would speak to thee, and open his lips to thee!
Job 11:6 Then shall he declare to thee the power of wisdom; for it shall be double of that which is with thee: and then shalt thou know, that a just recompence of thy sins has come to thee from the Lord.

Job 11:7 Wilt thou find out the traces of the Lord? or hast thou come to the end [of that] which the Almighty has made?
Job 11:8 Heaven [is] high; and what wilt thou do? and there are deeper things than those in hell; what dost thou know?
Job 11:9 Or longer than the measure of the earth, or the breadth of the sea.
Job 11:10 And if he should overthrow all things, who will say to him, What hast thou done?
Job 11:11 For he knows the works of transgressors; and when he sees wickedness, he will not overlook [it].

Job 11:12 But man vainly buoys himself up with words; and a mortal born of woman [is] like an ass in the desert.
Job 11:13 For if thou hast made thine heart pure, and liftest up [thine] hands towards him;
Job 11:14 if there is any iniquity in thy hands, put if far from thee, and let not unrighteousness lodge in thy habitation.
Job 11:15 For thus shall thy countenance shine again, as pure water; and thou shalt divest thyself of uncleanness, and shalt not fear.
Job 11:16 And thou shalt forget trouble, as a wave that has passed by; and thou shalt not be scared.
Job 11:17 And thy prayer [shall be] as the morning star, and life shall arise to thee [as] from the noonday.
Job 11:18 And thou shalt be confident, because thou hast hope; and peace shall dawn to thee from out of anxiety and care.
Job 11:19 For thou shalt be at ease, and there shall be no one to fight against thee; and many shall charge, and make supplication to thee.
Job 11:20 But safety shall fail them; for their hope is destruction, and the eyes of the ungodly shall waste away.

Job 12:9 Who then has not known in all these things, that the hand of the Lord has made them?
Job 12:10 Whereas the life of all living things is in his hand, and the breath of every man.
Job 12:11 For the ear tries words, and the palate tastes meats.
Job 12:12 In length of time is wisdom, and in long life knowledge.

Job 12:13 With him are wisdom and power, with him counsel and understanding.
Job 12:14 If he should cast down, who will build up? if he should shut up against man, who shall open?
Job 12:15 If he should withhold the water, he will dry the earth: and if he should let it loose, he overthrows and destroys it.
Job 12:16 With him are strength and power: he has knowledge and understanding.
Job 12:17 He leads counsellors away captive, and maddens the judges of the earth.
Job 12:18 He seats kings upon thrones, and girds their loins with a girdle.
Job 12:19 He sends away priests into captivity, and overthrows the mighty ones of the earth.
Job 12:20 He changes the lips of the trusty, and he knows the understanding of the elders.
Job 12:21 He pours dishonour upon princes, and heals the lowly.
Job 12:22 Revealing deep things out of darkness: and he has brought into light the shadow of death.
Job 12:23 Causing the nations to wander, and destroying them: overthrowing the nations, and leading them [away].
Job 12:24 Perplexing the minds of the princes of the earth: and he causes them to wander in a way, they have not known, [saying],
Job 12:25 Let them grope [in] darkness, and [let there be] no light, and let them wander as a drunken man.

Continues: Fragments from the Book of Job #2: chapters 12-20

Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 7 so far )

Wat betreft Permission to Protect

Posted on February 14, 2007. Filed under: Leven en Dood, Life and Death, Manners and Association, Meningen of Gedachten van anderen, Omgang, Opvoeding en Onderwijs | Tags: Bamidbar, God, Jews, Judaism, Maimonides, mitzvot, Nazarite Laws, Nicholas Johnson, overgang, parenting, Rashi, rating, Sotah, Torah, transgression |

Het is zeer belangrijk in welke mate wij omgaan met het toestemmen met de wijze waarop wij dingen toelaten of hoe wij er op reageren. Indien wij anderen toelaten fouten te maken of getuigen te zijn van misstappen door anderen geven wij kansen om deze verkeerde gebeurtenissen te laten integreren in het dagelijkse leven. Wij openen de poorten naar gebruiken die in Gods ogen verfoeilijk zijn en ons en onze omgeving kunnen besmetten.

Voorzeker kunnen wij leren van alles wat wij zien of mee maken, maar je moet daarbij de vraag stellen wat wij er van willen leren of wat wij de andere willen laten leren en of dat wel noodzakelijk of bevorderlijk is. Elke opvoeder heeft de verantwoordelijkheid om de andere te beschermen tegen het kwade. Wij moeten in het algemeen elkaar behoeden tegen elk kwaad. Door slechte invloeden, beelden of gebruiken uit te sluiten of te vermijden, kunnen wij onszelf en de anderen behoeden verkeerde stappen te zetten.

Citaat

Permission to Protect

Permission to Protect

Rhashi mechicot - Image via Wikipedia

Have you ever met permissive parents — the ones that worship the concept of “openness” so much that they don’t mind exposing their kids to just about anything? “After all”, they claim, “We teach our kids proper values, it doesn’t really matter what the kids see or hear. Kids should be allowed to look into ‘the real world’ so they don’t become naive. They’ll simply reject foreign ideas antithetical to proper values.”

Are these parents correct? Of course, not. A Rashi in this week’s Torah portion, Nasso, tells us why.

“Why was the section of the nazarite laws placed next to the laws of sotah, the suspected adulterous wife? To tell us that anyone who sees the sotah in her disgrace, will abstain from wine(one of the nazarite laws), since wine leads to adultery.” (Rashi, Bamidbar 6:2)

The common question on this Rashi is that we would have thought the opposite. Wouldn’t someone who sees a sinner, like the sotah, being humiliated, become inspired to not dare come close to transgression? If you saw your co-worker being yelled at for coming late, wouldn’t you be extra careful not to come late yourself? So why does the Torah suggest that witnessing the sotah’s embarrassment will make you more afraid that you’ll sin? Why would one establish safeguards to avoid sin by refraining from wine, once he has seen a violation of the Torah in the sotah woman?

The answer is that our preconceived notion is not true. In reality, witnessing sin, no matter if we see the sinner being degraded or not, weakens our spirituality. Whenever someone “breaks the rules” in school, inevitably the rules become less hallowed and it’s only a matter of time until “breaking the rules” becomes the rule. So too with the Torah. While God‘s “rules” and mitzvot will never cease, witnessing a breach in them automatically removes levels of respect and awe that we have for His commandments. We subconsciously feel that the transgression is no longer an untouchable and although we may never dream of doing it, it becomes a possibility. Once the slippery slope of possibility has been opened, terrible results will inevitably occur.

This is why Rabbi Moshe Feinstein writes (Igrot Moshe, Yoreh Deah 1:156) that just as it is a mitzvah to see and be involved in a mitzvah, so too it is a transgression to witness a transgression being performed where one can avoid it. By watching a violation of God’s Torah, he writes, you are watching God being humiliated and disrespected. And this negatively affects your own service of God because, on some level, you lose respect for God as well.

So the nazir decides to enter the institution of the nazarite vows because he has seen the sinning sotah. He realizes that he temporarily needs special laws of holiness in order to return to his former state of awe for God’s laws and commandments which have been breached.

Environment and nurture play vital roles in human development. There is no way of denying this fact. As Maimonides states (paraphrased): “It is the way of humankind to be drawn after the manners and actions of friends and countrymen. Therefore, one should connect with and befriend righteous people in order to learn from their ways and to distance oneself from wicked people.” Maimonides uncharacteristically does not bring a source from a verse in the Torah as a proof. It is a simple fact of life.

What is not widely realized though is that anything and everything we see and experience becomes part of our nature. If we allow our kids to watch television and movies without any restraints, we open them up to potentially harmful influences. As Nicholas Johnson, former commissioner of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, once said, “All television is educational. The question is what does it teach?”

It is clear that the high increase among children of sexual promiscuousness and activity, violence and guns in schools, and the trend of reduced achievement and intelligence have its roots in the effects of television and movies. (See Lawrence Keleman’s ‘To Kindle a Soul’ for detailed scientific studies and research.)

So much for openness in parenting. It is an experiment that has failed miserably. If we are responsible parents we must try our best to shield bad influences from our kids as much as possible. They should not witness thousands of killings and violence on TV year after precious year in their youth. If they are allowed to, they will lose sensitivity toward hurting others and become more vicious people.

What we see becomes part of us. We must try to avoid exposing our children to the evils of the world. Society recognizes that the ‘movie ratings system’ for kids is a positive thing. Although, as a result of the moral descent of this country, what used to be a relatively acceptable and tame PG rating, now probably is the equivalent of a severe ‘R’ rating, there are still some things that we deem inappropriate for children.

What we should be asking ourselves is: if we agree that it is inappropriate for children, why is it any more appropriate for us? We must be extremely careful with what we see and experience, as well.

Remember, what you see is what you get — inside your mind and soul.

Rabbi Boruch Leff

Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )

	Trusting, Faith, Cal… on Self-development, self-control…
	Trusting, Faith, Cal… on Religious Practices around the…
	Trusting, Faith, Cal… on Vertrouwen, Geloof, Roepen en…
	Trusting, Faith, Cal… on Trusting, Faith, Calling and A…
	Book of books and gr… on Another way looking at a langu…
	Book of books and gr… on Another way looking at a langu…
	Book of books and gr… on Another way looking at a langu…
	Book of books and gr… on The importance of Reading the…
	Book of books and gr… on The Importance Of Scriptu…
	Turkey a wolf in the… on Self inflicted misery #2 Weakn…
	Turkey a wolf in the… on Self inflicted misery #1 The r…
	Nazarene Acts of the… on Christ having glory
	Nazarene Acts of the… on Trusting, Faith, calling and A…
	Nazarene Acts of the… on Jesus begotten Son of God #19…
	Nazarene Acts of the… on Fragments from the Book of Job…

Life and Death

Trust, Faith and Prayer

Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #3 voice of God

Hearing the Voice in the Holy Scriptures

Words to feed

Bible part of the free conversation

Daily Words of comfort

Related articles

Rate this:

Share this:

Like this:

Trust, Faith and Prayer

Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #3 voice of God

Speaking and bringing unto being

A voice calling in the Garden

Prophets hearing the Voice

Related articles

Rate this:

Share this:

Like this:

Trust, Faith and Prayer

Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #2 Calling upon the Name of God

Related articles

Rate this:

Share this:

Like this:

Related articles

Rate this:

Share this:

Like this:

Sheol (“Sheool”, “Sjeool”), Hades

*

Bible quotes:

Please read also:

Related articles:

Related articles

Rate this:

Share this:

Like this:

Flash -

Will this be as the film of your life?

Picture

Too young to think of God / Too playful to think of God / Too restless to think of God

Picture

Too happy to think of God / Too much busy to think of God / Too tired to think of God

Picture

Too many concerns to think of God / Too old to think of God / Too late to think of God

Black

Rate this:

Share this:

Like this:

Related articles

Rate this:

Share this:

Like this:

Related articles

Rate this:

Share this:

Like this:

Related articles

Rate this:

Share this:

Like this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Like this:

Massacres allowed to happen

Choice to listen

Trusting God

Following

Instinct

Arming and being safe

End according to works

Reaping

Going through or in Hell

Which commandments following or ending up in hell

Sinners or opponents, fire and the lake

Loving and fearing

Loosing

Protecting the community