Bible talk

Pro. 1:1 " men...will understand words that bring understanding." When preaching or teaching I like to drop in a word or two here or there that will in time bring understanding. They may not be familiar words and may send folks to the dictionary but there are words that convey more meaning and depth of understanding than do others. Some of our instructors said to keep everything simple and aim at the fourth grade level but the risk here is that people will stay at that level. It's a complex and complicated world and simple words alone will not negotiate the bridge of wisdom.

Prov. 1:5 " A wise man ( and women ), will hear, and will increase learning; and a man ( and woman ) of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels." Now that we are one month into the new year it's time to check up on our learning process. I have read three books in Jan., one a commentary on the first five books of the bible, one a history of the 1950"s and one called the Pearl, a short story of how riches can corrupt both individuals and whole communities.
One of the first things that we should be aware of is; that just getting older doesn't necessarily make us wiser. If you think about it you can come up with several people you know who haven't gained much if any wisdom just by growing older. As our verse says we should seek out wise counsels and increase our learning. The body of knowledge is doubling every two and a half years so it doesn't matter how old we are we should keep on learning. I believe that knowledge can and will be useful to us when we get up to heaven.

Our Elder, Bro. Mike McGee, in his last sermon, gave us an excellent explanation of Eph.2:[8] For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: [9] Not of works, lest any man should boast[10] For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Many Protestant ministers teach that we are saved by faith alone, with no works being necessary. It is true that none of our natural good works will save us, since we read in Isaiah 64: [6] But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
So our natural works are not accepted by God and we have nothing of which we can boast. But we read in James 2: [17] Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
And as we read on in Eph. 2: [10] FOR WE ARE HIS WORKMANSHIP, CREATED IN CHRIST JESUS, WHICH GOD HATH BEFORE ORDAINED THAT WE SHOULD WALK IN THEM.
If we have truly repented, and have been given the gift of the Holy
spirit, and holdout until we die, we are qualified to enter the kingdom of heaven. [See Matt. 7:[21] Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

This quote from the top of the page is the mantra that we post under: " This group is for Christian believers to discuss the Bible, theology and how it impacts our lives in the 21st century." and today I want to comment on how our lives are impacted in the 21st century.
There are two things that are rapidly changing our world and they are; POPULATION GROWTH and WEATHER CHANGES and they are both hard to handle from a theological point of view. World population is predicted to grow by 80 million in 2016 and of course it has been growing at that rate for several years now. This of course impacts food and water supplies, land space to live on and the using up of vital supplies of minerals, metals as well as petroleum supplies.
When we talk of weather changes we are not trying to decide whether it is man made or is a natural occurance of nature. It seems to be true that the oceans are rising and is already pushing many people inland, sea water is taking over fresh water etc.. Now with over 7 billion on the planet these changes affect more people than ever before. This is a complicated subject and could keep us talking all year.

Fortoggle – I appreciate very much your quote about Joseph, "But while he thought on these things (Matt. 1: 20 another good reason why it is good to think things through before rushing to judgement; ) ‘behold the angel of the Lord appeared unto him.’ "
Joseph was definitely a patient and kind man when he was pondering within himself to put Mary away privately when he learned that she was with child, but then the angel disclosed to him in a dream that she had been impregnated by the Holy Spirit, and that God wanted him to go ahead and marry her.
Jesus promised His true believers in Luke 11: [13] IF YE THEN, BEING EVIL, KNOW HOW TO GIVE GOOD GIFTS UNTO YOUR CHILDREN: HOW MUCH MORE SHALL YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER GIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT TO THEM THAT ASK HIM?
Jesus also taught in Luke 14: [33] SO LIKEWISE, WHOSOEVER HE BE OF YOU THAT FORSAKETH NOT ALL THAT HE HATH CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLE.
Dr Michael Brown (who as a 16 year old Jewish boy was seriously addicted to heroin, but converted to Christianity and is now a dynamic preacher) said that the Greek word for CANNOT is quite similar to missing an airline flight which has been cancelled.
Paul said in Rom. 8: [9] But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

For Christmas, this year ( 2015 ) I received a new book, titled; “ ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE.” It’s a historical novel of Hitler's takeover of France ( 1930”s - 1940’s ) but it also delves into some philosophical points that are important too.
A blind girl was trained by her father to “ see “ through her mind and her smell, touch etc. things that we often do not see with our eyes. Then we the reader came to understand through the life of a young man ( an orphan ) that there was light he could not see even though he had good eyesight.
In Luke 8:8 Jesus recognized many would not hear, see or understand even though some of those hearing the same message understood and acted upon the information and achieved good results.

A few days ago, I posted a new thread: David Lee's ebook, Living in the Foodsteps of the King
I recently read again David Lee's ebook, LIVING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE KING, and was particularly impressed by his reference to Denominationalism in Chapter 4, Is Jesus reigning in your heart? He gave examples of where John Wesley, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Mennonites, Amish, Pentecostals, and Charismatics veered away from Biblical doctrines.
In another section on, Is it possible to get back to the original Church’s expression of life, he tells of the example of churches that give permission to marry after divorce. He says those ministers are urging their parishioners to sin.
I firmly believe that Jesus gave the perfect formula for judging differences in doctrines in John 7: [17 IF ANY MAN WILL DO HIS WILL, HE SHALL KNOW OF THE DOCTRINE, WHETHER IT BE OF GOD, OR WHETHER I SPEAK OF MYSELF.
I believe that, if you and I have a difference in regard to a doctrine, if we pray earnestly for the Lord to show us any place in which we are not doing His will, He SHALL show us whether our doctrine is of God or of man.

In these Christmas meditations I am focusing on Joseph simply because he has been left out in most of the Christmas stories that we hear. It is not clear how long Joseph and Mary stayed in Egypt. [We have to remember that the gospel of matthew did not appear on a scroll until about 45 years after this event.] " But when Herod was dead' behold an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph." Matt: 2:19
So here we have the Lord communicating with Joseph rather than Mary because it was to be his decision as the head of the household to make the decision and give the order to move back to Israel.

The time line:" We observed the rising of his star, and have come to pay him homage." Matt: Chapter 2: 2. Just how long did it take the wise men to get to Jerusalem? They came from Persia about 700 miles away and of course we don't know when they started nor how many delays they had along the way. Scholars think somewhere between two months and two years.
Have you ever stopped to think why the Lord allowed the little children to be slaughtered when they in no way was involved in the story?
Next we see Joseph taking Mary and Jesus to Egypt. If you teach S S ask your students to figure out how far it is to Egypt and how long it might have taken as well as how much it might have cost.
It was at least 350 miles and the cost might have been met by the gold that the wise men left. Joseph might also have used the gold to get his life started anew when he got to Egypt.
Frankincense and Myrrh would have been useful as perfume { when you are sleeping with the animals ] and medicine for all sorts of skin and internal problems.