Each year, I listen to a daily audio Bible podcast—and complete the Bible in one year. This year marks my sixth year through the Bible.
Why don’t I stop?
Every year, I learn new aspects of the Bible because each year, I am in a different place in my life, and the Holy Spirit speaks to me where I am.
The Bible is always fresh! It is always alive!
It is the only book that has a Living Spirit within it.
Each year, when I get to Judges in the Old Testament, I say, “Oh boy!” because I know what is ahead.
Passover begins this evening.
It is one of the most significant Jewish Holidays, commemorating when the angels of God “passed over” the Hebrews as the firstborn children and animals of the Egyptians were killed—all because Pharoah would not set the Hebrews free as God commanded.
With this final plague on Egypt, Pharoah agreed to free the Hebrews so they might begin their journey to the promised land.
God instructed the Jews to commemorate the first Passover, when they had marked their houses with blood, alerting the angels to “pass over” their homes.
Christians draw parallels in their faith,
This week, I was listening to a minister on the radio who noted that in the days after His resurrection, Jesus did not appear to Pilate to tell him that he had been wrong in ordering His crucifixion.
Jesus did not appear to the Jewish leaders and chastise them for not believing and demanding His death.
He did not appear to the Roman soldiers who nailed Him on the cross.
Why?
Today, I was drinking in the beautiful hymns of Psalm Sunday. They are majestic, powerful, and inspirational!
Among my very favorites is All Glory, Laud and Honor. When I close my eyes and listen to the lyrics, I can feel all the emotions I imagine those present at Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. The hope. The joy. The expectation.
As Christians, we carry the hope, joy, and expectation at our Lord’s second coming. Feel this excitement. Play this song and sing along. It is a wonderful way to enter into the spirit of Holy Week.
What are some of your favorite Holy Week Hymns/ song?
This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday, commemorating the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Long before Christ, the celebration of Pentecost was a joyous occasion. It marked the wheat harvest, which occurred 50 days after the celebration of the barley harvest—the first fruits. The word “Pentecost” is Greek for “fifty,” which refers to the fifty days between the two festivals.
But, when Christ died, this celebration took a dramatic turn
Recently, the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University surveyed 1,000 American Christian pastors to understand better the worldviews that drive their thinking and behavior. The survey of these pastors revealed that a large majority do not possess a “biblical worldview.”
What is a biblical worldview?
In the spring of this year, Christianity Today released a small publication, CTPastors.com. Within that publication, is an article entitled, “Little Church, Big Faith,” which summarized the 2020 Faith Communities Today (FACT) survey on the state of the Church in America.
The survey revealed that the median attendance at church on a given Sunday is now half what it was 20 years ago, dropping from an attendance of 137 to 65. Whereas in the year 2000, 45 percent of churches had an average weekly attendance of 99 or fewer people, today 65 percent of churches report that smaller level of attendance.
But the news is not all bad.
Most of Aesop’s fables ring as true today as they did when he wrote them—600 years before Christ.
How can these short stories speak to us more than 2,000 years after he wrote them?
It is because though times change, the essence of what makes us “human” does not. We have the same fears, desires, and hopes as those who lived throughout the centuries.
We simply are not all that unique.
And, that is why the Bible continues to instruct us today. People are people. And, we are pretty predictable.
A good example of Aesop’s fables being relevant today is the story of the Seven Sticks.
In looking at the Three Branches of Churches: Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant churches, last week we looked at the differences between the Orthodox churches and the Roman Catholic Church.
This week, we will consider the differences between the Roman Catholic church and the Protestant churches.
