HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 HAPPY NEW YEAR!

May 2022 be filled with the blessings of the LORD.

Galatians, Chapter Four

 Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;

2But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.

3Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:

4But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,

5To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

6And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

7Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

8Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.

9But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?

10Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.

11I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

12Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all.

13Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first.

14And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.

15Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me.

16Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?

17They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them.

18But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you.

19My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,

20I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you.

21Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?

22For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.

23But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.

24Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.

25For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.

26But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

27For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.

28Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.

29But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.

30Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.

31So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

Pentatonix

 

Pentatonix 

July 31, 2020  · 

Mary, Did You Know? · By Pentatonix (Official Music Video)

Released Nov 13, 2014

HIS Intent

 HIS Intent

Our Heavenly Father intends to make us like his Son (Romans 8:29) and then to use us to change our world. Since Jesus was as fully human as we are, he can make us like himself. In fact, he died for this purpose: "In order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him" (Colossians 1:22). This is why he told us, "You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). It is why Peter taught us, "As he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct" (1 Peter 1:15). Being like Jesus is not an unattainable goal to which we should nonetheless strive in the new year—it is God's intention for every one of us. The same Holy Spirit who empowered Jesus (Luke 4:18; Matthew 12:28; Acts 10:38) now dwells in you and in me (1 Corinthians 3:16).  Theologian Gerald Hawthorne wrote: "The Holy Spirit was the divine power by which Jesus overcame his human limitations, rose above his human weakness, and won out over his human mortality." Now the Spirit intends to do the same in your life and mine. Our part is to "continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard" (Colossians 1:23). It is to yield every day to the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) and live in his leading and power through the day. Then, as we work, he works. As we strive for holiness (Hebrews 12:14), he will make us holy. As we "behold the glory of the Lord," we are "being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another" (2 Corinthians 3:18). "The dominant figure of Western culture" To be negative: If more Christians were more like Christ, would our culture be the way it is? To be positive: If more Christians were more like Christ, could our culture stay the way it is? In this new year, let us settle for nothing less than all Jesus won for us when he died for us and rose for us so we could be "born again" as the children of God. Let us be empowered by divine omnipotence, led by divine omniscience, and impassioned by divine omnibenevolence. H. G. Wells called Jesus "the most dominant figure in all history." Newsweek editor Kenneth Woodward agreed: "By any secular standard, Jesus is the dominant figure of Western culture." Daniel Webster attested, "All that is best in the civilization of today is the fruit of Christ's appearance among men." Now imagine the impact if two billion Christians ("little Christs") walked our planet. Imagine the difference if we refused to be anything less than the literal "body of Christ" in the world today (1 Corinthians 12:27). If you were more like Jesus next year than you were this year, what would need to change today?

Awesome GOD

 

 

Last Prayer of the Year

 

Why?

Why Is BigPharma Obsessed with Covid Vaccines for Children?

Robert Kennedy Jr. explains why BigPharma is fixated on delivering high-risk, experimental Covid vaccines to our children. EUA protection doesn’t last forever: “They have to give it to kids because they cannot market this vaccine without having [an] immunity shield… Now the emergency use authorization vaccines have liability protection under the PREP Act and under the CARES Act. So as long as you take an emergency use [vaccine], you can’t sue them. Once they get approved, now you can sue them — unless they can get it recommended for children.

Because all vaccines that are recommended, officially recommended, for children get liability protection, even if an adult gets that vaccine. That’s why they are going after the kids. They know this is going to kill and injure a huge number of children, but they need to do it for the liability protection.”

Watch Robert Kennedy Jr. Full Interview Related

The BigPharma Coup @LibertyOverwatchChannel

Quote from Peanuts

 

Quote from Winston Churchill

 "If you're going through hell, keep going." Winston Churchill

What Are You Doing?

Life is a frail thread. Eternity lasts forever.

What are you doing to assure your eternal well-being is established?

The Reality of Hell

 

The Reality of Hell by Dr. D. James Kennedy

And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye than having two eyes to be thrown into the fire of hell.  — Matthew 18:9

Jesus took hell very seriously. He spoke about it as a real place to avoid at all costs.

The most awful thing imaginable would be to die and go into eternity without Christ; to stand before the judgment bar of Almighty God, who knows your every thought and word and deed, and to have all of your sins brought out before the universe and be justly condemned unto eternal perdition and cast out into a lake of fire.

There are some people who have tried every conceivable way to deny the reality of impending judgment for unrepentant sinners. This ranges from denying that there is a God who could possibly punish them; to denying that there is a Hell where they could be punished; to denying that a loving God would ever send anyone there (even such a reprobate as themselves); to claiming that God must, at least, give everyone the opportunity to hear the Gospel.

Not that this would help them, because they have been doing what people constantly try to do, which is to justify themselves by condemning God and end up proving that God is unjust and unfair and unloving, and they themselves must be, by comparison, pretty decent sort of folks.

Since Jesus took hell so seriously, so should we.

Galatians, Chapter Three

 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?

2This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

3Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

4Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain.

5He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

6Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

7Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.

8And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.

9So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

10For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

11But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.

12And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.

13Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:

14That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

15Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto.

16Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.

17And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.

18For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

19Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.

20Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.

21Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.

22But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

23But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.

24Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

25But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

26For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

27For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

28There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

29And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Acts Chapter Twenty-eight

 Acts Chapter Twenty-eight

Paul Ashore on Malta

1 Once safely on shore, we found out that the island was called Malta.

2 The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all because it was raining and cold.

3 Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand.

4 When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, “This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, the goddess Justice has not allowed him to live.”

5 But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects.

6 The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead; but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.

7 There was an estate nearby that belonged to Publius, the chief official of the island. He welcomed us to his home and showed us generous hospitality for three days.

8 His father was sick in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him and, after prayer, placed his hands on him and healed him.

9 When this had happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured.

10 They honored us in many ways; and when we were ready to sail, they furnished us with the supplies we needed.

Paul’s Arrival at Rome

11 After three months we put out to sea in a ship that had wintered in the island—it was an Alexandrian ship with the figurehead of the twin gods Castor and Pollux.

12 We put in at Syracuse and stayed there three days.

13 From there we set sail and arrived at Rhegium. The next day the south wind came up, and on the following day we reached Puteoli. 14 There we found some brothers and sisters who invited us to spend a week with them. And so we came to Rome.

15 The brothers and sisters there had heard that we were coming, and they traveled as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns to meet us. At the sight of these people Paul thanked God and was encouraged.

16 When we got to Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself, with a soldier to guard him.

Paul Preaches at Rome Under Guard

17 Three days later he called together the local Jewish leaders. When they had assembled, Paul said to them: “My brothers, although I have done nothing against our people or against the customs of our ancestors, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans.

18 They examined me and wanted to release me, because I was not guilty of any crime deserving death.

19 The Jews objected, so I was compelled to make an appeal to Caesar. I certainly did not intend to bring any charge against my own people.

20 For this reason I have asked to see you and talk with you. It is because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain.”

21 They replied, “We have not received any letters from Judea concerning you, and none of our people who have come from there has reported or said anything bad about you.

22 But we want to hear what your views are, for we know that people everywhere are talking against this sect.”

23 They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day, and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying. He witnessed to them from morning till evening, explaining about the kingdom of God, and from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets he tried to persuade them about Jesus.

24 Some were convinced by what he said, but others would not believe.

25 They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement: “The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through Isaiah the prophet:

26 “ ‘Go to this people and say,

“You will be ever hearing but never understanding;

you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”

27 For this people’s heart has become calloused;

they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.

Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears,

understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’

28 “Therefore I want you to know that God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen!”

30 For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him.

31 He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance!

Why Was Madden Beloved?

 

Why was John Madden so beloved?

Today is December 30, 2021 | Read time: 7 minutes

Former Oakland Raiders head coach John Madden speaks about former quarterback Ken Stabler, pictured at rear. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)

John Madden died Tuesday morning at the age of eighty-five. I cannot think of anyone in the world of sports whose name is more iconic than his. Just last Saturday, Fox aired a wonderful documentary called "All Madden" filled with interviews with his wife and sons, close friends, former players, and broadcasting colleagues. As my wife and I watched it, we felt we were reliving the seasons of our lives. Madden rose to prominence as coach of the Oakland Raiders when we were in high school and college, making it to seven AFC title games in ten years and winning the Super Bowl following the 1976 season. Three years later, he shocked the sports world by retiring at the age of forty-two. Over the next thirty years, he became a household name as the best-known broadcaster in sports, winning sixteen Emmy Awards. He was the voice of football for us and so many like us. Along the way, he appeared in a variety of TV commercials and episodes. In 1988, he lent his voice, personality, and name to the best-selling Madden NFL series of football video games. He was enshrined in Pro Football's Hall of Fame in 2006. "A language which the deaf can hear and see" However, there have been other great coaches and sports broadcasters. What made John Madden so beloved? In the days since his death was announced, tributes have poured in. The Las Vegas Raiders called him "a loyal and trusted friend." Vin Scully, one of his broadcasting partners, said "he was always kind and delightful." Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones testified, "If you knew John, he made your life better." Coach Ron Rivera added, "To me he offered his time, wisdom, and coaching insight. I was truly blessed to have him as a mentor!" Madden was famous for his claustrophobic fear of flying and consequent "Madden Cruiser" bus rides across the country to the games he was broadcasting. The Fox special on his life introduced us to some of the people he met in the small towns where his bus stopped: café owners, cooks, fans—the "normal" people he loved and who loved him in return. Thinking of his life and legacy, I am reminded of Charles Spurgeon's advice: "Carve your name on hearts, not on marble." Maya Angelou was right: "People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." That's because, as Mark Twain noted, "Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and see." The holy bus of divine providence With two days left in 2021, the news is filled with retrospectives on celebrities who died during the year, milestone occurrences, and so on. Every year at this time, we look back so we can look forward. We seek lessons from the people we encountered and the events we experienced so we can take them with us into the year ahead. This is a useful strategy since, as author Robert Kiyosaki noted, "The best way to predict the future is to study the past." One might think Christians are especially good at predicting the future with God in this way since our Lord is timeless (Psalm 90:2) and changeless (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8).  We find thousands of examples of his kindness and compassion throughout the Bible, encounters where his miraculous mercy and benevolent grace carved his name on the hearts of his followers. We can remember scores of times when he answered our prayers, forgave our sins, and met our needs as well. Tim Keller speaks for each of us when he states, "The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope." And yet, if you're like me, there is this nagging doubt in the back of your mind, this unstated but persistent question: Will he do it again? Will God do for me in the future what he has done for us in the past? Will he meet my needs in the new year, whatever they turn out to be? Will he lead me into my very best life? Will he redeem my struggles and faults? Will he carve his name on my heart in love? Will the holy bus of divine providence stop at my door? Will it stop at yours? "What greater proof could he have given of his mercy?" I recently read a sermon by St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) that offered an answer I had never before considered. Pointing to Christmas, he stated: "When the humanity of God appears, his kindness can no longer be hidden. In what way, indeed, could he have better commended his kindness than by assuming my flesh? . . . What greater proof could he have given of his mercy than by taking upon himself the very thing which needed mercy?" He added: "Let man infer from this how much God cares for him. Let him know from this what God thinks of him, what he feels about him. Man, do not ask about your own suffering, but about what God suffered. Learn from what he was made for you, how much he makes of you, so that his kindness may show itself to you from his humanity. "The lesser he has made himself in his humanity, the greater has he shown himself in kindness. The more he humbles himself on my account, the more powerfully he engages my love." If God were an omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent John Madden who led us to victories, narrated the game of life, made personal time for us, and made us feel his compassion and grace, that would be amazing. But God did what no John Madden could ever do—he took on your flesh, faced your temptations, died on your cross for your sins, and rose from your grave. If Jesus is your Lord, his Spirit now makes his home in you. What more can he do to prove that we can trust him for what he has not yet done? "The truth beyond all understanding" Thomas Aquinas observed in the Summa Theologica, "The slenderest knowledge that may be attained of the highest things is more desirable than the most certain knowledge attained of lesser things." By definition, the "highest thing" in all the universe to know is God. The fact that he became one of us so we could be one with him is all we need to know to know that "God is love" (1 John 4:8), that "God loves people because of who God is, not because of who we are" (Philip Yancey). In The Sacred Journey: A Memoir of Early Days, Frederick Buechner encourages us: "Above all, never question the truth beyond all understanding and surpassing all other wonders that in the long run nothing, not even the world, not even ourselves, can separate us forever from that last and deepest love that glimmers in our dusk like a pearl, like a face." Would you bring your dreams and your doubts, your hopes and your fears, to that face today?