NEVER YET UPON A TIME

Listening to preacher on the radio, Phillip DeCourse, ktt.org (know the truth) teaching about
that we must evangelize, give out the good news! That's what we're supposed to do. He noted that Jesus specifically "sent them out two by two". Reasons for two by two were 1)give courage to each other, 2)stoke the fire of their faith and 3)to be TWO witnesses of the TRUTH, because our faith IS truth- based, not just a fairy tale.

So why am I writing this post called " never yet upon a time "?
Because it has been 2000 +or - years since our Lord Jesus, whom we believe to be "God with us" (Emanuel means "God with us") and Our Creator God coming down to this Earth acting to save us (Yeshua means Yahweh, the God of the Jews, saves), the one prophesied by many Jewish prophets for hundreds of years before being born to Mary in Bethlehem . . . 2000 +or- years since Jesus walked the Earth and showed love to all and gave evidence of His specialness by miracles and who chose to die for the all who sinned but asked Jesus to be their way back to our Creator God.

I write because 2000 years is a long time to maintain that Jesus will return to Earth and that God's kingdom, as prophesied, will finally come on this Earth. Christians must acknowledge to non Christians that 2000 years IS a long time to be waiting. AND much bad has been done in the name of Christ.

RAVI ZACHARIAS , the Christian apologist, writer, evangelist wants Christians to know well and be able to answer seekers about that question and others. Recently, Brother Zach. Spoke on the question: WHY SHOULD WE BELIEVE THE BIBLE?
I recommend that you read or listen to him at least enough to give him a chance to convince you.

INTRODUCTION TO YESHUA

Introduction to Yeshua
I grew up and learned about our Creator God and our Lord, the Son on our Creator in the mainstream Christian Church in US, by the name of JESUS. I am very comfortable calling our Savior Jesus.
However, "Jesus" is the English way of saying His name. In Hebrew His name is Yeshua and is much more recognizable as meaning "Yahweh saves".
Calling Jesus Yeshua is still awkward and uncomfortable to me; but I AM comforted by the knowledge that YE SHUA means YAH (short for Yahweh) saves.
This thought goes with my happy envisioning of that happy day that Jesus (Yeshua) entered Jerusalem; a  glorious crowd of joyful people cheered Jesus and praised Him by waving palm branches and saying "Hosanna" and "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord."
Hosanna means "save" or "save us". I can imagine the people also cheering, saying
YE SHUA, YE SHUA,
YE SHUA, YE SHUA.
And I join them saying
YE SHUA, YE SHUA
Our Creator God came down to us as Jesus to save us!
Hallelujah!
And, if you don't already know that that day when they had that beautiful parade for Jesus was just days before He was arrested and beaten and tried and killed on the orders of (corrupt) religious leaders, I'm telling you now.
So Palm Sunday is a bittersweet day of remembrance.
However, I have always loved Palm Sunday because it IS the time of joyful praising the Lord; AND Jesus our Lord accepted that show of love from "us" (I imagine myself in fellowship with those people then praising our Jesus) even though He knew that the people would not be able to be constant and solid in their (and my, and our) loyalty and honoring of Him.
Jesus knew what was coming later. But He loved them and me and us anyway; and He accepts us and the praise we can give.
AND there WILL BE A DAY WHEN EVERY KNEE WILL BOW AND EVERY TONGUE WILL CONFESS THAT JESUS CHRIST IS LORD.
So I think of Palm Sunday as a foreshadowing of that glorious day to come.
Now let me speak once more about YESHUA (and what that Hebrew name means to me): Our Creator (Yahweh) made a way to save (shua) us. Jesus paid the price for our sins- He was punished by that horrible torture death that He did not at all deserve, so that that could count for just punishment for our sins and wrongs- so that our Creator can receive us with joyful love and open arms and also with all righteousness.

INTRODUCTION TO YESHUA

Introduction to Yeshua
I grew up and learned about our Creator God and our Lord, the Son on our Creator in the mainstream Christian Church in US, by the name of JESUS. I am very comfortable calling our Savior Jesus.
However, "Jesus" is the English way of saying His name. In Hebrew His name is Yeshua and is much more recognizable as meaning "Yahweh saves".
Calling Jesus Yeshua is still awkward and uncomfortable to me; but I AM comforted by the knowledge that YE SHUA means YAH (short for Yahweh) saves.
This thought goes with my happy envisioning of that happy day that Jesus (Yeshua) entered Jerusalem; a  glorious crowd of joyful people cheered Jesus and praised Him by waving palm branches and saying "Hosanna" and "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord."
Hosanna means "save" or "save us". I can imagine the people also cheering, saying
YE SHUA, YE SHUA,
YE SHUA, YE SHUA.
And I join them saying
YE SHUA, YE SHUA
Our Creator God came down to us as Jesus to save us!
Hallelujah!
And, if you don't already know that that day when they had that beautiful parade for Jesus was just days before He was arrested and beaten and tried and killed on the orders of (corrupt) religious leaders, I'm telling you now.
So Palm Sunday is a bittersweet day of remembrance.
However, I have always loved Palm Sunday because it IS the time of joyful praising the Lord; AND Jesus our Lord accepted that show of love from "us" (I imagine myself in fellowship with those people then praising our Jesus) even though He knew that the people would not be able to be constant and solid in their (and my, and our) loyalty and honoring of Him.
Jesus knew what was coming later. But He loved them and me and us anyway; and He accepts us and the praise we can give.
AND there WILL BE A DAY WHEN EVERY KNEE WILL BOW AND EVERY TONGUE WILL CONFESS THAT JESUS CHRIST IS LORD.
So I think of Palm Sunday as a foreshadowing of that glorious day to come.
Now let me speak once more about YESHUA (and what that Hebrew name means to me): Our Creator (Yahweh) made a way to save (shua) us. Jesus paid the price for our sins- He was punished by that horrible torture death that He did not at all deserve, so that that could count for just punishment for our sins and wrongs- so that our Creator can receive us with joyful love and open arms and also with all righteousness.

HE CALLS YOU BY YOUR NAME

This is Tuesday of Hurricane Harvey, August 29, 2017. I'm washing dishes at the sink listening to the radio people  (88.7). They told about the band COLDPLAY, who had to cancel Houston show cuz of hurricane flood. COLDPLAY was in another town yesterday and sang a song they wrote for Houston, to let us Houston people know they are thinking of us. It is a really sweet song, expressing that sentiment. I shed a tear thinking about when they will play in Houston next and will sing that song here; and their audience will roar in joy that the COLDPLAY people thought of them in their night of flood nightmare.
So now I want to tell you about Our Lord and Creator.
He knows us by name. He knows us intimately, our secret us; and He loves us.
I remember a few years ago walking down the hall at church and overhearing the youth leader teaching his Sunday school students and asking them when they feel closest to God, feel most loved by God. I wanted to pop into the class and give MY answer: I feel closest to God when He calls me by name; when I know He is talking to ME specifically, individually, and knows the innermost me me.
Recently, I've been thinking about that very idea. I have the privilege of attending a Bible study taught by Poksoon Kim and she is teaching on stories in Bible book of LUKE, LUKE 8:42-48.(Poksoon Kim's recorded teaching is available online. Maybe Google her name.) she was telling about the woman who had bleeding that would not stop and secretly touched Jesus' clothes to be healed because she believed that she could be healed that way.
Well, she WAS healed; but Jesus did not want it to be a secret. Sister Kim was explaining and wanting us to enter in to all that was involved that Jesus wanted to heal by insisting that her healing be public instead of private.
Sister Kim explained that the woman, because of her illness had come to feel very isolated and pushed away from her community. Also, since she had 'taken' the healing instead of actually asking Jesus to heal her, she may have felt that she didn't deserve that healing and that another might have lost out because she 'took' it. So Jesus wanted to clear all that up so she could feel really happy and at peace (Shalom) about her healing. Wow!!!
Thank you, Jesus!

George III

I try to write something specifically about the "1776 decision" every fourth of July (approximately) since rethinking 1776 is the topic of this blog.
This year I write of George III.  He was monarch of England when England ruled American colonies oppressively.
I studied portraits of him first. (Bible says to pray for those in authority over us. It is easier for me to pray for someone can when i can visualize that one. Bible says God is a rewarder of those who earnestly seek Him. Bible says God answers prayer.) I felt that if I am going to judge the colonists who rebelled against the ruler in authority over them, I want to know how they should have prayed; and how hard it may have been for them to think charitably of the leaders in England (and in colonies).
[An aside here: the word charity is translation of Greek word "agape" which means the perfect love which Creator God has for His Creation and each of His creatures; and that God and Jesus call their followers to have toward all. God's kind of love.].  So, . . .

George III was born 2 months premature. The family and doctors were, of course, not sure he would survive so had him privately baptized immediately; and later a public baptism. He had big "bug eyes" or "google eyes". Generally a nice looking man, though (if the portraitist s can be believed.) He was Queen Victoria's grandfather.
He married the woman that his mother and her advisors chose for him; and gave up the young woman he first wanted to marry when the advisors didn't accept her. He did not take a mistress. He had many children.
He was grandson of a German royalty , Frederick , of Hanover. He spoke English and German both from childhood.
He had periods of mental illness, but also times of mental good health. Some medical experts now think he may have had "porfiry".
He was the longest ruling English monarch up to his time, becoming King near 20 years old when his grandfather died(around 1740.) ( His father had already died.) He died in 1820. But his son reigned in his place his last 10 years , as he was mentally ill then.
Aside from being the King that the American colonists rebelled against, he is known to have purchased the land where Buckingham palace now is.

BACK TO THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE

I'm thinking , this morning, about how God pays attention to us on this tiny planet with our sun, floating somewhere in the universe.
Perhaps in the actual "physical" center of the universe is a super black hole. We are not there. Yeay! (Do you want to be there?)
I'm thinking of Galileo standing before the Church leaders (1616 to 1633) trying to be true to himself (integrity) about his understanding of the Earth orbiting around the sun. The Church leaders could not at that time accept that the Earth was not the physical center of the universe (ie. The solar system.)
I think about Isaac Azimov's sci fi creation, Trantor, the city planet that was the capitol of the galaxy wide government in his FOUNDATION trilogy. The planet was relatively near the center of the galaxy; but of course it was not at the center. The center was giant black hole surrounded by really hot stuff. Not a good place for life.
So nowadays we are not concerned about whether the Earth is at the physical center of the galaxy or solar system or universe. I personally can conceive of the Earth as perhaps the center of God's plans (inasmuch as it is His home that He made for mankind which He made in His image) without the Earth being at that center.
Even non believing scientists wonder at the thought that the Earth perhaps could not have developed as it has without this entire giant universe surrounding it.

HARDHEARTED

JOHN 11:47-53 tells of the moment when the Jewish religious leaders of Jesus' day publicly decided to kill Jesus. This happened right after they heard the report that Jesus had resurrected Lazarus of Bethany.

For a while now, I have specifically blamed the corrupt, hardhearted religious leaders of that day for the consequent rejection of Jesus as the Jewish Messiah who fulfilled the prophecies of the Jewish prophets. The Jews of these later ages rely on the leaders of that day who were on the scene to rightly judge whether Jesus was or wasn't the promised Messiah. Hard hearts were portrayed in this JOHN 12 passage. When they heard Jesus had resurrected Lazarus, the Jewish religious leaders of that day didn't say this must CERTAINLY be a sign from God. Their response didn't even have God anywhere in it, at least as it was reported to us. I can see where the strong, corrupt leader, Caiaphus, might have run the meeting and no other wanted to speak in opposition to him. But there was NOTHING about God! HARDHEARTED! Please don't let that be your life and your choices. (We want to always think of God and His desires and plans for us.)

For a while, I've decided that Jesus had a reason for naming a man Lazarus in his parable of LUKE 16. (Did He use any proper name in any other story?) Jesus was asking us to connect those two Lazarus stories together.

In the LUKE 16 parable, Abraham says "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead."

So that parable ends with Abraham refusing to send someone back from the dead to warn beloved relatives of God's judgement. But with Jesus' DELIBERATE resurrection of Lazarus (even delaying his going to Lazarus until after Lazarus died) expressed God's divine, greater-than-Abraham love in that He would go farther to try to reach the hard hearted Jewish leaders.

I planned this post to be about the hard heartedness of those specific religious leaders. I hope I showed that. But let me mention again what I consider to be Jesus' main point in telling the RICH MAN AND LAZARUS AFTER DEATH story.
Jesus, I think, was responding to the Jews who were expressing to Him that they were children of Abraham and therefore they had an automatic "in" with God(?) Was Jesus trying to show them that they were idolizing Abraham and that Abraham was an imperfect human , not divine.

Love divine, all loves excelling!
Thank you , Jesus!