Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City - Simon Sebag Montefiore

 If your looking for a reason for this bronze age settlement became the universal city it's because of a story told by a unique book of historical and storied prestige: "the Bible"

The Bible has been studied and revered by millions of believers for thousands of years. It has made Jerusalem the most famous city in the world. 

Many of the stories told in the bible originated in the oral traditions of the Hebrew people they were often only put down in writing hundreds of years after they were supposed to have happened. 

For some believers, the Bible is the fruit of divine revelation fundamentally infallible in every detail but for the historian, it's a troublesome, complex, subtle source. Some of it is undeniably and factually correct. Some of it is mythological, some of it is the poetry of soaring beauty, and much of it is absolutely mysterious to all of us.BBC Mini

Simon Sebag Montefiore - Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City BBC miniseries

Acceptance of violence as a tool for happiness - Jules Michelet

 The historian Jules Michelet later argued that the death of the former king led to the acceptance of violence as a tool for happiness. He said, "If we accept the proposition that one person can be sacrificed for the happiness of the many, it will soon be demonstrated that two or three or more could also be sacrificed for the happiness of the many. Little by little, we will find reasons for sacrificing the many for the happiness of the many, and we will think it was a bargain."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XVI

Here I am Send Me - Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale

 

Exegetical Fallacies - DA Carson

 The final reason why this study has become important is the change in theological climate in the Western world during the past thirty or forty years. At the risk of oversimplification, one could argue that the generation of conservative Christians before the present one faced opponents who argued in effect that the Bible is not trustworthy, and only the ignorant and the blind could claim it is. In the present generation, there are of course many voices that say the same thing; but there are new voices that loudly insist our real problem is hermeneutical and exegetical. Conservatives, we are told, have not properly understood the Bible. They have imposed on the sacred text an artificial notion of authority and a forced exegesis of passage after passage. One of the emphases of the acerbic attack on “fundamentalism” by James Barr is that conservatives do not really understand the Bible, that they use critical tools inconsistently and even dishonestly. At another level, one of the explicit claims of the recent commentary on Matthew by Robert H. Gundry is that his approach to the text is more faithful to Scripture than that of traditional conservative commentators. Similar phenomena are legion.

King of Kings - Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale

 Lyrics Coming...

Matthew West - The God Who Stays Song

 

[Verse 1]

If I were You I would've given up on me by now

I would've labeled me a lost cause

'Cause I feel just like a lost cause

If I were You I would've turned around and walked away

I would've labeled me beyond repair

'Cause I feel like I'm beyond repair

[Pre-Chorus]

Oh, but somehow You don't see me like I do

Somehow You're still here

[Chorus]

You're the God who stays

You're the God who stays

You're the one who runs in my direction

When the whole world walks away

You're the God who stands

With wide open arms

And You tell me nothing I have ever done can separate my heart

From the God who stays

[Verse 2]

I used to hide

Every time I thought I let You down

I always thought I had to earn my way

But I'm learning You don't work that way

[Pre-Chorus]

'Cause somehow You don't see me like I do

Somehow You're still here

[Chorus]

You're the God who stays (You're the God who stays)

You're the God who stays (You're the God who stays)

You're the one who runs in my direction

When the whole world walks away

You're the God who stands (You're the God who stands)

With wide open arms (With wide open arms)

And You tell me nothing I have ever done can separate my heart

From the God who stays

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[Bridge]

My shame can't separate

My guilt can't separate

My past can't separate

I'm Yours forever

My sin can't separate

My scars can't separate

My failures can't separate

I'm Yours forever

No enemy can separate

No power of hell can take away

Your love for me will never change

I'm Yours forever

[Chorus]

You're the God who stays (You're the God who stays)

You're the God who stays (You're the God who stays)

You're the one who runs in my direction

When the whole world walks away

You're the God who stands (You're the God who stands)

With wide open arms (With wide open arms)

And You tell me nothing I have ever done can separate my heart

From the God who stays

You're the God who stays

You're the one who runs in my direction

When the whole world walks away

You're the God who stands

With wide open arms

And You tell me nothing I have ever done can separate my heart

From the God who stays

https://genius.com/Matthew-west-the-god-who-stays-lyrics

Matthew West - Imperfections SONG

 [Verse 1]

All of my life I've been making a list
Of all the things about me I'd change if I could
And the longer I live, the more I'm convinced
The bad and the ugly will outweigh the good
I beat myself up, I tear myself down
And it's never been harder to understand how

[Chorus]
You perfectly love me and all my imperfections
Still can't believe that it's true
How You perfectly love me and all my imperfections
And all my imperfections You'll use
[Verse 2]
I'm clumsy and foolish, I'm rеckless and clueless
If thеre's a wrong turn, I'll take it
But You keep on raising me up from my ruins
And tell me I'm something worth saving
The story of me is a story of grace
Every chapter's a new list of all of the ways

[Chorus]
You perfectly love me and all my imperfections
Still can't believe that it's true
How You perfectly love me and all my imperfections
And all my imperfections You'll use

[Post-Chorus]
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh

[Verse 3]
All of my life I thought You had a list
Of all the things about me You'd change if You could
But here in Your presence, my heart is convinced
There's no part of me that You can't use for good

[Chorus]
Lord, You perfectly love me and all my imperfections
I'm finally believing it's true
How You perfectly love me and all my imperfections
And all my imperfections You'll use
All my imperfections You'll use
So, I give all my imperfections to You

https://genius.com/Matthew-west-imperfections-lyrics

Exegetical Fallacies: The Bible it purpose and importance - D.A. Carson

Careful handling of the Bible will enable us to “hear” it a little better. It is all too easy to read the traditional interpretations we have received from others into the text of Scripture. Then we may unwittingly transfer the authority of Scripture to our traditional interpretations and invest them with a false, even an idolatrous, degree of certainty. Because traditions are reshaped as they are passed on, after a while we may drift far from God’s Word while still insisting all our theological opinions are “biblical” and therefore true. If when we are in such a state we study the Bible uncritically, more than likely it will simply reinforce our errors. If the Bible is to accomplish its work of continual reformation—reformation of our lives and our doctrine—we must do all we can to listen to it afresh and to utilize the best resources at our disposal.

D. A. Carson, Exegetical Fallacies, 2nd ed. (Carlisle, U.K.; Grand Rapids, MI: Paternoster; Baker Books, 1996), 17–18.

The Best Keith Green Song - Born Again

Its impossible to have a best. But here it is

 

You're the sun, You're the starlight, You're a wave upon the sea. You're the glory of the sunrise as it sets the morning free. You're my hope for the future, It's your love that covers me And if I have my choice, I'll spend my life watching you watching me. When you came I was weary and I thought you couldn't see But you saw right through my masquerade, right to that secret place in me. Then your love held me gently, whispering everything's alright. I was born again into your love, born again into you light. Jesus, sometimes my mind grows cloudy and it's oh so hard to see That there's a life I'm meant to live for you Sometimes I've lived for me. When you came I was weary and I thought you couldn't see But you saw right through my masquerade right to that secret place in me. Then your love held me gently, whispering everything's alright. I was born again into your love, born again into your light.

What is the Good Life?

 So whats the Good Life? Apparently Good Life Brewing believe its 

• Camping
• Hiking
• Floating
• Biking
• Surfing
• Climbing
• And Beer

Information: From the Temple of Metaphysical Science

We encourage lectures on all subjects pertaining to our spiritual and secular welfare. We do not compel, urge or advocate any attempts by or to another person to worship God in any particular or prescribed manner. We advocate and promote spiritual healing. We protect and encourage spiritual teachers and mediums, who are followers of the light, in their efforts to prove the continuity of life. We encourage all people to keep an open mind as growing thought and investigation reveal new truths. We believe in personal responsibility. We believe that all individuals should be free to follow their hearts and minds in spiritual as well as secular matters, provided they remember to act with the highest, best and truest intent in any given situation.

https://www.tmsli.org/

Defining Spiritualism

See this interview with Stacy Kopchinski, Trustee on the National Board of the NSAC for insight into the history and nature of Spiritualism:  https://www.mysticmag.com/psychic-reading/nsac-interview/

Adopted by the National Spiritualist Association of Churches

Spiritualism is the Science, Philosophy, and Religion of continuous life, based upon the demonstrated fact of communication, by means of mediumship, with those who live in the Spirit World. (1919)

Spiritualism Is a Science because it investigates, analyzes and classifies facts and manifestations demonstrated from the spirit side of life.

Spiritualism Is a Philosophy because it studies the Laws of Nature both on the seen and unseen sides of life and bases its conclusions upon present observed facts. It accepts statements of observed facts of past ages and conclusions drawn therefrom, when sustained by reason and by results of observed facts of the present day.

Spiritualism Is a Religion because it strives to understand and to comply with the Physical, Mental and Spiritual Laws of Nature, which are the laws of God.

A Spiritualist is one who believes, as the basis of his or her religion, in the communication between this and the Spirit World by means of mediumship and who endeavors to mould his or her character and conduct in accordance with the highest teachings derived from such communication. (1914, Rev. 1938)

A Medium is one whose organism is sensitive to vibrations from the spirit world and through whose instrumentality, intelligences in that world are able to convey messages and produce the phenomena of Spiritualism. (1914)

A Spiritualist Healer is one who, either through one’s own inherent powers or through mediumship, is able to impart vital, curative force to pathologic conditions. (1930, 1993)

The Phenomena of Spiritualism consists of Prophecy, Clairvoyance, Clairaudience, Gift of Tongues, Laying on of Hands, Healing, Visions, Trance, Apports, Levitation, Raps, Automatic and Independent Writings and Paintings, Voice, Materialization, Photography, Psychometry and any other manifestation proving the continuity of life as demonstrated through the Physical and Spiritual senses and faculties of man. (1950)

1. We believe in God.
2. We believe that God is expressed through all Nature.
3. True religion is living in obedience to Nature’s Laws.
4. We never die.
5. Spiritualism proves that we can talk with people in the Spirit World.
6. Be kind, do good, and others will do likewise.
7. We bring unhappiness to ourselves by the errors we make and we will be happy if we obey the laws of life.
8. Everyday is a new beginning.
9. Prophecy and healing are expressions of God.

The art of preaching Old Testament Narrative - Haddon W Robinson

FOREWORD by Haddon W Robinson

My grandmother lived in Northern Ireland, and I visited her once when I was a lad about eight years old. When I met her, she was wrinkled, had snowy white hair, and stooped a bit under the weight of her years. I felt I knew my grandmother. She was that thin old lady who gave me cookies and told me how much I resembled my grandfather who had died many years ago.

Recently, I visited Ireland again and talked with cousins who knew my grandmother far better than I. They pulled out faded yellow photographs of grandma when she was a girl and later when she was first married. They shared their memories based on knowing her much longer than I did. I came away from that second visit wondering if I ever really knew my grandmother at all.

For many modern readers, the Old Testament narratives resemble my memories of my grandmother. We know them, but then again we hardly know them at all. Some of us grew up hearing these stories, and they form up in a part of our memory bank. We listened to them at home curled parent's lap, or we saw them pasted on flannelgraph boards in Sunday school, our short legs dangling from the big chairs. We identified with David, the brash teenager with a slingshot in hand, taking on Goliath, who resembled the bully at our grade school. We smirked at the neighbors who mocked Noah and his boys for building a boat miles from the nearest lake because we knew how the story came out, and we decided the moral was not to laugh at someone doing something strange because you might need them later on if you were drowning in a flood. We pictured Moses and Aaron battling Pharaoh much like the Lone Ranger and Tonto standing up against the bad guys, or we admired Daniel taming the lions in their den at the zoo. We knew these stories well, but we may not have known them at all! Because we thought of them as simple little stories, we missed how thick they were with meaning.

In recent years, many literary critics, both Christian and Jewish, have also read the stories again for the first time. Instead of regarding the narratives as cadavers to be dissected and "demythologized," they began to approach them for what they were sophisticated literature of great significance and splendid power.

Because narrative makes up the dominant genre of the Old Testament, biblical preachers need to revisit those narratives. As adults, we can look at the stories with fresh eyes, and we can develop an appreciation for the skill of the authors who composed them. They were not only corking good storytellers, but they were also brilliant theologians who taught their readers about God through stories. We can read these old, old stories in a new way and sense how much they speak to the condition of modern hearers. More than that, we can see God through them.

One of the strongest reasons for a serious and fresh study of Old Testament narratives is reflected in the sad history of what happens when we misread them, read them poorly, or read them to prove a point outside the purpose of the biblical storyteller. In fact, the more committed we are to the authority of Scripture, the more dangerous it is to read the narratives incorrectly. There is no greater abuse of the Bible than to proclaim in God's name what God is not saying. God commands us not to bear false witness.

In this book, Steve Mathewson helps us to read Old Testament narratives perceptively. As you study them, you will realize they are not quaint tales crafted to teach children simple moral lessons. They are great literature, every bit as powerful as Homer, Milton, Shakespeare, or Hemingway. And as God breathed literature, they speak to the entire person. I commend Steve Mathewson as a thoughtful guide to help us get a handle on the great stories of the Bible. I also commend him as a preacher who provides some very able leads on how to effectively communicate these stories to modern listeners.

Haddon W. Robinson

2002 by Steven D. Mathewson

 The art of preaching Old Testament Narrative

TIPS FOR SPENDING AN HOUR IN PRAYER - Unknown Source

 TIPS FOR SPENDING AN HOUR IN PRAYER

Quiet your heart before God. (5 minutes)

Take a few silent moments to focus on God and remember who he is.

“Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord; no deeds can compare with yours.

All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, Oh, Lord;

they will bring glory to your name.

For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God.”

(Ps. 86:8-10)

Ask God to prepare and purify your heart. (5 minutes)

Ask God to show any sin in your heart.

“Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear.

But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you,

So that he will not hear you.” (Is. 59:1-2)

“The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” (Ja. 5:16)

Speak of the wonders of God. (5 minutes)

Take a few minutes to declare the glory of God and the wonders of his character.

“The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.

The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.

All you have made will praise you, O LORD; your saints will extol you.

They will tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might, so that all men may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
My mouth will speak in praise of the LORD.

Let every creature praise his holy name for ever and ever.” (Ps. 145:8-12, 21)

Listen. (5-10 minutes)

Ask God to impress upon you what needs he wants you to bring before him.

“Guard your steps when you go to the house of God.

Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools….” (Ec. 5:1)

“Speak, Lord for your servant is listening.” (1Sam. 3:9)

Present petitions before the Lord. (25-30 minutes)

Join with others across the globe offering up specific prayers and petitions on behalf of the You People.

“Again I till you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask,

it will be done for you by my father in heaven.” Mt. 18:19

Thank God for his answers. (5 minutes)

In anticipation of what God will do, thank him for the privilege of bringing requests to him and for his promised answers. Rejoice also in knowing that eternal victory has been promised.

“The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God.” (Ph. 4:6)

“And I…am about to come and gather all nations and tongues, and they will come and see my glory.

I will set a sign among them, and I will send some of those…to the distant lands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory among the nations.

And they will bring all your brothers, from all the nations, to my holy mountain in Jerusalem

as an offering to the LORD—on horses, in chariots and wagons, and on mules and camels,”

says the LORD.” (Is. 66:18-20)