Tag Archives: Christian

Action oriented, not afraid of risk, being what you need to be in Jesus.

I will be frank here, I’m not really sure where I’m going with this and I’m not sure there is a definitive destination. I wouldn’t be surprised to get feedback that “wow”, that was five or so minutes out of my life I’ll never get back.

Back hey, lets rush in, where angels might fear to trod.

“Gallup identified three basic leadership styles and determined the dominant style of each CEO from the Inc 500 and national sample.” (Inc Magzine Sept 2014 p 31)

The chart compares “Activation, Strategic and Relational”. By far, Inc 500 CEO’s are more on “activation”, then the other styles. Activation is described as “Action oriented, focused on results, unafraid of risk, forceful, pushes people to improve, high expectations.” If I was to pick anyone in the Bible that I’d describe as an entrepreneurial, risk taking, CEO type. It would be St Paul. Yes, he was relational, but I really think that it was in terms of results. He had no compunction about confronting, he repeatedly said we should rebuke, exhort. He wasn’t bashful about pushing on people and people at all levels of society.

“ESV 1 Corinthians 9:19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.”
We might think that Paul was being a little crass. I really read this passage as saying: “I will do whatever it takes to get the results (within the law). But what is the real point of getting those results? Now I’m not going to say that Paul “led” someone to Christ, that he converted people, however you want to state it in Reformed theology. But let’s just say in terms of being used by the Holy Spirit to witness to others to Jesus. Sure Paul could, although I’m sure he wouldn’t, claim to have all these converts. But clearly, he was used powerfully by the Spirit in order to bring thousands to Christ in his relatively short ministry. In an era where there was no mass communication, transportation, lacking a large organization, Paul showed up in a city and within what we can guess was a short period of time, established meetings, designated leaders and, essentially built churches.

Did Paul build relationships? Absolutely. I don’t see how you can be a leader and not build relationships as a part of the efforts to establish an organization. Feel free to tell me I’m wrong, but I think that when people start to associate with you in a common cause, they are more motivated to help to establish that organization, then they’re concerned with building a relationship. In fact I would submit that, especially for guys, that relationships are built as a result of the efforts put forth for the enterprise to grow.

Paul said that he would do whatever it takes in order for someone to come to Jesus and to be saved in Him. Sure there’s a relationship involved, but I don’t think Paul was particularly concerned whether he had a “relationship” with each person. The goal was for them to know Christ as Savior, if a relationship grew out of that, and they certainly did, so much the better. But the goal for him and should be for all of us is to do what we can do in order for someone to come to know Jesus.

If Paul was in the corporate world and made promises such as “I am made all things to all men,” it might even seem somehow unauthentic. “Do whatever it takes to make the sale???” I suppose, but… What is the goal? The emphasis seems to be in building relationships and I understand that and that would be highly desirable. I’d love to have an active, deep relationship with everyone in my church. I’m not sure that everyone would want that in my church, but that would be the ideal. But would that be achieving the ultimate goal? No.

Let’s face it, there’s no guarantee that I will wake up in the morning. I’ve lost two brothers, both younger then me. I have no assurance that I will be able to build a relationship with someone else. Even worse what happens if they die without any evidence that they are in Jesus? Hey if I don’t wake up in the morning I know that I will be in the presence of the Lord. Can I say that about everyone I know? No, I can’t.

Yea, relationships are great. I think that they are really the result of people who share goals and dreams, instead of people who are unequally yoked? Yes, there’s certainly something to be said that you don’t want to make someone a “project” and you certainly don’t want them to feel that way. There has to be a sense of urgency, is it really ever too soon to know Jesus as Savior? Life can be too fragile and when we lack of sense of urgency, we can fail to faithfully follow how the Holy Spirit leads us.

It’s not a hard sell and I know that. I think it is frankness, candor, putting it on the line and knowing that what you say will be rejected. Remember, they’re rejecting the Holy Spirit, not you. It’s the Holy Spirit who puts us in the presence of those He wants us to witness to.

Inc CEO’s put aside fear of risk, they to push people to improve (can you improve in salvation? Salvation is a vast improvement over damnation!) and they have expectations. Let’s have high expectations of the Holy Spirit, if He leads us, as He led Paul, to “be” what was necessary to “be” in order to show Christ to others, then let’s have a sense of urgency and follow the Spirit’s leading.

We need to always keep in mind, that we cannot drag anyone into the Kingdom, it certainly will always be the work of the Holy Spirit. But if we are being urged by the Holy Spirit and we do not put into action what He is leading us to do, we take the risk that we have failed. We can sin as much by omission as we can by commission. We aren’t on commission, for those who are baptized in the Name of Father, Son and Spirit, when we hear the preached Word and study the Word, when we take the Body and Blood, we are saved in Jesus. But we aren’t being faithful to Him who died for us when we put off pointing others to Jesus.

I’d like to talk about it more. We meet Wednesdays at 10am at the coffee shop corner of W King and Beaver St’s in downtown York, Pa. Feel free to park behind the church, I’ll even buy your first cup of coffee. Just look for me.

Teaching, walking as a disciple of Jesus

For the audio version of this sermon, click on the above link.

We make our beginning in the Name of God the Father and in the Name of God the Son and in the Name of God the Holy Spirit and all those who know it’s about what God does and His Word said … AMEN! We are going to have a little spring training today. The Patriots win the Super Bowl today, the Red Sox report to Florida in a couple of weeks, a few weeks of fundamental baseball in Florida and all is right with the world. The subject is this, what are the fundamentals? What issues do we as Christians need to deal with, what is important for us to remember? There are way too many Christians who make other issues their top priorities; social issues, political issues, how much or how little sin, end times, making worship entertainment the Sabbath and in this case fussing over what kind of food we should/shouldn’t be eating. In today’s epistle lesson Paul is trying to get people to focus on what’s important. What are they focused on? Eating food that was offered to idols? As part of that discussion Paul’s saying; “We can all be smarty pants and get into these secondary issues with people. Try to look like we’re theologians, “oh heavens, we must talk about the seriousness of this vital issue. I saw brother Thomas over at the temple meat market and he was buying a prime rib that was sacrificed to a pagan ‘god’! That’s horrible! We can’t allow that! This must stop. I don’t care if the temple meat market has the best prime rib, if we buy prime rib at all, it better not be from something that was not sacrificed to some pagan ‘god’.” Yea, OK, in this context is that cool? No, it’s not! But on the other hand, for a Christian, is that something that really speaks to our eternal salvation or any other Christian’s eternal salvation? No, it’s not. We have a whole lot better things to discuss and frankly it takes away from those issues that are much more compelling. For example; ‘ok, brother Aurelius, we shouldn’t eat meat sacrificed to a pagan “god”. I’m not going to say right, wrong or indifferent. But Aurelius, when was the last time that you took a pagan or a new Christian and really sat down with them about the real issues of being a Christian? How’s your prayer life? How’s your relationship with Jesus? Do you feel the Holy Spirit moving you to serve someone and you didn’t? Let’s go back to the “Solas”. What are the solas? Sola Fide – by faith alone. It is His faith that God the Father gives Christians that we trust in Him, we trust His will and we follow His will. There are way too many people out there who try to make it out to be all about us, what we want, that God needs to get on our agenda. That’s not going to happen and God will lead us where he wants us and it is far better than anything we can do. Sola Gratia – By grace alone. This gets into the whole issue about how we are saved. Is it about what we do? Maybe even a little? Or is it about what God does? He saves us! It is through His grace that we are saved. We don’t earn it. The Father gives us His grace because in his sovereignty, He chooses those who are saved and they are saved because He brings them into relationship with His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We are saved only through Him and His righteousness. Even if we live the “perfect” life, did everything right or avoided the things we shouldn’t do, we’re not saved. It’s not about what we do, it’s what He did! We may have obeyed the Law, but the Law does not save you, we are only saved through the righteousness of Jesus and that becomes our righteousness when he brings us to Him and saves us. Sola Scriptura – Only through Scripture, only through what is in the Bible. We have a lot of “teachers” out there whose attitude is, “well, this isn’t in the Bible, but it should be and ‘my’ God would have put it in the Bible.” No! I am a Lutheran pastor, I am charged with teaching you what is in Scripture and helping you to understand that Scripture is what you need to grow in Jesus and serve Him. It’s not up to me to make up things and today there is way too much that is made up. Moving on, we believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. There are, again, way too many teachers who are teaching to the effect “oh well, that really couldn’t have happened, that’s not rational, and it really doesn’t matter, because we’re saved by our own agenda.” Every Sunday we recite the Apostle’s or Nicene Creed. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus is God the Son and could only have been born by the will of God. Not by any man. Jesus was born the perfect man and God the Son. Jesus is God! God the Son. There is only one God, and there are three persons who make up the Godhead: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. We cannot become “gods” as some teach. Jesus isn’t some sort of secondary “god” and He wasn’t the brother of Satan. There are no other “gods” and we trust Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus died for our sins. He is the perfect sacrifice and He took on himself the sin of all the world. That doesn’t mean that everyone is saved, because not everyone is baptized and lives in Christ. Most everyone lives in themselves and tries to justify themselves by what they do. We know that isn’t possible because we can never live the life that will save us, only Jesus saves us. Jesus rose, he was resurrected to give us the promise of eternal life. Through His resurrection we have the promise of our resurrection and eternal physical life in the new world that will come when this world is destroyed. We are saved through baptism. Almost the rest of Christianity teaches that baptism doesn’t save us. They teach we are saved because we make a decision to “accept Jesus”. No! Jesus accepts us and saves us through the washing of our sins in the water of baptism. Having said all that, we as Christians have what Dr Luther called “Christian Freedom”. Can we sin and be forgiven and still be saved? Yes! Jesus died for all sins. I’m still waiting for someone to tell me the sin they’ve committed that Jesus didn’t die for. I’m never going to hear it, but there are people who insist they are too sinful to be saved in Jesus. That’s wrong! When they are baptized, when they receive the Body and Blood of Jesus, when they confess their sins in repentance and hear the preached Word of God they are saved! Game, set and match, they have eternal salvation in Jesus. Paul is dealing with a bunch of people, the Corinthians, yea them again, who are way too caught up in other rules. When they did that, when we do that, we forget what really is important. They are all snarked up about people who go to the meat market of a pagan “god” and buy their meat there. Well this goes back to the Old Testament teaching that some animals are innately unclean and can’t be eaten. God said that in Leviticus 11. He listed out animals that He didn’t want His people to eat. OK, fair enough. But then Jesus came and with Him, we are again taught, it’s not about the secondary stuff like right or wrong animals. It is about Him, He died for our sins and our diet doesn’t change that. In Acts 10, God tells Peter, these things are clean, eating these things doesn’t mess up your relationship with Jesus. But now, we get into an issue where we do serve our brothers and sister. There are things that we can do, eat certain things, drink alcohol, smoke tobacco. Some of these things we probably shouldn’t do, but that doesn’t cut us off from God. But weaker brothers and sisters may have a problem with it. They may start to question whether this Christian thing saves them. They might look around and decide “well these people are doing these messed up things so I think they’re wrong and Jesus really doesn’t save us. We, as Christians, do have to be aware of how we affect other people. Can we do certain things? Yes, they might be sinful and we need to confess and repent, but we’re still saved. But if we do these things without any concern of how they affect others, then we are not serving those around us. We are called to be faithful servants and to do, or not to do, things for others so that we can disciple them and help them to grow and mature as a Christian. When we give power to silly things, like eating sacrificed animals to idols, we give that idol power that it just doesn’t have. We make it out to be something when it’s actually nothing. So we don’t get caught up in that. But if we make it tougher for a brother or sister in Jesus, then we aren’t faithfully serving and we should sacrifice for the better of someone else’s conscience. We should follow Jesus’ example, His sacrifice for us. We don’t, as Dr Luther said, want to create discord and contempt. We want to act in a way, in many issues, that others will be built up and strengthened in their relationship with Jesus. For this week, read all of 1 Corinthians 8 and read Romans 13, which is a lot of the same discussion. Are there things that you are doing in your life, that may be making it tough for non-believers or immature Christians? The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Shalom and Amin

Baptism, Death, Eternal life all in Jesus First Saint Johns, January 11, 2015 Luke 2:21

Please click on the above link to hear the audio of this sermon

We make our beginning in the Name of God the Father and in the Name of God the Son and in the Name of God the Holy Spirit and all those who have died to the world in baptism and have been reborn in Jesus Christ said … AMEN

I want to start by remembering our brother Sam Null who went to be in the presence of the Lord. Sam’s funeral will be this Friday here at First St Johns. We pray for Norma and their son Sam and we praise God that Sam is free from suffering and in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ.

As you see in today’s introduction to worship, I will be saying the words that I say in a funeral. We Christians do not live In fear of death. We died that day we were baptized. We are still in the world when we are baptized, but now we are no longer of the world we are reborn in Christ. This is another area where we are at odds with other Christian belief systems. Other Christians see baptism as sort of an initiation into the faith, a public act, on their part, in accepting Christ. For Lutherans, we see baptism as our new birth, where, when I baptize someone the Holy Spirit is using the words I say and the act of pouring the water as a way to, as Dr Luther would say, to drown the old person and from that the new person in Christ is reborn.

It’s been a really rough week, heck for me as a pastor, throw a bout of flu into the mix of Advent, two Christmas Eve worships, Holly Tea, German Christmas worship, a wedding, a few deaths, it’s been a tough last few weeks. Death has been a very real presence just in the past few days. My Aunt died up in Maine, the Rev Dr Mike Ramey’s mother died in Texas, a fellow pastor and classmate’s mother died, we said farewell to our bother Rev Don Biggs a few weeks ago, we had other funerals this past year of brothers and sisters in Jesus. But here is the upshot, here is the Gospel, the Good News. All of them “died” in Jesus. Yes, they aren’t here with us in the body, but we know for sure, because we have the promise of Jesus Christ, that all of these brothers and sisters are now in the perfect bliss and comfort of heaven, the very real presence of our Lord.

How can we be so sure of this? Was it because of something they said or did? No! We have many Christians who believe that it’s all about them, it’s all about what they do or don’t do. One of the main reasons we baptize babies is to emphasize our understanding of what baptism is. Baptism is when we are called by the Holy Spirit to come into the new life of Christ. It is not a decision we make to “accept Jesus”. Doesn’t it really seem presumptuous to think that it’s our decision to be saved? “Oh, okay, I’ll accept Jesus as Lord, well because I can and I’m going to. I will walk down the aisle and make a declaration for God.” I’ve had more than one person tell me that after making some sort of public declaration of accepting Jesus, they did not feel as if they really knew salvation. I often hear that there is this doubt, that they might have done something wrong, that somehow it wasn’t enough, wrong time, wrong way, etc. In our baptism into Jesus it is not about what we do, it’s not about how we do it, when we do it, why we do it, yada, yada, yada. It’s about the fact that we have the knowledge and assurance that we were called to be baptized, we were called to be saved, we were baptized in the Name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit and by that, the Holy Spirit brought you to salvation in Jesus. The Holy Spirit took you up out of the depths of your baptism and gave you the new life, made you the new person in Jesus. It’s not up to you, it’s not your call and that is why, for Lutherans, it is about baptizing babies. I am certainly not saying you have to be baptized as a baby. Certainly God decides when we come to know Christ and that is not always as an infant. I wasn’t baptized until I was in my mid-twenties, I’m sure there are others here who weren’t baptized as babies and others who haven’t been baptized at all. I pray that those who are adults and haven’t been baptized, that God is leading them through the words that He has given me for you to come to new life in Jesus. But I want to make this very clear, it’s not about your decision, it’s not about you making the call. You may have some idea that you don’t need to be baptized, or that you are somehow unworthy. Heck I’d like to know who here, me included, could ever be worthy enough for new life in Jesus. I’ll tell you who, no one, not you, not me, not anyone who hears this is worthy. We are not saved on the basis of whether we are worthy. Sola gratia by grace alone are we baptized. The grace of God, His forgiveness of us, His desire, not yours, not mine, to save you in Jesus. There are no mistakes in God, if you have not been saved in the waters of baptism whether you are 8 months or 80 years you are saved only by God’s grace and united with Jesus in His death through baptism. His death, His sacrifice, His atonement on the Cross that saved us. So no, you are not worthy enough for baptism and neither am I, no one is.

Jesus was baptized and He was baptized as an adult. Why? He was baptized by John the Baptist, John was designated by God to baptize Jesus in the way and at the time that He was baptized. No, Jesus didn’t need to be baptized, but as Jesus lived the life that we live, that He came down from heaven, born as a baby, He identified with us in every way and part of that is to be baptized. We are baptized because He was baptized, we are saved because He sacrificed His perfect life, the life that He lived as a man in complete perfection, a life that we could not live, He lived in order to be that perfect sacrifice, that perfect price to be paid for the payment of all our sins. More and more in the world, you will meet people who feel that baptism is unnecessary or that they are not worthy. You have to know that God is going to speak through you to them for them to hear that they need to be baptized, they need to be saved in the baptism that Jesus had in order to be saved. Paul tells us in today’s reading: “For one who has died has been set free from sin.” OK, sure, after you die you can’t sin anymore. How does that help us during our earthly life? Because Paul gives us God’s promise: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death?” We are free from sin because we have been baptized, we have been brought into new life by the Holy Spirit by the act of baptism. Do we still sin in our life? Yes! But those sins are forgiven, we are freed from those sins. Paul says: “We were buried therefore with Him [baptism as being buried in the waters of baptism] by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Rom 6: 4) We have newness of life in Jesus through our baptism in Him. It’s not about us, we will continue to live and sin, but we turn it over to God, we repent and ask for His forgiveness. We should also ask for His power to overcome our sin, but we are saved in what He has done for us. We may have been a baby when we were baptized, but as that baby, we are brought by faithful parents, who have heard God’s Word, have known the urging of the Holy Spirit and faithfully bring their child to the saving waters of faith and new life in Jesus. Paul gives us these great promises: “Now if we have died with Christ [that is the death and rebirth of baptism] we believe that we will also live with Him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him… So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” What an incredible promise, what an incredible assurance. All those that we have lost, we know that they are very much alive, saved completely by what Jesus did for them in His life, death and resurrection and our baptism in Him. We too have that promise and that is a promise that we need to share with anyone we know who still does not know Jesus as Lord. It’s not what they’ve done, do or will do, it’s entirely what Jesus has done for us. He was baptized to identify with us and He gives us the promise of forgiveness and eternal life in Him in the baptism in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Shalom and Amin.

Let’s start becoming discerning, serious Christians and push back against the silliness of the world.

Yea, this is going to sound smug and smarmy, well there’s a reason, when this book came out I couldn’t believe that anyone could have taken this whole thing seriously to begin with. Furthermore, I hope that any reader notes the continued hypocrisy of the main steam media. When this book/movie came out, this story was plastered everywhere over the main-stream media. “Hey don’t try to confuse me with the facts”, the story, as most of the main-stream media, was a mile wide and an inch thick. The book was published by Tyndale and I honestly have to wonder what Tyndale was thinking about publishing this nonsense. I know this is low, but I can’t help to make the observation that the author and subject’s last name is Malarkey, hmmm, yea, I know, sorry.

Quoting a story in the Washington Post, Alex’s  mother Beth posted this in her blog back in April:

“Alex’s mother posted a statement on her blog objecting to the memoir and its promotion: “It is both puzzling and painful to watch the book ‘The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven’ not only continue to sell, but to continue, for the most part, to not be questioned.” She goes on to say that the book is not “Biblically sound” and that her son’s objections to it have been ignored and repressed. She also notes that Alex “has not received monies from the book nor have a majority of his needs been funded by it.” (Ron Charles ” The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven” Washington Post Jan 16, 2015  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2015/01/15/boy-who-came-back-from-heaven-going-back-to-publisher/)

The main-stream media looks dumb, but frankly it makes “Christians” look like a bunch of naive suckers who really don’t even buy what they profess and really want a sweet, fluffy, phoney version of Christianity.

I submit the following:

In an open letter, the self-described “boy who did not come back from heaven” wrote:

Please forgive the brevity, but because of my limitations I have to keep this short.

I did not die. I did not go to heaven.

I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention. When I made the claims that I did, I had never read the Bible. People have profited from lies, and continue to. They should read the Bible, which is enough. The Bible is the only source of truth. Anything written by man cannot be infallible.

It is only through repentance of your sins and a belief in Jesus as the Son of God, who died for your sins (even though he committed none of his own) so that you can be forgiven may you learn of heaven outside of what is written in the Bible . . . not by reading a work of man. I want the whole world to know that the Bible is sufficient. Those who market these materials must be called to repent and hold the Bible as enough.

In Christ,

Alex Malarkey

Hey, kudos to the kid for standing up and taking the heat, although I can’t see anyone really holding the kid up to censure, but his father, listed as a Christian counselor. And, not surprising to me, they attend a non-denominational church. The following is the description that’s, still, on Amazon:

“In 2004, Kevin Malarkey and his six-year-old son, Alex, suffered an horrific car accident. The impact from the crash paralyzed Alex—and medically speaking, it was unlikely that he could survive. “I think that Alex has gone to be with Jesus,” a friend told the stricken dad. But two months later, Alex awoke from a coma with an incredible story to share. Of events at the accident scene and in the hospital while he was unconscious. Of the angels who took him through the gates of heaven itself. Of the unearthly music that sounded just terrible to a six-year-old. And most amazing of all . . . of meeting and talking to Jesus. The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven is the New York Times bestselling true story of an ordinary boy’s most extraordinary journey. As you see heaven and earth through Alex’s eyes, you’ll come away with new insights on miracles, life beyond this world, and the power of a father’s love.” I mean WOW, I’m going to have to get my hip-waders to get through that.

Kevin MalarkeyKevin  Malarkey

I found this glowing endorsement for a Christian pastor about an appearance by Kevin:

“We recently had Kevin Malarkey come to speak at our church. We found that as we advertised the story of “The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven” it immediately gripped the community’s attention. People want to know about life after death. This is a fantastic message about God’s awesome power, and the reality of heaven. If you didn’t believe before, you’ll have trouble not believing after. We showed the documentary of Alex’s story to our church two weeks before his father Kevin came to speak at our church and it really stirred up our congregation to invite their friends and family. As a result of all the advertising and personal invitations we drew in the largest crowd of people we have ever had visit our church.”
Pastor Rob Scarallo – Christian Family Outreach Center – Tampa, FL – See more at: http://www.ambassadorspeakers.com/ACP/speakers.aspx?name=Kevin%20Malarkey&speaker=1390#sthash.RbCfiXlK.dpuf

How about just wow. Kind of goes to show you how much uncritical thinking there is out there, I mean really a Christian “pastor”?! So what about “Heaven Is For Real” a four year old boy’s claim of going to heaven? Yea, sorry, not buying, but hey let’s see how that plays out. I mean really? On its face a four year old’s version of anything?

Listen, if you really are a Christian, you are called to be discerning. This goofy idea that as good “Christians” we are just supposed to paste on smiles and buy anything that comes down the pike in the name of “tolerance”. The word “tolerance” is not used in the Bible, the word “tolerate” is used twice, both negatively, Esther 3:8, Revelation 2:20 but it certainly does talk about discernment: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2 ESV)

“Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not associate with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.” (Ephesians  5: 6-10 ESV)

Let’s get serious, we are under constant attack. Attack doesn’t mean violence necessarily, usually it’s more undermining. We have to study Scripture, know what we are talking about, go to worship to be built up in our faith. Take the Body and Blood of the Lord. Take serious time in prayer. What we are called to do is to be discerning. We are called to be faithful to the revealed word of God and not to the world’s, let’s start getting serious and get rid of the nonsense in the world.

God has your back, He doesn’t want to kick you in the back

Henry Blackaby observes that when Jesus encountered Pete on the shore of the Sea of Galilee He wasn’t there to bust on Peter, but He does push on Peter. God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit knows we are going to sin. God knows we are going to drop the ball and He’s not waiting in the weeds to pop out and bust us.

Having said that, it doesn’t give us an excuse to sin either. Heck you may mess up at work and while you didn’t get fired, you sure don’t want to mess up again. I’m not saying God is Donald “You’re fired” Trump but it is more like a relationship. I don’t want to hurt my wife, I want to please my wife. If I do something to hurt her I don’t want to do it again, make the same mistake. It is comforting to know that Jesus knows we will fail and He does provide for that sin and brings us back to Him in repentance. We are forgiven and God not only forgives but helps us to recover from our sins. He brings us back into His presence He helps us to refocus our life and recover from where we sinned and puts us back onto the track of life He wants us on. There’s no doubt where He wants us is far better than where we are going to chose. He has our back, He is there to love and support us and put us back where we belong when we grieve Him in sin. But that is certainly not a license to sin.  We want to please Him who gives us so much. We will fumble and sin but then He brings us back, dusts us off, tell us that www are His and then puts us back where we belong.  I don’t want to disappoint my wife and I don’t want to disappoint God.

Henry and Richard Blackaby  “Experiencing God Day by Day” p 86

Sabiduría en un mundo de pragmatismo, la “sabiduría” del mundo 1 Reyes 3 Lucas 2: 47 First St Johns

Hacemos nuestro comienzo en el Nombre de Dios el Padre y en el nombre de Dios el Hijo y en el nombre de Dios el Espíritu Santo y todos los que que quieren ser fuertes en la sabiduría de Dios dijo … AMEN!

No sabemos mucho acerca de la infancia de Jesús, nuestra lectura de hoy es sobre el único registro que se tiene de su infancia en absoluto. Pero las lecturas de hoy son sin duda un contraste en la sabiduría. En nuestra lectura del Antiguo Testamento vemos, lo que, al menos, parece ser, una especie de acto altruista por parte de Salomón. El texto dice: “Salomón amó a Jehová, andando en los estatutos de su padre David; sólo, … “Pero también vemos Salomón poniendo un poco demasiado atrapados en los caminos de la política mundial. Se casó con una hija de Faraón. Ahora bien, esto es contrario a la Ley que Jehová dio vuelta en el Pentateuco, los primeros cinco libros de la Biblia. Eliezer Shemtov escribe: “La fuente primaria de la que la prohibición de que un Judio se case con un no-Judio se encuentra en (Deut. 7: 3):” No casarse con ellos (los gentiles), que no dará su hija a su hijo y no tomarás a su hija para tu hijo “.

La razón de esta prohibición está claramente en el siguiente versículo: “Porque él va a llevar a tu hijo descarriado de Mí y que servirá dioses extraños …” (“dioses ajenos” pueden también ser interpretados en el sentido de esos ideales y ‘ismos’ que no se ajustan a los dictados de la Torá, …) 1 vemos Salomón conseguir un poco atrapados en los caminos del mundo y olvidar lo que Jehová les había dicho que hiciera. La Biblia de Estudio cronológico escribe: “El matrimonio es un medio eficaz para la creación de alianzas entre las naciones antiguas. La esperanza era que uno podría tratar más amablemente con los familiares que con los extraños. No hay mayor evidencia de la importancia de Salomón entre los países vecinos sería que para registrar su matrimonio con una hija de un faraón egipcio. Como política, los faraones de Egipto no dieron sus hijas a los reyes extranjeros. “2 El pasaje de 1 Reyes 3: 1 nos dice:” Salomón hizo una alianza matrimonial con Faraón rey de Egipto. Él tomó la hija de Faraón, y la trajo a la ciudad de David … “(ESV) Además, el pasaje nos dice que” … el rey fue a Gabaón a sacrificar allí, porque ese era el lugar alto principal. Salomón usó para ofrecer mil holocaustos sobre ese altar “(1 Reyes 3: 4). Esa es una impresionante sacrificio! Pero ¿por qué Salomón hacer una ofrenda allí? El Arca de la Alianza, el tabernáculo estaba en Jerusalén. ¿Por qué no hacer sus sacrificios? La tradición de las religiones paganas era hacer sacrificios en “lugares altos”. Más tarde, en 2 Reyes, el escritor señala: “Y el pueblo de Israel hizo en secreto contra el Señor su Dios las cosas no rectas. Ellos construyeron para sí mismos lugares altos en todas sus ciudades, … “(2 Reyes 17: 9) Hay 75 versículos en el Antiguo Testamento acerca de” lugares altos “y todos ellos condenan el hecho de que Israel adoró en” lugares altos “. Ya en Levítico Jehová dice: “Y destruiré vuestros lugares altos, y derribaré vuestras imágenes, y pondré vuestros cuerpos muertos sobre los cuerpos muertos de vuestros ídolos, y mi alma se abominará.” (Lev 26:30) Doesn ‘t parece haber ninguna duda de que hay! Está claro que Israel no es el uso de “lugares altos” para la adoración de Yahvé. Sin embargo, es en Gabaón que Yahvé viene a Salomón en un sueño y le dice “Pide lo que te daré.” Salomón ciertamente dice las cosas correctas. Habla de cómo Jehová fielmente amado padre de Salomón David y David amaba a Yahvé. Salomón reconoce que Yahvé ahora lo ha hecho rey de Israel, y por lo que parece que Salomón realmente entiende por qué está donde está. Sus palabras están justo en el mensaje: “Dale a tu siervo un corazón con entendimiento para gobernar a tu pueblo, para discernir entre el bien y el mal, porque ¿quién podrá gobernar este tu pueblo tan grande” Salomón sabe que Israel es el pueblo de Yahweh, que sólo Dios hábilmente puede gobernar y Salomón parece entender que él ha sido puesto allí para gobernar con fidelidad como Jehová lo ha colocado allí.

Salomón fue sin duda brillante, Israel se elevó a la altura de su poder bajo Salomón. Se convirtió en el reino más poderoso de la región, era rico más allá de la imaginación. Se dice que Salomón no hizo uso de la plata para decorar cualquiera de sus edificios porque el oro era tan común. La Reina de Saba viajó desde su reino africano de tomar en la sabiduría de Salomón. Pero con toda la sabiduría, el poder y el material bendición del mundo, Salomón hizo demasiado enamorado de su poder mundano y lo hizo todo lo necesario para mantener su poder y riqueza. Él ya no confiaba en la sabiduría de Jehová a gobernar a Israel, pero confiaba en la sabiduría del mundo. Él construyó su poder mundano al casarse con mujeres de muchos reinos diferentes: “Pero el rey Salomón amó a muchas mujeres extranjeras, además de la hija de Faraón: moabita, amonita, edomita, de Sidón, y las mujeres hititas, … Él tenía 700 esposas, princesas y 300 concubinas. Y sus mujeres desviaron su corazón. “(1 Reyes 11: 1, 3) El escritor de Reyes señala:” Jehová había dicho a los hijos de Israel: “No contraer matrimonio con ellos, ni se ensayarán con usted , porque ciertamente harán inclinar vuestros corazones tras sus dioses “. Salomón se aferró a ellas en el amor “Más inquietante Isho’dad escribe:”. La razón de esa prohibición era no sea que [sus hijas] podría hacer que sus hijos también se prostituyen a sus dioses “3 Todas estas mujeres de diferentes partes del mundo,. éstos a Salomón un gran hombre en el barrio. Todas las naciones que lo rodean entienden su poder debido a todas sus esposas y alianzas. Vieron su poder como resultado de estas alianzas, y no como resultado de lo que el Señor había previsto para él y lo hicieron a través de él. Porque Salomón confió en el poder en el mundo, comenzó a ignorar Yahweh y confiar en los “dioses” de sus esposas. Eso resultaría en un desastre para Israel, que pasaría de ser el gorila de 800 libras, que dividida, pobre, constante lucha interna y, finalmente, sería invadida y su gente asesinados o deportados a países extranjeros. Sólo podemos imaginar lo que Israel habría sido como si Salomón y los reyes posteriores habían seguido fielmente Yahweh.

Mientras Salomón parecía venir aparte debido a su sabiduría, vemos que Jesús también comenzó como sabio. Salomón era joven cuando fue concedido gran sabiduría por Dios y, desde luego, ya que Jesús es Dios, Él tenía una gran sabiduría desde el principio. Demostró que la sabiduría desde el principio. Los maestros del templo, los hombres que han pasado toda su vida estudiando Torá “se admiraban de su inteligencia y de sus respuestas.” Esto sería como un niño de doce años de edad hoy en día ir a una reunión en la Escuela de Derecho de Harvard y “sorprendentes” todos los profesores ya está. Es sólo que no iba a pasar, los maestros del templo probablemente tenía un conocimiento más profundo de la Torá entonces los profesores de Harvard tienen de la ley.

La diferencia es la siguiente. Mientras que Salomón llegó a pedazos como escribió en el libro de Eclesiastés: “Vanidad de vanidades, dice el Predicador, vanidad de vanidades! Todo es vanidad. “Todo es inútil cuando seguimos la sabiduría del mundo, todo sólo se rompe. Pero con Jesús: “Y Jesús crecía en sabiduría, en estatura y en gracia ante Dios y los hombres.” (Lucas 2: 52 ESV)

Lo vemos a nuestro alrededor. La gente se llena de sí mismos debido a su poder o sabiduría o la riqueza. Ellos ya no confían en la dirección de Dios, confían en lo que está a su alrededor. Ellos confían en el mundo y su propia comprensión y al final, como Salomón, se encuentran con que todo era inútil, que no hace ningún bien a nadie, si algo causa daño y destrucción. Por otro lado, Jesús ciertamente no llegó a ser rico o poderoso, ni ninguno de sus discípulos. Sin embargo, lo que dejaron fue una iglesia que sigue sirviendo, edificar y animar a la gente de Jesús. La vida de Jesús terminó en la cruz y lo que podría parecer en la pérdida y la derrota, pero Él venció a la muerte. Jesús resucitó de entre los muertos para darnos la promesa de la vida eterna. No puede haber mayor contraste, la mundanidad y la derrota de Salomón, tan lleno de promesas. La santidad y la victoria de Jesús, que vino al mundo sin nada, vivían una vida que el mundo diría nada y, sin embargo, nos da la promesa y la esperanza de Su en este mundo y también en la eternidad.

Salomón falló, confiando en el mundo. Jesús triunfó confiando en la esperanza y la promesa de Dios. Ya que estamos en el comienzo de un nuevo año, vamos a tomar un giro diferente en nuestras resoluciones del Año Nuevo y realmente pensar en lo mucho que nos hemos alejado de el plan de Dios para nuestra vida y de confianza demasiado en las promesas del mundo.

¿Qué podemos hacer en nuestras vidas para volver a dedicarnos a Dios y su voluntad para con nosotros y comenzar a mirar las cosas en nuestra vida que son demasiado acerca de riqueza, el poder, la comodidad y muy poco acerca de la vida en Cristo, por nosotros y por todos los que nos guía el Espíritu Santo para testificar a.

La paz de Dios que sobrepasa todo entendimiento, guardará vuestros corazones y vuestros pensamientos en Cristo Jesús. Shalom y Amin.

Wisdom in a world of pragmatism, the world’s “wisdom” 1 Kings 3 Luke 2: 47 First St Johns

Please click on the above link to hear the audio of this sermon or copy and paste into your browser.

This is my 300th post, so Yaaaay, appropriately enough it’s my sermon from last week.

We make our beginning in the Name of God the Father and in the Name of God the Son and in the Name of God the Holy Spirit and all those who who want to be strong in God’s wisdom said … AMEN!

We don’t know much about Jesus’ childhood, our reading today is about the only record we have of His childhood at all. But today’s readings are certainly a contrast in wisdom. In our Old Testament reading we see, what at least appears to be, a sort of altruistic act on the part of Solomon. The text says “Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father; only,…” But we also see Solomon getting a little too caught up in the ways of world politics. He married a daughter of Pharoah. Now this was contrary to the Law that Yahweh gave back in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. Eliezer Shemtov writes: “The primary source upon which the prohibition for a Jew to marry a non-Jew is to be found in (Deut. 7:3): “You shall not marry them (the gentiles), you shall not give your daughter to their son and you shall not take his daughter for your son.”

The reason for this prohibition is clearly spelled out in the following verse: “Because he will lead your son astray from Me and they will serve strange gods…” (“Strange gods” can also be interpreted to mean those ideals and ‘isms’ that do not conform to the dictates of Torah,… )1 We see Solomon getting a little caught up in the ways of the world and forgetting what Yahweh had told them to do. The Chronological Study Bible writes: “Marriage was an effective means for creating alliances among ancient nations. The hope was that one would deal more kindly with kin than with strangers. No greater evidence of Solomon’s importance among the nearby countries would be than to record his marriage to an an Egyptian pharaoh’s daughter. As policy, Egypt’s pharaohs did not give their daughters in marriage to foreign kings.”2 The passage in 1 Kings 3: 1 tells us: “Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt. He took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her into the city of David…” (ESV) In addition the passage tells us that “…the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.” (1 Kings 3:4) That’s quite an impressive sacrifice! But why would Solomon make an offering there? The ark of the Covenant, the tabernacle was in Jerusalem. Why not make your sacrifices there? The tradition of the pagan religions was to make sacrifices on “high places”. Later in 2 Kings, the writer notes: “ And the people of Israel did secretly against the LORD their God things that were not right. They built for themselves high places in all their towns,…” (2 Kings 17:9) There are 75 verses in the Old Testament about “high places” and all of them condemn the fact that Israel worshiped on “high places”. As early as Leviticus Yahweh says: “And I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and my soul will abhor you.” (Lev 26:30) Doesn’t seem to be any doubt there! It is clear that Israel is not to use “high places” for the worship of Yahweh. Yet it’s at Gibeon that Yahweh comes to Solomon in a dream and says “Ask what I shall give you.” Solomon certainly says the right things. He talks about how Yahweh faithfully loved Solomon’s father David and David loved Yahweh. Solomon acknowledges that Yahweh has now made him king of Israel and so it appears that Solomon really understands why he is where he is. His words are right on message: “Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?” Solomon knows that Israel is Yahweh’s people, that only God can capably rule and Solomon seems to understand that he has been put there to faithfully rule as Yahweh has placed him there.

Solomon was definitely brilliant, Israel rose to the height of its power under Solomon. It became the most powerful kingdom in the region, was wealthy beyond imagination. It’s said that Solomon didn’t use silver to decorate any of his buildings because gold was so common. The Queen of Sheba traveled from her African kingdom to take in the wisdom of Solomon. But with all the wisdom, power and material blessing of the world, Solomon became too in love with his worldly power and did whatever was necessary in order to maintain his power and wealth. He no longer trusted in Yahweh’s wisdom to rule Israel, but trusted the wisdom of the world. He built his worldly power by marrying women from many different kingdoms: “Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women,…He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.” ( 1Kings 11: 1, 3) The writer of Kings points out: “the LORD had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love.” More unsettling Isho’dad writes: “The reason for that prohibition was lest [their daughters] might make your sons also prostitute themselves to their gods.”3 All these wives from different parts of the world, these made Solomon a big man in the neighborhood. All the nations around him understood his power because of all his wives and alliances. They saw his power as a result of these alliances and not as a result of what Yahweh had intended for him and did through him. Because Solomon trusted in the world’s power, he began to ignore Yahweh and trust in the “gods” of his wives. That would result in disaster for Israel, it would go from being the 800 pound gorilla, to divided, poor, constant in-fighting and eventually it would be overrun and it’s people killed or deported to foreign countries. We can only imagine what Israel would have been like if Solomon and subsequent kings had faithfully followed Yahweh.

While Solomon seemed to come apart because of his wisdom, we see that Jesus too started out as wise. Solomon was young when he was granted great wisdom by God and certainly, since Jesus is God, He had great wisdom from the start. He demonstrated that wisdom from the beginning. The teachers of the temple, men who spent their entire lives studying Torah “were amazed at his understanding and his answers.” This would be like a twelve year old today going to a meeting at the Harvard Law School and “amazing” all the professors there. It just wouldn’t happen, the teachers of the temple probably had a more profound knowledge of Torah then Harvard professors have of the law.

The difference is this. While Solomon came apart at the seams as he wrote in the Book of Ecclesiastes: “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” It’s all pointless when we follow the world’s wisdom, it all just breaks down. But with Jesus: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.” (Luke 2: 52 ESV)

We see it all around us. People get full of themselves because of their power or wisdom or wealth. They no longer trust God’s leading, they trust what is around them. They trust in the world and their own understanding and in the end, like Solomon, they find that it was all pointless, it doesn’t do anyone any good, if anything it causes harm and destruction. On the other hand, Jesus certainly didn’t become wealthy or powerful, nor did any of His disciples. Yet what they left was a church that continues to serve, build up and encourage the people of Jesus. Jesus’ life ended at the Cross and it might appear in loss and defeat, but He defeated death. Jesus rose from the dead to give us the promise of eternal life. There can be no greater contrast, the worldliness and defeat of Solomon, so full of promise. The holiness and victory of Jesus, who came into the world with nothing, lived a life that the world would say had nothing and yet gives us the promise and hope of being His in this world and also in eternity.

Solomon failed, trusting in the world. Jesus triumphed trusting in the hope and promise of God. Since we are at the beginning of a New Year, let’s take a different twist on our New Year’s resolutions and really think about how much we have fallen away from God’s plan for our life and trusted way too much in the world’s promises.

What can we do in our lives to rededicate ourselves to God and His will for us and to start to look at the things in our life that are too much about wealth, power, comfort and too little about life in Christ, for us and for all those who the Holy Spirit guides us to witness to.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Shalom and Amin.

2Chronological Study Bible p 454

3Marco Conti Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture OT V p 13 quoting Isho’dad of Merv quoting Ex 34:16

Real life in Jesus

I was at a meeting about 40 miles away when my mother called me to tell me my aunt had just died. It was a tough drive home, throw in a little traffic. I was trapped in a car so I had to kind of deal with the loss versus rushing on to my next task, burying myself in my work.
I had the radio on to the Christian radio station and the vacuousness of the music struck me, how inappropriate to the real condition of the world. My Aunt was a serious Christian and I have no doubt in the presence of the Lord. Of course that is worthy of rejoicing, but the reality of how frivolous some people can treat our relation with Jesus also became obvious.
Frankly I would be willing to bet many reject Christianity because there are so many who make it look all “happy-clappy, and treat the reality of life in Jesus rather frivolously. When reality hits they reject Christianity because they’ve been used to using it as a magic talisman and not a genuine relationship with Jesus.
I don’t like death. I don’t like that those I love are growing older, becoming sick and dying. But I do know there is an eternal answer in Jesus. It doesn’t mean we have to be all gloom and doom in Jesus because we do have the promise of eternal life in Him. But when we also treat Jesus lightly, make it all “happy-flappy” we do a disservice to Him and to those around us. Jesus is very serious about life He’s not some poofy little caricature, a few minutes of serious Bible reading will reveal that. But let’s not set people up for failure letting them thing being a Christian is all “happy-flappy”. Eternity is and we should take joy in that. But in order to get there we do have to deal with the tragedies of life and still trust in Jesus. Being a Christian is the best that there is. But when you treat it as a candy cane and ignore the realities of life you are just creating a fantasy and not life in Christ.

Faithful discipleship and not going through the motions

It’s one of those cliches that Christians fall into, “God gave us the best in Jesus, we should give Him our best.” OK, you can’t argue with that, but it’s that sort of platitude that gets “ya-ya’d” and then pretty much left as a platitude. To be sure God has given us His best, He continues to do so and not only that is looking for our faithfulness, our growth, our trust in Him and our honest attempts to serve Him. I get it, that is not always going to be our “best”. No doubt, when we are doing things that are new, things that God is pushing us into, that are intimidating, that make us challenge our boundaries we are going to shrink back a little. To be sure, we’re not always going to produce our best, but what God wants is for us to rely on the faith that He’s given us in order to push us to do the things that He wants us to grow in. Anytime, there’s something new, something that is kind of towering over you, it does kind of freeze you up. So that’s the point, that’s what God is doing with so many in the Bible, making them go beyond what they thought they were capable of.

God gave us His best, Jesus picked up from the glory of Heaven, His place in the Godhead next to God the Father. He became a man in order to live the perfect life and therefore the spotless sacrifice, payment for all of our sins and restore the relationship in salvation with God the Father. As the Blackabys point out: “…He reliinquished the glory of His heavenly existence in order to become a man. He was born n a cattle shed; he slept in a feeding trough. His life was spent preparing for the day when He would suffer an excruciating execution…” (Henry Blackaby and Richard Blackaby Experiencing God Day by Day p 362) Jesus was He who all creation came into being and yet He is in a shed, in a humble place in Israel, which is itself a humble backwater to the rest of the world.

So having said all that, and realizing that we aren’t going to be “all that and a bag of chips”, but it seems that when we are pushed, we don’t even think about excellence, we think that we throw some crumbs, go through the motions and then we should be good with God. We need God to be great, perfect, Holy, almighty, sovereign Lord, we will never come close to being even a speck to the God who has created all and that’s good, we have a God that is Lord of all. Having said that and understanding that He does understand that we can never be anywhere near enough, that we have human limitations, we still expect that He’s supposed to lower His standards to ours. I get that a lot as a pastor, talk to me on my level, heck the church has been doing that since you and I were in Sunday school. It’s really not an attempt to help people to grow, to push themselves to new levels of Christian maturity, it’s the same old story. Pat us on the head, make everything nice and easy and everyone will be happy. We want God to come down to our level, but we still want Him to do all the great, magnificent things when we want them.

OK, God comes down to our level, but what does that even mean? Whose level of mediocrity should He lower Himself to, mine? Yours? The take-away is this. God sets the standard that we should all strive for and we should strive for God’s best. That’s not what saves us, we are saved simply and solely through Jesus who died as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world. We cannot earn our way into salvation, nothing we will ever do will ever be enough to save us in our sin. Jesus is the only One who could save us and is all there is, nothing we could ever come close to.

But instead of always offering our mediocre efforts, our gifts of crumbs and indifference, expecting that it should be “our way”, as if God is going to do billions of people individual ways. Instead let’s really trust in God’s leading, if He’s pushing you to trust more, to do something that seems out of your reach, to learn and to lead beyond what you think you can, then trust His leading. We have to get out of our mediocre, hum-drum ruts that’s so typical of the world and really strive for what the Holy Spirit is pushing us to. Are there new groups at church to help you learn and apply what you learn and are led to do? Are there ministries that are crying out to be established? Are there people, maybe even just one who could use attention, guidance, mentoring?

Our church service is not in terms of some pompous, “ya, always the best rah-rah”. It’s I’m here to be led to where the Holy Spirit is moving me, it’s not always going to be the best, the most successful, the most effective. It’s going to be in terms of the faithfulness that He gives us and lose the attitude of just going through the motions, throwing some crumbs and then moving on to “fun”. Ya, which is usually being a slug, that it’s all about you and don’t make me really make an effort. God gives us the faith, the talent, the ability, and when needed lifts us up past our ability and helps us to achieve to His glory. Let’s glorify God, focus on His will and not our weaknesses, get out of our mediocre ruts and really know His will and what He can do through us and then do it as well as we can.

Bedouin shepherds in Israel

Saw these guys during our travels around the area of Capernaum. Even today there are shepherds out with their sheep, no doubt it’s pretty lonely and not the easiest way to make a living. Shepherds doing the same thing shepherds were doing 2,000 years ago when they were singled out for the announcement that would change the course of human history. Men, probably, who probably became disciples of Jesus during His earthly incarnation and ministry.