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Hawaii Vacation Packages

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Dallas Foundation Repair

Dallas foundation repair costs can vary through only a few hundred or so dollars, to in excess of twenty thousand dollars depending on the severity of the harm and repairs essential. If you have sloping surfaces, cracked surfaces, or even in case your gates are becoming trapped or not closing correctly you might have groundwork troubles and need maintenance. To become properly educated you should have a architectural industrial engineer perform a great examination of the groundwork to find out exactly what fixes have to be performed. This can cost between $300 to be able to $800.

Wisdom and knowledge come from the same family but are as different as apples and watermelons. What we call common wisdom is what made you expect me to say oranges instead of watermelons. Common wisdom flows off the tongue like water over the falls but doesn’t always require that the brain be fully engaged. Some people call this, the common wisdom of the day. This particular kind of wisdom is rarely examined for truth or any other useful quality. It is commonly accepted because it is so commonly heard. It is much like an unpaid commercial that we set into motion not knowing where it came from and with little regard to whether it is true or not. It is like an old pal who always steps in to keep a conversation going when we run low on original ideas. It is almost never questioned and in most conversation, it is only a matter of who is going to say it first. Some of these sayings so glibly passed around among us are innocuous, while others are outright misleading and sometimes dangerous. Here are five of them that should be challenged, examined, analyzed and if reason prevails, will finally be put out to pasture.

Crime Doesn’t Pay: Oh really. Who is sponsoring the myriad of television programs like, CSI, Law and Order, Cold Case Files, FBI, City Confidential, Cops and many others? Of course the criminals weren’t thinking of this when the committed their crimes and we are not thinking of it when we see their stories but someone thought it out very carefully. They knew this was a goldmine. They knew they could sell their products and goods on the backs of the victims of these crimes and through the medium of the public’s natural curiosity. Crime does pay; in fact it is an industry that pays in the millions. Perhaps it is time that we insist that some portion of the earnings from these sponsors was used against crime. Funds could be set aside for rehabilitation, prevention, law enforcement, education and prison ministries. Some states have enacted legislation that prevents the perpetrators of crimes to profit from their misdeeds through the publication of books and articles. Why not hold accountable others who are profiting from their misdeeds? Does this seem unlikely? It is not. If people can boycott a certain product or program why can’t they also begin a movement to engage the producers and sponsors to contribute to the cause of crime prevention or help for victims? Has anyone asked them? This is not an idea whose time has come but rather it is an idea that is long overdue.

Reverse Psychology: Please read every word in this paragraph. If this far fetched notion were founded at all you wouldn’t be on this sentence. What parent has not been heard voicing the reverse psychology notion? We have started to take seriously the idea that the only reason your teenager is doing something you don’t like is that you have told him or her not to do it. The Catholic Church has misled many people with the idea that we are all straddled with something called original sin. The bible quite clearly says that is not so. What it does say, is that man is born with a sin nature or a natural proclivity to sin. We sin, not because we are told not to sin, but because it is in our nature. If we’re going to take this lame saying seriously, then why aren’t we demanding that our kids be lazy, do everything wrong and take drugs? Then we could sit back and watch them do just the opposite? Why would God have wasted his time with Ten Commandments? Couldn’t He have done better with the ten sinful options? Maybe we should be grateful that God doesn’t have any notions.

How Much Are You Worth: Your mind may have already begun to drift toward your last bank statement or the assessed value of your home by now. If this were a magazine like Forbes or Fortune 500 you wouldn’t think twice about whether that is what the question was referring to. As a boy I remember a teacher telling us that the chemicals and other elements in our body were worth a little over a dollar. Inflation and other factors have since brought the figure up to a little over four dollars. Jesus said, a mans life is never measured by the things he possesses, Lk 12:15. A recent television show featured people who had succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They had acquired everything they had ever hoped for and more. The one thing they had in common besides money was the feeling that they were totally unfulfilled. Many of them went searching for meaning by becoming volunteers, or joining charitable organizations, churches, prison ministries and other service oriented endeavors. Their net worth did not cut it for them in the most traditional sense of the word. People spend the last few years of their lives getting their business in order. That usually means they are arranging for the transfer of their personal wealth or property. Why is it that you needn’t tell dying men that their net worth is not worth a whole lot? What man wouldn’t give up a fortune to be able to cancel his last breath and go on living? Christ has told us that we are of inestimable value to both Him and His Father. We have an eternal value placed on us from above, and there is not enough money in this world to pay for even the least of us. How much are you worth?

Science And The Bible don’t Agree: When most of the world was afraid to sail too far out on the ocean for fear of falling off the edge of the world, the Bible clearly indicated that the world was round. It was the church that condemned Galileo for saying the sun and the planets revolved around the earth, it was not the Bible. Science has made a poor showing of trying to explain the Bible. Fortunately, it has also made a poor showing for disproving the Bible as well. The Bible on the other hand doesn’t even enter the fray. It never argues with the findings of legitimate science. It has indicated that God intended for man to know and name just about everything on the earth, it is called taking dominion. God doesn’t foster stupidity and having blind faith is not God’s plan to keep us blissfully un-informed. The best answer that can be given to anyone about this absurd notion is contained in the following. Science is the book of how, the Bible is the book of why.

Maybe God Used Evolution To Create Man: To argue against the evidence would take more space than allowed here for the task. But don’t be fooled the Scopes Monkey Trial will go down in history as the only bout ever won by the evolutionists. All anyone has to do is put up the words “creation science” on any good internet search engine. The material fed back from that phrase alone would keep them busy for weeks. The evidence against the evolutionary model is mounting exponentially as opposed to the few finds the evolutionist are claiming. The power of the evolutionary model is no longer in its facts but now it is largely in its momentum. It is hard to stop a speeding train. There is much now to refute this secular pipe dream but it is not just the evidence that is failing the evolutionist it is their philosophy. Science which is otherwise known as empiricism has popped the bounds of its own definitions. By definition science is the procuring of data by and through repeatable, observable phenomena. When scientists make statements about something that happened millions of years past the have left the realm of empiricism. Since no one was there to see the phenomena in question much less to repeat it, such statements are now only speculative, conjectural and akin to simple guesswork. Such speculation is in the realm of “prior philosophic postulate”. In plain English that is the exact equivalent of faith.
The belief that God used evolution to make man, speaks of a faithless generation. It also speaks of a generation of Christians who haven’t noticed that they are worshipping a God who after all may only be a liar. And God’s Son bought into that lie so how can we expect a liar to provide the whole world with the kind of truth that universally saves men. In street terms we are speaking of gutless Christians but for the sake of diplomacy let’s say they aren’t too willing to take a firm stand. The apostle Paul wasn’t as gentle as I have been. He said we should let God be true and every man a liar, Romans 3:4. I think I’ll stand with Paul on this one.

About the Author

Rev Bresciani is from New Orleans La and the author of…Hook line and Sinker or What Has Your Church Been Teaching You, PublishAmerica 2005 and…An American Prophet and His Message, Questions and Answers on the Second Coming of Christ, Xulon Press 2005. His website is
http://americanprophet.org

To conserve it, the boat was submerged in a solution of heated polyethylene glycol (PRG). This synthetic wax replaced the water in the wood cells. The hull was then allowed to dry slowly and cleaned of excess wax, thus allowing for its present exhibition in the atmosphere-controlled museum environment.

The boat is preserved to a length of 8.2 meters (26.9 feet), a breadth of 2.3 meters (7.5 feet) and a height of 1.2 meters (3.9 feet). It is built in the typical ancient Mediterranean ’shell-based’ construction, employing pegged mortise-and-tenon joints to edge-join the planking. Iron nails hold the frames to the hull.

Numerous repairs, the reuse of timbers and a multiplicity of wood types (twelve) evident in the hull, suggest that this vessel had a long work life an owner of meager means. Based on several criteria the Galilee Boat is firmly dated to the first centuries BCE-CE. An analyses of crew size suggests that this is the type of boat referred to in the Gospels in use among Jesus’ Disciples, as well as that used by the

against the Romans in the nautical Battle of Migdal in CE 67. This humble vessel is, thus, a remarkable porthole into the past providing a clearer view of the Galilean seafaring that forms the backdrop to both Jesus’ ministry and the Battle of Migdal.

In February 2000, fourteen years after its excavation, the boat moved to its permanent home, in a new wing of the Yigal Allon Centre, which is devoted to the story of man in the Galilee.

http://www.jesusboat.com/imgs/site/site/boat.html

http://www.jesusboat.com

He’s referring to transfer growth rather than new converts. In other words, it’s easier to go to a restaurant and order baked fish than to catch and clean our own.

Over 3800 American churches close their doors annually throughout the USA. The reasons for these closures run the gamut: real or perceived pastoral incompetency, strife, infidelity in leadership marriages, lack of financial integrity, doctrinal discrepancies, power struggles, persecution, congregational distrust or dissatisfaction (only 43% of Christians surveyed say they fully trust their church), choosing sides on any issue, and more. It’s no secret that church splits inflict damage upon the army of God. Things like divorce, death or sickness of a beloved leader, job transfers, college relocation, military reassignment and the like, wreak havoc upon the rank and file Believer. All of these situations leave the average Christian scratching his or her head in bewilderment as their brothers and sisters in Christ leave their fellowship, never to return.

Is it a “bad” thing for the members of a church congregation to scatter like this? At first glance, yes. But it depends on one’s perspective. Sure, it hurts, causing great emotional pain. Though it’s true, in accordance with Scripture, that if one smites the shepherd, the sheep will scatter, the “scattering of the sheep” has been happening since the early days of the church, often without any shepherd-smiting at all. Whether it was through the influential confusion brought upon the Church by the Judaizers (Galatians 1:7; 2:14; 3:1) or the persecution and subsequent scattering of the Church at the hands of the Romans under Nero’s reign during which Peter was martyred, God was never left wringing His hands, anxiously trying to figure out what His next move was going to be. The Jewish-Roman wars of A.D. 66-70 also contributed to the scattering of the saints.

For the first two centuries of the Church, the Apostle Paul and others journeyed forth across the known world to spread the Gospel. As a result of previous scatterings, while remaining true to their faith in Christ, scattered believers had been divinely positioned, ready to receive these traveling evangelists into their homes and give them provisions for their journey as they went forth preaching the Gospel and as the Kingdom of God continued to advance. Again, notice how the Church had been strategically placed, through persecution, to disciple new converts as they came into being. These people would not have been there to receive the evangelists, had they not been scattered by persecution or any other outside influence that had caused their once-cozy groups to split up. God is always in control.

WHAT MAKES A CHURCH SPLIT A BAD THING?
For starters, there’s the shipwrecked faith of the weaker Christians that so often occurs. Sadly, many Christians will abandon the faith altogether in the face of a Church split, disillusioned as they observe those whom they saw as “solid” Christian leaders suddenly picking up stakes and walking out the door. For anyone with shallow roots, Satan can use a church split to spiritually destroy the most vulnerable. For babes in Christ, seeing the world through rose-colored eyes, nothing on Earth can compare to the sweet fellowship from which they’ve found nourishment. Suddenly, boundaries become obscured. Friends become enemies. Brothers become adversaries. And another church-attender goes down with the ship.

Another unfortunate result of a church split is that most of those in pastoral roles will, statistically, never return to full-time pastoral ministry after they lose a church or are uncerimoniously drummed out of the corps. In fact, though they still maintain a relationship with God, the statistics are alarmingly high regarding those ministers who never even join another congregation, much less pastor another flock. Even in these instances, however, it is becoming more and more common to discover licensed and ordained ministers working in our midst as salesmen, floor managers, telemarketers, etc. Once again, God’s people have been strategically positioned to shine the light of Christ into the darkened life of their coworkers – those who spend more time at work than they do at home – and the Faith at Work Movement is spreading like wildfire. No one leaves their problems at home. A battered wife is still a battered wife at the office. A dad whose daughter turned up pregnant still has a broken heart while managing his crew. I served for 5 years as a workplace chaplain myself and found that ministry quite fulfilling and appreciated by the staff.

WHAT GOOD CAN COME OF A CHURCH SPLIT?
To answer this, we must first recognize that God is more concerned with our individual character than He is in our comfort. Satan and God have one thing in common, friends… they’re BOTH trying to kill us. That’s right. The only good Christian is a dead one! We MUST decrease in order for Jesus to INCREASE. In other words, the world must see more of HIM shining through our lives than they see of US. We have NOTHING to offer that matters in light of eternity besides He Who lives in us, the Spirit of God.

So, what are we made of? How strong are our Christian marriages? How strong is our church? How strong is the sweet fellowship of the saints? Rest assured, the dreaded “rub” will come. Everything WILL be tested. It MUST be tested. Tried by fire. The REFINER’S fire; the fire that causes the dross to rise to the top as the silver is purified, allowing the silversmith to see His own reflection in the product, testifying to its readiness for use. See, the Lord only builds with fireproof materials. As the hay, wood and stubble are burned into ashes, once the smoke clears, stone and silver are all that remain. So, burn, baby, burn! Jesus was tested and we will be, too.

That Christian who stands praying while his beloved church is crumbling, and remains faithful to the Kingdom of God REGARDLESS of what happens to a building made of brick and mortar, has received the highest order of strength, straight from the foundries of Heaven. It’s the grace of God. When unjust persecution comes, when unjustified crucifixion becomes our lot, we can call upon this grace to empower us so that we may remain true to the cause of our Christ, regardless of circumstances. Only the Spirit of God can keep us on course. We can not live vicariously through our godly, spirit-filled ministers. Our Christianity cannot be typified by our worship style, preacher’s gifting, size of assembly, cost of the sanctuary, or the scope of our pastor’s TV ministry. We must resist the deceptive thinking that God is so enthralled with our particular church group and its exciting ministries that He no longer sees us as individuals.

Part 2
HAVE IT GOD’S WAY
God says a really strange thing in Exodus 23:38. He states that He will drive out the enemies of Israel by sending hornets. In other words, God would arrange it so that the Israelites would not even have to fire a shot – their enemies would be “bugged” to death. Imagine an army of hornets, lined up, stingers at the ready, awaiting the directive of Earth’s Supreme Commander and Creator to drive out Israel’s enemies. Just crazy enough to work! But it’s an order that never came. Unfortunately, for the Israelites, it seemed too simple an answer to too big of a problem. So, in all their wisdom, they chose to fight their own battles rather than trusting in the same God that had delivered them from Egypt using flies, frogs, and then fed them with manna from Heaven and quail every night. The result? Nearly forty years later, it was their children, not they themselves, who would enter the Promised Land.

The point? God’s ways are not our ways. They’re much HIGHER than ours. Victory can be ours only when the battle is the Lord’s. He will share His glory with no man. In the midst of the pain and suffering inflicted upon one’s soul during a church split, imagine a seemingly silly thing like prayer serving as a balm for the soul. Yes! Pray for those who are siding against you! No one can hate the one they’re praying for – no more than we can despise a garden over which we might toil. We’ll chase away the rodents, we’ll water and weed and, ultimately, rejoice as the field bears fruit. But we can never hate that over which we toil in prayer. God is able to cause our greatest enemies to be at peace with us.

THIS IS A TEST!
Beware. The day of crisis is coming to your congregation or denominational camp. It HAS to. The thing MUST be tested by fire. When discord and backbiting, divorce and disharmony abound, how will we conduct ourselves? Amazingly, in my experience with church splits, I’ve noticed that both sides feel quite justified in pulling out the sacred Word of God and using it to bludgeon one another. The Scripture, intended to bring Life, now yields only death among the saints at the hands of all out civil war. Which group’s convictions are from the Lord? When is an issue important enough to abandon all attempts at unity and reconciliation? There was never any greater act of injustice than that which took place on Calvary, the day of our Savior’s crucifixion. Peter didn’t speak out against it. He wasn’t the only disciple not to utter a word in protest. Jesus was led “as a lamb to slaughter” and did not even attempt to defend Himself. Even God turned His head as He could not even look upon Jesus, Who became sin personified on the cross for our sakes.

In light of this truth, what critical, all-important, “paramount” issues are we debating over in the midst of our own congregations right now? Folks, our commission is to “go and make disciples.” If our focus were upon that and ONLY that, living our lives in such a way before men that we might win some, functioning as epistles read by all, there wouldn’t be time, or the need, to lobby and legislate against sin by political means. We wouldn’t have the energy to debate the color of the carpet. We’re supposed to be making the world jealous for what we’ve found in Jesus. Instead, we’ve allowed ourselves to be transformed from a counter-culture to merely another sub-culture with a political agenda, quoting verses at a world that doesn’t even acknowledge the Book from which those verses came.

They see our disharmony and they are NOT impressed.

GOING OUT OF BUSINESS, OR DIVINE CLOSURE?
Many years ago, in Fort Worth, Texas, I had the privilege of experiencing an official, God-ordained, church closing. In this situation, the pastor testified to receiving a vision from God while out of town at the same time the church leadership team was having dreams and confirmations, all pointing to the fact that God was instructing them to shut down their church. Both parties confirmed the testimony of the other that God was leading them to forever close their doors. Why was God leading these people to do such a thing? The people were happy, they were reaching their neighborhood, they loved each other and had a good thing going. What could have been the reason? Quite simply, the Lord had new work for each of its members to attend to.

The “closure” service was held in the presence of several other churches with whom this particular group had been relating to for some time, including the team on which I had served. Many people were eventually absorbed into these loving churches with which they had established a relationship. The pastor spoke; the other leaders, too. One elder told of how God enabled them to become debt-free in a very short period of time and even give their long-time, faithful secretary some severance money over and above her final check. Members of the congregation performed a one-act play, each actor displaying one of the many emotions that were surely being felt by the church’s soon-to-be former congregants.

Strangely, the number one comment I heard from the moist-eyed attendants was “I wonder how many OTHER churches should have closed their doors years ago?” Frankly, I wondered that myself.

Ironically, though I left the church I helped establish while it was in its seventh year to follow the call of God to my current home town, two years later, in its ninth year, on Easter Sunday, that church, too, had a closure service of its own.

Though many people from my own prior congregation have scattered, the fact is, as the lovely faces of scores of people flash through my mind, to my knowledge, nothing but good has come of these closings. I speak with many of them via email and telephone and I’m delighted by the praise reports I’ve heard. Interestingly, the financial blessing that has occurred in many of their lives has been the most obvious good to come of it.

WHOSE KINGDOM IS IT ANYWAY?
Folks, this thing we call Christianity is all about Jesus Christ. He alone is all anybody really needs, whether they know it or not. We can quote Scriptures till our halo burns out, argue and Scripture-whip the unbeliever silly. It’s futile for we cannot intellectualize a person into salvation.

If lost people need Jesus and Him only, guess what the Christian needs? Guess what the church needs? You guessed it…. CHRIST! And nothing else will satisfy. Not even a new carpet or re-striping the parking lot.

Jesus is faithful to complete what He began. He will never leave or forsake us. He didn’t come to establish a denomination or build a cathedral. He created this thing we call “The Church,” the ekklesia in Greek (meaning “called out ones”). As with creation in general, Jesus created it and He holds it all together.

Here’s a newsflash: No matter how overwhelming your personal or corporate church circumstances may appear to be, they’re going to get worse.

You read that correctly.

As we grow in our relationship with Christ and He increases in us, He also increases the scope of His dealings with us. Again, it’s character, not comfort that God desires for His kids. He wants to conform us to the image of His Son and nothing burns away human flesh like a baptism by holy fire.

When the seas of turmoil and confusion begin to swirl uncontrollably within your church, forget about digging into your church leadership’s bag o’ tricks. Instead, find your true north. We must determine how Jesus would have handled the matter (in a word, “crucifixion”), and do likewise. Here’s the battle plan: 1) love unconditionally everything with a pulse 2) relentlessly forgive, right and left, preferring others to ourselves 3) with wreckless abandon, empathize with others and strive for unity, and 4) focus entirely on Jesus, the Way, as the sole solution.

Find out what the opposition needs… and GIVE it to them! Go exceedingly beyond what they could have ever expected you to do. Then, hide and watch.

What God does next will amaze everyone concerned.

Part 3
CHURCH WARS: A KINGDOM DIVIDED
There are many reasons why church wars begin. Though there are times that the issues may be critical and involve the spiritual integrity of the church., generally, we choose sides over very insignificant issues.

For example, I’ve been told there is a church down South with a roof that’s green on one side and red on the other. This was done because some members of the church adamantly wanted green and other members adamantly wanted red. The disagreement was so intense that the church was going to split because of it. Finally, a compromise was reached. Unfortunately, the red and green roof is a monument to the community of the kind of silly disjointedness they might find if they become a part of the Body of Christ.

In relationships, whenever we see “the other side” as the problem, we’ve been deceived. People are never the problem. The PROBLEM is the problem. We attack each other when we should join forces in attacking the problem. Likewise, church problems are NOT the Church’s real problem. They are a symptom of a much deeper problem. The color of the shingles was not the issue tearing the church apart. Yes, it may have been the issue that caused the friction, but the church had other issues that needed to be addressed, and probably still does. Yet, in our desire to choose the path of least resistance, we opt for putting band-aids on that which requires major surgery. In essence, we prolong the agony of the inevitable. Usually, the underlining problems are very complex and have been in development for generations.

A congregation experiencing significant problems over “superficial” issues should seek outside, objective help. This is where the role of a church-planting apostle can be invaluable. If this is not part of your denomination’s organizational make-up, a trusted senior leader may serve just as well. Sadly, just as some struggling married couples are reluctant to seek help, most churches function in the same way. They see a request for outside help is an admission that they can’t handle their own problems. They see it as a sign of weakness rather than a potential position of empowerment. A church pastor or leadership team believes they should be about the business of helping others and don’t want to admit that they need help themselves. The sad reality is that, by NOT seeking help, those they thought they were helping may be hurt beyond repair as the result of a church split.

Though I pray God’s grace upon you should you ever face the ugliness of a church split, the reality is that most Christians will have this experience at least once. Whether you define “church” as the steepled building or whether yours is of the cozy “home group” variety, where humans are concerned, disagreements are bound to erupt. They’ll know we are Christians – not merely church-attenders- by our love for one another. When we who have the Bible and the Holy Spirit as our Guide and Teacher openly display to our community that we are unable to get along, what hope can we offer to the world? We must make them jealous for what we’ve supposedly discovered through our relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Otherwise, the Church shall remain the #1 cause of atheism on planet Earth.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael’s mission is to bring Discipleship and Encouragement to the Body of Christ. Since 1999, he has broadcast over 300 hundred inspirational articles and a dozen booklets on subjects that will interest the thinking Christian, all designed to accelerate the process of spiritual development in God’s people.
He is the founder of t.e.a.m. ministries (team1min@aol.com). An Author, Pastoral Counselor and Teacher, his eMail broadcasts, known as “Your Town for Jesus” are reaching millions around the globe WEEKLY. Write team1min@aol.com if you’d like to SUBSCRIBE.
A licensed/ordained minister, a Certified Workplace Chaplain, and a Professional Member of NIBIC, he has ministered in Methodist, Pentecostal, Charismatic, Baptist, Disciples of Christ, College and Cowboy churches. He is also a Speaker on the Christian Speaker Network and may be available to speak to your church or Christian group.

Let the reader recall that this text has its roots earlier in the same book, where a discussion of those under the leadership of Moses (chapter 3) and then Joshua (chapter 4) takes place. In other words, the backdrop for properly understanding the sense of verse 13:8 forms a comparison. Those compared are the Hebrews who left Egypt for the Sinai wilderness in the Exodus (who spent 40 years heading toward the promised land, “Canaan” or Israel)– comparing THAT generation, with the generation of Christians addressed by way of the sermon comprising the book of Hebrews.

One can find just this same comparison implied in 1 Corinthians, this time between the Corinthians and “those who were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the [Red] Sea” (1 Cor. 10:1 ff.). It becomes obvious fairly quickly that the prophetic writers of the New Testament viewed themselves and their generation as analogous to those who lived 40 years in the desert.

Only the “Egypt” they were leaving was Older Covenant Judaism, with its types and shadows (which began when Jesus was killed by his own people with the help of the Romans = A.D. 30), and they were moving toward the promised land, a time when the faith of Jesus would spread throughout the world — which began in earnest after the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem itself (A.D. 70).

The astute reader will notice at once that this time frame (AD 30 – AD 70) spans — you guessed it – 40 years. And this 40 year transitional phase of God’s plan of salvation met with all manner of extraordinary miracles at the hands of the apostles. This was also true of those who witnessed the ministry of Moses for 40 years. Hebrews quotes God regarding them, “Forty years they saw My [miraculous] works….”.

And for 40 years, the Jewish contemporaries of the apostles saw God’s miraculous works by apostolic hands also. This is what it means to say that the “gospel was CONFIRMED to us by them [the apostles]” in Hebrews 2:2-4. Here, confirmed means that God had shown the truth and reliability of the gospel of Christ as it was “confirmed by signs and wonders.” When Jesus, as the Great High Priest, had prayed from the cross, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing,” He stayed what would have been the instant wrath of God against the killers of His Only-begotten Son, thereby bringing the Jewish people of his day a merciful 40-year stay of execution.

During this period, the gospel traveled from Jerusalem, to Judaea, to Samaria, and to the “ends of the earth” [an Older Testament euphemism for the Gentile capital, which was Rome]. The book of Acts chronicles just this evangelistic trajectory of the good news of Jesus Christ — together with attending miracles that confirmed the gospel as new revelation from God.

The ancient and analogous transitional period from Egypt to Canaan was called by David, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, “Today” — in the saying, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” The great desire of King David — the Building of the Temple in Jerusalem — was actually carried out by his son — Solomon, the son of David. And, of course, the builder of the Temple reigned in Jerusalem for how long? Right again — 971 B.C. to 931 B.C. — 40 years. So the son of David (Solomon) built the Temple, and the Son of David (i.e. the Lord Jesus) destroyed it (A.D. 70), and replaced it with a Better Temple — the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thus, redemptive history had moved forward again — onward and upward — with the salvation of the Gentiles, and the dietary restrictions became defunct — for they were only a didactic tool in the first place — the tribal land laws in Israel became obsolete, as well the Temple complex with its tribally-based (Aaronic-Levitical) priesthood. But many refused to move forward, to go up into the promised land and possess it. They fell in the desert, just as the generation of Jews responsible for the death of Jesus fell by the hand of the Romans in A.D. 70.

With no Temple complex or known tribal lineage by which to determine who might serve as a Levitical priest, Old Covenant Judaism has been embarrassed by the fact that they have had no atoning sacrifice to offer for almost 2,000 years. Having rejected the only sacrifice sufficient to bring them atonement, that of Jesus, the Lamb of God, at Golgotha, they have no alternative divinely-appointed mediator that might convey to them the mercy of God so necessary for salvation.

Some have suggested by way of an apologetic defense of Old Covenant Judaism an emphasis upon the importance of prayer and/ or good works as a means of atonement. But this begs the unanswerable question: If all we need for salvation is our own good works, then why did God, since the days of Adam and Eve, ordain that so much blood be shed when it was all unnecessary?

Why go through the encyclopedia of intricate gyrations found in the details of the levitical priesthood for thousands of years — with God often killing or injuring those who sacrifice badly — if the whole affair was needless in the first place? This would render the Jewish God (but not the Christian God), a tyrannical and sadistic pedant, who preserves curious details from the history of liturgy for 21st century historians at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives — Unnecessarily!

One might avert this on the supposition that God commanded sacrifices because they were extremely important. This would also explain the great care God required in their administration, and the severe penalties that followed from malfeasance therein. Yet the Bible tells us that the sacrifices of the Older Testament — in and of themselves — never really got the redemptive job done. If they had, they would not have been repeated endlessly. Nevertheless, they “connected” believers in the Older Testament with the great and efficacious sacrifice yet to come. The most important of all sacrifices would have to be a “once for all” sacrifice — one which Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ and Son of the Living God, offered up to His Father on a hill outside Jerusalem – a Lamb without spot or blemish.

And indeed, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. And, “You shall call his name, “Joshua,” for He shall save His people from their sins.” And the good news is that Jesus Christ is the same: Yesterday [the Old Covenant era], Today [A.D. 30-70], and Forever [A.D. 71 and whatever comes afterward].

That is why the Judaism of yesterday needed transforming, and why salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, the spotless Lamb of God is Today and Forever. Praise the Lord, for he is good; his mercy endures forever.

Carson day has written some 1.3 gazillion articles and essays with insight and candor. He studied the history of ideas in college and now writes compulsively. He has been quoted as saying “What box?” and remains at large despite the best efforts of the civil authorities.

God the Father said through the Biblical Prophet Malachi, “See I am sending my Messenger (Messiah) to prepare the way before me, and the Lord who you seek will suddenly come to his Temple. The Messenger of the “covenant” in whom you delight indeed he is coming.” (Malachi 3:1). The “covenant” is the contract between man and God, the second commandment carved in stone by the Lord, in which man promises to live by God’s 10 commandments and in return God promises to bless mankind for thousands of generations. God also vows to punish the people who fail to follow his 10 commandments and their children and grandchildren and great grandchildren.

The Lord said that he was sending his Messiah (Messenger) to His Temple, The Messenger of the Covenant, to refine the Bibles, to rid them of their impurities. God said that The Messiah would scrub the 2 tablets carved in stone by God, God’s stone table, off with soap and shrink and clean your Holy Bible down with fuller’s soap, back down to God’s 10 commandments. (Malachi 3:5-6). A fuller is one who shrinks and thickens wool with moisture, heat and pressure. God calls his 2 tablets a protective wall, and he called the Holy Bibles human contamination of His protective wall. God vowed to wash away the contamination by breaking down the contaminated human wall, levee, with a deluge of rain, a stormy wind and great hailstones and God vowed to kill those people within the wall – Hurricane Katrina. (Ezekiel 13:14). The Messiah is to come like a thief in the night and no one will have noticed that he was here, just as no one will notice the signs of Biblical proportions of his arrival.

God says, “Who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi, (Moses, who carved the second set of the 10 commandments on Mount Sinai), and refine them (the Christians), like gold and silver.” (Malachi 3:2-3). God says, “Put me, my word, (The Word was God. (John 1:1), my 10 commandments, to the test. See if I will not open the windows of Heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.”) (Malachi 3:10).

God the Father through every Biblical Prophet said that when the Messiah came he would wash away the impurities placed onto God’s table, onto God’s protective wall, God’s 2 stone tablets, with large rocks of hail, (the breaking off of the Antarctic Iceberg and 30% of the Arctic Icecap and Greenland, Gigantic Icebergs, which is now happening), and a destroying tempest, and a storm of mighty overflowing waters, (The Tsunami, and Hurricane Katrina knocking down the Levee, the contaminated man made wall). (Isaiah 28:2, 7-8, 17).

The time has now come for us all to put the Word of God to the test. God the Father carved in stone the sixth commandment, “Don’t Murder.” All human beings, including Christian people, are composed of water, earth and air. “Don’t murder” means that we must stop poisoning to death the water, earth and air that we are made of with poisonous deadly man made chemicals that now cause 1 in 3 people to die of cancer, and are the cause of global warming, which is melting the icecaps and soon will cause the sea level in the earth’s one ocean to rise by 50 feet thereby submerging most of the earth’s landmasses. The purification of the Word of God by the Messiah, if it is followed by the people of Earth will also bring everlasting Peace on Earth.

Karen Fish is a writer currently living in Los Angeles California. The Temple of Love http://www.thetempleoflove.com/ The World Peace Religion