Deciding Questionable Things (tests)

 I wrote this down in a book cover twenty or so years back, when I was a newly born again Christian.  A series of tests that you can use to make important (and simple) decisions.  Don't remember for sure where I found it, or who taught it.  Still find it quite reasonable and reliable.

1. Proclamation: does the Bible express-idly forbid it?   Is there a clear command to not do so, to avoid, to shun, to remove yourself from that situation?
   
2. Principal: does the Bible forbid it in principal?  Are there similar things that should be avoided or not done, though not necessarily mentioned in the exact?
3. Partnership: could I invite Jesus Christ to participate with me?  Nothing I can add...
4. Presence: would I want to be found doing it with the Lord Jesus Christ returns and we are raptured?  Kinda like the preacher who avoids his ministry one Sunday AM to run a round of golf and gets a Hole-in-One on the hardest fairway....
5. Purity: does it bring glory to God the Father?  Again, nothing I can add...
   
6. Peace: is there any doubt in my mind about it?  If it's doubtful, Don't. Do. It.
7. Profession: will it hurt my testimony?  Many things I am allowed to do, much like Paul discussing the meat from the shambles, but they could hurt my testimony among weaker Christians or worse, cause them to fall into sin.

A quite day after the storm has passed...  LOL.  We had a couple of days of gatherings.  Much smaller than we hoped (restrictions, a way of life for now), far better than last year.  

Pages 395 – 402

 

Chronicles of Geneva by François Bonivard.

“When the bubonic plague struck Geneva in 1530, everything was ready. They even opened a whole hospital for the plague victims. With doctors, paramedics and nurses. The traders contributed, the magistrate gave grants every month. The patients always gave money, and if one of them died alone, all the goods went to the hospital.
But then a disaster happened: the plague was dying out, while the subsidies depended on the number of patients.
There was no question of right and wrong for the Geneva hospital staff in 1530. If the plague produces money, then the plague is good. And then the doctors got organized.
At first, they just poisoned patients to raise the mortality statistics, but they quickly realized that the statistics didn’t have to be just about mortality, but about mortality from plague.
So they began to cut the boils from the bodies of the dead, dry them, grind them in a mortar and give them to other patients as medicine. Then they started dusting clothes, handkerchiefs and garters. But somehow the plague continued to abate. Apparently, the dried buboes didn’t work well.
Doctors went into town and spread bubonic powder on door handles at night, selecting those homes where they could then profit. As an eyewitness wrote of these events, “this remained hidden for some time, but the devil is more concerned with increasing the number of sins than with hiding them.”
In short, one of the doctors became so impudent and lazy that he decided not to wander the city at night, but simply threw a bundle of dust into the crowd during the day. The stench rose to the sky and one of the girls, who by a lucky chance had recently come out of that hospital, discovered what that smell was.
The doctor was tied up and placed in the good hands of competent “craftsmen.” They tried to get as much information from him as possible.
However, the execution lasted several days. The ingenious hippocrats were tied to poles on wagons and carried around the city. At each intersection the executioners used red-hot tongs to tear off pieces of meat. They were then taken to the public square, beheaded and quartered, and the pieces were taken to all the districts of Geneva. The only exception was the hospital director’s son, who did not take part in the trial but blurted out that he knew how to make potions and how to prepare the powder without fear of contamination. He was simply beheaded “to prevent the spread of evil”.

Merry Christmas

 

https://stream.org/how-god-used-roads-to-pave-the-way-for-jesus/

"As the Roman Empire grew militarily, so did its need for roads. As a result, Roman roads were widespread and usually well paved. Wherever they conquered, the Romans built long, relatively straight roads to make the movement of military equipment easier. This desire to avoid curves necessitated the advanced engineering of bridges, tunnels, and viaducts to traverse mountains and valleys. Roman roads were well built and often populated by the military, making them much safer to travel than their Greek counterparts. Spanning nearly 250,000 miles, these roads became a symbol of Rome’s power, connecting diverse subcultures within the empire."

Not to get too long, just a short synopsis.  The article states that the Messiah came at the perfect time I concur.  But not just because of the roads.  The values of freedom of movement for a Roman citizen were still acknowledged due to the resulting peace of the beginning of the Empire and end of the civil wars from the last of the Republican battles for supremacy.  The confluence of events allowed an opportunity.  Once under the control of the Roman republic and later Empire, a person could live quite freely, under strict Roman Law of course.  But areas sought acceptance as parts of the republic, citizenship was a treasure that was highly valued and even paid for.   

A citizen and entourage could travel freely, even non-citizens could travel if not criminal element.  Trade flourished.  

This allowed a young man and his wife, to travel with her young child from the modern region of Israel to Egypt to avoid the predations of a power-hungry Judean king, also for the Apostles (Roman citizen Paul and maybe Barnabas, but also the Jewish fishermen) to travel freely not only within Roman borders but into areas outside the Empire.  Still under the protection of Roman Law and influence.  This due to the value of Roman Citizenship and the iron Roman Law created a unique (up until recent times) era of freedom of movement. 

This era ended first with the start of Emperor worship that destroyed the Jewish state structure that existed within the Roman Empire (Pharisees, Sadducees and Herodians) with the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.  In this window the Temple still existed, allowing for the Jewish lineage to be established, which was and is a requirement to establish who the Messiah was and is.  And not very much later, the resumption of civil wars and break down of Roman Law disrupted and eventually stopped free travel and trade.  Eventually this resulted in the dark ages and times of heresy and man-made religious structures and spiritual imprisonment.

A window of opportunity.  The Messiah could be born, safely grow into a man.  Conduct His ministry and later, His disciples could spread the Word throughout the civilized world getting it established.

It is a long discussion whether or not The Son of God was born on a cold winter morning in Bethlehem.  Well; He was born, but what date?  Well, the flocks were in the fields, the Judean king was in his winter palace in Jerusalem. Exactly when?  Not for us to know.

We can pinpoint when the Resurrection happened because it is linked with the Passover, which is a date that can be determined and is established on the Judean calendar.  The exact birthdate and even the exact location of the death of the Messiah however is left in the air.

Probably because the Lord knew that as men, we would begin to worship the site and date, instead of the Saviour.

So when is Christmas day?  The birthday of the Saviour?  Well, my first Pastor years back even before I put my trust and faith in Jesus Christ, when I asked (due to my Roman Catholic youth and education) why we were not meeting on ‘Christmas Day’.  Answered “everyday is Christmas day”.

We should celebrate every day that we are alive, that our Lord recognized our sinful fallen state, and sent a Saviour, who later died on a cross, a poor man, who owned nothing in this world but the cloak on His back.  And yet, The Son of God.  A perfect sacrifice for our sins.

Sent: at the perfect fulness of time.

Praise the Lord.  Merry Christmas.

Humour

Song of Solomon 2:11-12 For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;

The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;

I post this one this morning to share a smile, as every time I read it, the two verses together bring a smile to my face.

When we first moved south, we would spend quite a bit of the summer at my sister's lake property. In that part of NW Ontario there is an abundance of snapping turtles . Some quite large (Alicia and I captured one once that was at least 13" in diameter. Weighted somewhere around twenty pounds, and bite through the aluminum bar of the fish net I used to scoop him up with like it was butter...).

One day Alicia saw this verse posted on the highway.

Great hilarity ensued (Yep. I'm getting old....lol).

Love the winter, but looking forward to the flowers and birds. No snapping turtles here to my knowledge.

Have a great day.

 

Grace

 I saw this on a website I visit regularly this morning, and of course, with my infantryman's sense of humour I immediately posted it to FB with a trigger warning for those without a dark sense of what can cause one to laugh.

Of course there is more to this comic than meets the eye.  You see, just a easy walk down societal road.  Our Western Civilization started, no matter what anyone says, on the basis of Christianity.  The ability to make an agreement, that was based on a common understanding, that someone would keep their word.

Yes, that is the basis of civilization (why do you think Communist China is so corrupt? - don't take my word for it, Google China Defective Products and come back - see you in an hour...LOL).  Everyone plays on the same sheet of music (to some degree, there will always be different flavors of the juice).  The Roman Church held all the reins of power for centuries, until the corruption became too obvious and the reformation started (just look at why Martin Luther rebelled - indulgences will give you a starting track).

Western Civilization came out of the belief, that there is a God, who holds men accountable.  Those who do bad will be punished, if not in this world, the next.  Of course, a just God will be and hold men to good.  And of course if there is good, then there must be evil.

Recently watched the movie from a couple decades back (am I that old?) Santa Claus 2.  Of course it has its plot and is quite funny.  They put a robot santa in charge while the real Santa (Tim Allen) goes to find himself a wife.  The robot santa reads the rule book.  Well, if you've watched it you know the story, and if you haven't you can probably figure it out if I told you the temporary santa wants to give all of the children coal.

So then, are there any good people?  If and when you read the Bible (God's handbook for this life to mankind) you quickly see that all have fallen short.  None of us are with out sin (doing something bad).  So a 'just' God has to punish the sin or He is not a just God, just another charlatan.

A dilemma...

 All people fall short of the glory of God.

What is the answer?

Well, in times past, before creation, God the Father sat down (did they have spiritual chairs? who knows?) with God the Son and set out a plan.  The mankind that They/He (The Trinity, almost impossible for a man to understand) would create, would fall, as would a sizable cadre of the heavenly angels.

There was a place built for those fallen angels (and a future place - the lake of fire - for them in eternity), but that place was not built for man.

God had a plan.  A simple plan.

He would send His Son, His only begotten Son to earth, to live as a man, to be tempted at all points as a man and yet to never sin.  To suffer indignities and pain as a man, to be accused of things He never did and to die innocent, carrying to the cross, all of the sins of man.  Every sin, from beginning to the end.

Jesus died for them, in our place.

So, Santa ignores our sin, the kids get coal, but nothing really is done.  God does not ignore our sin.  Punishment has been carried out.  Paid in full.

All you have to do is accept that gift, the gift of God to mankind.  Forgiveness of sin, acceptance into the family.

God's grace.