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ANGELFIRE 12-2-06 I ended my "Song With Spoken Word" on channel 2 by singing "The Stranger of Galilee." It's a song I'd learned years ago but never quite grasped the point of it's title. Now it's to be my message for 11am down at Joy this Sunday, with Jn.7 as the Scripture. My awareness keeps increasing as I ponder that puzzling title. Some things in the Bible are like riddles that only faith can crack open. It must come from His resurrection appearane on the road to Emmaus. The last time I preached at Joy it was from the faith chapter, Heb.11. I like that whole book since it lights up the Old Testament. Right before chap.11 we read "For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of GOD, you may receive the promise...we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul." Then Heb.11 lists the faith heroes and goes on in Heb.12 "let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith." Even as I preached then, I wondered aloud why Solomon was not mentioned in Heb.11. The list ends with David and bounces back to Samuel, who had anointed Jesse's youngest son to be king instead of Saul. Then the Lord Jesus later on said that just a tiny lily of the field had greater glory than that of Solomon, who had so much wealth and wisdom. That's sort of a riddle to me, like the calling of Jesus "stranger." But I can deal with the latter issue in my message as Spirit has helped me understand. Sometimes a song just comes in the moment, as that little one I sang on my birthday for Thurs.6:30: Had to do it solo since I had no rehearsal to play it: "Dear little Stranger slept in a manger; no downy pillow under His head. But with the pure He slumbered secure, that dear little Babe in His bed." Can't even recall where I learned it, but glad I could sing about His birth, the greatest of all. Hallelujah for this season when we remember it. I see a movie's being acclaimed entitled "Nativity." That's a better designation than Christmas, in my opinion. Just hope it is an accurate one. Did you hear that the pope went to a shrine while in Turkey where Mary is claimed to have died? It's also sacred to Muslims. I've read in their Qu'ran where they include her and even report the virgin birth of Jesus, but don't mention GOD being the father; so Jesus is only another prophet even though one that's coming again some day. There needs to be a Muslims for Messiah movement just as the Jews for Jesus. Instead of arguments over religion, the Savior must be lifted up. A song comes to my mind, "Lift Jesus higher, lift Jesus higher. Lift Him up for the world to see. He said 'And I if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.'" Now that's our Gospel to the world, brothers and sisters, Christ crucified and risen in power to return some day soon. So long and Shalom
ANGELFIRE 12-6-06 The parade of lights in PV certainly lifted folks into this glorious season and the movie "Nativity" that's been showing here has it's title exactly right. Would anyone ever think of any other birth than the One that took place that glorious night in Bethlehem? It split history into before and after, and just as dates in O.T. Scripture were measured in the year of reign for each king, all time is thus measured from the N.T. arrival on earth of mankind's King of kings. And even though civilization has largely outgrown such temporal government, this Babe in the manger is Savior of those whose hearts surrender to His dominion. It is the Kingdom of GOD that arose through the church continuing to establish shalom on earth by Gospel power. Such it was that lead leaders to set Dec.25, a date once celebrated for "the unconquered sun" but changed to describe the conquering Son. We read "at the right time GOD sent forth His Son to be born of a woman." Now using the winter equinox (shortest day) has been a dramatic inspiration, as I see it. Why should such a sign in nature be left only for pagan legends? Here is a fact that is affirmed in the Apostle's Creed: "conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary..." which is reported in both Mt. and Lk. to start their accounts. So we can surely sing "Happy birthday, Lord Jesus" as joyfulness abounds. His whole life demonstrated the Father's giving from heaven (Jn.3:16) and sets the stage for our gift giving here on earth. I think of a little song: "What can I give Him, poor as I am? Were I a shepherd, I'd bring a lamb. Were I a wise man, I'd do my part. What can I give Him? I'll give my heart."
If you'll tune in Thurs.6:30 channel 2, I'll show the enlarged color photo of our historic tower and share inspirations I get from viewing it. You may have heard me say "shalom" in closing, and with the anticipated new coat of paint, it too will signify that kind of peace. There's a song I may sing as "Shalom in the Valley" if I can re-arrange some of the words. And when spelled with a capital S, it refers to the peace that those angels were singing about up in the sky to shepherds keeping watch over their flock below on that holy night which was so divine. They didn't have any colored lights; only the stars above and the shekinah (glory of GOD) that shown around them when Gabiel (special angel of the Lord) descended to them. And the angel said "Fear not, for behold I bring you glad tidings of great joy." I see that as a lighting of angelfire here below. So long and Shalom
ANGELFIRE 12-8-06 As we keep preparing to remember that Babe of Bethlehem so long ago, we hear news of a little one in Ohio that died from being left a couple of minutes in the microwave oven and another in Colorado that barely survived vodka in it's bottle. In both instances, mother's are the crime suspects. How urgently we need that example of motherhood displayed by Mary, of whom Jesus was born into this world that remains so largely unregenerate, corrupt and depraved. I may sound like an old grouch using such ugly words against the beauty of this sacred season. But they are evidence of the devil who is still at work to mar it; yes even abolish Nativity night, wipe the divine Incarnation from memory altogether and stamp out such heavenly joy. Scripture says "we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." Ep.6:12 So anger at other religions isn't right. If hate becomes our basic drive (and it is so powerful), then heavenly joy is gone; just as the true love of marriage yields place to successive boy/girl friends and spasms of lust called orgies. No family ties can endure like that. Our tiny ones need the sort of family security which Joseph and Mary first gave that Newborn, then with their escape to Egypt when He was only two and eventual return clear up to Nazareth instead of Bethlehem (so dangerously near to Jerusalem). Our reporter Jim Richardson will sing the Joseph Song in my Tues.6:30 channel 2 program. It's unique, as telling Joseph's view of events on that most holy night. So long/Shalom
ANGELFIRE 12-13-06 Surely a part of GOD's grace in letting some of us live long, is to grasp ever new depths of the Gospel's meaning. Of course our festivals for the Incarnation and Atonement are often observed with re-enactments of it's two major dimensions. Thus we have the celebratory drama of each at Christmas and Easter by various churches (though the latter isn't till Jan.5 in Eastern Orthodoxy). By families attending plays of the Nativity, we identify with the baby Jesus, and thus later heed His "Except ye become like these little ones, ye cannot not enter into the Kingdom of heaven." Even that visit in the Temple when only age twelve is a glimpse of His boyhood. And that recalls for me another young son, Casabianca, enshrined in art and poetry. Go if you can to (endtimepilgrim.org/boystood.htm). Historians know it was England's battle for the Nile under their own Admiral Nelson, Aug.1, 1798, when that lad of the foe's fleet became such a famous hero even to the English. Though I'd known of the poem from my own boyhood, that picture and introduction add much more impact. See both before reading the famous poem. Then I recalled Jesus telling His parents He'd just stayed at His Father's House, when Mary and Joseph went back to Jerusalem after missing their twelve year old. Even as an infant, He'd been Satan's target i.e. Mt.2:13, and became even more so right at adolescence, as He went obediently home with them from the Temple (where the priests had marvelled greatly at Him) Lk.2:51. All the record we have in Scripture from then on until He leaves home at age 30 is what's in the content of His parables that are drawn largely from His own brief lifetime on earth. The Gospels tell of three years more until His Crucifixion, plus His resurrection appearances; then Revelation has much more about Him even after that, in the final things He reveals to John about His final coming again. Even this is often signified in Nativity scenes where Gabriel appears with his trumpet to sound the coming parousia.
A week or so ago my wife was pictured holding a copy of the Democrat as she stood at Graceland center in Memphis TN. She gets around more than I do. But right here in WW I did get to see our Discovery Shuttle leave earth for 12 days, most of it on the SSI. Tune me in Thurs.6:30,KJCS and So long /Shalom
ANGELFIRE 12-16-06 Lk 2:5 1&2 tells of Mary's boy being subject to both she and her husband as they left Jerusalem going home up to Nazareth in Galilee: "Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with GOD and man." As she did of His birth signs, Mary also "kept all these things and pondered them in her heart." Surely she also had some of His half-brothers and sisters by this time, but perhaps thereafter she would become the widow of her elderly husband. Then she'd look to her oldest male child as pillar of her family; He could provide it's income as a carpenter, just like her husband Joseph had done before. Thus, her knowing all those secrets about her Firstborn could have prevented such shock to her as the rest likely felt, when cousin John baptized Jesus at age 30 over east of Nazareth in the Jordan river. Thus, He left His economic trade (though parables suggest some farming, shepherding, even banking etc.) to begin proclaiming the coming Kingdom, as John the baptizer had been doing. Yet in Mk.3:21 we read that His own people feared He was out of His mind. They went out to lay hold of Him. Also, leaders from Jerusalem came up there saying that He was possessed of the devil. Even Mary went along with the brothers, but they could not get in to see Him because of the great throng. When told of their presence outside, He asked a profound question, "Who is My mother or My brothers?" Family ties in Israel were almost the ultimate. But He looked around the room and said "Here are My mother and My brothers. For whoever does the will of GOD is My brother, and My sister and My mother." By this He didn't slight His mother at all, but elevated to equal status all those who had accepted Him. It was a new "holy family" arriving on earth. (Not just Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus) So let me share a song that describes it: "GOD is our Father, Christ Jesus in our Brother. And the blessed Holy Spirit is our Guide. The devil's no relation, 'cause we're a new creation. We are members of that family from the sky." In John's Gospel there is no picturing of the nativity (nor in Mark's). But in awesome terms, the Gospel of John says "He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of GOD...born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh...but of GOD. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father..." This shows that as He was conceived when Gabriel told Mary, He had been begotten even before creation. And the name JESUS was already His. In the full Hebrew it means "Yahweh Savior." Since Yahweh equals "He Is," then Yeshua is the same Name made fuller as including salvation. In chap.3, Jesus explains this new birth from above to Nicodemus, one of the very few Jewish leaders willing to listen. In general, His own received Him not," but some did, including the Apostles who were all Jewish. And synagogues were where He preached. The N.T. churches came into being first in homes soon after His ascension back into heaven. So long/Shalom
ANGELFIRE 12-20-06 Our channel 2 Thurs.6:30 this week will conclude with a song about Joseph and his thoughts of Mary's first Child. In the O.T. his name had been given to Rachel's first son. She was the one Jacob truly loved, but he had to marry her older sister Leah first, and get Rachel later. So Leah produced his offspring until finally Rachel had a boy. She named it in hope of having another, so Joseph means "Yahweh will add." A long time later she did bear another, on her death bed. She called him "son of my sorrow" but Jacob changed it to "son of my right hand" (Benjamin). He's the one Joseph had never seen after he was taken to Egypt. So he made all his half-brothers who'd come down, go home to fetch the smallest one to him, his only brother from Rachel. Motherhood was very important to that O.T. Joseph, so destiny used his name for the one to be mother Mary's husband as I see it. He also ssaw that Jacob's body was embalmed (Gn.50:2), something new learned in Egypt; and then took the body back up to Canaan as he'd promised his father. Later he arranged the same for himself, though there would be four centuries of captivity. Finally Ge.50:26 ends that book: "So Joseph died...and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt" awaiting the Exodus returning. Hence, cemeteries face east to await the coming again of Christ Jesus to take the church home, but alive rather than dead. Hallelujah
The Nobel peace prizes were awarded again on Dec.10 in Stockholm Sweden (begun in 1901) to those chosen internationally for their work done in various areas of endeavor that help toward peace on earth. Sounds a little to me like the same theme as Dec.25. But instead of a Swedish scientist's grand idea, the Nativity came as an Event from our heavenly Father; so we celebrate it just after the year's shortest day(winter solstice) to signify Light overcoming darkness. It was Alfred Nobel who first manufactured dynamite in the late 19th century, then lived with regrets about it's use for warfare. Still, he made vast profits and left a gigantic estate. So in his will, that was opened Dec.10 1896, it was found that he had set up these financial awards to be given along with the honors. Maybe it was a sense of guilt, like the liquor and tobacco industries seen to now show by running TV ads to limit or curtail use of products that have made them so rich. Seems to me like yelling "fire, fire" to warn others of the very one you have set. This world is crammed full of such duplicity, deceit, deceptive and double talk, but there was none of it there on that holy night at Bethlehem. As the angels had sung to the shepherds before they ran to town from their sheep in the fields, it was "Shalom on earth to men of good will." The GOD they glorified in the highest" wasn't just trying to improve His image or assuage His own conscience. Rather, Yahweh was opening His heart (Jn.3:16). That baby came down from highest heaven into our human flesh through the womb of it's young Jewish mother, to inhabit this earthly realm long polluted by wickedness and violence. As the PRINCE OF PEACE, He offers Shalom in the free gift (Prize) made available through the suffering, rejection and crucifixion He endured to win it for us. Salvation is awarded to all those who truly come to Him. We are thus delivered from the evil one/god of this perishing world, satan. So long/Shalom and Merry Christbirth
ANGELFIRE 2-23-02 I get insight sometimes from just comparing words. At this season when Mary is so prominent in the Nativity, I've wondered if the term "marriage" might have originated out of her name. In fact "marry" is just one more "r" in it's spelling. That Joseph took her as his wife is all we read. (same as Adam did Eve in Eden) No mention of a wedding for either couple, which too often gets far more consideration than does the start of a life long relationship. So I checked and found that the Latin root "maritus" means husband. Thus man initiates marriage by taking a woman in the LORD's eyes, with or without ceremony, for his permanent companion. That's in our vocabulary as a "marital" relationship. But I still wonder it Mary's name got that into the Latin language and now English has taken it. The Hebrew Miriam, from which Mary's name was derived, meant "strong" but the derived name Mary means "bitterness" as well. So let's just stick with the O.T. strong for a root meaning of marriage. Bitterness seems a forecast of Christ's coming Crucifiction in His mother's own name. I never gave "matrimony" any consideration as another term, but I learned marriage is a nautical term for two roped cut the same length that are bound together. Wow, is that ever descriptive!
Another N.T. word I've pondered is "begotten" as used about Christ. Jn.3:16 used it in the King James Version but the RSV back in the fifties left it out, and still does I've seen in a NewRSV that came out in '89. Other translations use "only Son" just as often. Still, "only begotten Son" helps convey the unique Sonship of our Lord (as I see it). One of the ancient creeds spoke of the second Person of the Godhead as "begotten before all worlds" and that's clearly in eternity, before time; then the mention of conception was withn this spatial/temporal universe when the willing virgin Mary accepted the Babe into her womb. Maybe it was the feminist revolution that erased so much of that sexual language. (There had never been a woman theologian before the 20th century). Thus GOD need never be described as He, if God can be used instead. And GOD's transcendent realm (shamayim) is beyond such temporal qualifications: gender and reproduction. Angels were created, not born, aeons before the material universe. And they may not be either male or female since immortals don't need to have proginy (O.T. references to angels are all male since Hebrew thought nor lexicon had any neuter. Maybe that's why Christians changed to seeing them as female, just to give equal time). C.S.Lewis, the great evangelical intellectual (did you see The Lion, The Lamb and the Wardrobe?), said that GOD is so masculine that the whole universe and everything in it stands female in comparison. Now that may express the basis of such a later change. Yet I never think of the angels who sang to the shepherds as being females, or males for that matter. And GOD's only called "He" because of the limited language available in O.T. times? Surely the contrast is divine-human rather than male-female. THOU is the pronoun I prefer. It's not an I-Thou encounter, but THOU-I instead, which becomes Thee-We in gathered worship. Just call it "Thee-ology" if you like. So now, all glory to our newborn Prince of Shalom (and please don't meddle with that title by changing it to Royal Child).
ANGELFIRE 12-28-06 In my final column of this year I'm pleased that ANGELFIRE.com/or/hazlitt has been often listed. Feeling urgency to email each one in to the paper, I spell check and send. Then as I post it there's my chance to add corrections or clarify things. So a rewrite is available online, as well as previous columns clear back to 1999. One thing this Nativity season has brought to my mind is that the Bible has been America's basic book. With Christ's birth, it begins the Gospel when GOD's Word becomes flesh to dwell among us. Yet now that "Book of (66) books" is facing rivals for use in taking the oath of public office. I'd supposed that our first Catholic president had laid his hand on the larger 80 book version, but hadn't heard of any other until now. A Muslim elected to Congress wants to use the Qu'ran, a Mormon has already used the Bible combined with their book, and a Jew the Talmud. Now since our Constitution says there can be no laws about religion, more and more variety may come to pass. I feel it's bound to decrease Biblical authority in this nation, even though I don't claim we are a "Christian" nation. Just like the new definitions of marriage that cause me to want a marriage amendment, I wish the Constitution made some reference to the Bible. But it was written deliberately secular to avoid religious conflict. Doesn't even mention GOD, as I recall; though James Madison (the major author)was a devout man. So now the growing tide of globalism and pluralism is liable to wash away that Scriptural faith foundation upon which it was laid, unless the public demands Bibles (or nothing) to lay a hand upon as the other one is lifted in take the oath. One thing each of us can do is to start the New Year reading from our Bible daily. I'm such a sucker for books that I asked Niece to throw away one just given to me. She did and that will help me stay focused instead of straying off to a best seller that's had so much mention lately. Instead of the latest I want to read the earliest, like Mt.Mk.Lk.&Jn. Speaking of early, we've had our Interstate system for half a century now. But beforehand when I was at Erick (where Ted was born), our Rotary speaker told of president Eisenhour's call to built it for military preparedness. We'd been at war in Korea. Such a colossal venture just boggled my mind; I didn't think it could really happen. And now we've nearly worn it out. But our economy has flourished and all those trucks on it are still keeping us alive with daily supplies. So I've learned to think biggr. Even to hope we can do in space what the Interstate systems have done here on Earth. We also thank the LORD our astronauts were able to land safely in FL last week, despite all that bad weather. So long/Shalom