Tune and Prepare!

God is Love – 1/3 ..how the two loves are linked A study on divine love and the intertwined Christian character Kindness and faithful love (hesed) pursue me every day of my life. I make my home in the house of YHWH for all time to come. Psalm 23:6 For this is how God loved (agape) the world: he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. John 3:16 What is Hesed? The word that is translated to “faithful love” is the Hebrew word “ Hesed (or ' checed' ).” This word is translated in other places as “kindness,” “faithfulness,” “mercy,” “goodness,” “loyalty,” and “steadfast love.” God's love for His covenant people in the Old Testament is expressed by the Hesed . This love expressed in the Hebrew texts as hesed we'emet for example in Gen 24:49; 32:11; 47:29; Ex 34:6; Jos 2:14; 2 Sam 2:6; 15:20. However hesed has a narrower definition than the English word " love ". In th...

Wells Cathedral, Somerset cc 1275 - 1310 Before you read or listen to this article I really recommend that you may open and read the associated pre study here: about the stage effect . This gives an insight into how frontal performance, action (on the stage, then on the screen) has influenced modern media-fuelled society and how it works in the church. Yes. Indeed in the Church - when Sunday church meeting is reduced to a performance and service - for the visitors. What the early chapterhouses teach us today shows us something quite different... coming soon.. HU

Eleftherios Tserkezis (Mind the gap between “spoke Aramaic” and “only spoke Aramaic.”) Scholarship has long established that early Roman Palestine was far from monolingual. As many as four languages were known and spoken in the region — Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Latin . The real question, of course, is how widespread each of them was and on what occasions they were used. A plurality of scholars believe the common language in everyday life was indeed Aramaic. For trans-regional and cross-communal communi­cation, though, Greek was more useful; in fact, there’s even a growing minority of scholars who argue that Greek was the overall lingua franca. Hebrew was probably limited to a liturgical and educational context, and Latin was used in the army and administration. Jesus grew up in a Jewish family, so Aramaic was probably his mother tongue. However, his native Galilee, aptly nicknamed “Galilee of the Gentiles,” was home to a diverse population for centuries, partl...

“the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; against such things there is no Law.” Gal 5:22-23 Settle it clearly and forever that the flesh can never bear this fruit, that you can never attain these things by your own effort. That they are "the fruit of the Spirit." We hear a good deal in these days about "ethical culture," which usually means a cultivation of the flesh 'until it bears the fruit' of the Spirit. It cannot be done, until thorns can be made to bear figs, and a bramble-bush, grapes. (Luke 6:44; Matt. 12:33) We hear also a good deal about "character building." That is all very well, if you let the Holy Spirit do the building, and then it is not so much building as fruit bearing. (See, however, 2 Peter 1:5-7) We hear also about "cultivating graces of character," but we must always bear in mind that the w...

God is Love – 2/3 ..how the three connect a study about divine love and interlocking Christian characters This article is part of the "Vitalize" pack “His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness..” 2Pt 1:3.. Pre In this very beginning I must say that there are a lot of ideas floating around about what the apostles teach about love. On the one hand, this is quite scary (knowing that there are theories about love) but it also gives us a great opportunity to investigate the original viewpoint. From the New Covenant perspective, it is important to note that God's love is much brighter for us than it was in the time of the Old Testament. I'm pro classical musician , learned to interpret the original concept and composition . My wife was a linguist so in such cases {and always} I go to the source rather than the traditional di...

The Stage – Action and Reaction Behaviour and action, + reaction of the audience pre A very large percentage of Christian communities are made up of active leaders and passive listeners. Of course, the church leaders see this too, so they try to "mend" it. They set up projects ranging from social work via food banks to a building/church/temple construction. They set up activities having a desire: building a good community. These are 2000 years old church activities, triggering the " filia " or the " storge ". Which is nice - but it is not the " agape-love " mentioned by the apostles. Earthly actions occupy the community for a while and give it a visible purpose but do not affect the core missional identity, the spread of the glory and love-principle of the Kingdom: "give and it will be given" (Lk 6:38-39), most of the time without even touching the possibilities given by divine life: sharing the good news by t...

The Stage vs Jesus' Role Model Behaviour among the followers As we previously saw, - Erik Satie's model has clearly demonstrated - the Stage and the Auditorium behave differently. We saw that the stage has a restraining influence in the post modern consumerist culture because it gives a strong entertaining message. It also showed that in such a situation the real, natural character of the actors does not necessarily cover/represent the message being shown. Important that actors are also influencers nowadays. Their lifestyle (above others) is a special way of life that presents unrealistic demands and rhythms of life for the average person. From the Christian viewpoint this is a carnal role model, the one who follows it, walks on the broad way, and this way triggers a lot of temptations. I don't think you have to wonder about the troubles and scandals of megachurches. Eric Satie There is a stark contrast between today's fashionable consumer service to t...

How should we understand the unusual Greek word " arsenokoitas " that Paul uses in the New Testament to describe homosexuals? Is there any way to translate the word so that it refers to something other than men who have sexual relations with men? Does the Greek word " arsenokoitai " really refer to homosexuality? Kevin DeYoung That word is an unusual word. It’s a new word; we don’t know of any other instances of the word until Paul coins the word in 1 Corinthians 6 and 1 Timothy 1. It’s a compound word: “arsen” means man and “koite” or “koitas” or “koitai”—depending on a verb or a noun—means bed. It’s men who bed with other men. It’s quite clear that Paul has coined this word from Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20. Even if you don’t know any Greek, you could find online or pull up the Greek transliteration of these two verses. Look at the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, and then just look at the Greek for the necessary passage ...