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The wise men Matthew 2

    Matthew chapter 2 starts like this 2  Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold,  [ a ] wise men from the East came to Jerusalem,  2  saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”   3  When Herod the king heard  this,  he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.  4  And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.   5  So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet: 6  ‘But   you, Bethlehem,   in   the land of Judah, Are not the least among the rulers of Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.’  ” I've always thought that there were three wise men who came to find Jesus, but the scripture doesn't actually ever say that there was 3 men.  It says that there were wise men who gave Jesus three gifts

Introduction and chapter 1 of 1 John notes

  Study of 1 John started November 5, 2023 1 John Introduction The author- John was possibly born in Bethsaida (John 1:44) and was a son of Zebedee and Salome.  It appears his mother helped with the financial support of Christ (Mark 15:40,41).  He and his brother James were called “sons of thunder” Mk 3:17.  John lived in Ephesus, the capital of the province of Asia Minor, the Roman proconsul resided there.  John may have been battling against Gnosticism during his later years.  It said that deity cannot unite itself with anything physical such as a body.  It understood that knowledge is superior to virtue.  John battled against this by saying that Christ came in the flesh.  It is possible that 1 John may have been written around 90 A.D.   Wycliffe divides the book up into these sections Fellowship’s conditions 1:5-10 Fellowship’s conduct 2:1-29 Fellowship’s characteristics 3:1-24 Fellowship’s cautions 4:1-21 Fellowship’s cause 5:1-21 1 John 1 John begins by saying that which was from

Who Loved Him More? Do you love Him?

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        There is a story in Luke 7 about when Jesus went to dine with a Pharisee named Simon.  The story is in verses 36-42 36  When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table.   37  A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume.   38  As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. 39  When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.” 40  Jesus answered him,  “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. 41  “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, [ c ]  and the other fifty.   42  Neither of them had

Some thoughts about the church in Corinth

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    Since March of this year, I have been doing a verse by verse study of the book of 1 Corinthians.  I have also listened to the class on 1 Corinthians taught on the bibleproject web site.  In that class, the teacher spends some time speaking about the controversy of chapter 11 and Paul's role of women in the church.  Though Dr. Lucy Peppiatt has some different views than mine it is a very interesting class that I would recommend.        I have found it encouraging that though the Corinth church had many problems Paul still had a lot of good things to say about them.  For example, in chapter 1 verse 4, he says that he always thanks God for them because they have been enriched in every way.  It says that they do not lack in any spiritual gift.  He never questions their salvation, though he does describe them in chapter 3 as "infants in Christ".  Paul may have written another letter to Corinth which remains lost that was possibly more direct and harsh.  But, he never gives

How does God give? 1 Corinthians 1:4-7

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 1 Corinthians 1:4-7 4  I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus.   5  For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge—   6  God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you.   7  Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.      One of the amazing things about the way that Paul starts this letter to Corinthian church is that no matter how many problems they have that he expresses thanks for them.  They have numerous problems including divisions, lawsuits, pride and sexual sin among them.  While Paul will address each of these problems it does not diminish the fact that they are still believers in Christ and he says that they have been enriched in knowledge and speech and are not lacking in any spiritual gift.  They were given the grace of God verse 4 by Christ and also enriched by Him in all things verse 5.  To confirm in verse 6 is a

Forged through Trial

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    One of the characters in the Bible that has always interested me is Joseph, the son of Jacob in the book of Genesis.  Joseph's story is found starting in Genesis 37 with a story about a dream.  In two of Joseph's dreams he sees "We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it." (Gen 37:7)  The second dream is much like the first except it is the sun, moon and eleven stars which were bowing down to Joseph (Gen 37:9).  Joseph's brothers are already jealous of Joseph because of the attention and love that Jacob has for him and these statements fuel even more anger.  So much so, that they decide to throw him in a cistern to kill him and then sell him into slavery for 20 shekels of silver (Gen 37:28)  How's that for a dysfunctional family!          This could have been the very end of Joseph's short life, but God is up to something in this story.  R

A Study in Daniel Introduction and part of chapter 1

  A Study in Daniel Introduction :   Daniel went into exile some time around 605 B.C. and continued to the third year of Cyrus (about 536 B.C.) which is a period of about 69 years.   There is a great deal of debate about the date of this book because some scholar cannot accept some of the very specific predictive prophecy in this book.    In terms of history, we know that the Babylonian empire started with Nebuchadnezzar’s father Nebopolassar.   Nebuchadnezzar’s reign was from 605 B.C to 562 B.C.   He was noted for large building projects which he brags about in Daniel 4:30   After the Babylonian empire came to Medes and the Persians and then the Greeks. There is a large section of writing in this book that is in Aramaic.   This was the commercial language of the day in which this was written.   The Aramaic section begins from 2:4b and continues to 7:28.   The emphasis in this section is on the nations of the world. King Jehoiakim who is mentioned in chapter one was a king that