Psalm 1 ~ BLESSED

 

 

Psalm 1

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

nor stands in the way of sinners,

nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

His delight is in the law of the LORD, 

and on his law 

he meditates day and night. 

He is like a tree planted by streams of water 

that yields its fruit in its season, 

and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers.

The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. 

5 Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, 

nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; 

6 for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, 

but the way of the wicked will perish.

When God says, "No withering, all prosperity." 

I'd have to tell you - in my childhood, my family planted 6 tiny trees to grow into massive trees in my childhood, newly, built house in the 1960s. The Trees met different fates. One hit a chalk rock in the soil and died.

One was stunted to just never grow. It sat while the other trees grew 40 and 50 feet tall. My father and I would look at the Oak tree and wonder. Maybe it's because it's near the swing set, and it thinks it should be a child tree. My father said, could be, it needs iron, it looks a little yellow. So iron was applied. Perhaps, it needs water. Or it's a dwarf. My father went to the library and said no such tree variety. We wondered if it was a variation of the regular tree variety, and we should propagate it. 

My brother was born. My father said maybe the tree, arborist, people should see the Oak Tree. That year it grew some in the spring. A lot, about 3 feet on the 10 feet of a 16-year-old tree. And the next year, it doubled. Now.... we started complaining about how to move the swing set. People! 

And in the next four years, we were telling bored people about the amazing growth of the tree. Uh-huh. And if someone showed up who knew about the dwarf Oak Tree, we all got very, very excited and the story went on and on.

Knowing Jesus,

I think Psalm 100 is never, ever, ever intended 

to make us feel poorly about seasons in our lives. 

I do not believe Jesus would tell us a Psalm story 

and, then, say ... and then there is ... - - - you.

Sea of Galilee looking East

We'd assume the trees in the photos were Psalm 100 - never hit by drought, fire, famine, beetles, disease, timber harvest, bird feeders with nails and screws, girdling/mulching the tree, staking the tree, concreting the holes, over-fruitfulness, tying an animal's leash to the trunk, power lines, overcrowding, or over-salt/pesticide. 

The tree has a very 'Jabez' life. Blessed and nothing to report.

Today, I had something incredibly nice happen. 

I had a large disagreement with a friend of 26 years. 

She wanted help I could not give because it wasn't a place that would be beneficial for anyone. Consequences. Maybe authorities. Should not have asked.  And there we stood.  No one thought I really should get involved in this situation. There are times and seasons to say no. A definite no. Harm would have occurred to another person and probably really to me. No.

To say there was upset would be an understatement.

If I told this situation outright, definitely she'd be quite upset. And so would the other person. So let's go with opaque.

And this friend had her life change due to my decision. 

Something she had thought of before. Now with a happier variation to another person involved. And I stood aside because of the harm. 

Today the doorbell rang, my friend hugged me and said she wanted to have a beneficial peace.  And we stood and talked as we had for decades past.  And in our conversation, we discovered some vital information given to her by a third party as misdirection. Rooked. We were able to set the record straight for her future. Improving this by far. As in ... a house-sized benefit. While including another old friend who would find this greatly beneficial.

There are Times and Seasons!

Ecclesiastes 3 

For everything there is a season, 

and a time for every matter under heaven:

2 a time to be born, and a time to die;

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

3 a time to kill, and a time to heal;

a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

6 a time to seek, and a time to lose;

a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

7 a time to tear, and a time to sew;

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8 a time to love, and a time to hate;

a time for war, 

and 

a time for peace.

Oh, it's beginning to look

a lot like..

Yes

John 21

Thank you, Jesus, our Lord Christ

♔ Lord Jesus Saves †

Bless the Lord Jesus

Thank You, Jesus

1 Kings 18:20-40 ~ You are GOD

 

>

And also

The Septuagint

Ptolemy II Philadelphus, the Macedonian Greek pharaoh of Egypt, sent seventy-two Hebrew translators—six from each of the Twelve Tribes of Israel—from Second Temple era Jerusalem to Alexandria to translate the Torah from Biblical Hebrew into Koine Greek, for inclusion in Library of Alexandria. In a letter of Aristeas to his brother Philocrates,  and it was repeated by Philo, Josephus in Antiquities of the Jews, and by later sources, including St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo. It is also found in the Tractate Megillah of the Babylonian Talmud:

King Ptolemy once gathered 72 Elders. He placed them in 72 chambers, each of them in a separate one, without revealing to them why they were summoned. He entered each one's room and said: "Write for me the Torah of Moshe, your teacher". God put it in the heart of each one to translate identically as all the others did.

There is a very good reason 

to 

heed 

Scripture.

Considérez la Révolution française comme un contexte historique: 

A brief look at recent history to see the Agenda still shown today

in Belfast, and the words of the Northern Ireland Head Politicians today saying there will be more immigrants. Saying basically, Ireland will have to just show more compassion when violent immigrants arrive.

Harris-Walz campaign hired a female Presbyterian Minister, somewhat retired to instead do longtime activist, to lead faith outreach. And the campaign issues a set of goals in the new position hire for Pastor Faith Outreach for the White House Administration.

It was more of a threat than a promise. 

New Head of Faith Outreach

Recognize that we’re at a pivotal moment in American democracy where faith voices for justice are needed now more than ever,” she said. “The Harris-Walz campaign is a really unique opportunity to shift the debate."

Faith in Public Life, a faith-focused advocacy effort incubated at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, was the starting point.  Concerned about religious freedom, and engaging new ideals.

Civil Disobedience was part of these works.

To lead or participate in campaigns supporting a range of causes such as immigrant rights, voting rights, health care reform and LGBTQ rights. Drawing in the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, which was critical of the current health care proposals.

The post of Religion Pastor 

would engage 

all the Churches

 to understand they had been worshiping incorrectly 

in the past. 

The former form of Nationalism 

would be replaced 

and intolerance incorrectly 

interpreting Scripture. With a bold new look at Churches in the future.

When the churches cease to govern themselves, advertising their Hezekiah funds for the warring outsiders, there is a very grave line being crossed. 

Notre Dame has seen fires before.

The statues smashed. The chairs, before pews, piled in the center. Fire set upon them as a sacrifice to the Roman gods.  Then the Bibles and books of Notre Dame. It was not a one-time occurrence, and happened again and again when the Revolutionists wanted to poke God to do something to them.

I asked my mother, we lived in France for 4 years, why the French Revolution didn't burn the Catheedral. She said it was made of Stone.

Today, we know this is not true. Why didn't the French Revolution burn down

Notre Dame?

Notre Dame, 

built 1163 AD

French Revolution, 1789 - 1799 

630 Years Old

Cathedral of Notre-Dame of Reims 

An hour from Notre Dame, Paris suffered damage in World War I

Why didn't the French Revolution burn the ceiling of the 630-year-old Cathedral?

The Forests of 1200 AD gave up 300-year-old trees for the Notre Dame Cathedral.

WHY 

DIDN'T THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

BURN DOWN NOTRE DAME

They tried to provoke the Lord during the French Revolution. The idea was to prove God was an imp at best. So they were recreating the Baal Elijah experience.

And in the ignorance of free will, Notre Dame was smashed 

And then the French Revolutionaries put up fabric to hide the magnificent architecture and called Notre Dame the Temple of Reason.

It's possible

CS LEWIS would call this

The Old Magic

or

The Astonishing Resilience of the Church

And it helps us

calm down about a 17th century door

being repurposed in

Mary Major Basilica 

for Pope Francis' tomb.

1 Kings 18:20-40

20 So Ahab sent to all the people of Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel. 21 And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word. 22 Then Elijah said to the people, “I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets are 450 men. 23 Let two bulls be given to us, and let them choose one bull for themselves and cut it in pieces and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it. And I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood and put no fire to it. 24 And you call upon the name of your god, and I will call upon the name of the Lord, and the God who answers by fire, he is God.” And all the people answered, “It is well spoken.” 25 Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first, for you are many, and call upon the name of your god, but put no fire to it.” 26 And they took the bull that was given them, and they prepared it and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they limped around the altar that they had made. 27 And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” 28 And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them. 29 And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice. No one answered; no one paid attention.

30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” And all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down. 31 Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, “Israel shall be your name,” 32 and with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. And he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two seahs of seed. 33 And he put the wood in order and cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood. And he said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.” 34 And he said, “Do it a second time.” And they did it a second time. And he said, “Do it a third time.” And they did it a third time. 35 And the water ran around the altar and filled the trench also with water.

36 And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. 37 Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” 38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. 39 And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.” 40 And Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape.” And they seized them. And Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and slaughtered them there.

Why

Notre Dame

was not BURNED

 this occurred when God wouldn't be provoked.

Matthew 16:18 

On This Rock

I will Build My Church

and

the gates of hell

Shall Not Prevail Against It.

Abba, Father,

Very much a work of the Lord.

When the 

Events of

Easter

coincide

We remember

John Wesley said, “The Work of God 

continues 

His workers go home”

Coinciding

John Wesley never left the Anglican Church

and The Anglican Church

never left

The Roman Catholic Church.

One God,

One Plan

As we think of the Sacrifice

of Jesus Christ

His Love

as He Forgave

We realize 

a Thousand Years 

are a Day to You.

And Give You Thanks

for

our

Salvation.

God of Light

You are in all things

You are Light of the world

Light of mankind

Light of Heaven

In all Things, You Create

You have given us Jesus Christ

Holy is

the Highest Name

Above

all others

Your Kingdom come

Your Good Will be done

we pray for more

on earth

just as it is in Heaven.

Give us This Day

Our Daily Bread.

Jesus the Living Bread.

Forgive us our Trespasses

as

we forgive those

who Trespass 

Against us.

Lead us not into temptation

Deliver us from Evil. 

For Thine

is the

Kingdom

and 

the Power

and 

the Glory.

Thank you for 

our new granddaughter

and many

answered prayers.

Amen in Jesus Christ 

John 21

Thank you, Jesus our Lord Christ

♔ Lord Jesus Saves †

Yes Bless the Lord Jesus

Thank You Jesus