It was Always More than Israel

I want to respond to this infographic in a way that is clearly thought out and well organized. During the incarnation, Jesus was an observant Jew. His chosen Apostles were Jews. They kept the Sabbath and the festivals and traveled to Jerusalem when required. But the spirit and intent behind making this image and sharing this particular information is misguided. This is from a person taking a very narrow view of the scripture and encouraging others to do the same.

Let’s begin with context. The verse quoted from Matthew 15 takes place between Jesus and a Cannanite (or Syro-phoennician) woman. It is a test of faith which she passes, leading to Jesus answering her request and healing her daughter. When I pointed this out to the original poster, or at least the person I saw post this on Facebook, the conditions and qualifiers came out. Her claim is that anytime Jesus did something for Gentiles it was as an example to Israel. This woman’s daughter was healed, and the centurion’s daughter was healed, yes because of their faith but more importantly as an example to Israel. They were merely object lessons, Jesus was not ministering to them. Examples are not ministry; at least that was the claim. Jesus marveled at the faith of the Roman centurion, commenting that he had not seen such faith in all of Israel. The verse from Mark is his account of the same conversation with the same woman. Jesus didn’t go throughout Israel telling them his ministry was only to Israel. The quote from Luke was just after the birth of John the Baptst, before Jesus was even born. The prophecy of Zechariah, John’s father, was more about the ministry of John the Baptist than of Jesus. And John 4:22 was Jesus’s conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well. More on that in a bit.

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National Day of Prayer

Today is the 75th National Day of Prayer. The theme is GLORIFY GOD AMONG THE NATIONS – SEEKING HIM IN ALL GENERATIONS. There will be a broadcast tonight from Statuary Hall in our nation’s capital streamed from the NDP website also available on YouTube, Facebook and several different Christian television and radio stations. You can download a Pray Across America Guide from that website. There are also events at churches and other public places throughout the day in every state.

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Holy Week

This past Sunday at Unity Baptist I preached a message titled Holy Week. We read texts from Matthew about the Triumphal entry and the institution of the Lord’s Supper, which we shared following the sermon. I have posted each day this week on the events of Holy Week on the Unity Baptist website and linked to those posts each day from the church Facebook page. The most recent posts are linked in the left-hand sidebar.

Today is Holy Saturday, also known as Black Saturday. No lessons, no sermons, no miracles; just darkness and confusion on the part of those that followed Jesus. And now we wait.

Happy Birthday Mast Tab

WordPress reminded me this morning that I have been on this platform for 18 years. If my blog were a person it would be an adult. When I first met Michael Spencer, his blog The Internet Monk had only been around three years. He had only blogged a total of 10 years when he passed away. I did not start blogging until he launched a podcast and began to transition away from posting as often.

I wanted to note the occasion. Since it caught me off guard there’s no bloggoversary special, lifetime stats, etc. Just the acknowledgement that it’s been a minute since I started doing this in 2008. Let me just encourage everyone reading to do well and do good.

Long live the blog.

Satur-deja Vu

Exactly Similar – That describes when two things are the same only different. This week’s lead in is once again the weather but this time we’re talking about snow in the South and not a crippling ice storm. Athens could see 4 – 5 inches. Where I live, closer to Alabama, will gets bands of snow. There could be 1/2 inch or none at all, while locations nearby could see 1 to 2 inches. Then it will turn cold. Atlanta will stay below freezing from Saturday morning into Monday afternoon.

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Happy Monday

Superbowl LX is set for Sunday, February 8th, with the Seattle Seahawks playing at the New England Patriots. A lot of people are saying this will be a rematch of when the two met at the Superbowl in 2015 when the Patriots won 28-24.

This is Happy Monday #614

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Satur-deja Vu

Winter weather in winter. The image above is what we expect where I live in northwest Georgia. Some 200 million Americans will be affected from Texas and Louisiana all the way up to New York. The problem in the South will be ice and freezing rain. NYC is expected to have the longest streak of days in a row below freezing since 2018. The weather this weekend is no joke.

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Happy Monday

It’s cold in Atlanta but all the snow is south of the metro area.

This is Happy Monday #613.

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We Are Busy

I posted this yesterday on Facebook but I want to share it here and then add a bit of additional commentary.

It’s easy to tell just by looking around that we are busier than ever before. We used to work a shift at the mill, all day on a farm, or keep business hours in the city, but even if you worked hard it ended and everyone went home. Now we take work with us and clients/customers/bosses expect to be able to reach us anytime. You can put in a full day, then continue making work calls on your dive home then check and reply to emails once at your house. (I’m going to pretend no one is readying email while driving but I know better.)

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Happy Monday

I cannot confirm this was the first time ever but those were scores during the 49ers/Bears game this weekend. The 49ers went on to win in overtime. The real games will be Wednesday and Thursday this week as the college football playoffs get good. Indiana vs. Alabama on New Year’s Eve, Georgia vs. Old Miss on New Year’s Day.

This is Happy Monday #612

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