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Getting somewhere requires effort, it takes
faith to push on, it's easy to screw up,
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Friday, February 25, 2011
There is NO WAY Jesus rose on the third day, ... or is there? 
Christian’s seem to ignore this fact
that is central to their faith,
if
Jesus died Friday afternoon
and rose Sunday morning
he wasn’t in the grave 3 days
(ancient
or modern!)
So what does this mean?
Okay! So most of us know that we celebrate “good Friday”, and “Easter Sunday”,
and if we know a little, we know Jesus died late in the day, and his body had to be in the grave before the
sun set according to the law of the time.
Then
the bible says the tomb was empty when they went there on the first day of the week (which was Sunday).
Bible references
Matthew 28:1 [ Jesus Has Risen ] After the Sabbath, at dawn
on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.
Mark 16:2 Very early on the first day of the week,
just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb
Luke 24:1 [ Jesus Has Risen ] On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the
women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb
John 20:1 [ The Empty Tomb ] Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark,
Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.
Now the Jewish day was measured differently to ours.
The Jewish daytime
was dawn to sundown, and days were from sundown to sundown. The Romans started their day like ours at midnight and ended it
at the next midnight!
So let’s count both
ways…
Either way, there is ONLY TWO DAYS!
Seems
the bible is wrong!
But this doesn’t make sense since the writers of the time were very familiar with the
time and timing, and even if they wanted to fabricate the facts they would hardly try and convince people with incorrect
information that was so obviously wrong!
So is there another explanation,
one that makes much more sense?
YES!
To understand this we need to understand
the Jewish Sabbath!
This was set up by Moses about 3500years ago when he wrote Leviticus. See chapter
3 verse 23
“‘There
are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do
any work; wherever you live, it is a sabbath to the LORD.
So the Saturday (the last day
of the week) was a Sabbath!
This however was not the only Sabbaths that occurred!
There were also
special sabbaths that were not on Saturdays and were linked to feast days. John, a guy who walked around with Jesus says of
the day that Jesus was about to die…
John 19:31
Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath.
Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs
broken and the bodies taken down.
If it was a special Sabbath the day after Jesus died, it was NOT a normal Sabbath.
So
let’s look at that calendar from bible events again …
Nissan 8 (Thu): From the bible Jesus spends the Thursday before at Zaccheus’ home in Jericho, ( Nissan
8 is Jewish first month day 8),[Luke 19:1-21]
Nissan
9 (Fri): Jesus goes to Jerusalem [Matt 21:1-15]
Nissan 10 (Sat): He
spends Sabbath in Bethany is anointed [Matt 21:17]
Nissan 11 (Sun): Enters Jerusalem on a donkey [Mark 11, Luke 19,
John 12]
Nissan 12 (Mon): Returns to Jerusalem cleanses temple, curses the fig tree and leaves the city
Nissan 13 (Tues):Returns
and teaches [Matt24-25, Luke 19, John 12] goes to Bethany and is anointed again [Matt 21, Mark 11, Luke 21]
Nissan 14 (Wed):
At 6pm start of Jewish day, has last supper
Arrested in the evening
Dies Wednesday evening
before sunset!
Nissan 15 (Thu) : Special Sabbath!
JESUS DIED ON
A WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON!
See the new time line layout,
Religious observances do not always make truth! Religiousity is NOT true christianity!
The church observes Friday as
the day of Jesus’ death but it is incorrect biblically!
It also confuses non-Christians, and Christians who don’t know their bibles very well!
Let’s
us agree that if we want to understand confusing things we need to investigate them well and ignore cutural and religious
traditions!
Have a great day!
Thursday, February 24, 2011
When honesty and compassion collide?
Would you choose honesty over compassion or compassion over honesty?
In a pole, many people choose
compassion, what would you choose and why?
When faced with a situation where honesty conflicts with compassion, we can fall into a dilemma
that can contort our lives and crumple our morals...
Take for example a honest man who finds out an employee that is a sole parent and bread winner has committed
a criminal act, the act is lying about their qualification and performing activities that require certification without the
proper training.
Most people in this case tend
to say that we should have compassion, but when we point out the person is pretending to be a surgeon, the flood of support
flips and compassion is replaced with disgust and anger.
Why?
Our basis for evaluating what is right and wrong is so often based on how much it hurts others, and
we are so bad at determining this!
A kid
who steals money from their mother to buy candy can be ignored, because the mother doesn’t notice and it hurts no-one
in the eyes of the kid’s friend. In this case compassion and friendship could be allowed to overcome honesty because
“we don’t want to hurt the other”.
Biblically it says we should not steal! This is absolute! Many would ignore this minor incident. However, if that incident
starts a behavior pattern that results in that same person defrauding seniors at a later stage in life, and we could
know it started with this one incident, would we change our decision with the weight of this evidence?
Unfortunately as humans we are linear in the
way we deal with the time of our lives and we cannot know the outcome of decisions.
This is why God, who has no such limitation has given us guidelines.
He knows and so has pointed out the best way of making these decisions. The bible is full of guidelines. Faith
is following the guidelines because we know God is right, even when we have yet to see this proof. Faith enables us to know
that honesty is in fact the most compassionate route and that there is no conflict except in our limited minds due to our
limited view of our world.
Honesty is not easy!
People don’t always understand the type of love that confronts, but if it is truly done with love in our hearts, the
results that we see may appear painful and even appear to be the wrong thing at times, but we can know with certainty it is
not.
What we do need to do is come
alongside and help! That’s where the compassion comes into play! We offer to help the persons while they undergo
the rectification consequences of the actions.
We help their families cope! We need to explain that we
may be being honest, but we in no way do we want to be malicious or cause pain.
What they do with this is their choice! Let’s
pray that people will make good choices that will improve their lives!
That’s my prayer for myself today!
What about you?
Love
must be honest and true. Hate what is evil. Hold on to what is good. Rev 12:9
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Organic computer/pump we all own, but rarely think about!
A quarter of a kilogram in weight, this amazing equipment cycles about 100,800 times a day with faultless
performance for the average person.
It lasts about 70 years without having to ever be stopped for maintenance
by anyone and in that time it would have cycled about 2,575,440,000 times without a failure.
To check it’s performance is easy, place an index
or middle finger on your wrist on the side of your thumb and move it around until you find a pulse that should be pumping
the blood around at about 60 to 80 beats per minute, when you are resting.
It pumps about
2,000 gallons of oxygen-rich blood through about 60,000 miles of branching blood vessels each day.
Our hearts are amazing pumps!
We hardly ever think about them!
In fact as a child, we are not even aware they exist for our early childhood.
It’s a complex piece of bilogical machinery with four chambers and valves that
allow fluid to flow only one way through them.
The muscles continually work, and mostly never complain!
It sucks blood from the lungs through the left side, and then with a great squeeze, squirts it out the other to
circulate it around our bodies.
It’s doing it right now!
You don’t have to do anything, it’s there and it’s looking after you, independently of whether
you agree to it or not!
Sometimes we give it a hard time!
We
eat the wrong foods and develop cholesterol that clogs up the pipelines to and from the heart and that brings the
food and oxygen to this engine. We fail to exercise the right way and get this engine to go through a performance
cycle that helps it develop and clear out problems, and so it works a little less well than we want it to in some people.
Mostly, we just ignore it’s existence and yet rely on it all the time!
Why am I discussing this?
People tell me they have never seen God so he cannot exist!
Have you ever seen your heart?
They tell me that when we walk around
we don’t see many people who have seen God.
How many people do you know have seen a human heart with their own eyes?
Does that change the fact it exists?
God is continually sustaining and keeping our universe in place.
We live within it! We see the amazing variety and complexity around us! We feel the heart throb of everyday life
and appreciate that without fine tuned and ongoing support, this universe ceases to exist.
But we ignore God most of the time don’t we?
Like our hearts, he is central to our existence and generally not even considered.
The heart is
a symbol of love! God is love!
People draw hearts for each other with a symbol that is unlike the actual organ in shape!
People
cannot find a representation of God for others that can fully communicate his complexity and importance, but we explain it
in the emotion that we best understand, “love”, and through teh words in the Bible.
A breakup or loss of a loved one has been shown to literally cause
people to have a heightened risk of heart attack.
Rejecting God will ultimately
cause separation from him after we die.
The greatest heart attack in eternity!
A good laugh can increase your blood flow and help your heart pump
better for the next 45 minutes!
Allowing the joy of God into your life increases our life enjoyment for
as long as we allow the joy to reside with us and push back the influence of sin!
Heart attacks can be subtle and often we don’t see them for what they are!
Many people have suffered an attack and not known it, they only see reduced function in their lives. This
can be avoided by checking we are treating our hearts right and monitoring our heart condition.
The evil ones attacks are subtle and we often don’t see them!
They insidiously take over the functions we are to reserve for our loving of God and redirect them to selfish, greedy, nasty
or just plain stupid activities and actions.
This can be avoided by focusing on doing the right things for God
and monitoring how we are in that relationship.
So today I plan to thank God
for my heart, and thank him for his love and guidance!
What
about you?
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Corrosive force of money!!!
The two evils of money, the lack of it, and the greed for it, both drop corrosive
acid on the human mind and soul, eating away the joy of life and leaving behind a burnt out pain that castigates and
corrodes our existence.
“I
would never get caught in the snare money lays out for the unsuspecting fool” many say, just before it takes them out!
Isn't it interesting how intertwined our existence is with this symbol of commerce?
Money is, after all, an elusive commodity. We have no use for
money, except to exchange it with others to gain goods, commodities and services.
In primitive cultures the goods themselves are exchanged, but the
more sophisticated the culture, the fancier the instruments of exchange become.
In simple terms Jesus addressed this by saying
“No one can serve two masters at the same time. He will hate one of them and love the other.
Or he will be faithful to one and dislike the other. You can't serve God and Money at the same time.”
(Matthew 6:24)
While an adequate statement,
and totally true, it doesn’t reflect the insidious way that the evil one uses this tool to destroy lives.
Lack of money often
causes fingers to dip into deception and theft. We can look down on these activities, but I have to ask this…
If your children were staring and dying due to lack
of food, and a rich person left a loaf of bread on a window ledge in the sun where it could be easily stolen,
what would you do? What should the rich person do? Which role do you see yourself in? Why did you pick that role? Our motivations
in this area are easily suspect aren't they?
Having
lived in Africa and seen starving children, I am likely to want to steal food myself to feed the children of others,
and I have no idea if I would be able to withstand the temptation of stealing to feed my own children.
The lack of money is a incredible test of
human character isn’t it? I don’t know if I have sufficient strength to pass this test and
my prayer is that I would never be put into the situation where I have pass this test!
In the first world environment, the theft is more cleaver and less visible,
we defraud our employers, the country, investors or banks, and somehow, because we don’t have a face to link to the
damage, feel that it is okay!
This theft is due to our perception of lack of something critical but I
find the “criticality” to be strange.
Young people consider iPods critical and
older BMW’s!
What's up with that type of thinking?
When we consider that in some parts of the world a good daily income is two dollars,
this "critical" need pales into insignificance doesn’t it?
At least, it should!
The jump from “need”
to “greed” is a simple one.
Excesses are everywhere and we feed them and promote them
continually! One look at our televisions shows how people try and engender needs that aren’t there to move us from having
greed to acting on it.
Often, evil is acceptable, because it turns profits!
It doesn’t take long to turn that around and say profits are
“good”, therefore the means to get them are “okay” and hence “evil”
is “okay”!
Our
modern world jumps at such a conclusion without even passing it through the conscious mind doesn’t it?
Over the past few days, I have seen how misuse of money has little to do
with money, and much to do with the condition of our hearts!
If
we want to clean up the world, the answer is not in laws and punishments, it’s in cleaning up the human heart!
That’s what only Jesus can effectively do!
So the let’s
go to him, ask him to keep us between the extremes of too much lack of money and too much greed, and instead
to clean our hearts so we can see, and react correctly to the world in which we live!
That’s my prayer for today!
What’s yours?
Monday, February 21, 2011
“ I see you live differently and are good, what must I do to get eternal life?” – the thirteenth disciple that didn’t make
it!
“I would rather live and love where death is king than have eternal life where love is not.”
- Robert
Green Ingersoll
Sometimes
we get people asking us a question as to why we do things differently to others, don't we?
These can be uncomfortable to answer at times since we don’t like to think of ourselves as different to others
do we?
Christians
are different, and most people seem to think by us calling ourselves a Christian, we are “good” people
and then they start to evaluate us in terms of what they consider “good” actions, and doing “good”
to others and the world.
While somewhat true, none
of us that are Christians would ever consider ourselves "good". Mainly because we model our lives on Jesus
and this was his answer to this question when he was asked it,
As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good
teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“Why do you call me good?”
Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.”
Hmmm, quite the dilemma isn’t it?
If the son of God would not call himself
“good” because that was a term reserved for God the Father, I sure can’t say I am good
in any way, and neither can any other Christian, right?
Well,
this is where we as Christians have to read our bible very carefully!
Mark was the guy writing this, and he has a clear purpose in writing this gospel of showing
Jesus was God! [See Mark 1:1(NIRV) where Mark points this out saying “This is the beginning
of the good news about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” ]
This is why Mark reflects Jesus as asking the man “why do you call me good?” Jesus is pushing
the man to acknowledge that Jesus is God, because Jesus is as good as God, we should only call
God good and therefore by deduction Jesus must be God!
This is very different to the context we are in when asked
this same question isn’t it?
None of us would claim to be sons of God, or would we?
It does say in the bible (Acts 2:17)
“‘In the last days,
God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men
will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
and
1 John 5:19
We know that
we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.
So we can perhaps through Jesus' intervention, forgiveness, and
protection be can be considered as sons and daughters of God!
So, in a way, we can be considered to be the conduit
of God’s goodness!
We ourselves are not good, but God reflected in our lives is,
and this is why we sometimes get asked “I see you live differently and are good, what must
I do to get eternal life?”
Truth
means we have to answer very carefully, since people miss the truth and see the superficial of our lives so easily!
In fact, sometimes we do the same, and bask in the glow of self righteousness (which is selfish and sinful).
When this question gets asked, the best feeling we should get, is one of discomfort at having to answer for God in
our lives. Love of God should well up inside us for the person asking, and we should let Holy Spirit guide our words.
Questions like this
one are pivot points in a persons life! They are not asked easily, and can change the path of the persons
life for eternity, (which is a very long time).
Let’s
see how Jesus answered this…(Mark 10: 18-22)
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the
commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony,
you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”
“Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing
you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.
Then come, follow me.”
At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
Wow!
“Jesus looked at him and loved him” are
wonderful words to have said about anyone aren’t they!
Notice the offer Jesus makes! He offers this person the ability to become a disciple like the
others who followed him.
This was potentially the thirteenth disciple!
A positive answer and action would have changed history forever and changed this mans life immeasurably.
The man failed because the draw
of having it good in this world overcame his desire to be godly and do great things as a child of God!
We know we are children of God, and that the world is under the control
of the evil one, what we need to do is allow God’s goodness to flow through us to save those that choose to save themselves!
To save ourselves we have to reject false values of the world, and be willing to be counted as a Christ follower!
We cannot deny Jesus and be a Christian!
Eternity
is a long time and I want to spend my life in love there.
That’s why I agree with Robert Green
Ingersoll, “I would rather live and love where death is king than have eternal life where love is not.”
Being in the control of loveless evil forever, is
worthless! Facing difficulty on this earth until we die, is a choice that is better if we have it under the power
of being good, doing good, and living a life for Jesus!
Being willing to answer the question to others, to enable them to choose life forever, is a privilege that
I intend to honor by pointing to Jesus.
How
about you?
Are you asking or answering the question, and if asking, how will you choose?
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If you want to see a short blog describing a perspective on what I believe click here
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Rift in Evil
By Ken
X Briggs - Published: September, 2010
- Format: Perfect Bound Softcover(B/W)
- Pages: 208
Size:
6x9 - ISBN: 9781450250894
Available from Barnes and Noble, Amazon, iUniverse. |
Credit cards are acceptable on sites having Ken's books: 
:)
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| Ken's book covers are displayed below. . . | |  This
suspense thriller centers on Kiara, a beautiful young woman pursued by a murderous group of people, who relentlessly and ruthlessly
hunt her and her sisters. Kiara has no idea why she is being targeted! When Kiara and her family turn to the law for help,
this fails. Her pursuers’ powers reach deeply into the political and law enforcement world. Family support for her dwindles
when they too have to flee her pursuers. Can Kiara escape the clutches of both the law and dishonest big business? With the
media broadcasting that Kiara and friends are dangerous and subversive, can Kiara clear her name and bring her pursuers to
justice?
| | | | | To purchase Kiara's Pursuer ebook
@ $1.99 kindle version click here, To contact the author contact Author@KenXBriggs.com | | | | | | | | The town of Zinaville is dropped into a spiral of evil causing a young man and a beautiful but abused woman
to launch into an investigation that unveils an evil conspiracy. A horrific mining accident results in Joshua
Robyn's father being killed. Joshua struggles both with himself and his townsfolk as he tries to make sense of an incomprehensible
situation. Is it an accident or a murder? Why is there a seeming link to evil? Why is his work environment suddenly threatening?
What is the conspiracy about and what are they trying to do? As action moves dramatically from exotic African grasslands to
the heart of North America's cities, the plot unfolds and the pace quickens. Will there be time? Why is a beautiful abused
young woman in the center of this plot? Evil tendrils tighten on their lives and the interplay between the visible
and invisible world shows opposing forces at work. Will there be a rift in evil? Will they be able to stop the
evil in time? | | - Published: September, 2010
- Format: Perfect
Bound Softcover(B/W)
- Pages: 208
Size: 6x9 - ISBN: 9781450250894
Available
from Barnes and Noble, Amazon, iUniverse. Chapters | | | | |
| Frugal Eating Advice |
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| Good advice for students living on limited $'s. Click on the image! |
May you be blessed today!
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