Category Insights on Scripture

Tell A Vision

Allen Frederick 2 Comments

Then the Lord answered me, “Write the vision. Make it clear on tablets so that anyone can read it quickly. Hab 2:2 (GW)

Most homes have at least one of these boxes setting in their living rooms as well as bedrooms, kitchens, dens, bathrooms and basements. First they were black and white with only 3 or 4 stations of programming signing off at midnight. Later there was color, and UHF bandwidth added more channels. Then came late night TV and eventually 24 hour a day formats. Today we have HDTV with over 16 million colors and hundreds of programming choices.

Television has impacted the American home like no other appliance. Where once we would listen to a radio story teller engage our imaginations with stories like ‘The Shadow’, ‘The Avenger’, ‘Blondie’, ‘Captain Midnight’, ‘Father Knows Best’, ‘Flash Gordon’, ‘Gunsmoke’, and ‘Hopalong Cassidy’, with the advent of motion pictures many of these radio classics came alive at the cinema. Today the cinema has come to the home.

With the advent of television, story telling was taken to a whole new dimension, no longer must you engage your imagination to envision the story because the story teller has already taken the time to paint the picture for you. Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Michelangelo and others were admired for their visual representations on canvas. Now Oscar and Emmy awards are given to those who paint visual pictures, and tell visual stories on an electronic canvas.

We can no longer dismiss the impact that these moving pictures have had on our society. “As Seen on TV” has turned into a brand-name marketing concept. Toys and merchandise populate store shelves during a major motion picture release. Licensed merchandise, resembling movie story characters, are all the rage at fast food establishments across the country. All this merchandising proves the powerful effect the moving picture has had upon the culture.

With all these stories being told to us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, it is no wonder our culture is being desensitized towards the things of God. For the most part, these moving picture producers are telling a story far different than the age old gospel story. They display a worldview devoid of Jesus and tell the story of a world where there is not one God but many gods and goddesses.

Telling the age old story of salvation was given to the church, the gospel of the Kingdom of God was given as the means by which the works of darkness were to be dispelled. We have been given a commission to take this gospel into all the world, preaching, teaching, and making disciples. We, as a church, are charged to tell the story, in all ways, to all people, for all time.

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Boxing up Christmas

Allen Frederick Leave a comment

 

Insight for your “Journey across the Sky”

A View from the Nest www.eagleviews.org

Random Ramblings from the Resident Raptor

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The celebrations have ended, the decorations have all come down, the gifts have all been exchanged, and the memories have all been made. Now it is time to box up Christmas for another year as business returns to normal. Check-out lanes at the local merchants are getting thinner, the return lanes are closing down, and Christmas music has been replaced with pre-Christmas Muzak programming.


The debate over Christmas displays have ended, and all things return to normal. Yet the fact that a child had been born of a virgin in Bethlehem should never be lost even though the nativity sets have been packaged away for yet another year.


What really is the meaning of Christmas? Why is there such a celebration? Would it matter a whit if Christmas was boxed away forever?


It would seem arguments against Christmas, which usually sprang from the secular left, have sprung up from the religious right as well. Prominent pastors warned of Santa replacing Jesus as the focus of the holiday and a fringe Baptist church in Kansas wanted a sign placed in the Washington State Capital warning “Santa Claus will take you to Hell.” How far we have come from the days of “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” to today where even prominent church leaders are calling for the demise of Christmas.


In, what many call the best loved Christmas movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life”, George Bailey, played by James Stewart, becomes disillusioned with despair, from a downturn in his business and wishes he were dead. Guardian Angel Clarence, played by Henry Travers, intervenes and shows George what his little town would have been like had he never been born.


Can you imagine a world in which light never shines, darkness is never vanquished and Jesus was never born? Can you picture a place where evil reigns unchecked and mankind is left to his own devises in dealing with a depraved soul? Can you imagine a world where God never intervened in human affairs but rather just sat back and let us kill and destroy each other?

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Back to the Beginning

Allen Frederick 1 Comment

Random Ramblings from the Resident Raptor
Insight from the Journey across the Sky

This is the beginning of the Good News about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The prophet Isaiah wrote, “I am sending my messenger ahead of you to prepare the way for you.” “A voice cries out in the desert: ‘Prepare the way for the Lord! Make his paths straight!’” John the Baptizer was in the desert telling people about a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. All Judea and all the people of Jerusalem went to him. As they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River. John was dressed in clothes made from camel’s hair. He wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. Mark 1:1-6Open Link in New Window (GW)

Let’s start at the very beginning
A very good place to start
When you read you begin with
A-B-C
When you sing you begin with do-re-mi
Do-re-mi
Do-re-mi
The first three notes just happen to be
Do-re-mi
Do-re-mi
Do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti

So goes the famous song from The Sound of Music.

Everything has a beginning, a starting place. As it is in education, so it is with life. When it comes to learning every child learns to read by learning their ABC’s and they learn math by counting 123. Easy lessons become harder as we build precept upon precept, line upon line until we come to an understanding of complex sentences and mathematical equations. Not too many children are able to handle trigonometry in kindergarten.

Being a student of music I too had to learn at the beginning. The Do Re Mi’s of musical theory and construction. Learning the basics made the complex easier to understand and tackle. Had I started out with an Etude by Chopin I may have given up before I even got started, although Chopin penned the first of these while still in his teens.

Knowing at what level a child is able to perform helps a teacher set forth a lesson plan suitable for each child. Some students can handle more complex principles earlier than others. But nonetheless each must learn to apply the basics if they wish to grow in their mastery of any instrument.

Music instruction includes elements of both reading and mathematics. Numbers and language are involved in a thorough knowledge of music and composition. So a student who does not read well or has trouble counting will probably struggle in music instruction.

A disregard for the basics makes progression in any subject difficult if not impossible. Failure to learn the most basic concepts makes complex formulas and equations almost impossible to comprehend.

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O Little Town of Bethlehem

Allen Frederick Leave a comment

 

I have been blessed by receiving Worthy Devotions in my inbox each day for over a year now and I wish to share just one of the many insightful messages I have received from this Jewish writer. A Jewish perspective can add valuable insight to a study of the bible, and so it is with this topic of Jesus being born in Bethlehem. Once again we can see the intricate design of God throughout the biblical narrative. If you are not already receiving Worthy Devotions in your inbox each day I would recommend that you sign up for an email subscription today. You will be blessed for having done so.

Micah 4:8;5:2 And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem. But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

There are many who are not aware of the very deep significance of Bethlehem,Yeshua’s (Jesus’) birthplace. Everyone knows that Bethlehem was a place where shepherds grazed their sheep, and where the Messiah was to be born, but do not realize that it was a town designated as the birthing place for lambs which were used for the Passover sacrifice. The Scriptures give significant details about this little town lying slightly south of Jerusalem.

 

In Micah 4:8 we read about the “watchtower of the flock”, or in Hebrew, “Migdal Edar.” According to the “Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah“, by Alfred Edersheim, a Jewish believer in the late 1800’s, Migal Edar was the location where the Messiah was to be revealed. This watchtower stood as a place of protection for the city from approaching enemies, but it was also utilized by shepherds to watch over the specific flocks from which sacrificial Passover lambs were taken.

The shepherds who were tending these particular flocks were no ordinary shepherds. They were specifically trained by the Rabbis for a holy task. They had to insure that, as much as possible, every lamb was free of any blemish or injury, in order to be used for the Passover sacrifice. Since they were instructed by the Rabbis, they almost certainly knew of those passages in the Targums (Aramaic translations) and the Mishna associating the birth of the Messiah with “Migdal Edar”. For example, Migdal Edar is translated in one of the Targums as “The Anointed One of the Flock of Israel.” It is also written in the Mishna that “He spread his tent beyond Migdal Edar, the place where King Messiah will reveal Himself at the end of days.”

Those shepherds had strong hints of Messiah’s advent in the very town where they lived, so that when the angelic host appeared announcing his arrival, they responded immediately and went to worship Him. We too have increasing signs of His soon Second Coming. Are we also prepared to respond? Our readiness to act in faith and worship will show how well we understand the signs of our own times. With so much work to be done, let us stay awake and be inspired by the expectation of his soon arrival – for, just like those shepherds of Bethlehem, we truly were born for such a time as this!

Your family in the Lord with much agape love,

 

George, Rivka, Elianna & Obadiah
Currently in the Negev Desert, Israel

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Batteries Not Included

Allen Frederick Leave a comment

Insight for your “Journey across the Sky”
A View from the Nest www.eagleviews.org
Random ramblings from the resident raptor.

God, the God of Israel, is awe-inspiring in his holy place. He gives strength and power to his people. Thanks be to God! Psalms 68:35 (GW)

I do not know what I would do without batteries. I mean I need batteries! My watches, my various remote control devices, the alarm clock, the cell phone, the computer keyboard and mouse, the laptop, each of these devices require batteries to operate.

The only thing more prevalent in my house than batteries, are all the various power adaptors for my electronic devices. There is the TV, the satellite dish, the video recorder with the network adapter, and the amplifier for the surround sound. All these require a six socket wall adapter to plug them all in. Then there is the computer and all the plugs for all the peripheral attachments, the monitor, the speakers, the DVD drive, and the external hard drive.

I have about a dozen power adapters for Satellite radio and razors and rechargers for the cell phone. Even the home phone line needs to be plugged in. There is the network adapter and the wireless adapter for the cable modem and the list just goes on and on and on. How I wish for a wireless home. No more plugs to plug in.

I love the rechargeable batteries but I hate all their wall adapters. God forbid if you ever happen to misplace one, it really is no use trying one of the many others you have lying around because no two are alike. When it comes to power chargers one size certainly does not fit all.

Therefore you can imagine how delighted I was to find this hand-cranked flashlight a few months back. No batteries required and you do not have to plug it in to recharge it! All you have to do is turn the crank and you have light! I thought to myself, “This sounds like a good idea but will it actually work?”

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