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Tag: Church

Ghosts of Christmas’ Past
We are of course familiar with the image of ghosts of Christmas’ past thanks to Charles Dickens, ‘A Christmas Carol,’ penned in A.D. 1843. Dickens points toward a morality of generosity during a great 19th century division between a well-off gentry class and the working poor. Even today his theme of the repentance of Scrooge convicts on a larger Common Era world stage where poverty is no less common.
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My ghosts of Christmas Past include more than just Jacob Marley & friends. I remember when Christmas meant more than the sounds of shopping and included both worship and bells.
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Many Christian families had opened paper doors on Advent calendars reading familiar Scripture from Luke, Matthew and Isaiah in anticipation of opening personal gifts to each other on Christmas morning.

So in these links and lyrics below I invite you to hear some of what I hear from long-lost ghosts of Christmas’ past. And if you listen to every brief song while reading the lyrics and Scripture behind such glorious Christmas carols you may discover that same moment of transformation as Scrooge after his visits by three ghosts he had never seen.

The Ghost of Church Bells

Church Bells proclaiming JOY to the world within the sound of their pealing.

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

Henry W. Longfellow, A.D. 1864 Scripture: Luke 2:13-14; Romans 5:1

Lyrics by Henry W. Longfellow, 1864 alt. and v. 5-7 by Harlan D. Sorrell

Lyrics:

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play;
In music sweet the tones repeat,
“There’s peace on earth, good will to men.”

I thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along th’ unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Born the Prince of Peace

And in despair I bowed my head:
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong, and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor does He sleep,
For Christ is here; His Spirit near
Brings peace on earth, good will to men.”

When men repent and turn from sin
The Prince of Peace then enters in,
And grace imparts within their hearts
His peace on earth, good will to men.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Gospel of Luke 2:14 KJV

Christians who grew up during the mid-twentieth century will closely associate Christmas, Christmas carols, community fellowship of families on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day worship with church bells celebrating the birth of the Christ child.

Yet LISTEN?

The CHURCH BELLS have been rendered silent —

stilled from praise of the CHRIST child of CHRISTMAS —

in the SILENT nights and darkness of these last days…

A glorious joyful to the world RINGING of BELLS which once called both faithful and repentant Christians to WORSHIP has long ago rusted into an artificially staged sound of ME with the world AND Jesus.

A Silent Night..

and joyful singing..

now lost in the White noise of Christmas’ past ..

budding in every hand and ear..

of a multitude of the walking dead.

Could it have been your own wanderings with so many lost souls

for whom the bells once tolled..

church bells which today remain ominously SILENT?

Christmas Carols at our neighborhood doors
What was it we once SANG at the doors of our neighbors?

You with ears to hear, LISTEN and you with eyes to see, LOOK at the lyrics!
Joy to the World

Composer: George Frideric Handel – German-British Baroque composer (1685–1759)

Author: Isaac Watts (1719);

Adapter: Lowell Mason

Published A.D. 1839 in The Modern Psalmist, Boston

LOWELL MASON, THE BANKER WHO DISCOVERED ‘JOY TO THE WORLD’

He crusaded for better music, and heaven and nature sang
New England Historical Society

Psalm 98: King James Version
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O sing unto the Lord a new song; for he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory.

2 The Lord hath made known his salvation: his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen.

3 He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

4 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.

5 Sing unto the Lord with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm.

6 With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King.

7 Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

8 Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together

9 Before the Lord; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.
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Hark the Herald

Hark! the Herald Angels Sing – READ graphic of all the LYRICS

Peace on earth and mercy mild

God and sinners reconciled”

Christ by highest heaven adored..

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see

Hail the incarnate Deity

Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings..

Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
“Glory to the newborn King!”

Jesus, the Creator Born to give us a second birth

And in despair I bowed my head

When men repent and turn from sin
The Prince of Peace then enters in,

And grace imparts within their hearts
His peace on earth, good will to men.

Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings

“Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”
Gospel of Luke 2:10b-12 ESV

Comment on Scripture + Share the Gospel

Will you invite JESUS to be more than a ghost of your Christmas’ Past?

For Christ was born that you might be born again to the eternal life given only through Him because the Lord has died for our sins.

MERRY CHRISTMAS.
December 23, 2023
Talking for hours with the prophet Paul
.. when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them..
Acts 20:7b ESV

Talk of Jesus into the late night hours

Our focus on this late-night incident in Troas is Paul’s midnight talk of JESUS and its impact on the Church. My secondary focus is a role of Paul we may not have considered as today’s TITLE suggests.

Acts 20:

And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.
Acts pf the Apostles 20:7 KJV

A.D. 52-57
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The following 2-part post from just six verses in Acts 20 and Paul's third missionary journey focuses on two topics:

1. An extra long sermon (not so unusual for ANY pastor so it would seem) AND 
2. an extraordinary sign suggesting that Paul is also a Prophet of Almighty God.
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a Sunday service before their Monday departure

Luke records in Acts 20 that the Apostle Paul is already on his way home.

Strategic Retreat of Paul to Troas

And we sailed from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and came to them at Troas within five days; and there we stayed seven days. – Acts of the Apostles 20:6

a weekly Sunday worship
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Let's not miss the context and content of this day which was likely sometime in the year of our Lord 56. 
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Call it what you like: worship, a service, gathering or mass. These Christians of Troas welcomed Paul and his missionary companions into their weekly time together as a community in Christ.

And on the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread..

Holy Communion

About this same time [A.D. 55 or 56] in his first letter back to the church in Corinth Paul will also instruct worshipers to obediently partake in the remembrance of the Lord Jesus.

1 Corinthians 11:2 LSB For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was being betrayed took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said,

“This is My body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.”

In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying,

“This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

The Sermon of a Church Father
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Note that Paul is NOT the local day-to-day Pastor and Shepherd of this church. The Apostle speaks to a large group gathered in Troas for worship. 

A crowded Christian gathering in an upper room anticipates Paul's Spirit-led exhortation [encouragement, both positive and cautionary].

AND Paul's 'talk' was not simply a one-man sermon to the flock without response but included extended additional dialogue.
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Paul began speaking to them.. [began talking in the NASB & others]

διαλέγομαι – in the Greek – discuss (in argument or exhortation):—dispute, preach (unto), reason (with), speak.

The AV translates it “preached,” in Act 20:7, 9; this the RV corrects to “discoursed,” lit., “dialogue,” i.e., not by way of a sermon, but by a “discourse” of a more conversational character.

Source: Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words – Strong’s G1256 – dialegomai

Paul kept talking until midnight. He prolonged his speech or message.

Luke uses the root word describing this dialogue (dialegomai) of Paul’s message lasting until midnight for these believers.

λόγος – logos – Strong’s G3056 – logos – a word, discourse, doctrine, teaching ..
- of speech
  - a word, uttered by a living voice, embodies a conception or idea
  - what someone has said
  - discourse
  - doctrine, teaching
    
    MORE –
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Luke opens ACTS using this same word referring to his Gospel as his 'first account' [prōtos logos].
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Scene of this late service

(for dialogue between the men of the church)

Luke does not mention the time of their regular Sunday worship.

It could have been nine or eleven in the morning. Perhaps it was an evening service planned for after the saints typically ate their evening meal at home with their families.
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SEE Paul's mention of this in 1 Corinthians 11:17-22 THE LORD'S SUPPER
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Acts of the Apostles 20:8 LSB
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Now there were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered together. And there was a young man named Eutychus sitting on the windowsill, sinking into a deep sleep.

Have you ever known someone to fall asleep ‘in church’ when their flesh could no longer bear another word of the pastor’s sermon or discussion of an unseen God and the Lord JESUS?

This young man, a boy likely brought by his father to the upper room of their evening service precariously perched himself in an open window where air circulated into the crowded place of worship.

BUT he just couldn’t last through all the long talk of JESUS by the Apostle Paul and others.
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(Perhaps by midnight what little breeze had revived the boy had subsided into stillness.)
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He FELL to his death!

DEATH! a sudden ending

Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep: and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead.
ACTS of the Apostles 20:9 KJV

This sudden incident brought the church meeting and Paul’s talk to an abrupt end.

The boy’s father and worshipers listening to Paul’s talk must have been stunned as the young man suddenly fell to his death.

So these men rushed downstairs and then outside to witness the apparent tragedy of the young man Eutychus for themselves.

a Sign of Life and Power through Paul

But Paul went down and fell upon him..
Acts of the Apostles 20:10a
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What Luke records NEXT in his account is both significant and perhaps largely ignored in 21st century C.E. preaching about the early history of the Church.

THEREFORE, we will leave the outcome of this evening for NEXT time and by way of comparison also look at Scripture concerning other Prophets (as I have suggested of the Apostle Paul).
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ACTS of the Apostles – To Be Continued… in A.D. 1st c. Troas, God-willing

Comment on Scripture + Share the Gospel
December 5, 2023
christianity-lite Doctrines of the Christ-less Era
Are christian pulpits erasing Christ’s Biblical line of DOCTRINE?

a Christ-less Church of the Common Era

JESUS Christ was the SON worthy of Christians who once worshiped like this:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, having been kept in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
First Letter of the Apostle Peter 1:3-5 Legacy Standard Bible
- HOW OFTEN DO YOU HEAR ‘our Lord Jesus Christ’ preached from the pulpit of your Common Era church?
- IS SCRIPTURE INSCRIBED on the doorposts and gates of YOUR COMMON ERA CHURCH?
שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָֽד׃ דְּבָרִים

(Deuteronomy) 6 :4

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart..
Deuteronomy 6:5-6 ESV

And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
From the LAW of Moses – Deuteronomy 6:9 King James Version

a HOLY Gospel or a Common Era Jesus?

SOMETHING CHANGED, but I’m not certain when.

In the year of our Lord 1959, I joined our local Christian church and the Pastor presented me with a Revised Standard Version of the HOLY BIBLE, which our membership class had studied beginning with the first five books of the Law in addition to discussing key verses from the New Testament.
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So the A.D. 1950's apparently were not yet a time when Christians walked away from God's HOLY BIBLE.
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As children of Christian parents we were expected to become part of our local church and community. Some did so begrudgingly and others of us out of duty to family. What else could we do? And everyone I knew seemed to ‘go to church’ one place or another.

We referred to God and Jesus as ‘Lord,’ addressed adults as ‘Mister‘ or ‘Missus‘ [so and so] or if we didn’t know them sir or ma’am.

Our pastor and preacher was to be addressed as, Reverend, just like most of our parents addressed him. (Even children understood what reverend meant as to respect due to this man and his piety associated with God’s leadership of our church.)

Before the Common Era

SOMETHING CHANGED during the 1960’s, continued to change into the 70’s and yet more beyond the close of the 20th century.

Many churches still EXPECTED Christians to stand in acknowledgment of GOD’s HOLY Word as WE bowed in silence to hear proclaimed:

“THE GOSPEL OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST ACCORDING TO .. [Matthew, Mark, Luke or John],”

and then the Holy Scripture was read.
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christianity-lite churches of 2023 of the Common Era can hardly imagine it!

Some imagined it to have been liturgical routine rather than intended due reverence for the HOLINESS of God's Very Word.
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The dichotomy of holiness as separation of GOD ABOVE ALL and JESUS CHRIST as LORD of ALL seemed to blur into a common division from contemporary culture.

Christians loved their Christ of Christmas and Easter, while ALL the world (mostly US) awaited a dismissal of JESUS as just another sweet lord of some days of a future passed.

A.D. 1960 – Do you remember when?
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Source for most: Year 1960 Fun Facts, Trivia, and History
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- JFK was elected the first Roman Catholic President of the U.S.
- The average family income was $5,600
- and a new house cost $16,500.
- The starting salary for a teacher was $5,135. It was $4,400 for a police officer and $9,400 for an engineer.
- A slice of pizza cost 15 cents, a McDonald’s hamburger was also 15 cents, and candy bars were five cents apiece.
- The minimum wage was $1.00, (family members no min. I made .50/hr. in the 60’s)
- Farmers made up 8.3% of the U.S. labor force.. about 3,711,000 American farms.. about 303 acres apiece.
- Over 90% of American households had at least one TV,
  - and about 65% of Americans were churchgoers.
- The FDA approved the world’s first commercially produced birth control pill.
  - The Roman Catholic Church opposed its use (even by married couples)
  - Protestant churches and other religions still expected NO SEX before marriage and discouraged any divorce.
Why did christians erase the LINES of Scripture?

Churches had to re-imagine JESUS for a post-Christian world of members who no longer wanted to GO TO CHURCH.

Christians of OUR future world will embrace a Jesus Christ SUPERSTAR along side our flawed antagonist apostle Judas who seemed to be just as I am. WE are the world, too.

Among our [*] secular friends WE continued to claim that WE are ‘believers,’ BUT we no longer liked to be identified as MEMBERS of the [*] BODY of CHRIST.

a few definitions erased and eroded
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*SACRED [now archaic in the Common Era] once meant separated from the common sin and evil of the world in order to remain HOLY [on GOD's side of good and evil] and used in 700+ verses in the HOLY BIBLE.

*SECULAR [also archaic to Common Era culturaly inclusive speech] pointed outward to a world separated from the SACRED by clear BIBLICAL LINES of DOCTRINE. 

The Body of Christ and the Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ point to HOLINESS only attainable through Christ as symbolized in HOLY COMMUNION.
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So clearly defined Biblical church lines of religion blurred

AND antiquated doctrine retired and relegated into the annals of church history.

The Church of our Lord OR christians of the Common Era?
- HOW OFTEN DO YOU HEAR ‘our Lord Jesus Christ’ preached from the pulpit of your Common Era church?
  - Rarely, since in a post-Christian world HE is now a familiar pronoun for a more familiar jesus who embraces believers of every culture into gatherings for the anonomous ME.
- IS SCRIPTURE INSCRIBED on the doorposts and gates of YOUR COMMON ERA CHURCH?
  - god forbid! For holy means separated and WE are together.
  - Therefore the BIBLE bows down to OUR corporate vision to which WE must preach to include ALL the world for the love of our culturally correct Jesus.
    
    Just call Him KING; NEVER Prophet or Priest, which would separate HIM from the multitudes of the world WE seek to gather. AND remember,
    
    MOST books of the BIBLE are OFFENSIVE to seekers of other beliefs; consequently NO Scripture on the walls (or church building or worship screen up front).
    
    THE BIBLE HOLY? – Prophets, Priests and gods forbid!
christianity-lite

a graceful LIFE

RE-imagining jesus

for a culturally-correct

church of the Common Era

christianity-lite is weightless witness of Christ-less preaching to the Scripture-starved chaff of Common Era culture
Roger@TalkofJesus.com

In the context of Western culture and because of growing biblical illiteracy in our churches, the content has often been highly eroded. It has been made light and insubstantial, replaced by a set of self-focused interests.
David F Wells – GOD IN THE WHIRLWIND, p.188

The challenge of Teaching GOD’s Truth

SOMETHING CHANGED between the years of our Lord in centuries past and these last days of the Common Era.

God is not man, that he should lie,
or a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Has he said, and will he not do it?
Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
Numbers 23:19 ESV

It wasn’t God.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Hebrews 13:8 ESV

And it was not Jesus Christ (re-branding HimSELF for a Common Era church).

“Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings..” the letter to the Hebrews continues in 13:9a.

All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be equipped, having been thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Second Letter of the Apostle Paul to the pastor Timothy 3:16-17 LSB

It wasn’t God’s HOLY BIBLE that changed..
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(although some have intentionally smudged scripture by their own rewording).
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COULD IT BE THE COMMON ERA CHURCH (members, not the building so much) THAT HAS CHANGED?

..it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

Lord OR just another king of culture?
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Let the church of these last days of a Common Era hear the prophesy of John the Baptist:
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“And the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals;
Gospel of Matthew 3:10-11b LSB
- DO YOU WORSHIP JESUS IN TRUTH AND WITH THE HUMILITY OF JOHN?
“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, in Your name did we not prophesy, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name do many miracles?’

“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’
The GOSPEL of Matthew 7:21-23 Legacy Standard Bible

DOCTRINES of the COMMON ERA CHURCH – To Be Continued… God-willing
September 30, 2023