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Tag: God

  • Hansel and Gretel – 3

    Hansel and Gretel – 3

    IF you have NOT already taken time to watch the Hosea Movie of a previous post, it is related to this series and I recommend it. Watch it as a family, if possible (80 min.); especially your teens.

    Roger Harned

    DIVORCE! in the Bible is more a picture of our broken relationship with God, than a contemporary image of broken vows between broken people with broken hopes and broken families.

    The  truth of christian divorce remains a picture of our broken relationships with God.

    HANSEL & GRETEL – Chapter 3

    1 Samuel 15:23 KJV

    For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.

    Saul was anointed by Samuel, God’s Prophet and Priest as King over God’s own family.

    How would you feel if once you were chosen by God and assumed that you would always be over God’s family; but then the Lord reveals: God rejects you?

    Hansel and Gretel witchGod’s judgment compares rebellion to witchcraft.  (Children know instinctively that the witch in Hansel and Gretel is evil.)

    The worldly reveling of Halloween month,  ‘natural’ cures, historic abuses and over-exaggerated images from our clouded past taint our Biblical understanding of witchcraft.

    Witchcraft – pharmakeia –

    Transliterationpharmakeia Pronunciationfär-mä-kā’-ä (Key)
    Part of Speechfeminine noun Root Word (Etymology)From φαρμακεύς (G5332)
    Dictionary AidsVine’s Expository Dictionary: View Entry
    Outline of Biblical Usage

    1. the use or the administering of drugs
    2. poisoning
    3. sorcery, magical arts, often found in connection with idolatry and fostered by it
    4. metaph. the deceptions and seductions of idolatry

     “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft…”

    “From the beginning it was not so…”

    Dearly beloved christian wife

    (any of a Christian husband),

    You know and quote well John 3:16;

    do you also quote Genesis 3:16?

    To the woman he said,
    “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
    in pain you shall bring forth children.
    Your desire shall be for your husband,
    and he shall rule over you.”

    In the beginning: rebellion.

    In the end times: rebellion.

    Yet our story of Hansel and Gretel does not have to follow a trail of breadcrumbs to see revelation of God’s love.

    To be continued…

  • Hansel and Gretel – 2

    Hansel and Gretel – 2

    IF you have NOT already taken time to watch the Hosea Movie of a previous post, it is related to this series and I recommend it. Watch it as a family, if possible (80 min.); especially your teens.

    Roger Harned

    HANSEL & GRETEL – Chapter 2

    DIVORCE! in the Bible is more a picture of our broken relationship with God, than a contemporary image of broken vows between broken people with broken hopes and broken families.

    The truth of christian divorce remains a picture of our broken relationships with God.

    Where is your commitment to your vow in the Name of God?

    Where is your commitment to your Lord?

    Where is your commitment to your husband and lord of your family?

    Where is your commitment to the children of your bowels (to borrow from a  KJV lesser-known depiction of a deeper nature of the womb or compassion)?

    Jesus said: “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”

    Pretty harsh words from our Lord.

    And what follows Jesus’ caution against divorce in Matthew 19?

    A lesson on the importance of children.

    My wife is a christian. She is NOT an unbeliever. I need not go into the difficult detail of our not-so-fabled pasts to say how our children of another husband or wife became step-children in our crumbling houses of gingerbread.

    The lesson for our Christian family relationships remains the same regardless of past circumstance:

    God is Father and Jesus IS Lord over every family.

    Rebellion of husband, wife or child is rebellion against Christ as LORD.

    The fear of a child, even in a house of faith, is well warranted.  Fear of our children as orphans as in the story of Hansel and Gretel is real.  Fear of our children as orphans as in Jesus’ mention of children immediately after His caution against divorce is real enough in our broken homes of this 21st century.

    Fear of separation from God for eternity ought to be the underlying motivation for ANY of our rebellion against a loving Father God and the blood of our redemption in Christ Jesus, His Son of the Cross.

    To be continued…

  • Method for Prayer – Matthew Henry

    Method for Prayer – Matthew Henry

    Pray The Bible

    Promoting, encouraging, and assisting biblical prayer

    • Edited & Revised by Ligon Duncan
    • with William McMillan
    • Executive Production by Dan Arnold

    Not every book thrives in an online format, but Matthew Henry’s A Method for Prayer does! 

    Christian Non-Fiction Book Review by Roger Harned

    Actual book is online: linked in this review.

    The following resource is helpful for all believers and any interested in growing effectiveness in our prayer life.  One of the pleasant difficulties of categorizing this updated resource is that it is designed for the internet and falls rightfully into three current categories:

    1. Prayer
    2. Christian Non-Fiction Book Reviews
    3. Other Media

    We could easily add sections of this important book on prayer to our Biblical categories as well, especially Good News of the Four Gospels.

    mhcc-thumb

    Matthew Henry has long been a favorite commentator on scripture to whom I have looked for difficult and insightful answers.

    Matthew Henry (1662-1714), beloved commentator on the Scriptures, was born near Whitchurch (Salop), England.

     

    The contents follow the structure of the Lord’s Prayer (Kingdom Prayer; the Our Father).  Each chapter is concise and easily bookmarked. Readers may view scriptures for various short prayers with a move of the mouse to its ESV reference.

    I would recommend this wonderful resource for prayer for each and every Christian of all faiths.

    praying hands Let us now worship God, who is spirit, in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

    Unto you, O Lord, do we lift up our souls.