Black Friday Deals Are Here – Epic Deals. All Week Long
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Black Friday to Xmas
I don’t know about you, but once again Thanksgiving seems to be upon us, a prerequisite observance overrun by the rush of DEALS for the Christmas holidays.
Aren’t you THANKFUL for this holiday season immediately following Halloween?
Innumerable lights blinding in darkness and gift buying lasting forever and ever…
You might even see NEW deals for this Black Friday if you click on these old links.
A Puritan Thanksgiving in colonial America
from which our Thanksgiving traditions supposedly celebrate
Perhaps our 17th century Puritan forefathers who celebrated this uniquely American Thanksgiving holiday weren’t far from the truth of this holiday season.
Puritans forbade Christmas, considering it too pagan. Governor Bradford actually threatened New Englanders with work, jail or fines if they were caught observing Christmas.
Christianity.com
THANKS to BLACK FRIDAY & Cyber Monday this holiday provides little rest and even less thanks.
1 Come, let us shout joyfully to the Lord, shout triumphantly to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us enter his presence with thanksgiving; let us shout triumphantly to him in song.
Psalm 95 CSB
a Consumer WARNING for a Common EraBlack Friday
Hear this caution from the Psalm, that we might not give our thanks lightly, forgetting the worship of Almighty God our Creator.
6 Come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. 7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, the sheep under his care.
The Psalmist then reminds worshipers of those who had previously turned from the Lord.
Warning
Today, if you hear his voice: 8 Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on that day at Massah in the wilderness 9 where your fathers tested me; they tried me, though they had seen what I did.
Psalm 95, referring to exodus 17:17
Wilderness of the Negev
Meribah מְרִיבָה means testing and is the place where the Hebrews escaping Egypt tested the Lord, rather than giving thanks to the Lord.
And Massah מַסָּה means quarreling, the politics of an ungrateful saved people in the wilderness.
Sound familiar?
The Lord saved many who had fled to the New World from persecution and death in the seventeenth century.
The Pilgrims and others gave God thanks for this.
Yet the Psalmist reminds worshipers of a blessed people:
Do not harden your hearts.
Those escaping to a new land had far to go and much to learn of community, lessons about authority and of thankfulness.
Because of their testing and quarreling, the promise of the Lord would not be fulfilled in their generation.
Therefore let us heed these cautions of the Psalmist in our attitude of thanks to the Lord.
Even today, in these Common Era seasons of Black Fridays,
If you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.
10 For forty years I was disgusted with that generation; I said,
“They are a people whose hearts go astray; they do not know my ways.” So I swore in my anger, “They will not enter my rest.”
Do you thank the Lord this day?
OR
are BLACK FRIDAY and every other Common Era christmas consumer shopping day
gourging our mortal flesh in the delicacies of death without the Manna of our Redeemer and Lord?
Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.
ACTS of the Apostles 6:1 ESV
Leading through diverse difficulties of a growing Church
‘.. but we have always done it THIS way?’
(This isn't going to be so easy, is it?)Luke reveals the cultural challenge of the church familiar to him, however most of us (in this 21st century) will not understand the root of the problem:
Mixing gentiles with Jews. Even bringing the traditional challenge of some Jews joining in fellowship with other Jews divides political alliances in the Sanhedrin of Jerusalem.
Therefore I will begin by including a background for our scene in first century Jerusalem, as well as outcomes of church ministry which have occurred over two millennia. - RH
First let’s clarify some ‘church‘ terms we derive from the Greek language of the New Testament.
Who are Apostles? (and who are Disciples?)
HOW MANY APOSTLES?
TWELVE (our standard answer)
WHO ARE THE APOSTLES?
No need here to recite them by name, but remembering:
ALL Apostles at this point in ACTS are leaders of the Church in Jerusalem.
Matthias has now replaced Judas.
Saul of Tarsus will soon encounter the risen Christ Jesus and join in ministry as Paul,the Apostle to the Gentiles.
And all thy children shall be taughtH3928 of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children.
prophesy of the Messiah by Yeshaiya (Isaiah) 54:13
μαθητήςmathētḗs, math-ay-tes’; from G3129; a learner, i.e. pupil:—disciple.
The Twelve were disciples of Jesus who followed their Teacher full-time for three years.
You’ve probably noticed that most translations of the Bible capitalize ‘disciple’ to avoid confusion when referring to the Twelve Disciples [Apostles].
Many others of the multitudes also became disciples and followed Jesus Christ in the early days before his crucifixion and resurrection.
Now, in our scene in Jerusalem after the Lord’s resurrection, the Church in Jerusalem has many disciples –disciples of theHoly Spirit (who of course first receive the Holy Spirit, as we have just read from Luke’s account).
Yet from Jesus’ instruction from the Gospel of the Apostle Matthew, note another distinction of this relationship between rabbi and pupil: that of master (or lord) and servant.
These also apply in Luke’s account describing the model by which the Apostles lead the early Church.
FIRST: Jesus was the Rabbi. And Jesus was the Master.
THEN: The APOSTLES became the Rabbis. And the Apostles were then masters of their sheep (students; flocks, servants, community, school, fold, gathering, or whatever you may choose to call this multitude of the Church).
Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD.
Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away: first the king of Assyria hath devoured him; and last this Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones.
Jeremiah 23:1, 50,17 KJV
But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;G1249
Gospel of Matthew 20:26 KJV – Teaching of Jesus to His disciples
The Twelve, led by two of Jesus’ inner circle of Apostles, Simon Peter and John, now lead the New Testament Church as rabbis to a multitude of disciples.
Lambs of the Apostles’ fold
The Apostle John, who Luke records as standing at Peter’s side on the day of Pentecost, opens our eyes to the resurrected Jesus, where the Lord calls on Peter to restore the foundation of his calling:
“Tend My lambs.” .. “Shepherd My sheep.” .. “Tend My sheep.
These new disciples of the Twelve include NOT ONLY men from traditional Judaism, but also men, women and children accepted into fellowship, tender young lambs of Jesus who could NEVER before have been full members of their community of faith in the Lord God.
“And I have other sheep that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice; and they will become one flock, with one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it back.
Jesus teaching the Jews that He will Shepherd the gentiles, as scripture has said. – Gospel of John 10:16-17 NASB20
And what happens when ANY two groups of differing cultural traditions choose to follow one leader?
Dissension and murmuring by some unwilling to abide by rules and traditions imposed by others.
Who is the master ministering to these NEW lambs?
“They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.
“Go; behold, I am sending you out like lambsin the midst of wolves.
Instruction of the Master Jesus to seventy-two [72] disciples + Gospel of Luke 10:3 NASB20
Master – διδάσκαλος – didaskalos
The KJV translates Strong’s G1320 in the following manner: Master (Jesus) (40x), teacher (10x), master (7x), doctor (1x).
a teacher (from didasko, “to teach”), cp. didaskalia, “teaching, doctrine, instruction,” is translated “doctors,” with reference to the teachers of the Jewish religion, Luk 2:46. Cp. paideutes, “a teacher.” See MASTER, TEACHER.
Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words 1 Strong’s Number: g1320 Greek: didaskalos – via BlueLetterBible.org
The rabbis of Jerusalem quarreled with each other as they had also challenged the legitimacy that Jesus’ MANY disciples should call the Lord, ‘Master.’ Now that Peter, John and the Apostles have remained in Jerusalem as Jesus commanded, MANY disciples remained faithful to the church gathered under the leadership of the Apostles.
Note from earlier, after Peter preached in the Temple,
“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were amazed and recognized them as companions of Jesus.
These Apostolic Masters of the Church community now face division and opposition just as Jesus had encountered in Jerusalem prior to His execution and resurrection from the dead.
Lord
We will never understand our role as a servant of the Church until we know the sacrificial love of its servant-Master.
"lord" occurs 7,790 times in 6,587 verses in the NASB20. Page 1 / 132
Here too I urge caution and prayerful understanding of terms frequently used and misused by the church. i.e. Lord, Master, servant, slave (even God and ‘love,’ translated from several different Greek and Hebrew words in Scripture).
May peoples serve you, And nations bow down to you; Be master of your brothers, And may your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be those who curse you, And blessed be those who bless you.”
And God said to Moses, “I AMH1961 WHO I AMH1961”; and He said, “This is what you shall say to the sons of Israel: ‘I AMH1961 has sent me to you.’”
I said to the LORD [Yᵊhōvâ}, “You are my Lord [;ăḏōnāy]; I have nothing good besides You.” – Tehillim (Psalms) 16:2
For this is what the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said:
“In repentance and rest you will be saved,
In quietness and trust is your strength.”
But you were not willing,
Isaiah 30:15
Luke has only used the term ‘church’ once at this point in Acts of the Apostles to describe these ‘large numbers of men and women.’ He opens his second account describing the miraculous growth of the church:
Acts 5:11 KJV And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.
The Church (that is, the early church) lives as a community of love in fear of God, yet joyful of Christ’s anointing Spirit given to His disciples of the Church who will ‘follow Jesus, as their Master.’
The saints of the Apostolic community serve the Living God and obey the Apostles as their lords and masters.
The discipleG3101 is not above his master [didaskalos],
Now that we have defined some of these ‘Christian‘ terms so foundational to understanding Luke’s account of the Acts of the Apostles; NEXT, God-willing, we will examine the role the these servants of the Church.
