All posts filed under: z173

Seal found confirming the existence of King Jeroboam II

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Archaeology keeps confirming the Biblical record by not only finding evidence of the good guys, but the bad ones as well. In 1904, archaeologists discovered a seal of Jeroboam II at an archaeological dig in Megiddo located in Northern Israel. Jeroboam II ruled Israel for about 41 years between 786 BC and 746 BC. He was the 13th King of Israel after the nation split apart into the Northern Kingdom, Israel and the Southern Kingdom, Judah. Jeroboam II should not to be confused with Jeroboam, who was Israel’s first king after the separation. The small seal actually did not belong to Jeroboam but rather a man named Shema. The seal reads: “Belonging to Shema, the servant of Jeroboam.” Only the important or the wealthy had seals, and Shema’s description as “servant of Jeroboam” indicated he was a very senior bureaucrat at Jeroboam’s palace in Samaria. Throughout the Bible, the Hebrew word “ebed,” translated “servant” on the seal, was used to describe important government officials as we see it used in 2 Kings 22:12. The description …

Have we completely misunderstood what Jesus told us about worry?

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In the Gospels, Jesus talked a lot about worry and I think we have completely misunderstood two pieces of advice that Jesus gave us about this problem. First, Jesus said as God provides for the sparrows, that He will also provide for you. 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? (Matthew 6:26 ESV) Ultimately, worry is a form of unbelief, but perhaps a different form of unbelief than you may think. By comparing us to sparrows, the Lord was hinting at a completely, different issue. This is because worry may actually reflect how little we believe God values us. Why would Jesus as the question: “Are you not of more value than they?” unless, it was the actual root of the problem. You worry because you don’t believe God values you. You are important to God and whether you believe that or not is a different issue. To deal with worry, …

God Loves Outcasts

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A lot of movies and TV shows have been made about outcasts. To many, outcasts are peculiar and hold the same morbid fascination as freak shows or perhaps car accidents and disasters. You know they are there, but they just don’t affect your life. The Bible is full of stories about outcasts. Some rose to great heights, even becoming kings. Esther saved an entire nation. David is the most revered king in Israel’s history. Joseph ruled Egypt, second only to Pharaoh. Others are mentioned briefly. Like the blind men healed by Jesus or the lepers healed, and we are not told what happened to them. But there is one outcast story in the Old Testament that touches me deeply. This story parallels the stories of many people pushed aside and forgotten except for crime or poverty statistics. The story of Ishmael is the story of the ultimate outcast and begins with Abraham. In Genesis 15, God makes a covenant with Abraham who was distraught that he had no children as heirs. God tells him to …

Jail time for praying about a virus

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So, how are you coping with the lockdown for the Corona virus or COVID-19? Whatever name we give to the virus, the effect is the same. A virus can make us sick, and possibly kill us, and spread to others. We know that. The other effect, is to destroy society. Have you noticed the list of corporations that are now in bankruptcy? This morning I heard about Hertz, the company that rents cars. We may not think about them unless we work for them, but did you ever imagine a world where so many big corporate names would disappear? The world is changing around us, in this pandemic. Some of the changes are made by us. The pandemic itself is terrible in some places, or just a temporary disruption, depending on how people managed the crisis. History will judge us all. One other problem, is the blame aimed at people who break the rules. I live in a place where the restrictions are not too extreme. If I don’t like the line ups when I …

Dealing with the fear of the unknown

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Fear of the unknown can overwhelm us and impact our body, mind and spirit in unhealthy ways as we start obsessively worrying about the future, which some refer to it as “future tripping.” The actual purpose of fear is to signal our brain that there is potential for danger or death telling us to ‘fight, flee or freeze.’ Though there is benefit to it, that changes to negative when we are consumed by prolonged bouts of fear. Psychotherapist Terri Cole, who has worked with women for 20 years, states that we must be aware of the psychological, emotional and physical cost to walking around in a constant, heightened state of fear. She says being on constant alert is not good for you and can even compromise your immune system. Exhaustion, feeling overwhelmed, brain fog and depression are all symptoms that your nervous system is being overloaded by fear. And if this describes you, it may also suggest this pandemic is exposing deeper emotional issues and trauma in your life, that you have been carrying around …

Listen to Warning Dreams?

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I recently read an article on Charisma News about a dream that Eddie Keever received warning of the possible attack on his daughter who was attending North Carolina State University. In his dream, Eddie was with his 18-year-old daughter when a car full of strange people showed up. When his daughter got in the vehicle, feeling nervous about the group, Eddie decided to join them. They drove to a house where Eddie said he felt an evil presence. There were also a number of women in the house who attacked him and his daughter. In his dream, Eddie saw they had killed people before, and he used a broken piece of glass to fight them off. He was also able to kill one particularly evil woman saving both him and his daughter. At that moment, the dream abruptly ended. Because of this dream, Eddie and his wife Debbie prayed for God to protect their daughter. They had no idea what it was about but believed the dream suggested that their daughter was in danger. Then …

Study confirms miraculous healing from blindness

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A study by The Global Medical Research Institute (GMRI) confirmed that a Baptist woman was miraculously healed of blindness after her husband prayed for her in 1972. The woman was diagnosed with Juvenile Macular Degeneration (JMD) and had been legally blind for 13 years. JMD is an inherited and incurable condition that results in the central part of what a person is looking at becoming dark or blurred, while the edges often remain clear. The woman first contracted the condition in 1959 when she was 18 years old. Her condition rapidly deteriorated over the following months, and she was eventually forced to turn to braille for reading and the use of a cane for walking. She would also eventually marry and have a child. The study of the miracle was undertaken on behalf of GMRI by two professors, Joshua Brown of Indiana University, Kenn Freedman of Texas Tech University, and as well a retired radiologist David Zaritzky and GMRI associate researcher Clarrisa Romez. According to the researchers, the woman was healed of this incurable condition …

Spiritual Warfare #5: When Do I Win?

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As we saw last week, a knight’s identity as a knight is what gave him the character and ability to win in battle.  The same is true of a Christian. Imagine yourself in a new modern soldier’s uniform with incredible weapons. You are about to board the transport plane for your first ever battle. You see some dirty, tired soldiers disembark and their faces are set, determined, grim even. A shudder goes down your spine. You know you are a solider but yet you experience fear. In what seems an eternity you find yourself jumping from a helicopter in the middle of a battle. Bullets, explosions, noise, and confusion surround and engulf you. You freeze. Your instinct is to move back. Then you hear the yells of your leader and you jump into action.  You are a soldier and you go forward into the battle. Jesus is our leader and although He doesn’t often yell, his voice is the one we must seek and is the one to which we must listen. Our identity comes …

Religion in the Alley: What are you resisting?

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A few years ago, I did something that was wrong, maybe. I will tell you the story, and you decide. We had moved to the place where we live now, and I like to go for walks, so I travelled through the new streets and alleys. In our alley, I met a young man, who always seemed to be in the same place, and he always spoke to me. This was strange because he seemed strong and healthy, and the economy was good. He should have been at work, unless he was a drug dealer, and he was working. In the language of the seventies, he was into something. I knew he was going to ask me for something, and I was ready. When he got too fake-friendly and aggressive, I told him how I found Jesus, and how that worked for me. That is the truth, I did find Jesus, and that does work for me. The other guy wanted to pull me into something, and I didn’t need his thing. The guy looked …