Saturday, April 29, 2023

The Radical Claims of Jesus




All photos courtesy of Unsplash

As you survey the New Testament, it’s easy to see that Jesus made history’s most radical claims (John 6:35,John 8:46, John 8:58, John 10:27-28, John 14:6, 9, Matthew 9:2, John 14:15). Even a cursory reading of the four Gospels reveals that Jesus claimed to be a whole lot more than a “good teacher,” “spiritual leader,” or a “prophet.”

Search the writings of the world’s religions, and you’ll never read anything like Jesus' claims on the lips of Buddha, Muhammad, Confucius, Joseph Smith, or you name the leader. But anyone could say the things Jesus said. Saying those things doesn’t necessarily mean they are true. And Jesus knew that. So, Jesus didn’t just make the claims. He proved that what He said was true by…

• Fulfilling dozens of Old Testament prophecies
• Living a sinless life for which we even have the eyewitness testimonies of his enemies
• Opening the eyes of the blind
• Healing lepers
• Opening the ears of the deaf
• Causing the lame to walk
• Casting out demons
• Feeding 5,000 people with two fish and five loaves of bread
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Thursday, April 27, 2023

Preserving the Bible - The British Museum



All photographs courtesy of Unsplash

In the British Museum in London is one of the most wonderful of ancient manuscripts and it is a copy of the Bible known as Codex Sinaiticus.  Today it is carefully preserved by the experts of the Museum but during its history, it was very close to destruction.  

A German scholar named Tischendorf discovered it and incredibly he spotted the Codex amongst waste material that was being used for lighting fires in the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai in 1844 and he saved it from being burnt and destroyed. The monastery presented the codex to the Czar of Russia in return for certain favours and decorations.  Later it fell into the hands of the Soviet government following the Russian revolution. As an atheistic regime, they had no interest in Biblical material and were prepared to sell the codex and so it was purchased for the British Museum through public subscription in 1933 for £100,000.  

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Tuesday, April 25, 2023

Queen Victoria's Conversion - Being sure of eternal life!




Queen  Victoria's  Conversion 

Queen  Victoria  once  attended  a  service  in  St. Paul's  Cathedral  and  listened  to  a  sermon  that interested  her  greatly.  Afterwards  she  asked  her chaplain,  "Can  one  be  absolutely  sure  in  this  life  of eternal  safety?"  His  answer  was  that  he  knew  no  way that one could be absolutely sure. 
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Tuesday, April 18, 2023

National Holocaust Day 2023









Photos from own collection


Auschwitz was the largest Nazi concentration camp.  More than 1,100,000 men, women, and children lost their lives here.  Multiple train tracks led in to this extermination camp, no Jew ever came out!


All over the nation, places of public entertainment are closed, and last night a state ceremony was held in the Warsaw Ghetto Square in Jerusalem to honor the Jewish people who perished at the hands of Nazi Germany.

The flag was lowered to half-staff, and prayers were recited.  Holocaust survivors lit the six torches that symbolize the Six Million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust under Hitler's Final Solution.


Despite the process of dehumanization and annihilation that the Nazis unleashed on the Jewish People, necessitating a struggle for survival in the worst of circumstances, many Jews continued to exercise creativity, pursue education and culture, recite prayer, and observe the holidays.

"Many of those who struggled to maintain and preserve the human spirit did not survive the horrors of the Holocaust, but their deeds and actions are a reminder to future generations of the stamina and nobility of the human spirit," the Yad VaShem website states.




The Nazis packed Jewish people like cattle into railroad cars as they shipped them to their final destination at labor and extermination camps.  Those camps were part of Hitler's "Final Solution" to kill all of the 
Jewish People.


The Nazis intended that no Jew would survive the Holocaust.

Multiple tracks led from all over Europe to concentration camps like Auschwitz.  Jewish people were crammed into cattle cars and shipped to these death camps.  Very few survived.

Many were gassed immediately upon arrival and their bodies burned in ovens.  

Those who were healthy enough to work when they arrived were literally worked to death.


Two-thirds of European Jewry, that was one-third of all world Jewry, died in the Holocaust.

This horrible, unfathomable number—six million murdered—does not count the many Jewish children who will never be born because of this genocide.

Whole families were destroyed.  Some Jewish people who came out of the Holocaust were the sole survivor of their family.  They were left completely alone.  Many communities were utterly erased.


Those who came to Israel from Europe were a remnant.

Some of those who were gassed and put in the ovens were the parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles of our Bibles for Israel Ministry staff.

May We Never Forget.


Paying tribute to the six million who perished in the Holocaust.  
Never Again!


Used by permission  


"The LORD will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; He will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the LORD.   Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing."  (Isaiah 51:3)


 

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Thursday, April 13, 2023

A wicked thief and wise insects


All photos courtesy of Unsplash

I have just read a news item about five hives, containing a total of around four hundred thousand bees, which were stolen during the night of 11-12 June 2022 from their home in Cornwall, England. At the time of writing, the thief and the hives have not been found, but, amazingly, some of the bees have escaped from their captor and have returned, of their own accord, to their owner, who has provided a new hive for them.

On reading this story, I immediately had at least three thoughts. The first is how wonderful God is, that these little creatures have been given this ability by Him. The beekeeper said: “They’re coming back to their old home because that’s what they’re designed to do.” Truly, God is an all-wise Creator. The second thought is a sad one: that someone, probably living nearby and having some knowledge of beekeeping, would do such a thing. It reminds us that God’s perfect creation has been invaded by sin, including thieving. The Lord Jesus Christ once stated the actions of a thief: “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy” John 10.10. Supremely, these things characterise the originator of sin: the devil, God’s enemy, who wants people to remain in captivity to him, and hence to end up where he will be, in the Lake of Fire.

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Thursday, April 06, 2023

Merseyside to Manhattan

 


All photos courtesy of Unsplash


I once read a sign in Liverpool City Centre, it said -  "Merseyside to Manhattan". It smacked of the days when great liners regularly left the Mersey for the New World. In May 2015, three liners arrived in the Mersey, giving us all a sight of their grandeur and a glimpse of 'bygone days' or maybe pleasant memories if you have been privileged to cruise in one of them! The right spot provided good views of "The Three Queens" as they visited the Mersey on this historic occasion. The best vistas were often from the Wirral Peninsula side of the Mersey, but Liverpool Waterfront also provided an excellent canvas on which to see some great views from time to time!

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