Three Verses – The Series (Introduction)

Part One - Introduction

Over the next few weeks I would like to share with you some things that I have learnt because of three verses I read in the Bible concerning a female character mentioned only in this one place and the significance of her story being included in the Bible.

However, before I share my thoughts on my learning’s about her, that passage and her place in the Bible, I first want to share what I have studied, or looked into, as a result of what the passage says. This is in order to provide background and focus on some of the important aspects that are not actually written in the three verses but are implied.

It was a friend of mine that suggested I break what I have been doing down into a “bite-size” series, as I shared with him that I had reached nearly 26 pages of text and I hadn’t finished writing what I had been learning. I had actually though about putting it out in one post.

And being someone who has finally learnt to listen and weigh up advice given to me and act upon it when it is obvious it’s sensible, this is why you now have this series.

Over the series I will be sharing the following:

The Prophet:

The Role Of The Prophet - Prayer

The Role Of The Prophet - Receiving the Word of the Lord

The Role Of The Prophet - Suffering

The Role Of The Prophet - Worship

The Role Of The Prophet - Encouragement

The Role Of The Prophet - Foretelling the Future

The Role Of The Prophet - Direction and Guidance

The Role Of The Prophet - Interpreting Dreams and Visions

The Role Of The Prophet - Correction and Admonition

The Role Of The Prophet - Exposing Rotten Leadership

The Role Of The Prophet - Announcing Judgments

The Role Of The Prophet - Warning of Danger

The Role Of The Prophet - Interpreting the Signs of the Times

The Role Of The Prophet - The Meaning of History.

The Role Of The Prophet - Testing of Prophecy

The Role Of The Prophet - Watchman

The Role Of The Prophet - Challenging the Nation

The Role Of The Prophet - Initiating God’s Action

The Role Of The Prophet - Explaining What Must Be Done

The Role Of The Prophet - Theology

The Role Of The Prophet - Healing the Sick

The Role Of The Prophet - Appointing and Anointing Leaders

The Role Of The Prophet - Advising Kings and Political Rulers

The Role Of The Prophet - Historian

Additional Teaching:

The Tribe Of Asher

What’s In A Name

Jewish Marriage Traditions

Then finally I will share my comments about the passage with you including my thoughts concerning its importance and significance.

The series will not necessarily be one subject per post as I have gleaned more information and made more comments on some than I have on others.

So this was just an introduction to what is to come. For me I was fascinated about what I have read and learnt. It opened my eyes to new understandings. It certainly proves that you are never too old to learn something especially where God is concerned.

So I will leave you this time with the three verses that I read – call it homework J :

Luke 2 vs. 36 – 38

“Anna, a prophet, was also there in the Temple. She was the daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher, and she was very old. Her husband died when they had been married only seven years. Then she lived as a widow to the age of eighty-four. (or some translations say for four score and four years which is 84). She never left the Temple but stayed there day and night, worshiping God with fasting and prayer. She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem.”

God Bless You All

Fearfully And Wonderfully Made

You are fearfully and wonderfully made.

You are fearfully and wonderfully made.

You are fearfully and wonderfully made.

You have heard these words I would guess many times.

Do you believe them? Do you understand them? Do you realise what they truly mean?

We showed a video at our service yesterday morning entitled “Fearfully & Wonderfully Made”. If you haven’t seen it then here is a link to the You Tube site it is found on: The Video

It just has images and text on it. Here is the text that is on the video:

Fearfully And Wonderfully Made Text

By the time we are born the infant’s brain has more neurons than there are stars in the galaxy

The developing brain of a baby in it’s mothers womb grows on average 250,000 neurons per minute – that is on average 4,000 neurons per second of the 9 month pregnancy

Human bone is as strong as granite in supporting weight. A block of bone the size of a matchbox can support 9 tonnes – that is four times as much as concrete can support

The focusing muscles of the eyes move around 100,000 times a day. To give your leg muscles the same workout, you would need to walk 50 miles every day

In 30 minuets, the average body gives off enough heat (combined) to bring a half gallon of water to boil

The ears can discriminate 1,600 different frequencies

Blood journeys endlessly through 60,000 miles of blood vessels out from the heart and back in less than a minute

Stretched out end to end blood vessels and capillaries could wrap around the entire planet more than twice

The heart usually beats 70 times a minute and pumps 2,000 gallons of blood a day

The body contains 206 bones, of which more than half are located in the hands and feet

The legs and feet withstand up to 5,000 pounds of pressure per square inch when running

The hand is the apex of the body’s engineering design; 25 joints allowing 58 distinctly different motions, which makes the hand the most versatile instrument on Earth

Sperm and ovum unite to form a zygote, believed to contain the blueprint for a creature of 60 trillion cells in a package no bigger than the point of a pin

Put together our small and large intestines are around 8 meters long

When children are little, their skeletons re-new themselves every 2 years

You have over 230 moveable and semi-moveable joints in your body

50,000 of the cells in your body will die and be replaced with new cells; all while you have been reading this sentence

In 1 square inch of skin there lies 4 yards of nerve fibres, 1,300 nerve cells, 100 sweat glands, 3 million cells, and 3 yards of blood vessels

In one hour your heart works hard enough to produce the equivalent energy to raise almost 1 ton of weight 1 yard off the ground

There are 45 miles of nerves in the skin of a human being

The average human’s heart will beat 3,000 million times and will pump 48 million gallons of blood in their lifetime

You are Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

So why is it important to really know that we are fearfully and wonderfully made?

Well I shared a couple of scriptures before showing the video and would again share them here:

Psalm 139 vs. 13 – 16:

“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my

mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvellous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

Ephesians 2 vs. 10 (a):

“For we are God’s masterpiece”

Once we know we are valued in this way, that God took time over us even before we were born and the fact that He sees us as His masterpieces, then we can begin to understand our value to our Heavenly Father.

And if you ever question “why” you are here and “do I have a purpose” in this life, in my church, at my place of work, read this again, watch the video again. Look at the intricate details that have been woven into your creation, into the creation of you.

You are truly YOUnique!!

There is simply no one like you.

And God just wants to lavish His love upon you.

Don’t ever listen to the lie that says you are nothing, you are not worth it that God does not love you.

The Master thinks you are His masterpiece, loving you so much allowing His Son to die in yours and my place.

You are Fearfully & Wonderfully made

God Bless

WHO WILL YOU TALK TO TODAY?

Back in January I wrote a blog called “What Is Your Excuse” when I talked about making excuses for why we could or could not do something and in particular focused on that something being God’s call on our lives.

I wrote about God equipping the “called” and not calling the equipped. So no matter what excuse you and I make about not being capable of doing something God will always find a way of giving us the abilities to carry out what He has in store for us.

Well I would like to push this out a little further and look at who we interact with on a daily basis.

I think it is fairly significant if we first accept that we are imitators of Christ, our life’s pattern as Christians and we are called to be His ambassadors.

Allow me to expand on that in order for me in a short while to make us think a little.

What is an “ambassador”?

The Oxford English Dictionary definition is: “An accredited diplomat sent by a state as its permanent representative in a foreign country”.

Now in light of firstly reading that definition of the word “ambassador” let us think once again on the scripture from 2 Corinthians 5 and verses 18 – 21 but in particular I emphasise verse 20:

And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ”

So if you need to just read it again……………..

We are God’s accredited diplomats – we are His voice here on Earth – through US God makes His appeal to those that do not know Him!!

Are you slightly taken aback with that realisation?

Think about how we are being His ambassadors. Do we just take our roles as Christians on Earth for granted. When we are told to take a stand against oppression whether faith based or otherwise do we sit and believe someone else will do that it’s what they are “into”. When we as Christians are asked to do some very simple stuff like write to your MP to take a stand on the erosion of Christian values? I think too often we do.

So we need to turn that around. An ambassador is meant to speak on behalf of whom he or she represents. So let us just think about something really simple that will enable us to make a start. The title of this blog:

“Who will you talk to today”??

I said earlier Jesus was our life’s pattern as Christians. So what pattern did He show us?

Certainly He sat down with fellow Christians and discussed all sorts of things, in His conversations with the disciples He provided teaching and guidance. But if His pattern was to talk “amongst” His own, then all we would need to do is stay inside the walls of whatever building we use to gather together in or just amongst the circle of our “church” friends. If that is all we do then I think we are seriously missing something in what He taught and showed us.

An ambassador was sent out to be a representative in a “foreign land”!

That means OUTSIDE of our church building or church family.

Let’s look at some of the people who Jesus spoke to during His time on Earth

(From the New Living Translation Study Bible):

Person:                                                                            Reference:

A despised tax collector                                                     Matthew 9

An insane hermit                                                                Mark 5

The Roman governor                                                        Mark 15

A young boy                                                                     Mark 9

An important religious leader                                              John 3

A homemaker                                                                    Luke 10

A legal expert                                                                    Matthew 22

A criminal                                                                           Luke 23

A church leader                                                                 Mark 5

A fisherman                                                                       Matthew 4

A King                                                                                Luke 23

A poor widow                                                                     Luke 7

A military officer                                                                 Luke 7

A group of children                                                            Mark 10

A prophet                                                                          Matthew 3

A woman who had committed adultery                              John 8

The Jewish high council                                                      Luke 22

A sick lady                                                                         Mark 5

A rich man                                                                         Mark 10

A blind beggar                                                                   Mark 10

Political leaders                                                                   Mark 12

A group of women                                                             Luke 8

A high priest                                                                      Matthew 26

An outcast who had leprosy                                               Luke 17

A government minister                                                      John 4

A traitor                                                                            John 13

A paralysed man                                                               Mark 2

An angry mob                                                                  John 18

A foreign lady                                                                    Mark 7

A doubter                                                                         John 20

An enemy who hated Him                                                 Acts 9

So look through that list and apply some modern day people to that list. I suggest:

The sick

The rich

The poor

Politicians

Religious leaders

Women

Men

Young

Old

Criminals

Those with psychological problems

Do you know I think that pretty much covers anyone and everyone in our society

So look down the list of those people you are likely to be interacting with. Ignore all of your friends within your “church” – they are not in a spiritual foreign land. Now who are you left with??

If you don’t have some of the above mix, then how on earth are you and I going to be God’s ambassadors???

My purpose and intention is to always try and be an encourager.

Sometimes I am lead to challenge myself and my fellow Christians.

So I will ask you one final time:

WHO WILL YOU TALK TO TODAY?

God Bless