Posts Tagged ‘worship’

SHEPHERDS OF BETHLEHEM – THE FIRST PASTORS!

Tuesday, December 24th, 2013
WHERE THE ANGELS LANDED IN BETHLEHEM!!
We are all familiar with the story of that amazing birth night in Bethlehem! It was when God sent His holy angels to preach the first Gospel sermon. The landing of this Angelic Host on Shepherds Field (which is still around as you can see) is significant for many reasons! These messengers from Heaven, could have announced the Birth of Jesus to kings and satraps and governors. They could have announced it to the priests in the temple, the teachers of the law and pharisees and the righteous (in their own eyes) religious folks in Jerusalem. But they didn’t! Why?
Why did the Holy God of Heaven select dirty, poor and outcast men, who worked from March to November in hard scrabble (as you can see again, from this photo) land among animals, animal waste and more. These men were kept out of Jerusalem almost exclusively! They were banned from entering any Temple of God to worship, because they were ceremonially unclean, under the 613 Laws of Moses in the Torah/Pentateuch! They were around dead sheep at times and animal waste, all the time.
So the priests and religious authorities banned them! These are whom God chose! It is a symbol for what He would do in the Life of Christ, not just in the short three year ministry He had on earth, but ever since He died and rose again!
The first sermon of Christ started like this “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed...(Luke 4:18).…and you can add to that “the outcast, unwanted and those left behind by the world. The Lord also chose the Shepherds for a simple yet VERY CRUCIAL mission, even though these men were unaware of the reason! The word shepherd here in the Christmas passage from Luke 2, is “poimenes” or…get this – “Pastor” in the English!

TECHNO-FAITH – CURRENT GENERATION STEPS IT UP?

Wednesday, October 30th, 2013

 

100 MILLION DOWNLOADS IN LESS THAN 7 YEARS.

DEVOTIONALS, READING PLANS AND MORE!

More and more people, (including yours truly) are reading the Holy Scriptures – the BIBLE – on mobile PDA’s than ever before. The Word of God is reaching literally the ends of the earth faster than your local cable company can lay the fiber optics in the ground. There are more free downloads of the wildly popular YouVersion app around the world than Justin Bieber songs!

Just as an FYI, YouVersion was developed by a pastor with ties to Central Illinois named Bobby Gruenewald who in a long line at O’Hare airport in Chicago, wishing he had a small bible in his pocket to help him pass the time! One thing led to another and the idea to have a bible which anyone can access at any time, anywhere was born! Six years later, the 37 year old now innovation pastor at LifeChurch.tv has the most popular application in the world in over 600 versions and 375 languages! As of July 2013, there have been over 100 million free downloads of the app from iTunes and elsewhere. Apart from just the Biblical Text now, YouVersion is now offering manageable bible reading plans and free devotionals from Chris Tomlin, Casting Crowns and others among a myriad of other features.

Because of popular discipleship tools like this (YouVersion), Bible reading is now at an optimum! It is estimated that within twenty years, more people will be accessing the worldwide web (internet) via Tablet and/or Smartphone, than the old fashioned desktop computers! In fact, mainline computer manufacturers like DELL, Gateway and others are seeing their share of the market fall as iPad; Google Nexus; Kindle HD Tablet and others zoom in sales and popularity. As a future ebook publisher and current fan of ebooks, I can testify that an ebook is a lot easier and faster to read than a traditional hard or paperback book.

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