Posts Tagged ‘worship’

SHEPHERDS OF BETHLEHEM – THE FIRST PASTORS!

Tuesday, December 11th, 2012

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!

Wednesday, July 4th, 2012

DAY 14

FOR FREEDOM – HE SET US FREE

The following are the dictionary definitions of FREEDOM:

1. The state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint.
2. Exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.
3. The power to determine action without restraint.
4. Political or national independence.
5. Personal liberty, as opposed to bondage or slavery: a slave who bought his freedom. (Source)

On the day we celebrate the biggest Birth of Freedom the world has ever seen, it would serve us well to take another look at what Freedom really means. It was more than just the removal of crazy King George III by the Continental Army, General George Washington and some rag-tag peasants. It was a dawn of a new day where the governed would govern themselves according to a set of Principles and not under some “divine right” of corrupt kings and queens. These principles were all based on the Bible.

It was a novel concept, a new paradigm. It was not to create another theocracy like Rome, but a land where non-believers in God would not just have the same rights and freedom to live peacefully, but could prosper as well. After all, the rain does really fall equally on the righteous and the unrighteous.  During the American Revolution, it was America’s pastors who were the conscience of the burst of Freedom and I would even venture to say that the First Great Awakening – the biggest Revival in the world at the time, had something to do with it. This Awakening was spurred by men like Jonathan Edwards – who preached the greatest sermon still in this country (Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, July 1741). George Whitefield and John Wesley fired up America for the Gospel and people saw that there was Freedom in the Gospel, through Christ our Lord, for the first time in their lives.

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