10/30/12

The Bible, ice cubes and coffee


I had almost forgotten about this picture as its been part of my collection for some time now.  But, when I saw it, I was reminded of my own kitchen, where, sitting on my drainboard are two of these trays.  Sunday mornings, we go to a local donut shop; I get an extra large coffee and she an iced coffee of the same size.  Frankly, I don't know how she drinks that stuff, because after awhile it tastes like water- and that doesn't take long in Florida temperatures!!!  So, here is a solution for her!!  This reminded me of the Bible and its admonitions not to change its truth.  Here are but a few of them...

Deuteronomy, Chapter 4
  1 Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and to the ordinances, which I teach you, to do them; that you may live, and go in and possess the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, gives you.  2 You shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish from it, that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh your God which I command you.

Proverbs, chapter 30
 5 “Every word of God is flawless.
He is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

  6 Don’t you add to his words,
lest he reprove you, and you be found a liar.

2 John
9 Whoever transgresses and doesn’t remain in the teaching of Christ, doesn’t have God. He who remains in the teaching, the same has both the Father and the Son.

Revelation, Chapter 22
18 I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if anyone adds to them, may God add to him the plagues which are written in this book.  19 If anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, may God take away his part from the tree of life, and out of the holy city, which are written in this book.   

Who has the right to change what God has said?  The answer is that no one has that right because no one is HIS EQUAL!!!  Yet, there are those out there who would make their creeds and man-made doctrines "equal".  Dangerous, very dangerous, and the consequences of such actions will be eternal!!!  The solution is simple... keep your "solution" unadulterated.  Truth and coffee should both be kept pure.  As far as coffee goes, these trays are a great idea and for truth... STICK TO THE BOOK AND FORGET HUMAN ADDITIONS!!!!! 

Bible Reading, Oct 30


 
Oct. 30
Isaiah 13-16

Isa 13:1 The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw:
Isa 13:2 Set up a banner on the bare mountain! Lift up your voice to them! Wave your hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.
Isa 13:3 I have commanded my consecrated ones; yes, I have called my mighty men for my anger, even my proudly exulting ones.
Isa 13:4 The noise of a multitude is in the mountains, as of a great people; the noise of an uproar of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together! Yahweh of Armies is mustering the army for the battle.
Isa 13:5 They come from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven, even Yahweh, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
Isa 13:6 Wail; for the day of Yahweh is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
Isa 13:7 Therefore all hands will be feeble, and everyone's heart will melt.
Isa 13:8 They will be dismayed. Pangs and sorrows will seize them. They will be in pain like a woman in labor. They will look in amazement one at another. Their faces will be faces of flame.
Isa 13:9 Behold, the day of Yahweh comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation, and to destroy its sinners out of it.
Isa 13:10 For the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon will not cause its light to shine.
Isa 13:11 I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity. I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will humble the haughtiness of the terrible.
Isa 13:12 I will make people more rare than fine gold, even a person than the pure gold of Ophir.
Isa 13:13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place in the wrath of Yahweh of Armies, and in the day of his fierce anger.
Isa 13:14 It will happen that like a a hunted gazelle, and like sheep that no one gathers, they will each turn to their own people, and will each flee to their own land.
Isa 13:15 Everyone who is found will be thrust through. Everyone who is captured will fall by the sword.
Isa 13:16 Their infants also will be dashed in pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be ransacked, and their wives raped.
Isa 13:17 Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who will not value silver, and as for gold, they will not delight in it.
Isa 13:18 Their bows will dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb. Their eyes will not spare children.
Isa 13:19 Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, will be like when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
Isa 13:20 It will never be inhabited, neither will it be lived in from generation to generation. The Arabian will not pitch a tent there, neither will shepherds make their flocks lie down there.
Isa 13:21 But wild animals of the desert will lie there, and their houses will be full of jackals. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will frolic there.
Isa 13:22 Wolves will cry in their castles, and jackals in the pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come, and her days will not be prolonged.
 

Isa 14:1 For Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land. The foreigner will join himself with them, and they will unite with the house of Jacob.
Isa 14:2 The peoples will take them, and bring them to their place. The house of Israel will possess them in Yahweh's land for servants and for handmaids. They will take as captives those whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.
Isa 14:3 It will happen in the day that Yahweh will give you rest from your sorrow, from your trouble, and from the hard service in which you were made to serve,
Isa 14:4 that you will take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and say, "How the oppressor has ceased! The golden city has ceased!"
Isa 14:5 Yahweh has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers,
Isa 14:6 who struck the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, who ruled the nations in anger, with a persecution that none restrained.
Isa 14:7 The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet. They break out song.
Isa 14:8 Yes, the fir trees rejoice with you, with the cedars of Lebanon, saying, "Since you are humbled, no lumberjack has come up against us."
Isa 14:9 Sheol from beneath has moved for you to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the dead for you, even all the rulers of the earth. It has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
Isa 14:10 They all will answer and ask you, "Have you also become as weak as we are? Have you become like us?"
Isa 14:11 Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, with the sound of your stringed instruments. Maggots are spread out under you, and worms cover you.
Isa 14:12 How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low!
Isa 14:13 You said in your heart, "I will ascend into heaven! I will exalt my throne above the stars of God! I will sit on the mountain of assembly, in the far north!
Isa 14:14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds! I will make myself like the Most High!"
Isa 14:15 Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the pit.
Isa 14:16 Those who see you will stare at you. They will ponder you, saying, "Is this the man who made the earth to tremble, who shook kingdoms;
Isa 14:17 who made the world like a wilderness, and overthrew its cities; who didn't release his prisoners to their home?"
Isa 14:18 All the kings of the nations, sleep in glory, everyone in his own house.
Isa 14:19 But you are cast away from your tomb like an abominable branch, clothed with the slain, who are thrust through with the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit; like a dead body trodden under foot.
Isa 14:20 You will not join them in burial, because you have destroyed your land. You have killed your people. The seed of evildoers will not be named forever.
Isa 14:21 Prepare for slaughter of his children because of the iniquity of their fathers, that they not rise up and possess the earth, and fill the surface of the world with cities.
Isa 14:22 "I will rise up against them," says Yahweh of Armies, "and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, and son and son's son," says Yahweh.
Isa 14:23 "I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, and pools of water. I will sweep it with the broom of destruction," says Yahweh of Armies.
Isa 14:24 Yahweh of Armies has sworn, saying, "Surely, as I have thought, so shall it happen; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:
Isa 14:25 that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and tread him under foot on my mountains. Then his yoke will leave them, and his burden leave their shoulders.
Isa 14:26 This is the plan that is determined for the whole earth. This is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.
Isa 14:27 For Yahweh of Armies has planned, and who can stop it? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?"
Isa 14:28 This burden was in the year that king Ahaz died.
Isa 14:29 Don't rejoice, O Philistia, all of you, because the rod that struck you is broken; for out of the serpent's root an adder will emerge, and his fruit will be a fiery flying serpent.
Isa 14:30 The firstborn of the poor will eat, and the needy will lie down in safety; and I will kill your root with famine, and your remnant will be killed.
Isa 14:31 Howl, gate! Cry, city! You are melted away, Philistia, all of you; for smoke comes out of the north, and there is no straggler in his ranks.
Isa 14:32 What will they answer the messengers of the nation? That Yahweh has founded Zion, and in her the afflicted of his people will take refuge.
 

Isa 15:1 The burden of Moab: for in a night, Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to nothing; for in a night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to nothing.
Isa 15:2 They have gone up to Bayith, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep. Moab wails over Nebo and over Medeba. Baldness is on all of their heads. Every beard is cut off.
Isa 15:3 In their streets, they dress themselves in sackcloth. In their streets and on their housetops, everyone wails, weeping abundantly.
Isa 15:4 Heshbon cries out with Elealeh. Their voice is heard even to Jahaz. Therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud. Their souls tremble within them.
Isa 15:5 My heart cries out for Moab! Her nobles flee to Zoar, to Eglath Shelishiyah; for they go up by the ascent of Luhith with weeping; for in the way of Horonaim, they raise up a cry of destruction.
Isa 15:6 For the waters of Nimrim will be desolate; for the grass has withered away, the tender grass fails, there is no green thing.
Isa 15:7 Therefore they will carry away the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have stored up, over the brook of the willows.
Isa 15:8 For the cry has gone around the borders of Moab; its wailing to Eglaim, and its wailing to Beer Elim.
Isa 15:9 For the waters of Dimon are full of blood; for I will bring yet more on Dimon, a lion on those of Moab who escape, and on the remnant of the land.
 

Isa 16:1 Send the lambs for the ruler of the land from Selah to the wilderness, to the mountain of the daughter of Zion.
Isa 16:2 For it will be that as wandering birds, as a scattered nest, so will the daughters of Moab be at the fords of the Arnon.
Isa 16:3 Give counsel! Execute justice! Make your shade like the night in the midst of the noonday! Hide the outcasts! Don't betray the fugitive!
Isa 16:4 Let my outcasts dwell with you! As for Moab, be a hiding place for him from the face of the destroyer. For the extortioner is brought to nothing. Destruction ceases. The oppressors are consumed out of the land.
Isa 16:5 A throne will be established in loving kindness. One will sit on it in truth, in the tent of David, judging, seeking justice, and swift to do righteousness.
Isa 16:6 We have heard of the pride of Moab, that he is very proud; even of his arrogance, his pride, and his wrath. His boastings are nothing.
Isa 16:7 Therefore Moab will wail for Moab. Everyone will wail. You will mourn for the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth, utterly stricken.
Isa 16:8 For the fields of Heshbon languish with the vine of Sibmah. The lords of the nations have broken down its choice branches, which reached even to Jazer, which wandered into the wilderness. Its shoots were spread abroad. They passed over the sea.
Isa 16:9 Therefore I will weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah. I will water you with my tears, Heshbon, and Elealeh: for on your summer fruits and on your harvest the battle shout has fallen.
Isa 16:10 Gladness is taken away, and joy out of the fruitful field; and in the vineyards there will be no singing, neither joyful noise. Nobody will tread out wine in the presses. I have made the shouting stop.
Isa 16:11 Therefore my heart sounds like a harp for Moab, and my inward parts for Kir Heres.
Isa 16:12 It will happen that when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, and comes to his sanctuary to pray, that he will not prevail.
Isa 16:13 This is the word that Yahweh spoke concerning Moab in time past.
Isa 16:14 But now Yahweh has spoken, saying, "Within three years, as a worker bound by contract would count them, the glory of Moab shall be brought into contempt, with all his great multitude; and the remnant will be very small and feeble."

Oct. 30
2 Thessalonians 2

2Th 2:1 Now, brothers, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together to him, we ask you
2Th 2:2 not to be quickly shaken in your mind, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by letter as from us, saying that the day of Christ had come.
2Th 2:3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For it will not be, unless the departure comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of destruction,
2Th 2:4 he who opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself up as God.
2Th 2:5 Don't you remember that, when I was still with you, I told you these things?
2Th 2:6 Now you know what is restraining him, to the end that he may be revealed in his own season.
2Th 2:7 For the mystery of lawlessness already works. Only there is one who restrains now, until he is taken out of the way.
2Th 2:8 Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will kill with the breath of his mouth, and destroy by the manifestation of his coming;
2Th 2:9 even he whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
2Th 2:10 and with all deception of wickedness for those who are being lost, because they didn't receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
2Th 2:11 Because of this, God sends them a working of error, that they should believe a lie;
2Th 2:12 that they all might be judged who didn't believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
2Th 2:13 But we are bound to always give thanks to God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the truth;
2Th 2:14 to which he called you through our Good News, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2Th 2:15 So then, brothers, stand firm, and hold the traditions which you were taught by us, whether by word, or by letter.
2Th 2:16 Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace,
2Th 2:17 comfort your hearts and establish you in every good work and word.

2 John, Introduction, Mark Copeland

                      "THE SECOND EPISTLE OF JOHN"

                              Introduction

In the 1st century A.D., the early church enjoyed remarkable growth and
spread throughout the world at that time (Ac 8:5; Ro 10:14-18; Col
1:5-6,23).  What accounted for this spread of the gospel?

There were likely several factors, but one was the hospitality of the
early Christians...

   *  Paul was able to travel and depend upon Christians opening their
      homes to him - cf. Phm 1:22

   *  He encouraged Christians to support those who were teachers of
      good things - Ga 6:6

   *  John commended and encouraged those who provided lodging and
      support for traveling missionaries - 3Jn 1:5-8

Showing such hospitality was not without its potential for supporting
the spread of false teachers and their doctrines.  It would be easy for
teachers of error to take advantage of the Christians’ natural
propensity to be hospitable to strangers.  Thus it was necessary to
counsel Christians to use proper discernment in sending traveling
teachers on their way.

The Second Epistle of John, consisting of just one chapter, addresses
this very problem.

AUTHOR

The author identifies himself as "The Elder", believed by most
conservative scholars to be the apostle John.  The internal evidence
that supports this conclusion:

   *  The three epistles attributed to John utilize much the same
      language and ideas

   *  All bear similarity to concepts and language to the Gospel of John

   *  The term "elder" would be a fitting description of John as the
      author writing in his old age

As for external evidence, Irenaeus, a disciple of Polycarp (who in turn
was an associate of John), quotes from it and mentions the apostle John
by name.  Both Clement of Alexandria and Dionysius, living in the third
century A.D., credit John with being the author.

RECIPIENTS

The epistle is addressed to "the elect lady and her children."  Taken
literally, the epistle is written to a particular woman and her
children.  Many scholars understand this to be the case (e.g., Plummer,
Ross, Ryrie).  Some have even supposed the Greek words for "elect lady"
may refer to given names, such as:  Electa the Lady, The chosen Kyria,
Electa Kyria.

Taken figuratively, it could refer to a local church.  Scholars who hold
to this view include Brooke, Bruce, Marshall, Stott, and Westcott.  They
understand that "elect lady and her children" (1) and "children of your
elect sister" (13) refer to two particular congregations.

Desiring to allow the most obvious meaning of Scripture to be the most
correct meaning, I am willing to accept the literal view.

PLACE AND DATE

Ephesus is usually suggested as the location from which John wrote this
epistle, as he was known to live there in the later years of his life.
Estimation of the date of writing varies widely, some placing it before
the destruction of Jerusalem (70 A.D.).  Most however place it around
90-95 A.D.

PURPOSE AND THEME

In such a short letter, the purpose is rather straightforward and
twofold:

   *  Encourage brotherly love, and keeping the commandments of God
      - 2Jn 1:5-6

   *  Warn against supporting or encouraging false teachers - 2Jn
      1:10-11

Based on 2Jn 1:7, the false teachers were likely precursors of the
Gnostics (see introduction to 1st John).  As for the theme, I would
suggest:

                       Walking in truth and love

OUTLINE

Here is a simple outline of the book, from the ESV Study Bible...

Greeting:  The Elder’s Love (1-3)
The Elder’s Joy And Request (4-6)
The Elder’s Concern (7-8)
The Elder’s Warning (9-11)
Closing:  The Elder’s Farewell (12-13)

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1) Who is author of The Second Epistle Of John?
   - The Elder, likely John the apostle who wrote the gospel of John

2) Who were the original recipients of this epistle?
   - Literally, the elect lady and her children; figuratively, a local
     congregation

3) When was it written?
   - Most date it from 90-95 A.D.

4) What has been suggested as its two-fold purpose?
   - To encourage brotherly love, and keeping the commandments of God
     - 2Jn 1:5-6
   - To warn against supporting or encouraging false teachers - 2Jn
     1:10-11

5) What has been suggested as its theme?
   - Walking in truth and love

6) What are the main divisions of this epistle as outlined above?
   - Greeting:  The Elder’s Love (1-3)
   - The Elder’s Joy And Request (4-6)
   - The Elder’s Concern (7-8)
   - The Elder’s Warning (9-11)
   - Closing:  The Elder’s Farewell (12-13)