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For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.Eph 2:9 |
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| Archived Manna: | |
Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Thursday, May 16, 2019
Today's Passage : Today's Passage:The Council’s Letter to Gentile Believers Bible Verse :Acts 15:22-29 "Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers, with the following letter: “The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.” " Message:
The practices forbidden here have an oddity: Two of them — eating the meat of strangled animals, and eating blood — are acts that modern Christians (who are not vegetarians) generally do not equate with sin. Most people don’t go around drinking blood, but this is not what the Jews are talking about here. Kosher laws require that all of the blood be drained from an animal, something most of us do not do or even consider. Kosher meat is thoroughly drained of blood and often soaked in water. And few of us would have any idea if we were eating meat from an animal that had been strangled, and would not consider it “sinful” to do so. We might consider it inhumane and even protest it, but we would not equate it with a literal Biblical sin.
Tel Aviv streetwalkers
Street scene in Tel Aviv,
where prostitution is legal.
I wish I could say that Christians understand the sinfulness of sexual immoralityThis term is often translated “fornication”., but even here, many churches and church leaders openly countenance, or secretly enable, all forms of sexual misbehavior. Sexual sin is actually celebrated in a few churches. But still, we understand the issue. In the same vein, most Christians would feel that any participation in a heathen ritual, where an animal is sacrificed to an idol, would be a form of sin; both the ten commandments and Christ’s sayings would lead us to avoid such practices.
So, if there were Gentile Christians engaged in this conduct, one can understand the Jews’ objections, at least in part. Christ, whose message was primarily one of forgiveness, did not speak as fully about conduct as did the Old Testament, especially Moses. Thus, we see one reason the Old Testament is part of the Bible; it is not only an historical document to teach us about the coming of Christ, but it is also the source of much of the moral code we associate with Christianity.
The combination of Old and New Testament morality is rather odd, when you really think about it. First, there are Old Testament laws that most Christians follow as basic moral tenets (such as the Ten Commandments). Second, there are laws which we reject because they were directly contravened by Christ, such as the ”eye for an eye“ laws. Third, there are laws which we acknowledge in principle, such as keeping the Sabbath. And fourth, there are many laws which we simply ignore, such as kosher dietary laws.
With dietary laws, we are on firm ground, for Christ Himself taught, “It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person” (Matthew 15:11).
Meditation : Prayer : Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever......Amen |
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