Season of Advent
Advent is a season observed in Christian churches as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas. The term is an anglicized version of the Latin word adventus, meaning "coming" and is marked by a spirit of expectation, of anticipation, of preparation, of longing. There is a yearning for deliverance from the evils of the world, first expressed by Israelite slaves in Egypt as they cried out from their bitter oppression of 400 years. It is the cry of Cambodians and those who have experienced the tyranny of injustice in a world under the curse of sin, and yet who have hope of deliverance by a God who has heard the cries of the oppressed and brought deliverance in the person of Jesus. Advent starts on the fourth Sunday before December 25, which this year falls on Sunday, December 2. (Gleaned from Wikipedia and Dennis Bratcher).
(My favorite Advent song)
Recently, I re-discovered the deep wisdom of Dr. Rob Norris and have been listening to his sermons online. Like a sponge, I've been soaking in the fascinating series on the spiritual development of Simon Peter ("Grace at Work: the Making of a Disciple"), "Knowing Jesus", and the profound exposition of the four "colorful" women named in the genealogy of Jesus Christ--extraordinarily rare given the fact that they're women and their checkered backgrounds--found in the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. Dr. Norris looks at each woman in a sermon for each Advent Sunday leading up the birth of Jesus.
BATHSHEBA
(King David committed adultery with her; she became pregnant, and thus, he had her husband killed)
(3rd Advent Sunday, 16 Dec. 2012)
Besides great oratory which only Dr. Norris can give, there's a good laugh for you in the sermon, I promise ; )
- Theary
More updated narrative at:
www.thearyseng.com
6 comments:
More than 50% of Americans have a “negative” or “highly negative” view of people who don’t believe in God. 70% think it important for presidential candidates to be “strongly religious.”
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“A person who believes that Elvis is still alive is very unlikely to get promoted to a position of great power and responsibility in our society. Neither will a person who believes that the holocaust was a hoax. But people who believe equally irrational things about God and the bible are now running our country. This is genuinely terrifying.”
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44% of Americans think Jesus Christ will return in the next 50 years. (22% are “certain” that he will, another 22% think he “probably” will.)
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“According to the most common interpretation of biblical prophecy, Jesus will return only after things have gone horribly awry. Imagine the consequences if any significant component of the U.S. government believed that the world was about to end and that its ending would be glorious. The fact that nearly half of the American population apparently believes this should be considered a moral and intellectual emergency.”
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Only 28% of Americans believe in evolution (and two-thirds of these believe evolution was “guided by God”). 53% are actually creationists.
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“Despite a full century of scientific insights attesting to the antiquity of the earth, more than half of our neighbors believe that the entire cosmos was created six thousand years ago. This is, incidentally, about a thousand years after the Sumerians invented glue.”
Sam Harris, The end of faith
Jesus Christ - who, as it turns out, was born of a virgin, cheated death, and rose bodily into the heavens - can now be eaten in the form of a cracker.Sam Harris
The problem with faith, is that it really is a conversation stopper. Faith is a declaration of immunity to the powers of conversation. It is a reason, why you do not have to give reasons, for what you believe.Sam Harris
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Spirituality can be, indeed and must be.. deeply rational.Sam Harris
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Clearly, it must be possible to bring reason, spirituality, and ethics together in our thinking about the world. This would be the beginning of a rational approach to our deepest personal concerns. It would also be the end of faith..Sam Harris (The End of Faith, 2004)
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The danger of religious faith is that it allows otherwise normal human beings to reap the fruits of madness and consider them holy.Sam Harris (The End of Faith, 2004)
If you think that Christianity is the most direct and undefiled expression of love and compassion the world has ever seen, you do not know much about the world's other religions. Take the religion of Jainism as one example. The Jains preach a doctrine of utter non-violence. While the Jains believe many improbable things about the universe, they do not believe the sorts of things that lit the fires of the Inquisition. You probably think the Inquisition was a perversion of the "true" spirit of Christianity. Perhaps it was. The problem, however, is that the teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. You are, of course, free to interpret the Bible differently - though isn't it amazing that you have succeeded in discerning the true teachings of Christianity, while the most influential thinkers in the history of your faith failed?Sam Harris (Letters to a Christian Nation, 2006)
The difference between science and religion is the difference between a willingness to dispassionately consider new evidence and new arguments, and a passionate unwillingness to do so.Sam Harris
Hey Bozo, You and Sam Harris are fulfilling the Word of God as it pertain to the Last Days!
I know that in the End, evil will win but shall be put down by the Second Coming of Messiah.
So from your worldview I acknowledge you and your intellectuals will always trumph the Bible. God is allowing you and the such to play out your foolishness. It's fair for you and it was fair for Pol Pot even though the End was not desirable.
Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world otherwise my servants would fight."
This leave one certainty, Sam Harris and the likes are the rulers of this Satanic world. Naturally, they are Advasary to the Kingdom of Jesus, which are represented by those who believe on him yet are living in the kingdom of Darkness until the Time of Restoration.
Wild~Wisconsinite
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