Thanks so much for your hard work on this, x2 this week!

Such a load of fatuous humbug. 🥱

Love the song of creation reference from CS Lewis.

Blessings on this Sunday…remembering 9/11 today🇨🇦❤️🇨🇦

🇨🇦🇨🇦Blessings to you! BEAUTIFUL morning my FRIEND!

Cool Hand Luke is one of my favorite Paul Newman movies.

Are we not our own god?

Canisius alumni here

I think most people associate Mormonism with polygamy (stereotype). I would also venture to guess that polygamy is not that big these days, especially since the uprise of matriarchs.

Let me remind you the Nile river source is Ethiopia. Currently Ethiopian building a large dam. According the prophecy the Nile river does not reaches her any longer beyond Ethiopia border. It is coming to play very soon. I advise you to watch for coming invasion by Egypt & sudan supported by Arab league Ethiopians current Dam through Goggam province. It's a written prophecy document indicates by Ethiopians church. Unfortunately Ethiopia will go through civil war until the end of 2014. BUT by 2015 Ethiopian calendar peace will restore & Ethiopia will be known throughout the world rise & becoming a major player. God punished her enemies for those insonant peoples blood shed. It's not conspiracy theories nor my predictions it's real hidden prophecy by Ethiopian orthodox church.

Good Sunday morning!

Vernors no longer has ginger as an ingredient; I believe it was when PepsiCo intervened.

I particularly enjoyed those graduation videos! 👏😉

Thank you for your point about about people indiscriminately quoting Jeremiah 29:11 ("I know the plans I have for you...). It's a pet peeve of mine that people cherry-pick the nice verses and apply them to themselves and their audience while ignoring the verses of judgment and wrath and warning. The book of Jeremiah is a great example because it is so chock-full of judgment from beginning to end, and somehow we've managed to find and apply to ourselves one of the few comforting verses in it. I've never seen the words just 7 verses down on a poster or coffee mug: Jeremiah 29:18: "I will pursue them with the sword, famine and plague and will make them abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth..." While I'm at it, I have something of a personal policy never to quote another poster verse, Philippians 1:6 ("He that began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it...") without mentioning that Paul said that to the Philippians but that he said quite the opposite to Galatian readers in Galatians 4:11: ("I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you."). You have no idea how many sermons I have heard that just assume we're all Philippians.

Thanks Stan! Very helpful and informative, Appreciate your faithful work and discipline and insight.

Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made; Were every stalk on earth a quill, And every man a scribe by trade; To write the love of God above Would drain the ocean dry; Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky. (Frederick Lehman)

Just a further thought as I mull over Peter's treatment of Psalm 16 in his Pentecost sermon in Acts 2. As I read Psalm 16, it frankly does not look to me like a self-conscious prediction of future events (i.e. "I predict that Messiah will be resurrected and not left to rot in the grave") but more simply a statement of faith to the effect that "God is going to rescue me and he won't let me to die right now." But if that is the case, is it fair for Peter to use this psalm as a prediction of Messianic resurrection? My own way of dealing with this (and I'm open to correction) is to put it in the category of Caiaphas' prediction of Jesus' substitutionary atonement in John 11:50: ("You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.") Caiaphas meant one thing, but the Holy Spirit superintended his choice of words to suggest a different thing entirely - and this phenomenon can still legitimately be called "prophecy" as it is in the next verse: "Caiaphas did not say this on his own. Instead, as high priest that year, he was prophesying that Jesus would die for the nation" (John 11:51). So: in Psalm 16, could it likewise be said "David did not say this on his own. Instead, as king that year, he was prophesying that Jesus would rise from the dead"? Is is possible to "foresee" something without even knowing that you have foreseen it?

Yay! Lisa and I are glad you're continuing.

That is one LOUD fire!!!!

Lisa is having trouble signing into her account for KZbin so I'm writing on her behalf. She says "Continue!" (She's a lot less wordy than I. Don't think she'd cut it as a preacher.)

As far as I'm concerned, yes, by all means continue! I listen every week when I'm not preaching myself, and always benefit. At the same time, I recognize how ridiculously easy it is for me to say "Continue!" when all I have to do is sit in front of my computer screen in my pajamas and sip a cup of coffee and left-click while you put in all the work of study and prep and production. I also know what it is to be haunted by the line in Eleanor Rigby "Father McKenzie, writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear" and wondering whether I should bother putting in so much effort to a message or essay that will barely be heard or read. So, whatever you decide, you have my full support and gratitude, along with hopes that many more will chime in their agreement.

Happy New Year Stan and Debbie! Thanks for switching platforms. I think you’ll reach more versus Facebook.

Many years ago a soloist at church introduced his song by saying that God had given it to him. Afterward my mother dryly commented, "I thought God was a better poet."

Your comment about "None of you asks me (that is, NOW you're not asking me) where I'm going" was very helpful. Thank you. It reminds me of chapter 6 where everybody wanted to be Jesus' disciple when he was handing out loaves and fish, but the next day they walked away in droves when he would not give them another free meal but instead spoke startling words about eating his flesh. Also, I suspect that during the farewell discourse James and John were not piping up with, "We have a request of you! Can one of us be crucified on your right and the other on your left?"

Great stuff Stan! Thankful to God for the careful and disciplined focus on the Word. When Lisa and I were looking for a church a year and half ago it was important for us that the church be Bible-focused. (A surprising number of evangelical churches today have very little Bible teaching.) There was one moment this morning where I got confused. You made the point in verse 15 ("If you love me you will keep my commandments") that the reverse was not necessarily true. But doesn't verse 21 do exactly that - reverse the propositions? ("Whoever has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me.")