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. .A CHALLENGE TO YOU Yesterday, viewers were challenged, and NO ONE responded. I am not deterred so easily. This series is about more than pretty pictures, and the Spirit has a blessing for you here. This is a new day, so please take a look.Thanks!Dan . .FOOD FOR THOUGHT In THE BOOK OF RUTH, we have three main characters: Naomi, Ruth and Boaz. They were real people but perhaps, as He often does, God intends us to see they are also “types” or symbols, each representing a thing or person. What or whom does each symbolize? Here are the...

Saints Cosmas and Damian (Arabic: ق�زما ودميان‎, romanized: Qozma wa Demyaan; Greek: Κοσμάς και Δαμιανός; Latin: Cosmas et Damianus; died c. ad 287) were two Arab physicians in the town Cyrhus, and were [3][4] reputedly twin brothers, and early Christian martyrs. They practised their profession in the seaport of Aegeae, then in the Roman province of Syria Early Christian physicians and martyrs whose feast is celebrated on 27 September. They were twins, born in Arabia, and practised the art of healing in the seaport Ægea, now Ayash (Ajass), on the Gulf of Iskanderun in Cilicia, Asia Minor, and attained a great...

Greetings brothers and sisters!  I hope that your eyes are remaining fixed on the sky.  This journey can be wearying, but it will be forever worth it.  When the day finally comes, all of the waiting and watching and longing will be eternally vindicated.  Watching for the Lord is not without pain (Rev. 10:10).  Some are not able to bear this burden—all of the inward groaning (Rm. 8:24–26), doubts, and continual scoffing from those who are wed to this world (2 Pt. 3:3–13; 1 Cor. 7:31; 1 Jn. 2:17–29) take their toll.  But we cannot be shaken.  Yet for those...

. .. .FOOD FOR THOUGHT IF YOU DON’T YET LOVE THE BOOK OF RUTH, please consider this. A “type” is a symbol, where the author intended a character to represent a thing or person. We have three main characters: Naomi, Ruth and Boaz. What or whom does each symbolize?NAOMI: She was a Jew returning from exile in a foreign landRUTH: She was a Gentile, a non-Jew, who was grafted into Naomi's family by marriage and followed Naomi loyally to Israel, worked in Boaz's field (but never worked for him), became Boaz’s bride and bore him childrenBOAZ: He was rich and...

 This article first appeared in the Christian Research Journal, volume29, number1 (2006). For further information or to subscribe to the Christian Research Journal go to: http://www.equip.org SYNOPSISVarious cults claim that the Council of Nicaea (AD 325) inaugurated belief in Christ’s deity. The Da Vinci Code, a fictional work on the New York Times “Best Sellers” list, has recently popularized this view. The New Testament, however, explicitly uses the Greek term theos (“God”) in reference to Jesus Christ. Further, there was a consistent application of theos to Jesus Christ throughout the second century. Authors such as Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Melito, Athenagoras,...

In Saqqara, in Ankhmahon’s tomb, Visir of the Pharaoh Teti Dynasty (c. 2345 BCE) there is a bas-relief with a representation of circumcision. Below is a papyrus illustrating the operation in vivid color. Have you ever wondered what the oldest illustration of a circumcision looked like? Of course you haven’t, but we’ll tell you anyway. A bas-relief—a type of sculptural technique in which the sculpted elements remain attached to their background—dating back to 2,400 BCE and depicting two men being circumcised was found in an Egyptian tomb built for Ankhmahor, a high-ranking official during the sixth dynasty of Egypt. The...

. .. . BY NOW, YOU MIGHT BE GETTING THE IDEA that I must really like the book of Ruth. I LOVE the book of Ruth! If I could find 200 pictures appropriately illustrating this wonderful story, I would post every single one.Well, I didn’t find 200—I found 217, displayed here and on 6 other separate posts. If you’re not yet in love with this tale, too, my hope is you soon will be! . .. .RUTH GLEANS . .. . R U T H . . 2 New International Version, emphases added Abrdgd – the complete text is in...

CNA Staff, Sep 23, 2020 / 12:00 am MT (CNA).- After fire toppled the iconic spire and destroyed the roof of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France in April 2009, heated debates ensued about whether the reconstruction should use the church’s original design, or use a more modern design and technique. Some proposed futuristic ideas included a rooftop swimming pool and a greenhouse atop the 850-year-old cathedral. Last year, the French Senate passed a bill mandating that Notre-Dame be rebuilt as it was before the fire, with lumber and medieval carpentry techniques, which were highlighted in a public demonstration...

Residents of the city of Miass on the eastern slopes of the Southern Ural Mountains were surprised to find a statue of Vladimir Lenin in the city park doused with red blood on the morning of September 18. “The figure of the leader of the world proletariat seems to have come out of a horror film” writes newsmiass.ru. The mouth and clothes on the statue were smeared with red paint, and on the pedestal of the monument to Lenin, a man responsible for killing millions of his own people, the word “Killer” was written. Presumably, red paint was used to...

. .1 . .. .RUTH CLINGS TO NAOMI . .. . R U T H . . 1 New International Version, emphases added Abrdgd – the complete text is in your Bible, OR:TO READ RUTH 1 IN FULL, Click HereTO HEAR MAX McLEAN READING IT, Click HereTO HEAR A DRAMATIZATION OF IT, Click HereTO WATCH AN OVERVIEW OF RUTH, Click Here . .1 1 4 0 . . B. C. . . 1 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two...

. .OOPS, WRONG RUTH! . .ANOTHER WRONG RUTH! . . . .. .RUTH CLINGS TO NAOMI, ORPAH LEAVES . .. . R U T H . . 1 New International Version, emphases added Abrdgd – the complete text is in your Bible, OR:TO READ RUTH 1 IN FULL, Click HereTO HEAR MAX McLEAN READING IT, Click HereTO HEAR A DRAMATIZATION OF IT, Click HereTO WATCH AN OVERVIEW OF RUTH, Click Here . .1 1 4 0 . . B. C. . . 1 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man...

. FILLING GAPS .ART-WORKS CONTINUALLY SURFACE after-the-fact, pieces not seen earlier when gathering up everything on a given Bible passage. Frequently now I’m finding new sites to explore—well, “finding” should read “being led to”—and often they contain new pearls. So, here are these fresh findings, unrelated to one another and presented chronologically. Viewing them will be rather like walking through a Biblical art museum with dozens of uncategorized offerings: no overarching theme except Christ as Savior and Lord. This is the third of such “retrospectives” in our long journey through Scripture. It seems almost inevitable that there will be more....

Saint of the Day - Saint Andrew Kim TaegonThe first native Korean priest, Andrew Kim Taegon was the son of Christian converts. Following his baptism at the age of 15, Andrew traveled 1,300 miles to the seminary in Macao, China. After six years, he managed to return to his country through Manchuria. That same year he crossed the Yellow Sea to Shanghai and was ordained a priest. Back home again, he was assigned to arrange for more missionaries to enter by a water route that would elude the border patrol. He was arrested, tortured, and finally beheaded at the Han...

On Sunday, September 13, a moleben was held after the Divine Liturgy at the Church of the Holy Martyr Clement of Rome in Moscow on the occasion of the launch of significant new Church-wide project devoted to the many ruined churches and monasteries throughout Russia. Following the decision of the Supreme Russian Church Council on April 17, 2019, and with the approval of the Russian Ministry of Culture, the Church has launched a program to digitally scan monuments of Church architecture in a state of disrepair and the creation of an all-Russian registry of such monuments, reports Patriarchia.ru. The moleben...

. FILLING GAPS .ART-WORKS CONTINUALLY SURFACE after-the-fact, pieces not seen earlier when gathering up everything on a given Bible passage. Frequently now I’m finding new sites to explore—well, “finding” should read “being led to”—and often they contain new pearls. So, here are these fresh findings, unrelated to one another and presented chronologically. Viewing them will be rather like walking through a Biblical art museum with dozens of uncategorized offerings: no overarching theme except Christ as Savior and Lord. This is the second of such “retrospectives” in our long journey through Scripture. It seems almost inevitable that there will be more:...

Moscow, September 18, Interfax - Forty percent of the respondents surveyed by the research center of the site Superjob.ru believe body of Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution, should be reburied at a cemetery as soon as possible. Forty-five percent of the respondents aged 35-44 would welcome such a decision, according to the results of the poll seen by Interfax. According to the poll, an argument for such position is the opinion that Lenin played a complex role in Russian history and for that reason it is strange to say the least to artificially keep his remains on...

Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Chrysopolis in Asia Minor. This was the last major battle between Constantine and Licinius for supremacy within the Roman Empire. With nearly 300,000 combined troops participating in the battle, it was one of the largest and bloodiest battles of ancient history. The battle was preceded by a large-scale naval conflict in which the Licinian fleet was crushed by Constantine's fleet under the command of his son, the Caesar Crispus at the Hellespont between Europe and Asia Minor. Once control of the sea had been established, Constantine moved his forces into Asia Minor...

Stump the Priest: The Johannine Comma 1 John 5: 7-9 in the Codex MontfortianusQuestion: "According to the Orthodox Church, Is 1 John 5:7 original or a later insertion? I've been studying the subject, but I would greatly appreciate your input."In most contemporary translations of the Bible, you encounter portions of Scripture that are put in brackets or reduced to a footnote, and it is claimed that "the earliest and most reliable manuscripts" do not include the texts in questions. However, when you look further into these cases, you will generally find that the vast majority of Greek  manuscripts include the...

For evangelical Christians, it is difficult to look at major developments in the Middle East without wondering about biblical prophecy. Should we rejoice over the historic peace treaty between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain? Or is this leading to a dangerous, false peace that will only hasten the reign of the antichrist? Let’s first recognize just how historic this peace treaty actually is. For 30 years, from 1948 until 1978, not a single Middle Eastern nation made peace with Israel. It was not until 1979 that Egypt made that historic move, ultimately factoring into the assassination of the courageous...

. . SAMSON ABUSED . . J U D G E S . . 1 6 New International Version, emphases added Abrdgd – the complete text is in your Bible, OR:TO READ JUDGES 16 IN FULL, Click HereTO HEAR MAX McLEAN READING IT, Click HereTO HEAR A DRAMATIZATION OF IT, Click HereTO WATCH AN OVERVIEW OF JUDGES, Click Here . .1 0 7 0 . . B. C. . . 21 Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding grain in the prison....