All Spiritual Blessings

Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

David wrote in Psalm 1 that we are blessed if we do not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, stand in the paths of sinners, and sit in the seat of the scornful.

To be blessed is to have God’s favor. It is derived from the Hebrew root Barak. The story that the three letters of this word tell is the protective hand over you and your house. In the ancient Hebrew alphabet Bet means house and is shaped as an arial view of a tent; Resh means person and looks like the head of a person; Kaf means the palm of the hand and is shaped as a hand.

If you ever lift your hands in prayer, notice the palms. When we are loving on God the palm is pointing toward Him. When we are praying for our needs our palms are pointing toward ourselves. When the Hebrews blessed their children they pointed their palms toward them.

Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 4:14 about the time when the leadership laid their hands on Timothy in prayer. Their palms were toward him to bless him.

Luke recorded in Acts 8:18 that Peter and John laid hands on people and they received the Holy Spirit.

In Numbers 27:23 Moses laid his upon Joshua and inaugurated him.

To be blessed is to have God’s palm pointed toward us and our home.

Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:3 that we are blessed with all spiritual blessings from heaven. I do not believe that it is wrong to asked for God’s blessing upon us or our home. Rather, it is right to understand that all of God’s blessings are ours. That is why Paul chose to use the word “ALL.”

You are blessed coming and you are blessed going out.

Hebrew, Jew, Israel

Genesis 14:13 Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, for he dwelt by the terebinth trees of Mamre the Amorite . . .

Have you ever wondered where the name Hebrew came from? It is a Hebrew word which means “one from beyond the river.” It signified that Abram came from the other side of the Euphrates river. The word Jew which we use today originated from the tribe of Judah. And the name Israel was the name that God gave to Abraham’s grandson, Jacob who had twelve sons who made up the tribes of Israel.

It’s Our Earth

Genesis 1:10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

The Hebrew word used for earth is “Artz” which is where we get our word for Earth. Therefore, even in our secular society which prides itself with not believing in God, uses the name which God gave from the very beginning. We are still calling our planet Earth, the name that God gave it.

Going back to the Hebrew pictograph Artz is spelt Aleph, Resh, Tsade

• Aleph – ox, strong, leader, first
• Resh – head, person, first
• Tsade – desire, need

When the Hebrews repeated a word it meant that it was the best of examples. This planet was either the first planet to be created or the best that was created, making if first. But, although it was best it has the need to be maintained and God gave that job to man.

In Genesis 1:26 God gave man the authority and rule over the Earth. In verse 28 we have two responsibilities: fill the Earth and subdue it.

Do I worry that we are using up the resources of the Earth. Personally, I have never worried about it, but I do believe that we need to take care of it. It’s the best home we have right now. It was a gift from God and one He took time to personally name. Adam was given the task of naming the animals but God kept the privilege of naming or planet.

Followers of Jesus are always talking about Heaven. I know that I want to go and yet the Earth is not only in our history but in our future. It plays a major role in the 1,000 year reign of Christ. Following that we get a “New Earth” according to what John saw in Revelation 21:1

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.

This reminds me of the movie where Spock’s body is sent in a missile called Genesis to a dead planet and it is created all over again. Of course, the problem with the movie is that it is based on the idea that everything created itself. No, as our Earth was created with love and care, so will our New Heaven and Earth be created with love and care.

History of Reading, PA Church

Did you know that the first Methodist congregation in Reading, PA was established following a fear that had fallen upon the people? It was reported that someone actually died while making fun of the preachers who came into town. Allow me to share an excerpt from the book Reminiscences of Rev. Henry Boehm, p. 109:

“When I passed through Reading in 1810 with Bishop Asbury the boys laughed at us and said, ‘There go the Methodist preachers.’.. In 1822, when on Lancaster Circuit, I succeeded in planting Methodism in Reading, and formed the first class there, where I had been shut out a score of years before. . . There was a shop in the neighborhood of the school-house where some men used to meet together. One of the company, a young man, undertook to mimic the Methodists. He went on to show how they acted in their meetings. He shouted, clapped his hands, and then said he would show how they fell down. (The Methodists in that day would sometimes fall and lose their strength). He then threw himself down on the floor, and lay there as if asleep. His companions enjoyed the sport; but after he had lain for some time they wondered why he did not get up. They shook him in order to awake him. When they saw he did not breathe they turned pale, and sent for a physician, who examined the man and pronounced him dead.

Little do the present Methodists of Reading know of our early struggles and difficulties.”

The classes were begun in the home of Emmor Kimber. That was the beginning of their ministry in Reading. The ridicule stopped and they gained favor among the people.

Son of God in Genesis 1:1

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

In an earlier blog I mentioned that there was an Aleph and Tav (the first and last letters in the Hebrew alphabet) not translated in this verse. In the greek this would be the Alpha and Omega. The Aleph represents God, the first letter, the beginning. Aleph means strength. The Tav is like our “T”. The word Tav itself means mark which God says in Ezekial 9:4 would be placed upon the righteous, a cross.

I want to focus on the word create. It is spelt Bet, Resh, Aleph – bara. The first two letters spell bar which means son. Therefore, Bartimaeus was not the name of the blind man that Jesus healed in Mark 10. He was the son of Timaeus.

Now, let’s go back to the Hebrew word for create, bara. If bar means “son” and the last letter, Aleph, represents God as was mentioned already, could it not be said that very word create is the Son of God. No, there is no evidence that God created the Son of God. Rather, God, the Son of God, created.

This falls in line with what Paul said, that all things were created by Him, Colossians 1:16.

So, not only do we have the silent Aleph-Tav (Alpha and Omega), we also have the Son of God within the Hebrew text, in the word create.

When Will Jesus Come Back

Luke 12:45-46 “But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his  portion with the unbelievers.”

Jesus is explaining a few things to His disciples about His return and then said that He will be coming at an hour that is not expected in verse 40. In verse 41 Peter wants to know if that applies to the disciples or to all the people. It is in this context that Jesus tells of a wise steward and a second steward who is not watching.

Matthew 25:13 “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.”

This verse is in the context of the story of the five wise virgins and the five foolish virgins. Just before He says to watch He is addressing the five foolish virgins who ran out of oil and returned too late.

How did the five wise virgins know how much extra oil to carry with them so that they would not run out of oil? Is it possible that they were watching, studying the scriptures and noticing the signs of the times? Is it possible that they knew the day?

But what about Mark 13:32 where Jesus says, “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” Does this mean that we can not know when Jesus will return?

Keeping in mind that Jesus, being a Jew, was speaking to Jews and this statement was very Jewish. There was one feast that was based upon the new moon. The Jews would know that it would be one of two days but would never know which one until the new moon was revealed, not knowing the day nor the hour. This was the Feast of Trumpets.

Could the Jews have understood Mark 13:32 as if I were to say that I’m not going to tell you what day I am coming to visit you but I’ll be bringing the gifts for the tree? If this is true then is it possible that it is not a matter of knowing the day and hour but a clue to knowing the season?

Therefore, it would seem that we can be searching the scriptures and watching the signs of the Lord’s return.

Paul says in 1 Tessalonians 5:2, For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. Then in verse 4 he writes, But you brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.

It would seem that Paul does not wish that believers be taken off guard but that Jesus will come back as a thief in the night for the nonbelievers.

Luke 21:34 says that we are not to be caught unexpected or unaware as the rest of the world is, verse 35.

A Famous Homosexual Prophesied By Daniel

Daniel 11:36-37 And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he shall magnify himself above all.

Daniel is describing what seems to be the man that John describes in the book of Revelation. We have heard him called the antichrist. According to the verses above he will be a godless, homosexual who came from a Jewish or Christian family.

Rumors of John the Revelator

Will John stay alive until Jesus returns?

John 21:22-23 Jesus said to him, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.” Then this saying went out among the brethren that this disciple would not die…

It is amazing what kind of rumors will pass around, even for generations. As a boy I remember someone preaching that they thought that it was possible that John was still alive even today.

I really think that that is a long stretched rumor. But there may be something to this rumor.

The “he” in this verse is John himself, the author of the book. It was something that he did throughout his book, referring to himself as the other disciple, always nameless.

What is interesting is that John did outlive all of the other disciples. It would seem that they had all be killed by 74 A.D. and only John remained. By 90 A.D., according to Tertullian, Rome tried to boil John in oil but he would not die nor had any burns. But still convinced of his guilt as a Christian they sentenced him to a prison camp on the Island of Patmos.

It is here that John saw Jesus. What Jesus had said in John 21 now has been fulfilled. John experienced the return of Jesus in the book of Revelation, whether we see that the return was to John himself or that he actually was allowed to travel through time and experience it. Can we say for sure? Nevertheless, it was fulfilled.

Debtors Prison, Robert Morris

Robert Morris

The economy of the United States banks on the multitudes being in debt loans and credit cards. There was a day that you would be thrown into prison for not being able to pay your debts.

Here is an excerpt from the book, Reminiscences of Rev. Henry Boehm, (page 162) which is very sobering to know that fate of someone who had greater riches than our own country and funded our revolutionary war. Henry Boehm lived from 1776 to 1876. He is writing from his accounts.

“People were in those days imprisoned for debt, and as there were many in debt, so there were many prisoners. ROBERT MORRIS, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, the intimate friend of Washington, one of the framers of the Federal Constitution, and the great financier of the Revolution, whose credit for a time was better than his country’s, lost all his property and became bankrupt, and was confined in this very prison for debt for a long time, to the shame of the city of brotherly love and to the shame of his country. But the year before I was there death came to his relief, on May 6, 1806. He died in poverty at the age of seventy-three.”

Robert Morris, known as the “Financier of the Revolution,” was more than just a contributor of money.

• signer of the Declaration of Independence
• signer of the Articles of Confederation
• signer of the United States Constitution
• elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly
• chairman of the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety
• member of the Second Continental Congress where he served as the Chairman of the Secret Committee
• member of the Committee of Correspondence
• served as Superintendent of Finance
• was Agent of Marine without pay, controlling the Continental Navy
• was one of Pennsylvania’s original pair of U.S. senators
• went bankrupt because of his generosity
• died in a debtors prison

It is a strange thought that Robert Morris died in prison for going into such deep debt for our freedom from England. He is an unsung hero.

Did God Rest On The Seventh Day?

Genesis 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.

The work that God did was not labor but it was creative work. The Hebrew word is “Mela’kah.” He created, and on the seventh day He stopped creating.

The word for “rested” is “sabath”. This word means that he stopped what He was doing.

God does not rest, but is always working in our lives where we allow Him to. The creative work ceased but His hand is always moving. He does not need a break. He does not need a vacation. He does not get stressed. He does not get exhausted.

The Hebrews recognize a great difference between labor and creative work. Even a donkey can do labor, but creative requires much thinking, processing and skill.

So, did God rest on the seventh day? No, He stopped creating for the day.

Genesis 2:3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it …

The Sabbath is not about not working. The Sabbath is about devoting a day to spiritual development. The word sanctify means to set something apart for a holy service. We do not need a day set aside just to rest, but to do spiritual development.