Category Archives: Bible

Palmer St. Podcast: Acts 15:35 – 16:5

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This week we transition into Paul’s second missionary trip.  It starts with a brief controversy with Barnabas over the need to bring along John Mark.  It ends with the ministry multiplied as Mark and Barnabas go one way while Paul and Silas go another.  Timothy is then shortly added to the team.  We’ll close with a few principles for multiplying ministry.

Audio: Acts15d-16a.mp3

Notes: Acts15d-16a.pdf

Just Another Reckless Form of Idolatry

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After a bit of unsettling reflection on the deadly day of shopping at a Long Island Wal-Mart (see previous post),  I think there may be a loose relationship to another recent event – or rather, a category of events, which occur with disturbing regularity.

MSNBC.com
India stampede death toll passes 200
Dozens more injured as 12,000 celebrated key Hindu festival in Jodhpur
The Associated Press     updated 11:40 a.m. ET, Wed., Oct. 1, 2008

JODHPUR, India – A Hindu temple official blamed an unruly group of pilgrims trying to get ahead in a line of worshippers for a stampede that killed more than 200 people and injured nearly 60 in western India.
Authorities were still working to determine the final death toll, but the number had already crossed 200, said senior police official Rajeev Dosat.
The disaster occurred just as the doors of the temple were being opened for worship at dawn for more than 12,000 people celebrating a key Hindu festival in the historic city of Jodhpur in Rajasthan state. …  To see the entire original article Click Here

In India this is not a random, one off occurrence.  Keep your eyes and ears open to world news and you’ll certainly see it in the headlines again.  For example:

You get the idea.  In India it happens at the temples where they worship their gods and goddesses.  In the USA, where consumerism receives the kind of frenzied devotion normally reserved only for deities, it has begun to happen at Wal-Mart.  Listen closely and you can hear Jeremiah’s distant, tearful prayer:

O Lord, my strength and my fortress,
     My refuge in the day of affliction,
     The Gentiles shall come to You
     From the ends of the earth and say,
     “Surely our fathers have inherited lies,
     Worthlessness and unprofitable things.”
Will a man make gods for himself,
     Which are not gods?
                     – Jeremiah 16:19-20 (NKJV)

A Psalm of Thanksgiving

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On Thanksgiving Day we can’t do much better than to consider a psalm like this.

 

Psalm 100

A Psalm of Thanksgiving.

1  Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!

2  Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before His presence with singing.

3  Know that the Lord, He is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

4  Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

5  For the Lord is good;
His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth endures to all generations.