Anna (homeless and destitute, lives in the temple)
Simeon (likely quite poor)
Shepherds (destitute, one of the lowest rungs of Hebrew society)
Magi (probably middle-class, had rich patrons)
Villains of the New Testament
Politicians
Soldiers
Wealthy religious leaders
Heroes of modern American Christianity:
Wealthy people who abuse their power to elevate themselves and hurt others
Slimy politicians who lie for gain and manipulate religion to their ends
"Celebrity" pastors that preach smooth words to enrapture thousands and become wealthy while starving people of the real Gospel
Wealthy businessmen that work the system without a thought to justice or the poor, except for token tax write-offs
The Justice system that represses the poor and persecutes the innocent while refusing to punish the powerful and wicked
The Military that murders people indescriminantly without any just cause
Villains of modern American Christianity:
Sinners who haven't found Jesus yet
People of good conscience who come to different conclusions than we do (i.e., "woke")
Teachers
Public servants
Pacifists
Environmentalists
Let me add: scientists. The Magi were the scientific innovators of their day. Nowadays science has been politicized and the church LOVES to dispute inconvenient scientific facts.
Is it too strong to say that I absolutely hate everything about this?
Bible School Fellowship group leader & I agreed that the weekday evening sessions was unsuitable for me & I should find a weekend morning session. I also found the amount of things to read prohibitive - I could never finish them on time. But then she asked: why not do less and attend tonight? I said ok.
And forgot. I've been forgetting for months now!
I think I have to admit something. I've gotten bored with BSF & my ADHD brain won't comply now. :/
Last week, I led the bible study for our mid-week discipleship group which has been very popular with young adults in our church. There are a lot of new people who are new Christiains—it's great.
I was shocked to see that only myself and one other person had physical bibles. Everyone else (around 30 people) was reading the Bible on their phone!
There are advantages to a digital format, especially the ability to easily switch between different versions. The main disadvantage that I see is that it's more difficult for the reader to understand the context of what they're reading. The text becomes a database that you query and divorced from the chapters before and after. You don't get the sense of a book belonging to a particular section or genre grouping.
Am I a fuddy-duddy? Does it matter if people read from physical bibles or not?
@quakers Does anyone have any suggestions for Bible study with a Quaker perspective? The only one I know of in German translation is "Twenty Questions About Jesus" by John Lampen. #BibleStudy#Quaker#books
v2. Grace and Peace are mine!
v3. I am blessed with every spiritual blessing! - eulogio - benediction/consecration/benefit.
v4. Thank You that You loved me from the very beginning, even before anything existed. No light, no matter, no energy, but You loved me.
v5. Thank You for adopting me from the beginning! I'm adopted!!
v6. I belong to Jesus!!
v7. You purchased my freedom through the blood of Christ, and erased my sins.
v8. You have given me all wisdom and understanding?!?? *
v10. You are drawing everything into Christ
v11. I have an inheritance in You! You chose me from the very beginning!
v12. Your plan for me from the beginning was for praise and glorious living
v13. Your gift sealing the fact that I belong to You is the Holy Spirit
v14. The Holy Spirit, as amazing and wonderful as He is, is just the engagement ring for an eternal marriage of beauty and unfolding glory in our eternal home in Christ.
v17. Please give me that spiritual wisdom and understanding so that grow in the knowledge of God
v18. Lord, fill my heart with light so that I might understand what I am called to be and do in You. Help me understand my inheritance in this world and in eternity.
v19. Help me understand Your power at work in me: to understand spiritual truths, to experience intimacy with Christ, to guide, love and heal others. I cannot live as a mere human when I have such an incredible invitation to walk in the mind, heart, and power of Christ. Let every moment of every day, in every response to every life situation reflect this reality.
v20-1. Oh the incredible wisdom of God to take the most humble and lowly Man of Sorrows and elevate Him to the highest height of glory and honor. Like Christ, let me learn to be humble and put love before everything else.
v22. God, you put all things under the authority of Christ, so that the Church may use this authority to heal and save the whole world.
v23. We are Jesus' body, and Jesus fills us, and everything everywhere with His presence.
Took maybe an hour to really pray-read through the chapter, while listening to this song (link) on repeat, for reasons odd and funny and unrelated to anything else. lol
AndBible: Bible Study
Read the Bible, study commentaries or dictionaries, or read books offline.
"AndBible: Bible Study" is a powerful, yet easy to use, offline #Bible study application for Android. The app does not aim to be simply a Bible reader, but focuses on being an advanced tool to do in-depth personal #biblestudy.
Does anyone know of a nice daily Bible study or maybe analogous not-necessarily-religious sort of thing, that's got a paper version? My mum's favourite one is going full app and that's a no-go.
Read The Bible - cartoon (occ777.blogspot.com)