Mediterranean - The Most Effective Way To Spread the Gospel

 

KJV Acts 28:30 And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him,

31 Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.

I should have known about the ending of the Acts of the Apostles, because the most active and fearless evangelist was Paul himself. Most people do not pay as much attention to all of Acts, and it is easy to forget the quiet ending, even though we assume he was executed - the how and the where are not known. Who would want to highlight the death of that unique and restless apostle?

The shocking ending - no finale - reminded me again - of Paul having a "parsonage" for two years because of his Roman citizenship. He had peaceful access to those who wanted to visit the apostle and share his communications.

Now we get to the Effective part. 

God managed the Mediterranean Sea, long before the Roman Empire and other civilizations amounted to much. What better place for the evangelists to use ships and highways to take the Great Commission to everyone! 

Look at the setting of Ephesus, and its well known place in the Mediterranean. Paul did not just drop by, but stayed to establish the Christian Church there, two and one half years. That gave him and the growing number of believers a great opportunity to communicate with so many people from "all over the world" because of the Mediterranean. 

So many books and maps highlight Ephesus alone that it is worthwhile to measure the distance, joy, and anguish of those early years. 

Christmas Days - Two Candlelights

 http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/search/label/Christmas%20Day%202022

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Christmas Eve 2021

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/search/label/Christmas%20Eve%202021

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Reading the Word of God with Child-Like Delight

 

I had the enjoyment of teaching world religion and Old Testament at two online universities, University of Phoenix and Grand Canyon University. 

Old Testament was especially worthwhile because anything from the outline could also be used in discussed for the New Testament. 

KJV John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 The same was in the beginning with God.

3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

This is simple in language but vast in its meaning. Nothing is better than translating one language (Greek) into English, especially because Jesus undoubtably spoke Greek, the language that would influence the Western world and therefore English itself.

My GCU students enjoyed the cross-over from Old to New Testament. Nothing quite equals Creation, Genesis 1, and John 1 - the opening Gospel of Creation, the Triune God expressed in both Testaments, how many centuries apart? 

Both Genesis and John clearly express the Holy Trinity, but the befuddled mainline minds of seminary professors and students always cloak the Word of God with their opposition to the efficacious Holy Spirit (hardening rather than enlightening). 

I did some Greek study at Augustana College, Rock Island, but Waterloo Seminary was not keen on Greek or Hebrew, the later giving me the Hebrew award because I was the only one to take the class. 

Plain English (KJV) is very easy to understand in simple words that carry the power of God's Word. I taught Genesis 1 just as I covered John 1 to graduate students and confirmation students. "All things were made" is quite impressive, even more with All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

The openings of Genesis and John are the same truth with slightly different terms. The Son of God and the Holy Spirit are in both beginnings and many more passages together throughout the  Testaments. 

I quoted Luther on this point - "The Old Testament is the foundation. The New Testament is a series of sermons that teach us what the Old Testament means." (paraphrased)

 

Efficacy Motherlode - Various Writers,

 

Nothing is quite as complicated as thinking "What should be written down with at least some form of clarity?" One author - Francis Bacon - said, "Writing makes an exact mind." 

More than one person might have said, "Trying to marketh it down doth make a slow and tangled mind...who knocked over the inkstand?"

Our sixth grade class had desks with wooden desk tops that included a place for the ink bottle. That was around 1959, and the tops were well carved. We ached to have individual ink bottles and insisted that we needed that tool. But "No! Too messy! This is1959!" We soon had cartridge pens that linked ink and soon they were banished.

We used ballpoint pens and made them last until the computer age crept into place. My parents were born around 1910, so they had a lot of stories about the good old days on the farm, before electricity, so there was nothing we could top about those days - especially the Great Depression. 

I wonder where written books will go from here.