ICHABOD, THE GLORY HAS DEPARTED - explores the Age of Apostasy, predicted in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, to attack Objective Faithless Justification, Church Growth Clowns, and their ringmasters. The antidote to these poisons is trusting the efficacious Word in the Means of Grace. John 16:8. Isaiah 55:8ff. Romans 10. Most readers are WELS, LCMS, ELS, or ELCA. This blog also covers the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, and the Left-wing, National Council of Churches denominations.
The Spirit of the Lord filleth the world: Hallelujah!
Let the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before God: yea, let them exceedingly rejoice. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Psalm. Let God arise; let His enemies be scattered: let them also that hate Him flee before Him.
The Gloria Patri The Kyrie p. 17 The Gloria in Excelsis The Salutation and Collect p. 19
Collect
O God, who didst teach the hearts of Thy faithful people by sending to them the light of Thy Holy Spirit, grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things and evermore to rejoice in His holy comfort; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who with Thee and the Holy Ghost liveth, etc.
The Epistle and Gradual
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created:
and Thou renewest the face of the earth. Hallelujah!
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful:
Sarah Buck is undergoing diagnostic tests and treatment.
The flowers are in honor and in memory of our soldiers who gave their lives for our country.
Prayers continue for the Way, Shrader and Cruz families, and for those with metabolic and stress disorders.
Ten Super Large and ten large KJVs were delivered Saturday to be distributed.
KJV Acts 2:1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. 5 And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. 6 Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. 7 And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? 8 And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? 9 Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, 10 Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. 12 And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? 13 Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.
KJV John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. 24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. 25 These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. 26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. 27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. 28 Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. 29 And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe. 30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. 31 But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.
Pentecost Monday Text KJV John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
The Holy Spirit Takes
From the Father and Son, Teaching Us
KJV John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
Before His death, Jesus predicted that He wouldleave them and give them unlimited expansion of His Kingdom. Because Christianity is world-wide, we take for granted its spread, but this started from the Apostles taking Jesus' Gospel method plus the groups and individual converts from Jesus' own ministry. The wording of many healing miracles suggest to me that those individuals were well known to the early Church.
One trouble people have with early Christian history is the lack of details and history of what the Apostles did. One cause is the ancient artifacts crumbling and disappearing. The other cause is the emphasis upon Jesus' work and teaching, which is so important that our normal concept of the news - even when honestly reported - is overshadowed, as it should be. People become acquainted with the verses and overlook how important a few words can be.
If there are difficulties, the rationalists dismiss the story. If the story is well known, the rationalists dismiss the story for being too good to be true.
The Trinity (which the rationalists refuse to acknowledge) is clearly found in this one paragraph. The Father and Son will abide in the believer, because the Spirit has brought the Father and Son to the individual. This explains several things to use, which are vital for the Christian believer.
People know the Father and Son, their true characteristics through the Spirit. That is very concise - this happens through the baptism of babies, plus teaching and preaching to those who are older and already baptized. Every Christian believer has the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit is always active in the Word of God, so we learn about the Father and Son.
Westcott and Hort proved how dangerous it was for them to dabble with the Greek New Testament text. Wescott believed that the whole world would eventually absorb Christ and make everyone part of a universal truth. That is clearly against the Scriptures, which he had a major role in corrupting. Hort, an active fanatic and self-made expert, favored Mary over Jesus and said so. That is a good example of "the Spirit without the Word," someone making "christian" claims without the Scriptures backing up the claims. Tischendorf, Westcott, and Hort gave the world the utterly corrupt Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament of today. All your modern New Testaments are based on the denial of the miraculous, the divine, and faith in Jesus - yea even the Beck Bible and the "Brug" Bible. Everyone who buys an RSV, ESV, or NRSV is paying money to the Drag-Marxist National Council of Churches. So, yes, it does matter.
God promised that He would always preserve His Word, so those who think otherwise despise the Word, no matter how many titles of dignities they have, including the Fuller DMin.
Most importantly, The Father and Son abide in the believer through the work of the Holy Spirit. The simple, basic word "abide" means to remain, not just to stop by. Those who lose their trust and become apathetic about Jesus Christ no longer abide. Because we are fickle and easily distracted, we need to continue in the Word and give God's Word due honor in giving us truth and guiding our way.
24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.
There is a direct relationship between loving Jesus Christ and keeping (guarding) His sayings. The word for keeping is also used for guarding a prison or guarding a treasure. It is not casual and flippant, temporary and used only when convenient.
Everything from Jesus is from the Father as well. They teach and act in harmony, the Spirit teaching us about this Father/Son relationship.
25 These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. 26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
The great puzzle is solved. How can the Fourth Gospels be in harmony with each other. People cannot get a small book done without errors and contradictions. And how can hundreds of predictions in the Old Testament come true in the New Testament?
The answer has been given time after time, but ignored by the "great and wise." The Spirit helped the Apostles and Paul with the divine message. The Spirit also inspired all other writers of the Bible. Many struggle to make their rationalistic notions fit the Bible, or make the Bible's new editions fit their notions. The Scriptures are eternal. Reliable Bibles give us the confidence to say, "This is the Word of God."
27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. 28 Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.
Peace is not the cause but the result of faith in Jesus Christ. Faith gives us access to God's grace through His Son, and that is the source of peace - God's absolving of our sins because Jesus atoned for them. We strangely turn that around and yell, "Calm down!" at people - which is not calming. Or - "Stop being so nervous" which is equally ineffective. A lot of things make us anxious and worried; dwelling on them does not help. Starting with these Promises from Jesus Christ is always good. What God promises is always good in the long run, even when it looks hopeless at first.
Loving the Savior is a sure way of leveraging blessings, the ones which really matter. I arranged for 10 more Super Giant KJVs. While I was telling Big John that, he said, "I met a lady..." She has a prison ministry for women? "Yes, I need medium KJVs for her two groups." I said, tentatively, "Two groups?
He tells me the stories of people finally having Bibles they can read with the Large Print. "Now I can read a Bible," he quotes one person saying, his face beaming.
