The Orant

This week we have been examining the Lord's Supper from a number of angles. In dealing with every Biblical text we must recognize that we do not have the original autographs of any of the books we have. What we have is a collection of manuscripts which never agree with one another 100%. Most of the variants are insignificant and deal primarily with simple scribal errors in the process of copying. However the "words of institution" do contain a variant that merits closer examination. In a … [Read more...]

Check out this documentary...What do you think??http://www.youtube.com/p/A8FE03DBB5F04CC0&hl=en_US&fs=1 … [Read more...]

You may have noticed that while we went through FOUR accounts of the words of institution we only covered THREE of the four Gospels! What is blue blazes is going on here!! Don't worry all ye who love John. Although the fourth Gospel does not include the "words of institution" it does include a passage very much worth talking about.Check out John 6:22-59. The passage is pretty long so I'm not going to post the whole thing here. But in it Jesus is met by a crowd that is looking for him so that … [Read more...]

The Christian religion is made up of many sects, denominations, and churches. One of the themes that you will find in almost all of the is a celebration of the "Lord's Supper." The "Lord's Supper" was instituted by Jesus during his last meal with his disciples before his execution. In the gospels we have 4 accounts of the words of institution (Matt 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:15-20; and also 1 Cor 11:23-26.) Each of them is a little bit different. How Christians understand the "Lord's … [Read more...]

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"Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people."— Jer 9:1Jeremiah is known as the “weeping prophet.” A theme of tears seems to follow him wherever he goes. Jeremiah cries out for his people, for their coming destruction, as a call for moral reform, and over the destruction that eventually does lay waste to Jerusalem. Christians throughout the history of the Church have asked the question, “over what do we … [Read more...]

14The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 15In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 16In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.” (Jeremiah 33:14-16 NRSV) Jerusalem had been under Siege for a year … [Read more...]

I've been working of some material related to Jeremiah this week. I'll post some of my thoughts on the man early next week, but until then I thought you might like this. A reader and a friend of mine wrote this poem a few years ago... It's pretty Clever... It's called Jeremiah Then And Now.If you like it, check out the rest, at David's Blog http://ivebeenthinkingessays.blogspot.com/Grace and Peace-Billy KangasJeremiah Then And Now In the younger years of king Josiah,The Lord first spoke to … [Read more...]

This week I read one of the most powerful sermons I've ever encountered. It was written by Arthur John Gossip the day after his wife passed away very suddenly, and unexpectedly. It is entitled "But When Life Tumbles In, What Then?"In this image Gossip stands up and invites the congregation through the dark torrents of despair, pain and confusion. He weaves the image of the Jordan flooded, cold, dreadful and terrifying throughout an onslaught of raw humanity. He shows us Christ's own suffering at … [Read more...]