John chapter 1 is basically a crash course in theology. And there is a detail in John 2:16 that I hadn't noticed before: Jesus drove the sheep and the oxen out of the Temple, but not the doves.
The sheep and the oxen could be and no doubt were re-captured, but the doves could not have been, and they were still needed for sacrifices. Jesus told the owners of the doves to take them out themselves, and why.
Another thing I noticed is that Nathanael was perhaps an autist: truth-oriented; was sitting under the fig tree before--alone?; compared Philip's news about Jesus with his background knowledge; and very quickly made the leap to declaring that Jesus was the Son of God and the King of Israel.
A couple months ago, I put a piece of paper on the fridge--our Scammer Prayer List. We were often getting multiple scam calls per day, and while probably none of them told us their real name, God stills knows who they are and where they live, and He surely has something better for them to do all day than bother people like us.
Two names went onto the list, and these scammers were duly prayed for--they still are--and suddenly the number of scam calls dropped, by a lot. The list still has only two names on it.
The Bible says that "the gates of hell" will not prevail against Christ's Church.
A boomer apologizes, albeit without much clarity.
"It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs," Jesus said; Matthew 15:26.
I recently understood that I am spending my life in rebuilding spiritual and practical foundations that had been foolishly undermined by previous generations.
Several months ago I was reading a nonfiction book by Christian author Paul Tournier, and made it about three-quarters of the way through before being drawn away to other things.
When I picked it up this last week and finished reading it, I found references to about a dozen Bible passages that had come up in my daily Bible readings in the interim, mostly obscure Old Testament personages with a variety of afflictions; Tournier was a Swiss doctor famous for connecting his Christianity with his medical practice.
I also read a Christian fiction book this last week: Deadline, by Randy Alcorn. One day, what I read in the book mirrored my morning Bible reading on that same day.
