Not so good a friend….

So the title of the blog page is my thoughts based upon my observations. So here is another thought lesson from observing my dog Blondie.

Recently another dog moved in next door to us. She brought with her a family of course but I am focusing this lesson on the behavior of the dogs. She moves in next door and turn what was a minor annoyance to me and a medium annoyance to Angela into a nightmare. Blondie is what we call a digger. Until now she has only dug small holes to burry things like her tennis ball, chew toys, bones, and a flower pot. Now with another digger next door, she and her friend are digging her out of the yard. The other dog is much larger than Blondie so the smaller dog goes under. This has caused Blondie to be chained, locked in the garage, and tonight shocked. Yes shocked, I am purchasing an electric fence and installing it to stop this undesired behavior.

So those are the facts. Here is the observations:

#1—The other dog is not a good friend

#2—Blondie is going with her nature

#3—Trouble is usually created or enhanced with help

#4—People are like dogs

In the Bible there is a story where one of David's sons commits an immoral act against his half-sister Tamar. Amnon had a sinful desire in his heart to be immoral with Tamar but this was enhanced into rape when his "friend" helped him plan the event.

Our moral: Be careful who pick as your friends. If your friend does not enhance you towards good then they are not really a good friend. People like dogs will act upon our darkest natures, so pick friends who counter that nature.

A New Era Begins

The Lord has blessed Berean Baptist Church with an awesome group of singles. This group is growing and growing. They are growing spiritually and numerically. It is the numerical growth that has brought our new era into existence. What began in the living room of a house has outgrown that house, a bigger house, and now the Singles Center. Last night we held our first Bible study in the chapel located within Berean Baptist Church. May I say with a little bit of bias that it was an amazing night? It was an amazing night!

We still had dinner in the Singles Center and people were able to just freely mingle and eat they wonderful dinner Megan and Adrianne made for them. Then about 10 minutes to 7 everyone began making their way to the chapel. Here are some of things that made it great.

The Music:

We were able to see the slides for our songs no matter where we sat in the study. The singers were not blocking the screens nor did they have to turn around to see the words to the songs. We were able to have more instruments (I must say I liked having a bass guitar). The instruments did not overpower the singers because we got to use microphones for the first time. We got to learn the trials and tribulations of battery checks on those microphones (mid-singing one the leaders failed). We learned where amplified instruments have to be in order to prevent feedback. It was great and everyone just laughed as we all learned together.

The Preaching:

It was awesome having that back screen instead of turning to read quotes. It was awesome being able to see everyone's smiling faces. Then I had one comment from someone out in the chairs, "I really liked you having a mic on during the preaching. Whenever someone talked around me I could still hear you and the message. It was great."

"It was different but really great." That was the common feedback from last night. "Let's outgrow this one as well," was another common quote from last night. The Lord has truly blessed this group of Christians. If you have not seen one of these studies I invite you to come worship God with us.

A Biblical “Easter”

I cannot imagine what the world would do if a church today stood up and celebrated the resurrection of Christ in correspondence with the Jewish Passover. This would be a novel concept considering that Easter as we know it was established in 325AD and was a conscientious decision to separate Christianity from Judaism. So if we went back to a true biblical Easter this year when would it have occurred in 2008? The answer would by based upon the Jewish Passover of April 3, 2008. Since resurrection occurs three days later the proper celebration time would be Sunday the 6^th of April. OK…so how do we get to this dating for Easter. Let us examine a few facts.

First: Christianity cannot be separated from its parent religion Judaism. While some principles of Judaism have vanished in Christianity it still remains the foundation of our faith. Christianity is based upon Jesus Christ and His fulfillment of Judaism.

Second: The resurrection is tied to the Jewish Passover (14 Nissan) and a particular day. When holidays are tied to a day the date changes (the fourth Thursday of November, is Thanksgiving regardless of the date). However, when a holiday is tied to a date the day changes (December 25^th is Christmas whether it is Saturday or Wednesday). Our Easter is tied to a day while Passover is tied to a date. Easter occurs on the first Sunday following the first full moon, following the spring solstice of March 21^st (a pagan holiday), thus making the date change from year to year.

Third: Calendar differences between the Jewish year and our calendar exist. The Jewish calendar of the Bible was based upon a 360 day year. Our year is based upon 365 days. We must trust our Jewish brothers who have compensated for the difference and thus base what I will call "Resurrection Day" on their adjustments. Admittedly this will cause a shifting of dates in our current dating process, but does not eliminate the truth of the principle being discussed.

So let us look at Christ's resurrection and how this could affect our holiday. As we answer these questions hopefully we will gain understanding:

    When was Jesus crucified?

    Is there a "Good Friday"?

    What is a "High Sabbath"?

    How did the normal Sabbath work?

Jesus was crucified prior to the beginning of the Passover. The timing of the Passover being a floating day occurred in the year of the crucifixion on a Thursday. According to Jewish customs the Passover would begin at approximately 6PM Thursday (Sundown) and end as a "High Sabbath" at 6PM Friday (Sundown). However, the normal Sabbath would begin at 6PM Friday and end 6PM Saturday. Also in accordance with the customs of the day, any event occurring in portion on a day was considered "that day". This is true of something at 7AM or something at 4PM. Therefore, Christ could be removed from the cross and buried between 3PM (the 9^th hour) and 6PM, and be considered in the grave Thursday (Day). Thus to fulfill His own prophecy of fulfilling the sign of Jonah (3 days and nights in the whale being equal to His time in the earth) Christ would have been in the grave, in addition to Thursday (Day), Thursday (Night), Friday (Day), Friday (Night), Saturday (Day), and Saturday (Night). This would also account for the women arriving at day break on this first day of the week (Sunday) to anoint the body. Thus, we get the tradition of Sunday as the day, but in truth it should be tied to the date not the day.

So how about the year 2009 in a biblical sense? Passover Wednesday April 8, 2009. Resurrection Day would be Saturday April 11, 2009.

And our traditional dating will be Sunday April 12^th. I guess that is not too far from each other. Anyways, this is something just to ponder and be informed about as we separate Biblical truth from the traditions of men.

Have a great day, and remember in the end the most important thing is that Jesus arose and because of that God forgives sin.