How
could the Co-Shepherding Model be incorporated in lives today? Consider
potential impacts on individual lives as well as on the society. Continue
reading at –
Monday, February 17, 2020
Humans: Created to Have Dominion By Acting Together to Do Good
Then God blessed them, and God said to them,
“Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue
it;
have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air,
and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
(1769 King James
Version Genesis 1:28)
The
English word “dominion” is associated
with two other meanings -- “to tread on”
and “to rule.” All three English
words are “power” words.
The Creator empowered the two humans to have power
over every living thing that moves on the earth.
But,
The Hebrew & Aramaic Lexicon of the
Old Testament, Volume 3 (p. 1190) contains a very important note about the
Hebrew word translated “dominion”:
The basic meaning of the verb is not to rule;
the word actually denotes the traveling around of the shepherd with his flock.
Read
the rest of this educational email at --
Friday, February 14, 2020
The Creation of a Kingdom of Couples Instead of Individuals
From the story of Adam and Eve (the Second ADAM) to Noah and the
Flood, we encounter universal problems linked to "human nature" -- the
problematic character of human reason, speech, freedom, earthly desires, shame,
guilt, anger, and peer pressure.
The stories focus on the complex relations between man and woman, husband
and wife, parents and children, brother and brother, families and their
descendants, tribal members and strangers – stories not so much about what
happened as what always happens
when humans are involved! But
the first story in Genesis is completely different. It is about what could happen if humans lived
according to the Creator’s “new way for humankind” – the way the Creator envisioned the First ADAM would live. Read
the complete educational email at –
Wednesday, February 12, 2020
Have You Noticed that the First Two Stories in Genesis are Very Different?
Most
English translations have the ending of the first story and the beginning of
the second in the wrong place.
● This is the last sentence of the first story
(Genesis 1:1-2:4a) -- These are the generations of the heavens and the earth
when they were created. “Heaven” was the name of a “solid dome-like structure”
and “earth” was the name of
the “dry
ground beneath the dome.” The
earth could not exist without the dome being in place first.
● This is the first sentence of the second story
(Genesis 2:4b-3:24) -- In the
day that Yahweh the god made the earth
and the heavens. Here the “earth” is made first and then
the “heavens.” That sequence would have been impossible
in the first story – and after that nothing
else is said about the earth and the heavens. There are no references to
Yahweh creating either of them in this story.
Continue
reading about other differences at –
Tuesday, February 11, 2020
A New Ancient Standard for Determining Good or Evil Actions
If you live in the DFW area you have probably heard the news report about two adults who got into an argument over a stuffed animal at a “family friendly restaurant.” One of them pulled out a gun and started shooting – wounding a doctor who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I have no information about the crime other than what the media has reported, but things like this happen so often they have become the norm. Just in the DFW area over the past few weeks people have been shot because of road rage, teens getting into arguments, a man killing his girlfriend and her sister (and wounding an infant) on a college campus, etc. I am pretty sure that any of you can google “shootings” in your area and will find similar stories. Why are these things happening?
Without going into how things have changed in America since the end of World War II, I will simply tell you our conclusion.
The standards people use to govern their lives have changed!
Today the top standard for a growing number of individuals
places their personal appetites, desire and longings as their highest values.
Continue reading at –
Monday, February 10, 2020
Your meanings of two very important words in the Bible are probably wrong. Take a quick test and find out.
Below is the first verse in the 1769 Edition of the King James Version of Genesis 1:1.
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Take a moment to think about what the underlined words mean to you. Below are the meanings I learned in Sunday School at a Baptist church when I was child.
1. heaven – The abode of God where all saved people go when they die.
2. earth – The planet we live on that orbits around the sun.
My preacher and Sunday School teachers would hold the King James Version of the Bible and tell us that it is “The Word of God” -- it contains words that came straight from God. Continue reading at -
Friday, February 7, 2020
Learning the story behind the stories of Belief Models will change global realities!
When it comes to “religious stories,” gods or other supernatural creatures are usually part of the story. It is from those types of stories Belief Models about gods emerge. Always being aware that “conceptions of a god” are actually “Belief Models of a god” -- not the god (himself or herself) is an essential skill we must learn.
Viewing Belief Models like they are the god is like viewing
“the map of a territory as if it is the territory itself.”
Continue reading at --
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