matthew 4: 1-11

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.” He said in reply, “It is written: ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.’”

Then the devil took him to the holy city, and made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you’ and ‘with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus answered him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.’” Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, and he said to him, “All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.” At this, Jesus said to him, “Get away, Satan! It is written: ‘The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.’”

Then the devil left him and, behold, angels came and ministered to him.

matthew 4: 1-11

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christ_in_the_Wilderness_-_Ivan_Kramskoy_-_Google_Cultural_Institute.jpg (click on this link and then click on the image to zoom in.)

Ivan Kramskoi / Public domain

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john 19: 23-24, Jesus' garments

According to the Gospel of John, the soldiers who crucified Jesus did not divide his tunic after crucifying him, but cast lots to determine who would keep it because it was woven in one piece, without seam. A distinction is made in the New Testament Greek between the himatia (literally “over-garments”) and the seamless robe, which is chiton, (literally "tunic" or "coat").

"Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments (ta himatia) and divided them into four parts, to every soldier a part, and the coat (kai ton chitona). Now the coat was without seam, woven whole from the top down. Therefore, they said among themselves, let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, whose it will become. Thus the saying in Scripture was fulfilled: they divided My raiment (ta imatia) among them, and upon My vesture (epi ton himatismon) did they cast lots."
— John 19:23–24; quoting the Septuagint version of Psalm 21 [22]:18–19

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seamless_robe_of_Jesus#Bible_passage

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Holy_Tunic_of_Jesus_Christ_in_Trier,_Germany.JPG (click on this link for the image. click on the image to zoom in.)

Ghazwan Mattoka / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)

The Seamless Robe of Jesus, the robe said to have been worn by Jesus shortly before his crucifixion, is the best-known relic of the cathedral. It is kept in an annex chapel and shown to the public infrequently, most recently in 2012.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trier_Cathedral#Treasury_and_relics
 

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psalm 91

I

You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shade of the Almighty, Say to the LORD, “My refuge and fortress, my God in whom I trust.”

He will rescue you from the fowler’s snare, from the destroying plague, He will shelter you with his pinions, and under his wings you may take refuge; his faithfulness is a protecting shield.

You shall not fear the terror of the night nor the arrow that flies by day, Nor the pestilence that roams in darkness, nor the plague that ravages at noon.

Though a thousand fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, near you it shall not come. You need simply watch; the punishment of the wicked you will see. Because you have the LORD for your refuge and have made the Most High your stronghold, No evil shall befall you, no affliction come near your tent. 

For he commands his angels with regard to you, to guard you wherever you go. With their hands they shall support you, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You can tread upon the asp and the viper, trample the lion and the dragon.

II

Because he clings to me I will deliver him; because he knows my name I will set him on high. He will call upon me and I will answer; I will be with him in distress; I will deliver him and give him honor. With length of days I will satisfy him, and fill him with my saving power.

psalm 91

image by Karen Cox

https://www.flickr.com/photos/7374469@N02/4464177897/

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHzKWcO-reo 

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gospel: "doom and gloom" or GOOD NEWS!

if the word "gospel" literally means "good news", then why do Christian preachers preach "doom and gloom"? 

short answer: I don't know.

"Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death and brought Life to Light through the GOSPEL." Cf. 2 Timothy 1:10

"God has called us through the GOSPEL, to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." Cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:14

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." ~ Luke 4:18-19

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life."  john 4:16 

image by Sharon Tate Soberon

https://www.flickr.com/photos/4thglryofgod/9264357485

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psalm 148, all creatures of our God and king

Hallelujah!

I

Praise the LORD from the heavens;
praise him in the heights.

Praise him, all you his angels;
give praise, all you his hosts.

Praise him, sun and moon;
praise him, all shining stars.

Praise him, highest heavens,

you waters above the heavens.

Let them all praise the LORD’s name;
for he commanded and they were created,

Assigned them their station forever,
set an order that will never change.

II

Praise the LORD from the earth,
you sea monsters and all the deeps of the sea;

Lightning and hail, snow and thick clouds,
storm wind that fulfills his command;

Mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars;

Animals wild and tame,
creatures that crawl and birds that fly;

Kings of the earth and all peoples,
princes and all who govern on earth;

Young men and women too,
old and young alike.

Let them all praise the LORD’s name,
for his name alone is exalted,
His majesty above earth and heaven.

He has lifted high the horn of his people;
to the praise of all his faithful,
the Israelites, the people near to him.

Hallelujah!

psalm 148

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d3gO6qDLNA 


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Creatures_of_Our_God_and_King


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canticle_of_the_Sun

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St._Francis.jpg

Nicholas Roerich / Public domain

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isaiah 45, sovereign God

Thus says the LORD to his anointed, Cyrus, whose right hand I grasp, Subduing nations before him, stripping kings of their strength, Opening doors before him, leaving the gates unbarred: I will go before you and level the mountains;

Bronze doors I will shatter, iron bars I will snap. I will give you treasures of darkness, riches hidden away, That you may know I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who calls you by name. For the sake of Jacob, my servant, of Israel my chosen one, I have called you by name, giving you a title, though you do not know me.

I am the LORD, there is no other, there is no God besides me. It is I who arm you, though you do not know me, so that all may know, from the rising of the sun to its setting, that there is none besides me.

I am the LORD, there is no other. I form the light, and create the darkness, I make weal and create woe; I, the LORD, do all these things. Let justice descend, you heavens, like dew from above, like gentle rain let the clouds drop it down. Let the earth open and salvation bud forth; let righteousness spring up with them!

I, the LORD, have created this. Woe to anyone who contends with their Maker; a potsherd among potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to the potter, “What are you doing?” or, “What you are making has no handles”? Woe to anyone who asks a father, “What are you begetting?” or a woman, “What are you giving birth to?” Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, his maker: Do you question me about my children, tell me how to treat the work of my hands? It was I who made the earth and created the people upon it; It was my hands that stretched out the heavens; I gave the order to all their host. It was I who stirred him up for justice; all his ways I make level. He shall rebuild my city and let my exiles go free Without price or payment, says the LORD of hosts.

Thus says the LORD: The earnings of Egypt, the gain of Ethiopia, and the Sabeans, tall of stature, Shall come over to you and belong to you; they shall follow you, coming in chains. Before you they shall bow down, saying in prayer: “With you alone is God; and there is none other, no other god! Truly with you God is hidden, the God of Israel, the savior! They are put to shame and disgrace, all of them; they go in disgrace who carve images. Israel has been saved by the LORD, saved forever! You shall never be put to shame or disgrace in any future age.” For thus says the LORD, The creator of the heavens, who is God, The designer and maker of the earth who established it, Not as an empty waste did he create it, but designing it to be lived in: I am the LORD, and there is no other. I have not spoken in secret from some place in the land of darkness, I have not said to the descendants of Jacob, “Look for me in an empty waste.”

I, the LORD, promise justice, I declare what is right. Come and assemble, gather together, you fugitives from among the nations! They are without knowledge who bear wooden idols and pray to gods that cannot save. Come close and declare; let them take counsel together: Who announced this from the beginning, declared it from of old? Was it not I, the LORD, besides whom there is no other God? There is no just and saving God but me. Turn to me and be safe, all you ends of the earth, for I am God; there is no other! By myself I swear, uttering my just decree, a word that will not return: To me every knee shall bend; by me every tongue shall swear, Saying, “Only in the LORD are just deeds and power. Before him in shame shall come all who vent their anger against him. In the LORD all the descendants of Israel shall have vindication and glory.”

isaiah 45

image by Keace Ruziel

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isaiah 46:4, "Even to your old age I am he, even when your hair is gray I will carry you; I have done this, and I will lift you up, I will carry you to safety."

https://www.flickr.com/photos/amy32080/23007862855

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1 corinthians 2: 6-10, God's wisdom

Yet we do speak a wisdom to those who are mature, but not a wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away. Rather, we speak God’s wisdom, mysterious, hidden, which God predetermined before the ages for our glory, and which none of the rulers of this age knew; for if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written:
“What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard,
and what has not entered the human heart,
what God has prepared for those who love him,”

this God has revealed to us through the Spirit.

For the Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God.

1 corinthians 2: 6-10 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRyOS0nZr7s

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isaiah 58: 1-12

Cry out full-throated and unsparingly, lift up your voice like a trumpet blast; proclaim to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. They seek me day after day, and desire to know my ways, like a nation that has done what is just and not abandoned the judgment of their God; they ask of me just judgments, they desire to draw near to God. “Why do we fast, but you do not see it? afflict ourselves, but you take no note?”

See, on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits, and drive all your laborers. See, you fast only to quarrel and fight and to strike with a wicked fist! Do not fast as you do today to make your voice heard on high! Is this the manner of fasting I would choose, a day to afflict oneself? To bow one’s head like a reed, and lie upon sackcloth and ashes? Is this what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD? Is this not, rather, the fast that I choose: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; setting free the oppressed, breaking off every yoke? Is it not sharing your bread with the hungry, bringing the afflicted and the homeless into your house; clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own flesh?

Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed; your vindication shall go before you, and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer, you shall cry for help, and he will say: “Here I am!”. If you remove the yoke from among you, the accusing finger, and malicious speech; if you lavish your food on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then your light shall rise in the darkness, and your gloom shall become like midday; then the LORD will guide you always and satisfy your thirst in parched places, will give strength to your bones and you shall be like a watered garden, like a flowing spring whose waters never fail. Your people shall rebuild the ancient ruins; the foundations from ages past you shall raise up; "Repairer of the breach," they shall call you, "Restorer of ruined dwellings."

isaiah 58: 1-12

image by WC Ferrell

https://www.flickr.com/photos/66355109@N00/33886572600/

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Luke 23: 26-33, the way of the cross

As they led him away they took hold of a certain Simon, a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country; and after laying the cross on him, they made him carry it behind Jesus. A large crowd of people followed Jesus, including many women who mourned and lamented him. Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children, for indeed, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.’ At that time people will say to the mountains, ‘Fall upon us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’ for if these things are done when the wood is green what will happen when it is dry?” Now two others, both criminals, were led away with him to be executed.

When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him and the criminals there, one on his right, the other on his left. 

Luke 23: 26-33

image by Roger Marks

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rpmarks/4314342099

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https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Golgotha_cross-section.svg

Yupi666 at English Wikipedia [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

The winding way of the cross in old city Jerusalem began at the Antonia Fortress (that later became the site of Pontius Pilate' praetorium--the building was the court where Jesus was tried for blasphemy before being crucified) and ended on the top of the steep hill called Golgatha--a distance of approximately 0.6 kilometer, or 3/8 mile. Via Dolorosa - Wikipedia 

image by Benjamin (click on the link below to zoom in)

IL09 1411 Map of the Via Dolorosa, Jerusalem ויה דולורוזה | Flickr

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/

we live on top of a hill overlooking the town of strasburg va. this photograph was taken just outside our back door:

I imagine that the topography from our backyard looking northwest is similar to the topography from golgotha looking towards Jerusalem. looking directly over the stormwater management pond outfall structure, I visualize the great temple at the top of the ridge about a mile away. I visualize Jerusalem's exterior wall at the bottom of the hill in the valley about a half mile away. the elevation difference between the bottom of the hill and where I was standing when I took this photograph is similar to the elevation difference between golgotha and where Jesus began carrying His cross at Jerusalem's exterior wall (shown in the color illustration above).

crucified Jesus, have mercy on us.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cristo_crucificado.jpg

Diego Velázquez [Public domain]

Commons:Copyright tags/Country-specific tags - Wikimedia Commons

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Romans 8:15, "The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, 'Abba, Father.'”

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wfryer/30474330822

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it is well with my soul

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY5o9mP22V0


It Is Well with My Soul - Wikipedia

https://www.flickr.com/photos/shutterin_sharon/16394418908

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"glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to people of good will." luke 2:14

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAkom7xYw3s

image by Sharon Tate Soberon

https://www.flickr.com/photos/4thglryofgod/8317434110

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bible message: doom or hope?

HOPE! 

then why do preachers preach doom and gloom?
short answer: I don't know.

john chapter 11:
Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and dried his feet with her hair; it was her brother Lazarus who was ill. So the sisters sent word to him, saying, “Master, the one you love is ill.” When Jesus heard this he said, “This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was. Then after this he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and you want to go back there?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in a day? If one walks during the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if one walks at night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” He said this, and then told them, “Our friend Lazarus is asleep, but I am going to awaken him.” So the disciples said to him, “Master, if he is asleep, he will be saved.” But Jesus was talking about his death, while they thought that he meant ordinary sleep. So then Jesus said to them clearly, “Lazarus has died. And I am glad for you that I was not there, that you may believe. Let us go to him.” So Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go to die with him.”

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, only about two miles away. And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. [But] even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”

When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying, “The teacher is here and is asking for you.” As soon as she heard this, she rose quickly and went to him. For Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still where Martha had met him. So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her saw Mary get up quickly and go out, they followed her, presuming that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Sir, come and see.” And Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.” But some of them said, “Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?”

So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, “Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me.” And when he had said this, he cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, “Untie him and let him go.” 

john 11: 1-44 

image by Eli Christman

https://www.flickr.com/photos/gammaman/45770503262

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"'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'"
jeremiah 29: 11

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAL7w7qWb78

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"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." romans 12:2

https://www.flickr.com/photos/titobalangue/5172319098

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