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  Videos circulating online and satellite imaging  confirmed reports  of widespread atrocities in the Sudanese city of El Fasher, which was taken by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) rebel group over the weekend. Satellite images show pools of blood and piles of bodies around the city, and videos show alleged RSF forces—which include child soldiers—murdering prisoners in cold blood. Government-aligned forces who defended the city during an 18-month siege, as well as experts from the Yale School of Public Health Humanitarian Research Lab, say that RSF forces are attempting to ethnically cleanse non-Arab populations from the city. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director of the World Health Organization,  said Tuesday  that his organization had received reports of 460 people being murdered at a maternity hospital in the city. The total casualties from the ongoing sack are unknown but most likely run into the thousands. These kinds of reports cause me to question our ...

Yesterday's post was a long read; I'll get to the point here.  We discussed Matthew 6:1-4 in the Bible study I attend with my pastor and others. It was very meaningful for me, as always, and I trust it is for them.  “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven.   2  Therefore,   when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.   3  But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,   4  that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret   will Himself reward you   [ a ] openly. I use the NKJV, which has its good and not as good points; the word "openly" does not appear in the NU (Nestle-Aland) and M (Majority) ...

 I am experiencing Halloween through the lens of a grandma of a 22-month-old girl.  As a fearful child, I did not like scary stuff. If people in the '60s had put up the kind of "decorations" I see today, I would have been terrified and unable to walk the streets to school. On my street there is a twenty-foot skeleton of a human and a five-foot skeleton of a dog. I'm not sure which is worse. (I may be wrong on the heights, but they are huge.) This house also has two dressed skeletons waving at passers-by. Others have blow-up figures of cartoon characters and typical Halloween personages. In my son's neighborhood there are witches, ghosts, and a slightly demonic scarecrow.  Annie can't miss them when we take our walk, but I don't draw her attention to them. My son says she isn't scared by them; perhaps she has no context. She is more frightened by the fact that a tree landed on their house last week due to high winds and sent large limbs through the roof...

  I am teaching about Hezekiah and Josiah, two “good” kings of Judah (out of a slew of losers) who might be said to have incurred “revivals” in the 600s BC in the Southern Kingdom. I see these two regimes as times for the individual Jews to repent even though the prophesied end would come: destruction of their land and capital and temple; exile; and then return of a humbled people 70 or more years later. It is hard to imagine the history of the Bible without 586 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel, Cyrus, etc. The apostasy was simply too long-standing, too intense, too empty of real national repentance. The exile, in my opinion, made Judaism what it is today and led to the ministry of Jesus on earth. For example, the synagogue system happened because of it, and the Pharisees, Maccabees, second temple, and Rome. One episode in the life of Hezekiah, who is kind of a mixed bag of behaviors, led me to think deeply about my own Christian experience as an evangelical, former fundamental...

 We cannot study this lesson without the big picture. Just taking a few verses out of context will not honor the Lord or the Word. We can consider the last part of II Kings like a countdown to judgment. 722: The ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom (Samaria) were conquered and destroyed by the King of Assyria (Syria area today), Sargon II. He was soon replaced by Shalmenesser and then Senacherib. 716-687: The king of Judah, Ahaz, the southern kingdom that were the direct descendants of David and Solomon (line of Jesus Christ), died. He was an evil king. Hezekiah becomes king at age 25. Hezekiah is commended in II Kings 18:3 and following, although he was not flawless. He removed idolatrous practices, one of them being the worship of the bronze serpent from Moses’ time (Numbers 21). He tried to stop paying tribute to the king of Assyria, which almost caused a war, and he had to make extensive back payments by stripping gold and silver from parts of ...

 For the past two months, I have been meeting with our pastor and five other people on Wednesday evenings. We study and discuss the passage that the pastor will preach on that week. I am honored and humbled (is that possible at the same time) to be in the group and find it deeply meaningful. We have been studying Joseph's life (what a narrative!) and are now in the gospels, particularly Matthew and the Sermon on the Mount. Even more particularly, tonight we discuss Matthew 6:1-4.  I think Pastor wants to address giving, and he did give a forecast of that last week. He has not to my knowledge done so in a long time, if ever. We do not pass a plate any longer (post COVID but I also think before that dark time). He is not a pastor who wants to be known for talking money frequently.  But . . . giving is a spiritual practice. It's not just a matter of supporting one's congregation. There is plenty in the Bible about giving materially (financially) to the church one attends, to...

My trip to Turkey was eleven days of my life, and nine and a half of those actually in the country. This is a limited time to get a sense of what the country is like, but here are my thoughts, and my prayers. One is not very long in the country before you know you are in a Muslim country. It is not just that the country has a high Muslim population, which is between 98 and 99%. It is an officially Muslim country. The flag boldly says so. The presence of mosques and minarets every few blocks in the city and somewhat more spread out but prevalent in the villages says so. The loudspeakers with prayer calls already recorded loudly proclaiming in Arabic what everyone’s responsibility is says so. The way more than usual the number of women in head scarves to full burkas says so. We see that here in the U.S., but not as much. However, one sees far less of it than one might expect given the architecture and flag. On the other hand, the loudspeakers do not have the same effect on everyone....

Video of repentance from Ligonier Ministries (you can find these on Facebook).. We have to repent daily because we sin daily. But I think we have to dig deeper than, “God, I’m sorry I did a bad thing...and please help me not do it again.” Why did we do that “thing?” say that “thing?” And is the “thing” we did sin or an outcome of the real sin or even a cause of other sin? My story about Butter. This lesson is about sin. The what, the why, and solution. Ultimately, it is about grace. (end with video of grace). Today’s lesson is about how the Northern Kingdom—the ten tribes of Israel other than Levi and Judah—were conquered by the Assyrian kingdom. II Kings 17:1-23. Judah was a little better since they were the descendants of David and Solomon. They were able to forestall their judgment for about 120 more years until they went to Babylon for 70 years. Why did Israel (and Judah) keep returning to sins of idolatry and all that is associated with it, which at that ti...

 The current state of the cities when you take this tour has nothing to do with the letters in Revelation 2 and 3.  Sardis was an interesting location because of its highly Jewish theme. It was on the Royal Road: The  Royal Road  is an ancient  highway  reorganized and rebuilt for trade in the 5th century BC  Achaemenid Empire . [ 1 ]  The  road  was built to facilitate rapid communication on the western part of the large empire from  Susa  to  Sardis [ 2 ]  and was probably perfected under  Darius I . Mounted couriers of the  Angarium  were supposed to travel 1,677 miles (2,699 km) from Susa to Sardis in nine days; the journey took ninety days on foot. [ 3 ]   Obviously from Wikipedia. So Esther's messengers (to tell the Jews to defend themselves) came this way. There is a beautiful synagogue in Sardis that is being restored. There did not seem to be a modern-day city there, just the excavati...

 Hierapolis is not one of the cities of the Seven Churches, but a place where excavations are going on because of the hot spring. These first photos are of Pluto's Gate, and these waters were problematic; they would heal people but later kill them because they have plutonium. The statue is a copy.  There is where the hot springs come out and we could soak our feet. It felt very good after walking up a mountain to see in Laodicea and across a field. On the mountain slope was the place where Philip (of Acts) was martyred and buried.  So nice of the ancient Greeks to create this sign to warn about earthquakes. After Laodicea's breadth and scope, Philadelphia is a disappointment. It is literally a city block with the ruins of  4th or 5th century church and them a random collection of pieces found during city maintenance and road building work. I don't begrudge them that, though. Excations on the scale of Ephesus and Laodicea are very expensive and both of those sites are...