Full Wolf Moon Tonight

 

The first full moon of the new year, called the Wolf Moon, will also
be a 'micromoon' as lovely Luna will be on the far side of the earth
and furthest from the sun.

Wolf Howling Beneath The Full Moon

Image courtesy/Pinterest

According to the folks at the Old Farmer's Almanac, 
January's full Wolf Moon will reach peak illumination 
 tonight around 6:09 P.M. EST.   Moonrise will be on
 the northeastern horizon around sunset.

For the past few days we have had mainly overcast skies with sporadic
rain showers, but, I am hoping the skies will clear off tonight! 🌝

. 

The Wolf and The Mastiff

Aesop's Fables

(1869)

Ernest Griset

(1843-1909)

French painter

Image courtesy/Old Book Illustrations

The January moon is ripe,  It spills its light
into the dark night, an extrovert needing to be
the center of attention.  There is a reason
wolves howl when the moon reveals the fullness
of itself, and although I haven't done so,
I've felt the urge-a longing so ancient and wild
as if in a time past we came from an enchanted place,
a place so beautiful we want only to return.

Now the moon casts its cold white light
onto everything-the fields glitter and the lake
gives itself up to receive the radiance
of that dominating presence.

We may lose ourselves in brilliance,
an attraction that smolders, just waiting to be lit.
No secrets, no dark and quiet corners.
The moon demands clarity.

Come into the light.

"Wolf Moon"
Lois Parker Edstrom
American poetess

What Place Does Tradition Have In The Christian Faith?

 

Dr. Todd Baker of Faith Foundations explains how tradition 
should never go beyond the authority of the Holy Scriptures.

What Place Does Tradition Have In The Christian Faith

Faith Foundations With Dr. Todd Baker

Our Jewish Roots

(January 5, 2023)

Dave Hunt: The Church Is Being Prepared For The Antichrist

 

Where are the men and women of God who will stand up and say,
 "Halt! This is False!"

An important teaching for believers in these uncertain times
from beloved Christian apologist/author and founder of
The Berean Call Ministries Dave Hunt (1926-2013).

The Church Is Being Prepared For The Antichrist-Dave Hunt

 Uploaded by Whole Bible Believer Woman

Wednesday's Word: The Spirit-Controlled Life

 

"Jesus answered her: All who drink of this water will be thirsty again.
But whosever takes a drink of the water that I will give them shall never,
no never, be thirsty any more.  But the water that I will give them shall
become a spring of water welling up, flowing, bubbling continually,
within them unto eternal life."
(John 4:13-14)

Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob's Well

Picture courtesy/Pinterest

Let us think of the Holy Spirit and the inner life of the believer.

There is an inner life; an inner life so deep, so truly inner, that no one
knows it but God and ourselves.  It is a life of which, in its deeper depths,
we never speak to our dearest friends.

  There are defeats there, there are victories there-heart surgings, heartaches,
that we cannot put into words-we can only go with them before God and the Spirit,
who helpeth our infirmities, can make intercession for us
 with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Now, we are to think of the Holy Spirit as indwelling the believer:

The Upspringing Foundation Within

What a wonderful symbol it is!  How apart from all other instructions,
it speaks of the constant renewal of the spiritual life. You know the contrast
was with Jacob's Well, which was very deep, and out of which water
must be laboriously drawn..

When our Lord spoke to the woman about this living water, this water
which was not down in the bottom of the well, but was upspringing, 
she asked a question:  "Whence hast thou this water? Thou hast
nothing to draw with and the well is deep."

What a contrast, what a picture of the average Christian life!

Somehow, if we are Christians at all, we get on; we manage to get
through the day after a fashion, but it is just like that poor woman,
laboriously drawing water out of Jacob's Well. 

 We draw it up just a little at a time, and some of us with a sense that we
have nothing to draw with, and there is a constant effort to be spiritual;
 and over against that our Lord puts the picture of a fountain, that 
springs up of its own lovely energy, and throws its crystal flood into the 
 clear air and dances and sparkles there in the sunlight, and then flows
away to be kissed by the sun back again into the azure blue.

Now the Christian life, the true spiritual life in Christ's conception of it,
is a life which has within it the source and renewal of its freshness
and vigor and power.  An upspringing foundation constantly fed
from a higher source, coming down that it may ascend again.

Here is a little springlet in the valley half afraid that it may dry up;
and the spring up on the mountain says: "No, you shall not dry up,
for I am renewing your abundance all the time."

What a contrast with the average life!

Here is the plentitude of divine power, the omnipotent Spirit of God,
Who has not only taken up His abode in us, but wishes to be in the
believer a living vital force, constantly renewed, 
Himself, the unwasting Source.

Now, is our Christian life like that, or do we have to painfully draw
it with a creaking windlass out of Jacob's Well till our backs ache?

Which is it?  There is a contrast.

From the chapter, "The Spirit-Controlled Life"
"The New Life In Christ Jesus"
Cyrus Ingerson "C.I." Scofield 
(1843-1941)
American theologian, minister, and writer
Editor of the Scofield Study Bible.

"The New Life In Christ" was compiled from the
sermons  Dr. Scofield preached to his congregations
in Dallas, Texas and Northfield, Massachusetts, and 
with the exception of "The Imparted Life"  all were 
 first published in the "Dallas News". 

This edition was published in association with
Oliver B. Green
(1915-1976)
American Independent Fundamentalist 
Baptist Evangelical Minister and
 Founder of  The Gospel Hour Inc.
Greenville, South Carolina
Published in the USA.
 

 "This book is here and now committed to the care of Him whom
it seeks to exalt in the fervent prayer that through His grace it may
show the way into happy, victorious, fruitful Christian living
to many in bondage."-C.I. Scofield

Tuesday Biblical Word Study: Amazing Eye-Opener!/Messianic Rabbi Zev Porat Preaches

 

Rabbi Zev Porat warns about taking Bible verses out of context.

Amazing Eye-Opener!

Messianic Rabbi Zev Porat

messiah ofisrael

(January 3, 2023)

Monday Meditation: I Was Once A Stranger

 

"Behold the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up
to David a righteous Branch, and He will reign as King and do wisely
and will execute justice and righteousness in the land.

In His days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely;
and this is His name by which He shall be called:
The Lord Our Righteousness"
(Isaiah 23: 5-6)

"She will bear a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus
(the Greek form of the Hebrew Joshua), which means Savior,
for He will save His people from their sins, that is, prevent
them from failing and missing the true end and scope of
life, which is God.

All this took place that it might be fulfilled which the Lord
has spoken through the prophet Isaiah: (7:14)

Behold the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a Son,
and they shall call His name Emmanuel-which, when translated,
means, "God is with us."
(Matthew 1:21-23)

"Namely, the righteousness of God comes by believing with
personal trust and confident reliance on Jesus Christ the Messiah.
And it is meant for all who believe.  For there is no distinction."
(Romans 3:22)

"Jehovah Tsidkenu"
Image courtesy/ArtBreak.com

I once was a stranger to grace and to God,
I knew not my danger and felt not my load;
Though friends spoke in rapture of Christ on the tree
*Jehovah Tsidkenu was nothing to me.

I oft read with pleasure, to sooth or engage,
Isaiah's wild measure and John's simple page;
But e'en when they pictured the blood sprinkled tree
Jehovah Tsidkenu seemed nothing to me.

Like tears from the daughters of Zion that roll,
I wept when the waters went over His soul;
Yet thought not that my sins had nailed to the tree
Jehovah Tsidkenu-'twas nothing to me.

When free grace awoke me, by light from on high,
Then legal fears shook me, I trembled to die;
No refuge, no safety in self could I see-
Jehovah Tsidkenu my Savior must be.

My terrors all vanished before the sweet Name;
My guilty fears banished, with boldness I came
To drink at the fountain, life giving and free-
Jehovah Tsidkenu is all things to me.

Jehovah Tsidkenu!  my Treasure and Boast,
Jehovah Tsidkenu! I ne'er can be lost;
In Thee I shall conquer by flood and by field,
My Cable, my Anchor, my Breast-Plate, and Shield!

Even treading the valley, the shadow of death,
This Watchword shall rally my faltering breath;
For while from life's fever my God sets me free,
Jehovah Tsidkenu, my death song shall be.

"I Was Once A Stranger"
(1837)
Robert Murray McCheyne
(1813-1843)
Minister of Saint Peter's Established Church
(Church of Scotland)
Dundee, Scotland
Missionary to Palestine (Israel) and hymn writer

* Jehovah Tsidkenu is Hebrew for "The Lord Our Righteousness"

New Year's Morning

"To everything there is a season, and a time for every matter
 or purpose under heaven."
(Ecclesiastes 3:1)

Beautiful Sunshine and Snow

(Alaska)

Image courtesy/Pinterest

Only a night from old to new!

Only a night and so much wrought!

The Old Year's heart all weary grew,

But said: "The New Year rest has brought

The Old Year's hopes its heart laid down,

As in a grave, but trusting, said:

"The blossoms of the New Year's crown

Bloom from the ashes of the dead."


The Old Year's heart was full of greed;

With selfishness it longed and ached,

And cried, "I have not half I need.

My thirst is bitter and unslaked.

But to the New Year's generous hand

All gifts in plenty shall return.

True love it shall understand;

By all my failures it shall learn.

I have been reckless; it shall be

Quiet and calm and pure of life.

I was a slave; it shall go free,

And find sweet pace where I leave strife."

Only a night from old to new!

Never a night such changes brought.

The Old Year had its work to do;

No New Year miracles are wrought.

Always a night from old to new!

Night and the healing balm of sleep!

Each morn is New Year's morn come true.

Morn of a festival to keep

All nights are sacred nights to make

Confession and resolve and prayer;

All days are sacred to wake

New gladness in the sunny air.

Only a night from old to new;

Only a sleep from night to morn.

The new is but the old come true;

Each sunrise sees a new year born.

"New Year's Morning"
Helen Hunt Jackson
(1831-1885)
 Prolific American writer and poetess.
Helen further used her writing skills
to expose the terrible mistreatment 
of  American Indian tribes by the
U.S. Government in her book,
 "A Century of Dishonor"
(1881)