Lasting Love: A Story from History with Angela Breidenbach
Doesn’t everyone want lasting love?
We have just celebrated Valentine’s Day. Now everyone is either eating candy or watching their flowers wilt or wishing someone gave them candy and roses. Our society suffers from an obsession with love, and yet we can’t even define it. We love our homes, our cars, our pets, and our spouses. Whenever this emotion takes hold of us we must obey its bidding. We can fall in love and out of love quickly. Using Scripture, we can define love. (Of course, we have to go back to 30 a.d. to the time when the church began. the disciples wrote what they learned from Jesus.) The love God has for us is called agape. It’s a love that impacts the will, seeking the best for the one loved. Agape not based primarily
Using Scripture, however, we can define love. (Of course, we have to go back to 30 a.d. to the time when the church began. The disciples wrote what they learned from Jesus.) The love God has for us is called agape. It’s a love that impacts the will, seeking the best for the one loved. Agape is not based primarily in the emotions, although emotion comes along with it. Jesus demonstrated agape when he came to earth. He left his glory behind and came to die for our sins.
Agape love does unselfish acts of service regardless of what the emotions appear to dictate. This is the kind of love that lasts. Ladies, you and I know our emotions ride a roller coaster depending on the state of our hormones and the amount of sleep we get. If we truly care about someone, we will agape love them whether we feel the emotion or not. Many times, we choose to act, and those emotions come later.
Today Angela Breidenbach shares a story of love from the history of her family:
3:50 Your grandfather married your grandmother to keep her reputation?
Karen Whiting: Christmas Advent – Teach Kids While They Wait
As a child, Christmas was a magical time for me. I loved the lights, the color, the carols, the excitement. I have lots of fond memories. At our church, combined choirs would do parts of Messiah every year. What a feast for the senses! Mother always made us wait for a tree because she liked real trees, and she worried about the tree drying out. It seemed like we were always the last to get a tree, but the big day would always arrive. Once the tree was up, she’d let us decorate. She’d hand us icicles, which were long, thin and shiny. She expected us to hang the icicles one by one one. I found it much more exciting to toss them on the tree. They always landed in interesting shapes which reflected the lights so nicely. However, I can remember how Christmas took forever to arrive. I remember talking about the eve of the eve of Christmas Eve, and then the eve of Christmas Eve.
The Christmas 2016 has arrived. The baby in the manger can easily be overlooked in our digital world. Parents must work to keep the focus on the true meaning of Christmas rather than the commercials and ads that catch the children’s attention. What a challenge! While we are busy preparing for the holiday, our children may grow restless since time passes slowly for them. Karen Whiting has written a book called Christmas is Coming, but Waiting is Hard. She has lots of ideas to share.
1:25 What are some activities that can help kids focus while they wait?
2:55 Do you cover the history of Christmas?
4:15 Share some traditions of the past and their meanings.
5:10 What is the peace candle?
7:01 What does red have to do with Christmas?
7:30 How about green?
8:00 What about the Christmas stocking?
9:15 How can you keep the new gadget or toy from becoming the focus of Christmas?
The Real Easter Story is about hope, and with the world in upheaval, we need lots of hope.
Easter stands alone as the most important holiday we celebrate.
Jesus predicted his death and resurrection, and according to his own words, it proved the validity of his claims to be the son of God, who came to die for our sins. Note:
Matthew 12:40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
John 2:19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
If Christ has not been risen “…our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.” I Corinthians 15
Jesus”…was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,
I remember during the time of the Reformation, they worshipped bits of the cross and even the nails. In fact, at one point Martin Luther joked about the number of nails that must have been used because at that time people claimed to have far too many bits of nails and fragments of the cross. While I’m not ready to say the Shroud of Turin is the burial garment of Christ, there are interesting bits of evidence that drop us back into the first century when we study the microscopic evidence.
The shroud is a long narrow piece of cloth. At that time, they folded a long piece of cloth over a body and tied at the feet, waist and head prior to burial. On this piece of cloth is a faint image of a crucified man. However, if you take a photograph, you have an incredible image of a man with details that wow the scholars and PhDs.
Crucifixion stopped in about 326 A.D. The shroud was dated with carbon 14 to be about the 1500s, but at that time, they would not know the details that appear to ring true regarding this burial cloth.
These details surrounding the shroud are worth studying because they give a picture of the historical events of the crucifixion and help us understand the suffering Christ endured.
ReAnn Ring interviewed Katie Luther: Halloween Message – ReAnn Ring filled in for Cynthia this week for a special interview
ReAnn Ring
Katie Luther or Katherine von Bora ‘arrived’ to celebrate the upcoming festivities for Halloween, also called Reformation Day. She married the former monk, Martin Luther. In preparation for All Saints Day, which fell on November 1, he chose to open debate with scholars on several points of theology. He nailed the famous ninety-five thesis to the door of the castle church on October 31st, which sparked a response across Europe. The negative reaction from Catholic theologians horrified him. At the Diet of Worms, Charles V condemned him as an outlaw. Once excommunicated, he founded the Lutheran church. In contrast to the Catholics, Luther’s preaching focused on salvation by faith and reliance on the authority of Scripture. And he translated the Bible into the language of the people.
Katie’s Halloween message gave details of her life in the 1500s, which may surprise some. A former nun, she shared the story of her life with the great reformer and left a message for us in these difficult times.
Cynthia and her family visited Germany in 2005 and discovered the entire nation took a holiday for October 31st. She toured the Luther home, the castle church, the state church, and other historical sites in Wittenberg, Germany. As a result Katherine von Bora became one of Cynthia’s favorite historical women. In order to teach more about Katie, Cynthia now does impersonations for women’s ministry groups and homeschool groups.
If you’d like to know more about the life of the woman behind Luther, you can learn more here.
Evidence for the Exodus? The Bible says God led Moses to free his people from Egypt and used the ten plagues to convince a reluctant Pharaoh. Scripture links the Passover with redemption, a key theme in the Bible. that makes this a key issue for Christians. But where’s the archaeological record? Today some Jewish people have abandoned their heritage because those facts appeared to be missing. But now, researcher Timothy P. Mahoney believes he found it. Listen and learn!
The latest landmark court decision distressed many believers. Our world changed, drastically. In light of that, how shall we live now? Cynthia interviewed Denise Shick of Help 4 Families, and Pastor Dane Skelton for answers. Listen and be encouraged.
