Isarle Postol Church
LINK https://urluss.com/2tkSTI
Christmas services and activities are of course held in the Christian churches of Israel, the most famous of these being the carol concerts and services held at the Dormition Abbey (a Benedictine Monastery) on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. The YMCA in Jerusalem also holds a Christmas bazaar as well as a Christmas Eve carol concert.
The church in Nazareth began in 1960 through the efforts of Stewart and Henley. At least nine families have served as missionaries in Nazareth in the years since, said Evertt Huffard, a professor at Harding School of Theology who provides church equipping for missions through Mission Resource Network. Huffard and his wife, Ileene, served as missionaries in Nazareth for five years and return regularly to encourage the church, which is supported by the Broadway Church of Christ in Lubbock, Texas.Maurice Jadon serves as minister.
This is a very informative and helpful historical account of Paul and the establishment of the church at Thessalonica. Teaching strategies used to address the gospel of Christ to the Greeks, Romans and the Jews alike truly reflect and fulfill the desire of the Holy Spirit to establish the church in Thessalonica for the gospel of Christ to be taught and to encourage Christians to stand firm on their faith and to endure sufferings until Christ returns to punish the persecutors and the sinners, but save the righteous. Thank you for your work. You are blessed
In Revelation 1, we find the apostle John in exile on the tiny island of Patmos. Having been the overseer of the churches in Asia Minor, he was banished from society by the Romans to reduce his religious influence (verse 9). Exile was a horrible sentence, second only to the death penalty. In this context of persecution, John received the most detailed vision of things to come given to any apostle.
No longer meek and mild, Christ will put all evil and all enemies under His feet when He returns. His messages to the seven churches serve as a warning of the judgment to come while extending hope and encouragement to all who will listen.
The church of Ephesus had many admirable qualities and one tragic flaw. Christ commended them for their good works, their perseverance, and their church discipline that guarded against false teaching (Revelation 2:2-3).
Christians in developed countries today think little about being persecuted for their faith, but there are churches in the world where oppression is a daily reality. Such was the case for the ancient church at Smyrna. Refusing to worship pagan gods or the Roman emperors, they experienced pressure, poverty, and persecution (verse 9).
Christ commended the church in Philadelphia for four things: they had an open door, they had a little strength, they had kept the Word of God, and they had not denied the Lord. If we want to be commended by Christ like this church, we will go through open doors of ministry, depend on His strength, and be faithful to Him and His Word. What does this mean for us today
Today, many churches think there are too few people with too little money, too few gifts, and too few opportunities. But remember this truth: When we are weak, Christ is strong. Building the Church of Jesus Christ is not up to us. We depend on the Head of the Church to give His Body the strength it needs.
The Lord directed some of the harshest words recorded in the Bible at the church in Laodicea. He said the church made Him ill (Revelation 3:16). Lacking in every way, it was compromising, conceited, and Christless.
Officially, church historians recognize seven ecumenical church councils held between A.D. 325 and A.D. 787. The first, the First Council of Nicaea, met to agree on the nature of Jesus of Nazareth as both Son of God and Son of Man, as both fully divine and fully human.
The screen is of carved wood and decorated wood panels with brightly colored paintings of religious icons and scenes from the Bible. The spring where Mary went to draw water is located in the crypt of the church and still flows today. Visitors can see the well and 1,000 year old steps leading down to the spring. The grotto walls are cool and you can hear the gentle flow of the water and see grooves in the side of the well where the ropes holding buckets must have dug into the stone.
The Bible tells us that it was here that Jesus proclaimed he was the Son of G-d. His claim to be the Messiah enraged the people who then led him to the Mount of Precipice where they attempted to throw him to his death. A 12th century Crusader church is located two meters below ground level and visitors need to descend seven steps to reach the simple church. The unadorned church interior has exposed brickwork and a stone altar.
We stepped through a reasonably unprepossessing doorway, and I was immediately struck by a sense of divergence, of something not quite adding up to my expectations. This was far from the Latin Catholic church I had envisaged, with statues of brown-cowled, hooded monks with long, grey beards. Instead, it was decorated in a way that conjured up memories of visits to Athens, Istanbul and Beirut, rather than Mexico. A little further investigation revealed that my hunch had been correct, and that this was a Maronite church, a small Catholic sect I was unaware had any following outside Lebanon and the Middle East.The Cathedral of Our Lady of Valvanera was my first introduction to the Lebanese community in Mexico, but not my last. The history of the Lebanese in Mexico is long and fascinating, starting in 1892 on board French merchant ships, through the 1930s, to those fleeing the Israel-Lebanon conflict of 1948 and the Six Day War. Lebanese culture has become intertwined with that of Mexico, evidenced most starkly with the ubiquitous taco al pastor, the Mexified descendent of the schwarma or doner kebab.
Waffen-SS troops laid siege to the church the following day, but they were unable to take the paratroopers alive, despite the best efforts of 750 SS soldiers under the command of SS-Gruppenführer Karl Fischer von Treuenfeld. The men in the church had only small-caliber pistols, while the attackers had machine guns, submachine guns, and hand grenades. KubiÅ¡, Adolf Opálka, and Jaroslav Svarc were killed in the prayer loft after a two-hour gun battle. (KubiÅ¡ was said to have survived the battle and to have died shortly after from his injuries.) GabÃk, Josef Valcik, Josef Bublik and Jan Hruby committed suicide in the crypt after repeated SS attacks, attempts to smoke them out with tear gas, and Prague fire brigade trucks brought in to try to flood the crypt.
If we wish to understand the role of the church in society, it is imperative to have a clear understanding of the term 'people of God'. The New Testament, as the primary book of Christian revelation, which was passed down to us by the Apostles, is the primary source of orthodox doctrine. It is the most fundamental basis from which we are able to obtain the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The church fathers and ecumenical councils were protectors of holy tradition (paradosi). Their main task was to make pronouncements supporting the Holy Scriptures as the inspired word of God. They also sought, by using the Holy Scriptures, to enhance the life of the church. As such, they encouraged a wider interpretation of Scripture and promoted church doctrine based on scriptural truth (Patrologiae Graecae [PG] 32:188). Apart from the Holy Scriptures, holy tradition is another imperative source which authorises us to interpret the Scriptures. Such tradition enables Christian truths to be kept intact. Holy tradition allows for the development of the canons of the Church and its dogma from the Holy Scriptures. St Basil the Great said that oral tradition and written Scripture are equal to each other, as far as piety is concerned and, consequently, both are imperative for a clearer understanding and for living a life that is dominated by the revelatory truth of Jesus Christ. Such a phenomenon does not diminish the importance of Holy Scripture. In fact, Holy Scripture is always referred to in holy tradition. Therefore, the orthodox faith advocates that all church teachings are contained within Holy Scripture (Androutsos 1975). The New Testament, as Apostolic teaching, is, therefore, the fundamental source of holy tradition. The church seeks to preserve holy tradition as part of the life of the church which 'embraces the truth of the New Testament' (Papadopoulos 1964).
Such a basis must be understood, as we seek to ascertain who the Laos tou Theou are. As orthodox dogmas are identified as divinely revealed truths, they have total divine authority and are, therefore, regarded as expressions of the consciousness of the church. The pleroma (the fullness of the church) is the bearer of the dogmas of orthodoxy, as it is inspired by the Holy Spirit through a number of ecumenical councils (Karmiris 1965). The Orthodox Church refutes those dogmatic traditions which cannot be linked to the Apostles, regarding these as false witness. All books of Holy Scripture, both the Old and New Testament, are Theopnefsta (inspired) by the action of the Holy Spirit and must be understood in their general meaning and interpretation and not merely in terms of the words used.
Old Testament rites and events foreshadowed the emergence of the church of God (Ekklesia) of the New Testament. As his Laos were under his divine protection, both the bondage and suffering which they had to endure while they were confined in Egypt and their subsequent liberation and migration to the Promised Land, effectively foreshadowed the suffering and the utter glory of salvation that has been experienced by all God's people ever since. Being called upon to act as his servants, God's people were to be used by him to demonstrate his glory: 'You are my Servant, Israel, in whom I will show my glory' (Is 49:3). His Laos would serve to enlighten the Gentiles about his magnificence, demonstrating to them the truth: 59ce067264
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