This Week’s Blog…
How Should We Respond to Conspiracy Theories?
It’s June 2017 and Donald Trump is President of the United States of America. As he is on his quest to make America great again, a young charismatic leader starts a tour across the country winning the hearts of the masses by meeting their needs and offering a message of hope. The core of his message is “my administration is at hand!”
When I was growing up in Brooklyn, NY my parents used to put a picture in my room that used to scare me sometimes at night. It was an expressionless picture of Jesus that looked very life like, with piercing eyes that seemed to follow you across the room. It created a picture in my mind that God was watching me to see if I was going to mess up. So at night I would often turn over so I wouldn't see His eyes
And He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.” But he said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!” So He said to him, “What is your name?” He said, “Jacob.” And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel;[a] for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked, saying, “Tell me Your name, I pray. And He said, “Why is it that you ask about My name?” And He blessed him there.
Already, throughout his life, God had given Jacob evidence that He was with him. And even on the way to his country, Jacob, in verse 1, met the angels of God. Verse 2 says when he saw them he said, “This is God’s camp.” Before Jacob even prayed, God wanted him to know that He was with him to protect him. However, even after Jacob prays, he still tries one more thing. He sends him huge gifts, which suggest to Essau that he has not come to claim his birthright and to hopefully appease his brother. We pick up the story in verse 22...
A CBS reporter sits down to interview Dewey Bozella, a 52 year old man who is about to make his professional boxing debut against a 30 year old professional boxer. But don't bet against Dewey Bozella yet. He's already won the fight of his life. His childhood in Brooklyn would have beaten most people down. He watched his father beat his mother to death and he lost two brothers to the streets. At 19, he was arrested and later convicted for the murder of a 92-year-old woman. He was sentenced to Sing Sing for a crime he maintained he did not commit. When Bozella was offered release if
I love eating breakfast, don’t you? I especially love having smoothies for breakfast. What is your favorite breakfast food? Now image that you get to sit down and eat breakfast with the one person you love and admire most in the world. It can be a family member, friend, a famous person; it doesn’t matter. Now imagine that the last time you were with them you publicly disrespected them and denied knowing who they were with cursing. Now how do you feel?
Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that He would have gone farther. But they constrained Him, saying, “Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.” And He went in to stay with them. Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight.
Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
In 2011 I had one of the best summers ever. I got to know some really amazing people that summer, who also happened to be apart of my small group. One of the things our small group did was go to Cedar Point in Ohio. Now that was fun! Do you like roller coasters? I love roller coasters. Cedar Point had 17 roller coasters. Of course I didn’t get to go on all of them, but we had a great time.
