June 19 Nehemiah 12-13 Acts 4:23-37 Barnabas the Giver

Barnabas the Giver

Nehemiah 12-13 Acts 4:23-37 

36 And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus,

37 Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet.

The Bible goes into detail about Barnabas in verse 36.  His original name was Joses, but was renamed as Barnabas.  His new name means, the son of consolation.  I can only imagine that Barnabas was a listener and helped to console people.  He was a Levite and from the country of Cyprus.  So this was Barnabas, a friend to a person in need.

But not only did Barnabas give of his time, but he gave of his possessions.  The next verse said that he had land which he sold and brought the money to the apostles as a gift to the new church.  Imagine, this could have been the very first property of the first church.  And Barnabas humbly gave to the Lord because it says he laid the money at the apostles feet.  A sign of a gift, not of a loan.

Wow, what a giver.  I pray that I can give as God would want me to give whether it's time or money.  Either way it all belongs to God anyway.

Its Claims For Itself - Why believe the Bible

It’s important to know what the Bible says about itself. If the authors of Scripture had not claimed to speak for God, it would be presumptuous for us to make that claim for them. We would also have a different kind of problem. We would have a collection of unsolved mysteries, embodied in historical and ethical literature. But we would not have a book that has inspired the building of countless churches and synagogues all over the world. A Bible that did not claim to speak on behalf of God would not have become foundational to the faith of hundreds of millions of Christians and Jews (2 Peter 1:16-21). But with much supporting evidence and argument, the Bible’s authors did claim to be inspired by God. Because millions have staked their present and eternal well-being on those claims, the Bible cannot be a good book if its authors consistently lied about their source of information.

Its Preservation - Why believe the Bible

Just as the modern state of Israel was emerging from thousands of years of dispersion, a bedouin shepherd discovered one of the most important archeological treasures of our time. In a cave of the northwest rim of the Dead Sea, a broken jar yielded documents that had been hidden for two millennia. Additional finds produced manuscripts that predated previous oldest copies by 1,000 years. One of the most important was a copy of Isaiah. It revealed a document that is essentially the same as the book of Isaiah that appears in our own Bibles. The Dead Sea scrolls emerged from the dust like a symbolic handshake to a nation coming home. They discredited the claims of those who believed that the original Bible had been lost to time and tampering.

Its honesty - Why believe the Bible

The Bible is painfully honest. It shows Jacob, the father of its “chosen people,” to be a deceiver. It describes Moses, the lawgiver, as an insecure, reluctant leader, who, in his first attempt to come to the aid of his own people, killed a man, and then ran for life to the desert. It portrays David not only as Israel’s most loved king, general, and spiritual leader, but as one who took another man’s wife and then, to cover his own sin, conspired to have her husband killed. At one point, the Scriptures accuse the people of God, the nation of Israel, as being so bad they made Sodom and Gomorrah look good by comparison (Ezekiel 16:46-52). The Bible represents human nature as hostile to God. It predicts a future full of trouble. It teaches that the road to heaven is narrow and the way to hell is wide. Scripture was clearly not written for those who want simple answers or an easy, optimistic view of religion and human nature.

Mountain Lakes Adventure

 .  Proverbs 3:5-6

11 miles up to the mountain winding up and down.  It would have been great with a tram straight up the mountain, but we would have missed the family time together.  But God wants us to go on the straight path with Him.  Getting off God's path is not good.