I’ve just booked to go to Keysuri in central Turkey. I’ve been meaning to go to Cappadocia national park for the last year or so.
Today after I’ve bought my tickets, I was amazed to see this!
Historic church discovered in Turkey’s Nevşehir ‘could change history of Orthodoxy’
(source is a secular Turkish news site)
In the four years I volunteered in Israel, I’ve been down this street several times a week. Its King George Street at the top of the famous Ben Yehuda Street precinct.
I’ve always wondered what this monument by the bus stop actually is, but never properly looked it up.
This year I’ve been learning the gospels, the book of Mark. Now I know where this phrase “Talitha Kumi” comes from.
Mark 5 : 35 While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?”
36 Overhearing[c] what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”
37 He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. 38 When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. 39 He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” 40 But they laughed at him.
After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41 He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). 42 Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. 43 He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.
טליתא קומ / Talitha Koum is Aramaic, where as טליתא קומי / Talitha Kumi is Hebrew, which mean arise.
I’d love to know who built this wall with a clock and what was its purpose. Its not that common to see phrases by Jesus himself to be actually at the sides of streets in Jerusalem.
This is really funny, seen on Facebook;
Rick Warren: The chicken was purpose driven.
Pelagius: Because the chicken was able to.
John Piper: God decreed the event to maximize his glory. OR . . . it was an act of Christian hedonism. The chicken realized that his greatest joy would only be found on the other side.
Irenaeus: The glory of God is the chicken fully alive.
C.S. Lewis: If a chicken finds itself with a desire that nothing on this side can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that it was created for the other side.
Billy Graham: The chicken was surrendering all.
Pluralist: The chicken took one of many equally valid roads.
Universalist: All chickens cross the road.
Martin Luther: The chicken was fleeing the Antichrist who had stolen the Gospel with his papist lies.
Tim LaHaye: The chicken didn’t want to be left behind.
James White: I reject chicken centered eisegesis.
John Wesley: The chicken’s heart was strangely warmed.
Rob Bell: The chicken. Crossed the road. To get. Cool glasses.
Joel Osteen: The chicken crossed the road to maximize his personal fulfillment so they he could be all that God created him to be.
Roger Olson: The chicken recognizes no clear evangelical boundries.
Driscoll: A [bleeping] chicken crossed the road to go get a beer.
Gary Demar: The chicken was fleeing the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. That’s it.
Jim Wallis: The chicken is an organizer for Occupy Barnyard.
Emergent: For this chicken, its not the destination that’s important. Its the journey itself.
N.T. Wright: This act of the chicken, which would be unthinkable in British barnyards, reeks of that American individualism that is destructive to community.
Al Mohler: When a chicken begins to think theologically, he has no other alternative but to come over to the Calvinist side of the road.
Michael Horton: The chicken was forsaking the kingdom of this world to live solely in the Kingdom of Christ.
John Frame: The chicken had an existential need to change its situation according to a new norm.
T.F. Torrance: The inner logic of the incarnation proved an irresistible draw to the other side of the road.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer: He was abandoning cheap grace for the costly discipleship of risking the dangers of crossing the road.
Karl Barth: The crossing of the road, like all true theology, was done for profoundly Christological reasons. Because Christ came as the judge to be judged, all chickens cross the road in the end.
Paul Tillich: Because he sensed that the other side of the road represented the ground of all being.
New Ager: Because he saw the light beckoning him forward.
Fundamentalist: Because his pastor told him so.
Elevation Church: Because Pastor Furtick told him to get in the line on the other side for a spontaneous baptism.
This is a truly wonderful story.
This brave young woman fought the ISIS to defend the Kurdish people, and later found Jesus. Lets pray protection on this lady and her family and that this story will be a source of curiosity by all people, Jewish, Arab, and anyone else!
http://www.breakingchristiannews.com/articles/display_art.html?ID=17338
The original source from an magazine by Israeli believers has been deleted. Probably as it contains information on her baptism and this can be used by hostile religious groups to intimidate believers.
Was watching a concert I recorded off iPlayer during Christmas. This gig was in Paris after a terrorist attack that happened during another artists’ event.
This cool celeb Christian kicks two books across the long stage, before reciting Psalms….
I watched this footage 3 times over to see if I was believing what I saw. Whilst he is doing this after the song, he is reading out Psalm 23, yelling the Comfort Me!!! several times over.
The song “raised by wolves” is about the conflict in Northern Ireland, specifically about one attack in 1974. Does he blame Protestant/Catholicism differences for this? Would Bono rip up a Koran knowing this probably might trigger him having to be Salman Rushdie’s new room mate?
I did some google searching to see if any other bloggers has noticed and commented on this. It seems various U2 forums thought Bono was tearing up another work of literature.
I love U2’s music but never really thought their activism work really seemed that effective. This saddened me and I stopped watching this show. You can probably find this gig on Youtube if you can skip to the point roughly I’ve stopped it, if you find the end of Raised by Wolves song.
With all the ambiguity over the years of if this band of they know Jesus as their Lord and saviour, or just culturally Christian, or weak luke warm ‘progressive’ Christianity, after this, I can’t really take Bono seriously as a believer in Christ.
Interesting analysis of Bono on his faith from this link:
http://bereanresearch.org/does-u2s-bono-a-professing-christian-believe-the-bible/
Additional; just added this scripture which seems apt here
2 Timothy 3 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
Additional (2) – you can see for yourself at these concerts
26/5/2015 in Los Angeles 46 mins
19/9/2015 in Turin 46 min
25/9/2015 in Berlin (not so easier to see) 56 mins
Ultra orthodox Jewish Rabbinic authority groups try to silence the gospel from being talked about on secular Israeli television and media channel Walla.co.il
http://oneforisrael.org/blog/421-one-for-israel-s-statement-messianic-jews-on-walla-news
Maybe from trying to keep this information away from the general Israeli public, this will only cause people to be curious and cause what’s known in the media world as a Streissand effect.
Please, don’t use this announcement to hate the Ultra Orthodox, as they are loved by the Lord but blinded by artificial religious structure. For believers in Jesus/Yeshua we have non-earthly tools at our disposal to petition the Lord to get the gospel message to be unavoidable in Israel and everywhere else. Pray!!
Brit In Jerusalem 