Over the past few weeks, I’ve been enjoying Bro. Luke’s Sunday School classes on “Prayer in the Psalms”. If you haven’t been able to attend, you can watch them on the ecclesia’s website. He has covered such topics as meditation, petition, thanksgiving, and praise and reflected on how we can incorporate these into our daily prayers. It got me thinking of another aspect of our prayers that Luke wasn’t able to cover and that is Psalms of lament. I called up Luke and we discussed it and he agreed it would be a nice compliment to the classes that he gave.

Who or what was the Satan that tempted Jesus in the wilderness? For many, the seemingly obvious answer would be the angel that rebelled and fell from heaven. It is the popular belief that Jesus in the wilderness confronted this powerful angelic Satan that goes around opposing God, seducing people and created evil in the world. There are challenges to this assumption.

The Scene

 “And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch.” (John 10:22-23)

This document is my color-coding of the different characters in the Song of Solomon.

You might have heard about this story of hid treasure. It’s about a man named Forrest Fenn. NPR published a news story on March 13, 2016 that reads,

“Somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, there is a bronze chest filled with gold and precious gems. The search for this hidden treasure has become a hobby for some, an obsession for others, and for one recent searcher — a fatal pursuit.

In previous studies we have seen the importance of the ecclesia in the Old Testament, established on the day of the assembly before mount Sinai. It was this ecclesia that had instituted principles upon which Christ's ecclesia would be built. As we have also considered, at times the whole ecclesia would be involved and be pleased with an important decision concerning matters of faith and worship.

If you are a Christadelphian, I am sure you have had one of those times where you have told an interested friend you attend a Christadelphian church. It is that word "church" that can make us pause as we say it. As Christadelphians we have been conditioned to use the Greek word "ecclesia" in place of the world "church". But it is hard to explain, so the word "church" is used as to not create confusion. That is understandable. In fact, some Christadelphians have taken that a step further and identify themselves as a "church" on their signage and online. I am not comfortable with that.

There are four times in scripture that it says the whole ecclesia was pleased with a decision or action. Two in the New Testament and two in the Old Testament. It is a phrase which ties the New Testament ecclesia with the Old Testament ecclesia in principle and practice.

 The table below shows the dates and events while the children of Israel are at Mount Sinai.

Cacophony. That’s a funny word. Do you know what it means? It’s defined as, “a harsh discordant and meaningless mixture of sounds.” It’s like the orchestra when it’s warming up. It’s like the city street filled with engine noise and horns and shouts of people. We live in a world that is filled with cacophony. A lot of noise.