THE GALILEE GALLERY

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There are over 800 stories and commentaries on Neil’s One A Day blog. It is added to daily.

GO TO NEIL’S OTHER BLOG ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS and read the following brain teasers.  CLICK ON URL BELOW

To visit this site…click on the URL below

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 The Galilee Gallery and other" NEW TESTAMENT CHARACTERS You OUGHT To Know BETTER

 

To better understand Jesus and the earthly world in which He lived,

it is important to know those around Him.

 THE APOSTLES

OF THE MANY WHO FOLLOWED JESUS, HE CHOSE ONLY TWELVE TO BE HIS APOSTLES

Twelve Minus One

 MATTHEW (Matthew 9:9) Some disciples are better known than others. MAITHEW is hardly lost in obscurity.

This native of Galilee was originally called Levi.

 As a tax collector who collected tolls and duties from those who passed over the Sea of Galilee and along the Damascus road he was not appreciated, to say the least.

It was no small thing that this educated man, on hearing Christ say, "Follow me," did just that leaving behind wealth and power. After Jesus called him, and since he could easily afford it, he gave a feast to mark the occasion.

 He was celebrating the ending of one way of life and the beginning of another. It was also an opportunity to give his former companions an insight into the new Gospel that had changed his life.

After the Ascension, he remained in Jerusalem and on the day of Pentecost received the gift of the Holy Spirit. A fifth-century church historian related that he was martyred in Ethiopia where he had traveled as a Christian missionary.

His gospel is a great gift because it so faithfully preserves the parables and words of Jesus.

SIMON TIlE ZEALOT (Luke 6: 15) Many people can name this SIMON as one of the Disciples but few can tell you much about him.

The reason is obvious, the New Testament shares little with us.

He is also referred to as the Canaanite, which does not refer to his place 'of birth but rather to his nature which was to be zealous.

 

 Luke bears out that he  was a member of the nationalistic Zealots, a Jewish sect which adhered strictly to Mosaic ritual, and never guilty of pacifism.

 

Ask Simon how he felt about religious liberty and he would have readily signaled that if it wasn't given, take it. It is said that the sect of Zealots was organized by a patriot known as Judas the Galilean. who when Judea was made a Roman province, refused to buy into the idea. Want to be a member of the Zealots? Pay no taxes. Resist Roman rule.

 

It can easily be inferred that Simon was another disciple who wanted Jesus to lead an earthly revolution.

 

++++++++++++++++++

Click on the URL below to WATCH NEIL IN HIS WORLD FAMOUS ONE MAN DRAMATIZATIONS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, BEN FRANKLIN, CHARLES WESLEY AND MARTIN LUTHER

TO WATCH NEIL WYRICK IN HIS ONE MAN DRAMAS (Presented to millions all around the world) (Ben Franiklin, Martin Luther, Charles Wesley and Abraham Lincoln (this Lincoln film takes 11 seconds to download but is worth the wait)

 

CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING

http://www.speakerneil.com/

 

V. Neil Wyrick’s ninth book THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN and is available at MAGNUS PRESS

AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.COM’S Kindle

 

http://www.magnuspress.com/OurProducts2.html 

 

STRETCH YOUR SOUL

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 There are over 800 stories and commentaries on Neil’s One A Day blog. It is added to daily.

GO TO NEIL’S OTHER BLOG ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS and read the following brain teasers.   

To visit this site…click on the URL below

 

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

 

 

What is the shape of this soul we need to keep on stretching? Is it round or square?  Or is it never the same shape today it was yesterday?

      Is it constantly changing as we grow it larger or shrink it smaller?  Does it have doors to let the love of God in, and doors to keep the evil of the devil out?
      You say you love some Rock music but not the words. Do you really think that you can listen to that music and ignore the words?  Really?  Or could it be that great big ear of our soul is listening and remembering?

      And how do your memories affect your soul?  Do they teach you?  Admonish you to make better memories in the future? 
      What does your soul feed on? 

These thoughts are soul food, and you might not like all you have heard, or some of it.  And some of it you may already have rejected out of hand because you  didn’t want to sup at these ideas.  They are giving you spiritual indigestion, but perhaps one day…one day you may buy into them.  One day, maybe…but not now.

      I speak now of the love Christ preaches for you and me to practice and perhaps you find the teaching to spicy for your taking.

There are those who treat you unkindly on a regular basis, and in your present condition, you will not dine on decent compassion because anger is more easily digested.

Welcome the stranger at church?  This is beyond your comfort zone, and so you will think about it, but you are not yet ready to do it.  Certainly not the homeless, penniless stranger that sometimes haltingly wanders through these richly, well built church doors.

      Do you feel something stirring inside of you at this moment?  Is it almost like a living thing?  What is it you feel?  God!  It is God roaming the alleys of your mind.  God prodding the pokiness of your soul to come alive. 

Have you let your soul remain an infant?  Refusing to let it grow up?  Refusing to let it grow upward toward being not just a child of God but a full grown spiritual man or woman for God?

And it is God’s right, you know, to reach out to you and seek to mold you and not give up on you.  It is His right and privilege and desire to see you become what your potential says you can become.

      In this world of storm, be a rainbow.
      In this devil-laden world, be a messenger for the Savior.
      Stretch your soul so you can forgive and not otherwise be petty and full of pout.

Build towers of kindness where angels will want to gather and sing.

Raise up the sails of your soul and let them gather in the winds of God.

Be an Eagle and fly so high you can almost hear the pearly gates swinging open for yet another soul that also stretched and stretched and stretched some more.

      Be soul-strong so that when the spirit of Auschwitz, or slavery, or racism, or any of like kin or kind seeks to live, you will destroy such thoughts.  You will speak out, and when you have finished speaking, 
     

      People will know that you have stretched your soul.

 

SPECIAL SALE...We've managed to purchase new copies of my book "THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN at a very good price...therefore...just send $3 (NO CHARGE FOR POSTAGE OR HANDLING) to:

 

Pageantry Inc. (The Church Without Walls)

7430 SW 59th Street

Miami, Florida 33143 

and we will immediately send you a copy of this book about which has been written...

"Positive, powerful utterances...skillfully enhancing our understaning and appreciation of Lincoln...(Lt. Colonel C.A.Olsen (Ret.) Asbury College (Professor Ret.)

"Wyrick has authored a wonderful examination of the spirituality of one of American history's most devoutly religious leaders...a pleasant and readable book that has a rich depth of information.  (Maynard Pittendreigh, Presbyterian Minister)

"THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN is an extremely well written book...it is both scholarly and very readable.  I came away impressed at Mr. Wyrick's portrayal of that President with an altered and enlarged vision of the man. (William Hoffman, Award winning fiction writer, author of Blood and Guile, and Wild Thorn.)                                              

GO TO SPEAKER.NEIL TO SEE NEIL'S ONE MAN AWARD WINNING DRAMATIZATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING

http://www.speakerneil.com/

DOES DISCOURAGEMENT MAKE A BIG DENT IN YOUR LIFE?

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GO TO NEIL’S OTHER BLOG ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS and read the following brain teasers.  CLICK ON URL BELOW There are over 700 stories and commentaries on this blog. It is added to daily.

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

                                                                 2 Timothy 1:7

 

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear;

 

but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

 

On Feb 8, 2011, the Hayden Planetarium in New York City ran an advertisement in that city’s newspapers inviting those who would like to make the first journey to another planet to submit an application.

The response was overwhelming.  Over 18,000 people, to be exact.

The applications were given to a panel of psychologists who concluded that the reason most of the applicants wanted to take the trip was because they wanted to start a new life.

 

They hadn’t done so well the first time around here on earth so they were discouraged, and just wanted to start all over again with a blank new page. 

 

They had failed to learn, or had succeeded in forgetting, a deep philosophical and theological truth; when discouragement is winning out, it isn’t that a new page is needed so much as some rewriting on the page you’ve got.

     

      There he was…a man sitting by a rippling stream enjoying his lunch.  The mountains in the distance were topped by fingers of gathering clouds that seemed to caress their lofty tops.  It was peaceful and he was savoring every moment.

 

Then came a bee; a very aggressive, buzzing bee with a stinger in full view.

     

      So the man swatted and swatted and swatted again, until he finally succeeded in smacking it to the ground. 

He felt bad now that the deed was done, but he certainly hadn’t wanted to be stung.  And then he watched in amazement as the bee struggled up from the sand to renew his attack.  This time he stamped on it, grinding it into the sand even harder and sat back down to resume eating his lunch. 

 

But then out of the corner of his eye he noticed movement in the sand.  That persistent bee was again dragging himself back into the land of the living.  Though the right wing seemed intact, the left one looked like a crumpled piece of paper.

 

The bee stretched his injured wing and experimented moving it slowly up and down, then ran its legs along the damaged surface, as if trying to straighten it out.

 

Being a pilot and knowing something about wings, the man concluded the bee would never fly again with such a hopelessly crippled wing.  But as the right wing began to move up and down, the left crippled wing tried to follow suit. 

 

At first the bee rose only three inches off above the ground before crashing back to earth.  Again and again it tried.  Each time, flying a little longer and a little higher until at last it took off into the air and was gone.

     

       Sometimes in your life and mine, it’s not a broken wing but broken dreams.

 

      And that’s when we need to flex our spiritual, emotional and physical stamina, weary though we may be.  Hobble if we can’t run; crawl rather than cave in, but always determined to give our all, however much of our all is left, and count our blessings.

                                                 +++++++++++++++++++++

                                                 +++++++++++++++++++++

SPECIAL SALE...We've managed to purchase new copies of my book "THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN at a very good price...therefore...just send $3 (NO CHARGE FOR POSTAGE OR HANDLING) to:

 

Pageantry Inc. (The Church Without Walls)

7430 SW 59th Street

Miami, Florida 33143 

 

and we will immediately send you a copy of this book about which has been written...

"Positive, powerful utterances...skillfully enhancing our understaning and appreciation of Lincoln...(Lt. Colonel C.A.Olsen (Ret.) Asbury College (Professor Ret.)

 

"Wyrick has authored a wonderful examination of the spirituality of one of American history's most devoutly religious leaders...a pleasant and readable book that has a rich depth of information.  (Maynard Pittendreigh, Presbyterian Minister)

 

"THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN is an extremely well written book...it is both scholarly and very readable.  I came away impressed at Mr. Wyrick's portrayal of that President with an altered and enlarged vision of the man. (William Hoffman, Award winning fiction writer, author of Blood and Guile, and Wild Thorn.)                                             

GO TO SPEAKER.NEIL TO SEE NEIL'S ONE MAN AWARD WINNING DRAMATIZATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING

http://www.speakerneil.com/

THE GALILEE GALLERY (Contnuation of Series)

If you want to share this blog with a friend go to the bottom of day’s content and click on TELL A FRIEND

GO TO NEIL’S OTHER BLOG ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS and read the following brain teasers.  CLICK ON URL BELOW There are over 700 stories and commentaries on Neil’s One A Day blog. It is added to daily.

 To visit this site…click on the URL below

 http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

 The Galilee Gallery and other" NEW TESTAMENT CHARACTERS You OUGHT To Know BETTER

To better understand Jesus and the earthly world in which He lived,

it is important to know those around Him.

 THE APOSTLES

OF THE MANY WHO FOLLOWED JESUS, HE CHOSE ONLY TWELVE TO BE HIS APOSTLES

Twelve Minus One

 THOMAS (JoHN 20:25) THOMAS is best remembered as Doubting Thomas.

He had seen Jesus perform His miracles, listened to His words such as, "Said I not unto thee, if thou wouldst believe. thou shouldest see the glory of God."

Still Thomas was a realist and he had trouble buying into anything other than " what he actually saw. While Jesus explained that His Kingdom was not of this world~

Thomas dreamed of an earthly realm -a power play with heavenly implications.

Thomas thought big. He wanted a political uprising with Jesus as _ earthly ruler.

Nothing less.

When his dreams lay shattered at the foot of the cross, it was almost more than he could bear. It is probably part of the reason why even when Jesus had risen from the dead as He promised, Thomas could not believe until he felt the wounds. It was then that Jesus said to Thomas, and to you and me, "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."

JUDE (John 14:22-23) JUDE., who was also known as Thaddeus, was a son of Alpheus and therefore a close relative of Jesus.

He had problems understanding who Jesus was

 until after the Resurrection. It only emphasizes the importance of this event.

     There is scant reference to him in the scriptures except when he asks of Jesus, "Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world,]"

And Jesus replies, "If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him."

      Jude is the author of one of the General Epistles. In this letter he warns the congregation against a number of false teachers and heresies.

His emphasis is that those who embrace the faith are blessed and those who do not are not.

     Little is known of his history. Some ancient sources say he traveled and preached in Syria, Mesopotamia and Persia.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

Click on the URL below to WATCH NEIL IN HIS WORLD FAMOUS ONE MAN DRAMATIZATIONS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, BEN FRANKLIN, CHARLES WESLEY AND MARTIN LUTHER

TO WATCH NEIL WYRICK IN HIS ONE MAN DRAMAS (Presented to millions all around the world) (Ben Franiklin, Martin Luther, Charles Wesley and Abraham Lincoln (this Lincoln film takes 11 seconds to download but is worth the wait)

 

CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING

http://www.speakerneil.com/

V. Neil Wyrick’s ninth book THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN and is available at MAGNUS PRESS

AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.COM’S Kindle

 http://www.magnuspress.com/OurProducts2.html 

CAN GOD SMILE? CAN GOD CRY? (A Continuation)

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GO TO NEIL’S OTHER BLOG ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS and read the following brain teasers. CLICK ON URL BELOW There are over 700 stories and commentaries on this blog. It is added to daily.

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

God is a god of joy. Look at all the fun He had in creating this universe.

And, yes, He can be happy. Remember his words, “You are my son in whom I am well pleased.”

Unfortunately, there are times when God cannot smile. He does not smile when we sin. He does not smile when men pursue war rather than peace and steal from each other because of greed rather than give to each because of compassion.

He does not smile when good Christians do not act like it in any way, shape or form. 9

I close with this thought. God smiles evertime He sees us worshiping and trying to get better at it…and seeking the truth of His love.

This is but one of millions of churches that have been built and we are but one of those congregations, but it is good - what we are trying to do…and God knows it and is pleased by it and we are not alone.

Billy Sunday once declared, “If you have not joy in your faith, there’s a leak in your Christianity somewhere.”
If you have not yet made a resolution, or if you have, add this to the list: decide to live in such a manner you bring a smile to the face of God… on a regular basis.

As we bow our heads in our closing prayer, listen to these words of St. Francis of Assisi and as often as you can, apply them to your daily actions:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

and where there is sadness, joy.              

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

THE GALILEE GALLERY (A Continuation)

If you want to share this blog with a friend go to the bottom of day’s content and click on TELL A FRIEND

 GO TO NEIL’S OTHER BLOG ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS and read the following brain teasers.  CLICK ON URL BELOW There are over 700 stories and commentaries on Neil’s One A Day blog.  It is added to daily.

 To visit this site…click on the URL below

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

  The Galilee Gallery

and other" NEW TESTAMENT                              CHARACTERS You OUGHT To Know BETTER

To better understand Jesus and the earthly world in which He lived,

it is important to know those around Him.

                             THE APOSTLES

OF THE MANY WHO FOLLOWED JESUS, HE CHOSE ONLY TWELVE TO BE HIS APOSTLES

                  Twelve Minus One

 BARTHOLOMEW (LUKE 6:13,14) Of BARTHOLOMEW little is known. A large number of scholars believe he is the same man as Nathanael, mentioned in the Gospel of John 1:45-51.

It is a valid opinion since Bartholomew is not a proper name and merely served to identify him as the son of Tolmai. When Philip first told Nathanael about Jesus he contemptuously inquired, "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?"

However, he changed his tune upon meeting Jesus, saying, "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God," and almost immediately became one of His followers. Jesus has a way of doing that to people. According to tradition Bartholomew (Nathanael) became a missionary to the East, preaching in Egypt, Armenia, Persia and Mesopotania. He was martyred in Armenia.

 PHILLIP (JOHN 1:44) A fellow townsman of Andrew and Peter, Phillip was one of the first to follow Jesus.

There is little known about him except that he was a practical man _;. and it would seem he must have been good with figures for upon viewing a multitude that Jesus had to feed quickly estimated that even two hundred pennyworth of bread would not be sufficient to feed them.

 It was he, struggling to understand who Jesus was, who said, "Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us." And to whom Jesus replied, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father, and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father'?"

He was with the other disciples at Jerusalem after the Ascension and again on the day of Pentecost. Tradition has it that he was martyred during his missionary journeys.

 Click on the URL below to WATCH NEIL IN HIS WORLD FAMOUS ONE MAN DRAMATIZATIONS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, BEN FRANKLIN, CHARLES WESLEY AND MARTIN LUTHER

TO WATCH NEIL WYRICK IN HIS ONE MAN DRAMAS (Presented to millions all around the world) (Ben Franiklin, Martin Luther, Charles Wesley and Abraham Lincoln (this Lincoln film takes 11 seconds to download but is worth the wait)

 CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING

http://www.speakerneil.com/

V. Neil Wyrick’s ninth book THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN and is available at  MAGNUS PRESS

 AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.COM’S Kindle

http://www.magnuspress.com/OurProducts2.html