Friday, October 31, 2014

Olathe, Kansas, United States - "A Quick, Guided Tour Through The Bible" by Stephen M. Miller & The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection West RezChat News for Friday, 31 October 2014

Olathe, Kansas, United States - "A Quick, Guided Tour Through The Bible" by Stephen M. Miller & The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection West RezChat News for Friday, 31 October 2014

 blog of award-winning bestselling
Christian author, Stephen M. Miller.

A Quick, Guided Tour Through the Bible

Cover of A Quick Guided Tour Through the Bible
COMING SOON. To a bookstore near you. I just got this cover yesterday afternoon.
I’M MAKING THIS SHORT because I’ve been working all day on a new Bible video that I should be able to release soon. And I forgot about this blog article.
So there.
Then I got the book cover you’re seeing above.
This is for the book that I thought was going to run in black and white, but the publisher and editors decided to kick it up a notch, to full color. The book is on the designer’s table now. It comes out in August.
So I’m stoked about it.
Does “stoked” translate. It used to mean “excited.” But I know that the meaning of words keeps changing.
When I was exhausted one day from laying sod, I told my son I was “wasted.” Then I told someone else in the family. Then someone else.
My son heard the repeat and he said he let it slide earlier, but now he figured he should let me know that “wasted” means “drunk.”
So, I don’t say I’m wasted anymore.
But I’ll mess up on some other word later.
I can’t always keep up with the pace of the changing lingo. But I try.

This week’s free book

Pablo Sainz wins the free book this week. He chose Bible Snapshots.
I have a random drawing each week for a free book. I pluck a name from the list of subscribers to my free blog or my quarterly newsletter.
Happy reading, Pablo.
From the reply email he sent, he sounded stoked and not wasted.
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Recent Articles:

Fly-fishers of men: gent retreat
A Bible question you’ll hate
Jesus’ northern accent
Why I give away my books
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Newsletter of RezChat, a RezWest Bible study group open to all souls curious about the Bible.
We ask the tough questions. And we'd like answers. 

CONTENTS

Israel's superheroes and part-time jerks 

This Sunday:

We're starting a short series on heroes from the book of Judges. First up:

Gideon, the hero who fleeced God
led by Terry Bahadur
Judges 6:1, 6, 11-12; 33-40; 7:19-22; 8:22-27; Hebrews 11:32




Next Sunday:

NO CLASS
This is the first time we have cancelled class, as far as I can remember. But most of us will be on the first-ever RezChat retreat. We're taking an Amtrak ride to Hermann, Missouri. We leave Friday and return on Sunday.

November 16:
"Samson, the hero who liked girls," Steve Miller

Judges 6:

Gideon

1-6 Yet again the People of Israel went back to doing evil in God’s sight. God put them under the domination of Midian for seven years. Midian overpowered Israel. Because of Midian, the People of Israel made for themselves hideouts in the mountains—caves and forts. When Israel planted its crops, Midian and Amalek, the easterners, would invade them, camp in their fields, and destroy their crops all the way down to Gaza. They left nothing for them to live on, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey. Bringing their cattle and tents, they came in and took over, like an invasion of locusts. And their camels—past counting! They marched in and devastated the country. The People of Israel, reduced to grinding poverty by Midian, cried out to God for help.11-12 One day the angel of God came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, whose son Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress, out of sight of the Midianites. The angel of God appeared to him and said, “God 

is with you, O mighty warrior!”33-35 All the Midianites and Amalekites (the easterners) got together, crossed the river, and made camp in the Valley of Jezreel. God’s Spirit came over Gideon. He blew his ram’s horn trumpet and the Abiezrites came out, ready to follow him. He dispatched messengers all through Manasseh, calling them to the battle; also to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali. They all came.

36-37 Gideon said to God, “If this is right, if you are using me to save Israel as you’ve said, then look: I’m placing a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If dew is on the fleece only, but the floor is dry, then I know that you will use me to save Israel, as you said.”

38 That’s what happened. When he got up early the next morning, he wrung out the fleece—enough dew to fill a bowl with water!

39 Then Gideon said to God, “Don’t be impatient with me, but let me say one more thing. I want to try another time with the fleece. But this time let the fleece stay dry, while the dew drenches the ground.”

40 God made it happen that very night. Only the fleece was dry while the ground was wet with dew.

7:19-22 Gideon and his hundred men got to the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after the sentries had been posted. They blew the trumpets, at the same time smashing the jars they carried. All three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands, ready to blow, and shouted, “A sword for God and for Gideon!” They were stationed all around the camp, each man at his post. The whole Midianite camp jumped to its feet. They yelled and fled. When the three hundred blew the trumpets, God aimed each Midianite’s sword against his companion, all over the camp. They ran for their lives—to Beth Shittah, toward Zererah, to the border of Abel Meholah near Tabbath.
8:22 The Israelites said, “Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson. You have saved us from Midian’s tyranny.”
23 Gideon said, “I most certainly will not rule over you, nor will my son. God will reign over you.”
24 Then Gideon said, “But I do have one request. Give me, each of you, an earring that you took as plunder.” Ishmaelites wore gold earrings, and the men all had their pockets full of them.
25-26 They said, “Of course. They’re yours!”
They spread out a blanket and each man threw his plundered earrings on it. The gold earrings that Gideon had asked for weighed about forty-three pounds—and that didn’t include the crescents and pendants, the purple robes worn by the Midianite kings, and the ornaments hung around the necks of their camels.
27 Gideon made the gold into a sacred ephod and put it on display in his hometown, Ophrah. All Israel prostituted itself there. Gideon and his family, too, were seduced by it.
Hebrews 11:32-38 I could go on and on, but I’ve run out of time. There are so many more—Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets. . . . Through acts of faith, they toppled kingdoms, made justice work, took the promises for themselves. They were protected from lions, fires, and sword thrusts, turned disadvantage to advantage, won battles, routed alien armies. Women received their loved ones back from the dead. There were those who, under torture, refused to give in and go free, preferring something better: resurrection. Others braved abuse and whips, and, yes, chains and dungeons. We have stories of those who were stoned, sawed in two, murdered in cold blood; stories of vagrants wandering the earth in animal skins, homeless, friendless, powerless—the world didn’t deserve them!—making their way as best they could on the cruel edges of the world.

REZCHAT CALENDAR

  • Cafe and chewables: Cris and Terry Bahadur

  • RezChat Retreat to Hermann: Nov. 7-9

  • No class on Nov. 9 (returning from retreat)

Keith Larkin, aka Mario gone fishin'

Fly-fishers of men: the video


Four of us RezChatters went on the fly-fishing retreat last weekend with Pastor Jason and others: 21 men in all.
   I've never fly-fished before. I loved it. By the end of the day, I felt like I was casting for the movie "A River Runs Through It." Lots of fly-fishing in that movie.
   I kept a small video camera in my pocket, even when I was wading in the water. I caught each of the RezChat men fishing, along with Pastor Jason and several other gents.
   If you haven't seen it, I think you'll enjoy it.
   Here's the link: Fly fishing video.

UNION STATION KCMO. Point of departure.

Hermann ahead: 

RezChat weekend retreat


ITINERARY

Friday, Nov. 7
4 pm--Leave Union Station on Amtrak; bring food to eat on train
7:48 pm--Arrive in Hermann MO; taxi to our getaway homes
Later--meet at Spirit House for devotions, games, S'mores and snores
Later still--go to bed

Saturday, Nov. 8
At a decent hour--breakfast will be provided at each house, one way or another
10:15 am--taxi to wine country
lunchtime--Wurst Haus to buy our own brats to take back to Spirit House to grill; devotions In the middle of the day
Later--taxi to wine country and/or shopping,
7 pm--Stone Hill Winery for dinner (bring your own money)
9:30 pm--Optional Oak Glenn Winery, for those still standing

Sunday, Nov.9
Early-- breakfast provided (April House gets Egg Frittata); (Spirit Hill, we cook our own leftovers), pack bags and bottles
9:45-10 am--Taxi pickup at each house
10:15 am--arrive at train
Later--5-minute devotions on train
2:55 pm--arrive at Union Station

Marriage by rape: the video


I create short videos to promote my books. I just made one to go along with Strange and Mysterious Stuff From the Bible.
   This particular video is about the odd Jewish law that says virgin girls who get raped have to marry their rapist.
   If you're curious about it, here's the video. It runs almost 5 minutes long.
Enjoy the weekend. Stay warm.

Steve
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Our mailing address is:
Stephen M. Miller
PO Box 2712
Olathe, Kansas 66063 United States
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