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Showing posts from December, 2024

Advent Series December 4

  + JMJ December 4 As we mentioned yesterday, God had a very special plan for Abraham. He was going to be the father of God’s family of Chosen People. God made a special agreement with Abraham called a covenant. God said to Abraham, "I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and between thy seed after thee in their generations, by a perpetual covenant: to be a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee" (Gen 17:7) When Adam sinned, the gates of heaven were closed. However, God did not give up on mankind. A covenant was God's "adoption".  Throughout the Old Testament, we see God making covenants with men. With each covenant, God’s family grew to include more people: Adam and Eve-a married couple Noah-a family Abraham-a tribe Moses-a nation (12 tribes) David- a kingdom Jesus-all kingdoms; the world- Jesus would found a World Wide Church (The Greek word for "World Wide " is Katholikos-Catholic!) God made 3 promises to Abra...

Advent Series December 3

  + JMJ December 3 After the flood, Noe and his sons had children and they had children and so on. Years went by and families grew into tribes and tribes grew into cities then nations. They became skilled in building with bricks and in their pride decided to build a tower that would reach all the way up to heaven without God's help. God saw this prideful plan and put a stop to it by giving people different languages so that no one could understand one another. Everyone sounded  as if they were babbling, so we call the tower that caused it all, the Tower of Babel. Since they could no longer communicate, all work on the tower stopped and people moved away. (Genesis 11) If you look at the very end of the Bible in the chronological index, it says that one man did not agree to help build the tower. His name was Heber. Heber was the great grandson of Noe’s son Sem. To reward Heber’s faithfulness, God let him keep the original language. We call this langua...

Advent Series December 2

  + JMJ December 2 Adam and Eve lived many years and had A LOT of children, but 3 are mentioned especially. The first were Cain and Abel. Cain was a farmer and Abel was a shepherd. They both made sacrifices to God. God accepted the sacrifice of Abel because he offered it with a pure heart. Cain was jealous and killed Abel. From then on, Cain was cursed by God. Many years later, when Adam was 130, he had another son named Seth. Seth is important because his descendant was Noe. Since Noe and his family were the only people spared in the Great Flood, we are all children of Adam, Seth and Noe. Seth had 2 other special descendants before Noe. Their names were; Henoch and his son Mathusala. Henoch was the great great great grandson of Seth. In Genesis 5:21-24 we read that Henoch lived on earth 365 years. Then God did something special. God took him away and he was seen no more! Henoch did not die. The Apocalyse says that he will come in the last days with Elias (who...

Advent Series December 1

  Advent Series- December 1  (Note: The series is posted here for parents to share with their children- it was written for a young audience which accounts for its simple style) The history of the world properly begins with God, our Creator, Who Himself has no beginning. We have all heard the story of creation; how God created the world out of nothing in 6 days. It is easy to remember what God created on each day, since the first 3 days and the last 3 days are related:   The Bible says, 'In the beginning, God created heaven and earth, And the earth was void and empty."(Gen 1:1-2) On the first 3 days, God began by giving a form to His creation.  The next 3 days God spent filling His creation, Thus; On Day 1 God created the light---on Day 4 He created the sun, moon and stars to shine with that light On Day 2 God created the sky and separated the waters above from the waters below--Day 5 He filled them with the birds and fish On Day 3 God...