partsofspeaking

In line with my post of yesterday, that I would simply post prophecies about Christmas from the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, here is one for this first real Sunday of Advent.  Some of these will be borrowed from other sites; in this case, it is theresurgence.com Jesus will be born in the town Bethlehem. Prophecy: Micah 5:2 . Fulfilled: Luke 2:1–7 .

I try to post during Advent, which starts tomorrow.  Right now, I have no inspiration; perhaps prophetic scriptures?  I thought about writing about Christmas movies, but I don't think I have enough and most of them have nothing to do with Advent!  I mean, ELF?  Bad Santa?  Yes, a scriptural approach sounds best.  So let us start with Isaiah 9:6:' For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor , Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 

A little girl in the neighborhood likes to take walks with me and the dogs.  Right now I don't get home early enough to beat the "dark," so those trips are curtailed, but up until a few weeks ago we walked quite a bit.  In fact, she took to hanging around waiting for me, which was annoying me and I had to turn her away some times, due to fatigue or just not wanting to walk in the neighborhood. The dogs do not do well in the subdivision--too many stray dogs and cats, for one, so I take them elsewhere. Anyway, being nine, she is in love with Frozen .  On one of our last walks, she sang the song the whole way, often at the top of her voice.  She is in chorus and gets to do solos.  She actually has a pretty good voice but tries to sing in that pop star style.  I had to tell  her the next time we walked that we wouldn't sing this time. I bring this up because I heard a student paper on this movie and its lesbian themes (what?) but yes, people go there....

Below is my lesson for Sunday, Nov. 30, on Ezekiel 37. I.                    I recently had an experience where I was asked to be on a panel about religion.   I was the token Christian, and appeared with a Muslim, a Buddhist (of Jewish background), a Jewish woman, an agnostic (also of Jewish background), and an atheist (of Catholic background).   Interesting that four of us claim Jewish background, although Jews are such a minority.   It was a disturbing yet interesting experience that I am still trying to sort out.   But the bottom line had to do with knowledge and revelation.   What do we know and how do we know that we know it? (not just belief, which can, as the atheist pointed out, sometimes be a copout).   II.                  Visions.   The Bible has many accounts of dre...

Last night was the premiere of my first secular, fully produced play, Long Lost Relatives .  It went famously.  I was so proud of the director and actors and crew, and I know the next three performances will be even better.  Friday and Saturday at 7:00 pm and 2:00 Sunday.  It is at the City Park School Auditorium, which you will have to Google to find, but it's right next to the post office on Thornton Avenue in Dalton.  You can even park in the post office parking lot. 

I have blogged now for over 7 years and am coming close to my 1250th post.  I deleted one the other day because the link was broken, and there are probably others, I should delete.   I like to provide links to other things I like.  The two most popular posts are one reviewing, from a scholarly perspective, Twelve Angry Men.  My word, that gets a lot of hits--sometimes hundreds in a week.  The other is my "coming out of the closet" about Kallmann syndrome, (not Kallman's, as often seen).  Here is that link. http://partsofspeaking.blogspot.com/2011/07/kallmans-syndrome-secret-best-kept.html The comments to that post are better than the original post.  I would like to encourage anyone who comes to this blog because of the title to feel free to talk to each other.  Although there are groups for us on Facebook, they might not work for anyone.  If anyone has some medical news, ideas for endocrinologists, or thoughts about living with KS, ...

The Internet is a wonderful tool for a scholar, but is full of so many distractions that I waste valuable time.  How many versions of "Did you know these celebrities are left-handed?" or "Ten famous actors who were butt-ugly when they were teenagers?" can we take.  And why am I tempted by some of them?  Just now I went to the weather channel to see the forecast (in disobedience to a literal interpretation of James 4) and saw a link:  Hundreds dead in Texas.  And I bit.  But my old laptop is so slow that it didn't get there, so I thought better and skipped it.  Hundreds of what?  And aren't hundreds of people dead everywhere?  Anyone who is not alive is dead, so that would be billions, not hundreds, anyway. And speaking of butt ugly  . . . I allowed myself to see those ridiculous, vulgar, pornographic pictures of Kim Kartrashian.  That's an image I'll never be able to erase.  What is wrong with that girl?  What is wrong...

Ezekiel 25 to 32 Overview and Analysis: These are seven nations who had been enemies and sometimes allies with Israel, but they were all rejoicing at some level that Israel/Judah had been captured and destroyed, finally, by Babylon (up to this point they had been secure). 25: 1-7 Ammon:   They rejoiced that Judah was destroyed.   Do not rejoice at the destruction of your enemies. God’s protection over Israel despite his judgment of them. Ammon is city in Jordan. Example:   25:3 The Ammonites say, AHA! when the temple was profaned 8-11 Moab.   Given to enemies and not remembered. People of the East Example:   25:8:   Moabites said “The house of Judah is like the others.” 12-14 Edom.   25:12 a reference to II chron 28:17 during the reign of Ahaz. 15-17 Philistines (where the word Palestine comes from).   David fought the Philistines but also worked with them. Ez. 26 26:2:   Tyre (loosely Le...