**UPDATED** I Challenge You This

I posted this a while back. While seeing it again in my Bible study in Matthew, I wanted to share the video:

 

This is a challenge that I was going to post only here but decided to cross-post on my other blog.

This is from a talk that Chuck Missler did and is regarding the genealogy of Jesus Christ. 

You have to create a fictional family tree to meet all the following requirements, screenshot by screenshot. I guess some people are much smarter than I and can actually get past the first couple of screens with not much trouble. 

Get ready, get set, and... GO!

Peace

--Free

Little Gods

While bed sick for a couple of days,  I just had a walk back through the history of evil tyrants and monsters. I binged "Evolution of Evil" on Amazon Prime. The series covered:

• Gadaffi
• Hitler
• Kim Jong-il
• Mao
• Mussolini
• Bin Laden
• Papa Doc
• Sadam Hussein
• Stalin
• Hideki Tojo

One of the things these men and other brutal men of power have in common is their hatred of the Jews and of Christianity. Until watching all of these mini-bios back to back, I think I had forgotten these common denominators.

Those men are the ones that were featured in the series. As I watched, I began to mentally add some others:

• Nimrod
• Pharoah
• Herod
• Satan

There are many others but these "rulers" are the ones that came immediately to mind.

All of these men ruled in life without understanding that God rules in eternity. The entire time I was watching the series, I was thinking that these men are another proof of the Bible. No other race, religion, or group of people are hated as much as the Jews are and have been throughout history.

These men - and those individuals like them - forget that no matter how "godlike" they may think they are here on earth and in their mortal existence, they can only be "little gods". Death will bring them into the greatest reckoning of all. 

I highly recommend watching the series. At the very least, it is a history refresher and a reminder of where evil springs from. The verse that I thought of was this one from Ephesians 6:12

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (NKJV)

Pray for the people who live under regimes like this and, as we always must: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

Peace

--Free

Esther: The Book I Always Skipped

 The Book of Esther is probably the one book of the Bible that I never paid much attention to. When it came up next in my daily reading list, I groaned. But I have started reading it, a couple of chapters at a time. Chapters 1 through 5 were the first. And, by the last of chapter 5, I didn't want to stop.

The story of Esther is more interesting than I ever thought. But it's strange because it seems like something that can be lifted out of the Bible as a solo story. Or so I thought. There are 10 chapters and I am about to start on chapter 6. 

As part of my Bible study and along with my own copies of the Scriptures, I use e-Sword.net and Blue Letter Bible for the commentaries and other features. Afterward, I will watch a video from the series by Chuck Missler. This is the first part of his series on Esther:

By the way, there are many copies of the Missler series of Bible studies all over the internet. If a video or link stops working, you can always find another source.

I will continue my read-study-watch method as I finish Esther. I have learned a lesson that Missler and other Bible teachers reiterate: Everything in the Bible is integrated. Nothing is there without reason.

Peace

--Free

NOTE: Blue Letter Bible has resources that I use quite a bit. Here are some that you might find interesting:

• Commentaries, references, courses, etc.
• The reading plans. I am using the 1-year Chronological plan now.
• BLB is not available offline the way e-Sword is but there are some useful apps and tools.
• The Daily Reading Program (for example, mine) can be placed on your PC's start bar for reference.