Wednesday, March 1, 2006

Good Morning

 

Short email today.

 

Today's Reading:  Revelation 4:6b-8; read pages 171 - 173 in Barclay; stop at "The Four Living Creatures (2)"

 

-- Barclay goes into depth about these four creatures, and it is broken into several sections.

 

-- the two key things in today's commentary about this section are:

 

-- the imagery in Revelation from John is very similar to the imagery from the visions of Ezekiel in the Old Testmant.

 

-- while not specifically identified as such in Revelation, the creatures in Ezekiel are identified as cherubim.  In the dictionary, they are defined as "winged celestial beings" -- there are some discussions online as to whether they are angels or not.  Also, in the art world, cherubs have been portrayed as small, plump young children, not the exotic, multi-eyed creatures described in Reveleation and Ezekiel, so there is a bit of a disconnect there.

 

-- odd little aside here, but something that I remember about a movie/documentary that was shot in 1973, called "In Search of Ancient Astronauts"; that film asserts that what Ezekiel was actually describing was not heavenly beings, but actually machines such as a spacecraft, and that the language he used was simply the best he had available to describe this advanced machine.

 

Today's Scripture (from the Ash Wednesday lectionary)

 

Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them.  If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.  So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men.  I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.  But when you give to the needy, do not let our left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret.  They your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

 

Matthew 6:1-6

 

Today's prayer requests:   Chris Brymer

 

From Michelle:  Chris Brymer is the 19 year old son of a man I work with.  They have found a banana sized tumor in his neck that looks like lymphoma.  They will do surgery tomorrow and will know more after.  He is the 2nd child of 5 from 21 to 5.  Please be in prayer for that family.

Today's class member prayer:

Susanne Russell

Have a great day.

Jay