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9/20/2005

Bella Vista Health Care Center in Euclid.


Brother Danny Cole always goes with his pastor to this facility to minister every Thrusday morning.


Brother Danny have been always rendering songs of praise and hymns to the residence for the Lord.



The resident of Bella Vista looks forward every thursday for the Holy Place to come and minister.


Brother Danny sang with gusto, like Placido and other great tenor when he sang the Lord's prayer.

9/05/2005

WHY WE BELIEVE THAT JESUS CHRIST WAS BORN ON OCTOBER 3 6BC

Christmas Festival was named after Christ Jesus the true Messiah, connected with the ceremonial mass, in celebration of Jesus birth. December 25 is referred to in documents as Christmas day in AD 354 for the first time. Under the Roman Emperor Justinian, it was recognized as an official holiday. An old Roman festival played a major part in the choice of this particular day. December 25 in ancient Rome was the "Dies Natalis Invicti," “the birth of the unconquered Sun," and at the same time, the day of the winter solstice, and in Rome the last days of Saturnalia. These Festivities degenerated into a week of unbridled carnival, therefore a time when the Christians could feel most safe from the persecution. All over the world, the solstice is connected with rebirth, so it made sense for the early Christians to tag on their own ersatz birth celebration to one that was already around.

It is wrong for us to say that Christ Jesus was born on 1st AD (Anno Domini) for there was a big discrepancy when Ussher the author of "The Annals of the World" retraced backs the date. One of the factors that he missed the true date was that there is a huge difference in Gregorian calendar, Julian calendar, and the Jewish calendar. And Christmas is actually a cleaned up version of old Pagan festivities.

For a start, there is no evidence that Christ was born at Christmas. At Christmas time in Bethlehem is in the grip of frost, and no cattle have been in the fields in that temperature. This fact is borne out by a remark in the Talmud to the effect that in that neighborhood the flocks were put out to grass in March and brought in again at the beginning of November. When Jesus was born, "there were in the same country shepherd abiding in the field, keeping watch over the flock by night." Luke 2:8.

Adam Clarke has written, "as the shepherd had not yet brought home their flocks, consequently, our Lord was not born on the 25th of December, not even in January or the month of February, on these very ground the nativity in winter time should be given up.

Nor would the Romans have ordered a census in the winter, the most difficult time of the year for travel. There were no records to indicate that the middle of winter was the time of the taxing.
A more logical time of the year would have been the fall season, at the end of the harvest. If this was the case, it would have been the season of the Feast of the Trumpets, the Feast of Tabernacles, and it all began after the Feast of Atonement, in the Jewish month of Tishri or Etanim falls on the month of October;( 3 feast in a row almost a month of celebration, Leviticus 23:22-24 and Deuteronomy 16:13 where held in Jerusalem which could explain why Mary and Joseph Luke 2:4-10, there was no room in the inn even as far as the town of Bethlehem which is only 5 miles from Jerusalem.)

According to the great historian of their days, Flavius Josephus, Jerusalem was normally a city of 120,000 inhabitants. But the series of Festivities sometimes bring as many people to offer sacrifice and to observed it to 2,000,000 Jews would gather.

9/04/2005

Star of Bethlehem

MATTHEW 2:1-2. Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem,
2. saying, “where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”
Verse: 7. Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.

The Star of Bethlehem.
In the year 7 B.C. Jupiter and Saturn did in fact meet in Pisces and, as Johannes Kepler Imperial Mathematician and Astronomer in Prague had already discovered, observing with his modest telescope the approach of two planets. “Conjunction” is the technical name for the position of two celestial bodies on the same degree of longitude. Sometimes two planets move so close to one another that they have the appearance of a single star. The night Saturn and Jupiter had a rendezvous in space within the constellation of Pisces.
Looking through his notes later Kepler suddenly remembered something he had read in the rabbinic writer Abarbanel, referring to an unusual influence which Jewish astrologers were said to have ascribed to this same constellation. Messiah would appear when there was a conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in the constellation Pisces.
Kepler checked his calculation again and again. The result was a three-fold conjunction within the space of a year. Astronomical calculations gave the year as
7 B.C. according to astrological tables it must have dated the conception of Mary consequently 7 B.C.

The time-table of this planetary encounter when it is presented in the prosaic dating system of modern astronomical calculations look something like this:

About the end of February in 7B.C. the clustering began. Jupiter moved out of the constellation Aquarius towards Saturn in the constellation of Pisces. Since the sun at that time was also in the sign of Pisces its light covered the constellation. It was not until April 12th that both planets rose in Pisces heliacally with a difference of 8 degrees of longitude. “Heliacal” is the word used by astronomers to indicate the first visible rising of a star at daybreak.
Since Nebuchadnezzar’s time many thousands of Jews had lived in Babylon. Many of them may have studied at the School of Astrology in Sippar. This wonderful encounter of Jupiter with Saturn, guardian of Israel, in the constellation of the “west country”, of the Messiah, must have deeply moved the Jewish Astrologers.
For according to astrological ways of thinking it pointed to the appearance of a mighty king in the West Country, the land of their fathers. To experience that in person, to see it with their own eyes, that was the reason for the journey of the wise astronomers from the East.
On May 29th, visible for fully two hours in the morning sky, the first close encounter took place in the 21st degree of Pisces with a difference of 0 degrees of longitude and of 0.98 degrees of latitude. They observed the first encounter of the two planets from the roof of the School of Astrology at Sippar. At that time of the year the heat was already unbearable in Mesopotamia. Summer is no time for long and difficult journeys. Besides that, they knew about the second conjunction on October 3rd. They could predict this encounter in advance as accurately as future eclipses of the sun and moon.


The second conjunction took place on October 3rd in the 18th degree of the constellation of Pisces. The fact that October 3rd was the Jewish Day of Atonement may have been taken as an admonition, and at that point they may have started out on their journey. Travel on the caravan routes even on camels, the swiftest means of transport, was a leisurely affair. If we think in terms of journey lasting about six weeks, the wise men would arrive in Jerusalem towards the end of November.
Matthew 2:2“saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.” Herod was troubled when he heard this. Herod, who had been appointed by the Romans, was in fact not a Jew but an Idumaean, (Tribe of Esau) and not from Judah. Herod therefore summoned the Wise Men and sent them to Bethlehem after he gathered it from the Chief Priest and Scribes where will the Messiah appear and to inform him of the child.
Since Jupiter and Saturn came together for the 3rd time in the constellation of Pisces on the 4th of December, Matthew 2:10, When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. Verse 9. ‘When they heard the king, they departed and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.
On the road to Hebron, 5miles from Jerusalem lays the village of “Bet Lahm”, which was the old Bethlehem of Judah. The ancient highway, which Abraham had once pass along, lay almost due north and south, At their third conjunction the planets Jupiter and Saturn appeared to have dissolved into one great brilliant star.
In the twilight of the evening they were visible in a southerly direction, so that the Wise Men of the East on their way from Jerusalem to Bethlehem had the bright star in front of their eyes all the time. As the gospel says, the star actually “went before them.” End.

9/01/2005

Spiritual Wedding Pictures- Hal and Yvonne

Brother Hal Dechert and Sister Yvonne in the sanctuary.

This picture was taken outside the church and from left to right is Brother Benigno Mendoza, Sister Rose Cabildo, Sister Chona Bulfa, Sister Nikka Bulfa, and Brother Danny cole.



This was taken after the Spiritual Wedding and some of the members were out here to have some food prepared for the occasion. Brother Hal and Sister Yvonne, Sister Vicky Bulfa, Brother Dale Peterson, Sister Caridad Mendoza, and others.


Image hosted by Photobucket.comFrom Left: Sister Vicky, Yvonne, Hal, and Pastor Raul.
Image hosted by Photobucket.comFrom Left: Bro. Benigno, Sister Rose, Chona, Nikka, Bro. Danny, Pastor Raul, Hal, Yvonne, Sister Vicky, Dale, Sister Caridad and Sister Denise.


Other wedding pictures will be uploaded in this link, HPC Pictures.