From a letter written by the apostle Paul
to believers in Ephesus:
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.-Ephesians 4:17-24***Adam was the 1st man. The Lord God created Adam. The divinely inspired Scriptures of the Holy Bible reveal that the Lord God formed Adam from the dust of the ground, and the Lord God made Adam's wife Eve, the mother of all living, after taking a part out of Adam. Adam and Eve's son Seth was the great-great-great-grandfather of Enoch. Enoch was the great-grandfather of Noah the ark builder. Shem was born to Noah, and Arphaxad was born to Shem. Arphaxad was the great-great-great-great-great-grandfather of Terah. Abraham (Abram the Hebrew) and Sarah (Sarai) were born to Terah. After Abraham and Sarah arrived in Canaan with their servants, and possessions, and nephew Lot, the Lord God made a covenant with Abraham. When Abraham was 99 years old, the Lord God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. Sometime thereafter, the Lord God said that he knew Abraham would command those descended from Abraham, and those connected to Abraham's house, to accomplish righteousness and justice. Abraham was identified as a friend of God. Isaac was born to 100-year-old Abraham and his 90-year-old wife Sarah (Sarai). When Isaac was 40 years old, he was married to Rebekah, Abraham and Sarah's grandniece. Fraternal twin sons Esau (Edom) and Jacob (Israel) were born to 60-year-old Isaac and Rebekah. The divinely inspired Scriptures of the Holy Bible reveal that the Lord God established his covenant with Isaac and Jacob. In Padan Aram, Haran, Jacob was married to Leah and Rachel, the daughters of Rebekah's brother Laban the Syrian (Aramean). Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and daughter Dinah were born to Jacob and Leah. Dan and Naphtali were born to Jacob and Bilhah, Rachel's maidservant. Gad and Asher were born to Jacob and Zilpah, Leah's maidservant. Joseph was the 1st son born to Jacob and Rachel. During Jacob's 20th year in Haran, he began journeying home to Canaan with his family, servants, animals, and possessions. Near Bethlehem, Benjamin was born to Jacob and Rachel, and Rachel died. The 12 twelve tribes of Israel are the families descended from the 12 sons. When Joseph was 17 years old, his brothers sold him to merchants traveling to Egypt and led Jacob to believe that Joseph was killed by a wild beast, and Joseph was 30 years old when Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, proclaimed him second-in-command. After the 2nd time that Joseph's brothers were in Egypt during a famine to buy grain (corn), Joseph identified himself to his brothers and told them to move to Egypt with their families, including Jacob. In Beersheba, the Lord God spoke to 130-year-old Jacob. In Egypt, Jacob proclaimed Manasseh and Ephraim, the sons born to Joseph and his wife Asenath, to be his own sons, and the tribe of Joseph became the tribe of Manasseh and the tribe of Ephraim. Sometime after 147-year-old Jacob died in Egypt, and Jacob's family buried his body in Canaan, and 110-year-old Joseph and his siblings were dead, the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt. Miriam and her younger brothers Aaron and Moses were born into the tribe of Levi. When Moses was 80 years old and Aaron was 83, the Lord God sent them to speak to the Israelite elders and Pharaoh. After the Lord God brought the 10th and final plague upon Pharaoh and Egypt, Moses and Aaron led the Israelites, and those with them, away from Egypt, across the divinely parted Red Sea, and into the desert wilderness of Shur. In the desert wilderness of Sinai, in the region of Mount Sinai, the Israelites heard the voice of the Lord God proclaim the Ten Commandments to them, and the Lord God began giving Moses judgments, statutes and laws for the Israelites, and the Lord God made a covenant with the Israelites. Everyone not born into the Israelite tribes was identified as a stranger, foreigner, heathen, or Gentile. Phinehas was Aaron's grandson. Approximately 1,400 years after the Lord God gave his covenant of peace to Phinehas, John the Baptist and Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, were born. John the Baptist was born into the tribe of Levi to Zechariah (Zacharias) the priest and his wife Elizabeth (Elisabeth). Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit in the womb of Elizabeth's relative Mary, a virgin, and Jesus was born in Bethlehem into the tribe of Judah to Mary and her husband Joseph when Mary was a virgin. Approximately 30 years after John the Baptist and Jesus the Christ were born, Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. Jesus having prayed, the heavens tearing open, the Holy Spirit descended as a dove and lit upon Jesus. The Lord God in heaven audibly acknowledged his Son, and the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the desert wilderness. Jesus fasted 40 days and nights and was tempted. Afterwards, Jesus was tended to by angels, and Jesus went to the area near John the Baptist, and John the Baptist proclaimed Jesus to be the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world, and testified that Jesus is the Son of God. In Galilee, Jesus told specific Israelite men to follow him, and Jesus began to preach, teach and perform miracles among the Israelites. Less than 3 1/2 years after Jesus was baptized, Jesus was betrayed by Judas Iscariot, the disciple and apostle, and Jesus was arrested, crucified, buried in a tomb, resurrected, and returned to heaven. Paul (Saul) was an Israelite from the tribe of Benjamin. Throughout Jerusalem, Paul persecuted and imprisoned Israelites who believed Jesus to be the Christ. When Paul was journeying to the synagogues in Damascus, Syria, to find, bind and take to Jerusalem any Israelite believers he saw, Paul and those with him saw a light from heaven flash around them. Paul heard the voice of Jesus speaking to him, and Paul spoke to Jesus, and obeyed Jesus. In Damascus, Paul was baptized. From thenceforward, Paul the apostle journeyed and wrote divinely inspired letters to Israelite and Gentile believers, those born of Abraham's blood, those not born of Abraham's blood, believers born of God.-Genesis 11:26-50:26, Exodus, Numbers 20:1-29, 27:12-23, Deuteronomy 31:1-30, 32:44-52, 34:1-12, Joshua 1:1-4:24, 1 Chronicles 1:1-34, 2:1-17, 3:1-24, 8:1-40, 2 Chronicles 20:1-37, Isaiah 41:1-29, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts 1:1-26, 6:1-8:4, 9:1-31, 11:19-28:31, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, James 2:1-26
Click the link below to read more posts in this category: