Special Sunday Dinner Message

 Hi everyone, I have a few things to let you know about before I dig in. My delay this time was, hopefully something that will benefit us all. Yesterday I joined Substack. There is a feature on Substack to create a chat. I've been wanting to have a way to have dialogue, instead of just making comments on blog posts. The Substack name is also nite reflections. Search nitereflections in the search bar or hopefully this link works. The posts will be on here. I have been sharing them to facebook, but now I'll be sharing to Substack then the Substack link to facebook.

In the last post I mentioned a pastor named Francis Chan who left his mega church a number of years ago  because he recognized his pride and arrogance was was putting his accomplishments and success on himself and not on God. One sermon he had years ago was a rope sermon. He had a white rope as long as the stage, with red tape wrapped around it a few inches long in the center. The message was, our lives are the red tape. We tend to live for what we can accomplish in that red tape area. We save all our lives for a little section of the red tape at the end. We tend to be so focused on our lives while we're alive we miss living for the eternity past the red tape. Sometimes our past before the red tape creeps in and causes us to lose focus on the red tape now and also distracts us from eternity. And if you are a person that holds to the belief of reincarnation, our past lives are also part of our souls journey even up to our red tape today. What are we doing now to ensure our eternity past the red tape? We talked a little bit about repentance recently. Let's look at that and some new stuff about salvation. As we saw repentance means turning from our self centered nature and feeling sincere regret and remorse the the things we've done and turning our focus to living our lives focused on God.

In a message on the messengerx app they mentioned Act 10. Acts 10 talks about Cornelius is a Centurion and a devoted God fearing man as well as his household. He prays every day and lives his life devoted to living a godly life. One day an angel appeared to Cornelius and told him God has heard his prayers and noticed his acts of charity. He is to send men to Joppa and bring Peter back to his house. While the men were on their way Peter had a vision that Cornelius was coming, so when the men got there Peter knew to leave with them. When Peter got to Cornelius's house and they were talking, Cornelius told Peter about his vision. Peter told Cornelius vs 34 "I now truly understand that God does not show favoritism in dealing with people, vs 35 but in every nation the person who fears Him and does what is right, is welcome before Him." Peter reminded Cornelius of all the things that Jesus had done because he was anointed with the Holy Spirit. Peter did say that the prophets said that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name. While Peter was speaking the Holy Spirit fell on those who heard the message. Everyone was amazed that Gentiles and Non-Gentiles alike received the Holy Spirit. So he instructed them all to be baptized. 

In the past I've heard it explained that "Believing in Jesus" means to believe in His teaching. Love the Lord your God with all your heart soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. To me that also means to live our lives according to the Beatitudes." So many current Evangelical Christian churches want you to think that if you walk to the front of the church, tell the preacher that you Believe in Jesus, get baptized, then you'll avoid hell. 

I'd rather focus on the teachings of Jesus and not Paul but in this case Paul tells the Romans in Romans 12 to present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable to God. Do not conform to the world but Be Transformed by the renewing of your mind. It's not enough to believe. Remember, the devil believes. He tempted Jesus in the desert and the demons didn't want to be casted out of the possessed man and into the pigs. It isn't really enough to believe we need to move away from our godless ways and transform into a life holy acceptable to God.

Like repentance we need to be transformed and work towards that transformation. Work by reading your Bible. Naturally I prefer the Ethiopian Bible. Right now while writing this I've been using an online Ethiopian Bible. It isn't a download. I have it bookmarked on a tablet. I like it because you can select a book in the table of contents and it goes there. If you search "online Ethiopian Bible" this should come up

Fliphtml5    https://online.fliphtml5.com

Thursday we'll get back into The Book Of Jubilees, until then,

Keep Searching,

Paul

Here's an image from Google Gemini Nano Banana, I thought of when I thought about this title 

    

 

Same Thing Only Different---Back To Better

Hi Everyone, just a quick post (maybe) to include you in my recent thoughts lately before i post another Book Of Jubilees tomorrow. This has been in my head since the weekend and I needed to get it out of there, and didn't want to include it in a post about the Ethiopian Bible, since it's more personal. I don't journal but if I did this would be in there. So, you guys have a front row seat to watching the waves rolling and crashing around in my brain. 

I looked back and saw that last October was when I revived Nite Reflections. I didn't read it all but I'm pretty sure I mentioned the journey I took and Andrea and I took. From checking out the Baha'i faith, to Taoism, Hinduism, looking into Islam although not to practice but wanting to have some knowledge to be able to know the pros and cons. Most recently Paramahansa Yogananda. Yes, Yoganada connects Jesus in his teachings and gives a connection to The Bhagavad Gita. He mentions meditation and you can buy a course on Kriya Yoga. You start out with Raja Yoga and through daily discipline you can possibly get to, but more than likely not, get to a state that's like the mystics. I'm not saying that to be critical. In one of their videos they say to reach the Kriya Yoga level it takes a lifetime that most people don't accomplish. 

In my last post I mentioned a guy named John Bevere. He/His Organization has an app called MessengerX. It's on the Apple App store and Google play store. On the google play store there's actually an item in the search items that says messengerx John Bevere. The app has a short daily video to listen to, and they also have A LOT of other content that I'm pretty sure you can find something to interest you. Last Saturday night I was listing to a daily video called Spiritual Seasons, by a guy named Will Hart. He read 1John 2:12-14. It says

12) I am writing to you little children that your sins have been forgiven because of his name. 13)  I am writing to you fathers that you have known Him from the beginning. I am writing to you young people that you have conquered the evil one. 14) I have written to you children that you have known the father. I have written to you fathers that you have known Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you young people that you are strong and the word of God resides in you and you have overcome the evil one.  

In another video today in a series called Near To God John talked about his relationship with his wife and when they're with a group of people she can give him a look and he will know what she's communicating to him. When they were first married he wouldn't have known what she was trying to say, but over the years they've learned to know what each other means by the things they do. In the passage in 1 John, and other videos I've watch this past week I've learned that all these other paths I've gone down and the other faiths I wanted to check into because I was so frustrated with "Christianity" has actually brought to a teaching that, from what I've seen so far, has put me on a path that I was already on but with the teachings of Jesus, not an alternative spin to the teachings of Jesus.

Getting back to the 1 John passage, I remember in Sunday School and Wednesday night classes growing up, I used to absolutely HATE memorizing Bible verses and have to do stuff like that to get some type of prize, gold star or some type of performance based rewards. Looking back, it was a good thing because the Bible says we should hide God's word in our heart. So, as a child I learned, because of that, as a young man I was strong in my faith and now as a father and grandfather I can share these things because I have known Him from the beginning.

 In John's video about his relationship with his wife, it took years for them to learn how to silently communicate with each other. With us it isn't instantaneous that we know when God is trying to communicate with us, but in time we learn, and you don't need to buy an expensive course in Yoga to know. I remember a little over a year ago someone was talking to me about a situation because they were  upset. Later that night I was in bed reading before going to sleep, an idea came to mind that might help them. I tried and tried to read but the thought was too persistent. I texted the person. They said  "thank you for thinking about me." I said "I wasn't, I was trying to read but I couldn't get this thought out of my head." Recognizing when God is leading you to do something is a good way to start recognizing how He communicates with you. Spending time reading God's word. Reading what Jesus says. I think I mentioned recently, Read a Psalm a day, read Proverbs to understand the wisdom of God.  I've heard it said a lot that if you want to know about the love of Jesus read the Gospel of John. 

I still don't know what I'd say if I was asked if I was a Christian. I'd probably start out by saying, "Not like you're thinking." I'd probably have to say, I follow the teachings of Jesus. I think Christianity these days puts a bad taste in people's mouths. If it takes a lifetime to recognize how God is going to communicate with you, why not Be Still and Know That I AM God. Go straight to the source. God will communicate with you different than He will with me. We are all unique and will understand differently in our own way. 

Another video I listened to this past week was by John Bevere about the end times, the rapture and the second coming. To summarize that video, it's interesting to learn about, if that's something you're interested in, that's great! But, we can't get hung up on when, we just have to always be ready. Always be learning, always be meditating on God and His word so we can understand his method of communication. Pray without ceasing means, even though we go about our day and have to focus on our work, we always recognize when things happen that bring our thoughts back to God. 

I got that passage from 1 John from the Ethiopian Bible. It read the same as the version they read on the video. That tells me the translations are the same or at least very similar. Right now this is my interest. To bring to you scripture that wasn't included in the Bible. We will always or at least try to bring it back to how God is working. If we're learning, we're watching, waiting. It won't matter when the end times occur. we're excited and ready. 

We'll get back into the Book Of Jubilees tomorrow or Friday. I just wanted to post this by itself and not included it in a post with a different topic.

Thank you for experiencing the thoughts that I experience 😛😊

Keep searching,

Paul

The Google Gemini image shows how I feel my path has brought me to needing to learn these other things just to bring me around to the path of recognizing the love of Jesus in the things we do.

 

    

It Was Worse Than You Imagined

 Hi Everyone. I hope everyone is having a great Sunday. Today I want to explain a little about the Jubilees, but just a little because I don't want to lose you. Starting when Cain was born.

 In the 3rd week of the 2nd Jubilee Cain was born. Each jubilee being 49 years and a week being 7 days the 3nd week would be 64-70 A.M. 49+ 21(3,7 day weeks)=70 (Anno Mundi - Year of the world)

Able was born in the 4th week 71-77 A.M.

In the 5th week a daughter Awan 78-84 A.M. was born

In the 1st year of the 3rd Jubilee Cain killed Able. 49 years X 2= 98+ 1year it says year but only calculates a week. It says (99-105 A.M.) But if it's a year I think it could be 99-51. It doesn't give anything more specific than that.

Adam and Eve mourned Able 4 weeks of years 28 years (99-127A.M.)

In the the 4th year of the 5th week (130 A.M.) they became joyful again and Adam "knew his wife again" and they had Seth

In the 6th week (134-140 A.M.) Adam and Eve had a daughter Azura

  2)Seth and His wife had Enos in 235A.M, (4 Jubilees + 5 weeks+4 days)

I think that's as far as my brain can go. The rest will just be a lineage list up to Noah

  3) Enos who had Kenan, 4) who had Mahalalel, 5) who had Jared, 6) who had Enoch, 7) who had Methuselah, 8) who had Lamech, 9) who had Noah

Chapter 4 vs. 17-19 It talks about how Enoch was the first among men to learn writing and knowledge. He wrote down the orders of the months so men would know the seasons. He was the one that made known the Jubilees and the Sabbaths as the angels showed him. This is important because in Chapter 5 it gets into what it talks about in the Book Of Enoch. Genesis in the Protestant Bible mentions Enoch. The Book Of Enoch and The Book Of Jubilees corroborate each other. So in my head I don't understand how they could be excluded.

           In vs 29 Adam died in 930 A.M. and his sons buried him in the land of his creation. He was the first one to be buried on earth.

In vs 31 Cain's house fell on him and was killed by stones. The same material he killed his brother with. It was then that "it was ordained on the heavenly tablets that "With the instrument with which a man kills his neighbor with the same shall he be killed." The same things goes with if we wound someone.

In the 25th Jubilee (1205 A.M.) Noah took a wife. They had 3 sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth. I wanted to bring this up so we can see how far it is from Adam and also how far we'll see it is from here to the flood.

Chapter 5: Here's where we see how Jubilees and the Book Of Enoch corroborate each other. During the Jubilee when Noah married and had his three sons, the angels of God noticed how beautiful the daughters were that had been created on earth and decided to take them as wives as many as they wanted and their sons became giants. Lawlessness increased and all flesh became corrupted. All men, cattle, beasts, birds and everything that walked on the earth. In the Book Of Enoch it says, the Giants appetite couldn't be satisfied. Once they ate what they could from plants and animals they started eating humans. This is when God decided to to destroy all of mankind, all flesh and all He had created. But the angels who had defiled the humas God became extremely angry. He commanded His angels to bind them in the depths of the earth and are kept separate. And against their sons (the giants) they should be smitten by the sword and removed from under heaven. This was when God said since we are flesh we will only live 120 years. It was then that God decided everyone great or small everywhere will face judgement according to his wickedness or righteousness. It was also written If the children of Israel turn to Him in righteousness He will forgive their transgressions and pardon their sins, and that He will show mercy to anyone who turns from their guilt once a year. So, evidently this is where we see an example early of us being to to repent.

Through all this corruption God saw that Noah and his family had not become corrupt and decided to save them from the upcoming destruction of the flood, so He commanded Noah to build an ark to be saved. Noah built the ark according to the instructions God gave him. God told him this in the 27th Jubilee, in the 5th week in the 5th year on the new moon of the first month (1307A.M.) {A little over 2 Jubilees. About 100 years} Noah, his family and the animals he took entered the ark in the 6th year (1308 A.M)

The rains started and continued for 40 days and forty nights, and the fountains of the deep sent up water until the whole world was filled with water. The water stayed on the earth for 5 months, 150 days. On the new moon of the 4th month the fountains of the deep were closed. On the new moon of the 7th month the mouths of the abysses were opened and the water began to descend into the deep below. On the new moon of the 10th month the tops of the mountains were seen, and on the new moon of the first month the earth became visible. NOTE: A ten month year. The waters disappeared from the earth the 5th week of the 7th year (1309 A.M.). On the 17th day of the 2nd month the earth was dry. then on the 27th day He opened the ark and everything inside could leave.

That brings us from Adam to the end of the flood a little over 26.7 jubilees.

Next it brings us to Noah's new rules God establishes. What to eat, not eat ect.

Once we got past figuring out what the Jubilees are and how to figure them, I found the timeframe of how it all unfolded interesting. I hope you did as well.

Til next time, Keep Searching,

Paul

This time the artwork is by Google Gemini adjusted by ArtSpaceai

What Are Jubilees and Why Was The Book Excluded

 Hi Everyone, Happy Thursday from an 85 degree day in Central Florida. Unfortunately in South Dakota where my kids still are and where I used to live it's noon right now and it's 12 degrees. Yikes! If you're also where you're still having a cold winter, Stay warm you guys.

The other day I was asked why I'm so focused on the Ethiopian Bible. I knew that there were many other books in the Dead Sea Scrolls that didn't qualify to make it into the Protestant Bible when the official list was voted on during the Council Of Nicea during the time of Constantine. Then I thought why weren't they included? I don't want to drag this on and be boring but I also feel everyone should know. We'll get into more book content after this explanation. This information is regarding only The Book Of Jubilees  from questions directed to my friend Google Gemini, and not any of the other books. So here goes.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection around 900 manuscripts found in caves near the Qumran settlement between 1947 and 1956. They contain every book in the Protestant Bible except Esther, plus many others that weren't allowed. If we go with number 900, and there are 66 books in the Protestant Bible that leaves 834 books that potentially had vital information that inquiring minds (old tv commercial reference) like you and I want to know, that were rejected. WHY?? I want to know what's in there. Some people are satisfied going to church 1-3 times a week, maybe having a daily or weekly bible study. That's okay. Personally I'm not, but then again I never have been satisfied with the status quo or being compliant for that matter. 

When I read the guidelines for why books were excluded a couple of things were a little startling. Maybe it's something maybe it's nothing. But one document in the Historical& Textual category called Community Rule or War Scroll was specific to The Essene sect, granted this document was community specific not universal to everyone but it has become accepted by some that Jesus was part of the Essenes. I heard a guy this week named John Bevere say Mary was an Essene. 

In the Jewish Rabbinic category some were excluded because they were written in the "post-prophetic" era or weren't written in Hebrew. Some were written in Aramaic. Also what Jesus spoke. The next category was Theological.  These were excluded because they were either apocalyptic or Conflicted with the Mainstream Lunar Calendars and Temple practices at the time. We'll see more about this. Other factors were Sectarian Identity, too community specific for the general Bible, like The War Scroll. Were they considered Divinely Inspired or just helpful to read? And Popularity. Were they popular in the scrolls but rare elsewhere? Jubilees were in the scrolls 15 times. 

This is the main thing that bothers me. Exodus was written by Moses. The Book Of Jubilees written by Moses being spoken by angels. Throughout history we've seen a division among people over things they just couldn't agree on. In this case the rest of the world has missed out on and ridiculed for reading books other than the standard canonized books of the bible. Admittedly, the Bible the Catholic church uses has the Apocrypha. Here's how the different sides looked at their solar and lunar decisions. As we'll see in the Book Of Jubilees God gave requirements that the festivals were to be celebrated on the same days each year, and the solar calendar allows for that. 

The Battle of the Calendars

To understand why this led to the book's exclusion, we have to look at the "Calendar War" happening in Judea at the time.

The Solar Calendar (Jubilees) ☀️	The Lunar Calendar (Mainstream/Rabbinic) 🌙
364 days exactly.	Roughly 354 days, requiring "leap months" to stay in sync with seasons.
Holidays always fall on the same day of the week every year.	Holidays shift days (like your birthday or modern Hanukkah).
Claims the lunar system is "corrupt" and leads to sin.	The standard used by the Temple authorities in Jerusalem.

The Jubilees proposes a year that has exactly 52 weeks. Every date falls on the same day of the week every year. The year is divided into 13-week seasons.  One Key Point, In this system the first day of the first month of the New Year always falls on a Wednesday, which I didn't notice it saying, but that's the day, sun, moon, and stars, were created and made the first day. I still don't know why the time frames are called Jubilees, but it really doesn't matter, I don't know why we call a week a week, or a year a year. So to continue on, another copy and paste from our friend Gemini 

The "Units" of Time 🧱

The author breaks time down into specific mathematical blocks:

• The Year: Exactly 364 days (52 weeks).

• The Week of Years: A 7-year period (based on the Sabbath year cycle in Leviticus).

• The Jubilee: A 49-year period (consisting of 7 "weeks of years").

The Total Calculation 🧮

If we multiply these units, we can see the grand scale of the book's chronology:

50 Jubilees X 49 years = 2,450 years

By using this rigid system, the author ensures that every major event—like the birth of Noah, the Flood, or the life of Abraham—falls on a mathematically "perfect" year and day. This was a direct challenge to other ancient calendars that relied on the moon, which the author felt were messy and prone to human error.

This calendar does however have 1.25 missing days over the course of a year. One early 1900's scholar R.H.Charles has what is regarded as a very accurate interpretation of Jubilees, has said he thinks the author of Jubilees was so blinded by "theological dogmatism" that they prioritized mathematical perfection over the actual movement of the sun, and possibly didn't account for the shortfall at all. Because to add a leap day or extra month somewhere would break the 7 day cycle and ruin the Sabbath nature of the calendar. Charles supposedly shows in his 1913 interpretation of Jubilees that the Flood lasted exactly 364 days and not 370 like in a Masoretic Text of Genesis which is considered to be an authoritative text of the Jewish Bible. 

As we saw in the last post A.M. is used to signify a period of time in Jubilees called Anno Mundi. It's a system used to date events based on the number of years since the creation of the world. With that in mind, the world, and everything in it was created in the first week of the first Jubilee {1-7A.M.} The first week of the first 7 year period based on the Sabbath year cycle in Leviticus. 

The first week of the of the first year of the the first 49 year Jubilee. Adam and Eve were in the garden a full 7 years exactly, the 17th day of the 2nd month the serpent came to Eve. {8A.M.) 

Next time I was just going to give a lineage list of from Adam to Noah but well see how it goes breaking it down to include Jubilees. Until then,

Keep Searching, 

Paul