Friday, November 21, 2008

Matthew In The Now

Hey bloggers,

I've been saying for a while now that the time I spend creating the blog every day keeps me from authoring books, because it satisfies my need for expression with instant gratification. 2008 is the first year since the millennium that I haven't written anything, and it's because I'm doing this every day. So, since I don't want to give up the blog (I love it, and so it's not going anywhere), I've decided to make it work for me in the area of book writing.

I am (finally) writing Matthew In The Now, and as I finish each chapter, I'm going to post it here...sort of like a series. It won't be on here every day, because I probably won't be able to write a chapter a day. But the pressure of having to come up with a daily topic for the blog will actually be good for me, because it will force me to stay on task with MITN (I'm still planning on doing at least the whole New Testament, BTW).

I need your support on this...paraphrasing the Bible is a huge undertaking, but it's something I really believe that I'm supposed to do. Your feedback on this project will be appreciated.

OK, let's get started...


Matthew In The Now

Chapter 1


1. This is the genealogy, or natural family tree through His step-father, Joseph, of Jesus, the Christ…the Messiah, who was revealed and understood in the physical world as both the son of David, and the son of Abraham.

2. To begin with, Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,

3. Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah, (whose mother was Tamar); Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram,

4. Ram was the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon,

5. Salmon the father of Boaz, (whose mother was Rahab), Boaz the father of Obed, (whose mother was Ruth), Obed the father of Jesse,

6. and Jesse was the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, (whose mother had been Uriah's wife),

7. Solomon the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa,

8. Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram, Jehoram the father of Uzziah,

9. Uzziah the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,

10. Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, Amon the father of Josiah,

11. and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.

12. After the exile to Babylon: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,

13. Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, Abiud the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor,

14. Azor the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, Akim the father of Eliud,

15. Eliud the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob,

16. and Jacob was the father of Joseph, who became the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus, who was and is called the Messiah.

17. And so it turns out that there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen generations from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen generations from the exile to the Messiah.

18. Now, this is how the physical birth of Jesus took place – how the eternal Word
in the now became an actual human being who lived and moved on the earth. A young woman named Mary was engaged to be married to a man from King David's family whose name was Joseph. But before they were married, and before they ever had any sexual relations, she discovered that she was pregnant. But her pregnancy was not a natural occurrence – she had been impregnated by the Holy Spirit.

19. Understandably, Joseph did not believe Mary's story about the supernatural pregnancy, but because he was a good man and did not want to publicly embarrass her, he decided to quietly call off the wedding and move on with his life.

20. But while he was thinking about the best way to break off the engagement, an angel from the Lord came to Joseph in a dream and said, “Joseph, Mary is telling you the truth; as hard as it may be for you to believe, she is still a virgin, even though she is definitely pregnant. She did not ask for this to happen, and she has not been unfaithful to you…she was chosen by God for this miracle. Go ahead and marry her, because the Holy Spirit did, in fact, impregnate her, and she is going to need your support through this.

21. “She will give birth to a boy, and you, Joseph, are to personally name Him as if He were your own Son; and you are to give Him the derivative of the name Joshua which is Jesus - the name that in Hebrew means Savior, or, literally ‘God saves.' This name will be prophetic for Him, for He will save His people (all the people who live on His earth) from their sins.”

22. All of this happened to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:

23. “Look for this to happen - a virgin will get pregnant and still maintain her virginity…and she will give birth to a Son; and they will call His name Immanuel which literally means in the Hebrew language ‘God is with us.'”

24. When Joseph awoke from this unusual and profound dream he did exactly what the angel of the Lord had commanded him to do, and took Mary home with him so that he could marry her.

25. But even after their private wedding ceremony they did not physically consummate the marriage until after she gave birth to the promised Son. And when the Son was finally born, Joseph named Him Jesus.

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good grief, Charlie Brown! How do you do it all?!

Donald said...

Bishop, once you got past that genealogy stuff you definitely started picking up speed.

So far so great!

JITN is the bomb(the bum as my dad would say) and it looks like MITN will be equally as impressive.

I do forsee a problem though. John In The Now is abbreviated as JITN. I see Matthew In The Now is being abbreviated as MITN. What happens when we get to Mark In The Now?

Just a thought.

SCRIBE said...

Outstanding thus far, Bishop. Easy to understand and keeps one anticipating more...

NTL said...

Donald, when you finally get here, we will call that DITBN. Donald In The Building Now. But that would conflict with when you are in the bathroom. See ya soon.

NTL said...

Bish,
that makes the table that has been prepared with all the fixin's, a whole lot easier to see what's on it.

Unknown said...

You had me at the majestic Matthew angel!

Since "after this", I've been hearing "faith that restores, visions and dreams"!

Wordver: mundo...no kidding!

Lise said...

Okay, here's my word ver:

'demman'...

"You de Mman!" Good job!

And I love the Charlie Brown Christmas visual! I bought a little blue blanket last year and made my own Charlie Brown tree. One or two of my neighbors got it. I guess the others just thought we were nuts!

Son of Zadok said...

I just read the first few lines about where you felt the direction of the Blog is headed, and like a child in eager anticipation, I just wanted to stop first and say,

YES!

What a great idea!!!
Bishop your so right that you have a calling to do these Scipture translations. By God's grace you are answering that call. Praise God! He is so able. Oh how God knows the world wants and needs proper word translations and Spirit filled inspiration. The church has cried out for it and doesn't even know it.

It's very funny this all as well because just an hour ago I was walking up and down the book aisle at Kroger's and was surprised at the section devoted to several popular Christ centerd teachers. Who although don't openly admit to Christ's full victory for all people, might have alluded to such thoughts in private or in a few public passings (only to be quickly maligned by the religiouse proper.) I'm not going to mention any names (J.O.) Haha, come out, come out, wherever you are...

Anyways, I saw your books their Bishop. I said to myself, "This is a place where JITN will be." I saw it in the grocery store. The familes of the Earth will know it. They are longing for it. It's a gift from the Spirit.

The Spirit says, Let the letter give life, let the letter give light!

Enough Killing, Life and Light.

I feel very privileged to get to read what all of you post here. Thank you so very much. Bishop, I pray that the same Spirit that sups with you, will also sit down in our hearts as we read these inspired words. May all the living epistels who find this place today and into the future, be greatly ministered to through each other as the Christ is unveiled in all our lives.

And when your tired remember; a picture can be worth a thousand words. It's so nice how you take the time to walk the extra mile with us here sometimes Bishop. But devote yourself fully to the Spirit and His Word. He's taking care of us. We'll all be better off for the time you can spend in God.

Men's late night prayer-walk, that sounds so awesome. Looking forward to the church getting an actual property up here. Maybe we can make Wednesday CITN streaming projector night. Remember us today.

ver: concelin

MITN : God's Revealin'
Things He Had Been Concelin' !!!

Now....where was I...Oh yea

Matthew in the Now

As us boys used to like to say. "Bonus!"

NTL said...

soz,

right on, my brother, right on.

Bish,

write on, my brother, write on.

NTL said...

word ver for yesterdays pic.

...tizineg...

Donald said...

DITBN,... ew NTL, you crazy thang you!
That was a good 'un right thar, if I must say so myself.

NTL said...

Bish,

I turned on your holiday playlist when I got to my office this morning. My chief heard it, and asked me to leave it on when I left to go to the field. I think it is so cool that in beautiful downtown Decatur GA, what you so labored to put together is being heard, with favor.

donald, it's all good. Be blessed.

Anonymous said...

The Charlie Brown pic reminds me of Isaiah's account in chapter 53:2.

The servant grew up before God - a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. (The Message Bible)

Matthew In The Now - yes, you have my support on this project.

The Saint Matthew pic is fascinating; resembles a letter opener. (aha! Good one!) And... an ornate canape' server.

Verses 16 & 17 elaborate on the "after that" question about Joseph; the boy with the multi-colored coat.

Anonymous said...

OK, Bish - I'm actually laughing out loud right now. I know I've read the following at least a bazillion times. But under MITN's illumination it seems so ironic:

19. Understandably, Joseph did not believe Mary's story about the supernatural pregnancy...

Huh?!

Joseph the Dreamer didn't believe Mary's explanation? God had to send an angel to confirm her account!

Isn't that astonishing?

Joseph was dubbed Zaphnath-paaneah "preserver of the age", or "revealer of secrets" by Pharaoh but he didn't perceive his own destiny; decided to quietly call off the wedding and move on with his life.

Wonder what God was thinking when He wrote the character of Joseph.

An attractive lad, misunderstood by his brothers, wrongly imprisoned by his master but guided to marry a teenaged virgin.

Oh, but there's more. And it's good! She'll be impregnated by the Spirit of God & Joseph will herald The Deliverer.

More, please!

Anonymous said...

Inspiration comes to me more often from what I have seen others do or what I have read that has been written by others. That is even more true about the books written by Bishop than any others I've read.

My reading list is quite eclectic and includes such little jewels as Thomas Paines's 'Age of Reason'. In many circles that is enough to send me staight to hell but anyone who could see through my eyes would know just how much God is revealed in everything that I've read.

SOZ spoke of finding the full victory of Christ mentioned by Christian writers who are locked in a box that does not allow that. I find that the Glory of God can not be contained by creation in any way.

It has been the experience of all my senses, including the sixth one and perhaps a seventh that is not identifiable as yet, to recognize God's glory in everything my soul has been thoughtful of but to this date, the writings and teachings of Bishop Jim Earl Swilley have portraid the most clear picture of the God Who is Love.

That is the only God I care to know anything about. If God is not Love then for me there is no God.

The revelation of God's Love as the Word made flesh to tell humankind about the limitlessness of Love is what I enjoy finding the most in the varied expressions of creation. This appears very clear without any cloud of doubting in the communications of Bishop and that could be because one doesn't have to search for the truth there. It is so clearly revealed that it is sometimes overwhelming to pick out the best point of edification in any particular session.

Donald, your observation about the hard headedness of the character in the picture yesterday still has me laughing. Your down to earth wisdom that so quickly sees the obvious reminds me of my Dad. The recognition of the challenge for the abreviation of Mark IN The Now being different than MITN brought a question back to mind for me.

Who was Mark of the gospel Mark? Was it John Mark who would have been probably a teen ager at the time? That would explain some of the observations made in that gospel such as the obvious emphasis placed on the miracles being greater than the teachings.

I have not studied enough to know who that Mark is but if it was John Mark, then the obvious JMITN would be a possibility. I'm sure Bish has it figured out anyway.

I totally love the gospel of Matthew and my son's given name is in honor of that gospel. Of course I love them all as stand alone works but I didn't have three more sons.

BTW Bishop, you certainly didn't shut me up two days ago, didja? My biggest problem is keeping quiet anytime that I've taken the opportunity to be influenced by you. I want to personally thank you for continually encouraging we of CITN to seek our own revelation and speak out about it. There is no better way for the fire to increase in its intensity than for a major member to be placed in such a way as to cause great crackling and popping to issue from the subsequent members added to the fire and that is your blessing my friend. I do not know of any other occult leader (ha ha) who has ever done that.

In love with the Christ both Body and Head,

JB

Anonymous said...

Going from WE Are Family to an easy family read. Cool Job.

NTL said...

Cold weather clothing check list for praying under the canopy tonight.

1. Thick socks.

2. Insulated boots.

3. Long johns.

4. Long sleeved shirt.

5. Sweatshirt or sweater.

6. Insulated coveralls.

7. An insulated coat, preferably with a hood.

8. A hat that covers your ears.

9. Insulated gloves.

10. And a hanky.

You might not have all of the above, so improvise the best you can.

Better to be over prepared, 'cause it just might go on all night long.

Anonymous said...

If this wind keeps blowing in the direction it's blowing, and this hard, my neighbor is going to have a lot of leaves to rake, from my trees.

Anonymous said...

I'm going to the prayer meeting tonight aurou? word ver--aurou--

Anonymous said...

I go to work, cousio.
w.v. cousio

Anonymous said...

word ver **prineses**

every one of the girls who were at the GIFT 08 is a prineses.

River said...

Man, Bishop
Today's read makes me so ready for the holiday's. Love how you made it easy to read.


Oh, there’s no place like home for the holidays,
‘Cause no matter how far away you roam,
When you pine for the sunshine of a friendly gaze,
For the holidays, you can’t beat home, sweet home.

I met a man who lives in Tennessee,
He was headin’ for,
Pennsylvania, and some home made pumpkin pie.
From Pennsylvania, folks are travelin’
Down to Dixie’s sunny shore,
From Atlantic to Pacific,
Gee, the traffic is terrific.

Oh there's no place like home for the holidays,
‘Cause no matter how far away you roam,
If you want to be happy in a million ways,
For the holidays,
You can’t beat home, sweet home.

Take a bus, take a train
Go and hop an aeroplane
Put the wife and kiddies in the family car
For the pleasure that you bring
When you make that doorbell ring
No trip could be too far

I met a man who lives in Tennessee,
He was headin’ for,
Pennsylvania, and some home made pumpkin pie.
From Pennsylvania, folks are travelin’
Down to Dixie’s sunny shore,
From Atlantic to Pacific,
Gee, the traffic is terrific.

Oh there's no place like home for the holidays,
‘Cause no matter how far away you roam,
If you want to be happy in a million ways,
For the holidays,
You can’t beat home, sweet home.
For the holidays,
You can’t beat home, sweet home.

(There's No Place Like) Home for the HolidaysPerry Como lyrics

Happy Holiday's To All

Anonymous said...

Cold weather canopy check list considerations:

* Chapstick
* Ricola Lozenges
* Merry heart
* Zeal Cloak

NTL said...

anon 4:40,

I knew I forgot something. If you can think of anything else let us know. I thought about putting a little anti-freeze on my list, but then I thought I better not.

Teezy313 said...

Nice stuff!

Nation of Worship...see ya in an hour...

Bishop and guys...see ya tonight!

Teezy

Reign! said...

Bishop,
I love your comprehensive and concise style of writing, a welcomed alternative to the ‘thee(s), thou(s), and begat(s) of the King James Version.

In my opinion, the 1st chapter of Matthew is a beautiful example of acceptance, love, and responsibility. Here it is detailed that Jesus is in the lineage of David because of his kinship to his (step) father Joseph, not Mary! This just blows my mind because Joseph is not his natural, biological father: GOD IS! Just think how screwed up things would be if Joseph had rejected Jesus instead of loving him, accepting parental responsibility for him and accepting him as his own son! So the way I see it, the lesson in this portion of the chapter is to be mindful of your perception of people, especially the least of them. The last shall be first! With God all things are possible to them that BELIEVE!

Anonymous said...

In regards to Matthew In the Now, I love it but then I love all of your writings. They just get gooder and gooder.

I attended all of the SOTB's and I have all of your books and many CD's and some DVD's and whenever I have to travel to leave town, my spirit is like the deer panting for the water...so my spirit longs to be refreshed. Apparently you are my pastor so I am partial to your writings but you have encouraged greatly to write by example.

And believe it or not, God has put in my spirit to publish some of my writings and blog articles and posting (from other areas) for a book and it was confirmed by two or three witness. So think it not strange that your people are "begetting" after your leading.

Intercessory prayer way awesome this morning as Pastor Joshua expounded on being a "Thanksgiver" and taking this opportunity to truly be grateful for our water, our shelter, our food, transportation, our clothing And to be mindful of the daily benefits that God loads us down with (Psalm 103). I am fired up and ready to go pertaining to what the Holy Spirit is going to do after prayer with the men's prayer.

Today was a great opportunity to serve God through serving His body.

Water Walker

Anonymous said...

NTL - yes, another consideration: Carry lots of agreement - helps the walk!

Anon 4:40

NTL said...

anon 4:40

YES, one will hold a thousand, two will hold ten thousand, and on and on.

DoubleBack Alley said...

Sahib,

Been a few weeks, huh? Anyway, getting over the leftness of America and not sure what to make of it. What's left after this (bad pun)?

Good to see that Charlie Brown and I can agree when we look at our circumstances and say, "Good Grief". I'll be good and say that we elected the right man because it pleased God. Now I have to determine just what I know about God. What does God know about me? Hmmmmm.....

I would like to say that everyone voted pragmatically, but I doubt that. I am sure there were White Americans that voted against Obama for no other reason than he was black, just as I am certain that there were Black Americans who voted for him for no other reason than he was Black. I voted for McCain because I was relatively sure that he was not a Socialist at best, nor was he a terrorist sympathizer at worst. It saddens me that rather than bring the country together after eight years of bitter division and then malaise, this election seems to have polarizied us even the more. What to make of it? I truly don't know.

To quote CNN (you know the Communist News Network), Obama just inherited the Inbox from Hell. God speed to this man of vision and charisma. I hope that he is up to the challenge that we have set before him. He deserves our allegiance and our best. In four years we will reward him with the validation of four more years or there will be another peaceful revolution that has seated and unseated forty-three great ones before him. What a country. God Bless American, land that I love.

Ain't God Good?

Bishop Jim Swilley said...

Hey bloggers,

Thanks for the good feedback on MITN (good point about the initials, Donald...JB's idea may work...let me get through Matthew first, and then I'll figure it out...)

Welcome back, DBA...don't worry, be happy...

Great stuff, everyone...