Dr Paul Allen

He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. It is written: 'And he was numbered with the transgressors' ; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.” The disciples said, “See, Lord, here are two swords.” “That is enough,” he replied. (Luke 22:36-38, NIV). This is a very interesting Scripture because Jesus here appears to be overturning an earlier instruction to the disciples. In Luke 9:3 and Luke 10:4 Jesus had told the disciples to take no purse or bag, but now He is telling them to do so. So why did Jesus now instruct them to take a purse and a bag? What had altered? Well firstly, in referring to His change of instruction Jesus says this in Luke 22:35: Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you without purse, bags or sandals, did you lack anything?” Nothing,” they answered But now the instruction changes! Understanding...

Sandy Hook, Connecticut (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Thus says the LORD: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.”[Jeremiah 31:15] This time tragedy came to Connecticut, where a lone gunman entered two classrooms at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown and opened fire, killing at least twenty children and six adults, before turning his weapons of death upon himself. The young victims, now officially identified, ranged in age from five to ten years. The murderer was himself young, reported to be twenty years old. According to press reports, he murdered his mother, a teacher at Sandy Hook, in her home before the rampage at the school. Some of the children were in kindergarten, not even able to tie their own shoes. The word kindergarten comes from the German, meaning a garden for children. Sandy Hook Elementary School was no garden today. It was a place of ...