01/03/04 E-Clipz Ezine Part 2 of 2
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More Historic Happenings

January 01

46 B.C. - the Roman Emperor, Julius Caesar, first established January 1st
as "New Year's Day". Janus was the Roman god of doors and gates, and had
two faces, one looking forward, and one back. Caesar felt that the month
named after this god ("January") would be the appropriate "door" to the year.
Caesar celebrated the first January 1st New Year by ordering the violent,
and reputedly quite bloody, routing of "revolutionary Jewish forces" in the
Galilee. In later years, Roman pagans observed the New Year by engaging in
drunken orgies -- a ritual they believed constituted a personal re-enacting
of the chaotic world that existed before the cosmos was ordered by the gods.

0001 - Traditional Origin of the so-called Christian Era according to Usher

0069 - Roman garrison of Mainz uprising

0089 - Gov Lucius Antonius Saturninus of Germany becomes emperor of Rome

0313 - Start of Roman (Pontifical) Indiction

0404 - Last gladiator competition in Rome

0404 - Telemachus Roman monk, murdered

0990 - Russia adopts Julian calendar

1430 - Jews of Sicily are no longer required to attend conversionist services

1502 - Gregorius XIII, [Ugo Buoncampagni], Italy, pope (1572-85), dies

1515 - Jews are expelled from Laibach Austria

1622 - Papal Chancery adopts Jan 1 as beginning of the year (was Mar 25).
The bible declares the beginning of the year to be in the springtime when
the Judea-area barley is in the stage called 'abib' (green ears).

1700 - Protestant West-Europe (except England) begin using Gregorian calendar

1701 - Great Britain & Ireland union is in effect, creating United Kingdom

1788 - Quakers in Pennsylvania emancipate their slaves

1798 - Russia appoints 1st Jewish censor to censor Hebrew books

1801 - The Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland took effect, creating
the United Kingdom.

1802 - Thomas Jefferson, in a letter written to the Danbury [CT] Baptist
Association, coined the metaphor, "a wall of separation between Church and
State." From 1947, the "wall of separation" concept gained acceptance as
a constitutional guideline.

1832 - In Lexington, KY, 12,000 followers of Alexander Campbell, (called
"Campbellites") merged with 10,000 followers of Barton W. Stone (known as
"Christians") to form the Disciples of Christ (Christian) Church.

1871 - The Church of Ireland was formally disestablished. Aligned with
Anglicanism from 1537, the Irish Church represented the faith of only 12%
of the populace by the mid-19th century.

1893 - Japan adopts the Gregorian calendar

1899 - Cuba liberated from Spain by US (National Day) (US occupies till 1902)
1915 Jews of Laibach Austria expelled

1918 - Last day of the Julian calendar in Finland

1923 - Union of Socialist Soviet Republics established (USSR)

1942 - In Washington 26 nations signed the "Declaration of the United Nations,"
affirming opposition to Axis powers and confirming that no co-signatory would
make a separate peace

1945 - France joins the UN

1958 - The European Economic Community (EEC), "the Common Market," came into
being.

1973 - Britain, Ireland & Denmark become 7th-9th members of Common Market

1977 - 1st woman formally ordained an Episcopal priest (Jacqueline Means)

1982 - Javier Pérez de Cuellar becomes Secretary-General of UN

1995 - The World Trade Organisation came into effect, succeeding GATT.

1998 - US Census Bureau estimates population at 268,921,733

1999 - The euro was introduced giving 11 European countries a shared currency
for the first time since the Roman Empire.

January 02

0069 - Roman Lower Rhine army proclaims its commander, Vitellius, emperor

0533 - John II begins his reign as Catholic Pope

1235 - Emperor Joseph II orders Jews of Galicia Austria to adopt family names

1744 - Colonial missionary to the American Indians David Brainerd wrote in
his journal: 'We are a long time in learning that all our strength and salvation
is in God.'

1909 - Future Foursquare Gospel church founder Aimee Elizabeth [ne Kennedy]
Semple [later McPherson], 19, along with her husband Robert Semple, was ordained
to the ministry in Chicago by evangelist William H. Durham.

1921 - The first religious program heard over the radio was broadcast from
Calvary Episcopal Church of Pittsburgh over local radio station KDKA. (The
first licensed radio station in the US, KDKA had been on the air only two
months.)

1968 - Swiss Reformed theologian Karl Barth wrote in a letter: 'In the Church
of Jesus Christ there can and should be no non-theologians.'

1971 - A team of Israeli scholars announced the discovery in Jerusalem of
a 2,000-year-old skeleton of a crucified male. Found in a cave-tomb, it was
the first direct physical evidence of the well-documented Roman method of
execution.

1985 - Egyptian President Mubarak re-appoints Coptic pope Shenuda III

January 03

0236 - Anterus ends his reign as Catholic Pope

0269 - Felix I begins his reign as Catholic Pope

0936 - Duke Alberik II of Spoleto appoints his son Pope Leo VII

1521 - German Reformer Martin Luther, 38, was excommunicated by Pope Leo
X for challenging Catholic Church doctrine. Luther soon after began translating
of the Bible into the German language.

1785 - The famed Methodist "Christmas Conference" concluded in Baltimore,
MD. Having opened on Christmas Eve,

1784, this body brought into being the Methodist Episcopal Church (in America),
and elected Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke the first two American "general
superintendents."

1924 - British Egyptologist Howard Carter finds sarcophagus of Tutankhamun

1934 - At Barmen-Gemarke, in Germany, 320 pastors of the German Confessing
Church met to draw up a theological statement opposing the Nazi German
Nationalist Church. Led by Karl Barth and Martin Niemoeller, the gathering
led to the formula afterward known as the Barmen Declaration.

1956 - The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, established in 1870, officially
changed its name to the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. The denomination
is headquartered today in Memphis, TN, and comprises a membership of nearly
500,000.

1961 - US breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba after Fidel Castro announced
he was a communist.

1962- Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro

2002 - Astrologer and Numerologist Sydney Omarr (76), born Sidney Kimmelman,
whose horoscopes appear in more than 200 newspapers across the nation, died
of a heart attack ... that he never saw coming. Omarr lived many years stricken
by blindness and paralyzed from the neck down by multiple sclerosis.

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Sabbath Morning Companion 
   Date: 1/2/2004 By: Lenny Cacchio [used
by permission]

Question the Assumptions

Now we have a presidential candidate saying that he doesn't want to talk
about such hot issues as "God, guns, and gays."  So let's see what this
means.

"God":  That's a First Amendment issue.

"Guns":  That's a Second Amendment issue.

"Gays":  That's a Fourteenth Amendment issue.

Mr. Candidate, is there any other part of the Constitution that is unworthy
of presidential discussion?  Whoever is elected to the highest office
is sworn to protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign
and domestic.  Would it not behoove the electorate to know how the
candidates view such matters? To declare them out of bounds is an attempt
to remove them from discussion and thereby avoid embarrassing questions.

With all due deference to this particular candidate, such tactics are common
anywhere humans congregate.  It even happens in the world of
religion.  All of our belief systems have their own untouchable holy
places.  These are areas for one reason or another that no one is allowed
to question, let alone leave open for public debate.

Jesus had no qualms about challenging the conventional wisdom of his day,
and it nearly got him lynched in the early days of his ministry.  He
had gone back home to his synagogue in Nazareth and stood up to read from
the book of the prophet Isaiah.  The particular passage he cited referred
to the Messiah, which of course referred to himself.

He gained their attention, and at that point  put on the table an issue
that for them was untouchable.  But it was something that the Messiah
was obliged to discuss:

"Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. 
But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when
the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great
famine throughout all the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent except
to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And many
lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them
was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian." (Luke 4:23-27 NKJV)

This was the opening salvo in the revealing of a mystery of the kingdom of
heaven, and his fellow townspeople didn't like it.  The Jews of the
day believed that they were God's chosen people (and they were), but it was
impossible for them to believe that God would call the Gentiles to be fellow
heirs with them.  The Apostle Paul wrote:

"By revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written
already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the
mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of
men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets:
that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers
of His promise in Christ through the gospel." (Ephesians 3:3-7)NKJV

This mystery was something they couldn't grasp because they had placed the
"chosenhood" of themselves off limits to discussion, and even to question
this assumption was reason in their minds to throw their neighbor over a
cliff! (Luke  4:28-30)

Unfortunate for us that the world of politics is alive and well in the
church.  Different churches have their own holy places, just as the
worldly political factions do, and that is one reason why the world of
Christianity is divided into hundreds and perhaps thousands of
denominations.  Some believe that they are God's only true church on
earth, and if you dare to question them, you are considered a poor, deceived
dupe of the devil, or perhaps even a heretic.  Some believe that their
particular spiritual guru is God's only anointed, and that God works only
through him (or her, as the case may be).

Some believe that God is a hanging judge who will condemn billions to an
eternal torture chamber because they just didn't understand, while others
believe that God will save everybody regardless of what they were in this
life because, after all, isn't God love?

What we believe and why we believe it should be held to some sort of
yardstick.  In presidential politics that yardstick should be the
Constitution, and in Christianity it should be Word of God.  Interestingly,
both are faced with the same challenges today:  those who believe in
a literal, strict constructionist approach versus those who believe their
founding documents are living, breathing, and subject to interpretation based
on the culture of the day.  The latter approach is the dangerous one,
for it places our own prejudices above the original intent.  But that's
a story for a different day.  LC

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Church Humor: Church Restoration Project

There was a tradesman, a painter named Jack, who was very interested in making
a dollar wherever and however he could. So he often would "thin down" his
paint to make it go a wee bit further. As it happened, he got away with this
for some time.

Eventually the local church decided to do a big restoration project. Jack
put in a painting bid and, because his price was so competitive, he got the
job. And so he started, erecting the trestles and putting up the planks,
and buying the paint and thinning it down with turpentine. Jack was up on
the scaffolding, painting away, the job nearly done, when suddenly there
was a horrendous clap of thunder. The sky opened and the rain poured down,
washing the thin paint from all over the church and knocking Jack off the
scaffold to land on the lawn.

Jack was no fool. He knew this was a judgment from the Almighty, so he fell
on his knees and cried, "Oh, God! Forgive me! What should I do?"

And from the thunder, a mighty Voice spoke, "Repaint! Repaint! And thin no
more!"

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Prayer Requests

[The following email was forwarded by our brother Steve Bruns in Moses Lake
WA]

Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2004  Hello again, Steve.  I am not sure
how to go about requesting prayers perhaps thru Truth on the Web. Maybe this
time you could do this? We are having a trememdous snow storm here with 12"
expected; power outages occuring and expected so want to get this out now.
....... Our daughter is 8 months pregnant and has been suffering for a couple
of weeks with this hard flu. It has now gone into pneumonia and she is very
ill. She is also suffering from a horrific sinus infection which has caused
swelling in her face and pain radiation from forehead, to jaw. She has cracked
ribs from the coughing and her defences are down from the previous weeks
of her body fighting this flu. Her name is Aileen Walker. Her husband,Kelly,
and 2 yr. old son, Kyle have had the flu and recovered. This is a dangerous
and difficult time for this family and we would appreciate your prayers on
her behalf. Thank you. Bill & Marsha Hastings

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"Sigh and Cry & Wait Patiently
on The Lord"

Love to you all in Christ Jesus ~ Kenneth M. Hoeck

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