I am applying for internships and I am having such little energy and motivation to complete the applications
I am friends with people who have been hired by my hospital as an assistant, and because I haven’t I fear they dislike me (which makes me doubt my future and abilities)
That I not be consumed with jealousy (like I am right now) of those friends because of the positions they have that I don’t, and stop comparing my journey to others
That I am not filled with doubt or fear, but trust in God’s loving plan for my future
what speaking in tongues is: an extraordinarily rare charismatic gift allowing the recipient to speak and preach in languages they never learned.
what modern ‘charismatics’ think speaking in tongues is: an audible keyboard smash.
I was at a Catholic retreat recently where the two main speakers were encouraging people to speak in tongues (the incomprehensible babble version) and I was a bit disappointed to see this misunderstanding encouraged. Thankfully most all the attendees were well-catechized enough (or at least too embarrassed) to accept the invitation to do so. I really don’t understand how or why that misinterpretation even took off but I would like to see it end in my lifetime.
I listened to a lecture once where a man explained that Jesus was wrapped in swaddling clothes, which menas there is only one specific stable he must’ve been born in.
The cleanest, most sanitized place in all of Bethlehem, was the stable where the sacrificial lambs were birthed, and wrapped in swaddling clothes.
Because Mary was partially of a Levite she and by extension her husband Joseph, would be allowed to go inside and stay there.
How perfect is God?
Here it is:
‘On the night in which Yeshua was born, the angelic message came to those priests of the Temple whose duties had been designated, often from their youth, to “keeping watch over their flock.” These were not just any flock and herd. The shepherds who kept them were men who were specifically trained for this royal task. They were educated in what an animal that was to be sacrificed had to be and it was their job to make sure that none of the animals were hurt, damaged or blemished. During lambing season the sheep were brought to the tower from the fields, as the lower level functioned as the birthing room for sacrificial lambs. Being themselves under special rabbinical care, these priests would strictly maintain a ceremonially clean birthing place. Once birthed, the priestly shepherds would routinely place two lambs in the double-hewn depression of a limestone rock known as “the manger” and “wrap the newborn lambs in swaddling clothes,” preventing them from thrashing about and harming themselves “until they had calmed down” so they could be inspected for the quality of being “without spot or blemish”. In fact, the Mishnah from where this information is found (Baba K. vii. 7), goes on to expressly forbid the “keeping of flocks throughout the land of Israel, except in the wilderness and the only flocks otherwise kept, would be those for the Temple-services” (Baba K. 80 a & Alfred Edersheim, the Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, chapter VI). Every event in Yeshua’s life pointed toward His prophesied death. On the night of His birth, an angel appeared to the shepherds who were out in the fields, “keeping watch over their flock by night” and instructed them: “you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in the manger” (Luke 2, above). The shepherds immediately responded, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which YHVH has made known to us” (v. 15). Where would they have known to go – since there were no directions provided?’
‘…What are we to make of all of this information from the writings of the rabbis? First, we know that Migdal Edar was the watchtower that guarded the Temple flocks that were being raised to serve as sacrificial animals in the Temple. These were not just any flock and herd. The shepherds who kept them were men who were specifically trained for this royal task. They were educated in what an animal, that was to be sacrificed, had to be and it was their job to make sure that none of the animals were hurt, damaged, or blemished. These lambs were apparently wrapped in “swaddling cloths” to protect them from injury and also used to wrap the Lord Jesus.‘
https://www.jstor.org/stable/23509231 (Josephus the Jewish historian seemed to have mentioned where sacrificial lambs were born, kept clean and protected until they’re sacrificed)