Welcome back to JPCE Spiritual Talk. After prayers and deep thought, I decided to challenge ourselves in 2024. For the next year, we will be reading the entire Bible together, and with school right around the corner and my break fixing to end, the Lord thought it would be best and less stressful for me to cover the entire Bible by making one video per day. Thank you all for the love and support in Christ, love, Jared W. Campbell
Psalm 1:
Psalm 1 starts out talking about how blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly (v. 1). Early Church Fathers such as (JohnChr, AmbM, Eust, CyrAl Aug, and Cass), say the man mentioned in Psalm 1 our Lord Jesus Christ. We see how the incarnation sets the tone of the Psalms, and in the very first Psalms, our incarnate Lord is teaching us and His Church how to pray. The Psalms is the prayer book for the Orthodox Church. We are also presented with how Jesus lived His life in this world by showing us the difference between His godly life and those who live ungodly. We, as the Church, the Body of Christ, are to follow His example, His behavior concerning the ungodly (v. 1), the zeal of Christ, His truth (v. 2), and His holy and virtuous life (v. 3).
Matthew 1:
St. Matthew begins his gospel with the genealogy of Jesus, and Jesus means "O Lord save," referring to His role as Savior. Christ also means "Anointed One," the Messiah filled with the Holy Spirit, and it was the Son alone who became Man, and God the Father and the Holy Spirit worked through Jesus Christ to save us all. Our Lord became man as a Jew from the lineage of Abraham, who was the Father of all the Jews, and of David, who was known as Israel's greatest king and also a prototype of the Messiah. The Son of Man identifies with our human condition by taking it all on for Himself and becoming part of it by making Himself lower than the angels to save all humanity. We see that the genealogy of Jesus includes both righteous and wicked people, faithful kings and murderers, Jews and Gentiles, and kings and peasants.
In Luke 3:23-38, Luke's genealogy runs from Jesus back to Adam, and Matthew's list descends from Abraham, who God established the Old Covenant of circumcision, to Jesus, who is the author of the New Covenant. Here is a fun fact: Jewish genealogy lists typically only included men, but mentioning women, as in Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba, is unusual. Each one was either a Gentile or a sinner, and the inclusion of these women shows us God's graciousness and also prefigures the calling of the Gentiles into the Church, all while underscoring the role of women in God's plan of salvation, and this anticipates the Virgin mary's unique place in God's plan. Here is a fun fact for v. 17: Christ's ancestors are arranged in three groups of fourteen generations. Fourteen is the numerical equivalent of the consonants in the name of David, underscoring Jesus' descent from David. We also see in the Bible the division of the leadership of the Jews. They were under judges until David, under kings until Babylon, and now under priests until Christ. Ending our reflection here in Matthew, I wanted to point out the honor of Joseph. He could have turned Mary in and gone about his life, but instead, by his free will, he decided to do what was right before God and not do what was wrong but the standards of this fallen world.
Genesis 1-2:17
The Creation story begins in chaos, and God the Father created heaven and earth, and the Nicene Creed, "I believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth." The Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father, is the Lord, the giver of life, is coequal with the Father, and is also the Coworker in the making of the heaven and earth. In v. 3, God the Father spoke to His Word and Only Begotten Son, and through Him made light (AthanG). We saw it in vv. 26-30 in Genesis 1, the Holy Trinity also made man, and God the Father is speaking to God the Son (John Chrysostom), and the use of pronouns "US" AND "OUR" indicates three distinct Persons: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The word "IMAGE" is also singular, showing us the work of the Holy Trinity because it says our image, not our images. God made all things good, including man, and humanity wasn't created evil by nature; humanity was created good by nature but chose to live and do evil things. Sin is a free-will choice, and we seek and do good because good is our nature, and evil is the action of choosing to do wrong. It's something we all need to strive harder for this next year.
We see in Genesis 2:17, where we will close out, that God-man is a place and a law (AthanG). This place was called "Paradise," and the law was the commandment in Genesis 2:16-17. Humanity was to obey this commandment through the grace of God the Word. If man were obedient, then humanity would enjoy the blessings that came with "Paradise. But if mankind were to disobey the commandment, mankind would die, and his body would decay in the grave ("die by death," AthanG).
Summary:
Jared announced that JPCE Spiritual Talk will read the entire Bible in 2024, starting with Psalms, Matthew, and Genesis. He led a prayer for divine knowledge and understanding of the Scriptures. Jared discussed the significance of Psalms, emphasizing its importance in guiding a godly life as portrayed by Jesus Christ. He also discussed the genealogy of Jesus Christ as described in Matthew and the creation story from Genesis.
In Christ, love Jared W. Campbell
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