Matthew 1–The Message

18-19 The birth of Jesus took place like this. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. Before they came to the marriage bed, Joseph discovered she was pregnant. (It was by the Holy Spirit, but he didn’t know that.) Joseph, chagrined but noble, determined to take care of things quietly so Mary would not be disgraced.

hummer0010_1012 wing 20-23 While he was trying to figure a way out, he had a dream. God’s angel spoke in the dream: “Joseph, son of David, don’t hesitate to get married. Mary’s pregnancy is Spirit-conceived. God’s Holy Spirit has made her pregnant. She will bring a son to birth, and when she does, you, Joseph, will name him Jesus—‘God saves’—because he will save his people from their sins.” This would bring the prophet’s embryonic sermon to full term:

Watch for this—a virgin will get pregnant and bear a son; They will name him Immanuel (Hebrew for “God is with us”).

24-25 Then Joseph woke up. He did exactly what God’s angel commanded in the dream: He married Mary. But he did not consummate the marriage until she had the baby. He named the baby Jesus.

The Message (MSG)

December 21, 2018 by James Ross Kelly

Last Sunday in Advent–How to receive the Lord

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Luke 1:39-45 The Message (MSG)
Blessed Among Women
39-45 Mary didn’t waste a minute. She got up and traveled to a town in Judah in the hill country, straight to Zachariah’s house, and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby in her womb leaped. She was filled with the Holy Spirit, and sang out exuberantly,

You’re so blessed among women,
and the babe in your womb, also blessed!
And why am I so blessed that
the mother of my Lord visits me?
The moment the sound of your
greeting entered my ears,
The babe in my womb
skipped like a lamb for sheer joy.
Blessed woman, who believed what God said,
believed every word would come true!

The Message (MSG)
Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

December 19, 2018December 19, 2018 by James Ross Kelly

The Past and Future of Psychedelics with Rick Doblin – YouTube

December 15, 2018July 7, 2019 by James Ross Kelly

The American Evangelical Right has shown its real need is reformation–James Kelly

Christianity and her Church has been my moral center for most of my life. The past two years have shocked my sensibility as I’ve seen friends of mine, Christians, support Donald Trump.

While I’ve been Pro-life and Supported pro-Israel policy for 40 years, racism has been to my mind–ungodly. Sadly, as Trump supporters continue to bolster their President and often from an evangelical perspective that is patently wrong, their true colors seem to shine through. And there seems to be no color of the loving kindness of the Jesus I worship–whose love knows no skin color, or tribe, or race.

I am a left leaning Christian, in the manner of St. Francis I suppose, and perhaps I always have been. Recently a prophetic dream confirmed this. This blog will largely support a notion of Christianity that reflects Matthew 25: 31:46. I believe it always has.

Now, I believe the Evangelical right, if it has a part in the Church Universal has shown its real need is immediate reformation. Daily, there should be nails on the door of this artifice if it claims an historical significance.

James Kelly

December 13, 2018December 13, 2018 by James Ross Kelly

Forty Martyrs of Sebaste

St. John One: One

A party of soldiers who suffered a cruel death for their faith, near Sebaste, in Lesser Armenia, victims of the persecutions of Licinius, who, after the year 316, persecuted the Christians of the East. The earliest account of their martyrdom is given by St. Basil, Bishop of Caesarea (370-379), in a homily delivered on the feast of the Forty Martyrs (Hom. xix in P.G., XXXI, 507 sqq.). The feast is consequently more ancient than the episcopate of Basil, whose eulogy on them was pronounced only fifty or sixty years after martyrdom, which is thus historic beyond a doubt. According to St. Basil, forty soldiers who had openly confessed themselves Christians were condemned by the prefect to be exposed naked upon a frozen pond near Sebaste on a bitterly cold night, that they might freeze to death. Among the confessors, one yielded and, leaving his companions, sought the warm baths near…