• Living a sinless life for which we even have the eyewitness testimonies of his enemies
• Opening the eyes of the blind
• Healing lepers
• Opening the ears of the deaf
• Causing the lame to walk
• Casting out demons
All photographs courtesy of Unsplash
In the British Museum in London is one of the most wonderful of ancient manuscripts and it is a copy of the Bible known as Codex Sinaiticus. Today it is carefully preserved by the experts of the Museum but during its history, it was very close to destruction.
A German scholar named Tischendorf discovered it and incredibly he spotted the Codex amongst waste material that was being used for lighting fires in the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai in 1844 and he saved it from being burnt and destroyed. The monastery presented the codex to the Czar of Russia in return for certain favours and decorations. Later it fell into the hands of the Soviet government following the Russian revolution. As an atheistic regime, they had no interest in Biblical material and were prepared to sell the codex and so it was purchased for the British Museum through public subscription in 1933 for £100,000.
The Nazis intended that no Jew would survive the Holocaust.
Multiple tracks led from all over Europe to concentration camps like Auschwitz. Jewish people were crammed into cattle cars and shipped to these death camps. Very few survived.
Many were gassed immediately upon arrival and their bodies burned in ovens.
Those who were healthy enough to work when they arrived were literally worked to death.
Two-thirds of European Jewry, that was one-third of all world Jewry, died in the Holocaust.
This horrible, unfathomable number—six million murdered—does not count the many Jewish children who will never be born because of this genocide.
Whole families were destroyed. Some Jewish people who came out of the Holocaust were the sole survivor of their family. They were left completely alone. Many communities were utterly erased.
Those who came to Israel from Europe were a remnant.
Some of those who were gassed and put in the ovens were the parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles of our Bibles for Israel Ministry staff.
May We Never Forget.
All photos courtesy of Unsplash
I have just read a news item about five hives, containing a total of around four hundred thousand bees, which were stolen during the night of 11-12 June 2022 from their home in Cornwall, England. At the time of writing, the thief and the hives have not been found, but, amazingly, some of the bees have escaped from their captor and have returned, of their own accord, to their owner, who has provided a new hive for them.
On reading this story, I immediately had at least three thoughts. The first is how wonderful God is, that these little creatures have been given this ability by Him. The beekeeper said: “They’re coming back to their old home because that’s what they’re designed to do.” Truly, God is an all-wise Creator. The second thought is a sad one: that someone, probably living nearby and having some knowledge of beekeeping, would do such a thing. It reminds us that God’s perfect creation has been invaded by sin, including thieving. The Lord Jesus Christ once stated the actions of a thief: “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy” John 10.10. Supremely, these things characterise the originator of sin: the devil, God’s enemy, who wants people to remain in captivity to him, and hence to end up where he will be, in the Lake of Fire.
All photos courtesy of Unsplash
I once read a sign in Liverpool City Centre, it said - "Merseyside to Manhattan". It smacked of the days when great liners regularly left the Mersey for the New World. In May 2015, three liners arrived in the Mersey, giving us all a sight of their grandeur and a glimpse of 'bygone days' or maybe pleasant memories if you have been privileged to cruise in one of them! The right spot provided good views of "The Three Queens" as they visited the Mersey on this historic occasion. The best vistas were often from the Wirral Peninsula side of the Mersey, but Liverpool Waterfront also provided an excellent canvas on which to see some great views from time to time!