The Men and Women who move in God's Movements are Imperfect... but effective.

The Imperfect History of the Church

Church History is fascinating. Imperfect Men and Women creating change for God. You never know what chain of events might be set by your actions. There is a distinct chain of dominoes that fall from Martin Luther's Theses of 1517  to the Tent Revival Meetings of the 20th Century. 

These dominoes involve an intricate layering of men and women, their causes, movements, and churches, and the often simultaneously Breathtaking and Devastating effects of their work. 

I'm studying them, and I couldn't possibly list them all. But I did notice a specific line of dominoes I would like to point out today. 

The whole of Church History is like a Fractal. Factals, as layers and layers of the Moves of God combine to create the intricate shapes of God's Church. 

Great videos on Fractals at Fractal Foundation Org.

Romanesco broccoli, showing self-similar form approximating a natural fractal

There's no linear "this then that" in God's Historical Movements. There are layers that fold into each other, overlap, and combine to create intricate masterpieces. 

Here are a few of those layers:

*******************************************************

Martin Luther (1483-1546) (Lutherism) nailed his Theses to the wall of the church in 1517, essentially lighting the fires of the Protestant Reformation that would lead the church out of the dark ages into the light. He wasn't right or perfect, but he had the first glimmer of light. He laid the foundation of "Saved by Faith" not works. In many respects, he was insane. Plagued by depression, possibly even demons. But his work on this subject laid the groundwork for the centuries to follow. 

John Calvin (1509-1564) (Calvanism) was another stepping stone in the development of Church Theology as the Protestant Reformation came into fruition. He laid the foundation of asking good questions about what it means to be saved. He was flat wrong in many of his conclusions, but, he asked the right questions! And that gave the foundation upon which Arminian thought could grow.

Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609) (Arminianism) corrected Calvin's obvious errors, building upon the foundation he laid, leading us to see how Free Will played a role in salvation. He wasn't perfect either, but he gave a foundation upon which the Gospel could be understood, and built framework around the ever-present tension between understanding of Free Will and the Sovereignty of God. He demonstrated that the tension could not only co-exist, but was vital to understanding the Gospel. 

John Wesley (Methodist 1703-1791), himself an avid preacher of Arminianism, laid further ground work for a second experience after salvation (which he called holiness or sanctification) which we would later understand as Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Charles Fox Parham (1873-1929) a Holiness Wesleyan preacher (and yet horrible racist), recorded some of the first Baptism of the Holy Spirit experiences involving speaking in Tongues. They were not unique, but rare prior to his ministry. He laid the foundation for a Theological position on this subsequent experience, calling it Pentecostalism. Showing us that the subsequent experience not only had a name but came with signs following. He over-corrected, laying down a theology too harsh to be true, but he gave us the beginnings of the conversation and a basis upon which to have the discussion. 

William J Seymour (1870-1922) attended one of Parham's trainings but had to listen from the hallway because of his race, and went on to ignite the world in the Azusa Street Revival (~1906-1913), which eventually birthed Pentecostalism into the world at large, and directly affected the earliest Pentecostal Denominations. The work of Seymour also laid the inter-racial, desegregated foundations for the church to follow in subsequent years. Our racially integrated churches today can thank Seymour for doing some of this early work. 

Aimee Semple McPherson (1890-1944) affected indirectly by both the happenings of these men in the USA and the revivals overseas in Ireland and Wales, went on to become one of the most powerful preachers (man or woman) of the 20th century, with healings and demonstrations that still make me curious today. She was also one of the most successful, founding her own denomination (Foursquare) (which birthed one of the churches (The Rock) that had the most profound affects on me as an adult), her own college ( which became Life Pacific University), one of the first Large Church Buildings (Angelus Temple, 5,300), as well us over 180 songs, multiple books, theater shows, and more. 

David du Plessis (1905-1987) Founder of the Charismatic Movement, attempts to reconcile the various groups and beliefs of these moves into one experience. He lays the groundwork for a broader understanding of the moves of the Holy Spirit than Parham gave us and built that understanding upon that earlier foundation. 

Granville Oral Roberts (1918-2009) took the baton further and was instrumental in ushering in the Healing Revivals, adjacent to the Charismatic Movement. He became the first to introduce these concepts to the larger world through Radio and Television. 

This led to the works of men like Kenneth Copeland (1936-Present), Jack Williams Hayford (1934-Present), and Robert Morris (1961- Present), Gateway Church. who have all had a direct affect on my life, theology, and Christian Experience. I can see a thread trying Martin Luther to Jacobus Arminius to John Wesley to William J Seymour to Robert Morris to Me.

I could add ten thousand layers in between, before, and after these... but it is humbling to see that the thoughts I've spent a lifetime struggling through, the theology I am developing, has it's origins in the works of men and women who came before me... I am not building anything new. I am simply taking the masterpiece I was given, and adding to that my peice of the equation, my unique contribution to the whole. I stand on the shoulders of giants. 

I only hope I can add something of value for the next generation to build upon. 

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Shalom: Live Long and Prosper!

Darrell Wolfe (DG Wolfe)

Storyteller | Writer | Thinker | Consultant @ DarrellWolfe.com

Clifton StrengthsFinder: Intellection, Learner, Ideation, Achiever, Input
16Personalities (Myers-Briggs Type): INFJ

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It's time for a Heart Transplant...

Doctor Gregory House, television Character in the TV Series House, is an arrogant, selfish, brilliant man who lives for the puzzle... 

Often working to find out what's wrong with someone despite them, he endangers them just to answer the question. He's the doctor you want solving your case, as long as someone is holding his reigns and enforcing him to remain humane. 

In short... He's me.

But I don't solve medical mysteries... I solve theological and philosophical and psychological ones. 

And I've been known to leave a few wounded and bruised in the process of diagnosis.

Things fit together like a clean puzzle for me if I'm given long enough to ponder it. 

People bring me the pain that seperates them from God or others... And I can usually begin to unravel the thing that seems so complicated to them, simplify it, and give them a prescription for the Spiritual-Psychological path to recovery. 

Like Greg House, I too have a much harder time unraveling the mystery for those closest to me. I lack the distance required to diagnose.

I find the ones I can't help usually result from a few commonalities.

They don't like my diagnosis.

They don't agree with my diagnosis.

I already admitted I am arrogant, so I'll take another note from House and say: I am rarely wrong. 

If they don't like it, or agree with it, it's usually because they can't see the whole picture... Not because I was wrong.

That's where I lack. 

They're heart.

I can't get into their heart, and shove 40 years of experience and knowledge into them to give them the whole picture. 

How do I communicate in a way that they'd see it?

Like House begins learning in season 7....... Love is the key. 

Not just being kinder about my delivery... Or even my diagnosis... 

LOVE Himself usually has a way of communicating to each heart in a way that is unique, like a fingerprint. He can reach into that heart, pull a memory tied to the healing they need, and tie them together, then download decades of revelations in a single moment.

As a Biblical Counselor... It's not my job to be brilliant, witty, or force my solution into someone. My intellectual capacity is a tool he's given me to see the problem in creative and unique ways, and see answers nobody's considered........ 

But HIS heart is required in each situation. In every instance, he's wanting to perform a heart transplant. And each and every time, he'll do it differently. 

My job isn't to be smart and have all the answers. That's good TV but not real life. 

My job is to use the gifting he's given me to facilitate a meeting between Jesus and this person.... And let Him do all the heavy lifting and cutting and transplanting.

My job... Is to usher Him in, and step aside.

Selah...

Shalom...

Darrell

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Two Broken Legs... Mid-2020 Review and Update

I'm writing this from my wheelchair. 

It's been just over half a year into 2020 and we've all seen quite the ups and downs this year. Here was my most recent doozie. 

The Event that Changed My Perspective

On Sunday 07/26/2020, while at a church event with my girlfriend, I went to run. I took three steps and my body turned to rubber. It felt like my feet were walking into quick sand and I lost all control of my body. I hit the ground for a split second and rolled. The entire clip of video, including the pre-run, is less than 17 seconds. 

In under 17-seconds, my summer plans changed, financial life took a big hit, and my entire life was placed on hold. 

It hurt to walk (was impossible to walk) but it didn't hurt to sit. So it can't be that bad. 

I went home, expecting I would heal fine, "It's just a bad bruise" I told my girlfriend... who gave me a sardonic look. 

After two days, I still couldn't walk, so on Tuesday 07/28/2020, my Paramedic-Trained girlfriend and Nurse-Mom decided to force me into the ER, where they took X-Rays and CT Scans, and confirmed Left and Right Medial Tibial Plateau Fractures. 

I was referred to an Orthopedic Surgeon who confirmed with MRI (imaged below) that both legs were fractured. On Thursday 08/06/2020, I went into surgery and had three screws placed in each leg, holding the fracture together to heal faster. 

Some friends came and built a wheelchair ramp for me, partially donated from a pervious ramp used by a military Vet. Some church men came and shored up the weaknesses in that first build and finished making it functional. Mom, who'd just arrived in town for a planned vacation, extended her trip to help get me back up and running. 

We still have no firm answers as to why I fell in the first place. Guesses, ideas, no firm idea. So I'm still living with the wonder "will it happen again?"... and... "What happens next?"

It will be many weeks before I walk upright again, but I'm hoping to use the right leg soon for basic things, we shall see what the doctor says at the follow up next week. 

The Realization

I have lived my life as a staunch Libertarian. Anti "Group-Think". Each person should take responsibility for themselves and pick themselves up and handle their business. Don't ask me to pay for your stupidity. Don't steal my money (taxes) to pay for your idiot choices. 

From June 25, 2018 to Today, I've come to the firm realization, that:

Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans. Allen Saunders: Publishers Syndicate

Things you couldn't imagine just happen, without warning or provocation. 

You're wife gets pregnant and instead of having a baby, she dies of a simple blood clot at 36. Your financial life and plans are wiped away in an instant. You flounder and fall for two years. Grief, though dealt with and processed in healthy ways, took it's toll on your body, weakened it, and two years later you physically broke for no good reason. 

Now two years after loosing your wife, you've begun building a life with a potential future-wife, you find yourself with another life-lesson, sitting in a wheelchair, at a computer, waiting to return to yet another new normal. 

The concept of "new normal" is so frequent in your life by now, that you don't even pause to consider it. You just pick up, dust off, and find a cane with a hooked handle you can use to grab at things you can't reach, or help you pick your lame leg up off the bed and lower it carefully to the floor. You adjust quickly, to everyone's surprise but your own. 

You're not surprised. It's just another "new normal" in a line of "new normal's" you've been tossed in the past few years. Who cares, no use bothering about it. Just figure out how to handle it, and move forward. Because that's what you've been trained to do. 

Sometimes, "it" just happens, as Forest Gump told us... and there's no bootstraps to pull. And all the back-up funds are gone. And all you can do is let other people help... and watch helplessly. 

The things you can do, you do. 

The things you cannot do, you let someone help you do. 

No room for pride, things need to get done. Mission needs to stay on task. You learn to delegate, accept the help, and move forward. Keep moving forward. 

I've learned interesting things. 

We could do better as a society... I've learned we have done a horrible job of making life accessible to wheelchairs in many places. Applebee's and Red Lobster in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho have bathrooms with "handicap stalls" that leave much to be desired if you are wheelchair bound. 

Things are hard to reach. Rooms have to be re-arranged. It's not enough to have a path, you must have turning radius as well. Things you would just get up to grab now become a debate. Is it worth getting up, into the chair, rolling over, using something to knock that down to me, and then wheeling back.... Nah. I'll just wait until someone walks in. 

It took until after surgery to finally agree to use a Urinal by the bed at night. It cut down on trips to the bathroom (big events at night). 

We could learn to accept help gracefully... I've learned I have to rely on others. My independent streak served me well. I have learned to do many things people didn't think I could from this chair. 

However, I've had to hold my tongue and let other people help. 

• I sat helplessly, watching multiple people build a ramp in front of my house. 
• I sat helplessly, watching people cut my yard.
• I sat helplessly, as people loaded my wheelchair into the back seat of the car. Forced to lift an awkward object I was incapable of helping with, all for my benefit. 
• I sat helplessly, as people made food on a stovetop I can't reach, taking far less time than I would if I tried. 
• I sat helplessly, as my mom and girlfriend completed tasks I would rather complete. 
• I sat helplessly, as my girlfriend rubbed my dry feet with lotion, and she and my boys put on my shoes for me, to protect my feet for the few moments they touch the ground as I transition from chair to car. 
• I sat helplessly, as people did things I usually do for them. 
• I sat helplessly, as I allowed a nurse to help me change down to my underwear, and into scrubs, and even put socks on my feet for me. Not as sexy as that sounds, when you wince in pain every time you move the wrong way. 

It's often quoted:

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent. John Donne

We could learn to do what we can do... I've learned I can do things. I've been less surprised by the things I can accomplish; and, more surprised by other's reactions to them. There are differences between having a hurt foot from Gout and having two broken legs. But there are marked similarities. So as a Gout sufferer, I'm used to adjusting my "norm" for a period. Using a cane to get at things I cannot comfortably reach. Etc. 

If there's a will, there's a way. 

Or, as George Herbert phrased it, in 1640, 

"To him that will, ways are not wanting." 

To many raised eyebrows... 

• I used my cane to hook under my worse leg, and raise and lower it from places. Even at the hospitals, getting on and off X-Ray, CT Scan, and MRI tables.
• I used my cane to open and closed doors, pull items closed to me, and brace for changes from chair to chair.
• I wheeled around in my chair faster and more dexterously than people expected. 
• When I (wrongly and stubbornly) insisted on coming home for two days before going to the ER, I found creative ways to get into the house and around. Braced my legs with braces I already owned for other reasons, used a backless office chair, and two canes which I used like ski-polls to wheel around the house. The lips of doorways were tricky though. 
• I shocked the nurses after surgery... They thought they'd need orderlies to get me into the car, but I managed to pull myself up using just my arms.  

The real trick... is going to be the next few weeks. Mom's going home. Kids will leave for school. Girlfriend can't be here every morning, she has a life too... 

Can I get into the car by myself? How do I get the chair into the car without assistance? Etc... 

Eventually, that will be a mute point. I will be allowed to attempt walking by 6-8 weeks. But... My mom's broken leg took her 6 months. It was worse, but, it's something I should consider as I look forward. What if I have limited mobility for longer than expected? But... I've been able to manage, and call for help when needed. 

I trust God now... God's been good, directing me to the right people at each stage. So... here I am. Making no real "plans". Just taking each step one day at at time. I'm looking into a new internet provider, so I may (or may not) be able to work from home. That's a potential idea. Either way, I learned to trust God. I learned to trust him when my marriage was restored in 2017, when my marriage died in 2018, when I learned how to single parent throughout 2018-2020. When the woman I thought I'd marry (a potential "chapter two") left me in 2019. And now, I keep trusting him. This only brings me closer to him. I wish I could stand in front of me in 2016 (at the depth of my midlife crises) and tell him how much we've grown.

As I look to the life ahead, I see great potential. I have an amazing life-partner who very well may become my wife someday. I have great kids. I have a supportive Mom and friends. There's a lot to be thankful for. And I'm focused on that today. 

This has been a rambling post. Hopefully, it helped. 

Signing off... Goodnight. 

Darrell Wolfe

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Shalom: Live Long and Prosper!

Darrell Wolfe (DG Wolfe)

Storyteller | Writer | Thinker | Consultant @ DarrellWolfe.com

Clifton StrengthsFinder: Intellection, Learner, Ideation, Achiever, Input
16Personalities (Myers-Briggs Type): INFJ

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The Word is Alive, Listen to Him

The Word is Jesus

The Word is not dry writings of yesteryear, to be followed by rote, our New Law, bound as slaves... Blindly following a prescription for life.

The Word is a person. A member of the Godhead. A living being. 

The Word is our bread.

The Word is our life.

If we have lack, it's because we ask not, or, if we ask, we ask with wrong selfish motives. The Word said that.

He wants us to ask, seek, knock, and then hear, listen, obey.

Sometimes His healing comes in the form of putting mud on your eyes and telling you to go wash it off. Sometimes His healing is from going to wash in a dirty river. Sometimes His healing is spoken, and you leave by faith to do as He said without any sign it is "working"...

He is interested in our submission, not our blind obedience to a written code. 

Today..... Spend time LISTENING not just reading. 

By all means, read your Bible. But more importantly, or at least as important, LISTEN. Hear what he would say to you today. 

Selah.

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Man. Moon. Duck Suit. God's Ways.

The black oil of night crept over the sidewalk making it hard to see where he was going. Not that Manny could see much through the mask of his Big Yellow Ducks mascot outfit. The team left without him, taking his change of clothes with them. 

Manny stumbled down a dark alley, his guitar slung over his fake feathery yellow back. The street lights became puddles to reach one after another, accenting the voids between.

Finally, he reached a corner, he decided he'd had enough. He tried music and failed. He tried art and failed. And now he was reduced to wearing a mascot outfit for pennies just to make ends meet. The anger boiled inside until he couldn't take it anymore. He grabbed the guitar and smashed it over and over on the curb. Just as he was starting to break it, a white odd looking car passed by, splashing water onto him from the street. "Great, thanks!"

Cocking his big fake head, he looked up into the sky, and the Man in Moon, "Why give me a desire to be something but never let me be it?" Then he stumbled home, tossed his outfit to the bedroom floor and went to sleep.

A week later, he woke up on a Monday morning to 67 missed calls from his friend Conrad. "Dude, wake up! You're famous!"

There on his phone, was a picture of him dressed as a big yellow duck, smashing a guitar on the corner. Video from the corner store security footage, showing the events in time, had been circulating the internet and recieved over 2 Million Views. 

At the school, he was fired for his making the mascot of their proud institution look bad, but he didn't even care, totally worth it, he thought. As he was leaving, a call came in from an agent looking to represent him, claiming he had an interview with Good Morning America if he was interested.

***

Turning from the screen, "... And that kids, is how I got my start in movies, right there, on a street corner. So never give up. God has funny ways of bringing about your calling." 

As Manny packed up his gear, to end his presentation, the moonlight through the window showed the wrinkles on his hand growing darker and more defined. He'd had a really good run. 

"Thanks Man in the Moon, couldn't have done it without you."

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It's time to stop spending my energy in someone else's garden. It's time to invest in my own.

The Government is on HIS shoulders... 

I have decided that I am no longer interested in discussing government in public. 

It's not my arena. 

It's not what I'm called to. 

It's a distraction for me from my actual calling. 

I've never once, in nearly 40-years of living, ever changed anyone's mind about politics or government. Clifton Strengthsfinder 2.0 points out that one can be passionate about something they are bad at and waste their life's energy doing something unfruitful. Meanwhile, they could put a fraction of that energy into something they were gifted to do and recieve exponentially more positive results. 

God's called me and gifted me to do many things, politics is not one of them. I have seen God promote men I do not understand, several times. I've seen God's hand on men I don't like. I've seen it be CLEARLY God when I was dumfounded. So I am laying that down. I'll leave the government to God and the people he has called to that mountain. I may observe and comment in the form of writing Fiction, and see what those trends are like extrapolated, but, I will no longer occupy my time arguing with people on this subject.

My calling is to Writing, Music, Prophetic Teaching, and Healing of Hearts. My calling is to discuss Fatherhood, Manhood, Marriage, Intimacy and Sex. Those are my wheelhouse. Those are things I can make a marked difference talking about. Those are the areas in which I can be a gift to the world. So that's what I'll be doing with my time. 

Selah....

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6 NASB

Note: *I am sure to struggle with this. I'm sure I'll post things I later retract or delete. But I'm declaring my intention.*

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What happens after death, sleep or heaven?

Question: When you die, do you take a dirt nap until the end of times; or, do you go to heaven?

Answer: 

I didn't know this was still a question. It's not even a grey area, biblically. Heaven.

You go to heaven for now, but that is not our final destination. Ultimately we’ll all come back to earth at the end of times. But in the ages between prophetic events, we will go to heaven.

 

Background:

 

First interesting note, Jacob has a dream/vision of Angels Ascending and Descending from Heaven. Establishing early in Biblical interpretation that Heaven is an actual place that can be visited.

 

Paul, (speaking in the third person but referencing himself), visited heaven and saw visions. This visitation is what led him to pen the statement which becomes the key idea for this topic:

 

To be absent from the body, is to be present with the Lord.

 

When Jesus was on the cross, two men were with him on their crosses. One rejected Jesus, made fun of him. The other respected Jesus, and asked him to remember him when he came into his kingdom. In the most visceral act of “laying one’s life down for another”, in his own pain, Jesus told this man “you will be with me today in paradise”. This indicates that he will not be sleeping in the dirt.

 

Jesus, himself, told the story of a rich man and poor man. The story was not told in parable form, and may well have been a true account. Regardless, he portrays the scenario as being in line with truth about after life. Both men die, one is righteous and escorted by an angel to Abraham’s Bosom. The other, being a selfish prick, is escorted to Hades. This story shows us another example of men being VERY conscious after death on earth. It’s also an interesting example of the after-life pre-cross.

 

At that time, heaven was off limits. The Blood had not been shed. Jewish Tradition held that there were two sides of “Sheol”, hades and paradise. As the story shows, a chasm between the two was inseparable but there was still communication between them. Even discussion about why they can’t return to earth to win the lost.

 

We also see that during his earthly ministry, Jesus received a visit from Moses and Elijah, which is fascinated because one died and the other did not. This gives precedence for some, limited, interaction between Heaven, Sheol, and Earth, Dead and Living, as God wills only of course.

 

The bible says that when Jesus ascended from the grave, he took many captives with him. Given the numerous references to the saints in heaven (especially throughout the book of Revelations) we see that Jesus cleared the captives from Paradise and took them with him into Heaven when he was raised from the dead.

 

Also interesting to note, there are two men who never have (yet) died. Enoch and Elijah. Both men have not yet physically died. These two received a special calling and were taken into Heaven directly from earth, body and all. Many end-times scholars (myself included) believe that these two men will come back as the two witnesses spoken about in Revelations. Since it has been appointed to man once to die, I believe these (the only two men to never die) will come back as the two witnesses.

 

At the end of the Great Tribulation, after the Marriage Supper of the Lamb which was taking place in heaven during the tribulation on earth, Jesus comes back to Earth with the believers in tow behind (Rev 19). This is after the Rapture, in which the dead in Christ have been risen. So it doesn’t directly answer your question, but, it’s interesting and the next stage in events.

 

After these, Jesus reigns, physically, on the Earth for 1,000 years, with all humanity that survived plus all believers that ever lived. Satan is locked in prison during this time, but afterward released once more. He will prove once and for all that even in a perfect society with a perfect King, the hearts of men will rebel. With this final global lesson learned, he will wipe the slate clean and remake the Earth all over again. I don’t believe this means the planet will be destroyed. God is a God of Redemption. So he will clean up and make new a New Heaven and New Earth. They will then be reunited, and co-exist as one entity in one location. The actual physical city that is built in heaven right now, populated with those who have passed, right now, will descend from Heaven onto Earth, and God Himself, the Father, will dwell on Earth at this point. Until now, the Son reigned on Earth for 1,000 years. Now the Father himself will reside on Earth forever more.

 

 

* A few fun Heaven Scriptures here as well.

 

 

 

References:

 

2 Corinthians 12:2
I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knows;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.

 

2 Cor 5:8 New International Version
We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

 

Luke 23:43 New International Version
Jesus answered him, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise."

 

Revelation 4:1 New International Version
After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this."

 

Genesis 5 - God Takes Up Enoch (See Also Hebrews 11:5)

18When Jared was 162 years old, he became the father of Enoch. 19And after he had become the father of Enoch, Jared lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 20So Jared lived a total of 962 years, and then he died.

21When Enoch was 65 years old, he became the father of Methuselah. 22And after he had become the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with Godc 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 23So Enoch lived a total of 365 years.

24Enoch walked with God, and then he was no more, because God had taken him away.d

 

2 Kings 2

11As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire with horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up into heaven in a whirlwind.

12As Elisha watched, he cried out, “My father, my father, the chariots and horsemen of Israel!” And he saw Elijah no more. So taking hold of his own clothes, he tore them in two.

13Elisha also picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah, and he went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. 14Then he took the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him and struck the waters. “Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah?” he asked.

And when he had struck the waters, they parted to the right and to the left, and Elisha crossed over.

 

Luke 16 The Rich Man and Lazarus ( See Also John 5:39-47) (Other translations say “Abrahams’ Bossom”).

22One day the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side.d And the rich man also died and was buried. 23In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham from afar, with Lazarus by his side.

 

2859 [e] kolpon κόλπον bosom

2859 kólpos – properly, the upper part of the chest where a garment naturally folded to form a "pocket" – called the "bosom," the position synonymous with intimacy (union).

 

Ephesians 4:8 New International Version
This is why it says: "When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people."

 

Revelation 6

9Now when the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been violently killed because of the word of God and because of the testimony they had given. 10They cried out with a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Master, holy and true, before you judge those who live on the earth and avenge our blood?”

 

Hebrews 9:27 New International Version
Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,

 

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