The Foundation
Our Services
Interactive Resources
Blog
Our blog provides the Psalm11918.org contributors with a channel for less formal communications with our readers. Some of our blog entries are about personal events while others are just plain silly and fun.
In any case, we hope you enjoy and are blessed everything you find here! :)
- The Psalm11918.org team
The Merriam-Webster Word of the day for May 20th was deasil. Note that it is deasil and not diesel (the fuel).
Deasil means clockwise. M-W says...
According to an old custom, you can bring someone good fortune by walking around the person clockwise three times while carrying a torch or candle. In Scottish Gaelic, the word "deiseil" is used for the direction one walks in such a luck-bringing ritual. English speakers modified the spelling to "deasil," and have used the word to describe clockwise motion in a variety of rituals.
If we were to be transported back in time to the first century and were to study "Moses and the Prophets" as Jesus, the disciples, and the two men on the road to Emmaus did (Luke 24:27), what would we learn? What portraits of the Messiah would we find? Come… join our band of believers and study Scripture in the footsteps and pattern of our Lord and Savior.
The foundation of first-century Bible study included an annual reading of the Torah: the books of Genesis through Deuteronomy. The Scripture that is studied this time of year (mid May) is Numbers chapters 1-4. The chapter and verse numbers that we use today to identify passages of Scripture did not exist in the days of the Master. Instead, they identified the weekly passages, known as a parashah (”portion”) by the first word or two of that passage. This week’s parashah is known as B'midbar (pronounced buh MID bar). This Hebrew word means “in the wilderness”. B'midbar is also the Hebrew name for the book of Numbers. It is known as the book of "In the Wilderness" as it is written in the beginning of this portion: