Since the name of this blog is Damascus, I had intended on doing several posts about the name, the city, and the people associated with Damascus, so, this will be the first Damascus related post. I will start with just a little bit of background information.
Damascus the City
Damascus (Dimashq) is considered the oldest continually inhabited city in the world (just below Jericho and Byblos), and the capital of Syria. The city is located on the northeast side of the Sea of Galilee in the northern part of Palestine. Some good detailed information on the city can be found on Wikipedia on Damascus, but there are also many other good reference sources on the city.
Isaiah 7:8, What’s in a Name
The name Damascus is of course an Israelite sur-family name, not just the name of a city, and we know from Genesis 5:32; 6:10, and 10:23, the founder of the city of Damascus was Uz, the grandson of Shem.
Isaiah 7:8 / 8“For the head of Aram is (P)Damascus and the head of Damascus is Rezin (now within another 65 years Ephraim will be shattered, so that it is no longer a people)
There are references to the city throughout Genesis.
On the Road To
We also hear the term Damascus referred to often as on the road to and this is from Acts 9 when Paul (then Saul) was on the road to Damascus when he was struck blind by Jesus. In some translations this is said on the road to Damascus and some, as below, do not specifically say road, but he was traveling to Damascus at the time.
Acts 9:3-5 / 3 As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him;
4 and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
5 And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting,
Lately, if you hunt through the blogs (and are a news nut of any kind) you will find many of the current on the road to references stem from Carter’s recent visit to the area, like Carter Visit to Damascus Bolsters Hamas Terrorism, and Jimmy’s Road To Damascus, (which isn’t a bad biographical showing of Carter).
What other references have you seen to the term on the road to Damascus that are interesting? Post them below and let us know. The city itself obviously plays an important role in God’s plan.
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Coming soon this site will have information and links posted about many different topics such as faith, business, music, and life in general. I am going to use this site as a place for my study of faith in Jesus Christ and all aspects of how it relates to the world today.
In a post coming up, called What is the New Damascus Blog I will explain more about this blog, what its purpose is going to be and what you can expect from the upcoming content for the Damascus blog. I always enjoy discussing faith and other topics with my readers, so be sure to leave a comment below to get things moving.
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Thank you for visiting the new Damascus blog. This blog was created using what is called a domain hack. In simple terms, that means I put together a domain name that does spell a common name or word by using the entire domain address and a subdomain (the letters prior to the actual domain name itself, in this case the letter “D”).
To give you an idea of what the focus of this blog is intended to be, I have put together a type of mission statement on my about page and it is shown below. If you would like to know more about me, just follow the link.
Most of us go through life with a sense of purpose in being, I think. It can be displayed in many different forms of what we think our own purpose here in this world is to be, it can be with lived day to day with or without purpose and understanding, but eventually most of us come to a time when we are searching for those answers.
It is what we find when we are searching that is important. Just because you are already a Believer doesn’t mean you are going to know exactly what God’s purpose in your life is to finally be, that is up to God, but when we search for meaning in life, true contentment and happiness are ultimately found in the search, understanding, and commitment to our Lord.
We know this, yet as Believers in Christ we still ride a roller coaster of ups and downs where sometimes we are close to the Lord and sometimes far away. I often thought as a Christian if we weren’t always close to God all the time that there was something fundamentally wrong with our faith, or better yet, if our choices are different than those other Believers we know we aren’t true Christians. She drinks, he doesn’t, he has a tattoo, they baptist with to much water, they don’t use enough.
As Believers we still search for meaning to strengthen our faith, understand our doubts, fears, and even judgments of others. This doesn’t stop just because we accepted Christ as our Savior, they could become more pronounced. God made us all in His image, yet each one of us is different. Each of us has different ideas, beliefs even within our own faith, and direction we choose to take in our life.
This blog’s purpose is not to persuade anyone that one way of thinking is better than another but to learn more about God’s purpose for our lives. The one basic premise that we as Believers in Christ take is that He gave us the ultimate choice to make. Whether to choose Christ as our Savior or not. As a pastor once told me, everything else is just details.
Christ died for our sins, he rose again and is alive today, but it is up to us to accept that truth. Once we have accepted Christ of our own free will we are part of the body of Believers, everything else, although not unimportant, is just details.
I always look forward to interacting with my readers, so please be sure to leave a comment or follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/scottfillmer. I look forward to hearing from you.
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Anxiety yields only worry, and worry is the interest we pay on the debt of unbelief with which we have mortgaged our life. a quote inspired by Philippians 4:6. This verse is something I continue to try to pound into my head and my heart, but even though I don’t take heed to this as often as I should, it is no less truth every day of the week.
6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
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