State of the Nation 2
Our family gathered around the computer last night to listen to this web cast live.
I HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend EVERY CHRISTIAN to watch this.
It's about the spiritual state of our nation, how we got here, and what we must do about it.
Mr. Ken Ham talks about how the 'church' has been duped into believing things that aren't true and I have seen that first hand. This is the very reason we left our old church.
I know everyone is busy but this is just so, so important! Please take the time to watch and then ACT!
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
The Difference Between a Child and an Adult:
A child does what he wants.
An adult does what must be done.
Monday, February 1, 2010
First Love
Question: Who or what do you love more than anything else in the world?
The answer to this question reveals where your heart lies and whom or what is your greatest influence. It also shows who or what you will never deny in your life.
I have always known that God commanded us to have no other gods before him, to love Him above all else. From little on this concept was taught to me. Knowledge is the beginning of wisdom but is not wisdom. Knowing the truth and understanding the truth is the difference between knowledge and wisdom.
This past week knowledge sparked into a bit of wisdom for me in this area. A bible study I was doing talked about denying self as part of the committed Christian way. The study led me to see that 'self' is all about self and will ALWAYS reject Jesus Christ, thus it must be denied.
Self includes what is within as well as what is around it. Unless we deny all of self and love self less than Jesus, self will always lead us away from Jesus and his way.
God told us in the bible that we are a people prone to wander, to forget about him. Our wanderings and forgetfulness happen when we fail to deny all of self and allow something else to be elevated above our love for Jesus.
I saw a first hand example of this concept in my family this week. As parents, we want our children to love us and our ways above the world and its ways. We want to be the main influence of our children's hearts and souls and be the teacher of what it right and true. For most of their younger years we have their attention and their hearts but then the world starts to pull harder.
For us the world came to our daughter in the form of a 'boyfriend". An unbeliever, from an unbelieving family, with very different views of what is right and true. She allowed her love for us to be diminished as she elevated this boyfriend in her heart. She began to love him more and he was becoming her influence. She began to wander from her parents and her upbringing and she began to forget why she loved us and what we had done for her.
As her mother, I desperately want her to come back, to remember, to return - before it's too late! If you wander too far, forget for too long, you run the risk of never returning or remembering how to get back. Bad things could happen on this path. Parents know because they traveled the same path once themselves and know how hard it is to get back.
How much more does our Father in heaven desperately want us to return and remember because He knows what lies ahead for us if we don't. How much more does He know what a love of self will do to our souls, where it will lead us, and the lies it will get us to believe. How much more does he know that to love him above all else is the most important thing in the world.
It's so important that he will warn us. It's so important that he will punish us if necessary so we learn. It is so important that he will let us go in the hopes that we will return but will grieve to see us go and be waiting patiently for us to come back.
This is why we warn and punish our kids - it's that important. This is why sometimes we have to let them go and find out for themselves-when they are so rebellious that they won't listen to you. We do this because this is what our Heavenly Father does for us.
So, as I see how the love of self distorts the teachings and values we have given our daughter, and how it is leading her away from us, I am given a concrete example of what the love of self does to lead me away from Jesus. I understand now why Jesus says to put him first in our hearts, to love him best, to let nothing come between us.
As a daughter to the King, I need to work on denying my own self and keeping out all that would reject him in my own heart as my Father and King. As I try to bring my daughter back to our way of thinking, God is working on me - to bring me back to His way of thinking, his truth, and his ways in everything!
May you remember who our first love should be and elevate that truth to be the most important thing in the world to you. May you heed God's warnings and return quickly when you do wander or forget!
The answer to this question reveals where your heart lies and whom or what is your greatest influence. It also shows who or what you will never deny in your life.
I have always known that God commanded us to have no other gods before him, to love Him above all else. From little on this concept was taught to me. Knowledge is the beginning of wisdom but is not wisdom. Knowing the truth and understanding the truth is the difference between knowledge and wisdom.
This past week knowledge sparked into a bit of wisdom for me in this area. A bible study I was doing talked about denying self as part of the committed Christian way. The study led me to see that 'self' is all about self and will ALWAYS reject Jesus Christ, thus it must be denied.
Self includes what is within as well as what is around it. Unless we deny all of self and love self less than Jesus, self will always lead us away from Jesus and his way.
God told us in the bible that we are a people prone to wander, to forget about him. Our wanderings and forgetfulness happen when we fail to deny all of self and allow something else to be elevated above our love for Jesus.
I saw a first hand example of this concept in my family this week. As parents, we want our children to love us and our ways above the world and its ways. We want to be the main influence of our children's hearts and souls and be the teacher of what it right and true. For most of their younger years we have their attention and their hearts but then the world starts to pull harder.
For us the world came to our daughter in the form of a 'boyfriend". An unbeliever, from an unbelieving family, with very different views of what is right and true. She allowed her love for us to be diminished as she elevated this boyfriend in her heart. She began to love him more and he was becoming her influence. She began to wander from her parents and her upbringing and she began to forget why she loved us and what we had done for her.
As her mother, I desperately want her to come back, to remember, to return - before it's too late! If you wander too far, forget for too long, you run the risk of never returning or remembering how to get back. Bad things could happen on this path. Parents know because they traveled the same path once themselves and know how hard it is to get back.
How much more does our Father in heaven desperately want us to return and remember because He knows what lies ahead for us if we don't. How much more does He know what a love of self will do to our souls, where it will lead us, and the lies it will get us to believe. How much more does he know that to love him above all else is the most important thing in the world.
It's so important that he will warn us. It's so important that he will punish us if necessary so we learn. It is so important that he will let us go in the hopes that we will return but will grieve to see us go and be waiting patiently for us to come back.
This is why we warn and punish our kids - it's that important. This is why sometimes we have to let them go and find out for themselves-when they are so rebellious that they won't listen to you. We do this because this is what our Heavenly Father does for us.
So, as I see how the love of self distorts the teachings and values we have given our daughter, and how it is leading her away from us, I am given a concrete example of what the love of self does to lead me away from Jesus. I understand now why Jesus says to put him first in our hearts, to love him best, to let nothing come between us.
As a daughter to the King, I need to work on denying my own self and keeping out all that would reject him in my own heart as my Father and King. As I try to bring my daughter back to our way of thinking, God is working on me - to bring me back to His way of thinking, his truth, and his ways in everything!
May you remember who our first love should be and elevate that truth to be the most important thing in the world to you. May you heed God's warnings and return quickly when you do wander or forget!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Women's Groups Blast 'Divisive' Pro-Life Super Bowl Ad -- Without Even Seeing It - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com
Women's Groups Blast 'Divisive' Pro-Life Super Bowl Ad -- Without Even Seeing It - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com
Posted using ShareThis
My Vote: Air it!
Being Pro-Life is not un-American as someone in this article was quoted saying and this side of the issue has every right to be heard, too! Free Speech is for everyone! I hope CBS does the right thing.
Posted using ShareThis
My Vote: Air it!
Being Pro-Life is not un-American as someone in this article was quoted saying and this side of the issue has every right to be heard, too! Free Speech is for everyone! I hope CBS does the right thing.
Friday, January 22, 2010
God Has Come To Help His People
Luke 7: 11-17
Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, "Don't cry."
Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, "Young man, I say to you, get up!" The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.
They were all filled with awe and praised God. "A great prophet has appeared among us," they said. "God has come to help his people." This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea[a] and the surrounding country.
I've been struggling since last week Tuesday with the devastation in Haiti. My heart goes out to all the people of Haiti but especially the children and the elderly. I keep wondering what I might do to help and then I am overwhelmed by the amount of help that is needed.
I remember Nehemiah and how when he heard of the destruction in Jerusalem he wept and mourned over it. I feel like Nehemiah, weeping and mourning over a city whose problems seem enormous. God eventually gave Nehemiah a vision of what could be done, and I trust that in due time God will show me what I can do, as well .
In the meantime, I still struggle with making sense of this devastation. Not knowing what to do but knowing God's Word would eventually lead me, I sat down to do my daily bible study. As God would have it, my study led me to Luke chapter 7 verses 11-17 seen noted above. God is so good! He gives peace when it is needed. He gave my troubled soul peace through these words and this reminder.
The scene in these verses could very well be a similar depiction of a scene happening in Haiti right now. A widow - I am sure there are many widows in a grossly poor country - who's only son has now also died. A funeral possession. Weeping. Mourning. Wondering what more could be taken from me? Loss beyond measure. Trouble understanding the cruel world we live in that takes and takes. I'm sure this scene is playing out in Haiti in a million different ways.
Verse 13 says that when the Lord saw her his heart went out to her and he said, "Don't cry." Many of us, probably all of us, would feel and want to respond the same way Jesus did here. However, Jesus is the ONLY one with the power to actually do anything about it. He has authority over EVERYTHING, even death! He has the power to give life to the dead!
It is the great compassion of God, and of his Son, that orchestrated the ultimate sacrifice for the human condition - Jesus on the cross - dead, buried, risen again - our sacrifice for sin!
The raising of this man's life in the text shows that he has the power to conquer even death and gives testimony to the power he has to raise all believers to life - eternal life.
God has come to help his people! We cannot escape the first death, we all will face this somehow. However, all believers in Jesus Christ who believe in his power and in his ability to save, will escape the second death and live forever in heaven with Jesus. This is our hope as Christ followers.
God knew sin would bring death and destruction to our fallen world. Unimaginable things will happen here because of Satan's deception and evil grip on this world. But we need not despair because there is one more powerful. One who has the ability to raise the dead and reunite them with their loved ones in heaven someday. He has compassion for his people and he came to help!
This is the hope we have to offer others. We can reassure believers that God cares deeply and has already done what was necessary to save and we can lead non-believers to the power of the cross.
So, the real focus isn't about what can I do to help. Rather, it's about what God has already done through his son Jesus that will make the real difference in a hurting and dying world. This is the hope for Haiti and the rest of the world.
Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, "Don't cry."
Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, "Young man, I say to you, get up!" The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.
They were all filled with awe and praised God. "A great prophet has appeared among us," they said. "God has come to help his people." This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea[a] and the surrounding country.
I've been struggling since last week Tuesday with the devastation in Haiti. My heart goes out to all the people of Haiti but especially the children and the elderly. I keep wondering what I might do to help and then I am overwhelmed by the amount of help that is needed.
I remember Nehemiah and how when he heard of the destruction in Jerusalem he wept and mourned over it. I feel like Nehemiah, weeping and mourning over a city whose problems seem enormous. God eventually gave Nehemiah a vision of what could be done, and I trust that in due time God will show me what I can do, as well .
In the meantime, I still struggle with making sense of this devastation. Not knowing what to do but knowing God's Word would eventually lead me, I sat down to do my daily bible study. As God would have it, my study led me to Luke chapter 7 verses 11-17 seen noted above. God is so good! He gives peace when it is needed. He gave my troubled soul peace through these words and this reminder.
The scene in these verses could very well be a similar depiction of a scene happening in Haiti right now. A widow - I am sure there are many widows in a grossly poor country - who's only son has now also died. A funeral possession. Weeping. Mourning. Wondering what more could be taken from me? Loss beyond measure. Trouble understanding the cruel world we live in that takes and takes. I'm sure this scene is playing out in Haiti in a million different ways.
Verse 13 says that when the Lord saw her his heart went out to her and he said, "Don't cry." Many of us, probably all of us, would feel and want to respond the same way Jesus did here. However, Jesus is the ONLY one with the power to actually do anything about it. He has authority over EVERYTHING, even death! He has the power to give life to the dead!
It is the great compassion of God, and of his Son, that orchestrated the ultimate sacrifice for the human condition - Jesus on the cross - dead, buried, risen again - our sacrifice for sin!
The raising of this man's life in the text shows that he has the power to conquer even death and gives testimony to the power he has to raise all believers to life - eternal life.
God has come to help his people! We cannot escape the first death, we all will face this somehow. However, all believers in Jesus Christ who believe in his power and in his ability to save, will escape the second death and live forever in heaven with Jesus. This is our hope as Christ followers.
God knew sin would bring death and destruction to our fallen world. Unimaginable things will happen here because of Satan's deception and evil grip on this world. But we need not despair because there is one more powerful. One who has the ability to raise the dead and reunite them with their loved ones in heaven someday. He has compassion for his people and he came to help!
This is the hope we have to offer others. We can reassure believers that God cares deeply and has already done what was necessary to save and we can lead non-believers to the power of the cross.
So, the real focus isn't about what can I do to help. Rather, it's about what God has already done through his son Jesus that will make the real difference in a hurting and dying world. This is the hope for Haiti and the rest of the world.
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