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The Thief Only Comes To Kill Steal And Destroy

01 Nov

John 10:10 – 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

We don’t take it that serious enough.  It’s hard for us to understand why someone would hate us to do everything in his power to destroy us and everything around us.

But Satan does.  He hates us.  There is no love in him.

1 Peter 5:8-9 – 8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

The love is in the one Who made us and died for us.

We need to constantly seek Jesus, be in the Word, because just as it states above there is one who is right there, ready to tell you what you want to hear.

John 8:44 reminds us that the devil is a murderer.  It started in the garden and it continues today.  Eve had the serpent tell her what she wanted to hear at the time.  He was her friend or so she thought.  Turns out
he was a murderer.   This passage also reminds us that when he lies he speaks his native language.

So what is one to do?  We are all to resist him.

How do we do that?  The word repent means to turn away from (sin).  Jesus is standing right there behind us the whole time, we just keep running away so were not facing Him.

They both speak to us.  One’s a liar, a murderer, and hates us.  The Other loves us, gave us life, and asks us
to love and obey Him in return.

We have to do what’s right, resist the devil, and serve our Lord.  It is eternally important that we do.

 
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Posted in Encouragement, Inspiration, Motivation

 

A Few Hits On Halloween

31 Oct

Last year I posted a two part series and if you want to bring that up just go over search engine and type in Halloween.

Today I just want to emphasize that when people in the past participated in pagan worship, God was very angry.  In many cases he had those people destroyed either right away or eventually later.

We can’t kid ourselves.  Many of the Jewish people who celebrated Baal worship or Asherah poles we’re not full blown sold out cultist.  They we’re just along for the ride like many Christians who are celebrating
other past pagan rituals like today.

So the question is posed; does God care?

Do you care if God cares?

Deuteronomy 16:21-22 – 21 Do not set up any wooden Asherah pole beside the altar you build to the LORD your God, 22 and do not erect a sacred stone, for these the LORD your God hates.

1 Corinthians 10:20-21 –   21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons.

God cares if we practice in old pagan rituals.  We call them traditions today.  Will we take a stand for God or tradition?  Sadly enough tradition is a hard habit to break for many.

 
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Posted in Opinion, Reflections

 

Steven Curtis Chapman

28 Oct

The whole family went and watched Steven Curtis Chapman last night.  He is touring with John Wilson and Andrew Peterson.  Not only was it great inspiring Christian Music, but the guys did an outstanding job of sharing also.  One of the best concerts we’ve ever been to.

Sometimes there can be no greater time of fellowship than just sitting back with great Christian Music from someone like Steven Curtis Chapman or the Newsboys and just have one on one time with the Lord.  There is so much stuff out there that is just music, but when I find somone like these guys singing praise songs to our Lord it can overwhelmingly bring on tears.  Just you and the Lord present.

Steven Curtis Chapman has won 56 Dove Awards currently.  No one has one more and he has deserved it.  I like what he said.  The question was what will happen to the Dove awards when he dies and he stated they will turn to dust.  However for now they are good encouragement.

He got a chance to talk alot about  his family, adoption, Jesus, Heaven, etc.  Truly a great heart for God.  I feel truly blessed that I have the opportunity to be able to listen to him and his music so I can reflect and praise my Lord even better.

 
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Posted in Opinion, Reflections, Uncategorized

 

Doing Good Doesn’t Make Someone A Christian

27 Oct

Colossians 3:17- 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

The world can look at someone who is kind, loving and say wow what a great Christian.  Somewhere along
the line in America that’s what being a Christian is.

Don’t get me wrong, as Christians we are supposed to be loving and kind.  Many who call themselves Christians are not and that’s where part of the confusion is.  However, being a Christian first involves
accepting Jesus Christ as Lord.

I know lots of soft spoken kind, giving people who are not Christians.  They don’t even call themselves one because they don’t want anything to do with God or religion in their eyes.  These people are also very
accepting.  By that I mean you can be anything or do anything under the sun as long as you are not stepping on their toes.  To many that unconfrontational demeanor is being Christian.  Don’t cross me and be accepting of me and that makes you a Christian in my eyes.  Once again that would be incorrect.

The Lord was full of absolutes and confrontation with those who claimed to know the Lord and weren’t living according to the Word of God.

We need to do good and be Christian to be Christians.  We need to make Jesus Lord and then strive to
do what the Bible says we should do.  We should do good because our Lord wants us to do good.  Our Lord is GOOD!  He is Loving!  When we do things we should do them in the name of the Lord and give him
glory.

This is actually good for me.  I find myself trying to do things out of love for the Lord, because personally I realize that I don’t do it enough naturally.  I have to work at it in many areas because it doesn’t just click that I should be thinking of others around me more than me.  I notice that with most people around me also.  We’re all sinful beings and selfishness comes to some of us easier than it does to others.

Make an effort to do it for the Lord.  Anyone can do something for themselves.  We do all the time.  Take a ride out of your comfort zone and bless someone with the love of the Lord today.

 
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Posted in Encouragement, Inspiration, Motivation, Reflections

 

Twenty Years

26 Oct

Matthew 19:4-6 – 4 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?
6 So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”

I’ve been blessed by the Lord.  Happy Anniversary to my wife wonderful wife.

 
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Posted in Reflections

 

God Did Not Call Us To Be Impure

25 Oct

1 Thessalonians 4:7-8 – 7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 8 Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.

 That inner voice is the Holy Spirit screaming out.  People continue to poor water on the fire and it dies down the flame.

We can’t be ignoring the Holy Spirit or cutting the phone line with God.  When people choose to live impure, they are hurting their relationship with God.  “Rejecting” is the word.  Nothing is more important than our relationship with God.  Never completely give in to your struggle.  Fight!  Don’t keep throwing water or attempting to suffocate the Holy Spirit.

 
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Posted in Inspiration, Motivation, Reflections

 

Silly Putty; I Was Guessing; I Was Wrong

24 Oct

My wife and kids were watching a show and they were making silly putty.  They were the only plant in
the world that supplied it to everyone around the globe.

Anyway, the host decides he’s going to take a 25 pound ball of silly putty and drop it 25 feet onto the concrete.  He asked the plant manager if he had ever done it before and he said no.  They go to drop it and then of course take a commercial break.

That prompted my wife and me to conclude the outcome.  She said it would bounce.  I said no it would have enough clay content that it would hit and flatten the ball somewhat making it only slightly move to
the side after doing so.

We get back from the commercial and …… it bounces five feet into the air.  The clay content didn’t
smash or flatten at all.  It kept its round shape.

Why did I go through all that?

That’s how many people go about their faith.  They see a little bit, come to a conclusion and that’s how they roll with it.  However, my guess turned out to be wrong.  I had played with silly putty as a kid and
remembered it bounced around, but I also remembered that I smashed it onto comics easily also.  I haven’t played with much of it for years and was processing the little information I had.

Thank the Lord that with the Word of God I don’t have to guess about salvation or rather He is the true God.  The Bible when studied is self sufficient.  It comes to life.

Hebrews 4:12- 12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the
heart.  

Can you imagine a prophecy roughly 1930 years ago that would state no one would buy or sell unless they had a mark and worshipped the beast.  That’s absurd when you think about it.  That was absurd even 30 years ago.

Now?  The banks are already linked.  Everything you have purchased without cash and every call you have made on your cell phone is documented.  There are cameras everywhere, robotic insects that now can relay photos and sound undetected, satellites with thermal detection at night, etc.  Technology is doubling every two years.

God’s Word is the only thing we have that we don’t have to guess.  Research it.  Research other things around you and you’ll find that they fall short.  It is the guiding light of truth in a world that pushes further away from truth more and more every day.

 
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Posted in Encouragement, Inspiration, Reflections

 

1 Timothy 4:16

23 Oct

1 Timothy 4:16 – 16 Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Why is doctrine so important?

Because it’s the difference between truth and something totally made up and not of God.  If someone believes in red and the other green, the first argument is, we both believe in colors, so we believe in the same thing.

Wrong.  The colors are opposites.

If someone says they believe in a God that wants them to drink, do drugs, be sexually immoral, and steal, then they don’t believe in the same God and Lord as I do.  They also don’t believe in the one of the Bible.
However, the world wants you to respect them all.

Danger.  The Bible warns throughout that the Truth is the truth and to believe in what you want is a grave mistake.

Watch your life and doctrine closely.

 
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Posted in Inspiration, Motivation

 

Scraps

21 Oct

Malachi 1:6-8 – 6 “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the LORD Almighty. “It is you, O priests, who show contempt for my name.

“But you ask, ‘How have we shown contempt for your name?’

7 “You place defiled food on my altar.

“But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?’

“By saying that the LORD’s table is contemptible. 8 When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the LORD Almighty.

When I read the scripture I’m reminded that our God doesn’t appreciate scraps.  There was an effort in the above scriptures, but they were offering the lowest of what they had.

It’s like the Lord walking up to your dinner table, there’s a huge meal, and you sit him to the side and pull out the cold leftovers in the fridge that is just a little out dated.

Your attitude may be, hey I made an effort here.  There was no ignoring the Lord, however, you know by the example that it would be sad and not a good thing.  The one who gives us life is coming to us and we give him our …..scraps.

Proverbs 3:9 – 9 Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops;

Genesis 4:1-6 –  1 Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man.” 2 Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.

Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. 4 But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.
So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

6 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry?  Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”

Cain was giving an offering, but he wasn’t going all out.  Abel was giving the fat portions or the first born.  It was probably the best he had.  We all know what happened next.  Sin was crouching and Cain killed Abel.  Sin keeps us from giving our best to the Lord.

We need to give God our best not scraps.  It matters very much.

 
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Posted in Encouragement, Inspiration, Motivation

 

Jesus Replied At The Resurrection People Will Neither Marry Nor Be Given In Marriage

20 Oct

Matthew 22:23-33 – 23 That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 24 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and have children for him. 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. 26 The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. 27 Finally, the woman died. 28 Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”

29 Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30 At the
resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 31 But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

33 When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.

The biggest thing I want to concentrate on after the title is when Jesus says, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures….”

We have a duty to study truth.  We were not given life and freewill for the purpose of going through life and picking out what seems best for us.

There was a fall of mankind.  Ever since man has gone haywire.  The truth is still the Truth and everyone in this country has the ability to test what is the truth.  God has let us know that if we desire something other than the Truth, He will allow us to chase after that.

Psalm 81:12 – 12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.

Romans 1:28 – 28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 

It’s too important to just believe whatever it is that we want to believe.  God is powerful and He has given us His infallible Word.  When read and taken literal it all comes together.  Where we get away from God is when we get away from His Word.

The Truth will set you free.

 
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Posted in Encouragement, Inspiration, Motivation, Reflections

 
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