The Bible is.....

The Bible contains two main parts referred to as the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is primarily a historical account of God working in history from creation through the message of a Savior to be born by a virgin in Bethlehem of Judea. The New Testament covers the time leading up to and the events surrounding the birth of Jesus the Son of God through his death burial and resurrection. It continues with the establishment of the church, the giving of the Spirit of God to all true disciples of Christ and concludes with the revelation of that which is still to come in the end times. The Bible reveals that God Himself is the ultimate source and sum of all history and that His plan for the salvation of mankind is only through repentance of sin with confession of Jesus as Lord believing in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. Therefore the Bible is not only sacred scripture but one story, with the Old Testament being the foundation for the New Testament redemption and revelation by God of what is to come. Some may not believe in God and God Himself states that all who come to Him must do so by faith believing He is and that He is a rewarder of those that seek Him. Without faith it is impossible to please Him.
The Bible warns us that there is a way that seems right to mankind but the end of that way is death. The Bible states that everyone of us will give an account of themselves to God and it is appointed unto men once to die but after that is judgment because the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. You may say I do not believe the Bible and therefore this is no issue for you, however it is written those that believe on Jesus are not condemned but those who do not believe are condemned already because they have not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God. Jesus told us that He was the way the truth the life and no one could come unto the Father but by Him.
Some wonder about the God who gave us the Bible and whether to acknowledge Him as God because of the Old Testament accounts of Judgment for sin including saving only Noah and his family from the flood and the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. God shows Himself to be Holy and therefore sin must be judged and God demonstrated His Love for us in that while we are sinners He gave His son to die for our sins so that whosoever will could be saved form the penalty of sin. Some will still say what a harsh God but I say what a loving God who was willing to pay our sin debt so we could be free from the bondage and penalty of sin. God does not force Himself on us but has made a way for us to escape the punishment for our sin but allows us the choice. Now I say what kind of God would He be if He did not give us the facts and cover for us the ramifications of our choice. He warns us that we are condemned already if we do not accept Jesus as our Savior and tells us that we will spend eternity separated from Him in lake of fire with total darkness in weeping and gnashing of teeth where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. He also tells us of a place called Heaven that we will be allowed to enter for all eternity if we believe Him and accept His redemption plan of forgiveness of sin through the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus. Now we can believe or not the choice is truly ours as we get to decide. However if we reject God and His plan for our redemption for whatever reason/excuse we may find convenient we will have no one to blame but ourselves for where we spend eternity. Remember faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen and through faith we understand that everything that is was created by God so that things which are seen were not made of things that are visible. As for whether you have sinned or not remember even unbelief is sin as we are told to love the Lord God with all of our heart, soul and mind. This is the greatest commandment & the second is like it - we are to love our neighbor as ourselves.
If I am sitting in my house and receive a phone call that my house is on fire and that the fire dept has also been called, I have several choices 1. I can sit there and do nothing, 2. I can sit there and be alert watching to see if I can see any flames, smell any smoke or hear any fire sounds, 3. I can get up and walk around to investigate for myself to see the extent of the fire if it exists, 4.I can make the decision to believe the warning & to get out now without any delay. Which choice is my best chance at escaping the fire before it is too late?
May God grant you faith and wisdom to make the right choice before it is too late.

Darkest before the Dawn

All around us many run to and fro worried about this or that while making plans for tomorrow. Ever know anything to be changed by worrying about it other than negative effect on your health. So many allow themselves to be stressed out about things they can not control while wondering why me. No time is drum beat and fatigue is companion that puts us down. To many look with out seeing or just search in all the wrong places. Wisdom and peace seem to be in short supply in our society and to many do not how to find them in this it is all about me generation. About the only book that people want to ban or otherwise remove from public discourse is the Bible. It seems to strike fear in the hearts of the elites, progressives, and others in academia. If it is just a book what is the big deal with it being read, studied or discussed. I wonder if the problem is simply that if it is true then we will have to give an account for how we have lived our lives. We may also have to answer for why we did not humble ourselves to God Himself and repent from our sins accepting His forgiveness and allowing Him to change us from inside out following His path for our life. An apparently very scary concept for those who seek power. fame and control. They do not believe in prayer while hoping they are not wrong. The Bible talks about dark days and warns us of the signs of the times now all we need is faith to look for wisdom and to know Truth when it confronts us. May God grant you sight to see in the darkness and faith to allow Him to change you through faith in His son Jesus the Christ. Grab a Bible while it is still legal in your country(if already outlawed you will have a tough time securing one) and read it to see why so many are afraid of it....

Making Slaves

In our world today the best way to enslave a people is to use governments two most effective tools ... taxes and entitlement programs. With taxes the heavy hand of government reaches into pockets of the people to take what is theirs to enrich coffers of government which then turns around and over spends on social entitlement programs. Those who work in government positions are happy with the secure jobs, those receiving the handouts and "free" services do not want to give them up and the increasing national debt loads ensure the slavery of the next generation. So what you end up with is government taking with one hand and returning a portion with the other. And the people think how great it is to not have to make any tough life decisions since the government sets the guidelines and makes the life and death decisions for us. It is so great to have most of the people on equal level except for the national leaders who of course deserve their special privileges and status in life as they make those tough decisions just like the masters of old did for their slaves. To think in the old days the people worked to escape from the slave master and today the people vote in those who would enslave them. Common sense and reason sure seem to be in short supply these days. But I should not be surprised because when people choose to reject God and His plan for their life it follows that wisdom to understand what has and is happening will be lost in the darkness of self indulgence. These chains will be harder to break then the previous ones. May God have mercy on us before it is to late.

Blog Hopping

I have been blog hopping over the past few weeks and reading blogs from around the world or at least the ones in English. I have been surprised to see how many people share their thoughts and family photos. But I have also noticed how many people are lonely, hurting, or starved for attention. For some I stop to leave comments so they will know they are important to God and let them know He loves them and His son Jesus died for our sins. I also try to encourage them to read the Bible starting with book of John. Now you wonder why I mention this, right. Well I want to encourage those who know Jesus as Lord to set a goal of at least leaving one comment on someones blog each day you get on internet and encourage that person to seek God's plan for their life and to read the Bible. Pray for that person and allow God to do the rest. Just think because of the internet you can touch the lives of people all around the world if you are willing to take the time to care. May God bless you and your efforts to shine light in a dark world.

Some Care

A world filled with so many people and each special in someway. Some care only about themselves, some include their family and or friends. Then there are a few who also care about those who they have never met and never will. They take the time to try to shine the light of the love of God to those who are where they were. Let us be sure that it is not because of any goodness within themselves that they care but due to God getting a hold of their heart and changing it from being self centered to others centered, because God loves people. It is this changed focus that causes many to doubt the intentions of the followers of Christ as it is hard to understand since they have not yet allowed God to change them and they see the actions of the pretenders that attend the churches along with the God changed followers of Christ. We live in dark days and the warnings of the Bible are coming into sight for those who are willing to look around them rather than keep their heads down thinking if they do not look the hard times will not come. However whether we chose to see or not it does not change that which is coming to pass. May we have strength to reach out to share the love of God with those around us before it is to late. May we each find the will of God for our lives and walk that path until it is His time for us.

Interesting Times

Notice the earthquakes in various places, the record setting snow in much of eastern USA, high unemployment in so many countries and even Toyota having major recalls. Cancer and other types of illness in record numbers in spite of medicine and available medical care here & in much of the world. Wars, terrorism, sectarian violence, and just plain hatred through out the world. How about the record debt of so many nations and at top of list the USA along with much of Europe. In many countries the children are left to fend for themselves and in other countries the mothers just have them killed while in their womb or during delivery process. Drug and alcohol use is rampant in much of the world along with the crime associated with the activity. Then consider how many young women and children are sold in sex trade or kidnapped for same. The divorce rate and adultery is through the roof with to few honoring their marriage vows. Along with the "gay" lifestyle choice and other sexual misconduct fueling the high STD rates throughout the world and related financial health care cost. Now what are the elected officials concerned about, how about things like trans-fats, cell phone use while driving, wearing seat belts, motorcycle helmets, controlling where smokers do their smoking, overweight people and high cost of health insurance.
Unfortunately the real problems continue to be unaddressed in today's sick society. God has given the first step for a nation to have it's land healed and that is for the people who are called by His name to humble themselves, pray seeking His presence turning from their sin, then God will hear from heaven and forgive the sin and heal the nation. We live in a proud generation so the first step will be tough since pride always opposes being truly humble but if our nation is to be healed that must occur so there will be prayer and the required turning from sin and seeking the Holy presence of God through His son Jesus.
It will be interesting to see if we are willing to follow God's plan for our nation to be healed so it can be Blessed once more. How much time do we have?

What about the Bible

When it comes to the Bible there seems to be 3 primary views. One is that it is just a book similar to any other book. This view is easily dismissed with the question if that was an accurate notion then why is the Bible the only book that the elites and progressives are not only okay with banning but lead the charge to do so. Think about it! Now let's take a look at the other two views. First the view that Bible contains the word of God and is a good guide for knowing God and getting to Heaven. This view allows that the person reading the Bible needs to see and interpret what they are reading in light with what they think and modern culture. In essence they are also god and their views are more important then what God has said since He has not allowed for changing with the times. Their concept of God is that He is limited and needs their help to figure out modern society. They understand better how people can be "happy" and need to control their own lives, without a lot of inconvenience in attending a lot of church services regularly or other negative drains on their time and resources. This group do not actually believe the Bible needs to be revised since it is fluid and God really does not mean for it to be taken literally. (Good luck on that - maybe you will get God to admit He was wrong and you are right after all.) The other view is that the Bible is the Word of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof and instruction in righteousness. It is unchanging Truth and is intended to show us how to be born again into the family of God through faith in Jesus Christ His son. Jesus died to free us from sin and show us how to live changed lives for the glory of God rather than our own. If I do not like what the Bible teaches I have choice of changing to comply or denying the Truth. What is your view on the Bible - is it the word of God or is it a book you pick and choose which parts you feel are the words of God. We will each answer to God for how we obeyed His word.

Constitution Fixed or Fluid

When the framers wrote the US Constitution it was intended to be a fixed document to protect our citizens from heavy handed big government and insure a free and prospers nation. They created a very cumbersome difficult process to limit changes and thereby protect the rights of the citizens from the PC crowd of each new generation. Three equal branches of government were created to offer a check & balance against each other. But something has gone wrong along the way. A political party figured out if it stacked the Supreme Court with "judges" who would see the Constitution as a fluid guide rather than the fixed document it was set up to be, they could get around the difficult process set up by the framers. With these new "judges" the Constitution has become no more than a shell subject to change as needed by the PC crowd.
The Congress has willingly suborned itself to the court, rather than removing the unfit judges who find "new" things and thereby change past rulings that interpreted the Constitution as per the original intent.
So can we now say it is the crooked spineless congress who has allowed this to occur. Maybe it is actually the fault of the citizens who continue to reelect those representatives who will not take any action to remove those "judges" who violate their oath to uphold the Constitution. But one thing is becoming clear the congress is no longer the intended equal branch of our government. Our republic is beginning to collapse under the weight of a lazy self indulgent society. Too many of our citizens have forgotten God, so the wisdom and common sense that comes only from God is fast forsaking this land as well as many other of God's prior blessings. May our people turn from their self seeking ways and find forgiveness through Jesus Christ before hope also forsakes our land.