Not just another book

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, others in academia, the media and now many in the general public. If it is just a book what is the big deal with it being read, studied or discussed. Maybe 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. Why not accept His forgiveness and allow Him to change you from inside out so you can follow His path for your life. This might be a very scary concept for those who seek to control their own life. Many do not believe in prayer while at same time hoping they are not wrong. The Bible talks about dark days and warns us of the signs of the times, are you paying attention to the news and what is occurring all around you. What is needed is a little 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....

The unacceptable Word

Had to just shake my head in wonder as I listened to the news regarding movie theaters who decided not to run a 30 second ad spot. A 30 second ad spot had been purchased and paid for in advance to promo upcoming Event at a local organization. Although had not been problem in prior years, this year it became a big issue due to the content of the Ad. Apparently in other years the theaters had just been happy to take the money and run the ad spot for the annual event with out paying any attention to the content. Theaters who are willing to show anything to make money are normally not concerned with video images or language unless off the chart regarding any hint of decency.
Apparently this was the year they decided to take a stand to protect the movie goers from the vile and indecency of over the top ad spots. The local organization ad for the annual event was caught in this new found concern for the customers of the theaters. The line had been drawn in the sand the theaters could take no more. The organization had crossed the line of decency and used a word that can not be tolerated. A word so strong that it must be censored even if they had to refund the money for the Ad. That word was actually a name and the organization was a local Church. The offensive vile word used in the ad inviting people to attend the annual Easter service held at the Church was ...are you ready for this ....JESUS.
Now it is written that the time will come when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that JESUS is Lord to the glory of God. But that time has not arrived yet. However there are some who are prepared and ready for that day. Are you ready for that time?

Question

What do you do when you have maxed out your credit to point it will be next to impossible to pay off in your lifetime?
The primary choices are:
A. Eliminate everything in your budget that is not critical to survive.
B. Get free expert help on what to cut out of your budget and prioritize the debt to pay off most critical first.
C. Enhance your revenue by taking a second Job and begin major spending reductions.
D. Contract with expensive experts to perform a comprehensive evaluation of your financial condition and disregard most of the findings.
E. Find ways to get more credit and continue to increase your spending.
F. Find creative ways to get more income by taking advantage of the law and cheating/stealing the resources of your neighbors.
G. Postpone making tough decisions and plan on leaving the debt for your children and grand-kids to pay.
H. Blame everyone else for your financial condition and delay addressing your problem.
I. Deny that you have a spending problem because if other people would give you more of their funds your debt would be manageable.
J. Demand a higher credit limit each time you reach it and continue to increase spending.
K. Find everyone that you believe is rich and try to make them guilty for your credit problems by forcing them to pay for your poor decisions until they have no funds left.
L. If you employ anyone increase their pay and benefits and worry about where the money will come from later.
M. For anyone you employ who is not getting their job done properly, hire more workers to help them do the work whether it needs to be done or not.

So question remains what do you do when you are on verge of financial collapse?

But the current question is what does your government believe the answers are to addressing financial collapse?

Use the above list to determine what you would do and to guess which ones your elected government officials will use.

To many

America has to many elected leaders who are intent on following the old European model of socialism. Our people have discovered that they can take from the "rich" and use the taxes (legally stolen money) for their own personal benefit. With each new social program or government funded project comes not only an increased tax burden, but staggering national debt. The media and progressives go hysterical if anyone dares to propose a slow down in spending increases. We have forgotten that debt is simply the mortgaging of the future for immediate gratification. The cost of each spent borrowed dollar is our future freedom, as with all debt there comes the enviable day it must be repaid. If we default as a nation there is no filing for bankruptcy protection only the prospect of runaway inflation, anarchy or even the takeover by nation(s) holding our debt. We have traveled far down the road of no return with social medicine and high unemployment our citizens will be locked into complete dependence on government from the cradle to the grave. Our freedoms will be controlled by the social elites. The Bible instructs us to pray for those in authority and not only have we not prayed but we actually freely elected those who would enslave us to be our leaders. May God grant us sight and the good sense to repent and pray for leaders who care for our nation and not themselves. Pray that those we have put in authority over us will seek wisdom from God and remember they will answer for their actions.

Close Call "collapse avoided"

To hear all the media and politicians talk our nation was getting ready to go over the cliff to an almost doomsday like event. Now what was it that was going to cause this national suicide? The spending ourselves into poverty, continued sustained record level unemployment, burdensome government regulations, high tax burden on our economy, or trying to cut government spending....well no none of these. What about the moral decay in our nation, killing of our babies, gambling, unrestrained homosexual activity, gay marridge, houses of prostitution, crooked politicians, corrupted judicial system, or the attempt to remove any concept of God from our nation....well no not exactly(God has however warned us these will bring judgment on a nation). Now you ask what is left that could have caused our nation to collapse?
Are you ready for this - here it is - "a government shutdown". Now personally think that the government being closed for a few weeks would be a good thing. Maybe our people would wake up to the fact that a lot of our problems are the result of to much government not to little. Most of what our government does are things it should not be involved in, way past the essentuals like national defense, a fair judicial system and a modest revenue stream to cover only that which our people are not able to do through private enterprise.
We have strayed so far from the intent of our founding fathers I wonder if they would even recognize our nation as being the one they risked their lives for.

Sports and Society

With the final four of March madness now here what about sports place in our society. Sports have long been held up as a good way to keep kids out of trouble and teach values that will help through out life.(This used to be done at home and in Church.) Somewhere along the way something got flipped and no one paid much notice or just did not care. Think about the following everyday happenings in sports.
Watch a basketball game and you will notice that the last 2 minutes of the game is forever as the losing team usually resorts to breaking the rules(cheating)by fouling opposing team in attempt to "win" the game. The game announcers wonder why the coach is waiting so long to try to extend the game by telling players to start committing fouls(break rules) in attempt to pull off a win. Sadly this happens in basketball at all levels from children rec leagues to pro basketball. In football coaches will have players fake being hurt if out of timeouts in order to stop the clock or call timeouts in attempt to affect opposing kicker (rather than as intended to confer with their team or correct a problem) hoping to increase chance of "winning" the game. Listen to TV announcer comments of it's not a penalty if referee doesn't throw a flag or a foul is not called. Coaches who punish injured players because they will not risk their long term health to practice or play hurt so the coach can get another win.
Ask yourself do you want to play a game with someone who breaks the rules(cheats) to "win" and do you really want to associate with that type of person.
Remember the old saying of - cheaters never win and winners never cheat -. We now have a generation that believes - get ahead at any cost and winning is all that matters- since you only go around in this life once so get all you can anyway you can.
To many institutions in our society have a win at any cost mentality. We should therefore expect corrupt elected officials, corporate greed, tax cheats, embezzlement, employee thief, shoplifting, insurance fraud, crooked repair shops, fraud & abuse of government service programs, etc. People will make promises but what matters is whether it is in the contract.
Now you have an idea of why belief in evolution is so important in our society, it is a very disturbing thought to many that we were created by God. God means accountability and Holy Judgment for how we have lived our lives including our thoughts. A real scary thought for any who have not studied the Bible to determine how to have a personal relationship with God through His son Jesus.
The stakes can get no higher than to reject the Bible as God's word and be wrong.

What about the Bible

The Bible contains both 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 of a virgin in Bethlehem a town located in Judea. The New Testament covers the time just before 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 followers of Christ and concludes with the revelation of that which is still to come at the end times. The Bible shows us that God is the ultimate source and sum of all history. It reveals His plan for the salvation of mankind through repentance of sin with confession of Jesus as Lord believing 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 will reward all 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 will give an account of themselves to God. 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. Many do not believe the Bible and therefore they do not care about what it has to say. 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. Many take issue with the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of sexual perversion. 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. Many 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 to choose. Harsh would be God not giving 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. He also warns us that those who retain their sin will spend eternity separated from Him in lake of fire with total darkness. Jesus said it was a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. The Bible also tells us of a place called Heaven. All who accept the payment made by Jesus for sin will be allowed to live for all eternity because of acceptance of His redemption plan. Forgiveness of sin is possible because of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Now we can believe or not the choice is ours, we get to decide. we can reject God and His plan for our redemption for whatever reason/excuse we find convenient but do not blame God for where you spend eternity. 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. Consider well the cost of not accepting the Bible as the word of God.

Home?

It is nice to get away with family and change the pace for a while. Great to be home from trip south and back to sleeping in own bed. However the thought hit that really am not home yet. The home, bed, etc really are not mine but on loan from God. When my last breath is taken or God determines someone else should have them they will be passed on. We brought nothing into this world and will take nothing out when we leave. Life truly is short and it is amazing how good God is to us. When we consider how Holy God is and how much He hates sin, all the good that comes our way is definitely due to the grace of God. The Bible(check out John chapter 3) tells us just how much God does in fact love us and am one who is grateful that we do not have to do anything to merit His Love or grace. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift! May the grace of God fill your journey through this life.

A season for everything

To every thing there is a time. A time for life and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to harvest. A time to tear down and a time to build, a time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to celebrate, a time to recycle and a time to collect. A time to gain and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to rip apart and a time to mend, a time to love and a time to hate. A time to feast and a time to fast, a time to sleep and a time to be awake. A time to sit and a time to stand. A time for war and a time for peace, a time to keep silence and a time to speak. There is a season and time for every purpose under Heaven. As you look around at the events of our day, do you know what time it is? I submit that is time to wake up and time to speak up so that our land may hear the roar of the chains of debt and the silence of lost freedom. It is time to repent of our sins and apathy. It is time to pray that God would heal our land and bless our nation again. It is a time of action, to stand up and be counted. It is time to take our country back from those who seek to destroy all that is right or holy. May God give you the boldness to speak up and be silent no more!

Faithfulness not popularity

Take time to care about other people because they are important and loved by God Himself. However some will be offended because you dared to care. Therefore do not let it concern you if you are rejected or misunderstood. People have been given a freewill by God to believe and live as they choose. So show them love by at least challenging their thought process with the other side of the story regarding the choices made. Focus on God and the Bible, but allow them to make their own choices. We should continue to care about people and pray for them while honoring their request to be left alone. Each person is special and of equal importance no matter their age, race, nationality, or gender. So provide information about God and how His son Jesus the Christ died for our sins so we would not have to pay the price. Do not be offended if someone does not care enough about themselves to consider the ramification of rejecting God. Be ready to answer questions and always be ready to help, but when someone simply wants to be left alone then honor the request. Never forget that if you have been changed by God, you also wanted space and had to come to God when you were ready to accept His love not when others thought you should. Part of being created in the image of God includes having a free will to choose to accept or reject Jesus Christ as our Lord. The Bible tells us that there are two pathways and where they end, but we must allow people to choose for themselves even when they choose the wide path. God states that few will take the narrow path that leads to eternal life with Him. Be a light on the narrow path so others will consider and some will turn and change paths. God will always honor their choice so who are we not to respect their decision. Just pray, love and be light for those you come into contact with. Faithfulness not popularity is the goal.