Clouds of Fog

Many who have not been changed by the Spirit of God believe the teachings of Jesus to be not only simple but for the simple minded. But for those who have been changed the dense cloud of fog lifts and the light of the word of God begins to shine through that they may be able to see truth. The more that the teachings of Jesus are studied the stronger the sight becomes. Many pretend to have sight but they show they are still surrounded by the fog with their flippant attitudes toward and seaming familiarity with the things of God. Those who have been introduced to and have a personal relationship with Jesus as Lord and Savior understand with reverence the great price that was paid so they could have that relationship. They delight in the liberty given from the power of sin over their lives. God gives life and His spirit to those who have been changed from the inside out. Jesus words are spirit and life to all who will accept Him by faith. Those who will walk in the light rather than stumble in the clouds of fog must renounce their self directed life. It must be replaced with a Spirit directed life which is possible only through a completely surrendered life to God and His word. Truth will come by hearing and the hearing comes through the word of God.(Bible)

Never ceases to amaze

God never ceases to amaze. Just as I was giving serious consideration to reduce some of my time pressures and fatigue by quit blogging for a while, received message which showed that is not where the time should be saved. Started blogging because people are important to God as shown by Jesus His son dying to pay the price for our sin. That kind of love requires those that have experienced it to be willing to do the same. People must come first even before our own comfort. To everything there is indeed a season and a time, but it is not now the time to quit as it relates to blogging.
So will continue to try to post each week and visit blogs to invest in the lives of those who must be more important to me than time for myself. God is good and all need to know of His love for us especially in these dark times. May you find the Light for your journey through life.

Whose way will it be

Knowledge begins with respect for the Lord, but fools hate wisdom and discipline. Study the Bible for instruction in wisdom and let it teach you in the way of Truth
and do not forget it's advice on life. Make it a part of your apparel like a necklace or a watch that it might remind you through out the day of the beauty of the creation of God and that all time is God's time. Be warned that the teaching of man will try to lead you away from Truth into things that are pleasing to self at the expense of eternity. Always remember that Truth is not relative and does not change with time, knowledge can be increased and wisdom can be gained but always through Truth. With Truth comes the knowledge and wisdom to live a disciplined life, one that needs not to be regretted. To know and have a personal relationship with Jesus the Christ is to have Truth because Jesus is Truth.
Live your life to it's fullest potential by living it as an offering of service to God and you will not only be blessed but a blessing to those around you. Two choices for life God's way or our way, all start with our own way but it is how we finish that counts.

3 in a row

Over past 3 weeks a former co-worker, father of a friend and my aunt all died. One per week, 2 from cancer and 1 from heart failure. Death will come one day to us all. I have seen the young die and the old along with those in between. Not one of them knew in advance the day they would die but each knew that upon death they would have to stand before a Holy God. Two of them acted on that knowledge to insure they were ready and one had not. That which has past can not be changed but if you are able to read this you can still make the change to insure you are ready when your last day comes. The key is will you be prepared to stand before God when your time is up, have you accepted the forgiveness of your sin by faith in Jesus the Christ who died to pay the price for that sin. Many have not because they do not see the need to repent and allow God to change them nor are they willing to count the cost. How about you?

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.