January 31, 2013

  • "The disciples loved one another. This was the blessed fruit of Christ's dying precept to his disciples, and his dying prayer for them. Thus it was then, and it will be so again, when the Spirit shall be poured upon us from on high. The doctrine preached was the resurrection of Christ; a matter of fact, which being duly explained, was a summary of all the duties, privileges, and comforts of Christians. There were evident fruits of Christ's grace in all they said and did. They were dead to this world. This was a great evidence of the grace of God in them. They did not take away others' property, but they were indifferent to it. They did not call it their own; because they had, in affection, forsaken all for Christ, and were expecting to be stripped of all for cleaving to him. No marvel that they were of one heart and soul, when they sat so loose to the wealth of this world. In effect, they had all things common; for there was not any among them who lacked, care was taken for their supply. The money was laid at the apostles' feet. Great care ought to be taken in the distribution of public charity, that it be given to such as have need, such as are not able to procure a maintenance for themselves; those who are reduced to want for well-doing, and for the testimony of a good conscience, ought to be provided for. Here is one in particular mentioned, remarkable for this generous charity; it was Barnabas. As one designed to be a preacher of the gospel, he disentangled himself from the affairs of this life. When such dispositions prevail, and are exercised according to the circumstances of the times, the testimony will have very great power upon others."  excerpts from: http://www.christnotes.org/commentary.php?com=mhc&b=44&c=4

    In this modern time, this is not so, even in churches today. However, in being a Christian, we should strive to be of service to others, a service done for the glory of God. We serve God through fellowshipping with other Christians. We serve God through prayers and praying for others. We serve by following His commands and instructions. Best of all we serve Him by sharing Jesus to others; His Good News of Salvation. We serve God by worshipping Him and by praising His Name to others. We serve God by sharing our testimony of Redemption.

January 30, 2013



    •  Jan 30 Verse on my Calendar
       

      A simple reading of the passage tells the story.  Believing there’s a God is not sufficient for salvation.  The Jews also believe there’s one God, and so do the liberal denominations who teach that you don’t have to be born again to be saved.  It takes the belief that He sent His son to die for us, and that His death was sufficient to save us.  When we believe that, the Holy Spirit comes to live in us and will usually produce fruit of some kind in our lives.

      People who say we have to generate good works to “prove” we’re saved are misinterpreting this verse.  Jesus said that the only work God requires of us is to believe in the One He sent (John 6:28-29) and the Bible is clear that salvation is based on belief alone.  John 3:16 is one of many examples. (from http://gracethrufaith.com/ask-a-bible-teacher/understanding-james-219/)

       
      "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
       
      As Jesus talked with Nicodemus, He said, “’I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.’ ‘How can a man be born when he is old?’ Nicodemus asked. ‘Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!’ Jesus answered, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again’” (John 3:3-7).

      The phrase "born again" literally means "born from above." Nicodemus had a real need. He needed a change of his heart—a spiritual transformation. New birth, being born again, is an act of God whereby eternal life is imparted to the person who believes (2 Corinthians 5:17; Titus 3:5; 1 Peter 1:3; 1 John 2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1-4, 18). John 1:12,13 indicates that "born again" also carries the idea "to become children of God" through trust in the name of Jesus Christ.

      The question logically comes, "Why does a person need to be born again?" The Apostle Paul in Ephesians 2:1 says, "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins..." (NKJV). To the Romans in Romans 3:23, the Apostle wrote, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." So, a person needs to be born again in order to have their sins forgiven and have a relationship with God.          from http://www.gotquestions.org/born-again.html

       

January 29, 2013


  • Hate in Luke 14:26 means "love less by comparison." If our love for our parents interferes with worshipping and obeying God properly, we do not genuinely love Him. Matthew 10:37 shows that Christ refers to those who place their father or mother above God in obedience and reverence; this is idolatry. The time may come when it is no longer necessary or right for us to obey our parents. Even so, we should never cease to honor them. Honor indicates a high respect for their worth, high esteem, and reverence. Without this, we cannot properly revere God. Just as our parents corrected us, so also God corrects us. As a result we honor and respect our parents, which is a shadow of our subjection to the Father.

     Martin G. Collins

    The word "hate" is not an absolute term but a relative one. He is establishing a comparison: "You have to love Me more than mother, father, wife, children, brother, sister." We have to put Christ first; we have to love Him more than the others. Recall what He said to Peter after His resurrection. What was the first question? "Do you love [agape] Me more than these?" Who were the "these"? It was very likely the other disciples who were with Him. "Do you love Me more than your friends?"

    What Christ said to Peter He is also saying to us! The standard is exactly the same. Though we may not have the responsibility of feeding the sheep, Christ must still be our first concern in life, and God expects us not only to be concerned, but to love Him with deep, family affection.

     John W. Ritenbaugh


    Luke 10:27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

    Jesus Christ has always placed an emphasis in loving our Father God with all our hearts, souls, strengths and minds. I believe if we do, we will learn to love others the way Jesus Christ loves them; which would include our family, relatives, friends and even strangers. In order for us to understand what kind of love He gives us, we have to focus in knowing God through Christ. God said to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. He did not say to worship the images that look like Him. We are the images of God. There are many wooden images, stone images, paintings and so on and so forth that people idolize. Because of this, they lose touch of the reality that God is not in those images.

    There are people that idolize famous people that proves God is not with them. There are people that idolize their dogs, cats and just about any animals that help them forget that they are lonely people in need of God's love. Most people today have wrong ideas in which to give their worship. Jesus said if you are that, then you are not His. You can say you are a Christian, you believe in God, but if you are still showing no fruits that develop by listening to the teachings of the Holy Spirit of God, through His Word, then you are not truly followers of Christ. You are not TRUE Christians, in the true sense of the word.

     

    21“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

    The Wise and Foolish Builders

    24“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”  Matthew 7

January 28, 2013


  • It surely is! We are not so far from the time of Tribulations described in the Holy Bible.

    Today God has given me an answer through a post by a godly man: "When you keep your face to the Son, it will be hard to focus on the shadows." John Paul Jackson

    I am seeing the twists and the turns of the current world news; and if I focused on the evilness of the world, I am defeating God's purposes for my own life. I will continue focusing on God's PLAN!

     

     

  •  
    Normalizing Pedophilia
    By: Regis Nicoll |Published: January 28, 2013 9:30 AM
     
    Coming soon to a judicial district near you: a successful legal suit against the criminalization of pedophilia.

    Think not? Consider this:

    In the latest example of evolved thinking, the LA Times reports, “Now, many experts view it as a sexual orientation as immutable as heterosexuality or homosexuality.” The “it” being referred to is, you guessed it, pedophilia. (Gina posted about this trend a little earlier.)

    As that view gains currency, watch as 1) terms like “mental illness, “pathological behavior,” and “sexual deviancy” fade from the conversation, 2) advocacy groups like NAMBLA gain social respectability, 3) pedophilia is de-criminalized, 4) pedophiles are removed from the National Sexual Offender Registry (the first step in scrubbing the Registry altogether), 5) school curricula are revised to include adult-child sex as a morally neutral lifestyle choice, and 6) who can guess?

    “Never happen!” you say?

    Well, you tell me. Once pedophilia is accepted as a sexual orientation, how can pedophiles be denied the same legal protections that cover other sexual orientations? Don’t they, too, have the right to “love whomever they choose?”

    The fact that this process sounds all too familiar, should convince even the naysayer that the “slope” exists, it’s slippery, and we’re hurling down it at breakneck speed.

     

    http://thepoint.breakpoint.org/tp-home/blog-archives/recent-point-posts/entry/4/21351

     

    Can't you tell we are in the last days before Jesus Christ 2nd coming and destroying evil here on earth!

January 27, 2013

  • Just like the Ephesians in Paul of Tarsus time, we are also gentiles (if you are not Jewish by birth); but God in His great mercy included us to receive His gift of Salvation through Jesus Christ. The Gospel or the Good News that anyone who believes in His Son, repented from their sins and turn away from them, have His promise of sharing heaven with Him and His Son to live forever with them when we die and live this earth.

    It is a Promise that is marked with His continued guidance through His Holy Spirit in us. A Born Again Christian is baptized with the Holy Spirit of God to guard and teach us of God's Word and Truth. Just as Jesus proclaimed, we will not experience the presence of God, not unless we become born again in His Spirit.

    http://gotquestions.org/false-conversion.html 

    The above link explains fully who true Christians are. There are many religious denominations that claim that they are Christians. True Christians are those who have the same conversion of their faith like the early Christians after Jesus' Resurrection. Do not risk your eternal destiny by believing otherwise, or other ways or under other circumstances.

    "True Christians are “born-again” (John 3:3) and are controlled by the Holy Spirit; they are no longer controlled by their sinful nature (Romans 8:9). Indeed, born-again Christians have the Spirit of Christ indwelling their hearts (Galatians 4:6) and they become new creations, “the old has gone, the new has come!”(2 Corinthians 5:17). When a person receives Christ, tremendous spiritual changes take place in him, and true converts will indeed display the characteristics of genuine Christians. For example, they will understand the importance of abiding daily in God’s Word, which shows not only how we can be saved from our sins, but also how we may be equipped to serve God as well as how to obtain true success in life (2 Timothy 3:17; James 1:25). True Christians will walk in the light and obey God’s commands, for “God’s love is truly made complete” in those who obey His Word (1 John 2:5)." from gotquestions.org/false-conversion

     

  • It was a busy, though blessed and enjoyable Friday and Saturday! Just did not have the quiet time and the stillness of the day! It's been so beautiful in our woods - sunny and slight warm days, I can't complain!

    Anyway, I love the verse on my calendar for Friday. When we become born-again Christians, Jesus Christ has given us the Holy Spirit of God. Our bodies are no longer our own. Our bodies become God's temple where He resides. God wants us to take care of the place where He resides; not only to keep it holy and to have sound mind and heart to hear Him, so He can teach us His Word; but He wants us to keep our bodies healthy.  "Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them in a storage jar and use them to make bread for yourself..." Ezekiel 4:9 *****

    "11Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, 12“Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.” 14So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days. 15At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. 16So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead." Daniel 1

    Daniel who had God's wisdom chose to eat vegetables, and water to drink.  ************

    "16Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? 17If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple." 1 Corinthians 3:16

    ***********

    "1Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. 3Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.

    4“But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 5And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man.

    6“Whoever sheds the blood of man,

    by man shall his blood be shed;

    for in the image of God

    has God made man." Genesis 9 *******

    With all the things that we are hearing about pesticides, arsenics and hormones beings used in the foods we eat, we have to use God's wisdom and be wise in what we buy. (When I buy produce, I try my best to check the digit code. 5 Digit Code starting with 9 are organic-grown naturally with no chemicals; 4 Digit Code starting with 4 means grown with chemicals and pesticides; 5 Digit Code starting with 8 means grown unnaturally and genetically modified {GMO}). Better yet, I try to look for organic in most of the things I would feed myself and my family.

    We have to start somewhere to take care of God's temple; and it starts with us. I remember the times when I would eat sweets, bread, eat out more than once a week and cook not so healthy meals; I started gaining weight. I felt awful and it slowed me down. I'd work out, I'd feel better; but then I'd get back to eating unhealthy foods. One day, I found this book entitled Miracle Foods. It then dawned on me that the same foods that God wants us to eat were not what I was eating. They were foods of this world, as in what the Bible said, be in the world, but not of this world; do not conform to the pattern of this world. It also apply to the foods we eat.  When I changed my eating habits to mostly plant-based food, I felt a big difference. Just like how Daniel and his friends felt on Daniel 1:15 This totally changed my outlook on foods. The plant-based food also rid of my addiction to simple carbs. I no longer have an urge to eat unhealthy foods and we seldom go out to dinner anymore. I've become more aware of what the restaurants and fast food joints are feeding us. They are mostly for profits and what we don't see in the restaurant and fast food kitchens can be harmful to us. I've decided to learn to cook healthy meals using natural herbs to enhance the taste of foods. I can control the fats, salt, butter and just about anything that I and my family would eat.

    We need to be vigilant and always be aware of what this modern society has done to the foods, that instead of giving us naturally grown with no chemical meats, vegetables, fruits and grains; our high techno, modern society are feeding us foods that can cause cancer, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, depression, allergies and all kinds of bad things for our bodies to shorten our life's existence. "If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him." 1 Corinthians 3:17

January 24, 2013

  •  

    • Todays verse on my calendar: "Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." Genesis 2:7

       

      There's nothing that God cannot do except invade our thought life without our permission. Although He gives life to us, He also wants us to make our own choices and decisions. This is how He created the first man, Adam. God has given us freedom to choose. He also wants us to seek Him on our own free will. For in choosing and deciding, we learn life's consequences. God intends for us to learn from those consequences that we face each time we make choices.

      God also knows that if we are left to our own devices, we will sorely fail 100 percent. It's the make up of a man after Adam and Eve were removed from God's grace when they sinned against God and His one very important command. As He planned what to do to save us, He chose people to warn us of dangers of making wrong choices in life. He has given people His wisdom to speak of God's commands and instructions so we can be guided in our daily life. But if we reject God's good intentions for us which will not make us know of God's desire to protect us, then we do not have the right to get on God's case for the calamities that besiege us in life. We cause our own storms in life - trials, tribulations and struggles in life are of our own doing. We are our own enemies. Our own thinking is the enemy of our souls. As humans, we are self-centered, stubborn and defy the utmost authority of us all - God. Human minds think that if we rely on God, we will not be happy and successful in life at all. Human minds think that trusting and believing in God and His commands make them weak. Oh, how we are so wrong! We really create the persons we've become.

      What would happen if we say: Okay God, I surrender! I give you my thinking! Please make my mind align with your mind...

      It's a start of wisdom, not of man but of God's wisdom. It really starts from there to find peace, joy and success in life and great life accomplishments. Aligning our thoughts with God's thoughts. As we do this, we start to really see who God is and we start to BELIEVE the Truth of God's Word; one of which is to first believe that He sent His Son to die for us, to cover our sins with Jesus' own blood from the cross. BELIEVE and PROCLAIM that JESUS IS LORD! Our Savior that will remove our sins, and make us totally NEW in thoughts and in words.

       

     

January 23, 2013

  • The keyword in this verse is: "might become"

    God, in His Plan to save us and give us much better life here and in heaven, put all of mankind's sins to die with Jesus Christ (Messiah) on the cross.

    When Jesus' blood cleanses our sins, God forgives us and our sins, that are in us before we come to Jesus Christ, are removed by God and He does not remember them anymore. We start on a clean slate when we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior. It is very important that we also know that Jesus Christ has also given us, as new Christian, a guide in the person of the Holy Spirit of God to teach us the Truth in God - God's true nature and God's Word. You will only find God's Truth in the Holy Bible, nowhere else.

    It is only in the Holy Bible that we can become the righteousness of God. That's why God wants us to read and meditate on it day and night. If we don't, it is just like other books we have read and eventually we will forget what it said and we will be the same as we were before -as sinful as the day we found Christ. Meditating on God's Word would also help us not to just pick and choose what we like and don't like of what God said.

    God cannot be mocked. He sees our hearts and its condition. We can pretend with our peers and people, but not with God, not with the One who created us and know every fiber of our being.

    In today's very dark days where Satan and his clan are very active in devouring ungodly humans and pretentious Christians, our afterlife is at risk and at stake.

     

    5Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because,

    “God opposes the proud

    but gives grace to the humble.”

    6Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7Cast all your anxiety on him (God) because he cares for you.

    8Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (to take you to hell). 9Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings (of being TEMPTED BY THE DEVIL).  1 PETER 5

January 22, 2013

    • January 22 verse on my calendar from Romans 6:3~~ "Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?"