Sunday, June 28, 2009

WAKE UP!

A shocking wake-up call to all Believers.
ARISE & AWAKE, SLEEPERS!!!

FOR THE EYE OPENING LECTURE, CLICK HERE

It may be that in a very short time,
speech like this will be illegal in America.

Christians need to
INFORM THEMSELVES,
PRAY and . SPEAK OUT!

Saturday, June 27, 2009

HE QUALIFIES THE CALLED



THE CONTACT LENS
A true story from Brenda Foltz of Princeton, Minnesota
written by Elisabeth Elliot

Brenda was a young woman who was invited to go rock climbing. Although she was scared to death, she went with her group to a tremendous granite cliff. In spite of her fear, she put on the gear, took a hold on the rope, and started up the face of that rock. Well, she got to a ledge where she could take a breather. As she was hanging on there, the safety rope snapped against Brenda's eye and knocked out her contact lens.

Well, here she is on a rock ledge, with hundreds of feet below her and hundreds of feet above her. Of course, she looked and looked and looked, hoping it had landed on the ledge, but it just wasn't there. Here she was, far from home, her sight now blurry. She was desperate and began to get upset, so she prayed to the Lord to help her to find it. When she got to the top, a friend examined her eye and her clothing for the lens, but there was no contact lens to be found. She sat down, despondent, with the rest of the party, waiting for the rest of them to make it up the face of the cliff.

She looked out across range after range of mountains, thinking of that Bible verse that says, "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth." She thought, "Lord, You can see all these mountains. You know every stone and leaf, and You know exactly where my contact lens is. Please help me." Finally, they walked down the trail to the bottom. At the bottom there was a new party of climbers just starting up the face of the cliff. One of them shouted out, "Hey, you guys! Anybody lose a contact lens?" Well, that would be startling enough, but you know why the climber saw it? An ant was moving slowly across the face of the rock, carrying it.

Brenda told me that her father is a cartoonist. When she told him the incredible story of the ant, the prayer, and the contact lens, he drew a picture of an ant lugging that contact lens with the words,

........ "Lord, I don't know why You want me to carry this thing.
......... I can't eat it, and it's awfully heavy.

..........But if this is what You want me to do,
..........I'll carry it for You."

I think it would probably do some of us good to occasionally say, "God, I don't know why you want me to carry this load. I can see no good in it and it's awfully heavy. But, if you want me to carry it, I will."

God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called.
I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. Phil 4:13

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

just shadows

Shadow Photography How-To Explains Ways to Capture Light in Photos

All that meets the bodily sense I deem
Symbolical -- one mighty Alphabet
For infant minds! And we in this low world,
Placed with our backs to bright Reality,
That we may learn with young, unwounded ken
The Substance from the Shadows!
-- Oswald Chambers

By faith we understand the the universe was formed at God's command,
so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible --Hebrews 11:3

God's material creation is an allegory to illustrate spiritual reality.
The spiritual realm is
eternal; the material realm is temporary.
The spiritual realm is the
substance; the material realm is the shadow.
The spiritual realm is the
reality; the material realm is the picture.
-- Jennifer Kennedy Dean

Friday, June 19, 2009

MARRIAGE


FIRST:
let's commit to loving our spouses and our children.
SECOND:
lovingly remind others and our government
of the truth of God's word
and the many reasons for upholding marriage.

This isn't to be mean. It's not to offend.
Nor is it meant to be a stand for bigotry.
I AM A CHRISTIAN.  

We are to show love to everyone and we stand on God's word.

The Long Island Family Coalition (Chairman Pastor Bruce Bennett of Grace Gospel Church, Patchogue, NY) has put out a pamphlet that enumerates reasons same-sex marriage should not be allowed.

THIS IS NOT "HATE SPEECH"
THIS IS MY FREEDOM TO RELIGION
THIS IS WHAT I BELIEVE AS GOD HAS DICTATED

1. It violates the essence of what a wedding and marriage mean. God defines the meaning of such a relationship. Scripture begins with a wedding and ends with a wedding. The relationship between Christ and his people is described as a "marriage between a groom and a bride." (Eph 5:32)
2. It violates natural law and prevents the full complement (biologically, psychologically, and sociologically) of God's image to be fully expressed. God made man in His image, male and female he created them (Gen. 1:27)
3. It degrades the time-honored institution of marriage, thus destroying a foundational pillar for any society. History bears witness to the fact that no society has survived, that has re-defined marriage or allowed marriage-like relationships outside of the man/woman bond for a lifetime.
4. It denies a child a mother and a father. The optimal and standard scenario for child-rearing is to have the child's biological father and his masculine view of life, and his biological mother and her feminine view of life, as the foundational context for their family life, so they develop with a healthy and balanced view of themselves and of the world around them.
5 It allows for any assemblage of people as marriage. Using the logic that is foisted by special interest groups that marriage is a right of any two consenting individuals, one must logically conclude that any number of consenting people including brothers marrying brothers and mothers marrying daughters must be permitted.
6. It redefines and belittles the civil rights movement by equating a behavior (homosexuality) with the indigenous and immutable characteristics of race, ethnicity, and gender, thus sanctioning a behavior that has always been considered immoral in Western Civilization since its inception. If taken to its logical conclusion, theoretically a rapist or thief could simply say their behaviors should be approved of as well.
7. It redefines the mission of civil government. Historically our civil government upheld the Biblical ethical paradigm whether consciously or unconsciously; this would be an obvious example of violating this standard. Young people especially equate the laws of the land with what is ultimately ethical. What lesson would this be teaching our youth?
8. It will open the floodgates of persecution against the people of God. Already in states where same-sex marriage has been legalized, Christians and those people who hold to marriage as sacred between a husband and wife have been threatened and jailed for not accommodating or supporting homosexual marriages or unions. Recently, a Massachusetts father was arrested for simply telling his kindergarten son's principal not to expose him to homosexual "families" in his son's curriculum.
9. It misleads people into thinking that a privilege is a right. Obtaining a marriage license is like obtaining a driver's license; certain conditions must be met and the privileges granted by the civil government can be enjoyed only within certain parameters to insure the common good.
originally published 6/19/2009

Show of hands: who loves the Bible?

Does one ever get blase about it?
Or become apathetic about it?
Can a true believer ever read a portion of Scripture and declare 'ho-hum'?

Acts 1:11
Jesus ascends into heaven leaving His followers gazing up.
Two "men in white" appear and say (my paraphrase here)
........ .....whatcha lookin' at? This same Jesus is gonna
..............come back the same way you saw Him leave!


So they leave the
Mount of Olives and go back to Jerusalem to wait like Jesus told them to.

............................... .                             Mount of Olives, Jerusalem
Outstanding, no? Supernatural, no? Jesus is COMING BACK and these magically appearing "men" said the way the disciples saw Him leave is the way He will be coming back! Hallelujah!

But wait, it gets better! Cross-reference to Zechariah 14:4, written some FIVE HUNDRED years before Jesus walked the earth. This prophet is talking about the day when the LORD will come back in glory. He states:

On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south


Over five HUNDRED years before Jesus was born, baptized, ministered, died, resurrected, and ascended... over five HUNDRED years before two 'men in white' appeared to tell a group of followers that their leader (who just left in a very unique way) would be back the same way... God, through Zechariah, told us that when the Messiah comes again, He will stand on the
Mount of Olives----
..................----the same place He left from.
Which is what the 'two men in white' said.

Isn't that amazing?? Praise God!

originally published 6/19/09

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Transparent umbrella under rain against water drops splash background. Rainy weather concept.

RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN 

after awhile it doesn't even make sense anymore. Long Island, NY has been under water for weeks and weeks. I can't get my mind off it. ...........................................
RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN 

The group Mercy Me sings a song with this chorus:
I KNOW THEY'LL BE DAYS
WHEN THIS LIFE BRINGS ME PAIN BUT

IF THAT'S WHAT IT TAKES TO PRAISE YOU,
JESUS BRING THE RAIN.


I wonder about the people who are having a season in their lives where they feel like us Long Islanders do - - - "not ANOTHER day of rain!!!" 
 How daunting. 
 How depressing. 
 How exhausting. 
 And I just want to SHOUT to them, "lean on Jesus!" 
 Because just like God rained manna down on the Israelites in the dessert to sustain them day after day after day, He will pour out His mercy every single morning to give you enough to sustain you day after day after yet another rainy day.

originally published on 6/17/2009

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

If We Really Believed in the Power of God

We would come to him in prayer first
If we really believed God is omnipotent, we would come to Him in prayer first, not as a last resort after having tried every other means and failed. 
We would forsake trusting in the idols of our day and trust in Him. 
We would humbly acknowledge that all the blessings we have are a gift of His grace and the result of the working of His power. 
Our prayers would be filled with praise and thanksgiving, seeing God as the Source of every blessing.
We would be filled with faith and hope, knowing that no purpose of God can be thwarted (2 Chronicles 20:6) and that every promise God has made will be fulfilled, in His time, and exactly as He has promised.


We would not give so much credit to Satan
If we really understood the power of God, we would not give so much credit to Satan. 
We would not look at Satan as though he and God were closely matched rivals who have battled for centuries. 
We would not dare suppose that in the end God will barely defeat this one who is our deadly foe. 
We would realize that God is the Creator and Satan is but a creature. 
We would know that God’s power is infinite, while Satan’s is finite. 
We would not minimize Satan’s power, but neither would we overstate his power. 
God is not battling with Satan with the hope of defeating him: Satan is already a defeated foe, whose final demise is certain (John 12:31; 16:11; Luke 10:18). In the meantime, God is using Satan and his rebellion to achieve His purposes (see 2 Corinthians 12:7-10).

We would not believe the lies of the “good-life gospeleers”
If we really understood and believed in the power of God, we would not believe the lies of the “good-life gospeleers,” those hucksters who line their own pockets by assuring donors that God is standing by with all His power, eager to do their bidding. They lay claim on God’s power by “faith,” by claiming certain possessions like money and healing. “God doesn’t want us to suffer,” they say, “but to prosper.” If they really believed in God’s power, they would know God’s power can just as well sustain us through suffering and affliction as it can deliver us from suffering and affliction. They refuse to accept that God often works through suffering to sustain and purify the saints and to demonstrate His grace and power to a lost and dying world (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).

We would not be so reluctant to obey
If we really believed in the power of God, we would not be so reluctant to obey those commands of God which seem to leave us vulnerable (like, “sell your possessions and give to the poor,” or see 1 Corinthians 7:29-30 for a more generalized version). 
We would not excuse ourselves from obeying the “impossible” commands like “love your enemy.” 
We would live our lives much more dangerously if we really believed God is omnipotent.

[I pray that] the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. [These are] in accordance with the working of the strength of His might . . . that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; [and] that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God. (Ephesians 1:18-19; 3:16-19).

originally published on 6/16/2009