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Oshkosh, Wisconsin
Joined: Aug 2011 |
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| Acts 2:46-47 - Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.- Going to church in those days must have been very different than today. I wonder if it was even called church (which simply means an assembly, or the called together ones) yet. Remember these were not just early Christian churches, but the first ones. There may have been copies of the old testament around, but the complete Bible as we know it had not been finished yet and there were very few Christian "professionals" then. We're told they met everyday, not just on Sunday morning as we do today. There were no specialized church buildings with specialized furnishings, but we're told the people met in the temple courts and their homes and shared meals (they had what we call fellowship today) with glad and sincere hearts. We often think that a church is our idea, but it is God working through us that builds a church and saves people, and we must make sure that we keep his word there or it will be useless in a Christian sense. Though the first Christians didn't have some of the things we do, it sounds like they had the one thing that's important, that is faith in Jesus Christ. They believed he alone could save them from their sins. Something we all need to remember no matter what church we go to. link [whataboutjesus.com] | |
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| Isaiah 30:10 -11 - They say to the seers, “See no more visions!” and to the prophets, “Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. Leave this way get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!” The old testament prophet (what we would call a preacher) Isaiah is talking about the Israelites of his day here. If this scripture wasn't so tragic I think it would be funny. Here were a bunch of people who should have known better, saying they wanted to hear pleasant things and made up stuff instead of God's word. They didn't know it at the time, but they were setting themselves up for God's punishment for revolting against him. The ancient nation of Israel was destroyed and taken into captivity by the nation of Babylon (the historic and Biblically symbolic enemy of God). Even as captives of Babylon the Lord was with the Israelites, and after about 70 years he restored their kingdom. People wanting to hear things reminds me of 2Timothy 4:3 - (For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,) Today there are many people that like to tell us what things are about, directly or indirectly. They'll give us their personal ideas or the world's theories, anything except God's word because it's not politically correct, to divisive, or they simply regard the word as out of date or untrue etc. They can't tell us about our Savior Jesus Christ for whatever reason. Only God can do that. We need to be on our guard so we don't fall into the same trap the Israelites that Isaiah is talking about here did. link [whataboutjesus.com] | |
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| Matthew 24:40 - 41, Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. Christ doesn't just pick people at random, decide he doesn't like them and leave them behind, so who are those who will be left? They (those who will not enter God's kingdom) are simply the ones who do not believe that Christ is the way the truth and the life (John 14:6). One of the things this scripture shows us is that there can be people who don't believe right next to those that do, so we may not know who is standing next to us. As Christians we need to tell those who are not about the gospel (good news). We can't enter God's kingdom by holding on to someone else's shirttails or because of something we have done, we can only come to Christ for that, and he makes this easy for anyone to do. All we have to do is reach out and take his free gift of eternal salvation (Revelation 22:17-The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life). His offer is available to everyone and everyone needs it. link [whataboutjesus.com] | |
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| 1 Samuel 16:7 - But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” Proverbs 3:5 - Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. Romans 10:9 - If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. As these Bible verses (and there are many others) tell us, God wants us to have him in our hearts and not just go through the motions with him. If we don't have God in our hearts first everything else we do for him is useless. This can be difficult when we have never seen him and are told that he lived among us over two thousand years ago. Christ said in John 20:29 - Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” - This is where faith comes in. Jesus knew there would be people who wouldn't see him but would believe his words, and he calls these people blessed. This can be thought of as the reason Christ's church exists all over the world. The church contains people who have obviously never seen Christ but still believe in him and accept him as their only Savior. We should all accept Christ as the our Savior because he is the only way we can be reconciled to God and have all our sins forgiven no matter what they are. Having him in our hearts permits us to do this. link [whataboutjesus.com] | |
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| (A repost of my blog from Jan. 2012) 2 Corinthians 5:17 - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! - A new year is often viewed as a new beginning, and we can think of ourselves as having a new beginning if we have come to Christ. The Apostle Paul wrote 2 Corinthians about 55 a.d. probably when he was in Macedonia, and in 5:17 notice that Paul says "has come," "has gone" and "is here," he never uses the words "might come," might be gone," or "might be here." It's a done deal for those in Christ because of what he did for them on the cross. He paid for all our sins and promises us eternity in Heaven as his free gift to us if we have faith in him. Ephesians 2:8-9 says - For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast. Despite our feelings and what we may have been told, we can't work our way to forgiveness and eternal life, we can only rely on Christ for that. We need to have faith in him in order to be a new creation. link [whataboutjesus.com] | |
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| ( A repost of my blog from Dec. 2011) With the approach of Christmas we will probably be hearing from Christians who like to tell us that it's displeasing to God for us to celebrate Christmas for one reason or another. These people may have good intentions, but they remind me of what the Apostle Paul wrote about some of the Israelites of his day in Romans 10:2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. The Bible makes it clear that we are free to celebrate Christmas (or any other day,) or to refrain from doing so if we choose. Bible teachers call things like this adiaphora, that is things neither commanded nor forbidden in scripture. Paul goes on in Romans 14:5 One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. In the old testament God told the Israelites to celebrate certain events and days, but because of the freedom we now have in our Savior Jesus Christ (Colossians 2:16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.) he tells us that it is up to each of us if we want to celebrate a day or not. There is no question that for many people Christmas has become more of a social holiday than a Christian one, and if we choose to celebrate, we should celebrate God's work in sending his son to be the Savior of the world. If some don't want to celebrate Christmas that's fine, but I for one will choose to because God says I can. MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! link [whataboutjesus.com] | |
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| When the Plymouth (in present-day Massachusetts) colonists celebrated the first Thanksgiving in 1621 with the Wampanoag Indians, it was a celebration to give thanks to God after having some rough times, and they probably had no idea that it would become a national holiday. Today we associate Thanksgiving with a long weekend, watching football on television, feasting and more. While all these things are good we need to remember where we get them. The Bible tells us that God is the source of the all the gifts we receive and we should be thankful to him for them. As we are told in Psalm 69:30 - I will praise Gods name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving - The greatest gift he gave us cannot be over-emphasized because it can provide us with eternal life. It was when God sent his son Jesus to be the redeemer for all our sins because of his great love for everyone. Jesus came to us as a man, to be our teacher, our servant and a sacrifice for everyone. It is only because of him that we can be reconciled to our heavenly father. As he says in 2 Corinthians 5:18 - All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation- All our own efforts to do this will always fall far short because we are not capable of it, and God will not accept them in order for us to be saved. On Thanksgiving and everyday lets all remember who we are thankful to as well as what we are thankful for. What About Jesus? link [whataboutjesus.com] | |
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| There has been friction between science (in academia) and the Bible regarding teaching of almost everything since ancient times. While it has its place, science just amounts to man's knowledge of things, which is a blessing from God. And while not using the word "science" here, he tells us to trust him in Proverbs 3:5 -Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; - One could say that Solomon taught science (yes the well known King Solomon) in old testament times in 1Kings 4:33 - He spoke about plant life, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of walls. He also spoke about animals and birds, reptiles and fish - and when God made him the king of Israel, Solomon didn't turn to science for answers but asked God for guidance in 2 Chronicles 1:10 - Give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may lead this people, - The word "science" appears in The old King James Bible in 1Timothy 6:20 - O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: Newer translations use the word knowledge instead of science. Either word you like amounts to the same thing, and we either trust our own knowledge or we believe in God and trust his. Science has given mankind many good things and will continue to do so, and I'm thankful to God for it, but it can't do more than offer various theories that are generally opposed to the Bible about some things. Like everything else science is limited in what it can do, and people who put all their faith in it remind me of what God told Isaiah about the Israelites (Isaiah 6:9) in the old testament, written about in Matthew 13:14 - In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: "You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. By that God means that if they didn't want to listen to him, he would make his word non-understandable to them, and if he did that to us, we wouldn't know about his son Jesus, who was sent to be the only Savior of the world, someone we all need. Searching for answers with knowledge (a.k.a. science) is good as long as we do it God's way. His definition of knowledge is different than ours, and as we are told in Proverbs.1:7 - The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, What About Jesus? Link - link [whataboutjesus.com] | |
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| Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 1.There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: 2.a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, 3.a time to kill and a time to heal,a time to tear down and a time to build, 4.a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, 5.a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, 6.a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, 7.a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, 8.a time to love and a time to hate,a time for war and a time for peace. - In late 1965 a rock band known as The Byrds recorded a song called "Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything There Is a Season)" This song was inspired by Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 from the Bible. It was written thousands of years ago possibly by King Solomon (born circa 1011 BC,) and in a simple way covers most of lifes events regarding time. Time as we know it is a creation of God that he used when he sent his son to be the Savior of the whole world. As we are told in Romans 5:6 - You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.- Since Christ is the only way out of our sins we all need to take time to know him as our Savior.Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: 2 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, 3 a time to kill and a time to heal,a time to tear down and a time to build, 4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, 5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, 6 a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, 7 a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, 8 a time to love and a time to hate,a time for war and a time for peace. - In late 1965 a rock band known as The Byrds recorded a song called "Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything There Is a Season)" This song was inspired by Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 from the Bible. It was written thousands of years ago possibly by King Solomon (born circa 1011 BC,) and in a simple way covers most of lifes events regarding time. Time as we know it is a creation of God that he used when he sent his son to be the Savior of the whole world. As we are told in Romans 5:6 - You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.- Since Christ is the only way out of our sins we all need to take time to know him as our Savior.http://whataboutjesus.com | |
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| Luke 10:20 - However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." - Jesus was speaking to the 72 people he appointed to travel ahead of him to different towns to proclaim the gospel (good news.) He told them that he was sending them out like lambs among wolves but he had also given them special abilities for the work he assigned them. The 72 were amazed and rejoiced that even demons they encountered submitted to them in Christ's name. This of course was good and was one of the things that Christ wanted done, but he told them that it was more important to have their names written in heaven, and that is what they should rejoice about. It wasn't anything that his helpers were doing by their own abilities, but things that God had given them the power to do. No matter how "bad" we are or what we think about ourselves, we can have all our sins forgiven and our names written in heaven too. The 72 people in this scripture were no better than any of us, but they had known that Jesus Christ was their Savior, something we can all do. It seems to easy, but all we have to do is have faith in him and accept his free offer. | |
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