April is “Child Abuse Awareness Month”. An estimated 39 million survivors of Child Abuse in America today. One in four girls is sexually abused before the age of 18. One in six boys is sexually abused before the age of 18. Nearly 70% of all reported sexual assaults (including assaults on adults) occur to children ages 17 and under. Where is the justice?
Lately I have been having some very good conversations that I am very grateful for. Some believe that the world is an illusion. And we are all interconnected as one. But the problem with the claim of the world being an illusion, if it's true, is that our environment is an illusion. It's Maya. It's not really there. So how can we get true information from something that doesn't really exist?
If this is true, how can we know anything at all?
Something else that comes up if you can't know anything at all then you can't know anything moral. Consequently, if you can't know a moral truth then there is ultimately no distinction between good and evil. But what of these crimes against our youth? Is that not because of evil?
The bible tells us that God is good by nature, and because of His goodness He will make sure that justice is eventually done. For example, there were more than 150,000 unsolved murders in the U.S. during the last 20 years — however, those unpunished murderers will receive justice by being sent to God's "prison" — a place called "Hell." But God is so good He will also punish rapists, thieves, liars, adulterers, blasphemers, and fornicators (those who have had sex before marriage).
Another question. Does this belief in Maya offer forgiveness? You might say “yes”. Well as you know this type of thinking also includes the belief in “karma”. If this belief provides forgiveness than why is there karma? Because it does not provide for true forgiveness. And if the world is an illusion why should anyone care?
I can tell you that there are people who do care.
Is it possible that what the Bible says about God and Heaven and Hell is true? The Bible says that God wants to have a personal relationship with you. Jesus said “I am the way the Truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but through me” That is a strong claim. It’s either true or it’s false, but you need to find out for yourself. Trust, in relationships is developed with time. While you think about this you might want to pick up a bible and read the Gospel of John. Look at the character of Jesus. Ask yourself, “Can I trust Jesus?” Think about if Jesus is the Unique Savior he claims to be. Think about what this might mean to you. Please consider why I’m writing about this. What can be more important than your eternal salvation. Thanks for your time.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
The opposite of False
I've been doing some thinking lately. And here's my thought: if something is true it can't be false. How simple. And some may say that they can't know when something is true. Well if that were the case you would probably not survive one day. Just getting up out of bed would prove to be difficult. You might go out through a window instead of a door. Shaving could be deadly. I think you get the point.
Speaking of truth certain facts are essential and vital. Jesus said "I am the way the truth and the life." John 14:6). One definition of faith says it is a trust in something you have good reason to believe is true. Does this definition resonate with you?
So let me ask you a question with this in mind.
And I got the following from Greg Koukl at Stand To Reason.
...Here’s the question: Does faith save you? To help you think carefully about the answer, let me suggest an illustration. Pretend for a moment that you are a diabetic on the verge of diabetic coma. Pretend also that I present you with a hypodermic syringe and a small vial that I said was insulin. Would
you trust me to give you an injection to save your life? I think you already see the thrust of my illustration. First,you know (or at least have heard) that the Bible teaches salvation
by faith. Second, the illustration shows a clear contrast between mere belief and active trust (the point I’ve just been making). You already believe that insulin can give you relief. But you remain in danger until you take a step of faith and actively entrust yourself to my care. So I suspect you would
assent to my offer. If you did, however, you would be dead for your effort because all the sincerity of your childlike trust could not change the fact that the vial in my illustration does not really contain insulin. It is only saline. You had genuine faith to be sure – fiducia, belief in action, trust. But you are dead, nonetheless. Now let me ask the question again: Does faith save you?
Clearly, the correct answer is no. Faith cannot save anyone. To be sure, accurate knowledge in itself cannot save. But genuine faith in itself cannot save either. Muslim suicide bombers overflow with authentic faith. Trust can be misplaced, and often is.
Christian salvation is when accurate knowledge is combinedwith active trust. The thing you put your trust in must be capable of doing what you’re trusting it to do. If Jesus is
not insulin, but only saline, the Christian is lost in her sins no matter how strong or how genuine her faith is. Faith cannot save you. Only the One you’re trusting in –
Jesus – can save. But Jesus can only save if He can really, actually,
truly do what you are trusting Him to do. In other words, Jesus cannot save unless your beliefs about Him are accurate, unless they are true. Therefore, if there is no
truth, there is no saving faith. And if there is no saving faith, there is no Christianity.
Further, when Jesus calls for faith, He expects belief and trust. But to have belief is to actually hold that certain things about Jesus are true. And if someone is possessed of the conviction
that nothing really is true, then the kind of faith Jesus requires will be impossible for him. Thus it will be impossible for him to be a Christian. I want you to see – in fact, it is absolutely vital for you to see – that there is a prior foundation that makes genuine biblical faith possible, and that foundation is objective truth. If there is no truth, then Christian faith is a mere placebo. It
soothes, but it cannot heal...
There is alot more to the article and it would be very worth your while to read it. I do know that this is alot to wrap our heads around but I encourage you to take the time and think about it as you continue your search.
One more thing, I know that we feel guilty about our sins. What we have done in the past and aare doing in the present. At this point I make a suggestion. "Maybe we feel guilty because we are guilty. Is that a possibility? If it is, then denial is not going to solve the problem. Only forgiveness can do that. This is where Jesus comes in."
God came to earth to rescue us.
You see, God has provided a way for mercy. God sent His Son to die on the Cross for you. Jesus took your punishment, and then defeated death by rising from the dead. If anyone receives the pardon God offers through Jesus, they will not be punished as they deserve but will instead receive the kindest mercy of all, complete forgiveness. That's Love!
He now offers us eternal life. We don't earn this. It is a gift from God offered to us, which we receive when we ask Him to enter our lives. "The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus." Romans (6:23) If we repent of our sin and turn back to God, we can have the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. It's pretty simple. "God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son of God has not life." (1 John 5:12) He wants to enter our lives.
Do you know how to receive that forgiveness?
The Bible says God gives grace to the humble but resists the proud.
First you must repent (turn from sin) today confess your sins to God and acknowledge that He is the Holy God of the universe and that you need His forgiveness.
Second we must place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ as the one and only payment for our sins. He was the debt payment to God on our behalf. Just as you wouldnt jump out of a plane merely believing in parachutes but not putting one on, you must not jump into eternity without the one thing that can save you from the plunge into Hell. Jesus Christ!
When you have humbled yourself this way before God you will be born again and God will give you a new heart with new desires.
Speaking of truth certain facts are essential and vital. Jesus said "I am the way the truth and the life." John 14:6). One definition of faith says it is a trust in something you have good reason to believe is true. Does this definition resonate with you?
So let me ask you a question with this in mind.
And I got the following from Greg Koukl at Stand To Reason.
...Here’s the question: Does faith save you? To help you think carefully about the answer, let me suggest an illustration. Pretend for a moment that you are a diabetic on the verge of diabetic coma. Pretend also that I present you with a hypodermic syringe and a small vial that I said was insulin. Would
you trust me to give you an injection to save your life? I think you already see the thrust of my illustration. First,you know (or at least have heard) that the Bible teaches salvation
by faith. Second, the illustration shows a clear contrast between mere belief and active trust (the point I’ve just been making). You already believe that insulin can give you relief. But you remain in danger until you take a step of faith and actively entrust yourself to my care. So I suspect you would
assent to my offer. If you did, however, you would be dead for your effort because all the sincerity of your childlike trust could not change the fact that the vial in my illustration does not really contain insulin. It is only saline. You had genuine faith to be sure – fiducia, belief in action, trust. But you are dead, nonetheless. Now let me ask the question again: Does faith save you?
Clearly, the correct answer is no. Faith cannot save anyone. To be sure, accurate knowledge in itself cannot save. But genuine faith in itself cannot save either. Muslim suicide bombers overflow with authentic faith. Trust can be misplaced, and often is.
Christian salvation is when accurate knowledge is combinedwith active trust. The thing you put your trust in must be capable of doing what you’re trusting it to do. If Jesus is
not insulin, but only saline, the Christian is lost in her sins no matter how strong or how genuine her faith is. Faith cannot save you. Only the One you’re trusting in –
Jesus – can save. But Jesus can only save if He can really, actually,
truly do what you are trusting Him to do. In other words, Jesus cannot save unless your beliefs about Him are accurate, unless they are true. Therefore, if there is no
truth, there is no saving faith. And if there is no saving faith, there is no Christianity.
Further, when Jesus calls for faith, He expects belief and trust. But to have belief is to actually hold that certain things about Jesus are true. And if someone is possessed of the conviction
that nothing really is true, then the kind of faith Jesus requires will be impossible for him. Thus it will be impossible for him to be a Christian. I want you to see – in fact, it is absolutely vital for you to see – that there is a prior foundation that makes genuine biblical faith possible, and that foundation is objective truth. If there is no truth, then Christian faith is a mere placebo. It
soothes, but it cannot heal...
There is alot more to the article and it would be very worth your while to read it. I do know that this is alot to wrap our heads around but I encourage you to take the time and think about it as you continue your search.
One more thing, I know that we feel guilty about our sins. What we have done in the past and aare doing in the present. At this point I make a suggestion. "Maybe we feel guilty because we are guilty. Is that a possibility? If it is, then denial is not going to solve the problem. Only forgiveness can do that. This is where Jesus comes in."
God came to earth to rescue us.
You see, God has provided a way for mercy. God sent His Son to die on the Cross for you. Jesus took your punishment, and then defeated death by rising from the dead. If anyone receives the pardon God offers through Jesus, they will not be punished as they deserve but will instead receive the kindest mercy of all, complete forgiveness. That's Love!
He now offers us eternal life. We don't earn this. It is a gift from God offered to us, which we receive when we ask Him to enter our lives. "The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus." Romans (6:23) If we repent of our sin and turn back to God, we can have the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. It's pretty simple. "God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son of God has not life." (1 John 5:12) He wants to enter our lives.
Do you know how to receive that forgiveness?
The Bible says God gives grace to the humble but resists the proud.
First you must repent (turn from sin) today confess your sins to God and acknowledge that He is the Holy God of the universe and that you need His forgiveness.
Second we must place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ as the one and only payment for our sins. He was the debt payment to God on our behalf. Just as you wouldnt jump out of a plane merely believing in parachutes but not putting one on, you must not jump into eternity without the one thing that can save you from the plunge into Hell. Jesus Christ!
When you have humbled yourself this way before God you will be born again and God will give you a new heart with new desires.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
INTIMACY WITH OTHERS
At what point does a friendship with a person of the opposite sex cross the line for those that are married? Do we share our struggles and concerns in our personal lives with other people’s husbands and wives?
The response that “We’re just friends!” doesn’t make it right. Husbands and wives have an exclusive right to verbal intimacies with their own spouse. These intimacies with a man are reserved exclusively for his wife, and vice versa. If someone engages a person other than her husband with such matters it takes something away from his wife because the focus is on us rather her.
Keep in mind that even an innocent friendship with another women’s husband can change into an affair. It could happen to any of us. Thinking it won’t happen doesn’t stop it from occuring. Probably very few affairs just happened out of nowhere. They started with a conversation, a shared laugh, lunch or perhaps an intimate verbal moment that should have been exclusively shared with their husband or wife.
Please think about this and guard your thoughts and actions for they could lead to destruction.
The response that “We’re just friends!” doesn’t make it right. Husbands and wives have an exclusive right to verbal intimacies with their own spouse. These intimacies with a man are reserved exclusively for his wife, and vice versa. If someone engages a person other than her husband with such matters it takes something away from his wife because the focus is on us rather her.
Keep in mind that even an innocent friendship with another women’s husband can change into an affair. It could happen to any of us. Thinking it won’t happen doesn’t stop it from occuring. Probably very few affairs just happened out of nowhere. They started with a conversation, a shared laugh, lunch or perhaps an intimate verbal moment that should have been exclusively shared with their husband or wife.
Please think about this and guard your thoughts and actions for they could lead to destruction.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Sunday, March 18, 2007
FINALLY WE LEARN 'WHAT IS SPAM...'
Since my youth I have been curious about SPAM. And now we can all know what is SPAM?
HT(PowerofChange)
HT(PowerofChange)
Saturday, March 17, 2007
IT'S A SMALL WORLD!
One of these days just take at look up and examine the expanse of the sky.
God is wilder than our wildest imaginations and greater than anything we could ever think of. He made things surrounding us that we can't even begin to describe.
Like Lou Giglio says, day after day and night after night the heavens are our billboard about God. The heavens show us two things: 1. How huge God is; and 2. How really, really, really tiny we are!" scientists tell us there are billons of galaxies beyond ours--again showing us how huge God is and how tiny we are. It's amazing how much we can see with our eyes just by looking up at the sky with scopes.
Speaking of eyes -- I like what Ray Comfort has written in the "Curved Illusion" at http://www.livingwaters.com:
... imagine if you were offered $1,000,000 for an eye for the purpose of eye transplants. It could be taken out painlessly, and you would be given a new glass eye which will look as good as your other eye, but it just won't look as good as your other eye. Would you sell an eye for $1,000,000? How about both for $20,000,000? No one in his right mind would. Your eyes are priceless, yet they are merely the windows of your soul. Jesus said that your eyes are worth nothing, when compared to the value of your soul -- "If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you, for it is better to enter Heaven without an eye than to go to Hell with both eyes" (Matt 18:9).
He asked, "What shall man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matt. 16:26) There is nothing as important as your salvation. Here's what to do: Judge yourself by the Ten Commandments -- Have you lied (even once), stolen (value is irrelevant), committed adultery (Jesus said, "Whosoever looks upon a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart" Matt. 5:28), killed (hatred is considered murder by God -- 1 John 3:15), have you loved God above all else? Be honest. On Judgment Day you know you will be guilty, and therefore end up in Hell. Today, repent (confess and turn from your sin) and trust in Jesus Christ. He died on the cross to take our punishment, and then He rose from the dead. He showed how much God loves us. Then read the Bible daily, obey what you read -- God will never fail you.
Oh the wonderful grace of our God. That the same God who showed us such power in creating a universe bigger than what we can possibly imagine is the same God who chose to bring forgiveness to us by sending his son, Jesus, to earth as a servant to die for our sins. Not forsaking you nor me.
God is wilder than our wildest imaginations and greater than anything we could ever think of. He made things surrounding us that we can't even begin to describe.
Like Lou Giglio says, day after day and night after night the heavens are our billboard about God. The heavens show us two things: 1. How huge God is; and 2. How really, really, really tiny we are!" scientists tell us there are billons of galaxies beyond ours--again showing us how huge God is and how tiny we are. It's amazing how much we can see with our eyes just by looking up at the sky with scopes.
Speaking of eyes -- I like what Ray Comfort has written in the "Curved Illusion" at http://www.livingwaters.com:
... imagine if you were offered $1,000,000 for an eye for the purpose of eye transplants. It could be taken out painlessly, and you would be given a new glass eye which will look as good as your other eye, but it just won't look as good as your other eye. Would you sell an eye for $1,000,000? How about both for $20,000,000? No one in his right mind would. Your eyes are priceless, yet they are merely the windows of your soul. Jesus said that your eyes are worth nothing, when compared to the value of your soul -- "If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you, for it is better to enter Heaven without an eye than to go to Hell with both eyes" (Matt 18:9).
He asked, "What shall man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matt. 16:26) There is nothing as important as your salvation. Here's what to do: Judge yourself by the Ten Commandments -- Have you lied (even once), stolen (value is irrelevant), committed adultery (Jesus said, "Whosoever looks upon a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart" Matt. 5:28), killed (hatred is considered murder by God -- 1 John 3:15), have you loved God above all else? Be honest. On Judgment Day you know you will be guilty, and therefore end up in Hell. Today, repent (confess and turn from your sin) and trust in Jesus Christ. He died on the cross to take our punishment, and then He rose from the dead. He showed how much God loves us. Then read the Bible daily, obey what you read -- God will never fail you.
Oh the wonderful grace of our God. That the same God who showed us such power in creating a universe bigger than what we can possibly imagine is the same God who chose to bring forgiveness to us by sending his son, Jesus, to earth as a servant to die for our sins. Not forsaking you nor me.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
