Tag: christianity

So I guess the word “soap box” is appropriate here

I am apprehensive looking ahead to the next presidential election here in the USA.
The worthy candidates that the media will shine a light on seem to be nil. The predicament is because of the state of our society. We (nation/society) have lost our way. Sure there are some “good” people out there but we have allowed the political infrastructure to require people of a different type. Until we address some deep root level cancer in our society we will continue to degenerate.

That said, we are also missing genuine completely sold out to the Lord Jesus Christ Christian leaders and Christians. Ladies and gentlemen we are in a mess. We have allowed the depravity of sin to eat away at the church and by the church is do not mean Rome. Rome (Vatican City actually) is a whole different but closely associated matter. No, what I mean is the church of people such as DL Moody, RA Torrey, WA Criswell, Gipsy Smith, Francis Schaeffer, Billy Sunday, J Frank Norris, Talmedge, etc. That state of the church is essence – gone. Its power certainly is. So is its witness. We – Christians – Jesus said were to be salt and what will one do when the salt has lost its savor? Look around for the answer. Lights, no longer so the darkness permeates just about every nick and corner of living and that includes into the local churches. All that to say, we – Christians – are responsible for the sad state of our society. I think about this just about every day and I can’t think what to do but to “say” something. I know that I am nobody special or a person to look up to etc. but I know what is going on and why and I just have to say something. I am guilty of being part of the problem and I know it and have confessed it and ask God to forgive me for my part. That is all I can do, well that and “say” something to my very small circle/sphere of possible influence and living. If you are a Christian please seek God’s forgiveness and then His strength and wisdom as to what you can do to hopefully be part of the change that is desperately needed.

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Reclaiming the purpose of the holiday in my life

This year I have found myself more stressed and anxious about the shopping of the gifts for people and that they appreciate the gift and the value of such item. I have added to my chronic insomnia on the angst of the holiday and its apparent mandatory requirements of socializing whether with friends, peers or family.

The purpose of the holiday of Christmas was the celebration of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Through time and (lets be frank here) the wickedness of the human heart, it has been mutated into a holiday of gift giving (and receiving – can’t forget that part). Its been turned into reasons for eating too much, drinking too much and cajoling around by many. The periods of such activities and socializing taking up for some many hours. The dollars spent varying but often the spending really becoming the accumulation of further debt.

Again, the purpose of the holiday of Christmas was the celebration of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I know, their is the spiritual aspect of the holiday and the secular aspect. Truth is (at least for me) the pressures and preparations for the fulfilling of all expectations of others for the secular aspect has overwhelmed my psychological, physical and sad to say spiritual health as to fully appreciate and endeavor into the spiritual aspect of the holiday. Does that make sense? Let me put it another way, I am drained, exhausted and have increased my angst.

Again (to self), the purpose of the holiday of Christmas was the celebration of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I got to make my appreciation and recognition of the importance and value of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ my top priority. I need to push away the secular tentacles and mass of space and reestablish healthy and correct boundaries of my mind, heart, spirit and life. He has to be the priority. I have to undo 49 years of wrong-programming and actions. I honestly have to ask God for forgiveness for 48 years of wrong practices and priorities. I have to reclaim the purpose of the holiday in my life.

“My heavenly Father, I come to You in the name of Your only begotten Son – the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I am sorry for getting swept up in self and secularization of the holiday of Christmas. I am sorry for having and practicing the wrong priorities year after year surrounding this holiday which is supposed to be the celebration of the birth of Your only begotten Son so that He would live the life of a man, a human being and that He would obey and fulfill all the prophecies of His existence and purpose so that He could and would make the atonement for my sins and all those sins of people who believe and trust in Him, His name and His finished work on the cross made complete through His resurrection. God thank You for sending Your only begotten Son to Earth so that I could be saved from an eternity in the Lake of Fire. Thank You for allowing me to be forgiven of my sins. Thank You for all that I receive in the fact of my salvation. Thank You for caring that much for me and the all the human race. Thank You Father. Now please help me to make the Lord Jesus Christ first in my life not only in the holiday season but everyday of my existence. Help me to be a light of Your love in this world and my world. Amen”

 

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On eternal things – Thomas

From In Touch (emphasis added)

John 20:25-29

“The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he (Thomas) said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”

Thomas is an “everyman”. He hadn’t yet seen the resurrected Jesus, though he’d heard, as you and I have heard that Jesus had risen from the dead. Angry, hurt, and confused, he resisted believing the bewildering accounts of resurrection—accounts that came from trusted friends he had lived with for three years.

Thomas was no stranger to resurrection. With his own eyes, he’d seen Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead—and he had believed. But he had also personally seen Jesus crucified, and that’s when his dream of the kingdom died. Crucifixion seemed more powerful than resurrection, more final. Faith crumbled; hope was crushed.

Then Jesus appeared alive, and gently said, “Peace be with you,” offering Thomas all the proof he needed. The proof he personally needed. Resurrection, it turns out, was more permanent than death.Face it: Believing in resurrection isn’t easy no matter how many people tell you it happened. Jesus still has to bring us to belief, to give our hearts and minds and souls peace in faith. Without appearing physically to us, He gives us what we need in order to believe—what we ourselves need. And as He did with Thomas, Jesus seeks us out.

 

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

1. Thomas had seen miracles; he’d witnessed many demonstrations of Jesus’ supernatural power. Yet the crucifixion shook his faith badly. Has anything ever shaken your faith to the core, even though you may previously have seen numerous works of God? What can you learn from Thomas’s experience?

2. In order to believe, Thomas needed something tangible—something special for him. The vast majority of Christians have never seen the resurrected Jesus, yet God gives us what we each need in order to believe. What did (or do) you need for faith to become real? How has Jesus revealed Himself to you or how do you still need Him to do so?

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Lie now, deal with it later

From The Hill

“Health industry officials say ObamaCare-related premiums will double in some parts of the country, countering claims recently made by the administration.

The expected rate hikes will be announced in the coming months amid an intense election year, when control of the Senate is up for grabs. The sticker shock would likely bolster the GOP’s prospects in November and hamper ObamaCare insurance enrollment efforts in 2015.

The industry complaints come less than a week after Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sought to downplay concerns about rising premiums in the healthcare sector. She told lawmakers rates would increase in 2015 but grow more slowly than in the past.

“The increases are far less significant than what they were prior to the Affordable Care Act,” the secretary said in testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee.

Her comment baffled insurance officials, who said it runs counter to the industry’s consensus about next year.

“It’s pretty shortsighted because I think everybody knows that the way the exchange has rolled out … is going to lead to higher costs,” said one senior insurance executive who requested anonymity.

From the Daily Caller

Health insurance premiums have risen more after Obamacare than the average premium increases over the eight years before it became law, according to the private health exchange eHealthInsurance.

The individual market for health insurance as seen premiums rise by 39 percent since February 2013, eHealth reports. Without a subsidy, the average individual premium is now $274 a month. Families have been hit even harder with an average increase of 56 percent over the same period — average premiums are now $663 per family, over $426 last year.

Between 2005 and 2013, average premiums for individual plans increased 37 percent and average family premiums were upped 31 percent. So they have risen faster under Obamacare than in the previous eight years.

2 cents:

Lie now and deal with it later is the SOP for the Obama administration when it comes to the so-called Affordable Care Act which the name itself is guilty of the rule. Lie now, it has been the go to for many of his poor policies and actions. Lie now because he wants something done and despite what he believes about himself, he doesn’t know everything or even half so. Policies and actions of this president are not based off of or from strong and sound foundations. But he doesn’t want to be bothered with such details because he believes he is right so – say and do whatever needs to be done to get done what I want. That is the summation of this president. He wants the pomp but not the circumstance. He must be worshipped but don’t hold him accountable. He is a monstrosity born from the superficial narcissistic bent of our society. God, in His infinite wisdom, gave us – the citizens of the USA – a president we deserved. Heaven help us. Now Almighty God let us have an American Spring so the ship of our country can be righted and healed.

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On eternal things – Satan and the human race

The purpose of this post is to get on a couple pages what I believe to be a reason why many people do not accept the Bible and specifically why they do not believe the doctrine of salvation as understood as perseverance of the saints who of their own freewill believe and accept that the Jesus of the Gospels is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, God manifest in the flesh, the one who gave His life as a ransom for sin at Golgotha and was buried and three days later resurrected and some days later ascended into Heaven and will soon come back to rule and reign on this earth (ref).

I am not going to use a lot of Bible verses, just a few, because if someone does not believe the Bible is the Word of God then providing a bazillion verse references will only exacerbate matters.

Here I go…

I believe Lucifer was a created being, an anointed cherub who covered the throne of God. He was the most beautiful of the spiritual beings God created. Over a matter of time he developed pride and misplaced and used it as a means to have aspirations to at least put himself on the same level of God. It was this attempt that he apparently tried to carry out that resulted in him being punished and expelled out of Heaven (technically the third heaven) which is where God’s throne is (Isaiah 14:12-26; Ezekiel 28:12-19). Through this expulsion he changed and gained the name of Satan. Through this he changed but he can still appear to human beings as an angel of light or pretty much however he wants to appear.

Satan saw God recreate the earth and create Adam and Eve and he saw immediately a means to attack God and that was to ruin these two beings. Through deception he got Eve to disobey God and the Adam willfully disobeyed God choosing to follow Eve. God appears in the garden of Eden and Satan is there with Adam and Eve. Pay close attention. God pronounces judgments and prophecies what will eventually happen (Genesis 3 and specifically verse 15).  “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”

Satan is wiser than any human being. Satan heard the judgment and knew immediately what it was implying: a virgin would conceive and give birth to the Savior of all the creation. He understood this because a woman does not have seed and yet look at the verse again. Something was going to occur that involved something outside of human flesh to create a very special human being. Now much could be said as to what would transpire but I will limit it to two thoughts. The first is Satan knew he needed to wipe out a specific line/heritage so as to frustrate the birth, maturation and victory of this special human being. The second, one of many fail-safe plans, he needed to pervert the words of God so as to get any future offspring to not correctly understand and believe it.

In the first case we see Cain killing Abel then fallen angels coming down and polluting all of creation resulting also in what is known as giants (that is something for a different post, Genesis 6) such that only one man and his immediate family are genetically clean, righteous – Noah. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. God wipes out all of His creation with a flood.  Time passes and God selects Abram (later his name is changed to Abraham) and God tells him that he will bless him and give him a great land. Fast forward Jacob whose name is changed to Israel, Joseph, Moses, Pharaoh, what follows is a history of war, blessings, disobedience and judgment over and over again. Also over this period nations try to wipe out the people of Israel. Fast forward to around 3 BC a virgin conceives and later gives birth – what happens? As soon as Herod finds out he has every child 2 years and younger murdered. Why? Twofold, Herod was trying to preserve his throne and Satan was trying to kill that special human being that God said would save His creation about 4000 years ago.

In the second matter, in those 4000 years Satan rose up Nimrod (Genesis 10 & 11) who was worshipped and later Semiramis and Tammuz and the whole shebang when you study it is a woman who gives birth from the gods and she has a son who becomes her husband and he dies and is resurrected and do you see what is happening? From these starts the mystery religion is formed and it goes from the area of Persia down to Egypt back out to Persia and Palestine and then up and over to Asia Minor and Europe. Through the years its teachings change and adapt and grow to entangle cultures and people (see the definitive work about this: Hislop’s Two Babylons). From history as many people already know you can trace religions which taught a virgin born baby, a baby that was god, a god that was one yet many, blood sacrifice, resurrection of god-being, etc.

Satan is not foolish or ignorant. He knew exactly what to do to gain the best chance of blinding people to the Truth and have them dwell in Hell with him for all eternity. The human race is a means to an end to him. The end is his efforts to hurt and frustrate God. He knows what the end will be. He believes God’s word though he convinces humans it is all fables and lies. He knows. Remember he was in existence before the earth and creation was brought into being. He knows God and he knows God will keep His word.

At this moment Satan is the god of this world. Soon the Lord Jesus Christ will come and defeat him and wrap him in chains to bind and throw him in the bottomless pit. Jesus will then rule and reign on this earth (Revelation 19 & 20).

So what are you going to do with this information and Jesus?

[please forgive type-o-s and poor grammar]

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On eternal things: An important difference

To the best of my knowledge all religions but Christianity (which is different from Roman Catholicism) teach that one must work or earn their way to heaven, nirvana, or whatever the term is for the blessed hereafter. The god or prophet gives rules and admonitions that one must follow and obey so as to have a hope, a possibility of gaining eternal bliss.

With Christianity, the God of the world said here is what you would have to do – be perfect everyday of your life and this will require sacrifices and rituals to cling to in order to hope for eternal bliss. In essence at this point of the story it is the same as all other religions.

Then He did the unthinkable and said, I know you can’t do it so I will send my Son to you and He will do it and He will fulfill the required righteousness on your behalf and if you accept His work, His payment for your life – if that is all you will trust in to enter Heaven, you then can freely enter.

Immanuel – God with us. Doing for us what we could not do in order to have an eternity we desperately desire.

 

Acts 15:11 But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved,

 

Galatians 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

 

Galatians 3:11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.

 

Galatians 3:22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

 

Galatians 3:24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

 

Ephesians 2:8&9  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.

 

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