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LIVING OUT – Post 5 out of 5 – Conclusion and Reference Sheet

Conclusion:

I have two more challenges to leave you with. First to read from the Bible about the people I have shared with you. There is so much more that happens in their life than what I shared with you and you never know what God might show you from reading it yourself. The second involves another Bible character with seemingly a small role. John 6: 1-13 is one of the parts of the Bible that gives an account of the feeding of the 5 thousand. The thing that is different about this account is a boy gives his lunch away and Jesus uses it to feed all those people. Are you willing to give what you have like this boy in John? You may not think its worth much but God can do great things if you let him. Are you willing to let him use your talents, your money, time and possessions for his glory? Are you willing to give him your life and see how many people he can feed?

Reference Sheet

Challenges

1. Read your Bible and pray for at least an hour every day.
2. If God imparts some wisdom to you don’t be afraid to share it.
3. Refuse to believe that being young stops you from being spiritually wise or God using you to speak to others.
4. Identify through prayer what God has for your life and those around you.
5. Ask God to give you the power and wisdom to stand up to and identify your giants and actually do it.
6. Ask God for help and refuse to retaliate against those who persecute you.
7. Ask God to show you who needs your love and how to show it.
8. Ask Him to help you be diligent in showing it.
9. Don’t let circumstances dictate whether of not you can love.
10. When pressure comes to do something wrong pray for God to help you resist and take the out he provides.
11. Each day before you start the day pray for God to help you remain pure.
12. Remove from your life the things that tempt you to do wrong whether they be people, TV, music you listen to, anything at all, it may be hard at first but it is well worth it.

Memory Verses 1Samuel 2:35 1Samuel 17:45 Esther 416 Daniel 1:8 Readings 1 Samuel 1-7 1 Samuel 16-24 Esther Daniel 1-6

I believe that the King James was Translated from the Best Texts

As promised, I am finally discussing the topic of “why I believe the King James was translated from the best texts.”

As most of us know, there are two BASIC families (or their derivatives) of texts of the scriptures.

The first family, basically derived from Alexandrian texts (marked marked by major omissions and were corrupted by Egypt) and Western texts (marked by major additions, and were corrupted by the Roman Catholic Church) is the family most modern English versions are translated from. The idea is that since many of these texts, which many are older and therefore “must be” closer to the original writings, we need to employ textual criticism and try to figure out which verses were in the original and which were not.

On the other hand, the King James Bible was translated from the Hebrew Masoretic and the Greek Received Text. The idea here is that God has promised to preserve His Word and He has done so though this family of texts.

This issue goes back to and brings to light what you believe about the preservation of God’s Word. What has He promised? How does that apply to the issue at hand? What you believe here will effect what you believe about the text issue. Some verses to read and consider:

Psalm 12:6-7
Psalm 117:2
Isaiah 40:8
Isaiah 59:21
Matthew 5:18
1 Peter 1:23-25

This post is obviously just a surface scratch of the whole issue. Now the topic is opened to you! What do you think? Have I missed something? Do you think I’m wrong/right about this and why? Be careful to keep comments kind and compassionate and filled with scripture references and quoted sources! (comments will be moderated so hold yourself to these rules!)

LIVING OUT – Post 4 out of 5 – Daniel And His Friends

Daniel and his friends were young Israelites taken in a war to a foreign king to me they represent purity and faith. They refused to defile their bodies by eating the food originally offered to them and instead ate only vegetables and water. There are also stories about his friends refusing to worship an idol and the story of Daniel in the lions den which also show their refusal to do anything that would make them not pure. Each time they refused to lose their purity God blessed them or saved them from those oppressing them. As in all the other cases there is much more to their story but I’m making a point here. Here come the questions again.

• Can you imagine refusing to eat what your captures gave you to eat?
• Can you imagine refusing to worship another god or continuing to worship God even if it meant death?

Daniel and his friends are an amazing example of God’s prevision for those who refuse to compromise. They knew that it was better to be pleasing God and still have his blessing then to try and save their own skins on their own. There are many pressures you face as a young person to not remain pure. I want to encourage you that the same God that took care of them is taking care of you. Don’t let what you see in front of you ever distract you from this truth.

Challenges

1. When pressure comes to do something wrong pray for God to help you resist and take the way out he provides
2. Each day before you start the day pray for God to help you stay pure
3. Remove from your life the things that tempt you to do wrong whether they be people, TV, music you listen to, anything at all it may be hard at first but it is well worth it

Memory Verse:

Daniel 1:8
“But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.”

Reading for Daniel: Daniel 1-6

Ccleaner Will Help Your Computer Run Right!

I found this program probably 7 or so months ago and have been utilizing it ever since! From their website (www.ccleaner.com):

CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system – allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history.

I love this program because it is SO easy to use and very effectively completes its job! It consistently retrieves several hundred megs of space back from temp files for me! Your computer is constantly collecting files. Periodically this stuff needs to be cleaned for optimum performance from your computer. This is a video from cnet.com:

In much the same way, our lives as Christians tend to collect garbage. What we need is the spiritual “ccleaner” found in 1 John 1:8-9:

8. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Is your spiritual life lagging? Christ is waiting for you so He can cleanse you and make you right with Him again! Do it today.

Birthday Treat!

On this day, being my birthday, count the differences in this birthday pic!

Another Great Sermon…

I heard this message on the radio a few weeks ago and was thoroughly blessed.  I have since found it on sermonaudio.com and would like to provide a link for you to check it out.  It’s Ten Shekels and a Shirt – by Paris Reidhead.  Tell me what you think!

LIVING OUT – Post 3 out of 5 – Esther

Esther is one of those Bible characters that growing up I heard the name but never really knew much about. In fact all I knew was that she was the “good queen”. But now that I’ve read her story she is a very inspirational character to me. She was forced to become a queen actually and was told not to let them know she was a Jew. I don’t know exactly how much time passes but eventually her people are threatened and she risks her life to safe them. How does she do this? By going before the king who forced her to marry him and could have her killed for coming into his presence with out permission. She loved her people so much she was willing to die for them just for the chance to try to help them. But she was not alone she also was wise enough to ask all her people to fast and pray with her before she went. Here come the questions for thought again.

• Can you imagine being taken for a bride and told not to let them know who you are?
• Can you imagine standing up to your husband who has every authority to kill you?
• Can you imagine loving enough to risk your own life?
• Can you imagine putting your life in God’s hands at that point?

Esther is an example of love and faith. She was the only person who could help her people and she trusted God to protect and get her through. She was not willing to sit by and hope for the best; she in her love and trust acted. There are people all around you do you love any of them enough to act unselfishly like Esther. I know you may never have to risk your life but how about giving up time, social status, or something material that you really like. Also like Esther would you have the wisdom to seek God’s help in these things. Most of us, if not all, are naturally selfish with out God’s help we will fail to display or maybe even have love for others.

Challenges:

1. Ask God to show you who needs your love and how to show it
2. Ask Him to help you to be diligent in showing it
3. Don’t let your circumstances dictate whether or not you can love

Memory Verse:

Esther 4: 16

Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.

Reading for Esther: The Book of Esther

Mincing Two Worlds Into One Listening Experience!

Have you ever had it happen to you? Have you ever had your favorite radio station on and it ended up coming in weakly and you could hear another station in the background? That happened the other day. For some reason I found the contrast ironic. The station I was listening to had preaching on, I think it was about prayer, but in the background was a local secular station with A-typical popular music.

The contrast was interesting to me because it reminded me of many Christians today with one foot serving God and the other in the world, walking the fence. We go to church, we read our Bibles, we pray at meals, we even go soul winning don’t we? We do all of the “right” things but we also keep the influences of this world in our lives! We listen to the devil’s music, we hold the celebrities up as our role models, we call cool that which is anything BUT cool!

Romans 12:1-2 gives it to us pretty straight!  As I’ve said before, check yourself and let God check you. See if there is something that must change! Anything to add? Post it!

A Little Sugar Won’t Hurt!

A year or two ago (I’m still trying to forget the day) I found out that I have type 2 diabetes. No fun, right? Anyone who knows me knows how much I love my ice cream (and pretty much anything else with sugar). Needless to say, a serious change in lifestyle was to come. I had to find something else to do to fill the time normally taken up with stuffing my face! I suppose it wasn’t all that bad but I was a little bit overweight and it was catching up to me.

I think God brought diabetes to me to help me to eat healthier. He knows what is best, doesn’t He?

An interesting thing is becoming apparent to me in my journey to staying healthy. Although a little cheating every once in a GREAT while won’t kill me, there is a danger there. What usually happens at a party with cake and ice cream is that my wife (I love her so) will get a helping that we’ll share. This works great because she gets most of it while I get to satisfy my sweet tooth with a little taste. The danger comes in that instead of letting this fleshly craving for sugar die the death, I am feeding it enough to stay alive, and am living with the consequences! It gets harder and harder to withstand the temptations!

Isn’t this how it works in our spiritual lives? James 1:14-15 talks about how “every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.” Every person has their own temptations and they struggle with them in individual ways. I may be tempted with a quart of ice cream while someone else may be tempted in another area. It should also be noted that Satan knows what you are tempted by and is very capable of bringing those things before you. He wants nothing more than to see you fall on your face!

Galatians 6:7-9 tells us the dangers of sowing to the flesh. I just the same way that I take just a little cake, and feed my sweet tooth, Christians feed their flesh, too. We’ve all been guilty of it haven’t we? We know that a movie has this or that in it (“it only uses the Lord’s name twice…” blah blah) but we still see it! We are feeding our flesh in order to be entertained! That’s just an example, but the principle applies.

My encouragement to you would be to pay attention this week (or month, etc.) and see if there are areas you are not being careful in. Is there something that you do that is not necessarily wrong but may be feeding fleshly desires and may be setting you up for a fall later? Count the cost and get rid of it!

Now THAT’S a Blackberry!!!

As I was preparing my nightly bowl of oatmeal, all of a sudden I was overtaken with the overwhelming feeling that they not only were feeding our chickens and cows with growth hormones, but they finally figured out how to inject our berries!!!! There were few words for a sight like I saw! There, in front of my eyes, I was confronted with probably the largest blackberry I’d ever seen! It was as large as the strawberry it was sharing a bowl with!!!

Who’s the culprit?

As it turns out, my wife and I make our decision on which frozen fruit company to go with solely by price. I was surprised to find that there was another company in the Wal-Mart freezers cheaper than the store brand! This time we had to go with Wyman’s fresh frozen mixed berries!

Be careful! “There were giants in the earth in those days” (Gen. 4:6)! And apparently we’re eating their food!