Dancing

During another Merkt family jam session (this entails some music and me dancing around like a fool while my kids gracefully dance in our living room) I noticed something. You see I got tired in the first 10 minutes and had to stop. I sat down and watched my 3 youngest raise the roof. What did I notice you ask? I noticed that while my 9 year old daughter did her pirouette she was staring directly at me, eyes locked on mine. While my 4 year old son did his super punch fanny shake he stared right at me, again his eyes locked on me. While my 2 year old daughter did her herky jerky super groove she also stared right at me. You see this was all for me. If I was not watching their dance did not serve a purpose. It was all about pleasing me. I managed to work a bobble head swivel staring at one of them with each beat giving them the feel I was watching their every move.

If only they were girded with their linen ephods I am sure they would have looked much like King David in 2nd Samuel chapter 6. Their eyes sparkled amazingly. Like David dancing before the Lord, they danced with all their might before their father. It was all to please me, and if I happened to get distracted and look away they lost their vigor.

What a picture that is. I could not help but feel inadequate to my own Father. If only I danced with all my might expecting God to be watching my every move and want nothing more than to please Him, to see His approval; how much more could I accomplish for Him? If I spent every breath trying to please Him, expecting Him to watch me; what could I accomplish? I could be doing things that really matter, things that will last for eternity. However the world manages to grab my leg. My dance becomes a struggle, a self indulgent zombie walk through Satan’s land. I find myself trapped in his games when I could be dancing for my Father and see His smiling face back at me. A Father who would never get distracted and look away; rather one who is faithful to the end.

Let us dance before The Lord (with or with out our linen ephods) trying to please Him with our every move, every minute of every day for the rest of our lives. How could we go wrong with that being our goal?

God Bless America

I was flipping the channels when I noticed a no-hitter was being thrown in the 7th inning of a Major League Baseball playoff game. Well when I was a child baseball was my best friend so I just had to watch to see if a piece of baseball history would be made.

To my surprise after the top of the 7th inning when they normally go to commercial, they did not. Instead they stayed with the broadcast to show the singing of God Bless America at the stadium. At first I was impressed. Instead of making the 5 or 6 figures they could have made during that commercial break they played a song asking our Holy Creator to bless this country.

That’s great……right? Well they panned through the crowd with the camera and I couldn’t help but notice there was no reverence for our Lord Jesus Christ in the crowd. I realized that although the song to me meant “ Lord please let this country come to repentance bring revival and bless us. Let them see that you have a free gift of eternal life if only we would humble ourselves, obey You and see that You only want to give us Your very best. If only we would trust in You, by being obedient, rejoicing in Your free gift of salvation"! The way heaven sounds I could be content being a lamp post their. But yet You offer us to sit beside You eating food we cannot imagine. With perfect bodies that feel no pain. No sorrow, no tears. Oh how I would love to be a lamp post in Heaven, howerver You will build me a mansion. Can you imagine the music we will hear in Heaven. Having ears to hear amazing music, many songs at once and able to enjoy them all. Colors we never saw, and things unimaginable.

However the song at the baseball game was not reverence toward God. It was simply a shallow song between innings. Why is the world blind, happy with their lusts, proud, and not concerned that they are all knocking on death's door? They have the ability to defeat death it's a gift and they don't want it. Maybe if more of us were truly concerned and warned them of the danger they are in (showing we care more about them, then what they think of us) then God could bless America. But with yet another state allowing sodomites to marry (Connecticut), heterosexuals creating thousands of babies out of wedlock, some being murdered in the womb and the lucky ones landing in single parent families, we have to wonder why we haven't been judged already. You can't help but wonder if this financial crisis is the beginning of the end. Thankfully the Lord is longsuffering not willing to let one perish that is willing to repent. How many are left that are willing to repent?

Christian, how often do you think about Heaven. I mean simply seeing Jesus Christ and hearing “Well done thou good and faithful servant”. I can’t think of anything more amazing. It should be the focus of every day. It should be the answer to every sin that comes calling. Moses gave up the pleasures of Egypt to serve God, well we have the pleasure of Heaven waiting for us, how much easier should it be for us, Moses only gave up sin that would make him happy for a season to serve God. We have eternal happiness knocking on our door; how can that compete with any sin for any season here on this Earth.

We are called to be pilgrims, a stranger in a strange land. Our home is in Heaven. Financial crisis….so what, America’s collapse? Maybe luckily I am a pilgrim here. Obedience, walking directly in the will of God will sustain any of it. If you are a Christian stuck in sin and it’s robbing you of the peace of God which passeth all understanding, than just stop it. Make your hope and joy the thought of The Lord coming in the clouds to bring you to eternal paradise. Suffer any pain that might be caused by abandoning sin on this journey. Put your trust in Christ, cry out to Him non-stop if you have to; He will deliver you. Your home is in heaven and this life is but a vapor. Put all your eggs in one basket, and make sure you can get as many people as you come across to put their eggs in it as well. Every eye you look in while traveling this strange land is a soul that could not only miss the joys of heaven, but spend eternity paying for their sins in Hell.

There are only 2 kinds of people on this Earth

The first are those trusting in their own goodness, the second are trusting in Christ's. You take all the religions, including Darwinism and secularism (yes they are religions) and they fall into one of these two categories. Funny thing is those trusting in their own goodness all believe they are great people, pretty convenient! Proverbs 20:6 “Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find?” Even the unrepentant murderer has justified his crime and thinks overall he is a relatively good person. The facts are even the church going, bible reading, Sunday school teacher is just as vile as the murderer with out Christ's goodness imputed to their account.

By the grace of God I was able too see how my thoughts and actions are truly despicable. That being said; I think one of the worst things we can do is to start telling people about the glorious Gospel, until they see they are in serious transgression of the law and in danger of judgment. Go ask 10 people on the street if they think they are a good person. You will get 10 people to say they are. Very rarely will someone say they are not good, just like The Bible tells us, everyone is proclaiming their own goodness. Why in the world would anyone want to submit to Christ to wash away their sin when they are not a bad person? They won't.

If I gave you a strange looking beaker containing a steaming blue liquid and said drink this before you die you would look at me like I am nuts. Now if I said it's clear you have a horrible disease, I pointed out the symptoms and showed you the cure from a medical encyclopedia you would drink it up. It's no different with salvation. Without seeing the danger they are in; people will either tell you no thanks because they don't need it. Or even worse they will say the prayer with you for a number of different reasons (to be nice to you, to get you off their back etc) and you have just created a false convert. Now they have received the word; and Satan will come to ridicule them to shame their decision or pour lots of temptation to choke the word out (see parable of the sower in Matthew 17). Now that they "tried Jesus" their latter end is worse than their first because they already know it's a bunch of nonsense. We have to be real careful to make sure people see the disease they have before we give them the cure, otherwise we won't make any sense and no one will repent, and therefore never get saved. It would be better that we don't reach out to them at all, rather than make a disillusioned bitter "backslider" that will be much harder to reach than the man who was not reached at all.

The simplest way to make people see their sin is using God's word. Ask them if they have lied, stolen, lusted, blasphemed His name, always honored their parents, coveted, hated. If they have then tell them God sees them as a lying, thieving, blasphemous, coveting, dishonoring, murder/adulterer at heart (see Matthew 5:20-28). Then when they see they are guilty and learn that God is just (has to punish sin or He would not be good); they are glad to learn that He is also loving and came to pay the price of their sin debt. When they learn that Christ took a torturous brutal death to pay the fine of your sin they become a tear filled convert that truly loves The Lord Jesus Christ.

Remember everyone is ready to proclaim their own goodness. No matter what religion/world view they have, if they do not have Christ's blood covering their sin, they are trusting in their own goodness. Whether it's because they believe it’s what it takes to get into heaven (pretty much every religion but Christianity) or to be reincarnated as something good, or if they claim not to believe in God (they really know there is one but trust evolution to quiet their conscience they still try to be a good person as fire insurance just in case there is a God and they believe they will still be ok if God exists). Plain and simple there are only two types of people those trusting in their works, and those trusting in Christ. If we can point out their works are filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.) than we can get them to turn to Christ.

And just like breaking any other law it's important to remind them that no amount of good deeds can ever free them from the penalty that has to be paid on breaking the law, so if they see their sin but say they have made up for it over time remind them that a murderer has to get punished no matter how years have past and no matter what amount of good works they have done, justice has to be served. There is no scale that weighs your good deeds verses your bad and if you have more good you get in. Plain and simple even one transgression expels you from Heaven; God is perfect and he can’t have sin in His presence; luckily for us He is willing to give us Christ’s perfection to cover our filthy rags. Romans 3:[23] For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; [24] Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: [25] Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; [26] To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. [27] Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. [28] Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

Willingly ignorant, the blind lead the blind

Waking up this Sunday morning with stomach cramps and other details I will spare you, I sent my lovely family off to church, and I proceeded to drive myself completely insane. What did I do that caused me to pull all my hair out? I went to msn.com and read some of the articles. I am convinced The Bible is the thing that is most talked about (with conviction) by people who have no idea what they are talking about. Based upon what they hear even though they have never check out what they are spouting, they don’t read The Bible they just regurgitate what they hear from other proud fools. These “experts” are willing to be quoted in national articles and say things that are just plain wrong. I am a simple lay person, not a theologian by any means, yet with my limited knowledge I see so many errors that are printed as truth. The reason all these lies get through is because none of these secular people study their Bible, they just believe whatever they hear and start repeating it. How frustrating, if The Bible itself did not warn me of this mass ignorance I would be going absolutely bonkers! Aside from the ignorance of God’s word, the other thing unavoidable by sampling a few articles is evolution; the earth being billions of years old is now treated as fact. I remember as a child, articles would always say “an estimated” 350 million years ago… I have now noticed the “estimated” part is being dropped altogether. These articles are being written like they were actually there to witness these things. The simple truth is there dogma is being repeated by everyone so loudly and so often that the blind people of this world simply throw up there hands and say it must be true.

Let’s explore this. In article about science and “religion” (I put that in quotes because Christianity is not religion, it is a personal relationship with Christ, creator and Lord of this world. Yet they always lump true Christianity, Catholicism, and apostate Christianity together under the title of religion, which makes it very easy to make us look like fools, but I digress). Here is a paragraph from the person supposedly defending the side of Christianity:

Expecting to hear a further defense of his faith, I ask Coyne what effect science has had on religion and, in particular, on the Bible. “There is no science in the Bible. Zero, none,” Coyne says. “The Bible was written in different times by different people. Some of the books are poetry, some of them are history, some are stories.” “Are you saying that the Bible should not be held up to scientific scrutiny?” I ask.“That is correct,” Coyne says. “Absolutely.”

What? No science in The Bible? I say hold The Bible to the highest scientific scrunity, do your worse and come up with one example where it’s wrong. You want some science in The Bible? Ok, here is a small list of things The Bible knew and scientific men did not:
The earth is a sphere(Isaiah 40:22).
Free float of earth in space(Job 26:7).
Light moves(Job 38:19,20).
Air has weight(Job 28:25).
Winds blow in cyclones(Ecclesiastes 1:6).
Blood is the source of lifeand health(Leviticus 17:11).
Ocean floor contains deepvalleys and mountains(2 Samuel 22:16;Jonah 2:6).
Ocean contains springs(Job 38:16).
When dealing with disease,hands should be washedunder running water(Leviticus 15:13).

Absolutely none, zero? Well this catholic priest apparently does not read his Bible.

In this next paragraph we have another person the media presents as being on our side. This “Christian” says the following:

“A hundred years ago we didn’t understand the Big Bang,” he says. “Now that we have the understanding of a universe that is big and expanding and changing, we can ask philosophical questions we would not have known to ask, like ‘What does it mean to have multiverses?’ These are wonderful questions. Science isn’t going to answer them, but science, by telling us what is there, causes us to ask these questions. It makes us go back to the seven days of creation — which is poetry, beautiful poetry, with a lesson underneath it — and say, ‘Oh, the seventh day is God resting as a way of reminding us that God doesn’t do everything.’ God built this universe but gave you and me the freedom to make choices within the universe.”

Anyone else feel like there head is about to explode? The seventh day is poetry? The big bang? Wait, I really have to make sure I get this. The whole point about the 7 day creation account is to remind us that we have freedom to make choices? I guess I missed that in my modest study of The Bible. And these people are the people being presented to defend the religion side of the argument. With defense like that we don’t even need intellectuals like Dawkins coming at us, we can destroy the truth of The Bible all on our own. However, the author of this article still decided to let Dawkins have his say in the debate as well. I am glad they did, believe or not, this God hater was our best defense in this article. Below is a quote from Dawkins in the article, and he is dead on is what he says:

“Science cannot tell you what is right and wrong. When it comes to really interesting questions, like ‘Where did the laws of physics come from?’ or ‘How did the universe arrive in the first place?’ I genuinely don’t know whether science will answer those deep and at present mysterious questions…” Here Dawkins admits the conscience (God’s law written on your heart) cannot be explained by science. There is no explanation for the beginning of the universe in science, or how the laws of the universe (gravity, thermodynamics etc) cannot be answered by science. The Bible of course does. Backed with tons of scientific, historical, archeological, and prophetic evidence anyone willing to humble themselves, remove their pride, can open The Bible and see if for themselves. Of course we have the ultimate evidence, when you do submit to God he reveals Himself to you, and no argument can convince someone they did not experience something that they did. Skeptical? Do it for yourself. Think of all your sin, your thought life, your actions. Apologize to God for taking Him for granted and admit you have lived your life for yourself and not for Him. Repent of those sins and ask Jesus to pay the penalty a just God has to put on sin, trust in Christ’s payment for your sin and you won’t have to pay your own fine (with life in Hell). If you do this you will pass from death to life, and a have a new heart with new desires, and you won’t have faith anymore, you will have an experience that you cannot be talked out of.

After two pages of that article I needed a break so I clicked on a link about a new species of fish being found. Ok I admit I was pushing it because I knew I would find something else to increase the pressure on my head, and I was not disappointed. This one however I found extremely funny because the author began it with the words of a fairy tale. I have always said that evolution and millions of years is a fairy tale for grown ups that allows them to live in their sin, quiet their conscience, and not have to be judged by a holy God some day (in their own mind of course). Here is what the article said:

Once upon a time, about 3.5 million years ago — before the Caribbean and the Pacific were separated by present-day Panama — they were, in fact, the same species. Now, DNA tests have revealed the two populations have distinct genes, indicating they likely evolved into two separate species after their ocean homes were divided by Central America.

“Once upon a time” I am sure the author was not trying to point out evolution is a fairy tale, but I thought that was classic. They write like they were there to witness this event. 350 million years ago, give or take a few million this fish evolved into two species. Well if one evolved from the other why do we still have both of them around? And what new traits that are better did one evolve over the other? What we really have here is some natural selection, small scale (pun intended) changes within a species. The fish is still a fish, it never became a reptile, which became a bird, which became a monkey, which became you. However it makes for an interesting fairy tale.

Well this is just a small sample of what you will encounter if you decide to jump into the secular media. Be careful the amount of willingly ignorant people who love their sin so much that they believe this stuff can become quite frustrating and depressing. Do not dive into this without the full armor of God or you may even end up using this nonsense to quiet your own conscience. My advice, crack open your Bible, or spend some time spreading The Gospel, the ultimate truth of this world before reading this nonsense.

A gift for me? No thanks I'd rather work for it.

Hello everyone. First I would like to apologize for my lengthy absence, I had been with out internet for 5 weeks or so, and I rather enjoyed it.

I had a witness encounter yesterday that left me with a strange feeling. Something was missing and after some pondering, I put my finger on it. This girl was quite content with earning her way to heaven. She had created a god in her own image that would never send someone to hell for lying, stealing, lusting or blaspheming. Don't get me wrong I see that all that the time. There was something more that left me scratching my head. This girl seemed quite content in earning her way to heaven. Why in the world would anyone want to strive for something that is being handed out freely? That was the question I pinpointed that left me with the empty feeling of our conversation.

So now that I pinpointed the question. I needed to find the answer. I reached for my 2 default answers that seem to always reveal why someone rejects Christ. #1) Pride and #1a) Love of sin. Ding ding ding, pride seemed to take the cake with this one and my defaults proved correct again. However just throwing the default answer was not sufficient for this question. I wanted to make sure The Lord agreed with me. Where do we go when we want God's opinion on something? Well The B I B L E of course. Let's see if God's Word agrees. Is pride the reason someone would rather work and labor for something that is being handed out freely?

Before we do that indulge me with this analogy. The sad thing is how content she was in her view. Not realizing how insulting it is to reject the gift and place her hope in herself was the real tragedy. Think if you sacrificed your time and effort. You poured your sweat and blood into a wonderful gift for me (by the way tomorrow is my birthday if you feel inclined to do this). You come gleaming as you present me with this wonderful gift. You say Paul, I love you brother, and that is why I sacrificed my nights for the last 3 months to give you this wonderful gift! I say, "this is wonderful, I can't just take this, please take this nickel for all your effort". Can you say insulting? Let me tell you offering your own vile goodness in place of God's blood filled gift to you is exponentially more insulting than the nickel I offered for all your labor.

Now let's get back to God's word. Is it pride that makes people want to work for something offered freely? Psalm [10 :4] says "The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts." This is a good start, this person I witnessed to believes in God (probably due to evidence of creation and conscience) but yet pride will not allow her to seek God in all her thoughts and therefore she will rely on her own goodness. Proverbs[20:6] says "Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find?" Seems by default she will proclaim her own goodness, and her pride is preventing her from seeking God. Counting on her own goodness, to meet her own standards to earn her way to heaven seem right to her because she is not seeking God. But again we are warned in Proverbs [14:12] There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. How sad so many people base their view on God on feelings and not on His word. It is so frustrating to have the key to eternal life and happiness and people not willing to take it!

The discussion ended nicely and Laura said she would think about what I told her. Let's pray her pride was working overtime while talking to her, and afterward when she was alone God's law humbled her and she cried out for forgiveness. Please pray for Laura.

Suffering

For those of you subscribed to my old blog you will find you read this already. I have updated it after my pastor read it so please read it again.

We are going to look at different aspects of suffering and how it relates to the word of God. How non-believers use it as a reason to be ignorant. How with out the sufferings of this world The Bible would be wrong. How suffering is the call of the Christian. Christ’s suffering. How pain and suffering is used by God to draw both Christians and the lost to Him. The sufferings caused by sin. The suffering of a Christian stuck in sin and how to overcome it.

Suffering is evidence and proof The Bible is the word of God! You simply CANNOT use the suffering of the world as a reason God does not exist. However many surprisingly do. Throwing out intellect they war against their Creator and say an all loving God would never let the horrors of this world go on; therefore He does not exist. Sadly they are right, an all loving god does not exist. The fact is God is not ALL love like so many people are being taught in the church today. When you apply a bit of reason and read His word, you see that all this suffering indeed is part of His plan. A plan from a loving, righteous, holy, and just God; who made us for His glory. It's very clear for anyone to see, yet they choose not to. This spiritual blindness seems unfathomable, unless you read The Bible and find that these things must come to pass. It’s says men will become willingly ignorant before they will humble themselves and give up sin they love. 2Pet.3[5] For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Now you may ask, "for what are they willingly ignorant"? You just go back two versus to find out. 2Pet.3[3] Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, You see nothing covers up the suffering Christians are called to go through like the pleasures of sin for a season. If you are a Christian living in sin and struggling against it I am not talking to you, I do address you later in this writing. To those that are willingly ignorant walking after their own lusts; you are just quieting your conscience so you can have a good time on the road to hell. I know it sounds harsh, but in fact it is the very harshness of this that inclined me to take my time to write this to you. The motive is love and I am most sincere. The lusts a lost person indulges in are simply a painkiller. However the pain being killed is your conscience; and your conscience is alerting you that you are on the broad path to hell that so many take. It is the exact same suffering you are called to endure that you are turning off with the pleasures of sin. What would you say to someone who put a piece of tape over his check engine light and said "now I don't have anything to worry about"? I tell you brother if you love your sin so much and still believe you won't be sent to hell for your rebellion you have created a God in your own image. You have a created a god that won't judge you, that will not uphold justice and you are just as willingly ignorant as the man putting a piece of tape over his check engine light.

Just like most other excuses people use to not submit to Christ, the “suffering in the world” excuse is based on partial information. The sufferings are not some out of control thing that proves God does not exist. Suffering is a pivotal part of God’s plan. Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: Sin brought death and death mixed with sin and the fear of death brings suffering. Sinners create their own suffering and God uses that to try and draw men to Him. Psalms 119:50 This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me. Psalms 119:67 Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word. Psalms 119:71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes. Jonah 2:2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.

Suffering for a Christian can truly be understood and even praised. If you truly trust Christ and His plan, you accept the suffering, because you know what comes out of it. What is that you ask? Something wonderful! Being made perfect, being established, strengthened and completely settled. 1Pet.5[10] But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. If you want to partake in Christ's glory, you must follow in His footsteps. The call for a Christian to suffer is a clear message of The Bible. In fact the contrast of not suffering for Christ is actually denying Him and that is very serious.

Christ suffered greater than any of us ever could. Getting a small taste of that suffering will make you more Christ like than any other means. It is no different than if you wanted to emulate any person on Earth; you do what they did. Like precious metals being purified by fire; going through the trials and fires of this life purifies us. You see God wants us to partake in Christ’s glory, He knows that we can't truly partake in the fullness of His glory with out experiencing a form of His suffering 1Pet.4[13] But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

Here is some background information you may be missing from this puzzle and why suffering is the only answer. God has to judge our actions or He would not be just. He couldn’t ignore our sin and still be righteous. He must punish transgression or He would not be good. I for one am glad for this; I would not want to serve an unrighteous, unjust God! It would be horrifying. God cannot change; He is and always was. He did not create Himself and has certain qualities that He cannot change, not the least of which are being holy, good, loving, righteous and just. Malachi 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Titus 1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

How would you reconcile all that? If it were you would you have bothered to make anyone at all? Would you have made a race of puppets that cannot sin? There is no glory in that, for us or Him and remember the whole reason of our existence is His glory. What would you have done? You, having to remain just over a group of free-willed creatures that denied your authority and rebelled against everything you say? Would you have suffered and died for these rebels? Would you, being all powerful, come as a lowly servant and suffer and die for them? It pleased God to lay the punishment that has to come down on sin on Him, a brutal and torturous punishment. Would you have done that? You break His laws every day. Every time you have lied, stolen, used His Holy name to show disgust, looked with lust (you think that’s not so bad? imagine someone looking at your mother, daughter, sister, or niece the way you have lusted). Why did He do it? It was the only way He could reconcile Himself with us. We broke the law, and for him to remain just, good and loving, He paid the fine. He suffered and died for us while we were shaking our fists in His face. He does not need us, yet He decided to rescue us. If you were all powerful and could have anything you wanted, would you have bothered? Rom.5[8] But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Now if you want to partake in His glory than you to have to pick up your cross and follow Him all the way to Calvary. Repent of your sins (turn from them and apologize) and trust Christ. God will reveal Himself to you and your life will never be the same.

For those of you who have suffered tremendous loss and you don't know The Lord. You have hope! Trust in Christ now and repent of your sins. You will see one day how your suffering is part of a perfect plan and you are promised to have exceeding joy when it’s all revealed. All your tears will be wiped away it's a promise from God. If you decide to be bitter about your trials than it's a double loss for you. It's the ultimate tragedy. Don't pile on your earthly pain with eternal death. I beg you to consider what I am saying. I have no motivation other than the thought of you rejecting Christ's plan terrifies me greatly on your behalf. Your suffering will work together for good if you repent and trust in Christ! Rom.8 [28] And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. It's never to late to love The Lord; be called according to His purpose and claim His promise that ALL things in your life, even suffering and tragedy, will be used for a greater good.

While some sufferings are obvious. Death of loved ones, loss of income/jobs/your home, your health. All of these things can bring great suffering. One that is often overlooked is the battle of sin. Sin is a law that resides in your members. People who truly love The Lord and struggle with sin often suffer greatly as well. The guilt, filthiness, failure and one’s struggle with the assuredness of their salvation can all be tremendous burdens on their soul. Christian, rejoice, it's part of God's plan for you! 1Pet.1[6-7] Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: The key is heaviness through temptation. When temptation calls suffer yourself not to partake, and if you do partake than suffer yourself that you did and repent of the action. Then you will be found unto praise and honor at the appearing of Christ. Stop fighting these battles in the flesh they will destroy you. You will not overcome sin with your own will. Eph.6 [12] For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

We are saved by grace through faith, you hear that a lot, but do you believe it? Eph.2 [8] 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. You cannot overcome your sin with your works. For starters if you were able to conquer your sin by reading the Bible more, praying more etc; than you would get the glory. It's God's victory not yours. His glory He let's you partake in it when you have faith and submit to His plan. If you have been trying to eradicate your sin by your will you are fighting a battle you cannot win. Don’t get me wrong Bible reading and prayer are the most important thing in spiritual growth. First you need to establish why you are reading and praying more. If it’s only to impress God then it’s an act of pride motivation. If it’s to gain spiritual strength from God to fight the battle with lust or drink or any other sin then it’s a good thing to do. REMEMBER THE BIBLE WILL KEEP YOU FROM SIN AND SIN WILL KEEP YOU FROM THE BIBLE.

There are many reasons a soldier of Christ can be left behind enemy lines. One is you are being left in until you realize you can't do anything about it, and only Christ can deliver so he gets the proper credit. Sin is a law that abides within you Rom.7 [21-23] I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. The only thing that overcomes a law is a stronger law. Yes the law of sin lives in us, how do you overcome it? Rom 8[2-4] For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

The question is not “can you overcome your sin?”, the question is: “are you walking after the spirit?” Do you have the law of the Spirit within you which is greater than the law of sin? Your sin is overcome when you truly believe your sin was nailed to the tree with Christ and is dead. Have you ever pondered that the fact that your sin is still controlling you; not due to your lack of strength, but it is your lack of faith leaving you in bondage? Do you have the faith of Peter walking on water, or of him sinking? Would you die for Christ, or would you deny Him thrice?

It takes some longer to realize their freedom from sin than others. If you have been living in sin to the point where you are doubting your salvation let me encourage you. In caution I need to make a distinction first. If the thought of being left in sin sounds good to you so you can have your cake and eat it too this encouragement is NOT for you. You need to examine yourself to see if you are truly in the faith, and I suggest you stop reading this and do it right now. The Apostle Paul, dealt with a Christian, (calls him brother) that was having sex with his step-mother, Paul finds out that this Christian man wouldn’t repent of his sin and prayed that his flesh be turned over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh. He did not lose his salvation but do you feel Satan would kill this man quickly or take years of AIDS or some other disease? No one ever gets away with their sin. Christians need to understand that they are not exempt from a Holy God’s judgment.) 1 Timothy 5:24 Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after. (But be sure your sin will find you out)

However if you are broken by the law of sin, if you find yourself powerless to it. If you regularly find yourself weeping and crying out to The Lord to rescue you. Perhaps it even feels like there is no hope and God does not want you. The suffering that your sin will bring is strengthening and perfecting you. You also need to examine some other possibilities for being left in sin. God may need you to realize that there is nothing you can do in and of yourself to solve the problem. All pride has to be removed before he can rescue you. Another reason is you have yet to see the sinfulness of your sin; and until you do you are in danger of correction from The Lord. Rejoice, The Lord corrects those whom he loves. Prov.3[12] For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth. Repent and suffer with out the sin now and you won't have to suffer the correction, nobody ever likes a spanking! Being left in a losing battle of sin also helps you appreciate God's grace, love, longsuffering, patience, His sacrafice. It brings forth the reasonableness of Hell and your worthiness to go there. If you can't overcome your sin, do you honestly believe you are a wicked sinner that deserves to be tormented in Hell forever? But only thanks to the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ you won't have to? If that thought bothers you, and "you really aren't that bad" you have some pride in your way, 1Pet5[5] ...Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.. The Lord may not be rescuing you until you can truly appreciate His gift and rejoice to the fullest with Him. Is it reasonable for you to agree that you are deceitfully wicked and on your way to hell with out Christ?

Rejoice in your sorrow. Use this time to appreciate an all powerful God who cares so much for someone as unworthy as you to actually die for you so you could share His kingdom and be a part of His glory. In the meantime every time you sin or are debating to partake in sin lay it at the foot of the cross! Say NO, and if the war and self sacrifice causes strife, struggle, depression, no peace; than gladly accept that fate and bring it to Calvary. Be patient, longsuffering, wait on The Lord and He will deliver you, it's a promise. Psalms 24[14] Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD. Let me tell you, what a victory it is to go from being double-minded with no peace; to being like minded with Christ and have more peace and strength that you ever dreamed imaginable. It's not just something you can hope for. It's a reality, it's a free-gift for all those who want it and repent and trust in The Lord Christ Jesus.

You see suffering is quite a complex subject. Seeing the death and suffering of this world is clearly not a reason to think the God of The Bible does not exist. It simply reaffirms what The Bible says. Christians are called to suffer. All pain and suffering will be used for good. If you are not saved and are stricken with the suffering of this world, give it to Christ. Trust Him, repent from your sins, read The Bible and do it what it says. You will not be let down. If you are saved and are afflicted with suffering, rejoice. It likens you to your Lord Jesus Christ, and you have the promise that all the tears will be wiped away. If you suffer as a Christian lost in sin than examine yourself. How do you know you really believe? Stop using your own works, and trust in Christ's death where God said he crucified sin. Your sin died with Christ, and now you can live in the newness of life through His resurrection the defeating of sin and death. Rom.6 [3-11] Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

It goes by so fast

What are we doing here? What are we looking for? What is the meaning of all this? Our lives have become so self-consumed and I am not just talking about the worldly people that walk after the lusts of this world. Although this would apply to them, I am actually talking about Christians. I take that back; I am not talking about Christians... I am talking about myself. What are my motives for what I do? Who am I serving?

It’s hard to admit this, but sometimes I look at my children and see something I have never seen before. Whether it’s a laugh I didn’t know my 2 year old girl had. A thought I didn’t know my soon to be 4 year old son was capable of. A beauty in the eyes, much like her mother’s; that I didn’t know my 8 year old daughter had. Or the maturity of my first born 13 year old son that I lacked well into adulthood. All of these things fly at me and make me ponder, what are my priorities? I would love to say they are as so: God, then family, then my ministry, than work. However sometime I think I deceive myself and really the world still owns me. Is it really all about me still?

It’s funny when I was little I thought adults were like super heroes. They had it all together, especially parents. Now I realize parents are simply this; they are people with kids. I would love to say that because I am so busy in Bible study, prayer and meditation that those things slip past me. But right now I wonder if I am not the same level as the man who completely abandons all that love him to spend every free moment of his at the local tavern because he is only focused upon himself.

Yes I do trust in Christ. I hold Bible studies with my children. We get on our knees and pray to God as a family. I share my faith with strangers. I quit my job, in faith, not knowing how I will feed my family in the future to give more time to ministry work. I spend time writing blogs, giving The Gospel to strangers, handing out tracts, and sharing my faith with people. I will help anyone at any time hoping it will glorify my heavenly father. What does that amount too?

Sorry to indulge myself in a serious self-examination in this public setting, but I wonder if we can’t all benefit from some serious pondering of what we are doing and why. If I was truly serving The Lord wouldn’t I have been able to enjoy and appreciate these treasures that seem to slip by me? And not just these things but many more: my wife’s abilities to run this household, the want of my parents to see their son and grandchildren more, the needs of so many people that I come in contact with every day. If I was not so self-absorbed in the needs of Paul, couldn’t I be doing a better job in serving The Lord and therefore meeting the needs of those around me and appreciating the blessings He has given me?

Lord I pray you give me the ability to truly step outside of this world. To have an appreciation that I, Paul Merkt, am serving The Creator of all the Heavens and Earth. Help me understand the depth of your love toward me. Help me realize that you are in control of everything and truly know what is best for me. Help me to hand the reigns over to You and let me see how silly it is for me to try to work the bit in my mouth when you are willing to do it!

Maybe when I am not so consumed with myself, with this world, with my worldly needs; I will be able to better appreciate all the amazing gifts you have given me. Maybe, Lord willing, I will understand this has nothing to do with me and everything to do with You. Then I will be able to truly appreciate the gifts and purpose you have bestowed upon me. In the meantime I thank-you for your patience, longsuffering, forgiveness and the love that you have for me, Paul, a lowly servant; that You keep close to You despite my will.

Keep me in Your care for Your Name’s sake. I will ruin it on my own.

A witness encounter with a strange twist.

Have you ever watched a movie that had a surprise twist in the ending? One that made you say No Way! You then look back at the entire movie and see the little details a new perspective? A bunch of previous insignificant things all come together to paint a bigger picture. Well that’s what this witness encounter was.

Some of you know that I do online evangelism. Lesser of you know I have a real problem talking to people (pray for me!). Not just about Christ, but any subject. I have gotten tunnel vision and could not hear my own words, gotten lightheaded etc. when speaking to groups. One on one I go red and usually steer clear of small talk at all costs. That being said sometimes The Lord has a fish jump right in my boat and He takes control of my mouth.

Here is what happened. I had to take an important phone call for a project at work. I knew it was going to be a long one with some deep thinking. I was driving and I saw a park pulled in there and sat on a picnic bench. An old man pulled in and parked at the far corner of the parking lot. 20 minutes later he pulled out and parked nearly in front of me. I continued with my phone call but got the feeling he wanted my attention.

When I say old I mean old! I later learned he was in his upper 70’s, he was tiny and could barely see over the steering wheel. As the feeling grew stronger I thought The Lord was making it clear he is bringing me this sweet old man so I could tell him the gospel. On a hunch I told the person I was talking to I would have to call them back. I casually walked by his car to see if my feeling was right. If it was meant to be, God would have to initiate the conversation because I was not going to. Sure enough the man waved to me, I approached his vehicle and asked if he needed something. He babbled and did not make much sense. He asked what I was doing and didn’t really complete any sentences. I thought he was completely out of it and was shocked he was driving! He asked me to get in his car, I thought that was strange, but he was so old I did not feel any danger, the car was not running and I left my door open.

Despite my fears of speaking to people, I knew I could overcome them with an incoherent elderly man. I made up my mind he was going to get the gospel. I asked if he had a religious background. Nope. I told him I have a ministry and asked if I could show him what I do with people (which is to give the law, then the gospel ala Way of The Master, ala The Bible). Although this man never stole anything in all his years (I just let that go). He was a lying, blasphemous, adulterer at heart. He admitted he was guilty. He no longer seemed incoherent to me, but he had all his means it was clear there was nothing wrong with this man’s mind at all.

It also seemed clear he was ready to end the conversation. Twitching in his seat he admitted although he was guilty it was not up to him to decide if he should go to hell. I used the analogy of a judge on earth rewarding lawbreakers. He admitted a judge would not be good nor just by not punishing lawbreakers. He admitted a good judge has to punish the guilty. He finally admitted he deserved to go to hell.

I asked if he knew what God did so he would not have to go to hell. He did not. Amazing! A man in his upper 70s never heard a clear gospel presentation we should all be ashamed of ourselves! I told him of the brutal torturous punishment God laid on Himself, that he deserved. I told him this way God could remain just and still dismiss all of his sins. "Jim", I said, "you broke all the rules and God paid your fine." I explained repenting and trusting Christ. He said he was going to do it. I asked when, and he said sometime soon. I reminded him of his age and said even someone in their 20s could die any second and he need not put it off. He agreed and said he would do it soon. I asked if he owned a Bible, he did not. I said I usually have one in my car that I would give to him but today I didn’t. He said he would get his hands on one himself and read it.

I told him it was not a coincidence we met. He said he comes that park a couple times a week and asked if he would see me again. I said I would certainly come back and look for him.

That’s the basic story I told my wife. I added one more detail, which sent me through the entire encounter with a new perspective. I mentioned when he was trying to get my attention he had a $5 bill in his hand and said that was weird. She asked what it was for and I said he was just holding it in the air when he parked the car in front of me. She said are you sure he wasn’t gay? Many other details I left out of the story flashed through my head.

I remembered that when he asked me to sit in his car one of the first things he did was move toward me and his hand toward my leg. His hand suddenly stopped right before my leg, it was awkward, but I discounted that as a lonely old man, who was not all there. Then what at first seemed like gibberish small talk about what I was doing there he was really feeling me out if I was interested (perhaps a little nervous his talk made no sense to me). Then I learned that park was a place where people looked for that sort of hook up. To top it all off the obvious clincher was something he asked me. When he was convicted and saw his sin for what it was he straight out asked me, “What does The Bible say about homosexuality?” He wanted to know what God thought about it! It never crossed my mind he was asking about himself. Luckily I told him it’s a sin like many others that God will forgive if you trust and repent. Wow I thought God delivered me a sweet old man to hear the gospel perhaps before he passed on, but really sin motivated the conversation, but God was faithful to turn it into something more. With all those clues, I never saw it, however just the $5 bill and it was my wife's first instinct.

Don’t get me wrong the gospel was preached and he seemed to receive it well. However when I thought about the other details it went from God delivering me a sweet old man, to vile sinful lusts delivering him to me. Maybe I am ignorant, but such an old man picking me up? I am a 31-year-old man who could pass for his early 20s. I never once thought that he was looking for…..Praise God, regardless of the circumstance, I think Jim is going to get saved!

I am going to visit that park again and hopefully I will run into Jim. I will bring a Bible in case he did not get one of his own yet. Please pray for him.

The End of Faith?

The Bible says many will claim to be too intellectual to believe it's deep words and wisdom. An atheist friend of mine sent an excerpt of a book by Sam Harris called The End of Faith. The excerpts from the book, or my friend Dan's comments are in italics, and my replies in regular text. Please notice how this author sets up arguments against "religion" which is very easy to do as religion on a whole is joke. Than once he has his straw man set up, he attacks Christianity based on the arguments built up against religion. I see this more and more in the world of atheism; they refuse to separate the two because if they did, their arguments lose strength, their conscience eats at them and they realize they have to face a holy God one day. Because of this, God haters will use any trick, no matter how intellectually void it is, otherwise they would have to submit to their Maker, or let their conscience tear them to shreds.

A belief is a lever that, once pulled, moves almost everything else in a person's life. People do what they believe in, in my humble opinion that is not much of a revelation. Wow people act on what they believe in! What triggers the belief? In my case, I researched this stuff for 12 years before I even committed. When the trigger is pulled based on years of unbiased research is it really that surprising that you commit your life to that belief. I would not expect anything less, or what is the point of having beliefs? Actually I was biased against Christianity. I was quite happy with all my sins. As The Bible says sin can bring much temporary joy. However the more I learned, ever so slowly, my logical side screamed this is obvious truth.

There seems, however, to be a problem with some of our most cherished beliefs about the world: they are leading us, inexorably, to kill one another. Our beliefs are leading us? We are not responsible for our actions? It is our beliefs fault? That is what The Bible says man will do, justify their actions and not take responsibility. Furthermore The Bible says these wars based on religious beliefs will happen, proving scripture right again. If these religious wars were not happening and we were all living in peace, you could easily discredit The Bible. The fact that they are happening is just proof again that The Bible right. And as we know Christians get attacked, we don't go attacking.

A glance at history, or at the pages of any newspaper, reveals that ideas which divide one group of human beings from another, only to unite them in slaughter, generally have their roots in religion. Christianity does not look for war; they are the target of it. And even if you want to say the Crusades or the Inquisition (which was not a war, but an atrocity blamed on Christians), that would still only be 1 throughout all the wars of history. Now The Crusades of course were directed by The Catholic Church, not Fundamentalist Christians, and in fairness they were taking land back from Muslims that were taken from them first. The Inquisition again Catholic, in a time where no one had The Bible available to them (because the Catholic Church buried it). It's no coincidence that with The Bible removed from society completely things got so dark. Other than that there are religious wars mostly spawned from people hating Jews and Christians (and still are today) just as The Bible states will happen.

Our situation is this: most of the people in this world believe that the Creator of the universe has written a book. We have the misfortune of having many such books on hand, each making an exclusive claim as to its infallibility. Like what, let's worship cows, or that none of this is reality and were all dreaming, or that we are all getting recycled via reincarnation. Only one book is supported by thousands of 100% accurately fulfilled prophecies, historical, archaeological, and scientific evidence. My favorite book that claims the origin of the universe is the science textbook (insert sarcasm here). It claims that a small piece of matter came from nothing, exploded, and formed billions of ordered galaxies each billions of miles long with more stars that can be counted complex right down to the cell. Then some goo formed into people, from the goo to the zoo to you! The Bible hits the creation account dead on as all other issues that face man. Including why there is pain and suffering. It is also supported by evidence like no other. Again The Bible says there will be many other writings about false gods further proving its divine nature. If this was not happening The Bible would be wrong.

People tend to organize themselves into factions according to which of these incompatible claims they accept—rather than on the basis of language, skin color, location of birth, or any other criterion of tribalism. Are you serious? How does one organize themselves? Of course people with a common set of beliefs will be organized into factions, that's by definition. Using the definition of a word to disprove religion should be insulting to the intelligence of this man's readers.

Each of these texts urges its readers to adopt a variety of beliefs and practices, some of which are benign, many of which are not. All are in perverse agreement on one point of fundamental importance, however: "respect" for other faiths, or for the views of unbelievers, is not an attitude that God endorses. That is flat out lie. This author uses the term "most religions" implying Christianity but never saying it. He gets away with broad generalizations like the above because most religions are like that. Again The Bible is proven right by saying other religions will be spawning religious wars, they hate truth. Christians do respect all others. As you know many call themselves Christians that are not (again just like The Bible says) don't lump is into their actions when by very definition their actions prove they are not Christians.

Intolerance is thus intrinsic to every creed. Christians are intolerant when it comes to compromising our creed. Christ did not compromise, neither will we. We are not intolerant of others. We do not force anyone to be a Christian, it has to be a choice of the believer. Don't get me wrong, we desire others to submit to Christ and do our best to convince them of the danger they are in with out Him. That however is out of love for their very souls, we care more about them than what they think about us, so we warn them of their sickness and give them the cure, the rest is up to them.

Once a person believes—really believes—that certain ideas can lead to eternal happiness, or to its antithesis, he cannot tolerate the possibility that the people he loves might be led astray by the blandishments of unbelievers. Certainty about the next life is simply incompatible with tolerance in this one. This is getting very dangerous. The definition of tolerance is switching to that of a sociopath. When did saying something is wrong become intolerant? This slippery slope of tolerance (which in reality is just "tolerating") is becoming that you can't say anything is right or wrong. When everything is relative there is no right and wrong and you have a society sociopaths. The Christian religion is tolerant of all other religions. When a Christian shares truth with a loved one that is not being intolerant. If a person does not want to hear The Bible is clear that you leave it alone, pray for them, and show them kindness above all else so your testimony can speak to them. Once again generalizing on religions is just silly. Does this guy really claim to know everything about every religion, because he writes as he does.

Moderates in every faith are obligated to loosely interpret (or simply ignore) much of their canons in the interests of living in the modern world. No doubt an obscure truth of economics is at work here: societies appear to become considerably less productive whenever large numbers of people stop making widgets and begin killing their customers and creditors for heresy. The first thing to observe about the moderate's retreat from scriptural literalism is that it draws its inspiration not from scripture but from cultural developments that have rendered many of God's utterances difficult to accept as written. In America, religious moderation is further enforced by the fact that most Christians and Jews do not read the Bible is its entirety and consequently have no idea just how vigorously the God of Abraham wants heresy expunged. One look at the book of Deuteronomy reveals that he has something very specific in mind should your son or daughter return from yoga class advocating the worship of Krishna:
If your brother, the son of your father or of your mother, or your son or daughter, or the spouse whom you embrace, or your most intimate friend, tries to secretly seduce you, saying, "Let us go and serve other gods," unknown to you or your ancestors before you, gods of the peoples surrounding you, whether near you or far away, anywhere throughout the world, you must not consent, you must not listen to him; you must show him no pity, you must not spare him or conceal his guilt. No, you must kill him, your hand must strike the first blow in putting him to death and the hands of the rest of the people following. You must stone him to death, since he has tried to divert you from Yahweh your God… (Deuteronomy 13:7-11)

This is not my Bible quote of course, I am a KJV fellow myself, but this is not true. He should know better of his subjects before he writes. Everybody knows that is from the Civil Law of Moses which is dead. Christ crucified that right along side of himself. The Bible is very clear that that was a law for the people of that time and the savior ended much Jewish tradition.

Furthermore when people pull out harsh sounding verses to prove there is no God makes me very wary of them. Tell me, if I told you that I don't think George Bush exists and I proved it to you by saying: There were no WMD's, the war is failing, and he wants tax the poor! You would say that does not prove he does not exist, that just proves that I don't like him. That's what these people do, they say God does not exist by going "see, he is such a meany", when in reality you need to know the whole story. Furthermore there is not one recorded stoning of a child (kids actually listened back then!) Unlike today where innocent people are being killed all the time by law breakers, you don't hear of many being killed by the law breakers or by punishment back then. Because of strict law in those ages, order was kept, in fact better than it is today where much more innocent blood is flowing.

Whatever I am now commanding you, you must keep and observe, adding nothing to it, taking nothing away.") The above passage is as canonical as any in the Bible, and it is only by ignoring such barbarisms that the Good Book can be reconciled with life in the modern world.

More ignorance; man is not allowed to take away or add to the word, but of course God is. And as I pointed out, Jesus said with his own mouth that he put an end to these laws. Lest he suffered and died for nothing. The Bible is a progressing book. That's one of the reasons it's so amazing and unlike other religions. It progresses through thousands of years of time with many different authors that never knew each other and lived thousands of years apart. It has one common theme of the Jesus Christ throughout. This is no ordinary book. God has changed the rules and your above Bible verse is not to be done any more according to God Himself.

Not allowing ourselves and our ideas of how to treat one another evolve seems like a major mistake. They have evolved clearly, obviously the above verse is not in effect, and many thousands of other things have changed. This mans argument shows he knows NOTHING about Christianity and should keeps his thoughts on the subject to himself until he gets educated on it.

Clinging onto a set of laws and beliefs in something so old and inappropriate for our times, trying to take everyone back to a less enlightened state of affairs because we don't want to admit that the wisdom of the time wasn't perfect and complete eternal, doesn't seem like a smart way to live, and is most likely quite dangerous.

I will go with something that has survived time even though EVERY GENERATION has tried get rid of it. This is not unique. Think about all the attacks and the fact that is still around is another testimony. People were killed throughout history just for having a bible. These "aren't we just too smart now" attacks are nothing compared to what The Bible has seen. Trust me, living a Christian life is not dangerous. Also notice how he starts writing about "all religions" than just switches to focus on only Christianity. If you ask me, he could have proved his opening arguments better using Muslims. Funny he went after Christianity, so sly like too with the subtle switch.

Our world is fast succumbing to the activities of men and women who would stake the future of our species on beliefs that should not survive an elementary school education. That so many of us are still dying on account of ancient myths is as bewildering as it is horrible, and our own attachment to these myths, whether moderate or extreme, has kept us silent in the face of developments that could ultimately destroy us. Indeed, religion is as much a living spring of violence today as it was at any time in the past. The recent conflicts in Palestine (Jews v. Muslims), the Balkans (Orthodox Serbians v. Catholic Croatians; Orthodox Serbians v. Bosnian and Albanian Muslims), Northern Ireland (Protestants v. Catholics), Kashmir (Muslims v. Hindus), Sudan (Muslims v. Christians and animists), Nigeria (Muslims v. Christians), Ethiopia and Eritrea (Muslims v. Christians), Sri Lanka (Sinhalese Buddhists v. Tamil Hindus), Indonesia (Muslims v. Timorese Christians), and the Caucasus (Orthodox Russians v. Chechen Muslims; Muslim Azerbaijanis v. Catholic and Orthodox Armenians) are merely a few cases in point. In these places religion has been the explicit cause of literally millions of deaths in the last ten years.

The Catholic church as a whole is actually on the other side, not mine. The Bible makes that clear. True Bible believing Christians will defend themselves, and stand up for their fellow man when true atrocities are happening. However they are not causing wars. Of course we all know the US is no longer a Christian nation, so don't confuse them in this.

The Bible also speaks on intellectuals, knowing that they would have their day of attack. In fact, it speaks most of the battle with intellectuals during the end times period. Here is what is says about them:

Romans 1, the people that turn from God will profess to be wise even though their conscience and the creation clearly point s to God

[20] For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
[21] Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
[22] Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools

First Corinthians 1 points out that people who preach the cross will be considered fools. Those who are prudent will not understand our beliefs. God decided to use "the foolishness of preaching" to save those that are humble. Of course this sounds foolish to this author, God said it would.

[18] For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
[19] For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
[20] Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
[21] For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
[22] For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:
[23] But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
[24] But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
[25] Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
[26] For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
[27] But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
[28] And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
[29] That no flesh should glory in his presence.
[30] But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
[31] That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

First Corinthians 3 pretty clear:

[18] Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.
[19] For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
[20] And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.
[21] Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;

Sounds like this book will fall right in line with scripture; a better title to me would be Strengthening Faith. Thanks for the great blog material

Take care,

Paul

A form of Godliness but denying the power

So often my biggest critics are those who were raised in the church, or at some point they "gave their life to Christ". Usually given a "God is all love" gospel, they make a profession of faith and never truly handed over the reigns of their life to God. When trials, tribulations, and persecutions come they spit the bit out of their mouth. They never truly said "Lord Thy will be done", so in turn God said to them, "alright have it your way". They abandon their maker believing they can "re-mold" themselves when really they are throwing a perfectly good creation into the fire.

Every time I encounter someone is vehemently against The Lord Jesus Christ I can almost always guess that they got burned by trying out God at sometime in their life. The Bible does not promise a bed of roses when you become a Christian. In fact it promises trials, temptations and persecution. The thing is, those who are truly saved gladly weather the storm being a faithful soldier. Those who were never saved say, this Christianity is a bunch of bull. They are worse off than if they would have never stepped foot in the church. The chance of reaching this person for Christ is practically zilch. Of course all things are possible with God, so never count them out completely.

If you read nothing else on this blog, please read this paragraph. Having an intellectual belief in Jesus Christ means absolutely nothing, and it does not make you a Christian. Believing in God, does not save you, the devil believes in God. If you thought you were a Christian becuase you acknowledged God the Father, or The Son you weren't one. No one has ever expierenced the power of touching the hand of God and walked away.

Let me illustrate this for you. I believe in parachutes! In fact I have even seen them, I know there are parachutes. This is an intellectual belief in parachutes. Now the questions are these. Do I trust in the parachute? Will I put it on? Will I jump out of airplane trusting it with my life? Heck no I won't. In a parachute religion, I would be a false convert for sure. The only way I am ever trusting in a parachute is if I have absolutely no other choice. So often that is how man feels. We have all seen it, people who never go to church have a loved one dying or they themselves are and they are praying and asking for prayer. They are trying to put on the parachute while they are falling, friend put it on now! People will try everything and anything before trusting Christ, and often they hit the ground before they ever see the need to put Him on. Friend your need is today, you could be closer to hitting the ground than you think!

The Bible speaks about people in the last days. It says they will have a form of Godliness with out the power. To me, these are the people that believe in parachutes but never get the experience of jumping from 10,000 feet and having the parachute save them. There is power in the cross of Christ. If you have not experienced it, than you just had a form of Godliness with out the power.

Here is scripture that talks much about what I have said in this blog. It's 2 Timothy Chapter 3. I know this chapter is specific to the last days, but it fits real good for right now (is that a coincedence or are we getting very close?). It gives a great account of those who never trusted vs. those who have. Examine yourself and see what camp you are in. Check verse 2: are you number 1 in your life? Do you constantly desire things you don't have? Do you boast of your goodness? Are you proud of it?(The Bible says there is none good, no not one). Do you use the Lords name in vain? Did you listen to your parents? Are you thankful for everything God has given you, like your taste buds and your vision? Unholy? It keeps going ask yourself what it says in verses 3 & 4. Uh oh are you sexually permiscuous jump to verse 6. Are you an intellectual that does not like Christ? Than check out verse 7. Starting at verse 10 you will see the attributes of a true believer.

[1] This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.[2] For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,[3] Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,[4] Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;[5] Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.[6] For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,[7] Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.[8] Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.[9] But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.[10] But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience,[11] Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me.[12] Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.[13] But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.[14] But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;[15] And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.[16] All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:[17] That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

If you are a bitter "former Christian" I just want to let you know, you were never a Christian. It's not too late to become one. You just have to be willing to trust solely in Christ Jesus to save you. You could start falling at any moment 10 out of 10 people die. Repent and trust Christ now.

Open letter to my friends

This is an open letter to all my friends. If you are not a Christian, the natural man in you will want to laugh this off and perhaps not even finish this letter, and certianly not think seriously about it. However since you are my friend, please do me one last favor and think hard about this.

To my dear friends, both old and new. I beg you read this. Whether you are my oldest and dearest friends I grew up with through middle and high school, or a new friend I have met in the last 13 years. I beg you read this with great discernment. Knowing that my only motive is a love for you. A strong love and desire for you to not go the broad way which leads to pain, suffering and destruction that so many take.

First of all, those of you that know me know I am not some crazy religious wacko. My friends, those from high school. We grew up together as a family. All of us had problems at home in some way or another. We escaped that trough our friendship. Every day we spent together, it's not supposed to be like that. Now that I have a family, four beautiful children, I see the way we were all raised as a tragedy. The family unit should be woven together tightly, a bond that cannot be replaced with friends, drugs, alcohol, and parties. Those things ended up defining us in our very important and impressionable teen years. It saddens me that now in our 30s many of you still have that exact same life. This is not a rebuke, nor a rip on you, as you all I know I am not like that. I know how hard it is to leave a lifestyle that defined who you are when relying on yourself. I also know that many of you have no desire to move on, to learn truth, and what life truly is about; which is to serve our Father The Lord Jesus Christ. He truly wants you to be His son and it hurts Him, that you live your life with out acknowledging all that He has given you. I have lost touch with some of you, I know most of my friends do not even know the names of my children, and have not even seen the younger ones. I miss you guys, and do love you. Although we lived our lives all wrong I have many great memories with you. To my new friends, my earnestness is just as sincere. I pray you to listen.

I am now a Christian. I had studied the claims of The Bible for over 10 years. This wonderful book with hundreds to thousands (depending on what you consider a prophecy) of 100% accurately fulfilled prophecies. Ones that name specific countries and times. Ones that you can confirm with a Bible and encyclopedia. The scientific, archeological, historical and prophetic evidence, led me to believe the claims of The Bible were true. However, I was not a Christian after those 10 years. I had an intellectual belief in The Christ Jesus, but that alone cannot save you. Of course demons believe in Christ, we know that they are not children of God.
Awaken your senses! Look around at this wonderful world we live in. It is created with order and complexity that could not happen by accident coming from nothing. Look at your eye and all it's complexities. From the universes and galaxies, all the way down to the single cell, everything has order and design. Your conscience is God's law written on your heart. Your DNA is an actual language, much like Morse code! Who wrote that language and designed all this stuff? As a Christian, I can proudly proclaim My Father did.

The truth about God has been distorted, and my concern is you do not have a correct understanding of God. Sadly, there has been a move in America that says God is all love. Believe in God, pray to him when you need to be picked up, or even at night in your bed. Than He will love you and save you. This is not true; this is not what The Bible says. The Bible says unless you are born again you will not see the kingdom of God. I know that word makes you cringe, but brace yourself, I am born again. Being born again means you die to yourself and become a new creature in Christ. The good news is you don't have to have the strength to leave the old ways and become this new creature. That would be work righteousness, which God hates. There is nothing you can do to save yourself, it is a gift granted from God. Also it is such a radical change; you know there is no way you could do it yourself, that it truly is God manifesting Himself with you. He gets all the credit and glory. You just have to be willing to let Him turn your life upside down and inside out and mold you into His image. You have to be willing to admit: in and of yourself you are a lowly sinner, nothing more. You have to be willing to bend a knee and worship God. As a good child would respect and revere their father, you need to do the same to your Heavenly Father. If you can humble yourself in front of God, remove the pride, He will do the rest. You have to be willing to take on the trials and tribulations that come with being a soldier in the battle of good versus evil. Friends and family will turn on you. People will call you names and you will lose friendships, but I assure you, you will have the strength to endure and march forward. It also strengthens your faith because The Bible says that is exactly what will happen; and has happened to me.

I know many of you believe in God, but have been fooled by the "God loves you, and is an all loving God" gospel. God does love you. But he is also good, just, and righteous. God always existed he did not make Himself, and He cannot change. He is what He is and always was. He has to give justice; otherwise he would not be good. As you would not consider a human judge to be good if he did not punish law breakers, God cannot be good if He does not either.
You see we are all in transgression of God's law. Many people think Christians are "holier than thou" goody two shoes. The fact is we are just like non-Christians, with one difference. As a sinner, you are a sinner period. As a Christian, I am a sinner saved by Grace. That is it. If you take an honest look in God's mirror (The 10 commandments) you will see you have a very ugly face. Have you loved God above all else, ever stolen, ever lied, ever taken God's name in vain, ever had sexual desires about someone else's spouse? You will see you are a lying, thieving, blasphemous, lustful, coveting creature. One who does not love God, or thank Him for all things He does for you. One that has created a God in your own image, that suits you and that you are comfortable with. How many times have you used God's name in vain this week? Whether it be GD, JC, or just Oh My G**! This is showing no respect for your Father. You would never use your mother's name this way. Nor would you even use Hitler, or Mohammed's name this way. The Bible says people naturally hate God and that is why we use His name this way. I did not even touch all the commandments, but that is enough for you to see you are guilty of breaking God's law.

God has to punish you, but He loves you and the thought of you perishing grieves Him greatly. God does not want you to perish, so He came up with a plan to reconcile His love for you, with His righteousness, His justice, His goodness, and His holiness. He decided to lay the punishment on Himself. He lowered Himself to our form. He came in humility born in a filthy manger with the dirt and filth that is in barn animals homes. He lived His adult life as a servant to us; our mighty God who created billions of universes with a flick of His finger came to us. What did we do? We killed Him. He became sin so He could lay the punishment that we deserve on Himself. After a gruesome scourging that would have killed many, he was crucified. A horrible, torturous and painful death. He had fear, felt pain like any human. While in other religions people die for their God, our God died for us.

Now you have a decision to make. Picture this. You were in a court room owing a million dollar fine, or being dragged off to prison. A man comes in that you don't know gives the judge the million to set you free. Would you say, "I can't accept this man's money, please take me to prison" or would you take the gift? Jesus did this very thing, he stepped into the courtroom 2000 years ago. You can accept His payment for your sin, or let the punishment fall on you. It's your choice. One day all will bend a knee and declare Jesus Christ as Lord, please do it now, because if you do it on the day of judgement it will be too late.

Look at the world today. It's getting worse with every passing day. Everything that is going on right now is in The Bible. It's all going by The Book proving it's supernatural origin. Don't take my word for it, start reading it. If you do want to live for The Lord, tell Him you are sorry. Sorry for living your whole life in rebellion to Him. Believe in The Lord Jesus Christ. Confess Him with your mouth. Admit your sins, and turn from them. That is called repenting. Ask God for a new heart with new desires, repentance is granted from God, it is not a work you can do. He will turn you from your sin when you turn toward Him. Get a Bible and read it every day. Do what it says. God will not let you down. He is patient and longsuffering that not one will perish that is willing to come to Him.

I pray for all of you every night. Not just I, but Andrea and the kids do as well. I cannot explain the radical changes that happen when you give your life to The Lord. Things you could never do on your own. In fact things you would never desire to do on your own. God reveals Himself to you. Don't love your sin so much that you are not willing to let God take it from you. Please don't let sin cloud truth. Pride and sin are the only things stopping you from doing this. The choice is life and death. Eternal life or the second death, it's up to you.

With sincere love in Christ,
Paul