FIVE VS FIVE – – – SOMETIMES FIVE AGAINST SEVEN

June 29, 2022 By Leave a Comment

A basketball coach tells his team the following just before they go out on the court. The same coaching counts for life, especially the Christian life.

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You are going out on that court, five against five, against your peers—the outcome fair game. Give it everything you’ve got, leave it all on the court—start the game with integrity, play with integrity, and end with integrity. You will need that, above and beyond ability, for those times when you will be five against seven.

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In the ‘game of life’, every Christian is in a battle, a war, a spiritual war—and much of it is unseen, and much of it is unfair. How do we deal with that, like the basketball team against five opponents plus the refs? How? We go to the Bible, read it often, so we can quote it out loud to the unseen enemies in the war.

“We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal (physical), but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”

“Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

Use the name of Jesus and the Word of God, and defeat the enemy.

Filed Under: Educational, Faith Based, Inspirational

BELIEVE IT ? or NOT ?

June 29, 2022 By Leave a Comment

It is dangerous to believe and agree with everything a preacher or teacher says, even if it is your own pastor, or revered theologians of the past.

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It is even more dangerous to NOT believe everything the Bible says.

Filed Under: Educational, Faith Based, Inspirational, Political---Cultural

“HALF SLAVE, HALF FREE” – – – HALF DEATH, HALF LIFE ?

June 25, 2022 By Leave a Comment

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.

I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided.

It will become all one thing or all the other.“

—–Abraham Lincoln, June 16,1858 after the Illinois Republicans chose him as their candidate for U. S. Senator

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Indeed, how telling is that quote for our country today.

We have quickly become unsustainably divided in America.

The emphasis on race has been used beyond reality to whip up division, because it is an old, convenient means to weaken a country for takeover.

What is far more significant in our current division and the very survival of our divided America, is what God says about our killing babies—for fifty years across the country, and now dividing us state by state for life or death.

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A day after Roe has been overturned, WE THANK GOD ! ! !, and we thank Donald Trump for his three Supreme Court appointees that made yesterday possible ! ! !

We know how much more work is required to abolish abortion across America.

Judgment has already started falling for the blood of sixty million babies.

Now the question, “How long can this country stand, half ‘death’ and half ‘life’?”

Rephrasing from Lincoln’s speech:

“‘A house divided against itself cannot stand.‘

I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half death and half life.”

Filed Under: Educational, Faith Based, Family, Inspirational, Political---Cultural, Time

HOW TO GET CLOSE TO GOD

June 25, 2022 By Leave a Comment

-Not by seeing or saying how good I am.

-Not by the greatest show on church stage.

-Not by seeking happiness.

-Not by material blessings.

-Not by getting comfortable.

– – –

Am I experiencing goodness?

Am I experiencing trouble?

Can I get close to God?

Do I want to get close to God?

– – –

First of all, it’s all about Him, not me.

So, what does He have to say about getting close to Him?

What does He have to say about pleasing Him?

What can I give God, what can I sacrifice, that could impress Him, and get us close?

– – –

How can I get close to God?

+”The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit—a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”

+”The goodness of God is supposed to lead you to repentance.”

+”Call upon Me in the day of trouble—I will deliver you—and you will glorify me.”

+”Call on Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things you don’t know.”

+”Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.”

Getting close to God is not about what I think would do it, but yielding to His way to get us close.

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And now the big one, to get really close to God.

According to Christians around the world, right now, the most guaranteed way to experience the best, the sweetest closeness with God, is through persecution.

Not my idea of fun, but again, what does God say about getting close to Him?

+”Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake . . .

+Blessed are you, when men will revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake.

+Rejoice, and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven.”

Filed Under: Educational, Faith Based, Inspirational

TIME AND STRESS

June 18, 2022 By Leave a Comment

(I wrote this in my notepad after the spring change to daylight savings time, and failed to post it.)

I’m guessing a lot of people are getting up late this morning—or at least struggling to get up on time this week—and not because they failed to change their clocks.

We punch buttons on our technology and get instant results, but we can’t change the fact that our internal clocks don’t operate that way.

Even if you went to bed earlier last night, something tells you that something isn’t right inside.

And the more we try to override the way we’re made in any area (even using technology and science), the more we add stress and distress to our lives.

In generations past, like the pioneer days, I believe people had more peace, time, energy, and emotion to deal with life, with less stress, than we do, because they had consistent rest, without arbitrary interruption in their schedule.

– – –

Interesting how we still talk, and many complain, about the switches with DST.

It shows that we’re not designed to get used to such sudden, overnight changes.

We adjust to the seasons because they are gradual, and they are designed by the same Creator that made us to fit in His creation.

Filed Under: Educational, Faith Based, Health, Time

WHAT DOES YOUR SACRIFICE COST?

June 18, 2022 By Leave a Comment

“Offer to God thanksgiving—then pay your vows to the Most High.”

If you claim (or assume) that you follow Jesus, do you have any vows to God—any sacrifices that cost you?

If you claim to follow Jesus—who knows that, and sees that, among your friends, relatives, and co-workers?

King David offered a sacrifice to God (a literal one), and refused to let the materials for the sacrifice be donated, however willingly.

He said, “I will not offer anything to God that costs me nothing.”

The question for us now, “Will I follow Jesus in a way that costs me and contrasts everything around me—and prepare to pay the price? And will I study my Bible every day to find out how?”

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The hazards of comfortable that I have referred to before, are now upon us.

Filed Under: Educational, Faith Based, Family, Political---Cultural

UNPRAYED PRAYERS ANSWERED, EARLY

June 1, 2022 By Leave a Comment

“Before they call, I will answer, and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.”

I have experienced this literally, numerous times when I sit down to write at my computer.

After God gives me an anointed topic and wording, then I remember to pray for anointing, after the fact.

I can only thank Him and proceed.

Filed Under: Educational, Faith Based, Time

STOP EVIL

May 28, 2022 By Leave a Comment

The human heart is evil, and if not restrained by moral teaching of right and wrong, it produces evil actions.

In the absence of such restraint, in the absence of a heart change by surrender to a relationship with Jesus, the evil actions must be stopped by force, as quickly as possible, and by any means necessary.

Nazism and Japanese religious fanaticism were not going to be stopped by a change in their heart—only by force, which meant killing to save lives.

Mass shootings in America (that we see increasing right now) are not going to be stopped by a change in the perpetrator’s heart—only by force, which means killing to save lives.

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Mass shootings die when the people carry guns.

Filed Under: Educational, Political---Cultural, Time

PERSECUTED IN PUBLIC SCHOOL

May 28, 2022 By Leave a Comment

We have a plague in the public schools of America that causes damage and pain and death as surely as persecution around the world.

We decry the outlawing of Christianity in other countries, and the devastation to Christians—while we have done the same thing in our schools, with increasing devastation to our children.

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We must see the connection—we must make the changes.

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Yesterday I sent the following to a number of local friends:

“Who can we enlist to start a campaign with people carrying three signs around my school (Temple High School), and your school, and then another school? Three different signs, with this specific wording, one school at a time:

WE NEED THE TEN COMMANDMENTS IN OUR SCHOOL AGAIN

WE NEED PRAYER IN OUR SCHOOL AGAIN

WE NEED THE BIBLE IN OUR SCHOOL AGAIN”

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And, cards could be given to passersby:

“Your laws ignore our deepest needs.

Your words are empty air.

You’ve stripped away our heritage.

You’ve outlawed simple prayer.

Now gunshots fill our classrooms,

And precious children die.

You seek for answers everywhere,

And ask the question, ‘WHY?’ . . .

testimony to Congress by Darrel Scott, father of Rachel, killed at Columbine High School”

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If a few people, and then thousands of people across the country, carried those three signs in front of their school, some would make the connection with what is happening inside, and God would make the difference.

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Please note my emphasis on school (not schools)—that’s where change starts.

Filed Under: Education, Educational, Faith Based, Political---Cultural, Time

BIBLE STUDY OR BS ?

May 25, 2022 By Leave a Comment

How many doctrines do church leaders hold dear and count as given with special labels—that no one reading the Bible for themselves would ever come up with?

What is the real source of many church teachings—revered individuals and councils with authority to dictate, or the clear words of the Bible alone?

Filed Under: Educational, Faith Based, Inspirational
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