Dear Psalm23
Thank you for introducing David Pawson sermons to me. Is there a way I can save the sermons? It is downloaded to a temporary file in my computer and I can play it but not open it again.
Thanks and God bless u.
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Today's Scripture Reading
- Thread starter Psalm23
- Start date
Dear Psalm23
Thank you for introducing David Pawson sermons to me. Is there a way I can save the sermons? It is downloaded to a temporary file in my computer and I can play it but not open it again.
Thanks and God bless u.
Praise God. Glad you have taken the trouble to listen to his sermons.
Unfortunately, I have not tried downloading any Youtube video. Hence, I am afraid I couldn't help. May be you want to try asking your IT savvy friends and if you know how to do it, appreciate you let me know.
God Bless and Have a Blessed Weekend.
Psalm 23
Dear Psalm23
What I did was to google David Pawson and google found www.sermonindex.net
I just clicked on it and there were a series of sermons (something like 10 sermons) on the Book of Revelation. I am currently listening to those sermons, but I am unable to save them.
The lectures get downloaded into my temporary files and after hearing them, I am unable to save them.
Anyway, thanks to you for introducing the David Pawson's lectures.
What I did was to google David Pawson and google found www.sermonindex.net
I just clicked on it and there were a series of sermons (something like 10 sermons) on the Book of Revelation. I am currently listening to those sermons, but I am unable to save them.
The lectures get downloaded into my temporary files and after hearing them, I am unable to save them.
Anyway, thanks to you for introducing the David Pawson's lectures.
- Joined
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Dear 23:
You have no doubt put in lots of effort.... God Bless You.
This is Sammyboy. Wise men come here for good time. Simpletons come here for enlightnment (somebody puh-lease correct me if me cockedup).
You want walk closer to God, go to any church and volunteer at their soup kitchen. If you have a good voice or play a mean guitar, join their band.
I have not read all your posts. Honestly, I gave this thread a miss and only now started reading (some) of ya postings. All your time spent here cud be spent helping your community or some other bloke.
God bless ya. Cheers!
Today’s Scripture Reading [March 28, 2010]
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. [2 Chronicles 7:14. KJV]
Where are we now in the Kingdom of God? Are we really in Christ in humility? We are saved for a specific purpose – do we sincerely pray to God what is His purpose for us? What are we doing for Christ sake? Are we raising our spiritual bar to please Him more and more each day? Are we systematically and continually reading and studying His Word?
To fully answer the above questions, we need four basic action plans. These are:
(a) Humble ourselves
God cannot humble us. Only we can humble ourselves because this is a choice and God will not force us to do something that we are not willing. Humility is God-dependent whereas pride is self-dependency. The sin of pride has germinated into violence of all kinds. We must take immediate step to be God-dependent creature otherwise God can use calamity to drive us to Him in humility. Certainly, we don’t like this to happen. Let us humble before Him at our own choice and not through God’s induced calamity.
(b) Pray
God is ever ready to listen to us. He wants us to talk to Him. Although God knows our heart, knows what we are thinking, but we must not misplace His awesome and loving thoughts and giving ourselves excuses not to pray, not to talk to Him. Jesus prayed and He even taught us how to pray (Matthew 6: 9-13). Since we are saved for a specific purpose, we need to pray to Him to reveal to us what exactly He wants from us. If we truly open our hearts to Him, He will reveal His purpose to us because our God is God of Revelation. Nothing can conceal Him.
(c) Seek His face
Seek is a passionate word and it indicates strongly our desire to do something. Jesus carries the same passions and desire when He proclaimed that He has come to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 9:10). Since then He wants us to seek His face, His presence, His approval, His spiritual gifts and not seeking His hand for material gifts or provisions. Are we continually reading and studying His Word in a systematic manner to further discover what He really desires us to seek? We cannot fully feel His presence nor understanding His desire for us until we are fully nourished by His Word.
(d) Turn away from our wicked ways
Our sin-sick world is infested with all kinds of debaucheries and human perversions. Whether we are young people, old people, big-time business professionals, small-time business professionals, government officials, talented sports men and women, millionaires, billionaires, or average wage earners, many of us are cheating one another, indulging all kinds of activities, seeking pleasure at the expense of others. Sadly, this includes church members like ourselves and some church leaders. Inhuman behaviour is becoming a norm and in some countries (or rather in many countries) there are laws made for the rich and the powerful on the one hand, and laws made for the poor on the other hand. For the rich and powerful, they seem to be able to get ‘away with murder’ but for the poor and the helpless, they will face very harsh punishment even for a small crime! As children of God, all we can do is to pray that we will not be fallen prey into the hands of these cheaters and at the same time, we can and must take every of our effort to turn away from all our wicked ways in period of lawlessness. One noted American evangelist once commented that if God doesn’t send judgment to America, He will need to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. But it is not only in America. If God doesn’t send judgment to our country, He too need to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah because sins are also everywhere in our country. Judgment will come not just to America. It will come to the whole world because the whole world has sinned against Him. But God is merciful and gracious. He is patient and He is calling us to repentance and time is running out. To escape the judgment, we must raise our spiritual bar each day to keep us away from the wicked ways. We must not behave like the days of Noah – drinking, eating, marrying, buying, selling (Matthew 24:37-38) and live as if there is no God. His judgment is coming and is coming very soon because the global society has reached to the point that is now ripe for His judgment. Now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2b), and so let’s enter into His Ark of Salvation right now before the door closes!
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. [2 Chronicles 7:14. KJV]
Where are we now in the Kingdom of God? Are we really in Christ in humility? We are saved for a specific purpose – do we sincerely pray to God what is His purpose for us? What are we doing for Christ sake? Are we raising our spiritual bar to please Him more and more each day? Are we systematically and continually reading and studying His Word?
To fully answer the above questions, we need four basic action plans. These are:
(a) Humble ourselves
God cannot humble us. Only we can humble ourselves because this is a choice and God will not force us to do something that we are not willing. Humility is God-dependent whereas pride is self-dependency. The sin of pride has germinated into violence of all kinds. We must take immediate step to be God-dependent creature otherwise God can use calamity to drive us to Him in humility. Certainly, we don’t like this to happen. Let us humble before Him at our own choice and not through God’s induced calamity.
(b) Pray
God is ever ready to listen to us. He wants us to talk to Him. Although God knows our heart, knows what we are thinking, but we must not misplace His awesome and loving thoughts and giving ourselves excuses not to pray, not to talk to Him. Jesus prayed and He even taught us how to pray (Matthew 6: 9-13). Since we are saved for a specific purpose, we need to pray to Him to reveal to us what exactly He wants from us. If we truly open our hearts to Him, He will reveal His purpose to us because our God is God of Revelation. Nothing can conceal Him.
(c) Seek His face
Seek is a passionate word and it indicates strongly our desire to do something. Jesus carries the same passions and desire when He proclaimed that He has come to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 9:10). Since then He wants us to seek His face, His presence, His approval, His spiritual gifts and not seeking His hand for material gifts or provisions. Are we continually reading and studying His Word in a systematic manner to further discover what He really desires us to seek? We cannot fully feel His presence nor understanding His desire for us until we are fully nourished by His Word.
(d) Turn away from our wicked ways
Our sin-sick world is infested with all kinds of debaucheries and human perversions. Whether we are young people, old people, big-time business professionals, small-time business professionals, government officials, talented sports men and women, millionaires, billionaires, or average wage earners, many of us are cheating one another, indulging all kinds of activities, seeking pleasure at the expense of others. Sadly, this includes church members like ourselves and some church leaders. Inhuman behaviour is becoming a norm and in some countries (or rather in many countries) there are laws made for the rich and the powerful on the one hand, and laws made for the poor on the other hand. For the rich and powerful, they seem to be able to get ‘away with murder’ but for the poor and the helpless, they will face very harsh punishment even for a small crime! As children of God, all we can do is to pray that we will not be fallen prey into the hands of these cheaters and at the same time, we can and must take every of our effort to turn away from all our wicked ways in period of lawlessness. One noted American evangelist once commented that if God doesn’t send judgment to America, He will need to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. But it is not only in America. If God doesn’t send judgment to our country, He too need to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah because sins are also everywhere in our country. Judgment will come not just to America. It will come to the whole world because the whole world has sinned against Him. But God is merciful and gracious. He is patient and He is calling us to repentance and time is running out. To escape the judgment, we must raise our spiritual bar each day to keep us away from the wicked ways. We must not behave like the days of Noah – drinking, eating, marrying, buying, selling (Matthew 24:37-38) and live as if there is no God. His judgment is coming and is coming very soon because the global society has reached to the point that is now ripe for His judgment. Now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2b), and so let’s enter into His Ark of Salvation right now before the door closes!
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Dear Agoraphobic
I have three points to your reply:
First, how do you know that I am not or had not volunteered my time to serve the community or in the church? To begin with, do you actually know my full-time profession or my full-time job now? So, don't write like you know so much about me.
Second, I don't think you have the right to tell other people how to spend their time.
Third, one of the best ways (in my opinion) is to write something sensible or at least point to people what are good materials to read to help them in their walk with our God. There are so much rubbish in the internet, in the newspapers, in the magazines and so on. I am now lead by my God to use part of my time to write and encourage other Christians. Besides this, there are many many other ways - just like what you have mentioned, one can spend time playing guitar or singing in church. Even there are people who spent alot of time singing in churches, they too being ridiculed why spent time to sing to your members; why not volunteer your time in RC, CCC, welfare homes, etc to help the poor and the needy. Again, how do we know that those people did not go and help the needy? Just because they spent time playing guitar or singing in churches? The most important thing is: Have an honest and sincere heart - do what you think is right but don't mislead people, don't cheat people, don't take advantage of people and do everything with clear conscious and without any ulterior motive or expecting anything. And there million ways to do all these; writing to encourage others is only one of million ways...and that is now my preferred way...I may change it later to other way...if God willing.
Many people write and publish books and get alot of money through royalty. I have, however, noted very magnanimous people who are willing to put their writings in the internet and let people use any way they want without any payment. They, perhaps, have spent their life time doing this. A very good example is one professor by the name of Dr. Peter Pett (just go to internet and key in this name, you can find all his writings). He spent, I believe, many many years writing bible commentaries and display on the internet for people to use and without charge. You can download his commentaries from Genesis to Revelation. These are one of the best bible commentaries I have come across and they are free. These are the type of people I truly admire. And I hope you don't email to him and tell Dr. Peter Pett to stop writing and spend his time help his community! I am trying to do a little of my part and to give back what I have benefits from these people, and all for the glory of God, nothing more, nothing less.
God Bless.
Psalm23
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Today’s Scripture Reading [March 28, 2010]
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. [2 Chronicles 7:14. KJV]
Where are we now in the Kingdom of God? Are we really in Christ in humility? We are saved for a specific purpose – do we sincerely pray to God what is His purpose for us? What are we doing for Christ sake? Are we raising our spiritual bar to please Him more and more each day? Are we systematically and continually reading and studying His Word?
To fully answer the above questions, we need four basic action plans. These are:
(a) Humble ourselves
God cannot humble us. Only we can humble ourselves because this is a choice and God will not force us to do something that we are not willing. Humility is God-dependent whereas pride is self-dependency. The sin of pride has germinated into violence of all kinds. We must take immediate step to be God-dependent creature otherwise God can use calamity to drive us to Him in humility. Certainly, we don’t like this to happen. Let us humble before Him at our own choice and not through God’s induced calamity.
(b) Pray
God is ever ready to listen to us. He wants us to talk to Him. Although God knows our heart, knows what we are thinking, but we must not misplace His awesome and loving thoughts and giving ourselves excuses not to pray, not to talk to Him. Jesus prayed and He even taught us how to pray (Matthew 6: 9-13). Since we are saved for a specific purpose, we need to pray to Him to reveal to us what exactly He wants from us. If we truly open our hearts to Him, He will reveal His purpose to us because our God is God of Revelation. Nothing can conceal Him.
(c) Seek His face
Seek is a passionate word and it indicates strongly our desire to do something. Jesus carries the same passions and desire when He proclaimed that He has come to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 9:10). Since then He wants us to seek His face, His presence, His approval, His spiritual gifts and not seeking His hand for material gifts or provisions. Are we continually reading and studying His Word in a systematic manner to further discover what He really desires us to seek? We cannot fully feel His presence nor understanding His desire for us until we are fully nourished by His Word.
(d) Turn away from our wicked ways
Our sin-sick world is infested with all kinds of debaucheries and human perversions. Whether we are young people, old people, big-time business professionals, small-time business professionals, government officials, talented sports men and women, millionaires, billionaires, or average wage earners, many of us are cheating one another, indulging all kinds of activities, seeking pleasure at the expense of others. Sadly, this includes church members like ourselves and some church leaders. Inhuman behaviour is becoming a norm and in some countries (or rather in many countries) there are laws made for the rich and the powerful on the one hand, and laws made for the poor on the other hand. For the rich and powerful, they seem to be able to get ‘away with murder’ but for the poor and the helpless, they will face very harsh punishment even for a small crime! As children of God, all we can do is to pray that we will not be fallen prey into the hands of these cheaters and at the same time, we can and must take every of our effort to turn away from all our wicked ways in this period of lawlessness. One noted American evangelist once commented that if God doesn’t send judgment to America, He will need to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. But it is not only in America. If God doesn’t send judgment to our country, He too will need to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah because sins are also everywhere in our country. Judgment will come not just to America. It will come to the whole world because the whole world has sinned against Him. But God is merciful and gracious. He is patient and He is calling us to repentance but time is running out. To escape the judgment, we must raise our spiritual bar each day to keep us away from the wicked ways. We must not behave like the days of Noah – drinking, eating, marrying, buying, selling (Matthew 24:37-38) and live as if there is no God. His judgment is coming and is coming very soon because the global society has reached to the point that is now ripe for His judgment. Now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2b), and so let’s enter into His Ark of Salvation right now before the door closes!
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. [2 Chronicles 7:14. KJV]
Where are we now in the Kingdom of God? Are we really in Christ in humility? We are saved for a specific purpose – do we sincerely pray to God what is His purpose for us? What are we doing for Christ sake? Are we raising our spiritual bar to please Him more and more each day? Are we systematically and continually reading and studying His Word?
To fully answer the above questions, we need four basic action plans. These are:
(a) Humble ourselves
God cannot humble us. Only we can humble ourselves because this is a choice and God will not force us to do something that we are not willing. Humility is God-dependent whereas pride is self-dependency. The sin of pride has germinated into violence of all kinds. We must take immediate step to be God-dependent creature otherwise God can use calamity to drive us to Him in humility. Certainly, we don’t like this to happen. Let us humble before Him at our own choice and not through God’s induced calamity.
(b) Pray
God is ever ready to listen to us. He wants us to talk to Him. Although God knows our heart, knows what we are thinking, but we must not misplace His awesome and loving thoughts and giving ourselves excuses not to pray, not to talk to Him. Jesus prayed and He even taught us how to pray (Matthew 6: 9-13). Since we are saved for a specific purpose, we need to pray to Him to reveal to us what exactly He wants from us. If we truly open our hearts to Him, He will reveal His purpose to us because our God is God of Revelation. Nothing can conceal Him.
(c) Seek His face
Seek is a passionate word and it indicates strongly our desire to do something. Jesus carries the same passions and desire when He proclaimed that He has come to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 9:10). Since then He wants us to seek His face, His presence, His approval, His spiritual gifts and not seeking His hand for material gifts or provisions. Are we continually reading and studying His Word in a systematic manner to further discover what He really desires us to seek? We cannot fully feel His presence nor understanding His desire for us until we are fully nourished by His Word.
(d) Turn away from our wicked ways
Our sin-sick world is infested with all kinds of debaucheries and human perversions. Whether we are young people, old people, big-time business professionals, small-time business professionals, government officials, talented sports men and women, millionaires, billionaires, or average wage earners, many of us are cheating one another, indulging all kinds of activities, seeking pleasure at the expense of others. Sadly, this includes church members like ourselves and some church leaders. Inhuman behaviour is becoming a norm and in some countries (or rather in many countries) there are laws made for the rich and the powerful on the one hand, and laws made for the poor on the other hand. For the rich and powerful, they seem to be able to get ‘away with murder’ but for the poor and the helpless, they will face very harsh punishment even for a small crime! As children of God, all we can do is to pray that we will not be fallen prey into the hands of these cheaters and at the same time, we can and must take every of our effort to turn away from all our wicked ways in this period of lawlessness. One noted American evangelist once commented that if God doesn’t send judgment to America, He will need to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. But it is not only in America. If God doesn’t send judgment to our country, He too will need to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah because sins are also everywhere in our country. Judgment will come not just to America. It will come to the whole world because the whole world has sinned against Him. But God is merciful and gracious. He is patient and He is calling us to repentance but time is running out. To escape the judgment, we must raise our spiritual bar each day to keep us away from the wicked ways. We must not behave like the days of Noah – drinking, eating, marrying, buying, selling (Matthew 24:37-38) and live as if there is no God. His judgment is coming and is coming very soon because the global society has reached to the point that is now ripe for His judgment. Now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2b), and so let’s enter into His Ark of Salvation right now before the door closes!
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Today’s Scripture Reading [April, 4, 2010]
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. [Revelation 21:1; 19-20. KJV]
Let’s get serious. Heaven and hell is real! Although I have posted a message on the reality of hell in the October 18, 2009 Today’s Scripture Reading blog, I am led by the Holy Spirit to further warn you about the final true facts of hell which the Bible speaks about. Remember, Jesus has spoken to us more about hell than heaven! So, what are the final true facts of hell that the Bible has spoken about?
(a) It is a place of intense physical and mental discomfort, full of foul smell with great intense heat, and infested with worms that never die.
(b) It is a place of total darkness. You may have eyes, but you cannot see.
(c) It is a place where you will be weeping and gnashing your teeth. Eternal sorrow and anger are your only indulgence.
(d) It is a place of complete social depravation. There is no love, no kindness and no goodness. These are final results for people who choose to live their lives without God.
(e) It is a place of complete dryness and not a single drop of water could be found.
(f) It is a place that you will experience your full consciousness. All your senses will in fact be even more pronounced and more sensitive compared to your present time.
(g) It is a place that you will be separated from God, forever!
Jesus has warned us that this is a place that we all must avoid at all costs. But how then can we avoid such an awful place of unimaginable suffering and torment? The answer is in the Bible. Through His Son, Jesus and by His atoning blood, we can avoid this awful place. And the greatest good news is that God with all His mercy promises a completely contrasting place for us if only we accept His offer. All truly repented sinners will be living with Him in a new heaven and a new earth (Relevation 21:1) that He has prepared for us throughout eternity.
The heaven that God has prepared for us will have unimaginable love, peace and joy and no earthly word can fully describe the real environment of what the new heaven will be like. However, in the last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation, God has given us some concrete hints of its physical make-up of heaven. Heaven is not an invisible place where we see nothing but clouds or just angels playing harps. It is a real physical (as well as spiritual) place with wall that made of jasper and the foundations of the wall of the city are garnished with twelve gemstones of jasper, sapphire, chalcedony, emerald, sardonyx, sardius, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, chrysoprasus, jacinth and amethyst. (Revelation 21:19-20).
It is interesting to note that none of the more valuable gemstones that are more favoured by men such as diamond, ruby or opal are used or garnished on the walls of the new heaven. Everyone of us, including children, knows that diamond is the most precious gemstone on earth. Many people may be wondering why a perfect God would rather choose second best jewels like jasper, sapphire, emerald, et el. instead of more valuable gems in building the heaven. Has our God forgotten to use these gemstones of diamond, ruby and opal to build the heaven? Did He make a mistake? Not exactly because God is a perfect God and He will never make mistakes! They are excluded for very good reasons.
The science of gemology and physics of optics and light have advanced tremendously in the last 50 years. With this advancement, there are a number of very interesting scientific and technical discoveries relating to the optical characteristics of gemstones. All jewels that are used in the building of the heaven mentioned in Revelation 21:19 are crystal structures and are known as, in gemology, anisotropic gems. The other gemstones like diamond, ruby and opal that are not mentioned in Revelation 21:19 are known as isotropic gems. One of the most resounding gemological discoveries is that when ‘pure light’ or polarized light (as known in the scientific world) passes through anisotropic gems like jasper, emerald or topaz, they reflect brilliant rainbow colours of various shapes. On the other hand, when polarized light is passed through isotropic gems like diamond or opal, they do not reflect nor sparkled. In fact, these isotropic gemstones have simply become dull and dark. [If you want to know more of this, you can go to this Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXfCdcNRN60 ]
The gemstones that were mentioned by John in Revelations 21 for the building the foundations of the new heaven form this special group of anisotropic gems. It was impossible that John, in about AD95, could have any knowledge of gemology and crystallography because we had never been told that he was in anyway involved in the jewelry business. The Book of Revelation was written by him at the time when he was banished to the island of Patmos. It was very unlikely that he could obtain any information on gemstones from this desolated place specially prepared for banished convicts and prisoners. Furthermore, the scientific knowledge of gemstones two thousand years ago was virtually non-existence. It is very obviously that at the island of Patmos, God gave John a series of apocalyptic visions to warn the Christians of end times, to assure them of God’s sovereignty, to encourage them to persevere in their faith, and shown to him vivid picture of what heaven is really like. It was at this moment that God revealed to John the building materials that would be used to build the new heaven. Revelation 21 is a direct and clear evidence of God’s revelation and he must have been divinely inspired to accurately list this special group of anisotropic gems that respond in great beauty when exposed to polarized (pure) light. It must be noted that the physics of polarized light was not invented for another one thousand nine hundred years and it was only possible after the invention of laser technology. There is no question that God has inspired John to pen these scriptures to communicate to us that heaven is real (so is hell!). Beside this physical aspect of our new home, in Revelation 21:23 John saw our heavenly city has no need for the sun nor the moon because of the glory of God and the light of the Lamp will shine on it. This light of the Lamp is God’s pure light and it will be shone all over heaven. All anisotropic gemstones when viewed in pure light will produce all the colours of a rainbow in an infinite variety of patterns whatever their original colour. The gemstones that are used in the building of heaven will produce the most perfect colour spectrum of all shapes imaginable when the Light of His Glory shine onto them! Thank God now we can really visualize what our new heavenly home is to be like and, we also now know precisely why there are no diamonds being used in the building of the heavenly walls because diamonds, being isotropic gems, when viewed through pure light will not shine. Imagine if God had used only diamonds to build the new heaven - it will be dark and dull!
Further examination reveals that the basic material of these anisotropic gems mentioned in Revelation 21:19-20 is silicon dioxide-silica. However the silica is transformed into gem quality by small intrusions of what are scientifically described as impurities such as iron, cobalt, chromium, aluminum, vanadium, beryllium, copper, magnesium etc. Sand which is basically silica which is probably the most abundant material on earth is transformed into the heavenly gems by the infusion of what we call impurities and reject. Likewise the most abundant life form on earth - humanity - is transformed into heavenly beings by the infusion of God's Holy Spirit - also rejected by mankind. The infusion of small quantities of impurity into the common silica brings forth gems of great beauty. Similarly, the infusion of small quantities of the Holy Spirit, accepted in repentance and faith produces heavenly beings acceptable to God. True Christians who have faithfully walked with Him in full repentance in this world are often despised or persecuted like “second-rated people”. But our walk with Jesus will not be in vain. We will be displayed in magnificent brilliance when we meet Him face to face. Furthermore, God doesn’t just build a home for us. He will put all our sorrows to a complete and eternal end because He has assured us in Revelation 21:4 that the first thing He is going to do when we first see Him in our heavenly home is that “He will wipe away all tears from our eyes, and there will be no death, neither sorrow, nor crying, nor any more pain”.
The world is going through a long night of darkness and is getting darker but thank God we can now see the dawning of the new day! God is appealing to us to come home because there will be no second chance once we have missed His calling. Let us accept His offer because time is running out! Jesus has told us in Revelation 22:7, “Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.” He continues in Revelation 22: 12b, “And my reward is with me, to give every man according to his work shall be.” Jesus intends that every man is rewarded and that include you and me. Let us make no provision for the flesh to fulfill our worldly desire but instead strive to be received by Him. Are you ready for His calling? Are you prepared to meet Him?
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. [Revelation 21:1; 19-20. KJV]
Let’s get serious. Heaven and hell is real! Although I have posted a message on the reality of hell in the October 18, 2009 Today’s Scripture Reading blog, I am led by the Holy Spirit to further warn you about the final true facts of hell which the Bible speaks about. Remember, Jesus has spoken to us more about hell than heaven! So, what are the final true facts of hell that the Bible has spoken about?
(a) It is a place of intense physical and mental discomfort, full of foul smell with great intense heat, and infested with worms that never die.
(b) It is a place of total darkness. You may have eyes, but you cannot see.
(c) It is a place where you will be weeping and gnashing your teeth. Eternal sorrow and anger are your only indulgence.
(d) It is a place of complete social depravation. There is no love, no kindness and no goodness. These are final results for people who choose to live their lives without God.
(e) It is a place of complete dryness and not a single drop of water could be found.
(f) It is a place that you will experience your full consciousness. All your senses will in fact be even more pronounced and more sensitive compared to your present time.
(g) It is a place that you will be separated from God, forever!
Jesus has warned us that this is a place that we all must avoid at all costs. But how then can we avoid such an awful place of unimaginable suffering and torment? The answer is in the Bible. Through His Son, Jesus and by His atoning blood, we can avoid this awful place. And the greatest good news is that God with all His mercy promises a completely contrasting place for us if only we accept His offer. All truly repented sinners will be living with Him in a new heaven and a new earth (Relevation 21:1) that He has prepared for us throughout eternity.
The heaven that God has prepared for us will have unimaginable love, peace and joy and no earthly word can fully describe the real environment of what the new heaven will be like. However, in the last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation, God has given us some concrete hints of its physical make-up of heaven. Heaven is not an invisible place where we see nothing but clouds or just angels playing harps. It is a real physical (as well as spiritual) place with wall that made of jasper and the foundations of the wall of the city are garnished with twelve gemstones of jasper, sapphire, chalcedony, emerald, sardonyx, sardius, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, chrysoprasus, jacinth and amethyst. (Revelation 21:19-20).
It is interesting to note that none of the more valuable gemstones that are more favoured by men such as diamond, ruby or opal are used or garnished on the walls of the new heaven. Everyone of us, including children, knows that diamond is the most precious gemstone on earth. Many people may be wondering why a perfect God would rather choose second best jewels like jasper, sapphire, emerald, et el. instead of more valuable gems in building the heaven. Has our God forgotten to use these gemstones of diamond, ruby and opal to build the heaven? Did He make a mistake? Not exactly because God is a perfect God and He will never make mistakes! They are excluded for very good reasons.
The science of gemology and physics of optics and light have advanced tremendously in the last 50 years. With this advancement, there are a number of very interesting scientific and technical discoveries relating to the optical characteristics of gemstones. All jewels that are used in the building of the heaven mentioned in Revelation 21:19 are crystal structures and are known as, in gemology, anisotropic gems. The other gemstones like diamond, ruby and opal that are not mentioned in Revelation 21:19 are known as isotropic gems. One of the most resounding gemological discoveries is that when ‘pure light’ or polarized light (as known in the scientific world) passes through anisotropic gems like jasper, emerald or topaz, they reflect brilliant rainbow colours of various shapes. On the other hand, when polarized light is passed through isotropic gems like diamond or opal, they do not reflect nor sparkled. In fact, these isotropic gemstones have simply become dull and dark. [If you want to know more of this, you can go to this Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXfCdcNRN60 ]
The gemstones that were mentioned by John in Revelations 21 for the building the foundations of the new heaven form this special group of anisotropic gems. It was impossible that John, in about AD95, could have any knowledge of gemology and crystallography because we had never been told that he was in anyway involved in the jewelry business. The Book of Revelation was written by him at the time when he was banished to the island of Patmos. It was very unlikely that he could obtain any information on gemstones from this desolated place specially prepared for banished convicts and prisoners. Furthermore, the scientific knowledge of gemstones two thousand years ago was virtually non-existence. It is very obviously that at the island of Patmos, God gave John a series of apocalyptic visions to warn the Christians of end times, to assure them of God’s sovereignty, to encourage them to persevere in their faith, and shown to him vivid picture of what heaven is really like. It was at this moment that God revealed to John the building materials that would be used to build the new heaven. Revelation 21 is a direct and clear evidence of God’s revelation and he must have been divinely inspired to accurately list this special group of anisotropic gems that respond in great beauty when exposed to polarized (pure) light. It must be noted that the physics of polarized light was not invented for another one thousand nine hundred years and it was only possible after the invention of laser technology. There is no question that God has inspired John to pen these scriptures to communicate to us that heaven is real (so is hell!). Beside this physical aspect of our new home, in Revelation 21:23 John saw our heavenly city has no need for the sun nor the moon because of the glory of God and the light of the Lamp will shine on it. This light of the Lamp is God’s pure light and it will be shone all over heaven. All anisotropic gemstones when viewed in pure light will produce all the colours of a rainbow in an infinite variety of patterns whatever their original colour. The gemstones that are used in the building of heaven will produce the most perfect colour spectrum of all shapes imaginable when the Light of His Glory shine onto them! Thank God now we can really visualize what our new heavenly home is to be like and, we also now know precisely why there are no diamonds being used in the building of the heavenly walls because diamonds, being isotropic gems, when viewed through pure light will not shine. Imagine if God had used only diamonds to build the new heaven - it will be dark and dull!
Further examination reveals that the basic material of these anisotropic gems mentioned in Revelation 21:19-20 is silicon dioxide-silica. However the silica is transformed into gem quality by small intrusions of what are scientifically described as impurities such as iron, cobalt, chromium, aluminum, vanadium, beryllium, copper, magnesium etc. Sand which is basically silica which is probably the most abundant material on earth is transformed into the heavenly gems by the infusion of what we call impurities and reject. Likewise the most abundant life form on earth - humanity - is transformed into heavenly beings by the infusion of God's Holy Spirit - also rejected by mankind. The infusion of small quantities of impurity into the common silica brings forth gems of great beauty. Similarly, the infusion of small quantities of the Holy Spirit, accepted in repentance and faith produces heavenly beings acceptable to God. True Christians who have faithfully walked with Him in full repentance in this world are often despised or persecuted like “second-rated people”. But our walk with Jesus will not be in vain. We will be displayed in magnificent brilliance when we meet Him face to face. Furthermore, God doesn’t just build a home for us. He will put all our sorrows to a complete and eternal end because He has assured us in Revelation 21:4 that the first thing He is going to do when we first see Him in our heavenly home is that “He will wipe away all tears from our eyes, and there will be no death, neither sorrow, nor crying, nor any more pain”.
The world is going through a long night of darkness and is getting darker but thank God we can now see the dawning of the new day! God is appealing to us to come home because there will be no second chance once we have missed His calling. Let us accept His offer because time is running out! Jesus has told us in Revelation 22:7, “Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.” He continues in Revelation 22: 12b, “And my reward is with me, to give every man according to his work shall be.” Jesus intends that every man is rewarded and that include you and me. Let us make no provision for the flesh to fulfill our worldly desire but instead strive to be received by Him. Are you ready for His calling? Are you prepared to meet Him?
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Today’s Scripture Reading [April 11, 2010]
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. [Genesis 1:1. KJV]
Without question, the Bible is the most influential and ‘controversial’ book ever written. Just the first verse of the Bible (Genesis 1:1) alone, it has attracted one of the most intense discussions and debates in the literary, religious and scientific communities. Many past and present well-respected scientists, philosophers and religious leaders have joined the debate and the very core of this debate is: “Does God exits? And if God does exist, did He create the heaven and the earth?” Genesis 1:1 debate has divided people into two camps: the first group, the creationists who believe that God exists and He indeed created the universe and the second group, the evolutionists who believe that God does not exist and all things were evolved out of nothingness over a period of million or perhaps billion of years. Most creationists are Christians while most evolutionists are either atheists or agnostics.
I am a truly born-again Christian, a creationist and I believe without any doubt that God created everything including the heaven and the earth in six days. I also believe that God has made use of numbers as symbols and the value of the number to convey His thoughts and important divine messages to His most beloved creature – man. Throughout the Bible, numbers are used consistently and repetitively to accomplish God’s purpose of communicating His thoughts and His divine messages. It should be noted that there is a particular strong emphasis on the number SEVEN placed in the Bible and the frequent use of SEVEN is so obvious that even to an occasional reader of the Bible scriptures would have noticed it. SEVEN is mentioned in the Bible more than any other number. In fact, the number SEVEN appears more than 50 times just in the Book of Revelation alone and more than 700 times in the whole Bible. This phenomena is technically referred to as the Heptadic Structure of the Bible or Biblical numerology. (Note: Hepta is the Greek word for seven). Throughout the Bible, the number SEVEN is associated with “completeness.” Besides the number SEVEN, there are other numbers that have symbolic meanings such as:
Number 1: The number for God, unity
Number 3: Trinity / redemptions
Number 6: Incomplete, the number of ‘man’
Number 7: Complete, full, perfect
Number 10: Divine Perfection
Number 12: The 12 tribes – Israel
Number 40: A generation
Throughout ancient history, people have been intrigued by the number SEVEN as a symbol for “completeness” and “perfection.” It is not necessarily unique to the Bible. Perhaps lesser degree than the Bible, many ancient religious texts contain a preference for the use of SEVEN. However, it appears that the number SEVEN has strong divine significance in the Bible more than many other religious texts. It must be noted that SEVENs are intentionally used in bible stories or illustrations, and because many counts of SEVEN involve more than one Bible books written by separate authors let us to conclude that it not possible for any individual author to have control or influence the use of the number of SEVEN. As the Bible texts were written independently by over 40 authors over many hundred of years, the use of SEVEN to consistently convey “completeness, fullness and perfection” could not have pre-planned or coordinated by a particular author or selected group of authors. Rather the consistent use of SEVEN in the numerous biblical texts is divinely planned and inspired by God Himself (and so too are the other numbers that are in the Bible). These numbers do not and cannot appear in the Bible by pure chance.
In the Book of Revelation the number SEVEN is used extensively to represent Spiritual Perfection. It is the completeness of all things. There are SEVEN Churches, SEVEN stars (which are SEVEN angels of SEVEN churches), SEVEN Spirits of God, SEVEN Golden Candlesticks, SEVEN Lamps of Fire, SEVEN Seals, SEVEN Horns, SEVEN Eyes, SEVEN Trumpets, SEVEN Thunders, SEVEN Heads, SEVEN Crowns, SEVEN Last Plagues, SEVEN Golden Vials, SEVEN Mountains, SEVEN Kings. This is no wonder some Bible scholars even labeled the Book of Revelation as the ‘Book of Seven’.
It is interesting to note that even our daily life operates in a cycle of SEVENs, and this is no coincidence but the result of God’s divine revelation that He and He alone is involved in all our daily life. For example, the human physiology is constructed on a law of SEVENs. Children are born to mothers and from conception to birth it usually takes an average of 280 (7 x 40) days to fully develop a human foetus, a multiple of SEVENs. Fevers and intermittent attacks of gout, ague, and similar complaints have a period of operation of SEVEN, FOURTEEN or TWENTY-ONE days known as critical days. Again they are all multiple of SEVEN. Body cell changes take place in the body every SEVEN years. There are SEVEN bones in the neck, SEVEN bones in the face, SEVEN bones in the ankle, and SEVEN holes in the head. Besides human, most mammals have a gestation period from conception to birth of an exact number of days, a multiple of SEVENs, for examples, black bears 210 (7 x 30) days, horse 336 (7 x 48) days, rats 21 (7 x 3) days.
All departments of nature are marked all over with this mathematics of SEVEN too. In this realm practically everything is in SEVEN. There are SEVEN notes in the musical scale. All other pitches are only variations of these. When the musician uses the eighth note he goes back to the first note of the higher (or the lower octave) and starts over. Man named the notes but God fixed the sounds, even as God fixed the days of the week, and man named them. The SEVEN colours in the rainbow which begins with red (representing the atoning blood of Jesus) and ends with purple (representing His Royal Priesthood) is God’s display of His natural miracle that demonstrated the complete redemption of man.
The attached video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV0hUldrYp4&feature=related ) is a remarkable message of the “Amazing First Verse of the Bible”. The Fingers of God and His Signature are everywhere and the number SEVEN is just one of the signs of His existence, of His creation, of His finished work on the Cross. From the very first verse of the Bible in the Book of Genesis (Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”) to the very last verse in the Book of Revelation (Revelation 22:21 “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.”), they were written with God’s hands firmly guiding His anointed authors. Make no mistake about it - the Bible is indeed the Inspired Word of God! Just like the operations of the number SEVEN in our daily life, we must let the Word of God to fully rule our heart daily. This is, I believe, is one of the most significant divine messages that God is conveying to us, just as Jesus has reminded us not to live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4).
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. [Genesis 1:1. KJV]
Without question, the Bible is the most influential and ‘controversial’ book ever written. Just the first verse of the Bible (Genesis 1:1) alone, it has attracted one of the most intense discussions and debates in the literary, religious and scientific communities. Many past and present well-respected scientists, philosophers and religious leaders have joined the debate and the very core of this debate is: “Does God exits? And if God does exist, did He create the heaven and the earth?” Genesis 1:1 debate has divided people into two camps: the first group, the creationists who believe that God exists and He indeed created the universe and the second group, the evolutionists who believe that God does not exist and all things were evolved out of nothingness over a period of million or perhaps billion of years. Most creationists are Christians while most evolutionists are either atheists or agnostics.
I am a truly born-again Christian, a creationist and I believe without any doubt that God created everything including the heaven and the earth in six days. I also believe that God has made use of numbers as symbols and the value of the number to convey His thoughts and important divine messages to His most beloved creature – man. Throughout the Bible, numbers are used consistently and repetitively to accomplish God’s purpose of communicating His thoughts and His divine messages. It should be noted that there is a particular strong emphasis on the number SEVEN placed in the Bible and the frequent use of SEVEN is so obvious that even to an occasional reader of the Bible scriptures would have noticed it. SEVEN is mentioned in the Bible more than any other number. In fact, the number SEVEN appears more than 50 times just in the Book of Revelation alone and more than 700 times in the whole Bible. This phenomena is technically referred to as the Heptadic Structure of the Bible or Biblical numerology. (Note: Hepta is the Greek word for seven). Throughout the Bible, the number SEVEN is associated with “completeness.” Besides the number SEVEN, there are other numbers that have symbolic meanings such as:
Number 1: The number for God, unity
Number 3: Trinity / redemptions
Number 6: Incomplete, the number of ‘man’
Number 7: Complete, full, perfect
Number 10: Divine Perfection
Number 12: The 12 tribes – Israel
Number 40: A generation
Throughout ancient history, people have been intrigued by the number SEVEN as a symbol for “completeness” and “perfection.” It is not necessarily unique to the Bible. Perhaps lesser degree than the Bible, many ancient religious texts contain a preference for the use of SEVEN. However, it appears that the number SEVEN has strong divine significance in the Bible more than many other religious texts. It must be noted that SEVENs are intentionally used in bible stories or illustrations, and because many counts of SEVEN involve more than one Bible books written by separate authors let us to conclude that it not possible for any individual author to have control or influence the use of the number of SEVEN. As the Bible texts were written independently by over 40 authors over many hundred of years, the use of SEVEN to consistently convey “completeness, fullness and perfection” could not have pre-planned or coordinated by a particular author or selected group of authors. Rather the consistent use of SEVEN in the numerous biblical texts is divinely planned and inspired by God Himself (and so too are the other numbers that are in the Bible). These numbers do not and cannot appear in the Bible by pure chance.
In the Book of Revelation the number SEVEN is used extensively to represent Spiritual Perfection. It is the completeness of all things. There are SEVEN Churches, SEVEN stars (which are SEVEN angels of SEVEN churches), SEVEN Spirits of God, SEVEN Golden Candlesticks, SEVEN Lamps of Fire, SEVEN Seals, SEVEN Horns, SEVEN Eyes, SEVEN Trumpets, SEVEN Thunders, SEVEN Heads, SEVEN Crowns, SEVEN Last Plagues, SEVEN Golden Vials, SEVEN Mountains, SEVEN Kings. This is no wonder some Bible scholars even labeled the Book of Revelation as the ‘Book of Seven’.
It is interesting to note that even our daily life operates in a cycle of SEVENs, and this is no coincidence but the result of God’s divine revelation that He and He alone is involved in all our daily life. For example, the human physiology is constructed on a law of SEVENs. Children are born to mothers and from conception to birth it usually takes an average of 280 (7 x 40) days to fully develop a human foetus, a multiple of SEVENs. Fevers and intermittent attacks of gout, ague, and similar complaints have a period of operation of SEVEN, FOURTEEN or TWENTY-ONE days known as critical days. Again they are all multiple of SEVEN. Body cell changes take place in the body every SEVEN years. There are SEVEN bones in the neck, SEVEN bones in the face, SEVEN bones in the ankle, and SEVEN holes in the head. Besides human, most mammals have a gestation period from conception to birth of an exact number of days, a multiple of SEVENs, for examples, black bears 210 (7 x 30) days, horse 336 (7 x 48) days, rats 21 (7 x 3) days.
All departments of nature are marked all over with this mathematics of SEVEN too. In this realm practically everything is in SEVEN. There are SEVEN notes in the musical scale. All other pitches are only variations of these. When the musician uses the eighth note he goes back to the first note of the higher (or the lower octave) and starts over. Man named the notes but God fixed the sounds, even as God fixed the days of the week, and man named them. The SEVEN colours in the rainbow which begins with red (representing the atoning blood of Jesus) and ends with purple (representing His Royal Priesthood) is God’s display of His natural miracle that demonstrated the complete redemption of man.
The attached video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV0hUldrYp4&feature=related ) is a remarkable message of the “Amazing First Verse of the Bible”. The Fingers of God and His Signature are everywhere and the number SEVEN is just one of the signs of His existence, of His creation, of His finished work on the Cross. From the very first verse of the Bible in the Book of Genesis (Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”) to the very last verse in the Book of Revelation (Revelation 22:21 “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.”), they were written with God’s hands firmly guiding His anointed authors. Make no mistake about it - the Bible is indeed the Inspired Word of God! Just like the operations of the number SEVEN in our daily life, we must let the Word of God to fully rule our heart daily. This is, I believe, is one of the most significant divine messages that God is conveying to us, just as Jesus has reminded us not to live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4).
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I have just come across the following Words of Comfort and Wise Sayings and I would like to share with you. God bless you all reading of these words and I hope they can brighten up your life.
The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth, and addedth learning to his lips. Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones. (Proverbs 16:23-24. KJV)
We never get what we want,
We never want what we get,
We never have what we like,
We never like what we have.
And still we live & love.
That's life...
The best kind of people,
Is the kind you can sit on a porch and swing with,
Never say a word,
And then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you've ever had.
It's true that we don't know
What we've got until it's gone,
But it's also true that we don't know
What we've been missing until it arrives.
Giving someone all your love is never an assurance that they'll love you back!
Don't expect love in return;
Just wait for it to grow in their heart,
But if it doesn't, be content it grew in yours.
It takes only a minute to get a crush on someone,
An hour to like someone,
And a day to love someone,
But it takes a lifetime to forget someone.
Don't go for looks; they can deceive.
Don't go for wealth; even that fades away.
Go for someone who makes you smile,
Because it takes only a smile to
Make a dark day seems bright.
Find the one that makes your heart smile!
May you have
Enough happiness to make you sweet,
Enough trials to make you strong,
Enough sorrow to keep you human,
And enough hope to make you happy.
Always put yourself in others' shoes.
If you feel that it hurts you,
It probably hurts the other person, too.
The happiest of people
Don't necessarily have the best of everything;
They just make the most of everything that comes along their way.
Happiness lies for
Those who cry,
Those who hurt,
Those who have searched,
And those who have tried,
For only they can appreciate the importance of people
Who have touched their lives.
When you were born, you were crying
And everyone around you was smiling.
Live your life so that when you die,
You're the one who is smiling
And everyone around you is crying.
Please send this message
To those people who mean something to you,
To those who have touched your life in one way or another,
To those who make you smile when you really need it,
To those that make you see the brighter side of things When you are really down,
To those who you want to know
That you appreciate their kindness.
And if you don't, don't worry,
Nothing bad will happen to you,
You will just miss out on the opportunity
to brighten someone's life with this message...
We never get what we want,
We never want what we get,
We never have what we like,
We never like what we have.
And still we live & love.
That's life...
The best kind of people,
Is the kind you can sit on a porch and swing with,
Never say a word,
And then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you've ever had.
It's true that we don't know
What we've got until it's gone,
But it's also true that we don't know
What we've been missing until it arrives.
Giving someone all your love is never an assurance that they'll love you back!
Don't expect love in return;
Just wait for it to grow in their heart,
But if it doesn't, be content it grew in yours.
It takes only a minute to get a crush on someone,
An hour to like someone,
And a day to love someone,
But it takes a lifetime to forget someone.
Don't go for looks; they can deceive.
Don't go for wealth; even that fades away.
Go for someone who makes you smile,
Because it takes only a smile to
Make a dark day seems bright.
Find the one that makes your heart smile!
May you have
Enough happiness to make you sweet,
Enough trials to make you strong,
Enough sorrow to keep you human,
And enough hope to make you happy.
Always put yourself in others' shoes.
If you feel that it hurts you,
It probably hurts the other person, too.
The happiest of people
Don't necessarily have the best of everything;
They just make the most of everything that comes along their way.
Happiness lies for
Those who cry,
Those who hurt,
Those who have searched,
And those who have tried,
For only they can appreciate the importance of people
Who have touched their lives.
When you were born, you were crying
And everyone around you was smiling.
Live your life so that when you die,
You're the one who is smiling
And everyone around you is crying.
Please send this message
To those people who mean something to you,
To those who have touched your life in one way or another,
To those who make you smile when you really need it,
To those that make you see the brighter side of things When you are really down,
To those who you want to know
That you appreciate their kindness.
And if you don't, don't worry,
Nothing bad will happen to you,
You will just miss out on the opportunity
to brighten someone's life with this message...
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Today’s Scripture Reading [April 18, 2010]
And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. [Genesis 6:12. KJV]
The story (or rather history) of God’s creation is vividly told in Genesis, the first book of the Bible and God’s creation came to the highest glory when He created man in His own image. All His creations were at their purest form and free from all corruptions. To perpetuate His creation, God commanded that all living things are to be reproduced and His law of reproduction is to reproduce "everything after his kind." This would mean human is to reproduce human, sheep is to reproduce sheep, fish is to reproduce fish, apple is to reproduce apple, and so on.
Knowing that God is extremely protective of His divine law of reproduction, Satan, the chief deceiver, wasted no time to come and upset His law. Many bible scholars have pointed out that one of the early devices of Satan’s ploy was for his fallen angels, known as the sons of God in the Old Testament, to come and mate with earthly humankind. The result was the creation of corrupted specie, the nephilim. (In Hebrews, ‘nephilim’ is described as the fallen ones). This corrupted specie wrecked havoc as they went to further corrupt all the other living creatures of the earth (Genesis 6:12). God then decided to destroy them all through a flood, except for Noah and his family for they were perfect in God’s sight and God wanted to preserve them (Genesis 6:9). He commanded Noah to build an ark so that he and his family together with those animals that God commanded him to take along could be delivered from the flood. When the flood finally subsided, all the creatures that were outside the ark perished. Only Noah, his family and those animals that were inside the ark survived. God then blessed Noah and his family and commanded them to be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth (Genesis 9:1).
Up-setting the law of nature or God’s creation is a very serious matter with grave consequences. The evilness of Satan’s deception to corrupt God’s creation continues even to this day. Through Satan’s deception and also because of human disobedience, perversions of all kinds like homosexual, prostitution, illegal drugs, genetic engineering, idolatry, etc are devised to achieve the destructive goal of Satan. In Leviticus 20:15-16, we are told that God commanded if anyone who has sexual relationship with animals he must be put to death. The conduct of human mating with animals is satanic. It has been discovered that incurable diseases like Ebola virus, HIV virus and a hosts of other dreaded diseases were transmitted from animals to human. The current H1N1 virus transmitted from birds to pigs and finally to human is another evidence of the grave potency of deadly diseases that can be transmitted from animals to human. Mating of human with animals is extremely dangerous because it can transmit deadly viruses or germs. Research studies, controversial though, have produced evidence that HIV was transmitted by men who had sexual relationship with monkeys in Central Africa.
Though there are laws in almost every country that prohibit sexual relationship between animals and man, however, the genetic engineering that is taking place in the scientific world is aggressively encouraged by many governments. Through this evil technology, scientists are now able to clone organs using pig cells (and other animal cells) with human cells and to use these hybrid organs of part-animal-part-human for human transplant. From the disease transmission standpoint, these hybrid organs produced through genetic engineering bear the same pathological signature when we compare to mating of human and animals because in both situations viruses and other disease causing-pathogens can be transmitted from one to the other. This is nothing less than the demonic realm attempting to pervert God’s creation. By manipulating DNA of different specie (or ‘kinds’), Satan is out to deceive God’s people to replace His holy law of natural reproduction with man-made technology. Jesus has told us that as in the days of Noah, so shall be the coming of the Son of Man (Matthew 24:37-38). This was exactly what took place during Noah’s time when the fallen angels were actively corrupting the seeds of Adam (Genesis 6:4) and ended up producing demons (nephilim) instead of humankind.
It must be noted that the present genetic engineering of stem cell research, DNA manipulation, animal-human cloning, transplant of hybrid part-human-part-animal organs to and using animal blood for human transfusion is pathologically similar to having sex with animals because in all these instances deadly virus and other disease-causing pathogens can be transmitted from animal to human and vice versa.
Besides manipulating of human and animal cells to corrupt God’s creation, many of us also have heard of the genetic-modified (GM) food. This is yet another form of DNA and cell manipulations. Although there are still no concrete proofs to indicate whether GM food is harmful or otherwise, we can confidently say that this is another evil invention because its very nature is to manipulate DNA of plant seeds. In U.S. honeybee growers are puzzled that more than 70% of the bees have suddenly disappeared without a trace over the last 2 to 3 years. Known as colony collapse disorder (CCD), this disappearance of honeybees is now posing a grave danger to the U.S. agriculture industry. One possible explanation is that the biological systems of these insects are not designed to consume GM pollen. Other possible causes are the negative influence of the microwave generated from mobile phone transmission stations. (See also: Transgenic pollen harms monarch larvae (Nature, Vol. 399, No 6733, p 214, May 1999). And we all know that insects are extremely essential in the overall functioning of the ecosystem and the widespread demise of insects will cause food shortage as crops would not be efficiently cultivated. It is quite obvious that genetic-engineering brings more harms than good but, sadly, many governments around the world are encouraging their scientific community to embark research on this. (The Australian government has approved the trials of xenotransplantation - human-animal transplantation - joining a slew of other countries like Japan, U.S. and New Zealand – Straits Times December 10, 2009).
Besides genetic engineering, we can also see that there are many other inventions designed to deny the sovereignty of God such as violent computer games, illicit drugs, pornography, etc. (If you want to read more on the negative effect of violent computer games, you may want to refer to my posting of November 22, 2009).
Can we stop all these – genetic-engineering, computer games, illicit drugs, etc.? Absolutely not! Temptation is everywhere, immorality is rampant, and people (including government) just don’t even care. I wouldn’t be surprised that some readers here will react and respond to this message with sarcastic remarks denying that all these have nothing to do with God and the Bible. We cannot deny that we are now in the age when rebellious man is trying to “play God”. The truth of the matter is that the human beings want to usurp God’s authority and instead go and replace with their own evil work, to want to be in total control and remove completely the dependency of God’s power and love. The corruption of seeds of both human and plant sources has now reached to a point that is going to be worse than Noah’s day and God is going to say: ‘Enough is enough, and I shall not continue to strive with you! (Genesis 6:3). God is going to stop all these! Our days are now numbered and we are indeed living in the last days!
God’s judgment must take place before His creation is completely destroyed by the evilness of mankind. As born-again Christians, we can take refuge in our Lord Jesus. He is our only hope. He will judge this earth and to finally set up a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21:1). We don’t have unlimited time as pointed out in John 9:4 when Jesus has said, “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.” Time is running out because we are now in Noah’s time and the promise of the coming Kingdom of God is too close for comfort for those who still do not believe in Him. So, let’s press on and help to spread His message of His imminent coming Kingdom before we see our friends and relatives perish right before our eyes! The Good News of the Cross of Jesus and His Redeeming Blood must be shared with greatest urgency before it is too late! If you are felt led by the Holy Spirit, you can do your part by encouraging your friends and relatives to read the messages from Today’s Scripture Reading: http://www.sammyboy.com/showthread.php?t=32764&page=11
And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. [Genesis 6:12. KJV]
The story (or rather history) of God’s creation is vividly told in Genesis, the first book of the Bible and God’s creation came to the highest glory when He created man in His own image. All His creations were at their purest form and free from all corruptions. To perpetuate His creation, God commanded that all living things are to be reproduced and His law of reproduction is to reproduce "everything after his kind." This would mean human is to reproduce human, sheep is to reproduce sheep, fish is to reproduce fish, apple is to reproduce apple, and so on.
Knowing that God is extremely protective of His divine law of reproduction, Satan, the chief deceiver, wasted no time to come and upset His law. Many bible scholars have pointed out that one of the early devices of Satan’s ploy was for his fallen angels, known as the sons of God in the Old Testament, to come and mate with earthly humankind. The result was the creation of corrupted specie, the nephilim. (In Hebrews, ‘nephilim’ is described as the fallen ones). This corrupted specie wrecked havoc as they went to further corrupt all the other living creatures of the earth (Genesis 6:12). God then decided to destroy them all through a flood, except for Noah and his family for they were perfect in God’s sight and God wanted to preserve them (Genesis 6:9). He commanded Noah to build an ark so that he and his family together with those animals that God commanded him to take along could be delivered from the flood. When the flood finally subsided, all the creatures that were outside the ark perished. Only Noah, his family and those animals that were inside the ark survived. God then blessed Noah and his family and commanded them to be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth (Genesis 9:1).
Up-setting the law of nature or God’s creation is a very serious matter with grave consequences. The evilness of Satan’s deception to corrupt God’s creation continues even to this day. Through Satan’s deception and also because of human disobedience, perversions of all kinds like homosexual, prostitution, illegal drugs, genetic engineering, idolatry, etc are devised to achieve the destructive goal of Satan. In Leviticus 20:15-16, we are told that God commanded if anyone who has sexual relationship with animals he must be put to death. The conduct of human mating with animals is satanic. It has been discovered that incurable diseases like Ebola virus, HIV virus and a hosts of other dreaded diseases were transmitted from animals to human. The current H1N1 virus transmitted from birds to pigs and finally to human is another evidence of the grave potency of deadly diseases that can be transmitted from animals to human. Mating of human with animals is extremely dangerous because it can transmit deadly viruses or germs. Research studies, controversial though, have produced evidence that HIV was transmitted by men who had sexual relationship with monkeys in Central Africa.
Though there are laws in almost every country that prohibit sexual relationship between animals and man, however, the genetic engineering that is taking place in the scientific world is aggressively encouraged by many governments. Through this evil technology, scientists are now able to clone organs using pig cells (and other animal cells) with human cells and to use these hybrid organs of part-animal-part-human for human transplant. From the disease transmission standpoint, these hybrid organs produced through genetic engineering bear the same pathological signature when we compare to mating of human and animals because in both situations viruses and other disease causing-pathogens can be transmitted from one to the other. This is nothing less than the demonic realm attempting to pervert God’s creation. By manipulating DNA of different specie (or ‘kinds’), Satan is out to deceive God’s people to replace His holy law of natural reproduction with man-made technology. Jesus has told us that as in the days of Noah, so shall be the coming of the Son of Man (Matthew 24:37-38). This was exactly what took place during Noah’s time when the fallen angels were actively corrupting the seeds of Adam (Genesis 6:4) and ended up producing demons (nephilim) instead of humankind.
It must be noted that the present genetic engineering of stem cell research, DNA manipulation, animal-human cloning, transplant of hybrid part-human-part-animal organs to and using animal blood for human transfusion is pathologically similar to having sex with animals because in all these instances deadly virus and other disease-causing pathogens can be transmitted from animal to human and vice versa.
Besides manipulating of human and animal cells to corrupt God’s creation, many of us also have heard of the genetic-modified (GM) food. This is yet another form of DNA and cell manipulations. Although there are still no concrete proofs to indicate whether GM food is harmful or otherwise, we can confidently say that this is another evil invention because its very nature is to manipulate DNA of plant seeds. In U.S. honeybee growers are puzzled that more than 70% of the bees have suddenly disappeared without a trace over the last 2 to 3 years. Known as colony collapse disorder (CCD), this disappearance of honeybees is now posing a grave danger to the U.S. agriculture industry. One possible explanation is that the biological systems of these insects are not designed to consume GM pollen. Other possible causes are the negative influence of the microwave generated from mobile phone transmission stations. (See also: Transgenic pollen harms monarch larvae (Nature, Vol. 399, No 6733, p 214, May 1999). And we all know that insects are extremely essential in the overall functioning of the ecosystem and the widespread demise of insects will cause food shortage as crops would not be efficiently cultivated. It is quite obvious that genetic-engineering brings more harms than good but, sadly, many governments around the world are encouraging their scientific community to embark research on this. (The Australian government has approved the trials of xenotransplantation - human-animal transplantation - joining a slew of other countries like Japan, U.S. and New Zealand – Straits Times December 10, 2009).
Besides genetic engineering, we can also see that there are many other inventions designed to deny the sovereignty of God such as violent computer games, illicit drugs, pornography, etc. (If you want to read more on the negative effect of violent computer games, you may want to refer to my posting of November 22, 2009).
Can we stop all these – genetic-engineering, computer games, illicit drugs, etc.? Absolutely not! Temptation is everywhere, immorality is rampant, and people (including government) just don’t even care. I wouldn’t be surprised that some readers here will react and respond to this message with sarcastic remarks denying that all these have nothing to do with God and the Bible. We cannot deny that we are now in the age when rebellious man is trying to “play God”. The truth of the matter is that the human beings want to usurp God’s authority and instead go and replace with their own evil work, to want to be in total control and remove completely the dependency of God’s power and love. The corruption of seeds of both human and plant sources has now reached to a point that is going to be worse than Noah’s day and God is going to say: ‘Enough is enough, and I shall not continue to strive with you! (Genesis 6:3). God is going to stop all these! Our days are now numbered and we are indeed living in the last days!
God’s judgment must take place before His creation is completely destroyed by the evilness of mankind. As born-again Christians, we can take refuge in our Lord Jesus. He is our only hope. He will judge this earth and to finally set up a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21:1). We don’t have unlimited time as pointed out in John 9:4 when Jesus has said, “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.” Time is running out because we are now in Noah’s time and the promise of the coming Kingdom of God is too close for comfort for those who still do not believe in Him. So, let’s press on and help to spread His message of His imminent coming Kingdom before we see our friends and relatives perish right before our eyes! The Good News of the Cross of Jesus and His Redeeming Blood must be shared with greatest urgency before it is too late! If you are felt led by the Holy Spirit, you can do your part by encouraging your friends and relatives to read the messages from Today’s Scripture Reading: http://www.sammyboy.com/showthread.php?t=32764&page=11
Dear all the readers of the Today's Scripture Reading,
I have just picked up the attached sermon. I felt very blessed after reading this sermon and I hope you too are blessed by the reading of this sermon.
Part I
These days, everyone knows someone who's hit rock bottom after losing a job, home, life savings, marriage, family, etc. Whether that's you or someone else, Brian Zahnd's book What to Do on the Worst Day of Your Life can be the perfect lifeline for overcoming the toughest of times. And one of the key elements to this is simply a matter of perspective
As a new day began to dawn over Ziklag, a new day began to dawn in David's heart. He had spent the night wearing the linen ephod and seeking the Lord. In the middle of the night God had spoken to him and said, "Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all." A day earlier everything seemed hopeless, but now things were changing. David had a word from God, and with that word David had found fresh faith and a new hope. Yesterday all David could see was a bleak future of loss and sorrow, but today he had a new vision-a vision of victory and recovering all. David had reoriented his vision from the dismal ashes of the present to the hopeful potential of the future.
As the men began to gather around David after their own sleepless night, they watched him take off the linen ephod and give it back to Abiathar. They could see that David looked different. He had that faraway look in his eyes; he could see something they could not see. David had the eye of the eagle. I can imagine one of David's chief lieutenants asking, "What is it, David? What do you see?"
I can hear David answering, "I see victory." Then David began to prophesy his vision to those men. "We are going to rise up. We are going to pursue the Amalekites who have destroyed our homes, stolen our possessions, and taken our families. We are going to overtake them, and without a doubt, we are going to recover all! Everything! Every wife, every son, every daughter. We are going to take back all of our livestock, all our silver, and all of our gold. We are going to recover all."1
Spontaneously the men began to shout and cheer. They held their swords high and shouted David's prophetic mantra, "Recover all!" Suddenly the negative energy of despondency and self-pity had been replaced by the positive energy of a new faith expectation. What had happened? A man of vision had prophesied hope back into hopeless men. He had reoriented their vision. Instead of focusing on what had happened and the loss of the present moment, these men now had a vision of recovery that energized them toward productive activity and a victorious future.
To recover all on the worst day of your life you must reorient your vision. The present crisis can cast you into darkness like a total eclipse of the sun. The crisis can move between you and the light of God, casting a dark shadow over your life and paralyzing you from engaging in productive activity. The terrible thing that has happened can appear so big that it seems impossible to focus on anything else. The crisis becomes the only thing you can see. That's when you must reorient your vision; you must find a way to look beyond the crisis and establish a vision of recovering all. That's when God's word is like a light shining in a dark place.
God's word to David was, "Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all." David now knew that it was God's will for him to recover all. He was no longer hesitant. He was no longer beleaguered by doubt. Momentary doubt is the natural consequence of receiving the kind of blow that Ziklag delivers-it's like having the wind knocked out of you. It's having the faith knocked out of you. You must reorient your vision toward the promises of God in such a way that you recover your faith and shake off the doubt. He who doubts is like a wave upon the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. You will not receive anything from God while lingering in the duplicity of doubt. Doubt allowed to linger too long will produce dangerous emotional and spiritual instability.2
God Wants You to Recover
You must be convinced that God wants you to recover. You must be fully persuaded of God's unwavering love for you. You must know that God wants you to succeed in life. Faith begins where the will of God is known. How do you know the will of God? You study the Bible! Your Bible is a leather-bound copy of God's will for your life. Study it until you have no doubt about God's will for you. You cannot be wondering if God wants you to win or lose, succeed or fail, flourish or falter.
David said, "This I know...God is for me."3 Let me help you with these four words: God is for you! Just as any good father wants his children to succeed in life, so your heavenly Father is for you. He wants you to succeed in life. Here are some promises from God for you to meditate on that will help you to reorient your vision. Better yet, memorize them. As you saturate your thinking in these promises, the eclipse of faith that has cast you into the darkness of doubt will pass away, and you will again find yourself walking in the cheerful sunshine of knowing God is for you.
The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man.4
And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them.5
This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.6
Let them shout for joy and be glad, who favor my righteous cause; and let them say continually, "Let the Lord be magnified, who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant."7
The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.8
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.9
Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ.10
For people facing hard times, these precious promises are like "apples of gold in settings of silver."11 They are diamonds from the Word of God that will help you reorient your vision. Instead of allowing the crisis to dictate a bleak outlook, the Word of God has the potential to produce within you an alternative imagination for the future. It's like the sun bursting through the clouds after days of gray and overcast skies.
Vision is all about your perspective on the future, and your perspective on the future determines whether you will be energized or demoralized. We live almost all of our lives in memory and imagination-remembering the past and imagining the future. We encounter the past by memory, and we encounter the future by imagination. The present is so brief as to be almost indefinable. Now is nothing more than the infinitesimal slice of time between memory and imagination. It is memory and imagination that allow us to hear melody. We remember the note we heard a second ago and imagine the anticipated note, and thus we encounter melody. Without memory and imagination there would be no melody in our lives, just a stupefying preoccupation with the present moment. But when malevolent forces are allowed to dominate our memory and imagination, we can suffer severe mental torment. It's hell inside your head, and this is intolerable. In order to be happy, humans need healed memories and hopeful imaginations. God's Word is capable of accomplishing both of these tasks.
The truth that we live most of our lives in memory and imagination is undeniable. We remember the past and imagine the future. Our past is fixed (though our perspective on the past can change-more about that later), but the future is unknown. The only way we can relate to the future is through imagination. Imagination is indeed a legitimate way of knowing. Hope is the God way of imagining the future. A mind that is God-conscious, God-centric, and God-saturated will be full of hope. It's hope that energizes us for positive action.
Don't allow the malignant cancer of worry to dominate your imagination. Both worry and hope deal with an unknown future, and you have every right to imagine a bright future created by hope. This is what David was doing. Instead of allowing worry and anxiety to dictate his future, David, through a reoriented vision of victory, was imagining a future framed by hope. This hopeful imagination energized both David and his men to begin to engage in positive action-positive action that had the potential to change their situation.
Get a Vision of Victory
Human beings are mysterious creatures who are powerfully affected by vision. We are designed in such a way that we will move in the direction of what we see. Your vision is your future, and your vision is your imagination. You need an imagination inspired by the promises of God, and you need to develop a vision of victory. You need the eye of the eagle. The eagle builds its nest high atop a mountain or tall rock. From there, "it spies out the prey; its eyes observe from afar."12
Do you have the eye of the eagle? Can you see from afar? Can you see into the distant horizon of your future to view the glorious things that God has prepared for you? God has not called you to be a chicken pecking around in the barnyard of the status quo, never seeing anything but the dust of Old McDonald's farm. God has called you to mount up on the eagle's wings of faith and soar above the storms.13 God has given new creation man the eye of the eagle to behold destiny at a great distance.
I have found that I remain excited about life as long as I hold on to the vision that hope can create. As I live in the realm of hopeful vision, I find I can begin each new day with fresh energy and enthusiasm. This is the power of vision. Vision is not simply your wants, wishes, and desires-vision is what you see! Vision is the image of the future that dominates your imagination. If you ask a man living an empty, dead-end life if he wishes he had a better life, he would certainly say yes. But he has no vision for it. He wishes things were better, but as he peers into his future, all he sees is more of the same. He's like Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog Day, living the same day over and over. Your vision is not merely your wants, wishes, and desires-your vision is what you see. Your vision is your future!
Georgian Banov is a close friend of mine, and like many of my friends, he is a musician. Georgian plays guitar and piano and is a classically trained violinist. He grew up in Bulgaria in the 1960s when the communist officials kept a tight rein on music and the arts. One day Georgian heard the Beatles on Radio Free Europe singing, "I Want to Hold Your Hand." It was a moment that changed Georgian's life. Soon Georgian formed a rock band, and they began to play throughout Bulgaria. They were an instant sensation, that is until the state police deemed their music as a capitalistic excess that would corrupt the young people of Bulgaria and pulled the plug on them in the middle of a concert.
[To be continued]
God Bless
Psalm 23
I have just picked up the attached sermon. I felt very blessed after reading this sermon and I hope you too are blessed by the reading of this sermon.
Part I
Reorient Your Vision – Increase Your Capacity for Vision
By Brian Zahnd
By Brian Zahnd
These days, everyone knows someone who's hit rock bottom after losing a job, home, life savings, marriage, family, etc. Whether that's you or someone else, Brian Zahnd's book What to Do on the Worst Day of Your Life can be the perfect lifeline for overcoming the toughest of times. And one of the key elements to this is simply a matter of perspective
As a new day began to dawn over Ziklag, a new day began to dawn in David's heart. He had spent the night wearing the linen ephod and seeking the Lord. In the middle of the night God had spoken to him and said, "Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all." A day earlier everything seemed hopeless, but now things were changing. David had a word from God, and with that word David had found fresh faith and a new hope. Yesterday all David could see was a bleak future of loss and sorrow, but today he had a new vision-a vision of victory and recovering all. David had reoriented his vision from the dismal ashes of the present to the hopeful potential of the future.
As the men began to gather around David after their own sleepless night, they watched him take off the linen ephod and give it back to Abiathar. They could see that David looked different. He had that faraway look in his eyes; he could see something they could not see. David had the eye of the eagle. I can imagine one of David's chief lieutenants asking, "What is it, David? What do you see?"
I can hear David answering, "I see victory." Then David began to prophesy his vision to those men. "We are going to rise up. We are going to pursue the Amalekites who have destroyed our homes, stolen our possessions, and taken our families. We are going to overtake them, and without a doubt, we are going to recover all! Everything! Every wife, every son, every daughter. We are going to take back all of our livestock, all our silver, and all of our gold. We are going to recover all."1
Spontaneously the men began to shout and cheer. They held their swords high and shouted David's prophetic mantra, "Recover all!" Suddenly the negative energy of despondency and self-pity had been replaced by the positive energy of a new faith expectation. What had happened? A man of vision had prophesied hope back into hopeless men. He had reoriented their vision. Instead of focusing on what had happened and the loss of the present moment, these men now had a vision of recovery that energized them toward productive activity and a victorious future.
To recover all on the worst day of your life you must reorient your vision. The present crisis can cast you into darkness like a total eclipse of the sun. The crisis can move between you and the light of God, casting a dark shadow over your life and paralyzing you from engaging in productive activity. The terrible thing that has happened can appear so big that it seems impossible to focus on anything else. The crisis becomes the only thing you can see. That's when you must reorient your vision; you must find a way to look beyond the crisis and establish a vision of recovering all. That's when God's word is like a light shining in a dark place.
God's word to David was, "Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all." David now knew that it was God's will for him to recover all. He was no longer hesitant. He was no longer beleaguered by doubt. Momentary doubt is the natural consequence of receiving the kind of blow that Ziklag delivers-it's like having the wind knocked out of you. It's having the faith knocked out of you. You must reorient your vision toward the promises of God in such a way that you recover your faith and shake off the doubt. He who doubts is like a wave upon the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. You will not receive anything from God while lingering in the duplicity of doubt. Doubt allowed to linger too long will produce dangerous emotional and spiritual instability.2
God Wants You to Recover
You must be convinced that God wants you to recover. You must be fully persuaded of God's unwavering love for you. You must know that God wants you to succeed in life. Faith begins where the will of God is known. How do you know the will of God? You study the Bible! Your Bible is a leather-bound copy of God's will for your life. Study it until you have no doubt about God's will for you. You cannot be wondering if God wants you to win or lose, succeed or fail, flourish or falter.
David said, "This I know...God is for me."3 Let me help you with these four words: God is for you! Just as any good father wants his children to succeed in life, so your heavenly Father is for you. He wants you to succeed in life. Here are some promises from God for you to meditate on that will help you to reorient your vision. Better yet, memorize them. As you saturate your thinking in these promises, the eclipse of faith that has cast you into the darkness of doubt will pass away, and you will again find yourself walking in the cheerful sunshine of knowing God is for you.
The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man.4
And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them.5
This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.6
Let them shout for joy and be glad, who favor my righteous cause; and let them say continually, "Let the Lord be magnified, who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant."7
The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.8
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.9
Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ.10
For people facing hard times, these precious promises are like "apples of gold in settings of silver."11 They are diamonds from the Word of God that will help you reorient your vision. Instead of allowing the crisis to dictate a bleak outlook, the Word of God has the potential to produce within you an alternative imagination for the future. It's like the sun bursting through the clouds after days of gray and overcast skies.
Vision is all about your perspective on the future, and your perspective on the future determines whether you will be energized or demoralized. We live almost all of our lives in memory and imagination-remembering the past and imagining the future. We encounter the past by memory, and we encounter the future by imagination. The present is so brief as to be almost indefinable. Now is nothing more than the infinitesimal slice of time between memory and imagination. It is memory and imagination that allow us to hear melody. We remember the note we heard a second ago and imagine the anticipated note, and thus we encounter melody. Without memory and imagination there would be no melody in our lives, just a stupefying preoccupation with the present moment. But when malevolent forces are allowed to dominate our memory and imagination, we can suffer severe mental torment. It's hell inside your head, and this is intolerable. In order to be happy, humans need healed memories and hopeful imaginations. God's Word is capable of accomplishing both of these tasks.
The truth that we live most of our lives in memory and imagination is undeniable. We remember the past and imagine the future. Our past is fixed (though our perspective on the past can change-more about that later), but the future is unknown. The only way we can relate to the future is through imagination. Imagination is indeed a legitimate way of knowing. Hope is the God way of imagining the future. A mind that is God-conscious, God-centric, and God-saturated will be full of hope. It's hope that energizes us for positive action.
Don't allow the malignant cancer of worry to dominate your imagination. Both worry and hope deal with an unknown future, and you have every right to imagine a bright future created by hope. This is what David was doing. Instead of allowing worry and anxiety to dictate his future, David, through a reoriented vision of victory, was imagining a future framed by hope. This hopeful imagination energized both David and his men to begin to engage in positive action-positive action that had the potential to change their situation.
Get a Vision of Victory
Human beings are mysterious creatures who are powerfully affected by vision. We are designed in such a way that we will move in the direction of what we see. Your vision is your future, and your vision is your imagination. You need an imagination inspired by the promises of God, and you need to develop a vision of victory. You need the eye of the eagle. The eagle builds its nest high atop a mountain or tall rock. From there, "it spies out the prey; its eyes observe from afar."12
Do you have the eye of the eagle? Can you see from afar? Can you see into the distant horizon of your future to view the glorious things that God has prepared for you? God has not called you to be a chicken pecking around in the barnyard of the status quo, never seeing anything but the dust of Old McDonald's farm. God has called you to mount up on the eagle's wings of faith and soar above the storms.13 God has given new creation man the eye of the eagle to behold destiny at a great distance.
I have found that I remain excited about life as long as I hold on to the vision that hope can create. As I live in the realm of hopeful vision, I find I can begin each new day with fresh energy and enthusiasm. This is the power of vision. Vision is not simply your wants, wishes, and desires-vision is what you see! Vision is the image of the future that dominates your imagination. If you ask a man living an empty, dead-end life if he wishes he had a better life, he would certainly say yes. But he has no vision for it. He wishes things were better, but as he peers into his future, all he sees is more of the same. He's like Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog Day, living the same day over and over. Your vision is not merely your wants, wishes, and desires-your vision is what you see. Your vision is your future!
Georgian Banov is a close friend of mine, and like many of my friends, he is a musician. Georgian plays guitar and piano and is a classically trained violinist. He grew up in Bulgaria in the 1960s when the communist officials kept a tight rein on music and the arts. One day Georgian heard the Beatles on Radio Free Europe singing, "I Want to Hold Your Hand." It was a moment that changed Georgian's life. Soon Georgian formed a rock band, and they began to play throughout Bulgaria. They were an instant sensation, that is until the state police deemed their music as a capitalistic excess that would corrupt the young people of Bulgaria and pulled the plug on them in the middle of a concert.
[To be continued]
God Bless
Psalm 23
Last edited:
[Part II]
That's when Georgian decided it was time to get out of Bulgaria, or, as Georgian says, "When the state stops your music, it's time to get a new state." He found a way into East Germany, and from there was able to escape to the political freedom of West Germany. Eventually, Georgian wound up in California during the height of the Jesus Movement. He was introduced to the gospel, became a Christian, and formed the band Silverwind.
In the early days of our church when we were still quite small, I invited Georgian to minister on a Friday night. Before the service, we were talking in my study, and he asked me about my vision. As I began to share my vision, a passion rose up in me, and the words poured forth. It seemed like a holy moment. Suddenly, Georgian jumped up, came over to where I was sitting, began poking me in the chest with his finger, and said these words to me: "Keep your mind on your vision. Make a decision! Keep your mind on your vision. Make a provision! Keep your mind on your vision. Tell all distractions good-bye."
I have never forgotten those words. They have often been a help to me. Even now I think about them often. Keep your mind on your vision! This is what David had to do. God's prophetic word had reoriented his vision, and now David had to make a decision, a provision. He had to keep his mind on his vision and tell all distractions good-bye. If you are going to move your life beyond catastrophe and in the direction of recovery, you have to reorient your vision toward victory, and then keep your mind locked in on that vision.
Increase Your Capacity for Vision
As I read the scriptural account of the Old Testament prophets, it seems as though God is very interested in a person's capacity for vision. Repeatedly in Scripture God asks people this question: "What do you see?" "What do you see, Jeremiah?" "What do you see, Zechariah?" "What do you see, Ezekiel?" "What do you see, Amos?" It's the question God presents to prospective prophets. To be a prophetic person who has some sense of what God is doing, you need a certain capacity for vision.
How do you improve your spiritual vision? By saturating your mind in Scripture. This enhances your capacity for vision. Disciplined reading of Scripture is an exercise in reading God's thoughts after Him, and it expands your capacity to think the God thoughts necessary to transcend convention and move beyond present limitation. You will never go further than your vision, and if you have moles' eyes instead of eagles' eyes you will be very limited. To move beyond the ashes of your worst day you need a new vision. If you can see the invisible, you can do the impossible.
In my life and ministry there have been times when I attempted new things that seemed risky at the time. But I had seen something, and I was going to be daring enough to move in the new direction of a new vision. This doesn't mean that everything I have attempted has been successful, but one thing is certain: without a new vision, you will never have anything new. You will be perpetually stuck in the vicious cycle of the religion of the wheel. This is what makes life seem like an exercise in futility, and this frustrating absurdity is what is depicted so poetically in the Book of Ecclesiastes:
"Everything is meaningless," says the Teacher, "completely meaningless!" What do people get for all their hard work under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes. The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again. The wind blows south, and then turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles. Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea. Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content. History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before.
Nothing under the sun is truly new.14
Many people misunderstand the purpose of the Book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes is a revelation of a life lived without a personal relationship with God. The personal name of God, Jehovah, never appears in the Book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes is a depressing book, not one to turn to when you need encouragement and need to have your faith built. The recurrent phrase, "under the sun," is euphemistic of the idea that there is no God in heaven. It is a description of the futility of life without a vibrant connection with the living God.
Ecclesiastes describes the religion and philosophy of the wheel. Life goes in circles, but nothing ever changes. Everything is vanity. Everything is absurdity. What has been is what will be. What has been done is what will be done. There is nothing new under the sun. It's the idea that life is ultimately an inescapable cycle, a vicious circle. It's the philosophy that dominates Eastern religion and Eastern philosophical thought. It is the system of religion and thought out of which God called Abraham.
Abraham originally lived in the Sumerian civilization of Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) in the cosmopolitan city of Ur. The Sumerians of ancient Mesopotamia were no backwater primitives. They built one of the first advanced civilizations. They were the first to utilize a written language and advanced mathematics. Ur in particular was a city of culture and sophistication. I've seen the ancient art of Ur in the British Museum, and it leaves you with the distinct impression that these were a highly cultured people. The city of Ur had the largest library in the ancient world, an advanced sewer system, and considerable understanding of medicine and mathematics. But despite the intellectual and technical sophistication of Ur, God called Abraham out of Ur as He began to form His alternative society. Why?
[To be continued]
Reorient Your Vision – Increase Your Capacity for Vision
By Brian Zahnd
By Brian Zahnd
That's when Georgian decided it was time to get out of Bulgaria, or, as Georgian says, "When the state stops your music, it's time to get a new state." He found a way into East Germany, and from there was able to escape to the political freedom of West Germany. Eventually, Georgian wound up in California during the height of the Jesus Movement. He was introduced to the gospel, became a Christian, and formed the band Silverwind.
In the early days of our church when we were still quite small, I invited Georgian to minister on a Friday night. Before the service, we were talking in my study, and he asked me about my vision. As I began to share my vision, a passion rose up in me, and the words poured forth. It seemed like a holy moment. Suddenly, Georgian jumped up, came over to where I was sitting, began poking me in the chest with his finger, and said these words to me: "Keep your mind on your vision. Make a decision! Keep your mind on your vision. Make a provision! Keep your mind on your vision. Tell all distractions good-bye."
I have never forgotten those words. They have often been a help to me. Even now I think about them often. Keep your mind on your vision! This is what David had to do. God's prophetic word had reoriented his vision, and now David had to make a decision, a provision. He had to keep his mind on his vision and tell all distractions good-bye. If you are going to move your life beyond catastrophe and in the direction of recovery, you have to reorient your vision toward victory, and then keep your mind locked in on that vision.
Increase Your Capacity for Vision
As I read the scriptural account of the Old Testament prophets, it seems as though God is very interested in a person's capacity for vision. Repeatedly in Scripture God asks people this question: "What do you see?" "What do you see, Jeremiah?" "What do you see, Zechariah?" "What do you see, Ezekiel?" "What do you see, Amos?" It's the question God presents to prospective prophets. To be a prophetic person who has some sense of what God is doing, you need a certain capacity for vision.
How do you improve your spiritual vision? By saturating your mind in Scripture. This enhances your capacity for vision. Disciplined reading of Scripture is an exercise in reading God's thoughts after Him, and it expands your capacity to think the God thoughts necessary to transcend convention and move beyond present limitation. You will never go further than your vision, and if you have moles' eyes instead of eagles' eyes you will be very limited. To move beyond the ashes of your worst day you need a new vision. If you can see the invisible, you can do the impossible.
In my life and ministry there have been times when I attempted new things that seemed risky at the time. But I had seen something, and I was going to be daring enough to move in the new direction of a new vision. This doesn't mean that everything I have attempted has been successful, but one thing is certain: without a new vision, you will never have anything new. You will be perpetually stuck in the vicious cycle of the religion of the wheel. This is what makes life seem like an exercise in futility, and this frustrating absurdity is what is depicted so poetically in the Book of Ecclesiastes:
"Everything is meaningless," says the Teacher, "completely meaningless!" What do people get for all their hard work under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes. The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again. The wind blows south, and then turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles. Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea. Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content. History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before.
Nothing under the sun is truly new.14
Many people misunderstand the purpose of the Book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes is a revelation of a life lived without a personal relationship with God. The personal name of God, Jehovah, never appears in the Book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes is a depressing book, not one to turn to when you need encouragement and need to have your faith built. The recurrent phrase, "under the sun," is euphemistic of the idea that there is no God in heaven. It is a description of the futility of life without a vibrant connection with the living God.
Ecclesiastes describes the religion and philosophy of the wheel. Life goes in circles, but nothing ever changes. Everything is vanity. Everything is absurdity. What has been is what will be. What has been done is what will be done. There is nothing new under the sun. It's the idea that life is ultimately an inescapable cycle, a vicious circle. It's the philosophy that dominates Eastern religion and Eastern philosophical thought. It is the system of religion and thought out of which God called Abraham.
Abraham originally lived in the Sumerian civilization of Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) in the cosmopolitan city of Ur. The Sumerians of ancient Mesopotamia were no backwater primitives. They built one of the first advanced civilizations. They were the first to utilize a written language and advanced mathematics. Ur in particular was a city of culture and sophistication. I've seen the ancient art of Ur in the British Museum, and it leaves you with the distinct impression that these were a highly cultured people. The city of Ur had the largest library in the ancient world, an advanced sewer system, and considerable understanding of medicine and mathematics. But despite the intellectual and technical sophistication of Ur, God called Abraham out of Ur as He began to form His alternative society. Why?
[To be continued]
Last edited:
[Part III]
The primary deity worshiped by the Sumerians was Nanna-Sin, the moon god. Nanna-Sin was the god of the cycles (as in the lunar cycle). At the heart of the worship of Nanna-Sin was the philosophy of the wheel, the fatalistic notion that we all live in an inescapable circle. It is a philosophy that says what has been is what will be, what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.
But God called Abraham to break out of the vicious circle and journey to a new place. (What a wonderful word journey is!) In order for Abraham to embark upon a journey into the unknown-for him to leave behind everything he knew to go wherever his faith in God led him-required a tremendous ability for vision. Abraham would have to believe there really could be something new under the sun.
Abraham would eventually become eternally famous for his faith and be known around the world as the father of faith. But Abraham's first step of faith was to turn his back on Ur and move toward something new, new but unknown. As Abraham left Ur, the last thing he would have seen would have been the ziggurat of the Nanna-Sin temple towering over Ur. Abraham had turned his back on the demon of the vicious circle. Abraham had a vision of something new and was breaking free from the religion and philosophy of the wheel.
If you are going to break from the vicious circle of addiction, depression, family strife, generational poverty, spiritual emptiness, and dead-end living, you must first reorient your vision toward something new and better.
Everyone wants good things-a good home and a good family, a good and happy marriage, and a good and meaningful life. But where do these good things come from? Are they simply inherited? Do we just hope we get lucky and somehow end up with good things? Where do good things come from? Jesus gave us the answer when He said that a good man brings forth good things "out of the good treasure of his heart," but an evil man brings forth evil things "out of the evil treasure" of his heart.15
The good things in a good man's life come from within him. They begin as part of his vision. They are first born in a hopeful imagination. I meet with pastors frequently who want to know how they can build a good church. I always tell them a good church begins in the heart of the pastor. A church will never be better than the pastor's vision. Are you longing for some good things in your life? You must first develop the vision inside of you. Of course, there is more to having good things in your life than just vision, but vision is the place where you start. David was a great leader because he had the essential quality of true leadership-he was able to communicate a new vision to his followers. David's men were ready to stone him until he was able to communicate to them his reoriented vision of recovering all.
When you have been through the worst day of your life, you need to reorient your vision and imagination. You need to turn your focus away from the present crisis and toward the alternative future of recovery. This is what hope is all about. See yourself transcending your tragedy, even if you're not sure yet how to get there. See yourself recovering all, even if it seems impossible right now. See yourself coming out of your present trouble into a place of genuine victory. Let hope paint a new picture on the canvas of your imagination. Your vision will give you the courage to face tomorrow with new energy and strengthened resolve. With something as simple as a hope-oriented vision, you are on the road to recovering all.
Notes:
1. 1 Samuel 30:8
2. James 1:6–8
3. Psalm 56:9
4. Genesis 39:2
5. Deuteronomy 28:13
6. Joshua 1:8
7. Psalm 35:27
8. John 10:10
9. 1 Corinthians 15:57
10. 2 Corinthians 2:14
11. Proverbs 25:11
12. Job 39:28–29
13. Isaiah 40:31
14. Ecclesiastes 1:2–9
15. Matthew 12:35
________________________________________
Brian Zahnd is the founder and senior pastor of Word of Life Church in St. Joseph, Mo. Excerpted from What to Do on the Worst Day of Your Life by Brian Zahnd. Used by permission.
Reorient Your Vision – Increase Your Capacity for Vision
By Brian Zahnd
By Brian Zahnd
The primary deity worshiped by the Sumerians was Nanna-Sin, the moon god. Nanna-Sin was the god of the cycles (as in the lunar cycle). At the heart of the worship of Nanna-Sin was the philosophy of the wheel, the fatalistic notion that we all live in an inescapable circle. It is a philosophy that says what has been is what will be, what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.
But God called Abraham to break out of the vicious circle and journey to a new place. (What a wonderful word journey is!) In order for Abraham to embark upon a journey into the unknown-for him to leave behind everything he knew to go wherever his faith in God led him-required a tremendous ability for vision. Abraham would have to believe there really could be something new under the sun.
Abraham would eventually become eternally famous for his faith and be known around the world as the father of faith. But Abraham's first step of faith was to turn his back on Ur and move toward something new, new but unknown. As Abraham left Ur, the last thing he would have seen would have been the ziggurat of the Nanna-Sin temple towering over Ur. Abraham had turned his back on the demon of the vicious circle. Abraham had a vision of something new and was breaking free from the religion and philosophy of the wheel.
If you are going to break from the vicious circle of addiction, depression, family strife, generational poverty, spiritual emptiness, and dead-end living, you must first reorient your vision toward something new and better.
Everyone wants good things-a good home and a good family, a good and happy marriage, and a good and meaningful life. But where do these good things come from? Are they simply inherited? Do we just hope we get lucky and somehow end up with good things? Where do good things come from? Jesus gave us the answer when He said that a good man brings forth good things "out of the good treasure of his heart," but an evil man brings forth evil things "out of the evil treasure" of his heart.15
The good things in a good man's life come from within him. They begin as part of his vision. They are first born in a hopeful imagination. I meet with pastors frequently who want to know how they can build a good church. I always tell them a good church begins in the heart of the pastor. A church will never be better than the pastor's vision. Are you longing for some good things in your life? You must first develop the vision inside of you. Of course, there is more to having good things in your life than just vision, but vision is the place where you start. David was a great leader because he had the essential quality of true leadership-he was able to communicate a new vision to his followers. David's men were ready to stone him until he was able to communicate to them his reoriented vision of recovering all.
When you have been through the worst day of your life, you need to reorient your vision and imagination. You need to turn your focus away from the present crisis and toward the alternative future of recovery. This is what hope is all about. See yourself transcending your tragedy, even if you're not sure yet how to get there. See yourself recovering all, even if it seems impossible right now. See yourself coming out of your present trouble into a place of genuine victory. Let hope paint a new picture on the canvas of your imagination. Your vision will give you the courage to face tomorrow with new energy and strengthened resolve. With something as simple as a hope-oriented vision, you are on the road to recovering all.
Notes:
1. 1 Samuel 30:8
2. James 1:6–8
3. Psalm 56:9
4. Genesis 39:2
5. Deuteronomy 28:13
6. Joshua 1:8
7. Psalm 35:27
8. John 10:10
9. 1 Corinthians 15:57
10. 2 Corinthians 2:14
11. Proverbs 25:11
12. Job 39:28–29
13. Isaiah 40:31
14. Ecclesiastes 1:2–9
15. Matthew 12:35
________________________________________
Brian Zahnd is the founder and senior pastor of Word of Life Church in St. Joseph, Mo. Excerpted from What to Do on the Worst Day of Your Life by Brian Zahnd. Used by permission.
Today’s Scripture Reading [April 25, 2010]
But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. [Mark 13:24-25. KJV]
From the news that we heard every day, it seems we are now witnessing the worsening of environmental upheaval. Since the start of year 2010, almost every few weeks or so, somewhere around the globe is experiencing earthquake. Concurrently many countries are experiencing drought and severe water shortage that are destroying crops. We are facing not problem but crisis in almost everything! Scientists and politicians are not able to find any solutions to any of these crisis from air and water pollutions to sudden appearance of new diseases to escalating rate of social ills and crimes,, et el. The latest eruption of a volcano in Iceland is yet another geological crisis that is causing a lot of hardship to many people especially those in the aviation industry. We must also be reminded that this is not just about affecting the economy and livelihood of people. It is all about God’s wraths, the final countdown of Jesus’ coming back, and how we respond to His wraths will determine the quality of our relationship with God.
Man is given all the opportunities to prove to themselves that they can govern themselves and solve all the problems of humanity. But, alas, for thousands of years, instead of solving them, mankind has created not just problems but crisis to those problems they had tried to solve. Time is running out and God is going to say, “That’s enough! Let me do it!”
There are many news, stories and predictions that the earth is coming to an end. Although largely written from religious perspectives, these end-time news, stories and predictions are also now widely discussed and debated even among mainstream secular people. The latest apocalypse movie “2012” depicted aweful events of biblical proportion of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and unusual solar activities with extreme destructive force. Such events like volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, et. el, if all occurred all at the same time, would definitely wipe out all the living things. Anyone could just search for keyword like “2012, End-time, Second Coming of Jesus” in the Internet and you will have thousands of hits on these subjects. Admittedly, many of these are purely speculative but we must acknowledge that as we come to ‘the end of the age’, there will be surprises after surprises of near-apocalyptic or even apocalyptic events happening every now and then and many of us will be caught by these surprises, unprepared! For example, in a lesser known event, there is a mysterious disappearing of honeybees in many states in the U.S. over the last 2 to 3 years. These honeybees are disappearing and vanishing by the hundred of thousands without a trace. The disappearance of these bees which is totally unexpected of by bee growers is what’s become known as colony collapse disorder (CCD). The CCD epidemic could put a strain on fruit growers and other farmers who rely heavily on the insects, especially honeybees to pollinate the crops. Researchers are scrambling to find answers to what is causing these agriculturally important honeybees to abandon their hives and disappear without a trace. Many theories have been formed as to why these honeybees disappeared and some scientists have theorized that the use of artificial fertilizers and the genetic ngineering to alter the cells of fruit plants have affected the biological system of the bees and cause them to perish. Regardless of the reasons, it is very clear that this disorder of CCD is man-made rather than due to nature after all honeybees have been here for thousands of years and this is the first time we are experiencing such an unusual phenomenon. It was said to have been estimated by Albert Einstein that “if all the bees disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.” The eradication of plants (and of course food then finally resulted in famine) is foretold as one of the biblical signs of the end-time (Matthew 24:7). The disappearance of bees can in fact be the most potent way to cause total crop failure, more serious than drought because drought usually affects certain specific areas whereas the extinction of honeybees can be global in magnitude. The wide-spread of the disappearance of bees is not a mere speculation because it has already spread to more than 20 states in the U.S. causing billions dollar of losses in American agriculture economy.
The attached article below featured an apocalyptic event that is expected to unfold in 2012. As the date of 2012 approached, many people are started to pay greater attention to this event. We pray that 2012 will just pass like any other year but as Christians, as children of God, we should not be fearful. We need however to be well-prepared, to be in God’s ark so as to be under His protection. We should not let any of these events affect our relationship with God. While it is God’s job to see that His children are saved, it is our job to continuously build closer relationship with our Lord Jesus and to do what He has commanded us to do. One of Jesus’ commandments for us is to go and share His Good News. Just imagine the how hard Noah and family members were when they were in the ark. There were ten of thousands of animals that required careful attention as they had to take care of these animals for one long year. Likewise, we should be working very hard now to spread the gospel because billion of people are still ignorant of the Cross of Jesus, His Redeeming Blood, His Resurrection and His Imminent Coming. Our days now in the ark are not for resting but for laboring for the Kingdom of God. Remember, Jesus last words to His disciples before He was ascended to heaven were “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15)”.
The sun is the most powerful force in our solar system. And, it is also potentially the most deadly. Recently, there has been growing excitement that the next “solar maximum” could render power grids, the Internet and telecommunications networks inoperable, and could even destroy modern civilization as we know it. What do science and Scripture reveal about our massive, nuclear neighbor?
The sun is a giant and incredibly violent nuclear fusion reactor 332,830 times larger than the earth. Every second, 700 million tons of hydrogen is explosively converted into helium, generating 5 million tons of energy and many millions of degrees of heat. Solar flares and “CME’s” (coronal mass ejections) regularly erupt from the sun, sending super-heated gas and particles streaming out into the solar system.
Some solar flares emit powerful X-rays, while coronal mass ejection’s (CME) emit billions of tons of plasma and energy from the sun’s corona, equivalent to the explosion of more than a hundred million hydrogen bombs! These explosions travel over 2 million miles per hour and can destroy anything in their path, even shredding individual atoms.
A strong CME may pass around the earth if our polarity is parallel. However, if the earth and the sun’s magnetic poles are not parallel, then the CME high-energy particles can be injected into the earth’s atmosphere with devastating consequences to satellites, spacecraft, aircraft navigation and even entire telecommunication and national power grids.
Every 11 years, the sun cycles from a low activity “solar minimum,” to a high activity “solar maximum” where solar flares and coronal mass ejections peak. Since the current solar minimum has been “longer” and “deeper” than most researchers predicted, many now fear that the coming solar maximum will be longer and more intense than predicted.
Additionally, scientists predict that in 2012, the sun’s poles will again flip, creating a vulnerable configuration for the earth. Adding to these concerns is the fact that in 2009, NASA reported that the next solar maximum (from 2012 to about 2016) will coincide with the presence of a new and unusually large hole in the earth’s protective geomagnetic shield that normally helps divert energy from solar flares and CMEs.
These factors: 1) the 2012 polarity flip, 2) the coming solar maximum, and 3) the unusually large and new geomagnetic hole in our protective shield, could be an astonishingly terrible astronomical coincidence, leaving humanity to trust in “luck” that we make it through another solar maximum unscathed … or it could be that the Lord God has allowed conditions to perfectly configure to bring ancient Bible prophecies to pass how and when He wills.
Leviticus 26:19 warns that if the nations do not turn back to God in heartfelt repentance, then, at the end of this age, He will afflict the earth. Revelation 16:8-9 specifically reveals that during the Day of the Lord, the fourth bowl judgment will bring unbearable scorching heat and “fire” from the sun that will sear the land and “scorch men with fire”!
Only God knows the exact timing of end-time events (Mark 13:32), but could conditions be aligning to fulfill these ancient prophecies? Could the next solar maximum cause massive, international utility and communications disruption, and set the stage for both the scorching heat that preludes the Day of the Lord and then the heat and solar fire that accompanies the fourth bowl judgment?
Our sun is indeed a massive, powerful and awesome neighbor. But, our God is El Shaddai – the Creator of the entire universe (Genesis 1:1, Colossians 1:16)! If we develop a close, personal relationship with Him now, then we need not fear the next solar maximum or any of the events prophesized to afflict the earth prior to Christ’s Second Coming.
But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. [Mark 13:24-25. KJV]
From the news that we heard every day, it seems we are now witnessing the worsening of environmental upheaval. Since the start of year 2010, almost every few weeks or so, somewhere around the globe is experiencing earthquake. Concurrently many countries are experiencing drought and severe water shortage that are destroying crops. We are facing not problem but crisis in almost everything! Scientists and politicians are not able to find any solutions to any of these crisis from air and water pollutions to sudden appearance of new diseases to escalating rate of social ills and crimes,, et el. The latest eruption of a volcano in Iceland is yet another geological crisis that is causing a lot of hardship to many people especially those in the aviation industry. We must also be reminded that this is not just about affecting the economy and livelihood of people. It is all about God’s wraths, the final countdown of Jesus’ coming back, and how we respond to His wraths will determine the quality of our relationship with God.
Man is given all the opportunities to prove to themselves that they can govern themselves and solve all the problems of humanity. But, alas, for thousands of years, instead of solving them, mankind has created not just problems but crisis to those problems they had tried to solve. Time is running out and God is going to say, “That’s enough! Let me do it!”
There are many news, stories and predictions that the earth is coming to an end. Although largely written from religious perspectives, these end-time news, stories and predictions are also now widely discussed and debated even among mainstream secular people. The latest apocalypse movie “2012” depicted aweful events of biblical proportion of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and unusual solar activities with extreme destructive force. Such events like volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, et. el, if all occurred all at the same time, would definitely wipe out all the living things. Anyone could just search for keyword like “2012, End-time, Second Coming of Jesus” in the Internet and you will have thousands of hits on these subjects. Admittedly, many of these are purely speculative but we must acknowledge that as we come to ‘the end of the age’, there will be surprises after surprises of near-apocalyptic or even apocalyptic events happening every now and then and many of us will be caught by these surprises, unprepared! For example, in a lesser known event, there is a mysterious disappearing of honeybees in many states in the U.S. over the last 2 to 3 years. These honeybees are disappearing and vanishing by the hundred of thousands without a trace. The disappearance of these bees which is totally unexpected of by bee growers is what’s become known as colony collapse disorder (CCD). The CCD epidemic could put a strain on fruit growers and other farmers who rely heavily on the insects, especially honeybees to pollinate the crops. Researchers are scrambling to find answers to what is causing these agriculturally important honeybees to abandon their hives and disappear without a trace. Many theories have been formed as to why these honeybees disappeared and some scientists have theorized that the use of artificial fertilizers and the genetic ngineering to alter the cells of fruit plants have affected the biological system of the bees and cause them to perish. Regardless of the reasons, it is very clear that this disorder of CCD is man-made rather than due to nature after all honeybees have been here for thousands of years and this is the first time we are experiencing such an unusual phenomenon. It was said to have been estimated by Albert Einstein that “if all the bees disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.” The eradication of plants (and of course food then finally resulted in famine) is foretold as one of the biblical signs of the end-time (Matthew 24:7). The disappearance of bees can in fact be the most potent way to cause total crop failure, more serious than drought because drought usually affects certain specific areas whereas the extinction of honeybees can be global in magnitude. The wide-spread of the disappearance of bees is not a mere speculation because it has already spread to more than 20 states in the U.S. causing billions dollar of losses in American agriculture economy.
The attached article below featured an apocalyptic event that is expected to unfold in 2012. As the date of 2012 approached, many people are started to pay greater attention to this event. We pray that 2012 will just pass like any other year but as Christians, as children of God, we should not be fearful. We need however to be well-prepared, to be in God’s ark so as to be under His protection. We should not let any of these events affect our relationship with God. While it is God’s job to see that His children are saved, it is our job to continuously build closer relationship with our Lord Jesus and to do what He has commanded us to do. One of Jesus’ commandments for us is to go and share His Good News. Just imagine the how hard Noah and family members were when they were in the ark. There were ten of thousands of animals that required careful attention as they had to take care of these animals for one long year. Likewise, we should be working very hard now to spread the gospel because billion of people are still ignorant of the Cross of Jesus, His Redeeming Blood, His Resurrection and His Imminent Coming. Our days now in the ark are not for resting but for laboring for the Kingdom of God. Remember, Jesus last words to His disciples before He was ascended to heaven were “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15)”.
Solar maximum, Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) and Scripture
By Wyatt Ciesielka
By Wyatt Ciesielka
The sun is the most powerful force in our solar system. And, it is also potentially the most deadly. Recently, there has been growing excitement that the next “solar maximum” could render power grids, the Internet and telecommunications networks inoperable, and could even destroy modern civilization as we know it. What do science and Scripture reveal about our massive, nuclear neighbor?
The sun is a giant and incredibly violent nuclear fusion reactor 332,830 times larger than the earth. Every second, 700 million tons of hydrogen is explosively converted into helium, generating 5 million tons of energy and many millions of degrees of heat. Solar flares and “CME’s” (coronal mass ejections) regularly erupt from the sun, sending super-heated gas and particles streaming out into the solar system.
Some solar flares emit powerful X-rays, while coronal mass ejection’s (CME) emit billions of tons of plasma and energy from the sun’s corona, equivalent to the explosion of more than a hundred million hydrogen bombs! These explosions travel over 2 million miles per hour and can destroy anything in their path, even shredding individual atoms.
A strong CME may pass around the earth if our polarity is parallel. However, if the earth and the sun’s magnetic poles are not parallel, then the CME high-energy particles can be injected into the earth’s atmosphere with devastating consequences to satellites, spacecraft, aircraft navigation and even entire telecommunication and national power grids.
Every 11 years, the sun cycles from a low activity “solar minimum,” to a high activity “solar maximum” where solar flares and coronal mass ejections peak. Since the current solar minimum has been “longer” and “deeper” than most researchers predicted, many now fear that the coming solar maximum will be longer and more intense than predicted.
Additionally, scientists predict that in 2012, the sun’s poles will again flip, creating a vulnerable configuration for the earth. Adding to these concerns is the fact that in 2009, NASA reported that the next solar maximum (from 2012 to about 2016) will coincide with the presence of a new and unusually large hole in the earth’s protective geomagnetic shield that normally helps divert energy from solar flares and CMEs.
These factors: 1) the 2012 polarity flip, 2) the coming solar maximum, and 3) the unusually large and new geomagnetic hole in our protective shield, could be an astonishingly terrible astronomical coincidence, leaving humanity to trust in “luck” that we make it through another solar maximum unscathed … or it could be that the Lord God has allowed conditions to perfectly configure to bring ancient Bible prophecies to pass how and when He wills.
Leviticus 26:19 warns that if the nations do not turn back to God in heartfelt repentance, then, at the end of this age, He will afflict the earth. Revelation 16:8-9 specifically reveals that during the Day of the Lord, the fourth bowl judgment will bring unbearable scorching heat and “fire” from the sun that will sear the land and “scorch men with fire”!
Only God knows the exact timing of end-time events (Mark 13:32), but could conditions be aligning to fulfill these ancient prophecies? Could the next solar maximum cause massive, international utility and communications disruption, and set the stage for both the scorching heat that preludes the Day of the Lord and then the heat and solar fire that accompanies the fourth bowl judgment?
Our sun is indeed a massive, powerful and awesome neighbor. But, our God is El Shaddai – the Creator of the entire universe (Genesis 1:1, Colossians 1:16)! If we develop a close, personal relationship with Him now, then we need not fear the next solar maximum or any of the events prophesized to afflict the earth prior to Christ’s Second Coming.
End of Article
Dear Brothers and Sisters-in-Christ,
The final countdown has begun! Please don't live as if there is plenty of time left. All the signs of Jesus' Second Coming are already here. For Christians, like myself, I am extremely excited because the Lord with all His mercy will soon bring us to His heavenly throne.
Attached is a 20-part series on the signs of the final countdown of Jesus coming back. Please watch them and I pray that the Holy Spirit will lead you to share this video series with your beloved friends and relatives. Time is running out. We must get ready to meet Him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNhv0pA9E9Y
Note: If you have problem trying to view when click to this hypertext, kindly go and search for Final Countdown - Billy Crone
Please note that I am not a member of Pastor Billy's congregation. I find his sermons are completely biblical and I am extremely amazed by his passion and calling to reach out to people to come to Jesus Christ and hence I just want to do a little service for Jesus by letting you all know of Pastor Billy's sermons
God Bless you all for watching this video.
The final countdown has begun! Please don't live as if there is plenty of time left. All the signs of Jesus' Second Coming are already here. For Christians, like myself, I am extremely excited because the Lord with all His mercy will soon bring us to His heavenly throne.
Attached is a 20-part series on the signs of the final countdown of Jesus coming back. Please watch them and I pray that the Holy Spirit will lead you to share this video series with your beloved friends and relatives. Time is running out. We must get ready to meet Him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNhv0pA9E9Y
Note: If you have problem trying to view when click to this hypertext, kindly go and search for Final Countdown - Billy Crone
Please note that I am not a member of Pastor Billy's congregation. I find his sermons are completely biblical and I am extremely amazed by his passion and calling to reach out to people to come to Jesus Christ and hence I just want to do a little service for Jesus by letting you all know of Pastor Billy's sermons
God Bless you all for watching this video.
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Today’s Scripture Reading [May 2, 2010]
Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. [2 Corinthians 9:7. KJV]
For many people, winning is about survival and to survive well, we must win. There is actually nothing wrong to win, to excel and to succeed in all the things we do because that’s what competition is all about, especially when it comes to sports or doing business. It is quite normal that everyone wants to be winner. But, do we need to win all the times? How do we react when we lose?
It is important to set goals, to strive and to excel in all the things we do. However, when we want to be successful we are often guilty of using the world's definition of “success”. According to the world we must:
• Not let others get in our way, but the Bible, tells us to "serve one another" (Gal. 5:13) and "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than ourselves. Each of us should look not only to our own interests, but also to the interests of others." (Phil. 2:3,4)
• Do whatever we have to do to get what we want, but the Bible tells us to "do everything to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31)
From the very minute we entered school, we grow up thinking that the thing that should drive our lives is the world's acclaim, especially in the pursuit of success regardless of what it would cost us. Unfortunately, this is contradictory to what God teaches as shown in Mark 8:3 “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?”
It is perfectly alright to be successful, and oh yes, we should play to win, but we must make sure that we are operating not by the definition of success given by the Fortune 500. Rather this definition of success must come from the Word of God. It is absolutely essential that we come to a realistic evaluation of ourselves, recognizing our gifts, knowing our strengths and weaknesses and putting all these gifts to good use in serving God and others. For believers, the final outcome of our success is to be able to stand before the Lord and hear Him say to us "Well Done My Child." So, here's the question: Are we serving God with our heart or are we just playing the game to win and to make a name for ourselves?
In a recent interschool ruby tournament incidence many of us were shocked to see students turned violence for reasons that many of us still couldn’t fully grasp with. What surprise us was that the students were from the ‘good schools’ and yet we saw these ‘good’ students had to take the matter into their own hand. It seemed that the violence was quite serious because a police report had to be made. How and why it happened is not really important but rather the incidence has reaffirmed the lack of values as the moral bedrock and it raises an important question: Why our society is now so fractured? Are we now in an age of total self-centeredness?
This poor sportsmanship incidence together with another unpleasant incidence that happened in a national school judo tournament is a wake up call for us to examine what’s wrong with our students, our school and our education system. Although the Ministry of Education (MOE) was quick to respond that it was important to “expect our schools to inculcate and uphold good sportsmanship at all times during games and competitions and sportsmanship, teamwork, discipline and fair play are traits that schools work to cultivate in students”, it still gives no comfort to the public in general and parents in particular because these are just simply motherhood statements that even a child can recite. Although the MOE has warned that such unsportsmanlike conduct is not to be condoned, many of us are wondering whether this warning will be taken seriously by the students, teachers and sports coaches. Again, we ask the same question – what can we do about it other than just give warning and using ‘stick’ as the primary antidote to address this antisocial behaviour? Last week as I was driving home after my church service I passed by a school along New Upper Changi Road and I saw a huge banner hanging prominently on the school fence. The banner was which was painted with several student portraits has these messages prominently written: “CONGRATULATIONS TO THEIR 2009 ‘O’ LEVEL EXAMINATION! THEY HAVE SCORED EIGHT DISCTINCTIONS”. Certainly, those high-achievers need to be acknowledged, to be praised and to be encouraged to further excel in their studies. However, the banner has also reaffirmed that our present education system has focused too much on academic achievements with very little or no emphasis on character-building. I believe the two incidences of violence and unsportsmanship during the ruby and judo tournaments are not going to be the “final act of violence and unsportsmanship” and unless major changes are made to give greater emphasis on godly character-building we can expect such these incidences to continue. Let’s be fair to our students and our sports enthusiasts, we have also witnessed frequent physical violence take place all over the world. The best we can hope for and pray is that such violence will not result in any major or fatal injuries.
Whether we win or we lose, we must remind ourselves that we need to be cheerful because God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7). It is quite a misnomer that the word ‘giver’ is used in a very limited and restricted manner as defined in dictionaries. It normally refers to someone who gives or donates money to the poor but in God’s economy, giving cheerfully can also mean to be a good loser, to respect your opponents, to show good sportsmanship and of course, to sincerely congratulate the winner who have defeated you. Good sportsmen must look beyond the scoreboard. We must learn to be chivalrous in victory and gracious in defeat.
Let’s learn from the students of Azusa Pacific University what losing (or winning) meant to them. They have truly displayed the characters which Jesus appeals to us: show mercy, seek rightness in relationships, make peace, be meek, be humble, be empathetic and sympathetic (Matthew 5:3-11). We may choose to do all of this, and still be subjected to rudeness and face hostile or threatening challenges. Even so, stand up for godly decency; make ours a vital witness because it is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35).
When the Los Angeles Times covered a 2008 conference championship soccer match between two Christian schools, Azusa Pacific University and Westmont College, it was about far more than winning the game. Three days earlier, a wildfire had swept through the Westmont campus, destroying several academic buildings, faculty homes, and student rooms. Unable to host the game, the rules required Westmont to forfeit. Instead, Azusa invited their opponents to play at their campus where they welcomed Westmont fans with free admission and lunch.
On the field, Westmont won an emotional 2-0 victory, while Azusa Pacific won admiration for their good will. LA Times reporter Bill Plaschke wrote: “Rarely in Southern California sports has there been a better show of sportsmanship than this. Azusa Pacific sacrificing its chance at a title defense to give Westmont a fair shot at taking it. As impressive as the resilience of the conquerors was the kindness of the conquered.”
So often, we think only of money when the Bible calls us to give willingly and bountifully “for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7). Giving others a chance and offering hospitality to those who hurt is generosity that makes winners of everyone involved.
Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. [2 Corinthians 9:7. KJV]
For many people, winning is about survival and to survive well, we must win. There is actually nothing wrong to win, to excel and to succeed in all the things we do because that’s what competition is all about, especially when it comes to sports or doing business. It is quite normal that everyone wants to be winner. But, do we need to win all the times? How do we react when we lose?
It is important to set goals, to strive and to excel in all the things we do. However, when we want to be successful we are often guilty of using the world's definition of “success”. According to the world we must:
• Not let others get in our way, but the Bible, tells us to "serve one another" (Gal. 5:13) and "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than ourselves. Each of us should look not only to our own interests, but also to the interests of others." (Phil. 2:3,4)
• Do whatever we have to do to get what we want, but the Bible tells us to "do everything to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31)
From the very minute we entered school, we grow up thinking that the thing that should drive our lives is the world's acclaim, especially in the pursuit of success regardless of what it would cost us. Unfortunately, this is contradictory to what God teaches as shown in Mark 8:3 “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?”
It is perfectly alright to be successful, and oh yes, we should play to win, but we must make sure that we are operating not by the definition of success given by the Fortune 500. Rather this definition of success must come from the Word of God. It is absolutely essential that we come to a realistic evaluation of ourselves, recognizing our gifts, knowing our strengths and weaknesses and putting all these gifts to good use in serving God and others. For believers, the final outcome of our success is to be able to stand before the Lord and hear Him say to us "Well Done My Child." So, here's the question: Are we serving God with our heart or are we just playing the game to win and to make a name for ourselves?
In a recent interschool ruby tournament incidence many of us were shocked to see students turned violence for reasons that many of us still couldn’t fully grasp with. What surprise us was that the students were from the ‘good schools’ and yet we saw these ‘good’ students had to take the matter into their own hand. It seemed that the violence was quite serious because a police report had to be made. How and why it happened is not really important but rather the incidence has reaffirmed the lack of values as the moral bedrock and it raises an important question: Why our society is now so fractured? Are we now in an age of total self-centeredness?
This poor sportsmanship incidence together with another unpleasant incidence that happened in a national school judo tournament is a wake up call for us to examine what’s wrong with our students, our school and our education system. Although the Ministry of Education (MOE) was quick to respond that it was important to “expect our schools to inculcate and uphold good sportsmanship at all times during games and competitions and sportsmanship, teamwork, discipline and fair play are traits that schools work to cultivate in students”, it still gives no comfort to the public in general and parents in particular because these are just simply motherhood statements that even a child can recite. Although the MOE has warned that such unsportsmanlike conduct is not to be condoned, many of us are wondering whether this warning will be taken seriously by the students, teachers and sports coaches. Again, we ask the same question – what can we do about it other than just give warning and using ‘stick’ as the primary antidote to address this antisocial behaviour? Last week as I was driving home after my church service I passed by a school along New Upper Changi Road and I saw a huge banner hanging prominently on the school fence. The banner was which was painted with several student portraits has these messages prominently written: “CONGRATULATIONS TO THEIR 2009 ‘O’ LEVEL EXAMINATION! THEY HAVE SCORED EIGHT DISCTINCTIONS”. Certainly, those high-achievers need to be acknowledged, to be praised and to be encouraged to further excel in their studies. However, the banner has also reaffirmed that our present education system has focused too much on academic achievements with very little or no emphasis on character-building. I believe the two incidences of violence and unsportsmanship during the ruby and judo tournaments are not going to be the “final act of violence and unsportsmanship” and unless major changes are made to give greater emphasis on godly character-building we can expect such these incidences to continue. Let’s be fair to our students and our sports enthusiasts, we have also witnessed frequent physical violence take place all over the world. The best we can hope for and pray is that such violence will not result in any major or fatal injuries.
Whether we win or we lose, we must remind ourselves that we need to be cheerful because God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7). It is quite a misnomer that the word ‘giver’ is used in a very limited and restricted manner as defined in dictionaries. It normally refers to someone who gives or donates money to the poor but in God’s economy, giving cheerfully can also mean to be a good loser, to respect your opponents, to show good sportsmanship and of course, to sincerely congratulate the winner who have defeated you. Good sportsmen must look beyond the scoreboard. We must learn to be chivalrous in victory and gracious in defeat.
Let’s learn from the students of Azusa Pacific University what losing (or winning) meant to them. They have truly displayed the characters which Jesus appeals to us: show mercy, seek rightness in relationships, make peace, be meek, be humble, be empathetic and sympathetic (Matthew 5:3-11). We may choose to do all of this, and still be subjected to rudeness and face hostile or threatening challenges. Even so, stand up for godly decency; make ours a vital witness because it is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35).
Winners All
[Except From Our Daily Bread June 24, 2010 – David McCasland]
[Except From Our Daily Bread June 24, 2010 – David McCasland]
When the Los Angeles Times covered a 2008 conference championship soccer match between two Christian schools, Azusa Pacific University and Westmont College, it was about far more than winning the game. Three days earlier, a wildfire had swept through the Westmont campus, destroying several academic buildings, faculty homes, and student rooms. Unable to host the game, the rules required Westmont to forfeit. Instead, Azusa invited their opponents to play at their campus where they welcomed Westmont fans with free admission and lunch.
On the field, Westmont won an emotional 2-0 victory, while Azusa Pacific won admiration for their good will. LA Times reporter Bill Plaschke wrote: “Rarely in Southern California sports has there been a better show of sportsmanship than this. Azusa Pacific sacrificing its chance at a title defense to give Westmont a fair shot at taking it. As impressive as the resilience of the conquerors was the kindness of the conquered.”
So often, we think only of money when the Bible calls us to give willingly and bountifully “for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7). Giving others a chance and offering hospitality to those who hurt is generosity that makes winners of everyone involved.
End of Article
A very happy and blessed mothers' day to all mothers and would-be mothers!
Her children arise up, and call her blessed.
Proverbs 31:28
For a mother is the only person on earth Proverbs 31:28
Who can divide her love among ten children
And each child still have all her love.
(Annoynmous)
May God Bless All Mothers Richly!!!
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VIDEO SERIES - MARRIAGE BUILT TO LAST
For many of us, especially married couples, we are facing life challenges and these include balancing our worklife with family life, paying our bills - housing mortgages, car loans, children education, supporting our aged parents. Overtime, these problems can overtake us and we can become insensitive to the needs of our closest 'friend' that is our spouse. Attached is the hypertext to a 12-part series on Marriage by Pastor Billy Crone. I personally find it very encouraging and certainly help me in building closer relationship with our family members. Hope and pray that you will find it useful too. God bless and to all mothers and would-be-mothers, have a very blessed Mothers' Day.
[Note: If you find it useful, please help to send this to your friends. Also, note that I am not a member of Pastor Billy Crone's church and neither am I promoting his ministry. Rather, I hope the video can bring Christians to walk closer with Jesus everyday.]
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