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Sunday, November 23, 2008

Have You Ever Read the Entire Bible?

I just found the coolest site! It's run by an online friend of mine, who is from South Africa. 

Hey Gaby!

It's a site designed to help people read through the entire Bible. It's called Bible Journey, and you can easily join the journey into God's Word!

You'll want to get a Chronological Bible...or, you can go to her site daily, and just click the appropriate link for the day you're on, and the text will be printed out right there for you!

If you're more of an auditory learner, you even have the option of clicking on the speaker, and LISTENING to it!

HOW COOL IS THIS?!

I love it!

There's even a place on her site where you can journal about what you're learning...and some great image files to help bring the Bible to life. I just looked at one of an artist's rendering of Solomon's temple, and was so in awe that my breath escaped me!

It's such a neat site...I think you'll love it.

I just joined the "journey"..why don't you grab your bags and come along with me!

Think of it as the most AMAZING RACE you'll ever enter! :)

Here's the link: Bible Journey

Love to you today!
Jes


Thursday, November 06, 2008

Thoughts on the Election

I've been trying to formulate my thoughts about what I wanted to write regarding our recent election.

I just keep thinking, as a country, we've gotten what we've begged for...not unlike Ancient Israel when they refused God as their King and begged to be like all the other nations. God answered their prayer, and it ended up in years of heartache for them.

Israel was created to be a people for God. They were to live lives that pointed others to God. They were to be set apart for His glory.

As Christians, we too are to live lives set apart for God's glory. We're to live in such a way that others KNOW that we are different...even if that means that we endure persecution for it. We're not to live to our glory, but to God's.

Yet in our country, we've called evil good and good evil.

We've allowed Hollywood to define our moral values, instead of turning to the Lord and His Word to teach and instruct us.

We've aborted our babies in massive numbers, and called them tissue.

I know. The world formed my viewpoints for 29 years of my life. 

Just last night, Shane and I were talking about abortion, and he was expressing his frustration over the fact that so many people who call themselves Christians, do not believe that abortion is a sin.

He was pretty fired up about it, to be honest.

I told him this story, about myself when I THOUGHT I was a believer, but was so very lost.

"When I moved to Wisconsin (1995), I remember going to a new church one day. I was so excited to have found a Bible church!  (It was an Evangelical Free Church..they type I now am a member of, but this was the first time I'd been to one.)

I remember walking in and seeing all of these grown men with little lapel pins of feet. I thought it was the oddest thing...like their wives hadn't had the courage to tell them how stupid a "feet pin" looked. I was like, "don't they wear flag pins here?!" and then "lapel pins are tacky, anyway".

The service began, and the pastor started teaching on the "sin" of abortion. I put sin in parenthesis, because at the time I didn't think it was one.

Well, the longer I sat in the pew and listened to him teach, the madder I got. There were several times throughout the sermon that it was all I could do not to pop right out of my seat and yell, "THIS IS NO PLACE TO BE SPREADING YOUR POLITICAL VIEWS!
 TEACH THE BIBLE TO ME, BUT DO NOT TRY TO IMPOSE YOUR PERSONAL BELIEFS ON ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I'm not kidding when I tell you, I was FURIOUS!"

What a contrast to today, to the person that I am in Christ today...to the way that I THINK today, and to how my moral values are defined today.

I look back to that time and I see a young woman whose thoughts and life had been molded by the culture, not by God's Word. And, by the false teaching of a pastor who was so wrong...so Biblically off!

This is where our country is today. We've allowed anyone and everyone and anything and everything BUT the Lord's Word to tell us what is ok and what is not.

When I looked at President-Elect Obama's precious little girls in the picture that I saw online of his victory walk, my first thought was, "I wonder how many of his grandchildren he will lose to abortion." 

Oh, I hope and pray that the answer to that question will be zero. I pray God's hand of protection and grace upon both of them.

I also pray that he and his whole household will come to know the Lord in a deeply personal way. Granted, I don't know his heart...only God does. But, I know that the stance that he's taken on many things is completely contrary to God's Word. The fruit is not in keeping with someone sold out to Jesus Christ.

Yet, I think about my own salvation. I went from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light in an instance...in the privacy of my own home when the Lord Himself drew me into complete surrender to Him.

From the moment that I repented and surrendered my life to Jesus, He began ordering my footsteps, and teaching me how to walk in obedience to Him.

I will pray no less for President-Elect Obama. 

Let us pray for his salvation. Let us pray that he comes to know the Word of God,  and lives as a bond-servant of Jesus Christ. Let us pray that he will seek the wisdom of the Lord.

Let us pray for his wife and children, too. 







Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Please Read Joel Rosenberg's Post -

Joel Rosenberg has written an eye-opening piece on how the Epicenter is responding to Obama's victory. I encourage you to visit his site and read it.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. 

Pray for President-Elect Obama.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Today's Encouragement from God's Word

This morning, Caedmon and I had some time in prayer together for our nation. He felt led to read Psalm 9, and I was blown away by how applicable it is to today.
 [[To the chief Musician upon Muthlabben, A Psalm of David.]] Psalm 9:1 I will praise [thee], O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works.

Psa 9:2I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High.

Psa 9:3When mine enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish at thy presence.

Psa 9:4For thou hast maintained my right and my cause; thou satest in the throne judging right.

Psa 9:5Thou hast rebuked the heathen, thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name for ever and ever.

Psa 9:6O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end: and thou hast destroyed cities; their memorial is perished with them.

Psa 9:7But the LORD shall endure for ever: he hath prepared his throne for judgment.

Psa 9:8And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.

Psa 9:9The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.

Psa 9:10And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.

Psa 9:11Sing praises to the LORD, which dwelleth in Zion: declare among the people his doings.

Psa 9:12When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them: he forgetteth not the cry of the humble.

Psa 9:13Have mercy upon me, O LORD; consider my trouble [which I suffer] of them that hate me, thou that liftest me up from the gates of death:

Psa 9:14That I may shew forth all thy praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion: I will rejoice in thy salvation.

Psa 9:15The heathen are sunk down in the pit [that] they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken.

Psa 9:16The LORD is known [by] the judgment [which] he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah.

Psa 9:17The wicked shall be turned into hell, [and] all the nations that forget God.

Psa 9:18For the needy shall not alway be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall [not] perish for ever.

Psa 9:19Arise, O LORD; let not man prevail: let the heathen be judged in thy sight.

Psa 9:20Put them in fear, O LORD: [that] the nations may know themselves [to be but] men. Selah.
Blue Letter Bible. "Psalm 9 - King James Version." Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2008. 4 Nov 2008. < b="Psa&c="9&t="KJV">

Proposition 102

My friend Laura has a written a wonderful blog post regarding Proposition 102. It gives much to consider.

I encourage you to click here and read it: Laura's Blog .

There's a video that accompanies her post...it's amazingly eye-opening. Please take a few minutes to watch it.

If you're going to vote according to God's Word today, PLEASE...go and vote.

If you're going to vote against His Word, please...take a long, long nap...one that begins about 6am and lasts through the night, uninterrupted. :)