What Does the Scripture Say?

The last book I read was a blessing from the Glasgow family. It was a very informative, comprehensive book about Islam, Israel and the last days. I skimmed some parts but thoroughly read the chapters on Islam. It seems the Lord is sending many Muslims my way lately. Ever since meeting Oumar (a black, French, African, Muslim) in a Best Buy years ago, I have had a great interest in learning about Islam. Praise the Lord that Oumar has repented of his wicked ways and trusted Christ for salvation! What a miracle!

The book went into detail about Islam’s pagan foundations and hateful doctrines. Here’s an excerpt from a heading titled “Earliest Roots of Today’s Islamic Terrorism”:

The way in which Muhammad established his new religion in Arabia - by attacking caravans and villages, putting the defeated to the sword to bring fear and to impose his will on other Arabs - was nothing short of terrorism. There is no other word in today’s vocabulary to describe it. In his Pensees, Blaise Pascal made a comparison: “Mohamet established a religion by putting his enemies to death; Jesus Christ by commanding his followers to lay down their lives.” As another author put it, “Jihad was…accepted [from] the Koran as the direct word of God [Allah]. No one had any difficulty in reconciling religiosity and rapacity. Muhammad had not only made it easy for them to do so, he had made it a virtue by presenting plunder and war as righteous paths to Paradise.”

Here’s a 9 minute clip of Dave Hunt talking about the book.

If you’re interested you can buy the book from The Berean Call (Dave’s ministry) here. Also click this to download a preview of the book (it’s the first chapter and the subject index). May the Lord bless you as we share the gospel of grace with those stuck in false religions.

This “Guest Blog” is brought to you by Dr. Jobe Martin. Please visit his website at www.EvolutionofaCreationist.com

The idea is this: You have a particular recurring problem or potential problem such as laziness, cheating, stealing, swearing, lust, anger, pride, lying, immorality, lack of self control, pornography, drugs, alcohol, impatience, etc.

Our Lord gives us a command (Aorist Imperative) in Romans 13:14: “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.”

How can I victoriously fight this war against my fleshly desires? As a born-again Christian with the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in me, I can find a Scripture that deals with my particular problem. I memorize that Scripture, then meditate on the Scripture by going over and over it in my mind. Then personalize it by inserting my name into the Scripture everywhere I can. I pray the verse or passage back to my Lord and ask him to use it in my life the next time the temptation or test or workshop (as Jenna Dee likes to call them) comes along.

ANGER
For example, perhaps you have a problem with anger. Look up some Scriptures that deal with anger. One that we have used in our family is Ecclesiastes 7:9: “Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.”
Memorize it, meditate on it, personalize it, pray it back to God. “Lord, help me not to be hasty (eager) in my spirit to be angry. Help me not to forget that You look upon me in my anger as a fool. Lord Jesus, I do not want to be a fool in Your sight. Give me the grace to walk in Your Spirit and make no provision for the lusts of my flesh.”

Are you a person who is hasty to be angry? Does your family walk on eggshells around you for fear of triggering your uncontrolled temper? Do you scream and shout and lose it at the slightest provocation? Do you express your obnoxious, pompous anger with the silent treatment? Are you eager to be angry? Do you want our loving Lord to call you a fool? You see, anger destroys relationships. It ruins families, and our Lord knows that and wants something better for us. He desires for us to have hearts full of self-control and peace. Jesus said: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14:27

So now you are angry at a family member and our faithful Savior brings to your mind Ecclesiastes 7:9. Or maybe a family member says in a quiet voice, “Do not be hasty in your spirit to be angry, for our precious Lord tells us that anger resides in the bosom of fools.” What do you do now that you lost it again? You may have thoughtlessly slipped back into your old habit pattern of anger, but as soon as the Holy Spirit reminds you that your anger is not a fruit of the Spirit, ask that precious family member to forgive you and confess it to the Lord as the sin that it is.

“And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one an other, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” Ephesians 4:30, 31

Once you lose your temper, why would you not want to immediately confess this sinful behavior and gain forgiveness and regain the fellowship of the family member you have offended? The reason is called “PRIDE.” Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of relationship problems are caused by pride and selfishness. Behind the pride and selfishness is the root of unbelief. Unbelief in this sense is “I have a better idea of how to run my life than God does!” As Frank Sinatra sang, “I Did It My Way.” So I indulge myself at the expense of my family and the reputation of my Lord.

LET’S RECAP HOW TO PRE-DECIDE THE WAY WE WILL REACT WHEN TEMPTED TO SIN:

Find a Scripture that deals with the problem.

Memorize this Scripture.

Meditate on this Scripture.

Personalize the Scripture (put your name in it wherever possible).

Pray the Scripture back to God.

THEN WHAT?

Ask the Lord to use this Scripture in your life the next time (or first time) you are confronted with the problem, test or temptation!

http://www.biblicaldiscipleship.org/Essentials/Predeciding.htm

Hello friends and family. I changed host providers for this blog and it has given me greater flexibility to customize the blog. One of the new features you’ll see on the “sidebar” (the column to the left of the main body text) is the ability to chat with other people who are currently on this web page.

You can type your first name (or any handle) under “Name”. This will help others to know who you are. Then you can start “chatting”, simply type a greeting under “Message” and click the send button to post.

That’s about it! Feel free to click other things to see what they do. I hope to ‘chat’ with you soon!

Why we have chosen to home educate our children…

We believe that parents are responsible for the education and care of their children, not the government. Parents who desire to disciple their children are best suited to teach their children. We believe that all of life should be lived for the Lord. The Lord is concerned with education and what it produces in our children. An educational system that is devoid of God will produce for the most part children devoid of God. We want our children to grow in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, this needs to be cultured in daily extensive interaction. We wish to protect our children from negative socialization. We want our children to be able to interact not only with their peers but with a wide range of age groups. We thoroughly enjoy our children and could not imagine not being with them and the joy of seeing their minds and hearts open while learning. Regardless of support from others we believe that this is what the Lord desires for our family and we are committed to it whole-heartedly.

If you would like more information on homeschooling please check some of the links below. There has been much research done on the benefits of homeschooling and the exceptional job that parents are doing. There are also some links to sites with God-honoring teaching tools. We are also eternally grateful to Home School Legal Defense Association. HSLDA is a nonprofit advocacy organization established to defend and advance the constitutional right of parents to direct the education of their children and to protect family freedoms. Every parent and grandparent should join to support their work in making sure homeschooling continues to enjoy it’s many freedoms

Greetings friends and family! May the Lord be praised through our lives. Christy is the bestest little wife and homemaker a man could ever ask for. I am so blessed beyond measure. Our three children are the sweetest in the whole world! Grace is a little servant girl who loves her little brother and sister. Stephen is the protector and loves to ‘fight the good fight of faith’. And little Faith is the most loving tiny girl. She loves to hug and pray. Right now our little home church is going through Romans which is a tremendous blessing!

We met in 8th grade while growing up in Southern California. We attended highschool and University of California Riverside together. After graduating college we moved to Portland, Oregon and decided that we should probably go to church. That was God working because we never felt compelled to go before. We decided on a church just down the road. We liked that they taught the Bible and we felt convicted that we weren’t living a pleasing life before the Lord. Through a several year period we felt convicted of our sin and the fact that we were living together outside of marriage. We decided to be obedient and He really started working in our lives. The Lord gave us a love for Him and a desire to serve Him with our lives. We moved from Portland to Colorado Springs to work at Focus on the Family and then in 1999 moved to the Cincinnati area to serve with Answers in Genesis.

We have greatly enjoyed Tony being given the awesome opportunity serving with this wonderful ministry. Since our move here the Lord has given us three wonderful children. We pray that He would bring many more! Children are such a blessing from the Lord, the joy they bring is immense. Christy has been given a ministry through her home and greatly enjoys serving there. We are excited to see what the Lord will do through our family.

We believe that the Bible has been given by God to lead us in righteousness. If we will read it we will know the wisdom He has for us and the salvation He provides. We must come to the point of acknowledging and turning away from our sin. We must come to Him on our knees, broken and clinging to Him to save us. We cast off our good works, pride, self-sufficiency and religiosity. We trust Him that Jesus paid the whole debt of our sin and receive forgiveness for our guilt before God. This process is what every true believer goes through. Then they live lives pleasing to Him. We all make mistakes in our walk with the Lord but you like I have known those that claim to be Christians but live and talk like the devil. We pray that the Lord has worked or works the miracle of salvation in you too!

This is a fantastic little booklet on raising Godly children. A number of years ago, the Bradricks gave me a whole case of these and I’ve been handing them out ever since. The Martins really liked them and now hand them out to churches wherever they go. Take the time to read this short, timeless booklet and you’ll be blessed. Download it and email it to your friends and family. If you want a hard copy of the booklet, let me know and I can put you in touch with the Bradricks.

Husbands & fathers, this booklet is crucial for us as the leaders in the home. Don’t simply let your wife read it and pass it by. In fact, far too many times our wives seem to read the parenting books and watch the child raising videos, while fathers watch TV or read a magazine. (Hopefully the guilt trip works and you read it now ) This is a quick, yet substantive read, only 17 pages.

 
Click to download

May the Lord bless you all! Let me know what you think via ‘comments’ or shoot me an email.

Jesus Christ is Lord of my life. All praise to Him. I thank Him for delivering me out of darkness and into His glorious light. Praise God that He has given me a wonderful wife and four precious little children. God has been so much more than kind to me.

Here’s the “Christmas story” in the gospel of John.

Jn 1:1-4 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” Jn 1:14 “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”

I’ve always really enjoyed that passage. “The Gospel of John” is my current favorite “Jesus” movie. I highly recommend it.

This is from the middle of chapter 3 and goes through to the end of 4. One of my favorite scenes is Jesus with the Samaritan woman at the well.

This is the end of chapter 8 and goes into the middle of 9. Another one of my favorite scenes is where Jesus declares, “Before Abraham was born, I AM!”

You can purchase it HERE at ChristianBook.com or simply watch it all at youtube.com.

As a family, we have been reading through the Gospel of Luke recently and we just read through the portion where it records our Lord’s birth. One thing that struck Christy and me was when the angel of the Lord delivered a message to both Zacharias and Mary, they each responded with a question.

Lk 1:17-20 “It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Zacharias said to the angel, “How will I know this for certain? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years.” The angel answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. “And behold, you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time.”

Lk 1:31-35 “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.

As the text shows, Zacharias was rebuked for his question, but Mary was not. It seems to me that the question from Zacharias betrayed a heart of unbelief. If I could paraphrase, “I’m going have a son? Yeah, right. I don’t think so. I’m way too old. Give me a sign! How will I know this for sure?” It seems that an angel from the Lord was not enough of a sign for him.

But as we look at Mary’s answer, again if I can paraphrase, “Oh yes, I believe everything you are saying. But I have a question, I know this will come about just as you say, but how since I have not known a man? I believe God will do as He says, but wonder fills my mind as I know that I am a virgin.” Her answer was filled with belief and trust in the Lord’s word.

I also love Mary’s final response “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” It’s so beautiful. It is how we should respond to every command and nudge from the Lord. We would do well to memorize this and utilize it in our lives. So we see both faith and obedience in Mary’s life. I think that there was a cause and effect relationship there. Because Mary had faith in God’s word, she was compelled to obey the word of the Lord. Let us also keep that relationship in view, we need to have faith before our obedience is pleasing to the Lord.

As Christians we need to walk by faith, not by sight. Our obedience flows from trusting in God’s promises and believing His warnings. If we really trusted in God’s word, we would know that “He is for us, not against us”, that “He causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him”. I would agree with the statement that the root of all sin is essentially unbelief. Let us look to Him and His word to strengthen our faith. “Lord increase our faith!” so that we may glorify You all our days.

I’ve attached some notes from JC Ryle on Luke 1 related to these passages. They are very encouraging, please click below to read them. May the Lord bless you all!

Watch as Joel Osteen (America’s pastor) hems and haws, shucking and jiving while denying the exclusivity of Christianity. Jesus said “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” Jesus also said in Luke 13:5 “unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Notice that technically speaking Joel Osteen didn’t really say anything wrong. Once again we see that there are sins of commission and sins of omission. The caller (and Larry King) was asking about the reality that if any individual (in general) does not believe in Christ, will they die in their sin (and go to hell)? Joel Osteen sidesteps the issue and states that he is not the one to judge each individual whether a particular individual is going to hell or heaven. And that is true, we cannot know definitively whether a particular person is going to hell or not because we cannot know the heart in an absolute way. But the Scripture gives us the freedom (and responsibility) to tell others that people in general (and even a particular individual) is going to burn in hell if they don’t repent and believe in Jesus.

Joel’s answers also are very ambiguous toward the end. God’s Word is authoritative and gives us the authority to say that any true atheist is going to hell, that any person who does not repent and believe will go to hell. That is not on our own authority, that is what God has stated. To be wishy washy about that truth is to deny God’s authority, not our own. It is a false humility that comes off as gracious, but in reality is deadly.

Thankfully God has raised up some to present an accurate view of the gospel on national television.

Praise the Lord that John MacArthur stands up for the truth of the gospel. Thankfully he has more fear of God than fear of man. However, notice that again, it is the idea that “Christianity is true for me, but it doesn’t have to be true for you” that prevails. Why is it so difficult to tell people that unless they repent of their sins, they will burn in damnation and hellfire? That Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. May the Lord give us the boldness and sensitivity to dying souls to proclaim to them the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of the Bible come in the flesh, Jesus Christ.

Some folks might think that I am bold, but I know better. Most of us would also think that the apostle Paul was one of history’s boldest Christians, yet in Ephesians 6:19-20 he says this, “Pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”

It seems that even Paul had the temptation to shrink back, to let the fear of man override his fear and love for God. I also would ask for prayer like Paul did. I see the many times when I should have been bold for Christ but did not. May we all walk by the Spirit (by grace through faith) and be emboldened by His moving and by His Word to preach the message of saving grace, of grace alone, of imputed righteousness to a generation that is perishing all around us.

This guest blog is brought to you tonight by Christy.
 
Today was our dear sister Carol’s celebration service.  She went to be with her Lord on Monday after battling stage 4 liver cancer for 6 months.  It was a time as pastor Holt said of rejoicing at her going home to be with the Lord and a time of grieving because we will not see her again this side of heaven.  There was a wonderful time of testimony to the transforming power of God’s saving grace in her life.  The Holy Spirit led the service with lots of sharing from numerous people that Carol had an impact on.  I think the main thing that stuck out in my mind was how honoring to the Lord the whole service was.

We received a wonderful portrait of Carol through knowing her and the testimonies of those she impacted.  Carol came to know the Lord later in life and after years of running the household handed over the reigns to her husband.   This was not easy to do for she was a very strong woman who was quite capable I’m sure.  Once confronted with the Lord’s pattern for women she humbly sought to surrender to His will and deny her own will.   Her husband Bob shared about her desire to be conformed to the woman God wanted her to be and her desire to share with younger women.  Carol home schooled their three children, two of whom went on to attend West Point just as their father and grandfathers had done.

As their son Brett shared, his mom really sought to live excellently for the Lord and passed that on to her children, never letting them get away with doing things other than excellently. He also shared a time when his mom said that she would never let go of him even though he wanted to go the other way.  He was able to lay next to his mom several weeks ago and tell her that she had fought hard for them, and although not able to say much at that point she whispered out “yes, I fought hard.”

Carol had a wonderful time of training her daughter Mandy for her future as a wife and mother.  Mandy shared that she sometimes wondered why she was still at home, what the Lord’s plan was.  She now sees that she was at home to learn and grow close to her mom, she only had 5 years with her from when she graduated high school.  She shared that she hoped that she could be half the wife and mother as her mom was.  Chad shared the never-ending love his mother had for all of them and her strong spirit.  It was touching what each shared regarding how special she was.

The thing I take away is what kind of testimony will I have?  Will I hear “well done my good and faithful servant” as I’m sure that Carol heard?  She certainly did a lot in the time the Lord gave her on earth.  I want to leave a sweet fragrant aroma of Christ to those around me, my husband, children and others that the Lord puts in my path.  Our time here on earth is indeed short in comparison to eternity, even if we are given 80 years. 

Pastor Holt shared a wonderful story of a couple down the street from him missing out on getting the house they now live in (which is a wonderful house to home church in!).  The couple told him that they really liked that house on the cul-de-sac and hoped someday it would be theirs but missed out on buying it, why? Because he said they later told him they waited too long.  Will we miss out on the mansion that the Lord has prepared because we waited too long?  Whatever our age I pray we commit to Him our lives by repenting of our sins and living totally for Him.