Thursday, October 29, 2009

Halloween Witnessing Tip From Trish.

This is a two minute witnessing tip from Trish Ramos at fishwithtrish.blogspot.com. Check out her blog for more tips, stories, and even some contest.


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Monday, October 26, 2009

How do you view yourself? A letter to unbelievers.

How do we view ourselves? Are we good? Our society now days seem to believe in telling everyone that they are good. After all, we don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. But is it legit to lie to someone to avoid hurting their feelings? I am certainly not one to hurt anyone’s feelings, but lying to is not only wrong, but to do so to not hurt their feelings is just going to hurt them more in the end. Cases in point, school kids; we don’t want to hurt their feelings. We want them to have a good and high self esteem. Yet, studies show that kids with higher self esteem do more poorly academically. So I guess its fine for them to think they are good now, but when they are older, and can’t do much but flip burgers for a living, who do we blame? Another case, and a very popular one, American Idol. Seriously, it really is sad to see those people coming out of the auditions crying because Simon told them the honest truth and told them that they can’t sing. I’m not just talking about people with mediocre voices, but I mean these people can’t carry a tune in a bucket and they go to these auditions thinking they can sing because no one wanted to hurt their feelings and tell them that they can’t, and so they go to the audition and leave in a mess of tears.

What does this have to do with how you view yourself? A LOT! One of my witnessing techniques is to ask people if they would consider themselves to be a good person. I learned to do this when I became a Christian, and I am following the example of a role model of mine, Ray Comfort. The whole Idea behind it is that the Bible says that “Most men will proclaim his own goodness” (Proverbs 20:6). As a result every time I have asked someone that question, they always give me a response indicating that they are indeed a good person. Even if I were to ask if mankind is inherently good or evil most people will say good. But are we really? In Jeremiah 17:9 it says that “the heart of man is deceitfully wicked; who can know it?” All throughout the Bible there is nothing that indicates hat man is good. Jesus Himself even said “There is none good except God.” (Mark 10:18)

So who is right on this issue? Is it God or is it mankind? I will always stand with God. Reason being… The standards of which we use to define good. A person’s standards can change from one person to the next, and even an individual’s own standard can change due to life experiences and maybe even to justify their own sinful habits. God’s standards, on the other hand, never change. They were written in stone. They are The 10 Commandments. It is the standard that of which He will judge the world by on Judgment Day.

How are you going to do on that day? Have you kept the commandments in thought, word and deed? God can see our thought life and even that will come out as a testimony against us on Judgment Day. Have you ever lied, or ever stolen anything, or even desired something that wasn’t yours? Jesus said that if you look at someone with lust you are an adulterer at heart and if you hate someone without cause then you area murderer at heart. Have you ever done those? Have you ever used God’s name in vain, taking the name of the one who gave us life and used it as a 4 letter filth word to express disgust? How about the Sabbath day, have you kept it holy? Have you always honored your parents? And what about God, who gave you life, have you always loved Him above all else?

If you have broken any of those then you are in danger of going to Hell, because you will be found guilty on that day. You might say “My God would never send anyone to Hell!” Well, I’d agree with you, you are right. Your God wouldn’t send anyone to Hell, because he couldn’t. Because He doesn’t exist, and in believing so you would have violated the 2nd commandment by making a God to suit yourself. So what are you going to do on that day, what are you going to say? What can you say? The answer is nothing because by then it would be too late.

But until that day comes there is hope. There is good news. God loves us so much that He sent His son Jesus (God in the flesh) to live a perfect life and become the perfect sacrifice for our sins. On he cross He took the punishment for our sins, so that we wouldn’t have to. He was then buried and on the 3rd day rose again, defeating death. This through Christ is a free gift, and to receive this forgiveness we must repent of our sins, that is to confess and for sake them. Turn from your sins and then turn toward God, and put our faith and trust in Christ alone for our salvation.

So what are you going to do? I pray that you would repent and come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Because I don’t want to see any of you end up in Hell. I love you all too much to not tell you the truth and to not warn you of the danger to come if you die in your sins. Thanks for reading.

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Thursday, October 22, 2009

Should He Be Writing a Book on That???

I'm probably gonna make a lot of people not like me very much, but this really struck me odd and I gotta say something. Should a person who wrote a book on how to have purpose in life, and in the process used a lot of verses from the Bible out of context to get his point across, be writing a book on Bible study method? I'd say no, but it happened.

That's right, I couldn't believe it either, but "America's pastor" Rick Warren has written a book called, "Bible Study Methods: 12 Ways You Can Unlock God's Word". I can only imagine that one of the topics would be, how to make any verse mean what you want it to mean.

I do give him credit though, I have not seen his face on the front cover of any of his books. I tend to be a bit cautious of books that have a picture of the author dominating the front cover, like Joel Olsteen, but that's another discussion perhaps.

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Monday, October 19, 2009

The Jesus You Can't Ignore.

How many of you, when you think about Jesus, see Him as meek and mild-mannered person who is nice and kind? I’m willing to be that is what most people think about Him. But how many of you see Him as a person who creates conflict, uses harsh words, and even insults people? I bet not as many of you would even think of Him in such a way, but never the less He did indeed do such things.

Dr. John MacArthur has written a book called, “The Jesus You Can’t Ignore”. In it he points out all of the major conflicts that Jesus has been involved in with the religious leaders of His time, and less than cordial words He had for them. It shows us how Jesus handled false teachers and their doctrine, and the book also gives us advice and shows us how we can the false teachers and their doctrines in our time.

I definitely recommend reading this book, especially if you are tired if seeing false teachers and what they teach seeping their way in the church today. If you want to read more about how to fight against false teachers check out "The Truth War" also by John MacArthur.

More on hereicies here.

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Friday, October 16, 2009

The Character of Genuine Saving Faith

The Character of Genuine Saving Faith

2 Corinthians 13:5, Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

I. Evidences that neither prove nor disprove one’s faith
a. Visible morality: Matt 19:16-21
b. Intellectual knowledge: Romans 2:17ff
c. Religious involvement: Matt. 25:1-10
d. Active Ministry : Marr 7:21-24
e. Conviction of sin: Acts 24:25
f. Assurance: Matt 23
g. Time of decision: Luke 8:13-14

II. The fruit /proofs of authentic / true Christianity
a. Love for God: Luke 10:27, Romans 8:7
b. Repentance from sin: Psalm 32:5, II Cor 7:10, I John 1:8-10
c. Genuine Humility: Psalm 51:17, Matt 5:1-12, James 4:6-9
d. Devotion to God’s Glory: Psalm 105:3, Isaiah 43:7, I Cor 10:31
e. Continual Prayer: Luke 18:1, Eph. 6:18, James 5:16-18
f. Selfless love: I John 2:9ff, 3:14, 4:7ff
g. Separation from the world: I Cor. 2:12, James 4:4ff, I John 2:15-17
h. Spiritual Growth: Luke 8:15, John 15:1-6, Eph 4:12-16
i. Obedient Living: Matt 7:21, I Peter 1:2,22….I John 2:3-5

If list I is true of a person and list II is false or non-evident, then there could be cause to question the validity of one’s profession of faith. If list II is true of a person, then list I will be true as well.

From: Dr John MacArthur Study Bible Index Notes, 1997.
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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Update... I'm Back.

Thats right, I am back in the states from a long and stressful deployment. I've actually been back for a couple weeks now, but I have been busy taking care of things and getting used to my new surroundings again. New post will be starting soon, maybe not daily, but definately regularly. So get ready.