Toxic Thoughts

      Toxic thoughts are thoughts that hurt your inner life. They are thoughts that determine your actions--your behaviour. The Bible states as a man thinks in his heart so is he. Which means you act out your thoughts.
       It is possible to rewire your thoughts. The Bible gives you the general parameters . In Philippians 4:8  God though Paul sets them down. "Finally brethren (  first of all it is only being addressed to those who know Jesus as their personal savior from the penalty of sin) whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute: if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things" NASB
       In other words, think on God and His work in your life. You are worthy because of what He has done. He is true. He is worthy of honor an so on. Dwell would mean to meditate on Him.
       To do a good job of this, one of the steps is to journal. To journal you need someplace to record. You could use your Ipad or a notebook. You need to be able to see your daily improvement and maybe someday turn around and help another.
       
        Feel free to explore your thoughts. Get rid of those toxic thoughts that say you are worthless and are not going to amount to anything. You are worth a whole lot for God to decide to redeem you and someday when He sees you face to face take you home to heaven to spend eternity with Him.

God Wishes His Earth To Be Cared For

  Look around you. What do you see? A earth that is in need of care.

  When God created Adam he was told to care for the garden. He was given a helper, Eve. They were gardeners in the beginning. They were to keep this earth green. The reason is easy to figure out. God wishes His earth to be cared for.
   In return Adam and Eve and their off springs would live by what the earth produced from their labor. It was easy work at that time. This was before the fall and things worked as they should.
    A good web site to go look at for some ideas on how to keep the earth green today would be one that has great offers also. So you can click the underlined words and you will be taken to a green site  where you will be able to get some ideas and take part in some great offers.

Two Ways and Two Roads

  There is that portion in the Sermon On The Mount that Jesus gave as recorded in Matthew 7:13-20 where Jesus talks about gates and ways that people use to get through life. You know the passage. Jesus says, Enter by the narrow gate...
    Then He talks about a wide  gate. Two gates. The narrow and the wide. The wide gate is one most people find and walk on. It is easy. It is wide. And then there is the narrow gate that is not as easy. To enter you must drop some bags.
   The outcome of each path is different. The broad way is fun now but in eternity the end is away from God's presence.
  The narrow way is not easy now yet it leads to life with God.
   Daryl , the pastor of Victory Christian Fellowship, does a better explanation than I. You can listen to him here --which is a place to find the podcast.

Transgender Question

  I was reading this morning in our Santa Monica paper about a problem schools are having defining just what gender a person was. This has to do with what bathroom they will be using. What their acceptance will be by others. And so much more.
   Just what does the Bible have to say about transgender?
   That is a good question to ask. And it is both easy and hard to answer.
    Easy in that the Bible states God created them male and female in the beginning. God did not create transgender. He molded the person in his mother's womb. God makes no mistake in the forming.
    Hard in that society has thrown out the Bible as a book of authority.
    Instead society is looking toward science.. more exactly psychology, as the authority. And I understand psychology has thrown out the definition of transgender as abnormal. They have put the stamp of approval on the .. yes, let me state it plainly-- sinful behavior.
     I don't have to excuse myself. If you have read this blog for any time you know where I stand on the subject of sin. Sin is real. Sin is following short of the standard. And the standard is not what I say but what the God who has created me has said.
   So, no, transgender is not normal.
   So somewhere in that child's upbringing, it wasn't in the womb, he or she was told that it was not usual for them as the gender they were to do certain things or feel certain ways and be that gender.
   I know I may be sounding simplistic. Well, so be it..
    A child's brain is not able to  take in certain concepts. If in the education they receive they are presented with confusing signals and information, and they are approached by chicken hawks (I think that is what they are called) then in order to be accepted by the group they have fallen in, they adjust to the best of their limited ability.
   Okay, so look it up for yourself and come to your own conclusions. I have stated my opinion and now it is up to you to be brave enough to seek out your own answers.

We Have A New Pope

        We now have a new Pope even along side Benedict XVI. It will be hard for him, no doubt, to reign just across the courtyard, more or less, from a living Pope. Normally the last Pope dies and has to be replaced.

         This time one has resigned and lingers. A new Pope is set up.
        Just who is this person? A biography has been written. More like a press release, but you have to start someplace.
       It is not like he is not known by the inner circle. He worked fairly close with John XXIII and with Benedict XVI. He just does not put himself forward to be notriced. He seems to have been working behind the field in the background.
     A book has been written ,as I have noted. Francis, a man of prayer by Mario Escobar. I will place a link to Amazon so you can get this book..
     You should get to know this person. He may do great things.

Francis: Man of Prayer
 

Bible Study Help

     It is necessary for Christian Growth that you be able to feed yourself. You shouldn't stay with one meal a week.. that sermon on Sunday shouildn't be the only interfacing you do with God . But you should be training yourself to feed yourself.
    What I want is for you to study your Bible and get something for yourself. You need bible study help.
     My method is to have a pen and notebook along with me as I read my Bible. I stay with three chapters a day and I notice what is being said.

• I ask to whom is the writer speaking? 
• What is he saying? 
• Is there something there I should take notice of. (this I jot down in mny notebook.)
•  Is there something for me to pray about?
• Is there a sin for me to confess? 

    For those of you out there reading this who would like to try to self feed, and all should, themselves I have a recommended book for you to look at. In  fact I will even give you a link to Amazon so you can purchase it. 

  Rick Warren's Bible Study Methods: Twelve Ways You Can Unlock God's Word

  It is a good book to purchas e and it will give you a handle on some methods that will prove very helpful.

Bible Reading Update

       I was rereading my seminary text books the other day and I was fascinated by the book that had to do with Old Testament Theology. In it was stated something I guess I knew yet was not actively applying.
       It was the idea that when the people before the incarnation were reading their scripture they had yet to have a complete expalination of God and what He was like. Even today, if you were to think about it, we still have pockets of mystery when it comes to understanding completely.
      Yet today we have more understanding and more revelation of what God is like than they had back then.
      Well, this Old Testament scholar, I think it was Claus Westermann and his book," Elements of Old Testament Theology," stated that they only had trust in what had been written down to that point and were finding that God revealed Himself through actions.
     The example I like to use is the one of Abraham and his son Isaac. Abraham was told by God to take his son and sacrifice him on the mount.
     The people around him would sacrifice their first born child as a form of worship. That was all Abraham knew. Would this God he was following be like those of the nations around him?
      Abraham was willing to follow what he knew about God. So he made ready to sacrifice Isaac, firmly believing that God was able to raise Isaac from the dead if need be. After all, God had promised him that it was through Isaac that God was going to bring a great nation. And Isaac had to be alive to do so.
      Abraham found that God didn't want human sacrifice as a worship activity, as the nations around him, but He was different.
       You can explore more about this subject on your own.
      For help you can use this book on research tools using the search engine Google.. It is from the Dummy collection but I have found the series to be more than just written on a dummy level. It is written on a level that is understandable.