Good Listening

    It is now the New Year and I need to let you know you can hear good sermons. Since I am a member of Acts Church and an attender of Victory Christian Fellowship I will no doubt lean towards those two groups.

     All you need is a computer. A computer you can buy at almost any store now, it seems.  Try a place like officemax or ABT Electronics.
   Once you have the computer you need a on-line connection. Almost all computers have internet access.
    To hear the sermons from Acts you go here: http://acts1.libsyn.com/webpage. Their web site is www.achurchthatstudies.org.  If you in to itunes it is http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/acts/id509946339
   Now when it comes to Victory at the moment they are doing the Sermon On The Mount. That is the series for the New Year. For them it is: http://victory.libsyn.com/webpage. Their itune connection is http://itunes.applecom//us/podcast/victory-christian-fellowship/id458552062 .

Blessings Today

  
Today I want to think about blessings. We all have some.
   God got you up this morning. That is a blessing. There are a few who didn't get up this mornng but went on to their eternity. But you have been blessed with another day.
   Thank God for the blessing.
    You were able to stand up. That is a blessing.
    Thank God for the blessing.
      Even if you can't stand up but you can still breathe the air. that is a blessing.
      Thank God for the blessing.
      You are in your right mind. That is a blessing.
      Thank God for the blessing.
       You are able to do something to provide for your self. That is a blessing.
       You have bills. That is a blessing.
       You can understand words. That is a blessing.
       In other words, all that we do is a blessing. All that we have is a blessing.
        Blessing means favor. The Oxford Dictionary of Current English states for blessing 'something which you are very grateful for.
      Just what are you grateful for?
     I have allowed people to respond. Feel free to do so.
      Bless me by your comments.
     Or if you don't want to do that, you can get a notebook from a stationary store and write down what you are feeling grateful for and then pray back to God your blessings.
      God has blessed you and He knows about the blessings He has bestowed on you. But have your thanked Him? It will be good for you to do so. Just as a parent wants to know that his blessings are appreciated let me inform you that God also wants to know we appreciate His Blessings.
      So what can you do?
     1- Be thankful.
      2-Speak out your thankfulness.

That Blessed Hope

   The Christan has that blessed Hope that one day soon. no matter what happens in the world, that Jesus is coming back and that when he does all will be set right.
     Another hope is that the body he is living in will be changed. No more sickness. No more aches and pains. No more nutritional problems. He will have a new body that will be patterned after that of His Lord Jesus Christ.
    Just think about that. There will be no need to take vitamins to keep the body in balance. No more exercising until the body says "Enough".

    But as for now we need the nutrients. We need to have a balance. We need to shop on line   for the best deals on vitamins at a good price.

     And we need to know what God is saying to us. That is why we spend time in morning devotions. We start out with a notebook and a good pen . We read a portion of the Bible. After all, this is what God has caused to be written and it is all He wants us to know. It is HIs communication with us. God has spoken and it is found in His Word.

   We communcicate back through prayer. It is a relationship we have.

    We record in the notebook what God is saying to us that day through that portion of Scripture.

     Man and woman is both physical and spiritual. For the health of our body we exercise and shop on line   for our supplements, those vitamins that our body needs.

      For our spiritual needs we have the Bible.

2013 is a New Slate

       Soon it will be 2013. A new year. A clean slate. 2012 will disappear and soon be only a remembrance.
        In 2012 we saw the re-election of an American President. The choice this time was between more of the same liberal agenda and policies of hands out to the people who feel entitled to be taken care of just because they occupy land on the earth-- programs they didn't earn (The Bible says that if a person will not work, neither let him eat.-- in other words, earn what you get through activity.)  and a man who felt you need to earn what you get.    
    After all, Romney had a job and knew how to earn what he got. Obama hasn't had to sweat for anything. He even had the entitlement feature of being black. And Americans seem to be afraid of blacks and tend to bend over backwards to give unearned favor to a person of color.
      But 2013 is before us. We can decide how we are going to leave our imprint on the year.
      Christianity Today has a report that we are becoming as a nation less centered on the teachings of the Bible and more humanistic. True, we are not a theocracy and never have been.
      You will hear someone say we were not founded as a Christian nation. If they mean we were not founded as a theocracy, a nation that was set up to have God as the ruler , in that I will have to agree. But George Washington did believe in God. Sure, he was a deist. He still had a sense of a supreme being ruling over the nation. A high percentage of our founders did believe in a supreme being and based their writings on that. And this was passed down to us in our Constitution which in the twentieth and twenty first century is being torn down and made to say something it was never set up to say.
      Let me step off my soap box. I just feel deeply about this.

      So in 2013 we can make new resolutions that we can strive to keep. Hopeful one will be to keep America  free. Also to be strong as a nation. We must also resolve to do to others what we would have them do to us. But at the same time we shouldn't allow them to take advantage of our stance that all people are worthy because all have been created in the womb by God. They are somebody. Even those who don't see things the way we do.  

World, the Flesh, and the Devil

  We read in the Bible that there are three areas that Satan uses to influence us to sin.

  I was reading a book on Demon Possession and the Christian. Can a Believer be demonized? If by demoinized we define it as possessed or owned.. no, a Christian can not be owned by the devil. A christian has been bought with the price of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. Our ownership is not something we can give.

   But if by demonized we mean influenced and maybe even harbor a spirit, yes, that is possible. A spirit has no corporal demensions so taking up space is no problem.

    Anyway, the three areas satan and his demons can use to influence us to sin are

• The World- that is the philosophy of the world system around them
• The Flesh- that is the evil sin nature that is still within us.
• The devil- Need I introduce who I am referring to?

    Those three

Still Here?

  Are you still here? Well, if you are reading this the answer is yes.
   All that hype about the Mayan calender ending on 21 December 2012 at the exact hour of 5 am and therefore the end of the world and life as we know it.
   Following that logic every December 31st at midnight the world ends. Why? Because there is no more dates on the calender.
    No. The world is not going to end because a calender runs out of days.
   Those of us who are still here, and that means you, know better.
    Some say this signifies an era of better mind expansion and spiritual insight.
   We have always had that. Spiritual insight comes from connection with God our creator. That is true insight. Insight also comes from drugs but that is the false type of insight. Also the wrong type of meditation, yoga, wrong information not grounded in truth, can give you insight but insight that can't be trusted.. 
  No, true insight is only given by God and the only way you can get true insight from God is to be related to Him through a process known as the New Birth. And that is only available if you come to the Father through Jesus Christ.
   He said he was The Way ,The Truth, and The Life. No one comes to the Father but through Him.
   True wisdom and insight came a long time ago. It didn't have to wait until the Mayan calender ran out.
 

Forerunner To Jesus Happy

   So we have Mary after the announcement that she was to carry the baby who would be Jesus, The Savior of mankind, running nine miles (Well, maybe not running. She went by donkey or she walked) to her cousin ,Elizabeth whom she has heard is pregnant. Elizabeth is an old lady. But it is Elizabeth God had chosen to carry and give birth to John, the baptizer, the forerunner of the coming Messiah.
  A greater site. Mary, fourteen years of age, goes to Elizabeth maybe in her seventies. Neither one of them complains about their state. Elizabeth is old. She is about to have a baby to nurse and diaper and bring up to adulthood. Here was Mary, a young woman, unmarried and a virgin. Plus she had no idea if her espoused one, Joseph, was going to marry her. He was as far as we know, unaware at this point of Mary's pregnancy. He would find out when Mary returned that she was with child. An angel of the Lord, Gabriel to  be exact, would have to calm him down and Joesph would by faith beliefve the dream to be correct.
   When Mary enters the room, the fetus, who is John, jumps in Elizabeth's womb signifiying this is the mother of the Messaih coming. John was prophesized to be the one who announced the coming of the savior. He was the Elijah which was to come.
     Beautiful throught.