Current Series

Tuesday, April 28, 2009
A Psalm of David: a devotion for our lives!
Friday, April 24, 2009
Scripture X3: II
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Sad News....
I fear for the generation that is now entering their pubescent years, and for the generations that follow. Surely a pill like this will be so common and accepted by the time they reach their teen years, that many will not give it a second thought before swallowing it, and possibly murdering a child.
17-year-olds can get morning after pill in U.S. without prescriptionApril 22, 2009A U.S. health official says the Food and Drug Administration will allow 17-year-olds to get the "morning-after" birth control pill without a doctor's prescription.An official said the agency will announce today it's complying with a federal judge's order.
Last month a federal judge ruled that Bush administration appointees let politics, not science, drive their decision to allow over-the-counter access only for women 18 and older.Plan B is emergency contraception that contains a high dose of birth control drugs. Religious conservatives say it's the equivalent of an abortion pill.
I find it interesting that they add "religious conservatives" at the end - as if we're the only population that might oppose such a pill. Maybe we are... I'm not sure anymore.
My heart is heavy this afternoon as I reflect on how many children are aborted, no - aborted sounds too clinical - these children are murdered - in North America each year. The statistics are nauseating. We've now made it easier than ever. God help us.
Father, forgive us - forgive our nation and our evil intentions. Forgive our nation, and our neighbors for not valuing life... forgive us for indulging ourselves - for engaging in sexual sin that would lead many to use such a pill. Forgive us for our idolatry - many will worship idols of money, careers, travel, and other selfish desires that would cause them to murder their unborn children. Oh Father, forgive them... forgive us.
EDIT: I just wanted to add that after checking out Plan B's Canadian website - this 'treatment' is available at almost any pharmacy. Nothing on the website indicated that you had to be a certain age to purchase it. On one page, I found a picture of a young lady, obviously in her teen years, with this caption: "That's life. Accident's happen, we make mistakes, and some things are out of our control."
Yeah... right.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
The End Times?
Just some interesting facts within the pages of Joel C. Rosenburg's book, "The Last Days."
Author Joel C. Rosenberg writes "The Last Days" - sequel to the explosive New York Times bestseller "The Last Jihad." Despite the fact that I have not read either book, my Dad has and shared with me an interesting excerpt describing what you may say: Revelation foretells as signs of the end times. Also, the book "The Last Days" is fictional; however, it remains with the intention of arising to the reader factual past and present conflicts around the globe that stress the end times. Furthermore, I will quote a section of dialogue, which too both of us, striked as amazing proof that the end times is real and is coming fast!
“Well, think about it, Jonathan – like ‘wars and revolutions’ and ‘kingdom rising against kingdom.’ Just look at the twentieth century.”
“Yeah, but Eli, come on, man has always had wars and revolutions.”
“World War One, the war to end all wars? The Russian Revolution. World War Two. Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Six million butchered by Hitler, and that’s just counting the Jews. The rise of the Evil Empire. Twenty million slaughtered by Stalin alone. Half the world enslaved by Communism. Korea. Vietnam. Pol Pot. All the Middle East wars. China and India. India and Pakistan. The rise of nationalism. Tribal warfare in Africa. I could go on and on and so could you. Of course there have been wars and revolutions throughout time. But never anything on the scale we saw in the twentieth century.”
(Bennett considered that for a moment, but wasn’t ready to concede the point).
“And what was another one, earthquakes? You can’t just say because we’ve had a few huge quakes in the last few weeks that we’re living the ‘last days.’”
“Fine. Do the research.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean ask the U.S. Geological Service. They say there are five hundred thousand earthquakes every single year. A hundred thousand that can be felt. A thousand that do serious damage. At least a hundred registering seven point zero or higher on the Richter scale. That’s a serious earthquake almost every four days. And the more urbanization occurs, the more damage a quake can do, the more people a quake can kill, the more costly these earthquakes are. In 1990, almost forty thousand people died in a quake in Iran. In ’76, a quarter of a million people died during a massive quake in China. The ’94 earthquake in Northridge, California was the most expensive in American history so far. Caused forty billion dollars in damage. Got the picture?
“I guess so.”
“You could say the same thing about ‘famine and pestilence.’ Just look at Africa. Ethiopia, Somalia – hundreds of thousands of people died of starvation. And disease? We’ve got ten million AIDS orphans in Africa alone, the numbers are climbing every day. Are we supposed to do nothing? Are we supposed to say, ‘Oh well, it’s just a sign of the end times’?”
“No. Of course not.”
And to that I must answer with Matthew 28:19: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Not only do we have to help the dying and suffering, but we must also spread the good news of the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to all!
"The magnitude of these problems and the convergence of all these signs and events in the same century and right up to the present moment should be all the evidence we need."
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Scripture, Scripture, and more Scripture.
Just the other day, I so happened to stumble across a "Bible Verses" application for my iPod. For this simple free application, each and every time I launch it, a new Bible Verse appears. Each verse is then saved in a Bible Verses List for future reference. Today I would like to post the first 10 verses, because to me they have been most encouraging, thought provoking, and powerful. As far as I'm concerned there seems to be no means of the order to which they come, just simply and randomly - inspirational. Still, after the viewing of the first 10 I can't help but think that there is definitely "method behind such madness"(ha-ha). I hope you too feel the same way about the profitableness that each of these verses bring. That like similar lists of verses you may have or have had in the past, this also reflects for you, verses that will come in handy in any situation, in any circumstance, where you may be sharing the Gospel, talking with another believer or just personal meditation.
Lastly, before I post the first 10 (and will continue to post more weekly), I would like to share Numbers 15:37-41.
Tassels on Garments
37 The Lord said to Moses, 38 “Speak to the people of Israel, and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner. 39 And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after. 40 So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God. 41 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the Lord your God.” (ESV)
With that said, like the people of Israel who wear tassels on their garments to help them remember the commandments, we should too have ways of keeping scriptures with us where ever we go to remind us of God's love, mercy, and grace. You may have some around the house, in the car, or at the office, but I pray that when all is said and done, we can have them memorized and stored within our hearts. Memorization is definitely hard and most challenging for all, but simply doing it is the only way we will get better. For instance, not to long ago, Dr. Odame talked about the importance of exercising our muscle memory capability, which is the only way for us to have any type of betterment with memorization, just like a child learns, grows, and develops. Let us therefore be like children, as we have all once been before, who continue to have memory work as a part of their growth with Jesus.
- "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1).
- "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).
- Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6).
- "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19).
- "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
- "For by grace you have been saved a through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8).
- "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1).
- "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8).
- "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16).
- "because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9).