New Book I am reading, 40 Days.

A favorite author of mine that I like to read, Alton Gansky, who writes both nonfiction and fiction, just recently wrote a new book called 40 Days - Encountering Jesus Between the Resurrection and Ascension published in 2007 by B&H Publishing Group, Nashville TN.

Besides having read several of Gansky's excellent fiction books, earlier this year I read his work Uncovering the Bible's Greatest Mysteries and was immediately caught up with it. I liked this book so well, that I purchased the book he had written previously titled Uncovering God's Mysterious Ways. While I enjoyed Uncovering the Bible's Greatest Mysteries more, they both were good reads. So when I found that he had written another nonfiction book, 40 Days, I couldn't resist ordering it.

Well it showed up in the mail today. Yippee!

Hey, did you hear the good news? When the disciples showed up to check out the tomb, guess what? They didn't find Jesus' dead body lying there! When Jesus' body found them, it wasn't dead anymore! Their Jesus was alive again! Hallelujah!

I might be a little excited about getting to read this book!

Another Quote from a book I am reading.

"Man was created originally to have fellowship with God. This fellowship is so vital that without it man is like a jet aircraft flying in a dense fog and suddenly losing all its instruments."

-Hal Lindsey, The Greatest Works of Hal Lindsey - The Late Great Planet Earth, chapter 12, Inspirational Press: New York, NY, 1994.

Translation:

Man is utterly lost and blind without God, living each moment of life on the brink of eternal disaster.

Yes we are still here.

Greetings!

This space has not had much going on for awhile. I have plenty of material to post, but have had little time with the work schedule and its demands to spend the time posting. However, I allotted a little web time this afternoon, so here's a short post so you, and you know who you are, know we still exist.

Fellow blogger, An Elder For JC, is having a tough time right now. Remember him in prayer. His wife has not been doing very well for the last several weeks. Reports of her condition are very discouraging to hear. Apparantly she is very sick.

Father, God in Heaven we remember this dear lady in our prayers, we pray for healing, we pray for mercy in her situation, we pray for your intervention in her situation, we pray for our Elder brother, we pray for him as he deals with the situation, we pray that he will be strengthened and touched by You as he deals with the realities of the situations facing him, in Jesus name we ask and pray these things. We know that as we stand by them, You also are right there, helping and making a difference that only You can make, a difference that we believe and depend on You to make, that we are unable in and of ourselves to make. Amen.

John MacArthur offers no hope to Christians?

John MacArthur, well respected for his expository works regarding scripture, seemingly offers no hope to Christians regarding the power of Christ to operate in their lives through the ministry of saved mankind operating in the gifts of the Spirit on their behalf.

He writes that there is little hope that Christians of our age will actually be saved when they die (he uses 213 pages to explain this in his book "Hard to Believe" which does contain valid concerns in regards to man and their salvation) and to not expect anyone (aside from God I hope) to help you supernaturally with your sickness, demon possession, or premature death. This last part for me is literally, hard to believe.

Having said that, here is my thoughts regarding a quote from MacArthur's book "Hard to Believe". It is not my intent to discredit, throw mud at, or ruin MacArthur's reputation here, but to simply disagree with his belief regarding the apostolic age compared to our church age. I had posted this as a comment on another blog, but put it here as well.

I have been reading John MacArthur's "Hard to Believe" book. I bought the book several years ago but am just now reading it finally. Yes, I am sure everyone who blogs has already blogged this book, and I am way behind.

The book jacket caught my attention because of what it said on the back "This book is John MacArthur's unflinching, unapologetic treatise on the modern tendency to alter the true message of Christianity in order to meet the whims and desires of a culture hoping for nonconfrontational messages, easy answers, and superficial committments." This got me curious and I asked myself, 'What does he think is wrong with the churches today?'. So I bought the book.

My list of what I think is wrong with churches and 'Christians' today is rather lengthy but I was surprised at how strongly and unreservedly he attacked 'evangelicals', 'charismatics', 'preachers trying to get people power' and televangelists (and that's not even mentioning the attack on the 'seeker friendly' church). At any rate, I have plodded on through the book and still have two chapters left.

I do recall previously seeing unsympathetic blogs regarding John and his attack on the 'church'. But I was still unprepared for what I read. Evangelicals, charismatics, pentecostals, faith- healers, televangelists, and seeker-friendly churches are apparently single handedly thwarting the advance of the Kingdom of God being established in the hearts of men and women around the world -according to John.

Well okay, yes I agree, saying a 'sinner's prayer' or giving money to the televangelist is not going to guarantee entry into heaven. And I would agree that churches where the preaching never brings conviction of sin or never exposes the sinfulness of man to man, where the work of the Holy Spirit in convicting men's hearts is not welcome -well I would agree that church is not fulfilling its intended mission. We would be well to avoid these churches for our feedings.

Here's where I take exception to John MacArthur's writings. In chapter 10, 'Traitor's to the Faith' of "Hard to Believe" page 171, he writes: "No one on earth can have the power of Jesus Christ to do what he did, and anybody who promises otherwise is lying. God granted the power of Jesus Christ only to the apostles and those who followed in the apostolic age to establish His messiahship. You will never have the power to heal the sick or raise the dead, walk on water, or cast out demons." (The bold emphasis is mine.)

Are we just supposed to take whatever Satan and his demonic reign over this world throw our way and never stand up to it in the name of Jesus? I don't think so! We in and of ourselves are powerless against the enemy(ies) of God (meaning Satan and his strategies to take men to hell with him). Because of this, I do not believe for one fraction of a second that Jesus would leave us in this age without the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives to combat Satan and his works in our lives. We in and of ourselves in the natural may not have the power to do what Jesus did, but Jesus already overcame Satan, and Jesus avails us the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit in our lives to enforce that victory. I believe this means that we not only have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit when we are born-again (become the sons of God through regeneration by putting our faith in what Jesus and only Jesus has done for us to gain eternal life), but that we can also experience the infilling of the Holy Spirit to be given power in our lives to do what God has called us to do and to stand in the face of evil: laying hands on the sick and expecting them to recover, seeing the dead rise from their lifelessness, casting demons out, and preaching that cuts to the heart of men and brings conviction of sin leading to true salvation.

If saved men didn't have the power of Jesus to do the things Jesus did, anytime any attack that could be traced back to Satan came against them and those around them, wouldn't we be just standing around wringing our hands with our tails tucked between our legs watching Satan destroy everything around us? I have heard too many testimonies from this church age, of healings and demons departing their host, where saved men were participants in the event to accept that the power of Christ is not alive and well in men to heal the sick, cast out demons, and raise the dead.

I really believed that when I read in the Bible that Jesus healed the incurable disease in His day, that I could be healed today of today's incurable diseases whether Jesus healed me or whether Jesus healed me through the ministry of man operating in the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit. Despite MacArthur's claims (he probably has a book filled with scripture that 'proves' this claim?) that no one on earth has the power to heal the sick and cast out demons, I will continue to believe otherwise. I refuse to put God in a box that does not allow these things to occur in my world.

As a side note, based on the criteria for books that could be placed in our church library, the above statement by MacArthur would eliminate "Hard to Believe" from being in our library. It is contrary to the teachings and beliefs of our pastor and the 'denomination' we are associated with.

K-Fish

A Life Changed

A quote from a book I am reading:

"Salvation is not an addition; it's a transformation that leads to willing submission to His Word. The whole message of 1 John is that if you are truly redeemed, it will manifest itself in a transformed life in which you confess sin, characteristically obey the Lord, and manifest love for the Lord and others. The divine miracle of a changed life reveals true salvation, resulting in a heart that desires to obey the Lord. As Jesus said, "If you abide in My word, you are my disciples indeed" (John 8:31)."

from chapter 5 of "Hard to Believe" by John MacArthur

Working in a Jacuzzi

Recently, I received the email content, featured below, from a close friend who is struggling with liking their job. I thought it was funny, but doubted it was true because of a 'wet-suit' being used with a brass helmet rather than a dry-suit. And a garden hose? That being said, here is the story:

Having a bad day at work????

If laughter is the best medicine, this is sureto help your work attitude.

I LOVE MY JOB . . . . . .

This is even funnier when you realize it's real! Next time you have a bad day at work think of this guy.Rob is a commercial saturation diver for Global Divers in Louisiana. He performs underwater repairs on offshore drilling rigs. Below is an E-mail he sent to his sister. She then sent it to radio station 103.2 on FM dial in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, who was sponsoring a worst job experience contest. Needless to say, she won.

"Hi Sue,

Just another note from your bottom-dwelling brother. Last week I had a bad day at the office. I know you've been feeling down lately at work, so I thought I would share my dilemma with you to make you realize it's not so bad after all. Before I can tell you what happened to me, I first must bore you with a few technicalities of my job. As you know, my office lies at the bottom of the sea. I wear a suit to the office. It's a wet suit. This time of year the water is quite cool. So what we do to keep warm is this: We have a diesel powered industrial water heater. This $20,000 piece of equipment sucks the water out of the sea. It heats it to a delightful temperature. It then pumps it down to the diver through a garden hose, which is taped to the air hose. Now this sounds like a good plan, and I've used it several times with no complaints. What I do, when I get to the bottom and start working, is take the hose and stuff it down the back of my wet suit. This floods my whole suit with warm water. It's like working in a Jacuzzi. Everything was going well until all of a sudden, my bottom started to itch. So, of course, I scratched it. This only made things worse. Within a few seconds my bottom started to burn. I pulled the hose out from my back, but the damage was done. In agony I realized what had happened. The hot water machine had sucked up a jellyfish and pumped it into my suit. Now, since I don't have any hair on my back, the jellyfish couldn't stick to it. However, the crack of my bottom was not as fortunate. When I scratched what I thought was an itch, I was actually grinding the jellyfish into the crack of my bottom. I informed the dive supervisor of my dilemma over the communicator. His instructions were unclear due to the fact that he, along with five other divers, were all laughing hysterically. Needless to say I aborted the dive. I was instructed to make three agonizing in-water decompression stops totaling thirty-five minutes before I could reach the surface to begin my chamber dry decompression. When I arrived at the surface, I was wearing nothing but my brass helmet. As I climbed out of the water, the medic, with tears of laughter running down his face, handed me a tube of cream and told me to rub it on my bottom as soon as I got in the chamber. The cream put the fire out, but I couldn't go to the bathroom for two days because my bottem was swollen shut."

So, next time you're having a bad day at work, think about how much worse it would be if you had a jellyfish shoved up your bottom. Now repeat to yourself, "I love my job, I love my job, I love my job. Now whenever you have a bad day, ask yourself, is this a jellyfish bad day? May you NEVER have a jellyfish bad day!!!!!

I checked this story out on http://www.snopes.com/humor/letters/diver.htm and found that versions of this story have been circulating since 1998. Also, it turns out that the trueness of the story is questionable because of the wet-suit aspect.

Happy Easter

I bought my wife a chocolate easter bunny a month ago, and she ate it already. Wonder what it was thinking as she nibbled off each piece. You do believe chocolate easter bunnies have feelings don't you?

The Beautiful Beatitudes -the magna charta

I am reading a book called "The Life Of Christ" by Ralph M. Riggs. Here's an excerpt from it:

'First came the beautiful beatitudes which are considered the magna charta of the kingdom of God. These foundational utterances of the New Testament doctrine correspond to the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament. How different, however, from the "Thou shalt" and "Thou shalt not" of the former convenant. Here are the keys into the blessed realm where men reach the ultimate in righteousness and heart satisfaction and arrive at the place where God's blessing rests upon them. The qualities cited here are the very antithesis of what are generally considered desirable and legitimate pursuits in life. As Jesus declared later, "that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God" (Luke 16:15). Fundamentally also, "a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth" (Luke 12:15). Humility, meekness, mercifulness, purity of heart, loving and making peace, and being willing to be persecuted for righteousness' sake--these are listed by Christ as the highest objectives for human living.'

And there has not been a better example of these characteristics being lived out in human life than what we observe having been lived out in Christ's life!

Chevron profited $4.35 Billion in quarter.

I hardly ever follow financial news, so these numbers shock me. Chevron profited $4.35 billion in second quarter earnings, as reported on USAToday.com, which it turns out was actually a let down on Wall Street.

"Chevron (CVX) said Friday its second-quarter earnings soared to a new high, but that wasn't enough to satisfy investors whose expectations have been raised by the oil industry's recent run of eye-popping profit. The company's shares tumbled 3.5%. "

"The company said it earned $4.35 billion, or $1.97 a share, for the three months ended in June. That compared with net income of $3.68 billion, or $1.76 a share, at the same time last year. "

"It marks the company's largest three-month profit in its 127-year history, eclipsing earnings of $4.14 billion registered in last year's final quarter after energy prices spiked in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. "

I guess I just don't see it. That seems like an absurd amount of money to stick in the coffers at the expense of consumers. Good for the investors maybe, but I still just don't see it. We are talking BILLIONS not MILLIONS. The goal is to make money, but my goodness, this seems like an unreasonable amount to make in three months. I still think consumers are being raped at the gas pump, and I have hard time seeing it any other way.

Are we being raped?

USAToday Financial News Headline 28th July 2006:

ExxonMobil quarterly profit at $10.4B

Yesterday I traveled from the St. Louis area to Chicago's O'Hare Airport area. I haven't complained a whole lot about the rising cost of fuel, but I have joked a bit about thinking we were being raped at the pumps. But after seeing the today's headline in USAToday, I have this to say: America, we are being raped at the fuel pumps!

"Surging oil prices may be emptying the wallets of drivers topping off their gas tanks, but they're filling the coffers at ExxonMobil, which Thursday reported the second largest quarterly profit for a U.S. company."

$10.4 billion in profit???

That is a tremendous amount of money to make at the expense of America, who has been found guilty of hiring arsonists to burn their fuel consuming SUV's, so they could buy other fuel conserving vehicles.

I still hear the laughter that continues to echo off the hills in America as they made the trip from the pumps to the bank to deposit the money. Don't you hear it too? Wait what's that other sound? Might it be the outcry of America being raped at the pump?

Reading in Habbakkuk (How do you say that?!)

Last Sunday in Sunday School class we studied humility. One approach to studying humility was to examine its antonym, or the opposite of humility. In this case, pride would be the subject matter considered. Pride of life, or human pride, is anything that exalts itself above God and what He has done for us. It is self-exaltation. It portrays "Look what I have done." And we all know stories in the Bible where pride was the undoing of many a person -even death.

Well, this past week, I became aware of a scripture in Habbakkuk chapter two that I thought was interesting. In The Amplified Bible, verse four, we read:

"Look at the proud; his soul is not straight or right within him, but the [rigidly] just and the [uncompromisingly] righteous man shall live by his faith and in his faithfulness."

The King James version reads this way:

"Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith."

So we aren't guilty of taking things out of context we will acknowledge that the prophet was refering to those who were not heeding the warning of impending disaster at the hand of Israel's enemies, the Chaldeans. Instead they thought they could save themselves by their own methods -apart from God and His deliverance. It is a sickly soul, a soul without a right spirit, not fully submitted to God, an unrenewed mind, that thinks man can save himself. Hence, pride.

So leaving the context of the scripture we examined:

Apart from Christ, man cannot save themselves. Salvation and reconciliation only comes through one, and that is Jesus Christ. Christ is Salvation. Man can never be saved by being good enough, by being religious enough, or by knowing it all. It is a proud man that thinks anything other than his faith in Christ will get him anywhere in any area of his life. It is a proud man who does not acknowledge God in every aspect of his life. We are, we do, we have -because Christ has enabled us to.

It is a humble man who acknowledges God's hand in every aspect of his life. It is humble man who gives thanks and praise to God in everything. It is a humble man who doesn't do anything apart from God's direction, strength, wisdom, and power. It is a humble man who knows it is by faith in Jesus Christ through grace we are saved. It is a humble man who is faithful in all things to God. A humble man will have an upright soul in him. The psalmist said in Psalms chapter fifty-one verse ten (KJV), "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." A spirit free from the pride of life.

Sight and Sound Theaters, Lancaster PA

June 7, Wednesday, was show day at the Sight and Sound Theatres in Lancaster PA. We had morning tickets for the Living Waters Theater to see the Psalms of David show, and late afternoon tickets for the Millenium Theater to see the Ruth show. The Ruth show featured live animals and was a musical about Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz. It was a very good production with lavish sets, costumes and props, which as I mentioned included animals of all kinds, big and small. They even had horses with riders running up and down the ailes right through where the people were seated. It was specatacular. But without focusing on that aspect the musical, the musical's content and the ideas presented about trusting God in our circumstances was very well done. In between the shows, we went to Fuddruckers to eat lunch.

We were asked not to take photos of either show, but apparantly someone sneaked this one in.

This is a photo of the Lion and the Lamb statue in front of the Millenium Theater.

This is a photo of a manger scene inside the Millenium Theater.

Reading in Haggai, this morning.

This morning, while reading in Haggai, it occurred to me that we are often like the Israelites in how we conduct our lives from time to time.

In Haggai chapter 1, the Lord is getting on to the people for tending to their own lives and not tending to God's business, or the business He had charged them with.

Uh oh!

The thing is, there were consequences for their choices and actions. Let's read and discover what was happening to them.

Haggai 1 (Amplified Bible)

vs 4 Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house [of the Lord] lies in ruins?

vs 5 Now therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways and set your mind on what has come to you.

vs 6 You have sown much, but you have reaped little; you eat, but you do not have enough; you drink, but you do not have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages has earned them to put them in a bag with holes in it.

vs 7 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways (your previous and present conduct) and how you have fared.

vs 8 Go up to the hill country and bring lumber and rebuild [My] house, and I will take pleasure in it and I will be glorified, says the Lord [by accepting it as done for My glory and by displaying My glory in it].

vs 9 You looked for much [harvest], and behold, it came to little; and even when you brought that home, I blew it away. Why? says the Lord of hosts. Because of My house, which lies waste while you yourselves run each man to his own house [eager to build and adorn it].

vs 10 Therefore the heavens above you [for your sake] withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its produce.

vs 11 And I have called for a drought upon the land and the hill country, upon the grain, the fresh wine, the oil, upon what the ground brings forth, upon men and cattle, and upon all the [wearisome] toil of [men's] hands."

Our text says they were sowing much, reaping little. Bringing home the harvest, only to watch it blow away. Earning wages, putting them into bags with holes in them. I see that as they were making the money, but God wasn't blessing that money for maximum provision in their lives. Their earnings were not staying with them long enough to bless them. Today, I would illustrate that as follows. I bring home my paycheck, I have more than the normal amount of car repairs, house repairs, I don't find things on sale at the store as often, my clothes wear out too fast and need replacing, you get the idea. I am getting nickel and dimed to the point where any extra money I might have had is consumed, plus some, on stuff that just seems to keep coming up or happening to me.

Well, this was happening to them because they were not tending to the commandment of God in their life. I am reminded of the scripture in Matthew chapter 6 verse 33, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you". (KJV) God blesses His people who put Him first.

Verse 12 (AMP) of our text says "...the people... ....listened to and obeyed the voice of the Lord their God... ....completely... ....and the people [reverently] feared and [worshipfully] turned to the Lord".

The second part of Joshua chapter 24 verse 23 reads, "...incline your heart unto the LORD God of Israel". (KJV)

We need to live lives that are lived for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We need to make sure we are building the "Lord's house" in our lives and not our own. We need to make sure we are doing things that glorify our Lord, done for His glory. Christ's righteousness has already been imputed to those who believe in Him and His death on the cross, the power of His shed blood, and resurrection. We need to seek Him and be about the Master's business. Prosper spiritually in relationship with God and in glorifying Him and what He has given you will work harder for you.

More Pictures from Lancaster PA Area June 6 2006

I had heard of this town, but now I can say I have been here.



My wife's Pretzel that she made at the Intercourse Pretzel Factory.

The pretzel I made.

It's official!

A wonderful place to eat! Beats anything around here.

Who are the Amish People?

Ever wondered stuff like:

• Who are the Amish? Are they the same as the Pennsylvania Dutch?
• Why do they dress that way?
• What is the history of the Amish?
• The Amish seem stuck in history. Why don't they accept modern ideas and innovations?
• Do they speak English?
• What's an Amish wedding like?
• Do Amish children go to school?

Well, if you have then, this amish web page will certainly be informative.

Pictures from Lancaster Pennsylvania area

Pictures taken June 5 while visiting Lancaster PA.

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Lots of buggies out here in Amish Country.

Typical Amish farm. No electric. All horse powered.

Strasburg Railroad

John the Baptist's Witness

Reading in the Amplified Bible from John chapter 1:

v7 This man came to witness, that he might testify of the Light, that all men might believe in it [adhere to it, trust it, and rely upon it] through him.

v29 The next day John saw Jesus coming to him and said, Look! There is the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world!

v32 John gave further evidence, saying, I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and it dwelt on Him [never to depart].

v34 And I have seen [that happen--I actually did see it] and my testimony is that this is the Son of God!

v35 Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples,

v36 And he looked at Jesus as He walked along, and said, Look! There is the Lamb of God!

v37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Him.

Hell, Michigan has it's big day on 6-6-06.

The town of Hell, Michigan is getting it's spot in the limelight today. They have special t-shirts and activities going on.

You can read more here on CNN.

RoadsideAmerica.com has a writeup to.

Personally, I question: "Wouldn't the real 6-6-6 have occured 2000 years ago?"

But then, they wouldn't have known about the mark of the Beast since John wouldn't have received the revelation yet... But then they weren't even recording time on the calender like we are now, didn't our calendar system came later?

Driving through Pennsylvania on Sunday June 4 2006

Okay, I will admit it, I like driving through the tunnels in Pennsylvania! There are several of them and most of them aren't very short.

This is a picture inside the Kittatinny Mountain tunnel, just before the Blue Mountain Tunnel.

My wife was getting on to me for not stopping at the different Starbucks we passed on the way. But then we discovered the Service Plaza's on the turnpike have Starbucks in them. Whew hoo!!

It is hard to see, but the Starbucks logo is on the left front door of the Turnpike Service Building. If you click on the picture you would probably be able to see it in the larger fullsize image.

Busch Stadium

Picture taken from the exit lane on I-55 to I-70 eastbound, on June 3, 2006, 8:54am.

Zoomed in on the middle of the above picture.