Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Gotta Love it

Don’t you just love living in a fallen world? I do….NOT!!!! LOL. So I woke up this morning and the refrigerator stopped working. So I am like, ok, I can deal with this….but then I thought I just replaced the battery in my car last Tuesday and that was not in our budget. So now the fridge too….ok, we will manage. I go out to my car and there is a 6 inch crack in the windshield that I just replaced about 2 months ago. So I sit here laughing to myself because I know that we do not have the funds to fix these things. So we will see what happens. And then this Thursday we will find out if Tobias needs to have surgery. So if you can please pray for my family and I. We will manage as I am sure many people have had to deal with a broken fridge and cracked windshields. But it’s the little things like this that causes me to hunger and thirst for home. Not home here in this fallen place, but home with Jesus. I can’t even begin to imagine what that will be like. The law of thermo dynamics will no longer apply. Murphy’s Law will no longer be there. Wow, heaven is going to be great. Even though all this is annoying, I am grateful that at the end of the day, none of this stuff matters. The Lord is still good.

Monday, June 26, 2006

Love is inconvenient

This last Saturday night we had all the guys from youth group crash over at the church office. It was a time to play games and fellowship and to seek the Lord. And it was fun. The topic came up about love and how in our western culture we love through convenience only. If you scratch my back, then I will scratch yours. Yet the Lord was not that way. He loved us with the right kind of love. The love that he had for us was an inconvenient. Love is an action, it’s a verb and it is inconvenient. Jesus had to go out of his way to show us what this was. He left heaven and became a man and then he went out of his way and inconvenienced himself to pour himself into other people.

So the question came up. When was the last time I inconvenienced myself for another person. And as I thought about it, I kept coming back to the whole you scratch my back and I will scratch yours. Every time I have blessed someone, it has been because they blessed me. It has been convenient. And the Lord rebuked people like that in the book of Luke. He said that sinners do good to those who do good to them, but where is their reward? They have it in full.

How I want to be a man who would love in the same manner that Jesus did. I want to be a man who would inconvenience myself for others. I want to be a man who would show love by my actions and not just by my words. Words alone are so meaningless.

And this is a struggle for me, because though I do want to be that person; the one who inconveniences himself for others, at the same time, I don’t want to be inconvenienced at all. So now what? How do I become someone I am not when I don’t want to do the work that it takes to become that person?

For starters I can ask the Lord to burden my heart. What that means is that he will give me this burden for others. When the Lord places a burden on me; what that does is that it causes me to no longer be content serving myself only. I will have a burden; a weight on my shoulders that will tell me that I must do more. And once I have that weight there it can only be relieved by inconveniencing myself by serving the Lord through serving others.

After the Lord gives me this burden, I have to then make the choice to inconvenience myself. And what that means is that I have to choose to do things that I wont want to do. If I want to do it that is great, but if I don’t then it’s inconvenient and I have to choose to obey the Lord and do what I know is right. And that is the hard part. If I were not so selfish, this would be easier but the truth is that I am totally selfish and I want to be served. But this is not the road that the Lord has chosen for those who love him. He wants his kids to serve and therefore I must surrender all that I am to him so that I can fulfill this call that he has upon my life. This is the destiny of a child who belongs to the Lord. He must serve and that is inconvenient. But ultimately it is worth it. For when we do these things it will give the Lord opportunity to reach those who we are serving in a practical way.

So please pray for me. Pray that I would be a man who willingly inconveniences himself for others. I want to hear the words when I die and enter into the Lords rest, “Good job my faithful servant, enter into the rest of your Lord!”

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Inspiration

Is something I lack these days.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

This Saturday

Well, this Saturday night I get to have three mormon girls come over to tell me about their religion. Please pray for me. Here are some things that I have gotten in my studies of Mormonism. These are quotes from the leaders themselves. I actually have these in my Bible and I use them as cheat sheets. Pray that the Lord would bring to light the truth and that true conversion would happen. Thanks.....enjoy these quotes and their references.



Examining the Evidence of Mormonism

1. “I say to the whole world, receive the truth, no matter who presents it to you. Take up the Bible, compare the religion of the Latter-day Saints with it, and see if it will stand the test.”

Brigham Young
Journal of Discourses
Volume 16, Page 46
1873
_____________________
2. If we cannot convince you by reason nor by the word of God, that your religion is wrong, we will not persecute you, but will sustain you in the privileges, guaranteed in the great Charter of American Liberty: we ask of you the same generosity –protect us in the exercise of our religious rights –convince us of our errors of doctrine, if we have any, by reason, by logical arguments, or by the word of God, and we will be ever grateful for the information, and you will ever have the pleasing reflection that you have been instruments in the hands of God of redeeming you fellow beings”

Orson Pratt
The Seer
Page 15
1854
____________________
3. “Now hear it, O inhabitants of the earth, Jew and Gentile, Saint and sinner! When our father Adam came into the garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, with him. He helped to make and organize this world. He is MICHAEL, the Archangel, the ANCIENT OF DAYS! About whom holy men have written and spoken —He is our FATHER and our GOD, and the only God with whom we have to do. Every man upon the earth, professing Christians or non-professing, must hear it and will know it sooner of later.

Brigham Young
Journal of Discourses
Volume 1, page 50
April 9, 1852
____________________
4. “You believe Adam was made of the dust of this earth. This I do not believe, though it is supposed that it is so written in the Bible; but it is not, to my understanding. You can write that information to the States, if you please –that I have publicly declared that I do not believe that portion of the Bible as the Christian world do. I never did, and I never want to.”

Brigham Young
Journal of Discourses
Volume 2, page 6
1853
____________________


5. “Thou we have it in history that our father Adam was made of the dust of the earth, and that he knew nothing about his God previous to being made here, yet it is not so; and when we learn the truth we shall see and understand that he helped to make this world, and was the chief manager in that operation.”
Brigham Young
Journal of Discourses
Volume 3, page 319
1856
____________________
6. “After men have got their exaltations and their crowns –have become Gods, even the sons of God –are made Kings of kings and Lord of lords, they have the power then of propagating their species in spirit;
Brigham Young
Journal of Discourses
Volume 6, page 275
1852
____________________
7. “Mankind are here because they are the offspring of parents who were first brought here from another planet, and power was given them to propagate their species.”

Brigham Young
Journal of Discourses
Volume 7, Page 285
1859
____________________
8. “Now, remember from this time forth, and forever, that Jesus Christ was not begotten by the Holy Ghost.”
Brigham Young
Millennial Star
Volume 15, Page 770
1853
____________________

False Prophecies

Paramount to determining whether or not a person really is a prophet of God, is the testing of the prophecies uttered in the name of the Lord. Deuteronomy 18:20-22 makes it clear that if a pretended “prophet” says anything in the name of the Lord, and the “thing follow not, nor come to pass” then that is a false prophecy. Believers in the true and living God are then counseled not to pay any attention to that false prophet.
____________________
9. “Brigham Young will become President of the United States”

Heber C. Kimbal
Journal of Discourses
Volume 5, Page 219
Sept. 6, 1856
____________________
10. “You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild, and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind. The first man that committed the odious crime of killing one of his brethren will be cursed the longest of any one of the children of Adam. Cain slew his brother. Cain might have been killed, and that would have been the termination to that line of human beings. This was not to be, and the Lord put a mark upon him, which is the flat nose and black skin.”
Brigham Young
Journal of Discourses
Volume 7, Page 290
October 9,1859
____________________
11. “The only men who become Gods, even the Sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy.”
Brigham Young
Journal of Discourses
Volume 11, Page 269
April 19, 1866
____________________
12. “Do you think that we shall ever be admitted as a State into the Union without denying the principle of polygamy? If we are not admitted until then, we shall never be admitted.”
Brigham Young
Journal of Discourses
Volume 11, Page 269
April 19, 1866
____________________
13. “I prophesy in the name of the Lord God of Israel, unless the United States redress the wrongs committed upon the Saints in the state of Missouri and punish the crimes committed by her officers that in a few years the government will be utterly overthrown and wasted, and there will not be so much as a potsherd left,”

Joseph Smith
History of the Church
Volume 5, Page 394
May 18, 1843
____________________
14. “God himself is increasing and progressing in knowledge, power, and dominion, and will do so, worlds without end.”

Wilford Woodruff
Journal of Discourses
Volume 6, Page 120
1857
____________________
15. “The man Joseph, the husband of Mary, did not, that we know of, have more than one wife, but Mary the wife of Joseph had another husband.”

Brigham Young
Journal of Discourses
Volume 11, Page 268
1866
____________________
16. “Hence, the doctrine of a plurality of Gods is as prominent in the Bible as any other doctrine. It is all over the face of the Bible. It stands beyond the power of controversy.”

Joseph Smith
History of the Church
Volume 6, Page 474
1844
____________________
17. “The fleshly body of Jesus required a Mother as well as Father. Therefore, the Father and Mother of Jesus, according to the flesh, must have been associated together in the capacity of Husband and wife; hence the Virgin Mary must have been, for the time being, the lawful wife of God the Father”

Orson Pratt
The Seer
Page 158
1853
____________________
18. “The angel taught Joseph Smith those principles which are necessary for the salvation of the world”

Wilford Woodruff
Journal of Discourses
Volume 2, Page 196
1855
____________________
19. “How did this state of things called Mormonism originate? We read that an angel came down and revealed himself to Joseph Smith and manifested unto him in vision the true position of the world in a religious point of view. He was surrounded with light and glory while the heavenly messenger communicated these things unto him”

John Taylor
Journal of Discourses
Volume 10, Page 127
1863
____________________
20. “Baptism is just as essential to salvation, as Faith and Repentance. –Without being immersed in water no man can enter into the fulness of Celestial glory”

Orson Pratt
The Seer Page 255 1854
____________________
21. “Now if any of you will deny the plurality of wives, and continue to do so, I promise that you will be damned”

Brigham Young
Journal of Discourses
Volume 3, Page 266
1855
____________________


Strange Teachings

22. “Does the earth conceive? It does. Where did the earth come from? From its parent earths. The earth is alive. If it was not, it could not produce.”

Heber C. Kimball
Journal of Discourses
Volume 6, Page 36
1857
____________________
23. “no man or woman in this dispensation will ever enter into the celestial kingdom of God without the consent of Joseph Smith. From the day that the Priesthood was taken from the earth to the winding-up scene of all things, every man and woman must have the certificate of Joseph Smith, junior, as a passport to their entrance into the mansion where God and Christ are”

Brigham Young
Journal of Discourses
Volume 7, Page 289
1869
____________________
24. “Who can tell us of the inhabitants of this little planet that shines of an evening, called the moon? …when you inquire about the inhabitants of that sphere you find that the most learned are as ignorant in regard to them as the most ignorant of their fellows. So it is with regard to the inhabitants of the sun. Do you think it is inhabited? I rather think it is. Do you think there is any life there? No question of it; it was not made in vain. It was made to give light to those who dwell upon it, and to other planets; and so will this earth when it is celestialized.”

Brigham Young
Journal of Discourses
Volume 13, page 271
1870
____________________
25. “…What man or woman on the earth, what spirit in the spirit-world can say truthfully that I ever gave a wrong word of counsel, or a word of advice that could not be sanctioned by the heavens? The success which has attended me in my presidency is owing to the blessings and mercy of the Almighty. Why I have referred to this is to show you that I realize the importance of obeying the words of the Lord, which he gives through his acknowledged servants…”

Brigham Young
Journal of Discourses
Volume 12, Page 127 1867
____________________

Monday, June 12, 2006

Prayer Journal

Father,

Things seem so different these days. The fuzzy feelings of being a new believer are gone and those feelings have been gone for years. Life just ticks by day in day out without letting up at all. Why is it so difficult to be consistant? I wish I could just sit with you and be able to hold a normal conversation with you. I wish I could see you face to face. I can't wait until that day actually comes.....

Bill

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Hell's Best Kept Secret

This book that you can read in its entirety for free is one that has had the GREATEST influence in my life thus far with the exception of the Bible. It is written by Ray Comfort and I can validate from personal knowledge of him that he is a right on guy. The man loves the Lord and loves people. Anyways, the book is called “Hell’s best kept Secret”. I hope you will read and glean from it as much as I have. I have read it over 15 times and have listened to the tape and seen the video of this book numerous time. Enjoy!!!


http://www.livingwaters.com/helps/HellsBestKeptSecret.pdf

Bill

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

The theory of evolution of the Coca Cola can.

Billions of years ago, a big bang produced a large rock. As the rock cooled, sweet brown liquid formed on its surface. As time passed, aluminum formed itself into a can, a lid, and a tab. Millions of years later, red and white paint fell from the sky, and formed itself into the words "Coca Cola 12 fluid ounces."

Of course, my theory is an insult to your intellect, because you know that if the Coca Cola can is made, there must be a maker. If it is designed, there must be a designer. The alternative, that it happened by chance or accident, is to move into an intellectual free zone.

The banana -- the atheist's nightmare.

Note that the banana:

Is shaped for human hand
Has non-slip surface
Has outward indicators of inward content:
Green-too early,
Yellow-just right,
Black-too late.
Has a tab for removal of wrapper
Is perforated on wrapper
Bio-degradable wrapper
Is shaped for human mouth
Has a point at top for ease of entry
Is pleasing to taste buds
Is curved towards the face to make eating process easy

To say that the banana happened by accident is even more unintelligent than to say that no one designed the Coca Cola can.

TEST ONE
The person who thinks the Coca Cola can had no designer is:
___ A. Intelligent
___ B. A fool
___ C. Has an ulterior motive for denying the obvious

Did you know that the eye has 40,000,000 nerve endings, the focusing muscles move an estimated 100,000 times a day, and the retina contains 137,000,000 light sensitive cells?

Charles Darwin said,

"To suppose that the eye could have been formed by natural selection, seems I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree."

If man cannot begin to make a human eye, how could anyone in his right mind think that eyes formed by mere chance? In fact, man cannot make anything from nothing. We don't know how to do it. We can re-create, reform, develop . . . but we cannot create even one grain of sand from nothing. Yet, the eye is only a small part of the most sophisticated part of creation-the human body.

George Gallup, the famous statistician, said,

"I could prove God statistically; take the human body alone; the chance that all the functions of the individual would just happen, is a statistical monstrosity."

Albert Einstein said,

"Everyone who is seriously interested in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe—a spirit vastly superior to man, and one in the face of which our modest powers must feel humble."


TEST TWO
A. Do you know of any building that didn't have a builder?

___ YES ___ NO

B. Do you know of any painting that didn't have a painter?

___ YES ___ NO

C. Do you know of any car that didn't have a maker?

___ YES ___ NO
If you answered "YES" for any of the above, give details:
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________


Could I convince you that I dropped 50 oranges onto the ground and they by chance fell into ten rows of five oranges? The logical conclusion is that someone with an intelligent mind put them there. The odds that ten oranges would fall by accident into a straight line are mind-boggling, let alone ten rows of five.



TEST THREE
A. From the atom to the universe, is there order?

___ YES ___ NO

B. Did it happen by accident?

___ YES ___ NO

C. Or, must there have been an intelligent mind?

___ YES ___ NO

D. What are the chances of 50 oranges falling by chance
into ten rows of five oranges? ______________________
If you answered "YES" for any of the above, give details:
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________


The declaration "There is no God" is what is known as an absolute statement. For an absolute statement to be true, I must have absolute knowledge.

Here is another absolute statement: "There is no gold in China."

TEST FOUR
What do I need to have for that statement to be true?
A. No knowledge of China.

___ YES ___ NO

B. Partial knowledge of China.

___ YES ___ NO

C. Absolute knowledge of China.

___ YES ___ NO

"C" is the correct answer. For the statement to be true, I must know that there is no gold in China, or the statement is incorrect. To say "There is no God," and to be correct in the statement, I must be omniscient.

I must know how many hairs are upon every head, every thought of every human heart, every detail of history, every atom within every rock...nothing is hidden from my eyes...I know the intimate details of the secret love-life of the fleas on the back of the black cat of Napolean's great-grandmother. To make the absolute statement "There is no God." I must have absolute knowledge that there isn't one.

Let's say that a circle represents all the knowledge in the entire universe, and let's assume that you have an incredible 1% of all that knowledge. Is it possible, that in the knowledge you haven't yet come across, there is ample evidence to proved that God does indeed exist?

If you are reasonable, you will have to say, "Having the limited knowledge that I have at present, I believe that there is no God." In other words, you don't know if God exists, so you are not an "atheist," you are what is commonly known as an "agnostic." You are like a man who looks at a building, and doesn't know if there was a builder.

TEST FIVE
The man who sees a building and doesn't know if there was a builder is:
___ A. Intelligent
___ B. A fool
___ C. Has an ulterior motive for denying the obvious

Perhaps you have questions that hold you back from faith. First, almost every question you have about suffering humanity etc., can be adequately answered.

Second, we have faith in plenty of things we don't understand. Did you understand the mechanics of television before you turned it on? Probably not. You took a step of faith, turned it on, and after it worked, understanding how it worked wasn't that important. We accept that there are unseen television waves right in front of our eyes. We can't see them because they are invisible. For them to manifest, we need a receiver, then we can enjoy the experience of television.

God is not flesh and blood. He is an eternal Spirit-immortal and invisible. Like the television waves, He cannot be experienced until the "receiver" is switched on. Here is something you will find hard to believe: Jesus said, "He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him" (John 14:21).

Either that is true or it isn't. Jesus Christ says that He will manifest Himself to anyone who obeys Him. Approach the subject the same way you approached your first television set. Just take a small step of faith. If it works, enjoy it, if it doesn't, forget it.

Or have you an ulterior motive? Could it be that the "atheist" can't find God, for the same reason a thief can't find a policeman? Could it be that your love for sin is clouding your good judgment? If the Bible is true, and Jesus Christ has "abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel," then you owe it to yourself just to check it out. Here is how to do that:

TEST SIX
With a tender conscience,
check this list of the Ten Commandments: Have I always loved God my Creator with all my heart, mind, soul and strength?
Have I made a god in my own image�a god to suit myself?
Have I ever used God's name in vain?
Have I kept the Sabbath holy?
Have I always honored my parents implicitly?
Have I murdered (God considers hatred as murder)?
Have I committed adultery (including premarital sex and lust)?
Have I stolen (the value is irrelevant)?
Have I lied (including fibs and these questions)?
Have I coveted (been greedy or materialistic)?

____YES ___NO

___ YES ___NO
___ YES ___NO
___ YES ___NO

___ YES ___NO

___ YES ___NO

___ YES ___NO
___ YES ___NO

___ YES ___NO

___ YES ___NO


If you have even broken one Law, then you have sinned against God and therefore will "surely die," for the "wages of sin is death."

We are all guilty of breaking the Commandments. Listen to the voice of your conscience, and let it remind you of some of the sins of the past. We are not perfect as we are commanded to be (Matthew 5:48), neither is our heart pure. On Judgment Day our transgressions will be evidence of our shame. Think of it: God has seen every sin we have ever committed. We share our thought-life with Him.

We are guilty of violating His Law a multitude of times, yet if we repent, God can forgive us because Jesus stepped into the courtroom 2.000 years ago and paid the fine for us.

His death on the cross satisfied the Law we so blatantly transgressed, and at the same time demonstrated how much God loves us—"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." His shed blood on the cross can make you clean in the sight of a holy God...as though you have never sinned.

God doesn't want you to go to Hell. Please, forget your arguments, repent and put your trust in Jesus and be saved from God's wrath. Make Psalm 51 your prayer, then read your Bible daily and always obey what you read; God will never let you down. Thank you for taking the time to read this booklet.

Adapted from God Doesn't Believe in Atheists
by Ray Comfort (Living Waters)

Monday, June 05, 2006

Be real

“Guard jealously your relationship to God. Jesus prayed ‘that they may be one as we are one’—nothing between. Keep all the life perennially open to Jesus Christ, don’t pretend with Him. Are you drawing your life from any other source than God Himself? If you are depending upon anything but Him, you will never know when He is gone.”

Oswald Chambers

Friday, June 02, 2006

Update on Tobias

Update on Tobias:


So the other night as Jessica and I were doing as the doctor instructed and were inspecting Tobias, and as we were inspecting him we found Tobias testicle; both of them, at the same time. And then the next day the right one was gone again.....very interesting, and I am not quite sure what that means. So he will be seeing a specialist on the 29th and they will determine what the next step is.....