Powerfully Saved

So much has been happening in the news lately, of course the much anticipated Supreme Court decision is being talked about everywhere, many on Facebook are altering their profile pictures to show their support of the same sex marriage decision...I was considering altering my profile picture on Facebook to have a Bible or a cross or perhaps an open tomb, but decided to keep my profile pic the way it is. I don't want to cause people to jump to conclusions from a picture before hearing me out, and it all seems like a childish "whose side is bigger" game to me. It doesn't matter what people (including Supreme court justices) decide or do, it is what God has done, does, and will do that matters most.

Looking around on youtube on the topic of LGBT I found a wonderful testimony by a former lesbian activist. She has many insights into the "lifestyle" and the LGBT movement, how they infiltrate, the truth about LGBT tactics, and the difficulties that plague those caught in this way of life from behind the scenes, and how the Lord saved her and changed her "ministry".

Charlene is not a pastor, but she does mention a woman pastor that spoke words of life to her. I hope you won't get sidetracked on the woman pastor issue.  True that the office of pastoral leadership should not be held by women, however I also know from scripture that God can even use a donkey to keep a person from heading for destruction.

Also she mentions that it was her choice to allow Jesus to save her, yet she mentions  that the Lord saved her when she was 12 years old...the Lord obviously had a plan for Charlene's life and He brought it to completion. It doesn't matter if we think we chose Him, what makes anything we do real or not is if God ignites and infuses His Spirit into whatever decisions we make. Many think man's power to decide is what saves us and of course we can do nothing unless the Lord first grants us the ability to see that choice and then give us His power to choose the right thing. She might be a bit confused about who chose whom, but I can see that she has been powerfully saved by the Lord truly intervening in her life.

This video is about 25  minutes in length. Please have a very uplifting and inspirational coffee break time out with Charlene:

Debating with the Skeptics...

 My husband shared something with me today, it is truly funny how the Lord works these things out, I am sure He has a terrific sense of humour. The reason my husband shared this link with me was because he told me that he was unaware (until reading this blog article) that there was anyone else on this planet besides me who uses the word "discombobulated"...

(from movie "Princess Bride")

Anyhow, I love the blog, and this particular blog post was on the topic that I've been harping on lately....

Excerpt:

"With a skeptic like Chaz, it truly is not a matter of whether there are answers to his criticisms. It is a matter of whether or not he will submit himself to God’s authority as revealed in Scripture. He is operating with an unregenerate mind; one that is darkened in sin and has no interest in the truth, and what truth he is given, he will reject, suppressing the truth by explaining it away with some clever argument he devises. Hence, the Bible in the mind of the unregenerate sinner will never be a “reliable” guide to Christ’s teaching and no one will ever satisfactory answer his list of “contradictions.” "

 Here's the link:
https://hipandthigh.wordpress.com/2015/05/08/twenty-ways-to-answer-a-fool-16/comment-page-1/#comment-14590

The Problem with Atheists...

https://www.recruiter.com/i/how-to-control-for-me-and-against-me-thoughts/

A few weeks ago I began reading a book...for me this is a tough assignment on several levels...The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky is translated from Russian to English (the version I'm reading is supposed to be one of the better ones, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volkhonsky) so perhaps part of the problem is the fact that words often do not translate directly from one language to another and often make for tedious reading. Another problem is the Christianity that is presented in the novel is Russian Orthodox, similar to Eastern Orthodox, it is very different from the Christianity we experience in the west. I go several days at a time in avoiding the reading of it, so after these weeks I'm only at the halfway point, sigh and groan. I hadn't heard or known anything about this story or it's author, I saw it on our bookshelf (my husband purchased it a couple of years ago) and decided to dive in. Interestingly the topic of what atheists believe and think are explored in this story and the hero of this story struggles with these amoral people from the context of his Russian Orthodox beliefs. Although I have encountered these (atheistic) beliefs before, and not just from atheists, but directly from my own mistaken and fallen understanding of what I wanted to believe prior to being saved...encountering them in this story is timely, considering the recent events and my own struggles with the blasphemous utterings from "former Christians turned atheists". I hope to give a blogpost or two in the future (after finishing this drudgery of a book reading) to explore a few things that come up in this assignment....in the meantime, I share a debate that I enjoyed between an atheist and a Christian:


Dinesh D'Souza: "It's not an intellectual revolt, it IS a moral revolt"

End Times and Other Speculations

http://ray032.com/2011/11/29/the-armageddon-generation/

Disclaimer: I have no idea about anything definite regarding the end times, Armageddon, the Gog Magog War, the new millenium, except for the vague mental pictures we get from scripture.

These things are so mind-boggling to me, and I know that speculations abound, and have succumbed to some speculating myself, however, the truth is what it is and sometimes we just won't know until the day we see it happening. In the meantime Jesus only cautioned us to understand the times from the point of being aware of today, this moment in time. He does not require that we understand everything about what will happen tomorrow, next week, or next year, but to remain faithful and aware today, to keep our eyes open and lifted up in anticipation that it can be any time....and in fact if I were to die today, my next moment of what I will experience will be what is often called "the rapture" or the resurrection of the saints (some might also speculate that we will have awareness between that time of our death and the time our body is reunited with our spirit to again be a living soul...I guess we will know for sure when that happens.

I was watching a few Youtube videos about the Gog Magog War, and a few different ideas circulating about what it is and when it will happen....and it made me realize that with all of scripture the Lord wisely gives us just enough "manna" for today. He knows that our puny brains would implode with all that He knows, so He gives us just enough for today. As Jesus put it:

Matthew 6:33-34  But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.   Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. 

Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.  (KJV)

So true.

So when I read the scriptures, I store away treasures that as the Lord sees the need, will bring to my remembrance and understanding the need of them for each day as it comes. I can learn from Mary:

Luke 2:19  But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. (KJV)

There is so much that we do not know, but so much that has already been revealed to give us enough food for thought to get us through the evil that will face us today, and Jesus promised that tomorrow would take care of itself, and we would be wise to continue to seek His righteousness (prayer).

Is It the Church's Fault?

A conversation with Mike Horton and R.C. Sproul. The conversation centers on what is wrong with the Church. The conversation is deep and I know that prior to being saved I wouldn't have been able to make heads or tails out of it, it requires the Spirit of God. I would simply have scoffed "ridiculous nonsense" to excuse myself...and there is the difference. Anyone can talk like a parrot without having a foundational understanding, like copying words of a foreign language without understanding the words meaning. I think that the deterioration of the Church is a symptom of our time, one of many signs of how close to the end we are.