Casting Pearls- Are you paying attention?

The more and more I look at the social sites of today the more I see the example of what growing up in a modern society has done for the people of today. They are caught up with little bits and bites of cute little sayings that seem to express their feelings, but never actually put across any important points. Their minds are even stretched by reading a blog like mine. I have found that the books I was brought up reading, are totally inappropriate to todays mindset. We are conditioned by TV and being able to receive an entire message about whatever we need to think about something in a 30 second spot. If it takes more than 30 seconds, it must be very important or it must be entertaining.
        Our attention span has been shortened by the instant and throw away lives we live. We spend our moments in front of a TV or a computer screen and are conditioned ny these things to be inspired by small sound bites and bits of information we receive. When we get only a small part of the information about something, we are left to assume the rest of the information regarding it.No one gives us all the information because we no longer can keep the attention span required to read through all the information about something. As Christians, we are left with the situation of attempting to reach people trapped in this lifestyle with only a few short words to catch their attention. If we can catch their attention, we can then go on to tell them in more detail about Jesus’ plan for their lives.
        Once we get someone’s attention we can begin teaching them in more detail about the plan God has for their lives and how Jesus plans to use them to spread His message of salvation to the world.The world is lost, not because it is evil, but because we are as mankind inherently evil. It has been passed on to us from Adam and Eve, who brought sin into this perfect world God made for us. If it were not for this we would not need a sacrifice or intercessor to make us worthy in God’s sight. With Jesus as our advocate, when God looks at us He sees Jesus kiving in us instead of our sinful selves. It is Only through Jesus that we are made worthy to be in God’s presence. We have an eternal home in Heaven because of Jesus’ sacrifice for us.
        Without some way of reaching people to bring them into the group listening to our teaching about Jesus, we cannot get them to hear the Gospel. God has given us the quotes we need and the interesting quips we need to reach out to the lost world. All that is left is for us to bring to them the Gospel message.

Casting Pearls- Allah or God The Creator, You decide.

The whole world would have us believing that the Allah of the Muslim religion is the same as the Christian God. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The translation of Allah is loosely ‘the god’ and in no way is the same as the Christian God of Creation. Allah is ‘the god of the moon’, the Christian God’s creation. If you don’t believe it, then look it up! The Christian’s in this world are being mislead.
        As in the past, in Elijah’s time as when he went up against the followers of Baal, Satan wishes to mislead people into following the Creation, instead of The Creator. The Muslim’s have already been doing this for generations but now the Christian Church is being mislead as well. They have been told over and over again that the God we worship is the same god that the other religion's worship.
        First, The ‘god’ they worship is the god of this world, not the God who Created this world. And Second, as Christian’s we should not have a religion, but instead have a relationship with the Creator of the Universe. If you were to let someone inside you to have complete control over you and your actions, would you not like to have a relationship with them? A really close relationship with them.
        The word Baal is translated ‘The Lord’ and that is what they were worshipping. God The Creator was angry over the way the priests of Baal and the King Ahab and his wife Jezebel had led so many astray from the true God and his following. Just as it was in Elijah’s day, we are seeing it happening now.
        Just recently, The Pope, leader of the largest denomination in the christian churches, called for all denominations to put aside their differences and join together and become one church. He also called for the church to be more ‘inclusive’ of those groups, like the homosexuals, who do not live by the beliefs held by those who believe in the Bible, The Word of God.
        Basically, The Pope both called for the church to do away with it’s worship practices, and to include the ones God The Creator had called an abomination in His Sight. God did not use the word abomination about many things, but the few things He felt very strongly about. in the over 788,000 words in the Bible, Abomination is only used 166 times and often is depicting the same thing when mentioned. This is less than 3 thousandths of the entire scriptures so these times must have been important.
        Both of these things had been spoken of by Jesus and others in their prophecies of the End Times and the things to come. We were to experience a time likeunto that of the times of Noah. When men were lovers of self and only made passing acknowledgment of God. The world is now in that way. The Southern United States, where I live, Is one of the last places where the true Christian Faith is practiced. In the rest of this nation and in the rest of the world the majority of people are secular or only give passing acknowledgment of God in their lives. We are living in dangerous times.

Casting Pearls- Wanna promise?

Do you know who you can trust to make the rough places smooth and keep all the promises He makes, Who always tells the truth? There are over a thousand promises in the Bible and all of them are true. Any of God’s promises are in his word and God never lies. If God promises something, you can take it to the bank, it is guaranteed.  God made a promise that Abram would have a son by Sarai his wife, and even though they had both gotten to old to have children, God gave them a son (Isaac), though by the time they had Isaac Abram had another son by Sarai’s handmaiden Hagar because of Sarai’s disbelief of God being able to overcome their physical shortcomings. God changed Abram’s name to Abraham and Sarai’s name to Sara because of their unbelief. 

This is some of the promises God makes in the Bible. For those who wish to know God answers their prayers; Isaiah 58:9 ‘Then shalt thou call and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and He shall say, Here I am.’ Or in Jeremiah 33:3 ‘Call unto Me and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.’

Matthew 7:7-8 says ‘ Ask and it shall be given to you; seek , and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. So anything we ask, believing we will receive it, it will be ours. God wants us to have the confidence that He will always be with us, whatever we may have to face, we should have the confidence that God knows our situation, in fact he knew we were going to be in it, and will listen to our prayers and move on them in His time. 

Many of us think we should have God move to resolve our problems on our timeline. God only moves quickly on things that are out of His will for us. If the situation is within God’s will or God’s plan can still be made to work with our decision to do something, then God will move on it after we learn from it.

Speaking of confidence, we are promised to have confidence in our Savior Jesus, in 1John 5:14-15 the Bible states; ‘This is the confidence that we have in Him, that,if we ask anything according to His will. He heareth us: and if we know that He heareth us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.’ Also in the vein of confidence is the verse in Ezekiel 28:26 that states; ‘And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and plat vineyards; yea, they shall dwell with confidence, when I have executed judgments upon all those that despise them round about them; and they shall know that I am the Lord their God.’ Also in 1 John 3:21-22 it says; ‘Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.’

These are only a few of the many promises in God’s Word. God has never lied or broken a promise, so I encourage you and everyone to read the Bible every day so you can too read and claim the promises in His Word.

Casting pearls- Who wants to win something free!

Ever want something for nothing? Ever want to be the winner of a great lottery, or sweepstakes? God is offering that right now! He has a gift for anyone who is willing to believe on His Son, Jesus, Profess Jesus’ name before men, and that is all you must do. It is simple and it is free. It costs you nothing, only your willingness to receive.

The Christian religion is different from all the religions out there because it does not ask you to give anything to receive something. All other religions ask for something to prove yourself before you receive. The Christian religion doesn’t. It is really not fair to call Christianity a religion, it is more of a relationship. That is also one of the differences. 

  God desires a relationship with all believers, He loves them and wants them to return that love to Him. When you have a relationship with someone, you wish to spend a lot of time with them. Since there is no way to physically spend time with God, the Lord has provided the chance to spent time with His Word, The Bible. The Bible says in John 1:1 that Jesus was the Word in the beginning, He is the Word now, and the Word is God. Speaking of the Word of God which is the Bible. The Bible also says in 1 John 5:7 that there are three which bear witness in Heaven, The Father God, The Son Jesus, and The Holy Ghost.; these three are One! So, reading God’s Word is the same as spending time with Him, and Jesus, and The Holy Ghost.

  As believers in Jesus we should attempt to spend time with God every day. I personally spend time with God every morning to start my day off right. I also pray to Him every morning as God wants not only to speak to us, but to hear from us as well. We speak it in faith, knowing that the Lord already knows the things we need to pray about, we only need to show God our faith that He will move on these requests. Faith was how Abraham was able to show his righteousness, and it is how we show God our righteousness as well. It may be more to your liking to read God’s Word in the evening, It doesn't matter what time of day you spend with God, only that you do.

One of the Commandments of God is to Tithe to God a tenth of all you have. Do you give God a tenth of your time? Many people think that if they just give ten percent of their income they have given all that is required. They would be missing the real meaning. We all need to think about the time we have been given and the family we have been given, and the things we have been given, and anything we have been given by the Lord. We are required to give ten percent of it ALL. The Lord wants us to give up all control we think we have, to Him, and let Him take us where we need to go. Just as the ship that Paul was in on the way to Rome, we must not try to fight the storm, just allow it to blow us where He would have us and praise His name the whole time we are on the way there. 

You might say, well, that is asking something from me. I would tell you that if you have the Holy Ghost living inside you, you will want to do these things and more for The Lord. Spreading the Gospel to the people who need to hear will become important to you. What is truly sad is someone who has said ,well I am saved and thats enough. They have the Holy Ghost living inside but have ignored the calling of it to the point they are a detriment to God and His Church. They are so tied up in the things around them and the world that they don’t feel the urgings of the Spirit or help the Church to spread the Gospel of Jesus. 

  What all people must decide is wether they want to be in the world or to influence the world for Jesus. The world is watching you, are you wanting them to see everything about you? The programs we watch on TV are tracked, the sites you go to on the computer are tracked, the phone calls you make are tracked, the visits you make to the store are tracked, every time we do anything where a piece of electronics is involved is tracked. Our entire life can be tracked by the people, what kind of example are you? What do others see? Do they see what you want them to see? What kind of example are you setting for the world around you to follow.

The entire thing is that we are a example to the world in the life that we live. To be a good example and receive the free gift that Jesus is offering is what God desires us to do. The world says we have to give so much up to be a Christian but the truth is that you will gain so much more if you only will. 

Casting Pearls- Denial...

We start in Mark 14:66-72 where Peter, who has followed Jesus to the courtyard of Caiaphus the chief priest and was behind their faux arrest and trial of Jesus. Peter, who has followed with Jesus as He was led to the courtyard, stood outside the door to the courtyard. Peter was seen by the servant girl that stood by the gate and she said in “are you not one of His disciples?”. Peter quickly denied it, then went over to stand with the officers of the guard and the servants at a fire of coals they had made. 

Then we go to where Peter is again accused of being with Jesus by the servants and officers standing around the fire with him. Peter denies this as well. Shortly afterwards a servant who is related to the guard that Peter’s sword had cut off the mans ear, accuses Peter of being a friend of Jesus, again Peter denies Jesus though this time with cursing and swearing. Soon after that a cock crows and reminds Peter of the prophesy Jesus had made, and he saw Jesus being led away from the courtyard and when Jesus looked at him, Peter ran away in tears for what he had done.

Now, There are four different words in the Greek language that are translated as love, the one we most commonly think of is Agape love, which is a deep love for someone that loves them even though they don’t deserve to be loved by us. The person may even be mean to us, but we still love them. This type of love is the type most commonly associated with Jesus or God. 

The second type is eros, or physical love between people, this kind is never mentioned in the New Testament.  The third type of love is phillia which is a mental love or an affection due to friendship or family status. This type is found in the New Testament. The fourth kind is storg, which is better translated as affection, however it is a natural affection like someone would have for the family dog or pet of some kind. 

After all that Peter had seen and been told by the others, and  having denied and betrayed Jesus that way, and having lost to death the only one who could have been the messiah. Peter was very dejected. He was really upset at how his Lord had been betrayed by Judas and the Priests, and put to death, as well as how he had denied Jesus just to save himself. Jesus rose again from the grave on that sunday, the first day of the week, and after that, the disciples and the followers of Jesus, met together to honor the first day of the week, Sunday, and they fellow-shipped. That is where the sunday worship service came from. 

Having seen Jesus a few times and being told by Him that a helper would come in His place, Peter was thinking Jesus would not be back for some time. Getting bored with waiting, he and the other disciples decided to go fishing. After being out fishing all night, which was the best time to catch something, the disciples had decided to give up and come in. when they approached the shore, they saw a man cooking a fish and some bread on a fire. Just as Jesus had done when Peter had first been called, the man called out for the disciples to try casting the net on the right side of the ship. The net was so full of fish they couldn’t pull it up. Peter then asked John if he thought it might be the Messiah Jesus. Hearing from John that he also thought it was Jesus, Peter didn’t wait for the boat to get to shore, and jumped in and swam to the shore.

Jesus was waiting for them with a fish and some bread he offered them, then they cooked some of the fish they had caught and Jesus ate with them. This was the third time Jesus had shown Himself to them, and he ate some fish and bread with them. Once they had dined, Jesus asked Peter, “do you Love(agape)me? 

Peter said back”Yes Lord you know I Love(phillas) you”. once again Jesus asked Peter, “Do you Love(agape)me?”, and once again Peter answered Yes Lord, you know I Love(phillas) you” and a third time Jesus asked, Do you Love(Phillas)me? and Peter answered again “Lord you know that I Love(Phillas)you. After each question, Jesus said to Peter, “Go feed my sheep” 

For the three times Peter had denied Jesus, Jesus had restored him to good standing by telling him three times to go feed Jesus’ sheep, and asking him three times if he loved Him. Then the Lord Jesus told Peter the way in which he would die in service to the Lord. Peter knew from what Jesus told him that he would suffer for Christ and he gladly went ahead and worshiped Jesus openly. 

Casting Pearls- In the Beginning

This is my belief as to the beginning of things and how this world was made. It is not in any way supposed to replace the Bible as the word of God, or make anything in it to be of no affect. It is purely a idea of mine as to how the beginning of the Earth happened. It does follow along with the creation story of Genesis in the Bible and is influenced by the leading of the Holy Spirit Though in no way do I claim to be writing words inspired by God. This is merely a story that gives the reader the imaginings of the author as to how we all came to be.

There was a time, before time began, when the world was not yet formed. Heaven was the center of the universe, because the universe did not yet exist. All was good and God was in control of everything. In the middle of all this a war began, a struggle between what was known and what was unknown, between good and evil. 

God was a very good ruler and was very good to the angels He created. He gave them great abilities and powers in the kingdom He controlled, and He made them have almost anything they could imagine. Their imaginations didn’t have all that much to imagine because their lack of knowledge of things outside of the Heaven God had created for them to live in. All they really knew was the Heaven that was their home and each other. God had created three angels that He put all other angel under the control of, these were Michael, Gabriel, and Lucifer, they were in control of one third of the angels each. 

When God had something for the angels to do, one of the three were given the order and in turn passed the order on to the angels under them to complete it. This was the order in which things were done prior to the great uprising. The head of the three angels God had put in control of the other angels was Lucifer, he was known as the Angel of Light, since he was almost as powerful as God Himself. Lucifer was just under the God of Light who is the Light of Eternity Himself. Lucifer rose up against God and proclaimed himself to be as powerful as God. Lucifer was so impressed with his own beauty and power, that he thought himself equal with his creator God. 

When Lucifer rose up in rebellion against the God of all Creation, he ordered the third of the angels he controlled to help him to take over heaven. When they  joined up with Lucifer in rebellion against God, they wrote their own future. When God and His other angels along with Michael and Gabriel, defeated the uprising, the Lord our God cast Lucifer and his third of the angels he controlled out of Heaven. The worst punishment God could think of at the time was to put them in a place that was the antithesis to what they were. Since Lucifer was the Angel of Light, God put him and his angels in a place that was dark and void of anything. 

  God had to create a place that was dark and void of anything to place The angels and Lucifer in. For a time it stayed that way, then one day God decided to do something good with the evil place He had created. He decided to make it a wonderful place that would be good and have creations in it that ,as the angels, had free will to worship and make God their Lord. God then began the creation of Earth.

God came upon the face of the Dark and void place He had created and said, “ Let there be Light” , and there was light in the darkness. The brilliant light of God’s own presence made the light out of the darkness that prevailed until then. Where light is, no darkness can be. But God divided the darkness from His light to keep Lucifer in his place of void and darkness. God saw that the thing he had created was now in light and the light was good. That was the First Day of God’s creation.

Then God said let the void and darkness have a form within it, and God then made a separation of the form from the darkness surrounding it. That was the Second Day of God’s creation of the place in which we are. 

God called the area around the Form He had created, the Heavens. Then on the next day God divided the area of the form He had created into waters and dry land, and the dry land God called Earth, and the waters God called the seas, and God saw all that He had done so far and it was all good on the face of the evil that was the place Lucifer had been cast from Heaven. 

God then made grass and trees and all kinds of plants to grow on the land He had created all sorts of plants and made them where they could have seeds and reproduce, and God saw all He had created, and said it was good on the face of the darkness God had made to cast Lucifer and his followers into. This was the Third Day of God’s creation.

  The next thing God did was make lights in the heavens around the form of Earth and made them give light on the Earth for pat of the time and light at night too, as He created two great lights, one brighter than the other, one to shine during the day and one to shine at night. All around the Earth in the void, God created other lights to shine. These man later called stars, as they were like unto the bright light that shined on the Earth. God saw all He had made and it was good.This was the Forth Day.

God then began to create the creatures in the sea, the Plankton, amoebas and the whales and all the creatures in between in size. God also made all sorts of birds in the air above the water and God saw that all these animals were good and made them where they could procreate. and God had them procreate and fill the Earth with their kind. Then God made all the animals and all other things that move upon the Land and made them to procreate and fill the land with their kind as well. God saw all the things He had created and that it was good. This was the Fifth Day. 

God then said to Himself, “ Let US make Man in OUR own image”. When God referred to Himself as US and OUR He was referring to the Triune nature of God as three in one. There is also much controversy over what God meant by IN OUR OWN IMAGE, it was not to say that we in any way look like God. We have his image in our being a triune being as well, we are made up of BODY,SOUL, and SPIRIT. While God is made up of THE FATHER GOD, THE SON, and THE HOLY SPIRIT. So, God created man in His own image and then he created woman to go along with man. God told them to replenish the Earth and control it. God gave man control over all that He had created here in the void. We were given dominion over the Earth and all that were in it. God saw all that He had made and it was all VERY GOOD.  That made up the Sixth Day of creation

                There is no evidence as to how long the time was between the creation of Man on the Sixth Day of creation and the fall of man due to sin. The only time we can track is from the fall of man until now. As i said in another blog, it is stated in 2 Peter and in Psalms that a day to God is as a Thousand years and we are approximately 6 to almost 7 thousand years since the fall of man in eden. We can be sure if things follow the seventh day of rest that God prescribes, that we are coming up on a time that God and we can rest from the attacks of satan. This would go along with the thousand year reign of Christ on earth before we see the new heaven and new earth. We as christians will be with Jesus as He reigns.