Introducing Herman Cain

I am not ready to officially endorse Mr. Cain, but I really like what he has to say, and it is refreshing to hear a man who tells it like it is and offers real common sense solutions. Please do a little homework on him now, because I have a strong feeling that you will be hearing a lot more about him soon.

Ethiopia!

Check out our my new blog to learn about our upcoming trip to Ethiopia! We leave in 7 days! Click here

The Most Important Decision of Your Life

What Blog based on Christian ideas would be complete without the plan of Salvation?

Twenty-three years ago, I gave my life to Christ and accepted His gift of Salvation. I have not always lived my life in a way that would model the life of Christ, but I do not think that He expects us to be perfect. He knows that we are human. The important thing is that we realize we need His help and that we try our best to be more like Him every day. One of my favorite bumper stickers reads" "Christians are not perfect, they are just Forgiven".

With that said, let's take a little walk through one of my favorite books of the Bible.

The ROMANS ROAD....is a pathway you can walk.

It is a group of Bible verses from the book of Romans in the New Testament. If you walk down this road you will end up understanding how to be saved.

Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."
We all have sin in our hearts. We all were born with sin.
We were born under the power of sin's control.
- Admit that you are a sinner.

Romans 6:23a "For the wages of sin is death..."
Sin has an ending. It results in death. We all face physical death, which is a result of sin. But a worse death is spiritual death that alienates us from God, and will last for all eternity. The Bible teaches that there is a place called the Lake of Fire where lost people will be in torment forever. It is the place where people who are spiritually dead will remain.
- Understand that you deserve death for your sin.

Romans 6:23b "...but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Salvation is a free gift from God to you! You can't earn this gift, but you must reach out and receive it.
- Ask God to forgive you and save you.

Romans 5:8, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
When Jesus died on the cross He paid sin's penalty. He paid the price for all sin, and when He took all the sins of the world on Himself on the cross, He bought us out of slavery to sin and death! The only condition is that we believe in Him and what He has done for us, understanding that we are now joined with Him, and that He is our life. He did all this because He loved us and gave Himself for us!
- Give your life to God... His love poured out in Jesus on the cross is your only hope to have forgiveness and change. His love bought you out of being a slave to sin. His love is what saves you -- not religion, or church membership. God loves you!

Romans 10:13 "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
- Call out to God in the name of Jesus!

Romans 10:9,10 "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
- If you know that God is knocking on your heart's door, ask Him to come into your heart.

Jesus said,

Revelation 3:20a "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."
- Is Jesus knocking on your heart's door?

Believe in Him.

Ask Him to come in to your heart by faith, and ask Him to reveal Himself to you.

-This Roman's Road was found at this site, which I highly recommend. Let me just say in closing, if you do decide to accept the gift of Eternal Life, you will never regret it. If you do not, you will regret it for eternity. What do you have to lose?

Forgiven

"Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little." -Jesus in Luke 7:47

I was sitting in church listening to this message preached by Pastor Aaron Kunce, and something about this verse really grabbed a hold of me. It has been resounding in my head ever since. What Jesus was saying was that those who have been forgiven of more sin are more grateful for it.

So many of us shudder at the idea of God letting murders and rapists into Heaven, even though we know that they have to do is believe, just as we have. I thought of this from a new perspective yesterday:

God created us in His image in order to bring Him joy. His ultimate joy is accomplished when we truly love Him. In this parable, Jesus spoke of two men who owed money to another man but neither were able to repay the debt. One man owed 50 shekels, and the other owed 500 shekels. Since neither were able to pay, the creditor forgave both debts. Then Jesus asks which of those two men would love the debtor more.

It is the same way with our sins, those of us who are forgiven more, appreciate it more. So if God's ultimate goal is to be loved by us, then of course He will forgive all of us, even those who have "transgressed more" than others.

When I was explaining this to my wife, I said that only men see sin as different layers or dimensions. God sees sin as one dimensional. It is all the same in His eyes.

Have you ever been discouraged and wondering how God could ever forgive you of something you had done? Next time you feel that way, refer to this parable and remember: Christians are not perfect, they are just forgiven.

Luke 7:36-50


This blog was inspired by the sermon preached by Pastor Aaron Kunce at Living Word Community Church on July 11, 2010.

Black and White

"You don't really live your live in black and white do you?" I was just listening to "The Virtue of Selfishness" by Ayn Rand and this topic came up. I will not be quoting her, because I am only using her thoughts to kick off this discussion, but I wanted to give credit to her for winding me up and pointing me in the right direction.

The issue is compromise. So many people these days sing the praises of compromise and it is looked at as a necessity in order to exist in our current society. I want to turn that notion on it's ear. The problem with compromise is that in order to compromise, someone must win and the other must lose. Think about it: it is impossible for our lives to just be shades of gray. After all, gray is made up of black and white and therefore cannot exist without them. Gray also cannot exist without changing the true black or true white.

If morality is compromised, it does so at the loss of morality and the victory of evil. If truth is compromised, un-truth wins. You cannot compromise absolutes. If there are no absolutes, than man is free to do what he wants, wherever he wants, whenever he wants. Would you want to compromise between life and death? Would you want to compromise between love and hate? How about law and crime?

Compromise is not a win for both parties, because you are either right or you are wrong. You cannot be partially of half right, because by that very definition you are wrong. Think about it this way. Say there are 9 experts in Engineering sitting around a table and they have come up with a plan for a project, and then a 10th person sits at the table who has no experience in Engineering at all. This 10th person insists that their opinion is not only heard, but immediately implemented, does this make the plan better or worse? If you include a bad idea with a good idea, it then becomes a bad idea. There is no way around that.

You will face all kinds of situation in this life in which you are tempted to compromise. Just remember that in compromise there is no winner. We need men and woman today that stand on absolute, un-wavering truths and principles and refuse to blur the line for anyone or anything. We need people who are not willing to compromise their morals, their ethics, or their principles.

Will you be that man or woman?

Everyone's a Winner?

I am sure that you have heard people say: "Everyone's a winner!", or "Nobody is a loser". You have probably also seen competitions where everyone gets an award. (like the car show trophies to the right) What is this all about? Oh, little Johnny might grow up to be a horrible person because he lost a foot race and didn't get a prize?! No, we don't want to damage a child's delicate self-esteem. Wow, really? I mean, sure, we should teach good sportsmanship, but I really do not like this "everyone's a winner" mentality.

Children need to know that there are winners and losers in life. That's just a fact. Life is not a duckpond at the carnival. At some point we need to realize that we have to strive to be the best in order to be recognized for it.

So why is this such a big deal. Think about it. What's to say that when we teach all of our children that they are all the same and there are no losers, and they apply that to their spiritual lives? Will they assume that there are no losers in eternity? After all, nobody is going to hell, because we're all winners, right?

Am I going out on a limb to contrast winner versus losers to sinner versus the forgiven? I man much smarter than I am once told me that in order to properly consider an idea, you must take it all the way to it's end result or conclusion. If everyone is a winner, then nobody is a loser. Likewise, if everyone is a winner, than we can't all be sinners.

Let me know if I am just way off base or if this makes sense to you...

49,551,703 Murders

Yes, you read that right. In the United States, there have been nearly 50 MILLION recorded instances of the taking of innocent life since 1973, when Roe vs. Wade was passed. These recorded instances were performed "legally" in institutions across America. This does not account for the thousands of abortions performed illegally over the years or abortions that were not recorded.

I want you to have a perspective on that number. The number of Jews that were murdered during the Holocaust was approximately 5,709,329. This means that are responsible for killing nearly 10 times as many babies as there were Jews killed during that terrible time in history!

So to say that "Abortion is the Holocaust of the Unborn" is a huge understatement. What effect is this having on the morality of our country? Hitler is the most commonly used example of an evil man in our day, while people shrug off abortion. I bet he was a big fan of abortion. After all, what we are doing today makes his effort to rid the world of "unwanted" humans look like child's play.

Are you angry yet? You should be. At a later time, after my stomach stops churning, I may blog about the torture aspect of abortion compared to the torture endured by Holocaust victims. Beucase anyone who thinks that an snuffing out the life of a child is as painless and harmless as snuffing out a candle is completely heartless and ignorant.