Friday, December 15, 2017

The bullet train of life


Wow! Has it really been over two years since my last blog post? I guess that just goes to show how fast time flies when your'e juggling work, kids, church, school, responsibilities and such so much  that you kinda forget that you even had a blog :) But in all seriousness, I feel like life is moving too fast and I'm just watching it zip by.. does anyone else ever feel like that? Like your not really in control of your own life, just a spectator that gets all these great memories but not really feel as if  you got to truly enjoy what happened. Of course with raising kids this is greatly amplified, one minute they are in diapers and the next they are driving! There is nothing more rewarding and terrifying all at once than raising children. You try to savor every good moment (the "I love you"s, the birthdays, Christmas' and happy times) all the while wishing  they would grow up (stop making messes, be potty trained, and stop fighting with their siblings) but not too fast. I really wish, just as every parent does I'm sure, that life had a pause button. One where every good time could be paused and thoroughly and completely enjoyed. In reality, the true problem that  we have is that we look at life, and time in general, as a whole and by that I mean that everyone feels, on a daily basis, as if they are going to live forever or at least to a ripe old age. Only when we get those scary experiences, the near death/bad diagnosis'/close calls, do we get a, often temporary, jolt into the reality that all we have is the here and now. If we could all live our lives with this vigor of living in the moment, in the Horace's Carpe Diem style of seizing the day not the pop culture's #yolo of do whatever dumb idea that comes into your head kind of attitude. I guess am just trying to challenge us all to go out and live today like it's your last, be the parent that your  kids think you are, be the employee that you would want to hire, be the friend that would drop what they are doing or come over in the middle of the if needed, be the church member that your Pastor hopes for, be the citizen that your country needs. Just be the person today that you'll not regret being someday on your death bed. And me, hopefully I'll be the guy that blogs more than once every two years, but if not then in between I truly hope and pray that I will live every moment like it was my last on earth.

Friday, September 25, 2015

The truth hurts but an illusion can kill

I am unashamedly pro-life! Even further than that, I truly believe that abortion is the cruelest form of murder and should not only be illegal, for justice to prevail it should bring the death penalty! This rather long blog is my simply rebuttal to a reposted list that some leading pro-abortion websites call the top ten arguments for abortion. Obviously just from stating my strong stance, you, the reader, can already tell I am not going to hold nothing back and my blunt, somewhat sarcastic, responses are definitely harsh, but I feel that speaking the truth is the least I can do to dismantle the lunacy behind their sick attempts to justify murder.

Their (pro-abortion) list is numbered 1-10 and my (pro-life) responses are lettered A-J

1. Laws against abortion do not stop abortion; they simply make it less safe. The number of women who get abortions does not change when it goes from being legal to illegal, or vice versa. The only thing that changes is more women die. Every year, 78,000 women die from unsafe abortions.

A. First off, if I used this same argument for anti-gun control the Liberals would flip! Also a gigantic, obvious flaw in this argument is their 78k statistic that they use to support their claim when baby-murder (abortion) is legal in every state, so therefore, all those dead women are a result of legal abortions, not illegal ones. So they admit to legally killing women, while claiming to be for women’s health. To be usable, this stat would have to zero deaths for legal and 78k for illegal. This is typical liberal ignorance.

2. If people want to stop abortion, they should turn to methods that do work. These include comprehensive sex education and safe, affordable contraceptives. Unfortunately, as illogical as it sounds, the people who are most against abortion are also often most against these preventative measures. If they truly wanted to reduce the number of abortions that occur, they would embrace these methods.

B. This is just false information. There is no viable claim made and that is because there is none to make. Pro-life people are not anti birth control, and they do support these methods. In fact, the argument of sexual personal responsibility is a pro-life stance. Pro-baby murderer’s slogan is that they are pro choice, but in reality they only mean that they support the “choice” to “correct” their mistake. My question is why don’t they exercise their right to choose to take responsibility for their actions. They act as if they have no choice whatsoever to over the actions it took to result in an unwanted pregnancy, but then demand the privilege to choose to destroy the evidence of their uneducated, unrestrained, willful choice that put them in that situation.

3. The politicians pro-lifers so ardently support are only after one thing: self-interest. The majority of them are not “pro-life” because they agree with you; they are because they know you will continue to vote for them—and they know that making women remain pregnant not only takes away their power, but it also keeps them busy, in line, controlled, as well as a baking factory for their failing economy. The more people they have to rule over, the more they have to work and buy. Period.

C. This argument is idiotic. It basically says “because there are corrupt politicians, I must be allowed to commit legal murder”. I am certain that there are those that pretend to stand for what is right only because of self-serving motives, but that does not in any way justify standing for something that is blatantly wrong. Period.  

4. Religious ideology is no foundation for any law. Freedom of religion is guaranteed to any citizen in the United States; so why would the beliefs and values of one religion mandate actual laws for all citizens? It would be unfair, unjust and immoral. We do not have laws against eating fish, nor do we have laws that declare it is legal to sell one’s daughter, rape someone, or keep a person as a slave—all things that are promoted in religious text.

D. This one is really dumb. Where, in their little, convoluted, humanistic world, do they think any of our laws, even our freedom of religion law, came from?  If not for the moral absolutes of the Bible, then we would not have the basic premise for any society, especially ours. Just a casual study of American history should convince even the most ignorant amongst us that our nation was modeled after, founded upon, and strictly adhered to the principles and precepts of the Word of God, the Holy Bible. Also, to extract various, unrelated excerpts from different religious texts to make your point only opens the door for the reverse argument that  nearly every anti-religious text has unsavory, immoral practices in it and are they really promoting that animalistic, survival of the fittest world?

5. Reproductive restrictions do not end with abortion. Many people also argue that contraception itself is wrong—another mainly-religious philosophy—and will deny women the protection they need based on this belief. There are legislative acts that allow actual pharmacists to deny women their birth control because of their beliefs; does this not violate the Hippocratic Oath, especially if thousands of women are on birth control because their very lives depend on it (see #9)? Also, since it is my belief that men should not rape women, if I were a pharmacist, would I have a right to deny a man his Viagra just in case he uses it to rape? You never know.

E. Once again this is misinformation and distorted opinion. I think it is necessary here to ignore the anti-religious slander and flawed premise that most anyone who’s pro-life is trying to subjugate women into slaves and to deal with the root of this argument. The main drive of this stance is guilt brought on by the moral code of the Bible that is against an unrestricted promotion of promiscuity. While it is obvious that the pro-baby murder crowd is in direct opposition of these wholesome and beneficial precepts, they must use this type of anti-woman propaganda to misdirect the attention from their truly immoral lifestyle. Women are not sex objects. By disillusioning them into murdering their own offspring through touting it as a reproductive right, all the while promoting the degrading, anonymously promiscuous lifestyle that leads to unplanned unwanted pregnancy is downright evil.

6. Most people who are against abortion will never even become pregnant. If a law would never, in any circumstance, apply to a man, a man creating that law is preposterous. It is akin to men creating laws that ban women from voting, owning property, or showing skin in public—only much more deadly.

F. Statistically, there are more pro-life women than there are men, but I realize that there are plenty of irresponsible, perverted men out there that are seeking no consequences for their filthy actions. But until there is an un-biological, impossible case of a woman impregnating herself, then this will never be solely a woman’s issue. The father is the second victim of baby-murder (abortion), the first obviously being the baby. Why are a man’s rights to be a father, not even considered in this equation? When a woman consents to create this life with a man, then that same consent should imply rights of that man to claim fatherhood of that child. And if any man is decent enough to stand against the destruction of innocent lives, then he should be treated as a hero. The only thing deadly is abortion.

7. Women who are raped or victims of incest should not be forced to carry out a pregnancy. Odds are that 1 in 3 women will be victims of sexual violence in her lifetime. Does this mean that 33% of all women should be forced to carry out a pregnancy from this violation? Considering how many people are killed during childbirth, should we allow this further risk to endured on top of what has already been done? Many would argue that these women could endure the pregnancy, spending nearly a year of her life simply re-living the rape and its effects over and over again, to give up a baby at the end of it for adoption. However, we all are aware of the fact that there are millions of unwanted children awaiting adoption as we speak who remain unclaimed; in fact, UNICEF estimates that there are 210 million orphans in the world right now. If they have no one willing to be their parent or guardian, why would another baby have a better chance? My theory is that people who spend so much time, energy, and money on anti-abortion campaigns should instead spend it on the precious children they say need saving so much—the ones who are alive and parentless. Imagine if all the funds spent on all those billboards and flyers and campaigns were instead either spent adopting or donating to places that are overrun with orphaned children… perhaps some actual credibility would be given to these people who claim to love children so much. Also, there is the fact of the matter of the more than one million homeless youth in America alone. The number one factor for a child being homeless is physical or sexual abuse at home. Perhaps these “child-lovers” should step in and care for these already-born children as well.

G. This argument is definitely ill-advised and must surely be counter-productive, if actually used to support abortion. By slanderously attacking the pro-life crowd with the moniker “child-lovers” then the only logical conclusion is to label the pro-abortion crew “child-haters”. I would think that they would have more intelligence than that, but obviously not. So basically the argument here, apart from the self-inflicted labeling wound, is that “because there is evil (rape, incest, abuse, homelessness, violence, etc.) in the world, we are compelled to commit a more horrendous evil (torturous murder of the innocent) to off-set that fact.” This is the most pathetic and wicked argument yet. Also it is a very uninformed stance, and I might ask the abortion crowd, who do they think runs the orphanages, homeless shelters, crisis pregnancy centers, abuse safe havens, adoption agencies etc. now? The child-lovers or the child-haters? Just because the child-lovers spend some funds to combat the evil of baby murder, doesn’t mean that we are not also fighting these other battles on other fronts as well. So just as we wouldn’t take a “use your funds somewhere other than seeking stronger prosecutions” plea from a rapist, the cry for less anti-baby murder effort from the child-hater crowd will most definitely fall on deaf ears.

8. Reproductive choice can be the only thing that stands between a woman and poverty. There is a reason that the 1 billion poorest people on the planet are female. In sub-Saharan Africa and west Asia, women typically have five to six children, which leaves them powerless to provide for not only their own families, but themselves.

H. Killing another human being is not a viable solution to eliminating poverty! This “argument” alone should anger any decent human being enough to stand up against baby-murder. A person’s promiscuity and demographic should never condone infanticide. The only goal achieved by this stance is to demonstrate the true nature of the pro-abortion crowd, a mafia-like, selfish, cruel attitude that demands it’s way or else. I just wonder how society would react to hear this same argument made by a group such as the mafia. I can see it now… the Don saying “Your Honor, whacking people is the only thing that stands between a Mafioso and poverty. There are many poor gangsters that would be powerless to provide for themselves and the family if they were not permitted to do away with their unwanted blobs of tissue.” Sadly enough this exaggerated example is happening in the real world. According to the pro-death crowd, abortion is a legal way to eliminate those who can negatively affect your economic status, and no cement shoes are required.

9. Reproductive choice can be the only thing that stands between a woman and DEATH. Women who face deadly consequences of a pregnancy deserve to choose to live. Teen girls, whose bodies are not yet ready for childbirth, are five times more likely to die. Not only do 70,000 girls ages 15-19 die each year from pregnancy and childbirth, but the babies that do survive have a 60% higher chance of dying as well.

I. This is fear-mongering and in no way true. The truth statistic is, only 650 total women, from all age groups, in the US die per year from pregnancy complications. While medically, this is still too many and shows that we do need to reform our health care even more; this number is significantly lower than the one they used to try to scare young women into committing murder. And furthermore, to put it into perspective statistically, a woman is more likely to die falling in their own home at the rate of 3000 deaths per year. After some simple research, we can see their stat includes women all over the globe, even in third world countries where medical conditions are abysmal. So for some perspective on death internationally, we can see that more than twice as many women in the world die from diarrhea than from child birth (650k compared to 289k). So while, yes, death is a possibility and that risk should make the reproductive decision all that more important and serious, that still in no way justifies committing murder to bypass risk. And this point does not even consider the serious risk of having a baby surgically destroyed and removed from your womb, which also can result in the death of the mother, therefore committing a double-homicide.

10. Doctors, not governments, should always be the people to make medical recommendations and opinions. Would you allow the government to tell you if you could have a kidney transplant or a blood transfusion? Of course not. The fact that we even consider, let alone allow, governments to regulate a medical procedure is both illogical and foolish.

J. This claim could not have been even remotely thought out before they wrote it! Really, anyone who would want an unregulated medical field is simply illogical and foolish. If that were the case, then I invite them to get their medical procedures done in any third-world country. As for the implied premise that the government shouldn’t be telling you whether or not you can have a procedure, I do agree that governmental regulation should be limited and true medical procedures should not be denied to anyone, but abortion is as much of a medical procedure to a baby as a cheeseburger is to a cow. Abortion is murder and should be, in any civilized society, a crime and any good government makes eliminating crime a priority, plain and simple.


Final note: to anyone out there pondering getting an abortion or even supporting it, I hope and pray that something I have said will convince you to change your mind. Please do not commit this atrocity that you will regret the rest of your life. You can be a better person, you can save a life!

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

The priceless gift

   Out of all of the existing precious metals such as platinum, gold, and silver, and of all the expensive things we could acquire like mansions, yachts, and private jets there is one thing that is much more valuable than all of that. This one thing is so limited that we never even know from one day to the next if the supply will suddenly run out. Its price is truly invaluable and this priceless commodity is irreplaceable, yet if you are reading this then you have access to it. Yes, that’s right! You have, right now, in your possession the most crucial, indispensable, priceless thing that there is and that vital resource is Time. Time is something that every living person has and yet it is the one thing that we cannot get back once we use it. Everything else is replaceable, but when your time is up, then you cannot get any more. You cannot buy it, sell it, borrow it or steal it and once yours is gone, you’ll either forever regret or forever be grateful for how you used your time. Even time itself is limited, in that, one day time will exist no more and eternity will begin. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3:1-9 “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;  A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;  A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace. What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?”  As we understand from this passage that we are allotted a space of time with which we do every single thing that there is to be done. We only get so much time, some more than others, and within it we live and die. If you stop and think about how much time that you have already spent, knowing that you only have a limited quantity, then are you really satisfied with what you have done up to this point?  If not then, what would you do differently? The most pressing choice ever is whether or not you are ready for your time to die. If your time were to suddenly end today and you were thrown into eternity, then would you be forever joyful or forever sorrowful for your spent time? No matter how bad your past is, you can be eternally happy! Right now is the time to ready yourself for the end of your time. Not later, now. Right this very second. Are ready to die? If not, then stop reading and make that eternity changing decision to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior. It is very simple, you just have to believe that Jesus, the Son of God, died for all your sins and then He arose from the dead to eternally be that living sacrifice for you. You must confess to Him and repent of your sins and He will come into your heart and change your eternal destination from Hell to Heaven. And no longer will you have to worry about the end of your time.

  So you say “well I have already done that, I am a blood bought child of God.” Then praise the Lord you are on your way to Heaven, but if you are still reading this then you are not there yet! So the question is to every Christian: What are you doing with your most valuable resource? What have you done for God, the one who changed your time here on earth from Hell doomed to Heaven destined? I think some the best advice for us as Christians can be found in this passage by J. Oswald Sanders, he says “It is often helpful to keep records of how each hour in a given week is spent, and then look at the record in the light of scriptural priorities. The results may be shocking. Often the record shows that we have much more time available for Christian service than we imagine. Suppose that we allot ourselves a generous eight hours a day for sleep (few need more than that), three hours for meals and conversation, ten hours for work and travel on five days. Still we have thirty five hours each week to fill. What happens to them? How are they invested? A person’s entire contribution to the kingdom of God may turn on how those hours are used. Certainly those hours determine whether life is commonplace or extraordinary.” It is a very sobering thought, so I am asking you, saint of God, how are using the time you do have for Him? Jesus gave us His all when laid down His life on Calvary and we must commit our all to Him. He wants nothing less than our best! It is “all or nothing” when serving the Lord because we are not going to accidently fall into Heaven. God requires that we be faithful and that we give Him our all, which means our time, our effort, our devotion, our thoughts, our plans, our dreams, our desires, our ambitions, our heart, soul, mind and strength. When we stop and think about our time as a precious commodity, then really there is no better investment than to give it to God. Nowhere else can one get eternal returns, and reward that is out of this world! So I charge each and every one of us, let’s give our time to God today!

Thursday, April 9, 2015

What is good?

Good. What is it? What makes one action good and another one evil? Why do we even have a concept of good and evil at all? These are questions that cannot be fully answered by the atheist/humanist crowd that, on one hand, believes in evolution but on the other, also that man can somehow be good without God.


But  the real answer to these questions can only come from an understanding of God and the absolute truth of the Bible. You see without a constant source of truth, then where does our understanding of "good" even come from? If, as they say, man is just an animal in a world of the survival of the fittest, then what is the basis of good and evil? What they call good come from their God-given conscience and from the Garden of Eden knowledge of good and evil. Without these factors then there is no good and their argument is void. We, as a nation, have gone so far away  from the basic principles of the Bible that our country was founded on that our citizens wrongly believe that we no longer need God to be good (a concept that they have from God). Christianity is the root of morality. Thomas Jefferson said it best in 1809 when he said "The practice of morality being necessary for the well being of society, God has taken care to impress its precepts so indelibly on our hearts that they shall not be effaced by the subtleties of our brain. We all agree in the obligation of the moral precepts of Jesus and nowhere will they be found delivered in greater purity than in His discourses." So not only can a person have real morality outside of Christianity, they wouldn't even know what good is, if not for God. Romans 3:10 tells us that "There is none righteous, no not one"and 3:23 "For all have sinned and, come short of the glory of God." but I am glad that God, in His ever  enduring mercy did not leave us there but He has made a way that we can be counted righteous and that is through the sacrifice that Jesus made by shedding His blood for us on the cross and dying for our sins. In the scope of eternity, good is not determined by our actions and our supposed morality, but by His blood only. Because He is the only good and in Him we are set free. You see, we cannot be good enough in ourselves to merit eternal life, but only by giving our lives to Him. Therefore.....

Good is: being a Christian!  


For a more in depth study on this subject of "good without God" check out:

Sunday, February 8, 2015

My Statement of Faith

The following is what I believe, I think that it is good to take the time to study out what you believe and then write it down.....

I believe that there is only one true and living God, eternally existing in three Persons, namely, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. I believe that each part of this tri-unity is a distinct Person, but all of one essence and all having the same nature, perfections, and attributes, and each is worthy of precisely the same worship, confidence, and obedience.

I believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is truly man and God, who in His incarnation was conceived of the Holy Ghost and born of the virgin, Mary. In His earthly ministry He lived a sinless life, performed miracles, and died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins according to and fulfilling the Scriptures. By the power of God, He was raised from the dead in the same body now glorified. He ascended into Heaven where, at the right hand of God, He continually makes intercession for us. Also I believe in His personal and literal second coming in power and glory.

I believe that the Holy Ghost is the third Person of the Trinity, very God, existent with the Father and the Son. The Holy Ghost is the chief agent in regeneration, active in creation, conviction, preservation, sanctification and equipping the believer for a life of purity, power and service. I believe in the empowerment of the Holy Ghost working in the life of the believer.

I believe in the special creation of the existing space-time universe and all its basic systems and kinds of organisms in the six literal days of the creation week as stated in the book of Genesis. Also that the physical universe of space, time, matter, and energy has not always existed, but was supernaturally created by a transcendent personal Creator who alone has existed from eternity and that the miraculous phenomenon of biological life did not develop by improbable chance from inanimate systems but was specially and supernaturally created by the Creator.

I believe that the Bible is the perfect Word of God, inspired by the Holy Ghost, a revelation from God to men; the infallible rule of faith and conduct, and is superior to conscience and reason. I believe in the unique divine inspiration of all canonical books of the Old and New Testaments as originally given, so that they are infallibly and uniquely authoritative and free from error of any sort, in all matters with which they deal, scientific and historical as well as moral and theological. Also that God, in His singular providential care, has kept His word all through the ages, right down to the present day as found in the King James Version. I consider this book my final and absolute authority, above and beyond all other authorities on earth.

I believe that the grace of God, which bringeth salvation, hath appeared to every person, through the preaching of repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Humanity is saved by the atoning blood of Jesus through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, and being justified by grace through faith, and then we become an heir of God and have the promise of eternal life.

I believe that all who have this salvation are entitled to, and should zealously expect, and earnestly seek, the promise of the Father, the baptism in the Holy Ghost and fire; according to the command of the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that this was the normal experience of all in the early Christian Church and with it, and subsequent to it, comes the enduement of power for life and service, the bestowment of the gifts of the Spirit and their uses in the work of the ministry. This wonderful experience of the baptism in the Holy Ghost is distinct from and subsequent to the experience of salvation.

I believe that the Church is the body of Christ, the habitation of God through the Spirit, with divine appointments for the fulfillment of her great commission. Each believer, born of the spirit, is an integral part of the general assembly and is to not forsake the coming together with other like-minded believers for the purpose of worshipping God, Christian fellowship and encouragement of each other. The commission of the church is to witness concerning Jesus Christ according to the Scriptures, and to preach the Gospel among all nations and to remain faithful until His return.

I believe that the Scriptures teach a life of Holiness without which no man shall see the Lord and by the power of the Holy Ghost I am able to obey the command, “Be ye holy, for I am Holy.” The doctrine of entire sanctification is the will of God for all believers, and should be earnestly pursued by walking in obedience to commands and precepts of God’s Holy Word. I believe that a Christian should avoid all sin and even the very appearance of evil, patterning our lives after Jesus Christ.
  
I believe that God created man and that He created them male and female. As such He created them different so as to complement and complete each other. God instituted monogamous marriage between male and female as the foundation of the family and the basic structure of human society. I believe that the only type of marriage is between one man and one woman in accordance with the Bible consistent with both the Old and New Testament, and any other type is a perversion and an a abomination to God.

I believe in the existence of a personal, malignant being called Satan who acts as tempter and accuser, for whom the place of eternal punishment was prepared, where all who die outside of Christ shall be confined in conscious torment for eternity.  I believe that the devil and his angels, the beast and the false prophet, and whosoever is not found written in the Book of Life, shall be consigned to everlasting punishment in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

I believe in a literal Heaven and a literal Hell and that all those who place their faith, hope and trust in Jesus Christ, by having their sins covered by His blood, will spend eternity with the Lord in Heaven, a place of eternal joy and peace, while those who reject the free gift of salvation will spend eternity separated from the Lord in Hell, a place of eternal torment and sorrow. 




Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Paul's prayer requests

The following is one of my recent assignments for my Master's from Grace College:

 1. Study carefully Paul's requests for himself in the following five passages:
Romans 15:30-32; Ephesians 6:18-20; Colossians 4:2-4; 1 Thessalonians 5:25; 2 Thessalonians 3:1-2
2. Write a short essay answering these 3 questions
A. What is the main (central) thing Paul requested people to pray for?
The central concern that Paul requested prayer for was that the will of God, which is of course that all should come to repentance and not perish, and that God’s will be done through his life and ministry. Paul was focused on one thing only; the furtherance on the Kingdom of Heaven. He desired prayers from others for the Lord to equip him to spread the gospel efficiently. Paul’s main determination was to preach Christ and he required boldness from the Lord to do so. He also needed the liberty and opportunity that only God can give and therefore he directed those praying for him to pray for these things. In his prayer requests, we can see the resolve of the Apostle, that though I am certain he had many personal needs he sought no comfort for himself, but that God alone be glorified and that His Kingdom would prosper.
B. What can we learn about prayer by studying Paul’s requests?
The true lesson that we can glean from studying the prayer life of the Apostle Paul is one of understanding sacrifice. Paul cared nothing for himself, only that God’s will be done. He counted it joy to suffer for the sake of the gospel. I believe that the Paul looked not at the situations of his life, prison, bonds, persecution, etc. as a difficulty that he must endure or a sacrifice that he was making for God. But rather, Paul looked at these circumstances as an opportunity to worship God. We can see from his selfless requests that Paul considered these hardships just as another way for him to glorify God, and thus his real prayer request consisted of bringing more honor to the Lord, instead of relief for his current physical suffering.
C. My thinking about prayer and my prayer activity will change in the following ways because of what I have learned.
Many times I am tempted to request prayer for the hardships in my own life and not for the more important matters such as God’s help to reach my lost family. Based on the lessons I have learned, I am resolving to reserve my prayer requests to others for the more weighty matters with eternal value. My physical needs should not take priority over reaching out to those that are in need of eternal life. I believe that the value of a soul outweighs the pressures of my desires and comfort. There is no cost too high to win the lost! I now see that this goal of spreading the gospel is paramount and that if I equate the sacrifices of reaching this goal with the worship of my Savior, then I will find true joy in doing the will of God. My prayer activity has changed to reflect the knowledge of this lesson learned from Paul’s prayer requests. I now spend much more time in thanksgiving for things that I once considered to be burdens. My continual prayer is that I will conduct myself daily with eternity in mind. 

Friday, December 27, 2013

The constitution of man

Man was created in the image of God. Every person has a free will and can choose to accept the plan of salvation that was made possible by the sacrifice that Christ brought on Calvary. We must have this freedom of choice to be capable of salvation. Salvation comes through our choice to believe, and our willing confession of our sins.[1] Therefore man is not bound by sin and death but can accept the gift of salvation if he so chooses. All of us are born with a sin nature and we are sinners until we come to salvation. But even then we have to make the choice daily to remain a Christian. If we do not make that continual effort to follow after Christ then we are in danger of backsliding. Also if we do fall to temptation, then we have the option to repent and our advocate with the Father[2] will seek forgiveness on our behalf. We alone have to decide our fate, whether it be heaven or hell. The Lord wants to be saved, but He has
left the choice up to us.




[1] Romans 10:9-11 The Holy Bible King James Version, (Indianapolis: B.B. Kirkbride Bible Company, 2007), 1200.
[2] 1 John 2:1 The Holy Bible King James Version, (Indianapolis: B.B. Kirkbride Bible Company, 2007), 1296.