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Today's Scripture Reading
- Thread starter Psalm23
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[You are encouraged to freely share the message with others as the Lord leads but please note that nothing on the message must be used for profit!]
Today’s Scripture Reading [October 24, 2010]
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. [1 Timothy 6:10. KJV]
In yesterday’s Straits Times, there was a special report on problem gambling. The title of this report was Gamblers In Our Midst and it reported several sordid stories of the ill of gambling. In this report, there were several sub-topics. Just by reading at these titles without even reading the details, anyone can easily come to the conclusion the utter negative effects of gambling on individual, on family and on society. The titles went like these: Living with casinos; Gambling in casinos makes you greedy, obsessed; Betting on the game of chance to earn a living[ How to spot a problem gambler; Killing time the expensive way; From curiosity to addiction; Losing families and fortunes; Being financially savvy may give false sense of security; Jackpot machines and gambling tables provide diversion; Escaping the drudgery of the daily grind; Seeking thrills to chase boredom away.
And are you all surprised by what were reported in this special report? It would be an insult to you if you say you are surprised because we had seen many people opposed to the opening up of casino in Singapore when the government mooted the idea (which sadly became a reality) just few years ago. You might be one of these who opposed violently to casino. Fully aware of its negative consequences, in February when the first casino opened its door, I posted a message on this. I would again like to post this message here. Our early founding fathers’ belief of honest living through honest earning is now a legend. As an individual we can’t do much but as children of God, we can certainly help to encourage others to pray to discourage our friends and relative to stay out completely from this destructive habit – once you are in, it’s very difficult to get out. I hope that my message which I posted in February this year could strengthen your faith and to put our trust in God and not seeking easy money through gambling.
The first Singapore casino opens today in Sentosa and with the Lunar New Year season, gambling fever is getting dangerously hot. Based on the experience of some advanced countries like the U.S., the sad news is that usually the people who gambled the most are those who can least afford it. From the number of harassments by loan-sharks reported in the newspaper recently, I believe we are not too different. Many gamblers borrowed from loan-sharks are living in 3 or 4-bedroom apartments in the heartland public residential areas where mostly lower and middle income wage earners live.
In 2005, Singapore legalized casino. In anticipation of serious negative consequences that are likely to occur when the two casinos are in full operations, the government has established new institutions in the hope they can help to bring these negative consequences within ‘acceptable’ limit. But this gives no comfort to the nation at large because, knowingly or unknowingly, the establishment of these institutions is synonymous with a very grim and somber warning to the people: “The Bet Is On – Be Prepared For The Worst!”
I have since been trying to recall our success story as a nation. Outside Japan, Singapore has the highest standard of living in Asia and our per capita income is one of the highest in the world. I was very proud of our early founding fathers. Against all odds, they had achieved unmatchable success when they turned Singapore from a poor third-world country into an admired industrialized country in less than one generation. After World War II from mid-1940 to the late 1960s Singapore faced insurmountable problems – zero foreign reserve, widespread unemployment, frequent student and labour unrest, British withdrawals threatening the already-widespread unemployment, racial and communal riots, economic confrontation and trade embargo by Indonesian government, merger and separation from Malaysia threatened greater racial tension. But our founding fathers didn’t give up. On the contrary, they took a tough stand to build Singapore without compromising the social ill and well-being of the people. Many of the policies that our founding fathers implemented could be related to the teaching of the Ten Commandments. For example, they refused to legalize casinos and the famous words “Over my dead body" was how a senior founding father, once put it, rejecting gambling as an affront to the Singaporean ethic of hard work and clean living. Besides casino, the government also rejected unhealthy sports like motor racing because, according to this senior founding father, “he could not understand the allure of such events, driving around and then going into the pits; after that, changing the tyres and revving out again ... makes no sense to him." Motor racing was then banned from Singapore in 1973. The sudden return of motor racing, the F1 Grand Prix, really puzzled me because the chances for racers now “to go into the pits, changing the tyres and revving out again” couldn’t be any different from the races of 1970s. In fact, it is even more dangerous now!
I can only guess that the prologue to all these changes of legalizing casinos and bringing back motor racing is purely for economic reasons. “In Singapore, if you are out of business, you are out of food” so goes another magazine interview from one of our senior early founding fathers.
In my younger days, I was extremely proud of the achievements made by our founding fathers who believed strongly in hard-work and clean living. The swampy land in Jurong that has been miraculously transformed into world class industrial estate has undoubtedly testified their honest belief of ethnic of hard work and clean living. Just like any good and responsible citizen, I too was eager to make contribution for Singapore. However, my very humble education could not bring me too far to make any significant contribution. Nevertheless, I took every opportunity to share with my overseas friends and colleagues how blessed our was and all because of our founding fathers’ belief system. I was acting like a self-proclaimed but unpaid goodwill-ambassador ‘selling’ Singapore which I was more than willing to partake. I spent more than 30 years working mostly for American companies though holding insignificant and unimportant positions but was given opportunities to travel many times to U.S. and U.K. My most pleasurable social interaction was to ‘trick’ my overseas friends into asking me questions like “How come Singapore is so blessed and so successful and yet without major vices like casino? Can you tell us more about your government, your people?” These were the questions I couldn’t wait for them to ask because I couldn’t equally wait to tell them my favourite punch-line: “We believe in hard-work, we believe in clean living and we believe in building a healthy nation with the least possible vices.” My second favourite and proudest punch-line was: “So long the old man is alive, Singapore will never have a casino!”
Sadly, I now have to eat my humble pie. In the next few weeks, we are going to have, not one, but two casinos! Instead of proudly sitting with my overseas friends to ‘trick’ them to ask me questions pertaining to our success, I now have to avoid them because I would rather eat the humble pie on my own accord than be forced to eat it!”
But is gambling really that bad? Why can’t we gamble? Bible does not specifically forbid it, so what’s the problem? What’s the big deal?”
Yes. It is! And not just a problem but a very big problem for families and for the nation! Let me share with you that there are at least five biblical reasons why gambling is wrong and as children of God, we must avoid it at all cost.
(1) Love your neigbours as yourself (Matthew 22:39).
No gambler desires the best for his friends. Instead, he wants his gambling friends to lose as much so that he could win. This is selfishness. The Bible has instructed us to pray for others (James 5:16), not prey on them.
(2) Let him labour, working with his hands and what is good that he may share with those in need (Ephesians 4:28).
Gambling violates the simple law of exchange because it produces nothing to benefit others. The only thing that happened in the gambling tables is money just changed hands from one person to another. The business of gaming does not increase gross national products. On the contrary, tax-payers have to finance the law enforcement agencies to police this kind of business because, inevitably, it will also attract other vices like money laundering, extortions, loan-sharking, prostitutions, mafia.
(3) Dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow (Proverbs 13:11).
God's rule for prosperity is simple: Make all you can, save all you can, and give all you can, and this must be gradually done with patience and perseverance. In gambling, people are looking for the big-pie-in-the-sky. They want to hit it big right away.
(4) Do not covet (Deuteronomy 5:21).
In The Tenth Commandment, it says, "You shall not covet...You shall not set your desire on your neighbor's house or land...or anything that belongs to your neighbor." Hence, a gambler breaks the Tenth Commandment the moment he sat down at the gamble table. Gambling is based totally on coveting what belongs to others. When you sat down at the gambling table, you will think of nothing but just desiring the money that are placed in front of the fellow gamblers and wish that they could be yours.
(5) We can be enslaved and addicted by the destructive habit (2 Peter 2:19).
Gambling is very addictive and this addiction will ruin families and wreck other people's financial security because participating in gambling will germinate bad spiritual fruit – anger, hatred, greed and even murder. Losers who are in debt will think of ways and means to borrow, steal or rob so that he or she can continue to gamble in the hope of recouping the loses. To a gambling addict, the well-being of others including their family members is the last thing on his or her mind. You may have read or even known of good people turn into thieves all because of the uncontrollable urge to gamble. The latest case was a woman law clerk who misappropriated over $1.5 million from her company to feed her gambling habit is another sad reminder of the destructive consequences of gambling (the Straits Times Feb 12, 2010). Furthermore, many people, even though they are not Christians, know that gambling is very un-Christlike. If we, as children of God, gamble, we may never be able to lead them to Christ which is one of our highest callings by God.
With the above scriptural verses and with my humble short exhortations, I pray that you are now convinced that gambling is forbid by God. The bet is already on and there is nothing we can do to change it. The grim and somber warning that we must “Be Prepared For The Worst” is not going to take us by surprise because we all know that nothing good can come out from gambling. But as an individual, as a child of God, we can and we must flee from all sins, not just gambling. For example, avoid, if possible, those people who are causing you anger without any good reasons; avoid movies that are causing you to imagine those things that God forbids. Don’t play around with sin. While we can’t do anything to change things and because temptations are everywhere, we can, as children of God - when tempted, just flee! (1 Timothy 6:11). Together, we can have frequent close fellowship among Christian friends and sharing of God’s Word because the Word of God and the Blood of Jesus have tremendous cleansing power to for us to flee all temptations.
[You are encouraged to freely share the message with others as the Lord leads but please note that nothing on the message must be used for profit!]
Today’s Scripture Reading [October 31, 2010]
Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart. They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways. [Psalm 119:1-3. KJV]
In the recently concluded Commonwealth Game in India, there was a headline news which appeared in Reuters News clip: “Thousands of condoms clog Games village drains?” It further went on to report that because the Games’ Organizers had provided thousands of free condoms to the athletes, the condoms (obviously already used) were threatening to choke the Games’ village's drainage system. What is so shocking is that providing free condoms has become something of a tradition by the Games’ Organizers since 1992. This is something really new news me and I believe to many people as well. We all place great respect to world class athletes who, many of them, have become idols and role models for others to imitate. Given the huge number of condoms distributed, we can only infer – hopefully erroneously – that many of these world class athletes, highly admired, were also seeking immoral sexual pleasure even when the competition was still in progress. From this, we can reasonably conclude that it is quite foolish for us now to believe that having special talent, skill, or ability can made us different – morally speaking – from others. Talent, skill and ability just do not make people to be morally good, and neither education can.
Below is a letter which you may have also received it recently. I received it several days ago and it was sent to me by RBC Ministry. Together with this letter, the Ministry was offering a free DVD to help people who are addicted to pornography. This letter reminds me of the letters written by Paul to the Corinthian church that the sin of sexual immorality (together with other sins like covetousness and idolatry) were quite rampant and practiced by even believers during Apostle Paul’s own time .This had drawn Apostle Paul to rebuke and to warn the believers to be fully aware of those things around them, especially the morality of the people.
[COLOR="_______"]“Dear Friend, My heart is heavy as I write. Watching the nightly news, I see wickedness all around, and I am concerned about the world in which our children and grandchildren are growing up.
Our contention is not simply against physical danger, but even more so against the negative moral influences that seek to lead us all astray. Everywhere we look, our godless culture clamors for our attention. We are not even safe in our own homes. Unbiblical values scream at us from our TV’s and computers. Soon even as believers, we may be embracing a mindset and lifestyle that break God’s heart – a worldview that is far from His.
One big but often unspoken about temptation facing us today is pornography. The advent of the Internet puts it at our fingertips in the privacy of our own homes and offices. In a survey of over 40,000 people, 75 percent considered themselves addicted, powerless to escape. Sadly, studies show that this is also a problem in the Christian community.
So what can we do about all this? How do we defend our children, ourselves, and others around us from unhealthy influences? The answer is the same for all: Our protection is the Word of God – the Bible.
To begin with, we must daily spend time in God’s Word, allowing His precepts and principles to permeate our thinking and living. We ought also to teach it to our children from the time they are small, and we should readily share it with others – helping them to understand God’s perspective on the situations of their lives.”[/COLOR]
From the above letter and also from the mass media that that we have read about so frequently, we can reasonably conclude that when we compare the nature of wickedness in ancient time that was told by Apostle Paul in his epistle to the Corinthian church 2000 years’ ago, they are not much different from what we see today. In fact, the same basic nature and misconduct of these sinful acts could even be traced back to the days of Noah and Lots. The big difference, in my opinion, is in the form of ‘creativity’ of how these sins are carried out today. People now seem to have endless ways of inventing ‘new sins’ to satisfy their lustful desire, and these ‘creative’ sins seem to pale those of the ancient times – and certainly no thanks to the digital world of electronics. Parents are crying for help because they just do know what to do to their kids who, sadly many of the kids are addicted to video-games, pornography, online-gambling. For institutions, we have often read many organizations – both secular and religious organizations – are like run-away trains; they just couldn’t stay on the right track and often the drivers, that is the leaders - have chosen the wrong track. Mass media has never run out of stories of the horrendous sinful acts committed by these leaders. They are now so commonly reported that they have just become routine daily news. Too many of us, they are simply ‘no’ news at all! The latest case of a Canadian air-force colonel who led a double life is a perfect case in point that people in high positions can be as dangerous as those wanted terrorists. By day, this Canadian colonel commanded Canada’s largest airbase, but at night, he stole women’s underwear, raped and murder two of his victims. While this news is still unfolding, stories of high-profile corruption cases that involving the world’s sport institutions by giving favour to countries the right to host the sport’s event are now unfolding. In the Business Section of our newspaper, we too read regularly of company directors charged in court for some corrupt practices. It seems that corruptions in high-office are as common as pick-pockets that we can find them in busy shopping malls.
One obvious question we ask is: Why is this happening so frequently? What’s wrong with the world we live in? Even religious organizations are not spared of this dilemma. They are many reasons but for churches, I personally think that there are two significant factors that contribute to this dilemma.
First, many church leaders are constantly doing "spiritual" things and these include preparing sermon, organising church retreats, conducting counseling training, and so on. These are good activities which I think most church leaders should get involved in some way or another. But how about applying the Bible devotionally to their lives (as well our own lives)? To be more precise, we can teach others; we can counsel others; we can mentor others – but can we be our own teacher and do exactly what we teach others? Like the Pharisees, we can put out our best outward performance, wear our best robe, deliver our best speeches or sermons but is our heart close to God. What's at play here is that we may think that we are in ministry but we get confuse of just doing things for God with spending time with God. We conduct and participate active spiritual programs to make our presence known but we are not being spiritual. We fail to see what God wants of us is not our ‘busyness’ but our holiness, our heartfelt and deep longing in His presence, and He wants us to commune with Him 24/7 for His direction. We fail to see that serving our holy God is all about establishing relationship with Him and not just doing things to please people.
The second reason is that some church leaders are constantly being put on a spiritual pedestal and treated as if they are the ‘fourth’ member of the trinity. Some may just want to exert the authority over others and instead of preaching from the Word of God, the Bible, they have replaced with their never-ending self-glorifying testimonies which glorified themselves instead of God. They have, knowingly or unknowingly, witting or unwittingly, made themselves bigger than what they actually are or worst ‘greater’ than God. This is where it gets really toxic. Their ‘false front’ or empty spiritual life simply became manifest; or caught up with them; or took its toll. They build bigger and bigger church buildings, boasting of huge church membership and tithes’ collection. They proudly ‘quantified’ their testimonies with impressive numbers and figures trying to position themselves to be the biggest in this and the biggest in that. But we must all be careful of the number game and we must remind ourselves that unless the building is built by the Lord Himself, unless our Builder is God Himself, unless we are steadfast in our relationship with Him 24/7, God is never impressed with our work, no matter how big our church building is, how many members are there in our church or how much tithes the church collects. God wants quality people – people who are real to Him; people who seek Him and Him alone as their Builder.
The sensuality of the present day culture to jockey for position, to be ‘Number 1 in everything’ is so obvious that we don’t need much explanation. We can simply read them in the newspaper, watch them in the TV, read them in the Internet. Let’s turn our eyes away from worthless things and preserve our lives according to God’s word (Psalm 119:37). All our ‘busyness’ of doing this or doing that just to be “Number 1’ are just by-products of our outward activities. They could very well mean nothing to God. Our primary business is to constantly feed our mind with God’s words and bear all our subsequent actions guided by His words. The Word of God has more importance and relevance in our day than ever. How we guide our eyes in this digital age of video games, VCD, DVD and how we guide our ears against those worthless sounds in the world of iPod and iPhone will make all the difference to our souls. This is clearly told to us in Romans 12:2: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Nothing could be more clear than this Pauline verse on our mind transformation for the sake of God’s glory. It is our thought that makes us what we are. Our thought has the capacity to determine our destiny as Charles Reade, an English novelist had succinctly expressed it in these few words: “Sow a thought, and you reap an act; Sow an act, and you reap a habit; Sow a habit, and you reap a character; Sow a character, and you reap a destiny”. The sanctification-transformation process of our mind and our soul must be actively pursued through the pursuit of His Word because God’s word will never disappoint us. Remember, the Holy Spirit needs something to work with – and that something is Scriptural knowledge which is the major door opener that will get God to start the sanctification process within us.
[You are encouraged to freely share the message with others as the Lord leads but please note that nothing on the message must be used for profit!]
Today’s Scripture Reading [October 31, 2010]
Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart. They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways. [Psalm 119:1-3. KJV]
In the recently concluded Commonwealth Game in India, there was a headline news which appeared in Reuters News clip: “Thousands of condoms clog Games village drains?” It further went on to report that because the Games’ Organizers had provided thousands of free condoms to the athletes, the condoms (obviously already used) were threatening to choke the Games’ village's drainage system. What is so shocking is that providing free condoms has become something of a tradition by the Games’ Organizers since 1992. This is something really new news me and I believe to many people as well. We all place great respect to world class athletes who, many of them, have become idols and role models for others to imitate. Given the huge number of condoms distributed, we can only infer – hopefully erroneously – that many of these world class athletes, highly admired, were also seeking immoral sexual pleasure even when the competition was still in progress. From this, we can reasonably conclude that it is quite foolish for us now to believe that having special talent, skill, or ability can made us different – morally speaking – from others. Talent, skill and ability just do not make people to be morally good, and neither education can.
Below is a letter which you may have also received it recently. I received it several days ago and it was sent to me by RBC Ministry. Together with this letter, the Ministry was offering a free DVD to help people who are addicted to pornography. This letter reminds me of the letters written by Paul to the Corinthian church that the sin of sexual immorality (together with other sins like covetousness and idolatry) were quite rampant and practiced by even believers during Apostle Paul’s own time .This had drawn Apostle Paul to rebuke and to warn the believers to be fully aware of those things around them, especially the morality of the people.
“Dear Friend, My heart is heavy as I write. Watching the nightly news, I see wickedness all around, and I am concerned about the world in which our children and grandchildren are growing up.
Our contention is not simply against physical danger, but even more so against the negative moral influences that seek to lead us all astray. Everywhere we look, our godless culture clamors for our attention. We are not even safe in our own homes. Unbiblical values scream at us from our TV’s and computers. Soon even as believers, we may be embracing a mindset and lifestyle that break God’s heart – a worldview that is far from His.
One big but often unspoken about temptation facing us today is pornography. The advent of the Internet puts it at our fingertips in the privacy of our own homes and offices. In a survey of over 40,000 people, 75 percent considered themselves addicted, powerless to escape. Sadly, studies show that this is also a problem in the Christian community.
So what can we do about all this? How do we defend our children, ourselves, and others around us from unhealthy influences? The answer is the same for all: Our protection is the Word of God – the Bible.
To begin with, we must daily spend time in God’s Word, allowing His precepts and principles to permeate our thinking and living. We ought also to teach it to our children from the time they are small, and we should readily share it with others – helping them to understand God’s perspective on the situations of their lives.”
From the above letter and also from the mass media that that we have read about so frequently, we can reasonably conclude that when we compare the nature of wickedness in ancient time that was told by Apostle Paul in his epistle to the Corinthian church 2000 years’ ago, they are not much different from what we see today. In fact, the same basic nature and misconduct of these sinful acts could even be traced back to the days of Noah and Lots. The big difference, in my opinion, is in the form of ‘creativity’ of how these sins are carried out today. People now seem to have endless ways of inventing ‘new sins’ to satisfy their lustful desire, and these ‘creative’ sins seem to pale those of the ancient times – and certainly no thanks to the digital world of electronics. Parents are crying for help because they just do not know what to do to their kids who, sadly many of the kids are addicted to video-games, pornography, online-gambling. For institutions, we have often read many organizations – both secular and religious organizations – are like run-away trains; they just couldn’t stay on the right track and often the drivers, that is the leaders - have chosen the wrong track. Mass media has never run out of stories of the horrendous sinful acts committed by these leaders. They are now so commonly reported that they have just become routine daily news. Too many of us, they are simply ‘no’ news at all! The latest case of a Canadian air-force colonel who led a double life is a perfect case in point that people in high positions can be as dangerous as those wanted terrorists. By day, this Canadian colonel commanded Canada’s largest airbase, but at night, he stole women’s underwear, raped and murder two of his victims. While this news is still unfolding, stories of high-profile corruption cases that involving the world’s sport institutions by giving favour to countries the right to host the sport’s event are now unfolding. In the Business Section of our newspaper, we too read regularly of company directors charged in court for some corrupt practices. It seems that corruptions in high-office are as common as pick-pockets that we can find them in busy shopping malls.
One obvious question we ask is: Why is this happening so frequently? What’s wrong with the world we live in? Even religious organizations are not spared of this dilemma. They are many reasons but for churches, I personally think that there are two significant factors that contribute to this dilemma.
First, many church leaders are constantly doing "spiritual" things and these include preparing sermon, organising church retreats, conducting counseling training, and so on. These are good activities which I think most church leaders should get involved in some way or another. But how about applying the Bible devotionally to their lives (as well our own lives)? To be more precise, we can teach others; we can counsel others; we can mentor others – but can we be our own teacher and do exactly what we teach others? Like the Pharisees, we can put out our best outward performance, wear our best robe, deliver our best speeches or sermons but is our heart close to God. What's at play here is that we may think that we are in ministry but we get confuse of just doing things for God with spending time with God. We conduct and participate active spiritual programs to make our presence known but we are not being spiritual. We fail to see what God wants of us is not our ‘busyness’ but our holiness, our heartfelt and deep longing in His presence, and He wants us to commune with Him 24/7 for His direction. We fail to see that serving our holy God is all about establishing relationship with Him and not just doing things to please people.
The second reason is that some church leaders are constantly being put on a spiritual pedestal and treated as if they are the ‘fourth’ member of the trinity. Some may just want to exert the authority over others and instead of preaching from the Word of God, the Bible, they have replaced with their never-ending self-glorifying testimonies which glorified themselves instead of God. They have, knowingly or unknowingly, witting or unwittingly, made themselves bigger than what they actually are or worst ‘greater’ than God. This is where it gets really toxic. Their ‘false front’ or empty spiritual life simply became manifest; or caught up with them; or took its toll. They build bigger and bigger church buildings, boasting of huge church membership and tithes’ collection. They proudly ‘quantified’ their testimonies with impressive numbers and figures trying to position themselves to be the biggest in this and the biggest in that. But we must all be careful of the number game and we must remind ourselves that unless the building is built by the Lord Himself, unless our Builder is God Himself, unless we are steadfast in our relationship with Him 24/7, God is never impressed with our work, no matter how big our church building is, how many members are there in our church or how much tithes the church collects. God wants quality people – people who are real to Him; people who seek Him and Him alone as their Builder.
The sensuality of the present day culture to jockey for position, to be ‘Number 1 in everything’ is so obvious that we don’t need much explanation. We can simply read them in the newspaper, watch them in the TV, read them in the Internet. Let’s turn our eyes away from worthless things and preserve our lives according to God’s word (Psalm 119:37). All our ‘busyness’ of doing this or doing that just to be “Number 1’ are just by-products of our outward activities. They could very well mean nothing to God. Our primary business is to constantly feed our mind with God’s words and bear all our subsequent actions guided by His words. The Word of God has more importance and relevance in our day than ever. How we guide our eyes in this digital age of video games, VCD, DVD and how we guide our ears against those worthless sounds in the world of iPod and iPhone will make all the difference to our souls. This is clearly told to us in Romans 12:2: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Nothing could be more clear than this Pauline verse on our mind transformation for the sake of God’s glory. It is our thought that makes us what we are. Our thought has the capacity to determine our destiny as Charles Reade, an English novelist had succinctly expressed it in these few words: “Sow a thought, and you reap an act; Sow an act, and you reap a habit; Sow a habit, and you reap a character; Sow a character, and you reap a destiny”. The sanctification-transformation process of our mind and our soul must be actively pursued through the pursuit of His Word because God’s word will never disappoint us. Remember, the Holy Spirit needs something to work with – and that something is Scriptural knowledge which is the major door opener that will get God to start the sanctification process within us.
undefiled like? jesus? someone who treated his mother and brothers like shit? if his "cuckold" father had more balls, mary would have been stoned to death. jesus would not have lived to be in his 30s being unable to honor his father and mother according to the 5th commandment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V252j868jTk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V252j868jTk
Psalm, With all due respect , can you seriously believe in a book that says of Noah(Peace be upon him) as a drunkard?? how can a messenger and a prophet of God be described as an alcoholic?? and about Lot (peace be upon him) being seduced by his own daughters?? come on Lot and Noah were among the righteous people and messengers of God!
So these cannot be inspired words of God .
So these cannot be inspired words of God .
Guy-uninterrupted,
The Bible is full of stories of weak people that God has used them for His glory. We can read them in the OT and in the NT. In addition to Noah and Lot that you have mentioned, e.g. King David - an adulterer and a murderer - but yet God considers King David as a man after God's own heart; King Soloman as the greatest and wisiest man ever lived in his time has 700 wives and 300 concubines (a wiseman?). In the NT, most of Jesus' disciples were cowards (before they saw Jesus' resurrection).
My opinion - only my opinion - Bible is very different from other religious writings. Many religious writings wrote about their leaders as heros, role models and with impeccable discipline in every sphere of their personal lives. Again, my opinion - but Bible tells about the true stories of men, of our weaknesses, of their fallibility, of their sinfulness. It is not about people with great talents, great discipline. It is about God's dealing with the fallen humankind. At the end, those who repented will have a good conclusion and that's what a loving God is all about, as we can see that even in our modern days, we have many incorrigible criminals who repented and have became men of God.
Regardless of our status, God is in doing the work of restoration to redeem His people to His Kingdom and now is the time of restoration because the era of human sinfulness must end, and we are now closer to this end and a new era of His Kingdom will commence.
God Bless and Have a Great Weekend.
knn...bible tell true story , that a talking snake can convice a couple to eat apple ?? every delusion people like you thinks that their " cults " is different from another cults ...:oIo::oIo: so you are still no different from them ...krrrrrppppppppppuiiiiiiiiiiii
a storybook is a storybook ....nothing more nothing less ....
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thats why i always said ...blind faith shut up their brain and eyes .
Dear Lee5604,
If you are really serious and want more Bible material, you can google for Dr. Peter Pett. I believe he has spent his life-time studying the Bible and writing commentaries. He has a website that displayed all his commentaries of OT and NT. These commentaries gave a verse by verse explanation of the Bible. He is a great man of God and his generosity is beyond comprehension. You can download all his commentaries for free. And the best part is that you can even write to him and he is ready to answer any question that you may haave. I believe he must be in his 70s or 80s. He is truly a great man of God!
Hope you can find his commentaries useful for your devotion.
God Bless
hahaha, he is finished with Goodnews and now taking a new clone!
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