Hello!

I pray you had a great weekend.

Do you like Christmas songs?  I'm in the process of creating a Christmas songs archive with music, chords, and lyrics for your favorite Christmas songs.  I'll post more as it becomes available.

Thanks for your prayers regarding the debate video with Stan Kohls.  I have received it and converted it to MP3 format.  Now, you can hear the entire 104 minute debate for free.  It was quite exciting as we debated a variety of issues.  Here is the link for the debate: http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?sermonID=111303173856.

If you didn't have a chance to read the midweek message, then you'll want to click the following link.  Some people have been attacking the Bible's originality and saying it was copied from older sources.  I've created a web page about two of these sources: the Enuma Elish and The Epic of Gilgamesh.  It shows how the Bible is an original document and how those sources didn't influence the Bible.  Link: http://jcsm.org/BibleLessons/Originality1.htm.

I'm planning to debate the post-resurrection, gospel accounts with an ex-Catholic atheist named Sean McHugh.  He is in New Zealand, so we will be debating at the Internet Infidels Discussion Board.  Our debate will begin in the week of January 5th.  Please pray that it goes well and that many people read, get encouraged, and trust Christ for salvation.

A recent statistic has revealed that approximately 30% of Americans are obese.  Pastor Kyle Osland gave us this number.  Please pray for obese people.  JCSM has a web page about obesity, so please go here and education yourself on this issue: http://www.jcsm.org/Contents/Obesity.htm.

I hope and pray that you are blessed richly this week and experience the awesome grace of God.

This is your ministry, so please feel free to link to JCSM and forward these devotions to your friends and family. On JCSM, there are over 50,000 web pages of pictures, forums, midis, Bible lessons, humor, proverbial stories, links, devotions, poetry, prayer journals, and much more!

JCSM has encouraging sermons, exciting debates, and the Bible on MP3 online and you can freely stream and download them!  Come and listen at http://sa.jcsm.org.

If you consider yourself either a theological scholar, a seeker, or a student of the Word, then you'll enjoy the Inerrancy Discussion Board.  It's the #1 place for discussing the inerrancy of God's Word!  Come and see: http://www.inerrancy.com (the Inerrancy Discussion Board is sponsored and administrated by JCSM).

Would you like to support God’s work on the web? If this ministry has touched you in a special way, please pray and consider sending a gift to JCSM. You can join us in our vision to reach people on the web with the good news! Either email me for more information or simply go here: http://vision.jcsm.org.

Visit the JCSM Study Center!  We have over 550mb of resources like English and foreign Bibles, maps, ancient literature, commentaries, Greek and Hebrew dictionaries, and concordances and much more!  Plus, it's all free.  Link: http://study.jcsm.org.

Welcome to the new readers of this message! Here is your Devotion, A Moment of Introspection, JCSM's Challenge, the Word of the Week, a faith-builder from "The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained," and the Quotes of the Week. Have a fantastic week and God bless you!

Love in Christ,

Jason Gastrich

Contact Us: http://jcsm.org/contact.php

Chat Programs/IDs: ICQ#: 20731140, AIM: MrJasonGastrich, YIM: Jesus_Saved_Jason

The Weekly Devotion (click here to listen!)

"Who Should I Fear?"

Ecclesiastes 12:13, 14  "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all.  For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil."

Psalm 27:1  "The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?"

Matthew 10:28  "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.  But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."

1 Peter 2:17  "Honor all people.  Love the brotherhood.  Fear God.  Honor the king."

Insight: God makes it very clear.  We are to fear Him and avoiding fearing humans.  Fear God with a reverent fear.  He still wants you to boldly approach the throne of grace.  However, show Him the love and obedience that He deserves.  Pray against your earthly fears and pray to fear God more.

Prayer: "Thank you for wanting us to fear You, Lord.  Thank you for being worthy of our fear.  Remind us that You are powerful.  Remind us that You will punish disobedience.  Forgive us of our sins.  Help us to walk in the light.  Thank you for being good and merciful.  Thank you for wanting us to be strong, bold servants and not weak ones.  Remind us that we have the Holy Spirit of the living God inside of us!  Lift us up and give us joy.  Help us to stay strong and persevere.  In Jesus' name, Amen."

America's Foundation

John Locke (1632-1704), was an English philosopher whose writings had a profound influence on our Founding Fathers, and in turn, the writing of the Constitution.  Of nearly 15,000 items of the Founding Fathers which were reviewed; including books, newspaper articles, pamphlets, monograms, etc., John Locke was the third most frequently quoted author.  In his Two Treatises of Government, 1690, he cited eighty references to the Bible in the first treatise and twenty-two references to the Bible in the second.

"Thus the Law of Nature stands as an eternal rule to all men, legislators as well as others.  The rules that they make for other men's actions, must...  be conformable to the Law of Nature, i.e. to the will of God... no human sanction can be good, or valid against it."  John Locke, The Second Treatise of Civil Government, 1690 (reprinted Buffalo, NY: Promethesus Books, 1986), p. 75.  David Barton, the Myth of Separation (Aledo, TX: WallBuilder Press, 1991), p. 199.

"Laws human must be made according to the general laws of Nature, and without contradiction to any positive law of Scripture, otherwise they are ill made."  John Locke, The Second Treatise of Civil Government, 1690 (reprinted Buffalo, NY: Promethesus Books, 1986), p. 76, n. 1.  David Barton, the Myth of Separation (Aledo, TX: WallBuilder Press, 1991), p. 199.

"(The) great and Chief End, therefore, of Mens uniting into Commonwealths, and putting themselves under
Government, is the preservation of their property....

For Men being all the Workmanship of one Omnipotent, and infinitely wise Maker:  all the Servants of one Sovereign Master, sent into the World by his Order, and about his Business, they are his Property, whose Workmanship they are, made to last during his, not one another's Pleasure....

Those Grants God made of the World to Adam, and to Noah, and his Sons... has given the Earth to the Children of Men, given it to Mankind in common....

God, who hath given the World to Men in common, has also given them reason to make use of it to the best Advantage of Life and Convenience."  Verna M. Hall, Christian History of the Constitution of the United States of America (San Francisco: Foundation for American Christian Education, 1975), pp. 58, 63-64, 91.  Marshall Foster, The American Covenant (Thousand Oaks, CA: The Mayflower Institute, 1992), pp. 111-112.

"He that shall collect all the moral rules of the philosophers and compare them with those contained in the New Testament will find them to come short of the morality delivered by our Saviour and taught by His disciples:  a college made of ignorant but inspired fishermen....

Such a law of morality Jesus Christ has given in the New Testament, but by the latter of these ways, by revelation, we have from Him a full and sufficient rule for our direction, and conformable to that of reason.  But the word and obligation of its precepts have their force, and are past doubt to us, by the evidence of His mission.

He was sent by God:  His miracles show it; and the authority of God in His precepts can not be questioned.  His morality has a sure standard, that revelation vouches, and reason can not gainsay nor question; but both together witness to come from God, the great Lawgiver.

And such a one as this, out of the New Testament, I think, they would never find, nor can anyone say is anywhere else to be found....

To one who is persuaded that Jesus Christ was sent by God to be a King and a Saviour to those who believe in Him, all His commands become principles; there needs no other proof for the truth of what He says, but that He said it; and then there needs no more but to read the inspired books to be instructed."  John Locke, The Reasonableness of Christianity.  Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, OR: American Heritage Ministries, 1987), pp. 289-290.

"The Bible is one of the greatest blessings bestowed by God on the children of men. - It has God for its author; salvation for its end, and truth without any mixture for its matter. - It is all pure, all sincere; nothing too much; nothing wanting."  Tyron Edwards, D.D., The New Dictionary of Thoughts - A Cyclopedia of Quotations (Garden City, NY:  Hanover House, 1852, The Standard Book Company, 1963), p. 46.

A Moment of Introspection

What would you look like if you were on-fire for Christ?

What consumes your life?  Find out!  Write down the things you think, do, and say and see if they are godly or not.  If it's impossible to record everything, then try recording a few things.

God bless you as you meet this week's challenge!

foolay (Greek): tribe - offshoot, race, clan, kindred

The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained

"The Skeptic's Annotated Bible" claims:

Genesis 6:7, 17 - God is angry. He decides to destroy all humans, beasts, creeping things, fowls, and "all flesh wherein there is breath of life." He plans to drown them all.

"The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained" responds:

God's judgment was on hold for one hundred and twenty years.  Was this long enough for the sinners to repent?  When they saw Noah building the ark, wasn't this a prime time to believe God and turn from their sins?

(This explanation came from "The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained", by Jason Gastrich.  This book is on CD and explains over 3,000 difficulties regarding the entire Bible at http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.org.)

Christians are called to be internally different.

What would an on-fire church look like?

If our community is sick with sin, it makes it more difficult to stay pure.

Jesus doesn't say, "The more you have, the happier you'll be."

Jesus tells us that the simpler we make our lives and the less we have, the better our lives will be.

Our church should be a separate culture from the world.

We are challenged to be in the world, but not of the world.

Our first priorities should be God and our spouse.

How can you change your priorities to reflect more of God?

These quotes came from God, me, and Kyle Osland.

Do you need more quotes?  We have thousands in our archives!  They are located here: http://quotes.jcsm.org.

These quotes can be used for sanctification and fun. Most of them are directly based on scripture and scriptural principles. Some of the quotes are humorous or rhetorical, others are written from sermons and Bible studies, and some are lyrics from songs. If you’d like me to go into more detail on any of them, please email me.

Like most verses in the Bible, they can be debated. To use what I’ve written in the most beneficial way, try and trace them back to the scriptures and apply the true principles to your life in a meaningful way! Please don’t sell my quotes or publish them for profit. If English is not your first language, you may not understand some of the quotes. I'm sorry, but some of them are English metaphors and deal with multiple word meanings. God bless you all!

Please make a commitment to pray for this ministry. As every believer is tempted and tried, this ministry faces trials also. God has blessed me, JCSM and the people who have been reached! Unfortunately, the enemy knows this and spiritual warfare is the result. Please at least pray that the devotions continue to be written religiously, the web pages stay on the www and the readers are blessed, sanctified and protected from evil. Thank you very much in advance!

Do you want to help people receive the good news?  We’re reaching new people every day with God’s awesome Word! If God has blessed you and you wish to send a love offering to JCSM, please send your gift to the address below.

You can join our vision and help this ministry! Your donations will keep these ministries running and further our visions for evangelism. Hundreds of web pages have been created to lead people to the Lord. Frequently, we make new ones and they are used to bring more and more people into a closer relationship with Jesus Christ. We’re certain there will be more ways to reach people in the future.

JCSM is a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization.  If you wish to contact us in the mail or send support, please make checks payable to Jesus Christ Saves Ministries.  Here is our mailing address:

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries

3219 Clairemont Mesa Blvd. #212

San Diego, CA 92117

Along with getting support, we also give support! JCSM regularly gives to churches, Christian ministries and needy people. Another function of this ministry is to do counseling. We are always answering questions about life, the Lord and everything in between. Lastly, we do a lot of research on religious topics on the internet and library. You will definitely see the results of our hard work and your loving support, in the web pages, and in the weekly devotions!

Fishes and Loaves (FALO) is a great, missions organization.  They have helped many people embark on missions trips to the uttermost parts of the world.  If you are interested in missions, please visit http://www.gofalo.net.

Do you need to find a solid, Christian church?  I've attended numerous, Calvary Chapel churches and I've been very blessed by their Bible-based sermons, inspiring worship, and kind members.  If you don't have a home church, if you're traveling, or if you need to find a new church, I recommend visiting the following site and locating a Calvary Chapel near you: http://www.calvarychapel.org.

OCCM (Online Christ-Centered Ministries) has certified JCSM as a ministry that preaches the true, biblical gospel of Jesus Christ.  OCCM is a professional membership association for Christian ministries and people that reside on and off the internet.  Are you OCCM certified?  For more information, go here: http://www.occm.org.

Would you prayerfully consider supporting JCSM with $5 per month?  If God leads you to take this step of faith and bless this ministry, PayPal will process a donation subscription for you.  It will only take a minute and you can join us in this dynamic ministry that constantly reaches people all over the world.  Here is the link for $5 donations: http://5.jcsm.org.

Over 50,000 web pages!

Jesus loves you!

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."