"Honor Your Word" - #359

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Hello!

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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

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JCSM's Weekly Devotions (click here to listen!)

"Honor Your Word"

Genesis 9:13-15  "I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.  It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh."

Judges 11:30, 31  "And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD, and said, 'If You will indeed deliver the people of Ammon into my hands, then it will be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the people of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD’S, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering."

Matthew 5:37  "But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’  For whatever is more than these is from the evil one."

1 Corinthians 1:20-22  "For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.  Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee."

Colossians 3:9  "Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds."

Insight: Keep the promises you make to God and to others.  Record them and don't forget them.  God remembers and God has kept every promise He has ever made; since before the beginning of time.  Take your word seriously and others will, too.

Prayer: "Dear Lord, thanks for loving us more than we deserve.  Thank you for being a good God and worthy of our praise.  Bless us and help us be people that honor our word.  Praise You for keeping your word for thousands of years!  Forgive us for falling short.  Help us forgive those that haven't kept their word to us.  Thank you for being our perfect example of both integrity and forgiveness.  In Jesus' name, Amen."

America's Foundation

Gerald Rudolph Ford (1913 - ), became the 38th President of the United States, after replacing the vice-president who resigned, and then the president who resigned.  He was the only person to succeed to that office without being elected.  Upon assuming office on August 9, 1974, President Gerald Ford entreated:

"I ask you to confirm me as your president with your prayers... God helping me, I will not let you down."  - On assuming office, August 9, 1974.  Benjamin Weiss, God in American History: A Documentation of America's Religious Heritage (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1966), p. 158.  Willard Cantelon, Money Master of the World (Plainfield, NJ: Logos International, 1976), p. 122.

President Gerald Ford, on December 5, 1974, upheld that:

"Without God there could be no American form of government, nor an American way of life.  Recognition of the Supreme Being is the first - the most basic - expression of Americanism.  Thus the founding fathers of America saw it, and thus with God's help, it will continue to be."  - December 5, 1974.  Mrs. Dr. James Dobson (Shirley), chairman, The National Day of Prayer Information Packet (Colorado Springs, CO: National Day of Prayer Tack Force, May 6, 1993).

A Moment of Introspection

Success in God's kingdom doesn't necessarily look like success in man's kingdom.  How does success look to you?

Recall the promises you have made to people.  Make a list of them.  See if you have kept them.  If not, then seek forgiveness and if it's still possible, keep them now.

See what your ratio of promises made to promises kept is.  Pray and strive to keep all of your promises; especially those that you make to God.  Pause and be cautious before making a promise.  You need to be a person of your word.

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

gawbah (Hebrew, see Isaiah 55:9) - higher, lofty, exalt, mount up, upward, raise up great height

The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained

"The Skeptic's Annotated Bible" claims:

Genesis 9:9-13 - God is rightly filled with remorse for having killed his creatures. He makes a deal with the animals, promising never to drown them all again. He even puts the rainbow in the sky so that whenever he sees it, it will remind him of his promise so that he won't be tempted to do it again. (Every time God sees the rainbow he says to himself: "Oh, yeah.... That's right. I promised not to drown the animals again. I guess I'll have to find something else to do.").

But rainbows are caused by the nature of light, the refractive index of water, and the shape of raindrops. There were rainbows billions of years before humans existed.

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

The promise and the rainbow were given to "every living thing," which specifically included Noah, his sons, and their descendants (vs. 9).

This is a partial and scientific reason why rainbows occur.  However, they weren't here millions of years ago because nothing was created, yet.  Disease, suffering, and death clearly began when Adam and Eve sinned.  Before this, there was no disease, suffering, or death.  Therefore, for this reason and countless others, there cannot be millions of years of these things.  The fossil record clearly shows them and the fossil record also shows a record of the animals that died during the Great Flood and the immediate pre-flood world (like in the ice age, which was much shorter than evolutionists think).

(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.  There is also a 300 question workbook that accompanies the CD-ROM.)

Every time you have a challenge before you that God intends for you to overcome, He has already done a number of things on your behalf to prepare you and the situation.

God has a mission for you that seems ridiculous and laughable with earthly logic.

God can pick odd or foolish people for His work, so He can get all the glory.

Christians have a citizenship that is more important than their earthly citizenship.

Your purpose isn't to do what you want to do.  Your purpose is to please God.

If God has led you to start a ministry, then He will provide for you and it.

When you were born of your mother, you were given talents and gifts.  When you were born again of the Spirit, you were given supernatural talents.

Great teachers get through to their students and make them want to learn on their own.

Use your spiritual gifts for God's glory.

Are you spending or investing your time?

The Devil wants us to think we are on the losing team.

If you could see God's angelic provision for you and the supernatural gifts you have been given, then you wouldn't hesitate to walk by faith.

These quotes came from God, me, and Miles McPhearson.

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!

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