"The Pretend Christian" - #361

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Hello!

I hope you had a super weekend.

The Spirit West Coast music festival was awesome.  I was blessed to be able to attend with my wife.  We heard some of the greatest, most God-centered bands in the world.  It has encouraged me to record some more music.

One of the most popular places on JCSM is our MP3 archive.  People download over 300 of my songs every day.  I'm going to expand this "60 Worship Songs" archive to 120 songs.  It will give me the chance to learn and write some more songs, record them, draw closer to Christ, and bless others with the music.  If you'd like to hear the songs in our archive and even read the chords and lyrics, then please go to http://60songs.jcsm.org.

We have started putting Google Ads on our web site and they pay us per click.  Each time someone clicks on a Google Ad, our ministry receives about 17 cents.  Plus, the ads are Bible-based and often have free offers.

Would you like a daily dose of wisdom?  Click http://jcsm.org/Wisdom.htm for JCSM's Quote of the Day and when you see an interesting ad on that page (or any other page), you can click on it and be blessed while blessing JCSM!

The Christian Guitar Recital will be held in San Diego on June 24, 2004.  My students are encouraged to perform and most will be playing one worship and one original song.  This recital is free and open to the public, so please see http://christianguitar.biz/recital.htm for details.

Would you like a free email account?  JCSM offers free accounts through our BelieveandRepent.com domain name.  We give more space than Yahoo and Hotmail, plus you can use our service and evangelize without saying a word!  See http://believeandrepent.com for details.

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 70,000 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.

Visit the JCSM Study Center!  We have over 950mb 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.htm

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

"The Pretend Christian"

Matthew 7:21-23  "Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.  Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’  And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'"

Mark 13:22  "For false christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect."

(The Parable of the Wheat and Tares)

Matthew 23:24-30, 36-43 "Another parable He put forth to them, saying: 'The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.  But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.  So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field?  How then does it have tares?’  He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’  The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’  But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.  Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, 'First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.'

(The Explanation of the Parable of the Wheat and Tares)

Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, 'Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.'  He answered and said to them: 'He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.  The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one.  The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels.  Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age.  The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire.  There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.  Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

Revelation 3:15-20  "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot.  So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.  Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked - I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.  Therefore be zealous and repent.  Behold, I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me."

Insight: Are you sure you are a Christian?  If you died right now, are you 100% sure that you'd go to Heaven?  If so, why?  You should know the answers to these questions and if you don't, then you probably aren't saved.  See http://gospel.jcsm.org for the gospel message.  God knows your heart, so there is no fooling Him.  Be a real believer and repent from your sins and believe, accept, and trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

Prayer: "Dear Lord, bless us.  Help us to see You clearly.  Thank you for those that attend church.  Let them analyze their own heart and motives, repent from their sins, and trust You for salvation.  Thank you for those that are living for You.  Bless us and increase our faith, Lord.  Remind us of the way that we used to be and help us to love others no matter what.  Praise You for loving us more than we know, understand, or deserve.  Remind people that they need to get saved, today.  Help them to make a conscious decision to repent and trust You for salvation.  In Jesus' name, Amen."

America's Foundation

Sir William Thompson, Lord Kelvin (1824-1907), the famous scientist who developed degrees Kelvin to record temperatures on an absolute scale, held the chair of natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 54 years.  He formulated the First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics, introduced the Concept of Energy, and made enormous advancements in the areas of mathematics and physics.  Among his great contributions were the invention of a ship's compass which was largely freed from the magnetic influence of the iron in the ship, as well as helping to design and lay the first trans-Atlantic telegraph cable.

In 1903, Lord Kelvin made the statement:

"With regard to the origin of life, science... positively affirms creative power."  - 1903.  Henry M. Morris, Men of Science - Men of God (El Cajon, CA: Master Books, Creation Life Publishers, Inc., 1990), pp. 63-66.

On May 23, 1889, in his address as the Chairman of the Christian Evidence Society, in London, Lord Kelvin explained:

"My primary reason for accepting the invitation to preside was that I wished to show sympathy with this great Society which has been established for the purpose of defending Christianity as a Divine Revelation.

"I also thought something was due from Science.  I have long felt that there was a general impression in the non-scientific world believes Science has discovered ways of explaining all the facts of nature without adopting any definite belief in a Creator.  I have never doubted that impression was utterly groundless.

"It seems to me that when a scientific man says - as it has been said from time to time - that there is no God, he does not express his own ideas clearly.  He is, perhaps, struggling with difficulties; but when he says that he does not believe in a creative power I am convinced he does not faithfully express what is in his mind.  He is out of this depth....

"I may refer to that old but never uninteresting subject of the miracles of geology.  Physical Science does something for us here.  Peter speaks of scoffers who said that 'all things continue as they were from the beginning,' but the Apostle affirms himself that 'all  these things shall be dissolved.'

"It seems to me that even physical science absolutely demonstrates the scientific truth of these words.  We feel that there is no possibility of things going on forever as they have done for the last six thousand years.  In science, as in morals and politics, there is absolutely no periodicity."  - May 23, 1889, in his address as the Chairman of the Christian Evidence Society, in London, at its nineteenth anniversary.  - Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, Oregon: American Heritage Ministries, 1987), pp. 460-461.

A Moment of Introspection

The scriptures tell us that there is one thing that makes God sick.  Do you know what it is?  Being lukewarm.  He doesn't want His followers to be lukewarm.  God wants us to be on fire and fully devoted to Him.

Do you know someone who needs to get saved?  Do you know someone who is just "playing church," but not really trusting Christ?  Pray for them.  Ask God to convict them.  If you feel led by God's Spirit, contact them and discuss this with them.  If they realized what they were doing and if they understood what it meant to spend eternity in Hell for their unconfessed sins, then they may get saved right away.

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

basil-ee-uh (Greek - See Matthew 14:37): kingdom, royalty, realm, rule, reign

The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained

"The Skeptic's Annotated Bible" claims:

Genesis 10:1-32 - The entire tenth chapter is the first of many boring genealogies (see 1 Chr.1-9, Mt.1:1-17, Lk.3:23-28 for other examples) that we are told to avoid in 1 Tim.1:4 and Tit.3:9 ("Avoid foolish questions and genealogies.")

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

It was important that Jesus Christ come from the line of Abraham, Joseph, Jacob, David, etc.  These genealogies were intact and traceable until 70 A.D.  However, the New Testament epistles rightly told people that genealogies were no longer important.  The Messiah had come and it had been proven that He was from the correct lineage - fulfilling numerous prophecies.  Now, in the New Testament times, throughout human history, it would be pointless to brag about genealogical relationships to the Patriarchs and such.

(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.)

There are no new quotes this week.  However, 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!

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You can join our vision and help this ministry!  Your donations will keep these ministries running and further our visions for evangelism.  We host tens of thousands of web pages 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.

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.

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

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries

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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!

For more about me and my service history, go to http://jcsm.org/misc/JasonGastrich.htm.

If you have never repented from your sins and believed, trusted, and accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, please email me!  I would love to share the gospel with you.  The Bible is very straightforward when it speaks about Heaven, Hell and eternal life.  If there is any doubt that you are going to Heaven when you die, please let me know today!  If you’d like to discover the biblical doctrine of salvation through Jesus Christ, please go here: Audio Gospel Message - http://www.jcsm.org/godsplan/TheGospel.mp3. or the Textual Gospel Message - http://gospel.jcsm.org.

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.

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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."