"God's Dream For You" - #368

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Hello!

I pray that you had a great weekend.

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Southern California offers some fine shows this week.  On Sunday, FishFest is in Irvine and they are featuring Steven Curtis Chapman and Jars of Clay.  On Wednesday, Caedmon's Call will play a free show at Maranatha Chapel and Audio Adrenaline and the Newsboys will perform at the Orange County Fair!

The Rock Church is building a huge church in San Diego.  They have been given a conditional use permit, but some people are appealing because they don't want the church in their area.  Tomorrow, there is a meeting about this, so please pray that it goes well.  Four people will vote and they only need 2 of them to vote in favor of The Rock and they will be able to proceed with the building and occupying of our new church.

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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!)

"God's Dream For You"

Matthew 6:33, 34  "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

Proverb 19:20  "Listen to counsel and receive instruction, That you may be wise in your latter days."

1 Thessalonians 5:17  "Pray without ceasing."

Insight: Has God told you what His dream is for you and your life?  Is He telling you again and again?  Listen to God and discover His will for you.  Don't make Him repeat it or chase you around.

Prayer: "Dear Lord, thank you for being faithful to us.  Thank you for having a great dream for all of us.  Help us to closely listen to you.  Thank you for loving us more than we understand or deserve.  Praise You for having higher hopes for us than any other.  Forgive our sins.  Bless us and lift us up.  Thank you for showing me your vision for me and my life.  Help me to remember it and prioritize it.  Thank you for JCSM and how it has reached countless people around the world.  Thank you for the experience I have in You chasing after me and me answering and obeying You.  Forgive me for the lost time.  Help me to redeem the time, now.  In Jesus' name, Amen."

America's Foundation

William Strong (1808-1880), an Associate Justice of United States Supreme Court, 1870-1880, had previously served his country as a U.S. Congressman, 1847-51, and as a justice on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, 1857-68.  Justice William Strong stated:

"You ask me what I think of Christ?  He is the Chiefest among ten thousand, and altogether lovely - my Lord, my Saviour, and my God.

What do I think of the Bible?  It is the infallible Word of God, a light erected all along the shores of time to warn against the rocks and breakers, and to show the only way to the harbor of eternal rest."  - Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, Oregon: American Heritage Ministries, 1987), p. 433.

A Moment of Introspection

The dream God has for you is not for you; it's for others.

Ask God what His dream for you is.  Pray and ask Him.  Silence your thoughts and listen to what He says.  Write it down and ask Him how you can achieve it.

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

khalome (Hebrew, see Ecclesiastes 5:3): dream

The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained

"The Skeptic's Annotated Bible" claims:

Genesis 11:26, 32 - Acts7:4 says that Abram didn't leave Haran until after his father died. Verse 26 tells us that Abram's father was 70 years old when Abram was born, and Abram's father lived to be 205 (11:32). Clearly, then, Abram was at least 135 when he left Haran. Yet Gen.12:4 says he left Haran when he was only 75.

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

* Genesis 11:28 says "Haran died before (his father) Terah in Ur of the Chaldeans."  There was clearly a person named Haran and a place called Haran because they later travel to and from a place called Haran.  Abram left the dead Haran, in Ur, when he was seventy five years old.  From this place he traveled to the place they called Haran.  Terah died here and Abraham left him.

* Genesis 11:31 states they "went out from Ur of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran."  Verse 32 states that Terah died (after the person of Haran had died) and he died "in" (the land) of Haran.  Therefore, the last verses in Genesis 11 and the first verses in Genesis 12 overlap.  Abram left the body of Haran at age seventy-five and he left the place of Haran once his father died there.

* In Genesis 12:4, the phrase "departed from Haran" is not so in the Hebrew.  This word "from" is implied by modern translations.  This phrase is the same one used later (vs. 5 - "went forth") and should be translated "departed for Haran."  It is clear from Acts 7:2-4 that Abram was called in Genesis 12:1-3, while he was in Mesopotamia (specifically, Ur) and not yet in the land of Haran.  Genesis 12:5 is correct in implying that they gathered all of their people and things from Haran, then continued to Canaan.

* This overlap is further seen by the fact that God called Abram in Ur, like it is stated in Acts 7:3, which is before he went to the place called Haran (also like it says in Acts 7:3).  Chronologically, God visited Abram between Genesis 11:29 and 31.  This account is revealed, in detail, in Genesis 12:1-3.  These situations and sequences are not unlike the telling of the creation account in Genesis 1 and 2.

1. If you're lost, here is a timetable of events:

2. Genesis 11:26 - Terah is 70 years old and has Abram and Haran.

3. Genesis 11:28 - Haran dies in Ur.

4. Genesis 12:1-3 and Acts 7:2, 3 - God calls Abram while he is in Mesopotamia (specifically, Ur) and tells him to leave home.

5. Genesis 11:31, Genesis 12:4 and Acts 7:4 - Abram leaves Ur at age 75 and comes to the land of Haran (this is where the modern translation, in Genesis 12:4, of the word "from" is wrong and "for" should be used, making this correlate with Genesis 11:31, Acts 7:4 and other usages of this term).

6. Genesis 11:32 - Terah dies in the land of Haran at 205 years of age.

7. Genesis 12:5 and Acts 7:3, 4 - Abram leaves the land of Haran after Terah dies.

(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.)

Real dreams are big and bold.

Dreams should be specific and clear.

Dreams come through hard times and hard work.

Success is based on a dreamer's response to trials.

God's dreams implement God's plan and build God's kingdom.

God's dream isn't something you do on the side.

Many people hear God's dream for them and reject it because it is too big, bold, etc.

There may be a time when everyone else thinks that you can't achieve God's dream for you.

If you are vague about your dream, you'll never experience it.

Truth is not a proposition.  It's a person.

You experience truth as you interact with Christ on your journey.

Don't let circumstances derail you from pursuing God's dream for you.

You can eliminate worry if you don't care about pain.

Having a lot or a little shouldn't change who you are.

When something happens that you don't like, avoid complaining.

The church is the only institution in the world designed for the people not yet in it.

God's dream for you isn't simply to make you rich with money.

God is waiting for you to tell Him you are ready.

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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