"Our Mission Statement" - #391

The JCSM Study Center

America's Christian Foundation

Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained

NKJV Web Hosting and Services

JCSM's Sermons, Debates and the Bible on MP3

The Online Christ-Centered Ministries

The JCSM Chat Room

Seminary Notes and Papers

The Picturesque Photo Albums

Hello!

I hope you had a safe and exciting holiday.

Our prayers go to all of the families who have been effected by the tsunami.  Please keep them in prayer.  There is a lot of pain that needs to be healed and a lot of destruction that needs to be fixed.

Believe in the Lord Jesus so you can have everlasting life!  Stop by http://believe-in-jesus.com and read the Bible online or get a free, online audio Bible (KJV).  Plus, visit our Prayer Board and Christian Forum where you can post or email us your prayer requests and meet some Christian friends.

Do you want to read the entire Bible in 2005?  If so, we have a schedule that will help you!  See http://www.jcsm.org/JCSM/RBY.htm.

I was encouraged to get emails from some of you who want to fast with me and my church in January.  In case you missed it, we are going on a fruit and vegetables fast for 21 days; from January 9 through January 29.  If you'd like to join us, please email me.  We are planning to meet weekly in a chat room for prayer.

If you're going to fast, please set some guidelines that you will follow.  Since fasting is a personal discipline, you should speak to God about the details (e.g. which foods are and aren't allowed, how much time will be spent in prayer, Bible reading, and worship, etc.).  I'll be developing mine this week and posting them.  They will be online with my other fasting guidelines and journals and in the Personal Ministry section of this page: http://www.jcsm.org/Contents.htm.

Do you need some floppy diskettes?  Office Depot is giving 10 of them away to each person who goes to their web site and fills out the form.  It's completely free.  See http://officedepot.com/links/disks.

We've been getting a lot of rain here in San Diego.  Please pray that there aren't any car accidents.  When it rains, the traffic accidents generally increase and usually even double.  My wife and I will be working this week and driving many miles around San Diego county.

Pastor Howard Everett and a group of students from the San Diego Missions and Prayer School will be flying to Istanbul, Turkey this week.  Please pray for them.  They will be going to witness to people about Jesus Christ.

Would you like a daily dose of godly wisdom?  Click http://jcsm.org/Wisdom.htm for JCSM's Quote of the Day!

Do you need a free email account?  JCSM offers free and inexpensive 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 1GB of resources like English and foreign Bibles, thousands of sermons, 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

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

"Our Mission Statement"

Matthew 4:19, 20  "Then He said to them, 'Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.'  They immediately left their nets and followed Him."

Matthew 28:19, 20  "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.'  Amen."

Luke 19:10  "For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."

1 Thessalonians 5:17  "Pray without ceasing."

John 13:34, 35  "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.  By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

Insight: Our mission statement includes winning others to Christ.  The Bible specifically tells us to make disciples of all the nations.  Consider your mission statement and Christ's mission statement.  Are they the same?

Prayer: "Thank you for revealing your mission to us.  Thank you for helping us complete your mission.  Bless us and use us as You see fit, Lord.  Thank you for loving us more than we deserve.  Thank you for using us even though we are imperfect vessels.  Forgive our sins.  Lift us up and let us see You as You really are.  Help us to pray for others and to be bold enough to share the gospel with them.  Thank you for those that were bold enough to encourage us with the truth of the Bible.  We love You, Lord and we pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen."

America's Foundation

Robert “King” Carter (1663-1732), was the Governor of the Virginia Colony, as approved by King George II in July 1726, having previously served as Lieutenant Commander of the counties of Lancaster and Northumberland since 1715. He was President of the Council, a Member of the House of Burgesses at Jamestown, the Colonial Treasurer, as well as the Speaker of the House and Chairman of the powerful Committee of Propriations and Grievances.

Robert “King” Carter was one of the most significant figures during the period of America’s founding, acting as rector of William and Mary College, and owning property consisting of 300,000 acres of land. He was the father of Anne Hill Carter, who was married to the famous Revolutionary War hero, Light Horse Harry Lee. Their son was Robert E. Lee.

Robert Carter’s son, John, had gone to England to study, but instead had squandered his time and money. After accumulating numerous debts, the young Carter repented. On July 22, 1720, Robert Carter wrote to Mr. Perry, his son’s guardian in England:

“My son, I find, upon the stool of repentance. It will be well he will come to his senses at last…. He begs of me to forget his past extravagances, and desires I may not insist upon a particular account for him, and that he will give me no more occasion of future complaints. Upon these terms I am willing…. Thus you see I am no stranger to the story of the Gospel.” - July 22, 1720, in a letter to Mr. Perry in England. Louis B. Wright, ed., Letters of Robert Carter, 1720-1727 (San Marino: The Hunting Library, 1940), p. 34. Catherine Millard, The Rewriting of America’s History (Camp Hill, PA: Horizon House Publishers, 1991), pp. 281-282.

On July 23, 1720, Robert Carter wrote to his son John in England:

“Dear Son John: May Heaven keep you fixed to this resolution without wavering. It will prove a cordial to your heart all the days of your life. Upon these hopes I shall pass over what’s past…. Pray take a little more care of your brothers in England. The rest is to beg God’s blessing upon you.” - July 23, 1720, in a letter to his son John in England. Louis B. Wright, ed., Letters of Robert Carter, 1720-1727 (San Marino: The Hunting Library, 1940), p. 37. Catherine Millard, The Rewriting of America’s History (Camp Hill, PA: Horizon House Publishers, 1991), p. 282.

Robert Carter built Christ Church in Lancaster County, Virginia, where he served as a vestryman. Buried in the churchyard, his epitaph reads:

“Robert Carter, Esq., an honorable man, who exalted his high birth by noble endowments and pure morals. He sustained the College of William and Mary in the most trying times. He was Governor, Speaker of the House and Treasurer… he built and endowed at his expense, this sacred edifice, a lasting monument of his piety to God.” - August 4, 1732, on his epitaph in Christ Church, Lancaster County, Virginia. Louis Morton, Robert Carter of Nomini Hall, pp. 23-24. Catherine Millard, The Rewriting of America’s History (Camp Hill, PA: Horizon House Publishers, 1991), p. 283.

A Moment of Introspection

Have you blessed every group in your life with the gospel truth?

Use the words, "sorry, thank you, and please."  The Bible says that people will know Christians by our love.  Using kind words is an act of love.

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

math-ay-too-o (Greek, see Matthew 28:19): intransitively to become a pupil, transitively to disciple, that is, enroll as a scholar, be disciple, instruct, teach

The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained

"The Skeptic's Annotated Bible" claims:

Genesis 19:8 - Lot refuses to give up his angels to the perverted mob, offering his two "virgin daughters" instead. He tells the bunch of angel rapers to "do unto them [his daughters] as is good in your eyes." This is the same man that is called "just" and "righteous" in 2 Pet.2:7-8.

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

(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.)

Matthew was a Jewish tax collector who wrote His gospel to a Jew in order to show that Jesus was the Messiah.

Matthew wrote more of Jesus' teachings than any other gospel author.

We are called out of our old lifestyle to be fishers of men.

Christ has called us to join Him in reaching out to sinners.

Keep your vision statement in mind as you press toward your goal.

When you look people in the eye, do they think about Jesus?

We are fishing for the ones that the Devil has.

There is no spiritual gift of "sermon tasting."

When you got saved, you told the Lord that you joined His side of the battle.

Who or what is Lord in your life?

You can't fulfill God's mission for your life if Jesus isn't your Lord.

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!

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.  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

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!

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.

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.

Over 70,000 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."