"Completely and Happily Obey God Now" - #393

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 pray that you had a great weekend.

Last week, the evolution vs. creation meeting I attended was quite interesting.  It was basically a presentation of facts and an introduction to the entire controversy.  However, it did have a bit of spin in it regarding the evolutionist viewpoint and spoke somewhat negatively about the creationist (Young Earth Creationist, in particular) perspective.

Please pray for those that reject biblical creation.  For one reason or another, they have exalted another truth higher than God's Word.  Whether you have all the answers to alleged Bible errors or whether you believe on faith, we need to unite in defending the scriptures from those that don't understand or don't care about them.  They are true and the full and complete revelation of God.

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!)

"Completely and Happily Obey God Now"

Mark 12:30  "And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.  This is the first commandment."

1 John 5:3  "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.  And His commandments are not burdensome."

Acts 5:29  "But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: 'We ought to obey God rather than men.'"

Insight: We have a saying in my house and it is for my daughter.  It's about obedience and it goes like this: "Do what you're told, when you're told, with a happy on your face."  I'll credit my mentor Pastor John Hilton with this saying.  It describes the relationship between a person who is subject to another (e.g. my daughter to her parents and God's children to God).  Are you happily and immediately obeying God?

Prayer: "Dear Lord, thank you for loving us.  Thank you for having laws that are helpful to us.  Help us to listen to You and do what You say.  Forgive us for falling short.  Forgive us for disobeying You.  Thank you for the great blessings that You give to those that obey You.  Thank you for revealing your truth to us from your Word.  Let us read it and know it.  Thank you for the examples of wise people who have followed You and been blessed, immeasurably.  Let us be those people.  In Jesus' name, Amen."

America's Foundation

Constitution of the State of Rhode Island 1842, stated:

“We, the people of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, grateful to Almighty God for the civil and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to Him for a blessing upon our endeavors to secure and to transmit the same unimpaired to succeeding generations, do ordain and establish this constitution of Government.” - Preamble of the Constitution of Rhode Island, 1842. Tim LaHaye, Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers, Inc., 1987), p. 92. Benjamin Weiss, God in American History: A Documentation of America's Religious Heritage (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1966), p. 103. Gary DeMar, The Untold Story (Atlanta, GA: American Vision, Inc., 1993), pp. 63-64.

A Moment of Introspection

Are you able to break away from the tradition of attending church every Sunday if God tells you to spend some alone time with Him somewhere else?

Get up in the morning and ask the Lord what you should do.  Some will hear the same old things (e.g. eat breakfast, go to work, etc.).  However, some will hear something different.  Listen to what God tells you because He knows best.  Begin first thing in the morning.

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

tay-reh-o (Greek, see 1 John 5:3): to guard, that is to note, hold fast, keep, serve, fulfill

The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained

"The Skeptic's Annotated Bible" claims:

Genesis 19:24 - God kills everyone (men, women, children, infants, newborns) in Sodom and Gomorrah by raining "fire and brimstone from the Lord out of heaven." Well, almost everyone -- he spares the "just and righteous" Lot and his family. Although many Christians consider this story to be a condemnation of homosexuality, others disagree. See The story of Sodom at ReligiousTolerance.org for an excellent discussion of this topic.

God kills all of the children in Sodom and Gomorrah, yet Jesus in Mt.18:14 says that God doesn't want any child to die.

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

God's desire is for all to live eternally by loving and trusting Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.  However, not everyone does this.  Read above to see the length of time God gave the people of Sodom and Gomorrah to repent.  According to God's perfect will, it was ample time.

(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.)

Don't give because you feel obligated or manipulated.

God is the one who solves problems.

When Christians only partly obey it could be comical to God.

If each day you could pick one thing you do to disobey God and choose to obey Him, you'd grow as a Christian.

Matthew makes over 120 Old Testament references in his gospel.

In the New Testament, there are six incidences where Jesus describes an Old Testament law by saying, "But I say" and takes the command to a new level.

Unless Christ returns, you and everyone you know is going to die.

When you become angry at God for the tsunami or things like it, remember His power and how He can do awesome things like create tidal waves.

When we regret how God took a loved one to Heaven, remember how much better Heaven is than Earth.

Whatever you hold back from God and do your way, you'll be blessed less than if you do it God's way.

Describe your eternal purpose and discover your house.

Describe the foundation of security in your life and you will discover your lord.

Identify your lord and you will discover his kingdom.

There are fools and wise men in the kingdom.  Identify someone who obeys and you will see a wise man.  Identify someone who ignores God's Word and you will see a fool.

Lordship is the practice of complete submission to Jesus as owner and controller of all things pertaining to your life.

My partial obedience is the same as my complete disobedience.

Partial obedience can be selective obedience: obeying what we choose based on our feelings.

Partial obedience can be situational obedience: obeying what we choose based on the situation.

Complete obedience is regularly hearing God's Word: reading, studying, memorizing, discussing, and consistently putting it into practice every chance I get.

Storms are coming.  Avoid the great crash and set your feet on The Rock.

God will let you be in situations where it'll be difficult to obey.

The Devil will give you counterfeit options day and night.

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."