"Avoid Being Ignorant" - #394

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Hello!

I pray that you had a great weekend.

On Friday, we sent 100 letters to sex offenders who live in San Diego county.  This is part of a 12 month project that will send letters to every registered sex offender in the county.  These letters have a gospel message, an invitation to visit JCSM, addresses of churches in every part of the county, and several Christian radio stations.

We are spending this time and effort on these men and women because we want to win them to Christ.  The postage and resources alone are costing us about $40/month.  If you wish to help us in this endeavor with stamps, envelopes, or the money to buy them, it would be appreciated.  We have already received a kind donation to make the 2400 photocopies.

Today, we received a thankful phone call from one of the people who received our letter.  She wanted us to know that she thought we were doing a great thing.  It was touching to hear.

Yesterday, I added four new resources to the JCSM Study Center.  These include the ancient Book of Jasher, and an Icelandic, Polish, and Lithuanian Bible.  We have over 1GB of files in our Study Center and you can see them here: http://study.jcsm.org.  These new files also raise our total number of web pages to about 73,000!

Our 21 day, fruit and vegetable fast are going very well.  Please continue to pray for the ones who are doing it.  God has been "showing up" and my fast has been an exciting time of closeness with God, spiritual breakthrough, and vision for ministry.

One Christian brother in Ghana needs a Bible.  He wants to grow in the Lord and he needs a paper Bible instead of our free online Bibles.  If you'd like to help, please let me know.  We can either accept a donation for this Bible or we can give you his address, so you can send it directly to him. 

If you've never sent a Bible to someone, you should do it!  It's a great blessing and I'm hoping that this message will generate a waiting list of people who want to send Bibles here and abroad to those that need them.  Don't assume someone else will do it, though.  Pray and see if you should help.

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!

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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!)

"Avoid Being Ignorant"

1 Corinthians 12:1-11  "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant: You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led.  Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.  There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.  There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord.  And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all.  But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.  But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills."

1 Thessalonians 4:13, 14  "But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus."

Hebrews 9:7  ". . . sins committed in ignorance."

Romans 11:33  "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!"

1 Peter 1:13-16  "Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, 'Be holy, for I am holy.'"

2 Timothy 2:15  "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."

1 Peter 2:15  "For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men."

Insight: God doesn't want us to be ignorant.  He wants us to have plenty of knowledge and this knowledge includes information about Him, His Word, and His character.  Knowledge of God comes from reading the Bible, talking to God, obeying God, and listening to Him.  Cultivate a relationship with God and you won't be ignorant any longer.

Prayer: "Dear Lord, bless us with more knowledge.  Remove our ignorance.  Thank you for holding all knowledge and wisdom.  Please give it to us.  Thank you for giving us your Word, so we can read it and grow spiritually in the wisdom and knowledge of You.  Send intelligent, wise people into our lives, so we can learn from them.  Thank you for our pastors, friends, mentors, and teachers.  Bless them and give them wisdom and knowledge as well.  Thank you for your faithfulness and for wanting to teach us.  Let us grow from You and be students of the Word.  In Jesus' name, Amen."

America's Foundation

James Dwight Dana (1813-1895), was a famous American geologist and Yale professor, succeeding the renowned Professor Silliman. He was the president of the Geological Society of America, as well as the American Association for the Advancement of Science. James Dana became the editor-in-chief of The American Journal of Science and was the author of numerous books on mineralogy and geology, including System of Mineralogy and Manual of Geology. James Dana stated:

“That grand old Book of God still stands; and this old earth, the more its leaves are turned over and pondered, the more it will sustain and illustrate the Sacred Word.” - Henry M. Morris, Men of Science - Men of God (El Cajon, CA: Master Books, Creation Life Publishers, Inc., 1990), pp. 81-83.

A Moment of Introspection

Have you ever prayed and asked God to increase your knowledge?  When you want to know more about God, about life, or about a skill, you need to ask Him.  He will answer your prayer, but be prepared to take action.  Never pray unless you're willing to do something to make it happen.

Pray and ask God to increase your knowledge!  You can also pray for wisdom.  After you pray, consider how you can help because God will likely answer your prayer by inspiring you to do something to increase your knowledge.

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

ag-no-eh-o (Greek, see Romans 10:3): not to know (through lack of information or intelligence), by implication to ignore (through disinclination)

The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained

"The Skeptic's Annotated Bible" claims:

Genesis 19:30-38 - Lot and his daughters camp out in a cave for a while. The daughters get their "just and righteous" father drunk, and have sexual intercourse with him, and each conceives and bears a son (wouldn't you know it!). Just another wholesome family values Bible story.

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

The Bible is an account of actual events.  They aren't always perfect events.  Every human is flawed.

(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!

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.

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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."