"Your Standard For Truth" - #420

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.

If you know anyone in the Los Angeles area who wants to learn acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, or electronic keyboard/piano, please forward them to my web site.  I've created a new site for my music lessons.  See http://lamusiclessons.com.

Please pray for our move to Los Angeles.  We're renting two 24' trucks and moving this weekend.  Some of our friends are helping and it will be a long and tiring weekend, but with God's grace, we'll enjoy it and accomplish everything.

I've been reading a great book on marriage called, "Married And How to Stay That Way!"  Steve Carr is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Arroyo Grande and he's also the author.  It's an excellent read and I highly recommend it to those who are married or considering marriage.  By the way, the quotes in this week's devotional came from this book.

This Wednesday, Caedmon's Call is playing a free show at Maranatha Chapel in San Diego!  If you're in Southern California, you won't want to miss it.

On Thursday, my wife and I will be traveling to Mexico.  Please pray for our safety.  We'll be blessing some of the poor with food and clothes.  We also hope to pray with them and lead them to Christ.

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!)

"Your Standard For Truth"

Psalm 119:11  "Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You."

Proverb 21:30  "There is no wisdom or understanding or counsel against the LORD."

Proverbs 30:5, 6  "Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.  Do not add to His words, Lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar."

Matthew 7:24-27  "Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.  But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell.  And great was its fall."

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."

Hebrews 4:12  "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

Insight: God's Word should be our standard for truth.  Nothing else compares to it.  Worldly philosophies have failed us for centuries.  Only God and His Word can be completely trusted.  Lean on Him and know His Word.  You'll be blessed.

Prayer: "Thank you for the Bible.  Help us to read it, understand it, and memorize it.  Thank you for loving us so much.  Thank you for giving us an instruction manual on life.  Let us be like You.  Convict us with your Holy Spirit.  Lead us to You over and over, again.  Praise You for being good and for being worthy of all our praise and devotion.  There is no other like You!  In Jesus' name, Amen."

America's Foundation

George Wythe (1726-1806), one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was also a member of the Continental Congress, a member of the House of Burgesses and the Mayor of Williamsburg. He served as Attorney General of the Virginia Colony and established the first law professorship in the United States at William and Mary College. ¹

In February of 1776, George Wythe, along with Roger Sherman and Adams, comprised a committee responsible to draw up guidelines for an embassy bound for Canada. Their instructions stated:

“You are further to declare that we hold sacred the rights of conscience, and may promise to the whole people, solemnly in our name, the free and undisturbed exercise of their religion. And… that all civil rights and the right to hold office were to extend to persons of any Christian denomination.” ²

¹ Tim LaHaye, Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers, Inc., 1987), pp. 249.

² Christopher Collier, Roger Sherman’s Connecticut (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1979), p. 129. David Barton, The Myth of Separation (Aledo, TX: WallBuilder Press, 1991), p. 249.

(See http://michaelnewdow.com for a large and growing list of quotes from those that influenced America's foundation!)

A Moment of Introspection

When His Word is your ultimate standard, His commands will be the actions you will take.

Determine your standard for truth.  Is it the scriptures?  Is it your opinion?  Is it a self-help author?  Is it Oprah Winfrey?

If your standard for truth isn't the Bible, then prayerfully consider changing your standard to God's standard.

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

alaythia (Greek, see 3 John 1:8): truth, truly, verity

The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained

"The Skeptic's Annotated Bible" claims:

Genesis 28:13-14 - God repeats the same (land/progeny) promise that he previously made to Abraham (13:15, 15:18, 17:8). Once again, the promise wasn't kept. The descendents of Jacob (the Jews) are not particularly numerous, have seldom possessed much of the land in question, and the nations on earth haven't been blessed by them.

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

The descendants that are promised refer to spiritual descendants that trust God (and later, Jesus Christ) for their salvation.  There is a very large number of people who fit into this category.

This land will always belong to Israel.  Under King David's rule, they possessed all of the earthly, promised land.

All of the nations of the Earth have been blessed through Jesus Christ - the person of this seed and the prime reason the genealogies and prophetic statements regarding lineage matter.

(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.)

Determining our standard for truth is one of the greatest and most fundamental problems in Christian marriages today and must be resolved at the very beginning.

Without the Scripture as your standard, you are at the mercy of human philosophy.

God is the expert on you and your marriage, and He is the one we should quote.

If you believe your marriage is broken, or you just need some maintenance, why don't you take a fresh look at the owner's manual?

When a person rejects the knowledge of God as his standard of truth, all that is left are human precepts.

Without the Bible as your standard, you will not know what practical changes to make and how to make them.

If there is no standard of truth that both partners agree upon, then they will immediately be at odds with each other when the first problem occurs.

If you are sowing your own ideas or the philosophies of men in your marriage, you will reap a miserable harvest.

Without the Word as your standard, how will you be transformed?

Real faith will always produce works and actions that are in accordance with what you believe.

Is it not the action of love that changes a marriage relationship?

These quotes came from God, me, and Steve Carr.

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.  We also support three kids in Kenya through Compassion International.

We have a great number of ministry tasks.  If you'd like to see how we are reaching people, then please go here: http://jcsm.org/JCSM/Details.htm.

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, organizations, business, schools, and people that reside on and off the internet.  Are you OCCM certified?  For more information, go here: http://www.occm.org.

Over 100,000 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."