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Hello! I hope you're well, today. Please continue to pray for the living victims of the two hurricanes. If you've watched or read the news lately, then you know that there is a lot of destruction and havoc in the states of Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and Florida. Let's lift up the effected people and all of the helpers in prayer. Did you know that JCSM advertises for many companies and organizations? If you have a web site that you want to become more popular, please click http://jcsm.org/advertize.htm and let us know! 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!) Psalm 33:8, 9 "Let all the earth fear the LORD; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast." Job 38:1-5 "Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: 'Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?" Mark 2:11, 12 "'I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.' Immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, 'We never saw anything like this!'" Matthew 8:26b, 27 "He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. So the men marveled, saying, 'Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?'" John 7:45, 46 "Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, 'Why have you not brought Him?' The officers answered, 'No man ever spoke like this Man!'" Insight: Throughout the Bible, we see people amazed at God; amazed at His character, amazed at the things He made, the things He said, and the things He did. We should marvel as well. Prayer: "Dear Lord, bless us and let us see You as You really are. Praise You for being awesome and good. There is no other like You. Praise You for being the Creator of the universe. Thank you for creating all living things. We humbly stand in awe of You! Thank you for giving us the scriptures and showing us how people have marveled at You all throughout time. Let us do the same because You are awesome and You are worthy of our praise and devotion. In Jesus' name, Amen."
Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), a famous French author and philosopher, in Emilius and Sophia, Vol. III, Book IV, writes: "I will confess to you, that the majesty of the
Scriptures strikes me with admiration, as the purity of the Gospel has
its influence upon my heart. Peruse the works of our philosophers; with
all their pomp of the diction, how mean, how contemptible, they are,
compared with the Scriptures! Is it possible that a book at once so
simple and sublime should be merely the works of man? "The Jewish authors were incapable of the diction, and strangers to the morality contained in the Gospel, the marks of whose truths are so striking and inimitable that the inventor would be a more astonishing character than the hero. ... "Yes, if the life and death of Socrates are those of a philosopher, the life and death of Jesus Christ are those of a God. "Should we suppose the Gospel was a story, invented to please? It is not in this manner that we forge tales; for the actions of Socrates, of which no person has the least doubt, are less satisfactorily attested than those of Jesus Christ. Such a supposition, in fact, only shifts the difficulty without removing it; it is more conceivable that a number of persons should agree to write such a history, than that one should furnish the subject of it." ¹ In 1762, in his work Eile; ou, De l'Education, Jean Jacques Rousseau verbalized: "Everything is good when it leaves the hands of the Creator; everything degenerates in the hands of man." ² "I shall always maintain that whoso says in his heart, 'There is no God,' while he takes the name of God upon his lips, is either a liar or a madman." ³ "Where is the man who owes nothing to the land in which he lives? Whatever that land may be, he owes to it the most precious thing possessed by man, the morality of his actions and the love of virtue." 4¹ Emilius and Sophia, (English Edition, 1767), Vol. III, Book IV, pp. 136-139. Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, Oregon: American Heritage Ministries, 1987), p. 385-386. Frank Ballard, The Miracles of Unbelief (Edinburgh: T & T Lark), p. 251. Willard Cantelon, New Money or None? (Plainfield, NJ: Logos International, 1979), p. 247. Tryon Edwards, D.D., The New Dictionary of Thoughts - A Cyclopedia of Quotations (Garden City, NY: Hanover House, The Standard Book Company, 1963), p. 47. ² 1762, in his work Eile; ou, De l'Education, I. John Bartlett, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 358. ³ ibid. 4 1762, in his work Eile; ou, De l'Education, I. John Bartlett, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 359. If you'd like to see more quotes from those that framed and founded America, please click here: http://jcsm.org/AmericasFounders/.
If you haven't marveled at God lately, then perhaps you aren't being mindful of Him and His ways.
Marvel at what God has said and done. First, you may need to think about it and meditate on it. It won't be too long though, before you are amazed at how awesome God is. God bless you as you meet this week's challenge!
thoumadzo (Greek, see Matthew 8:27): to wonder; by implication to admire, have in admiration, wonder, marvel
The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained "The Skeptic's Annotated Bible" claims: Genesis 32:28 - God renames Jacob for the first time (See 35:10 for the first renaming). God says that Jacob will henceforth be called Israel, but the Bible continues to call him Jacob anyway. And even God himself calls him Jacob in 46:2. "The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained" responds: God changes Jacob's name to Israel. However, he was still called Jacob, sometimes. This is common among places and people that have changed their names. (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.)
It would take an eternity for a person to pay for their own sins. If you believe God loves you, you should believe He has forgiven you. Try having one day without television. Do you want God to do something in your life where you say, "Wow, that must have been God"? Pray the Bible. Only God can change your heart and He only changes it when you want Him to. If you met your biggest earthly hero, you would tell everyone. Why can't you tell people about the Savior you met? Identify one sin in your life and confess it to God. Pray for someone in your neighborhood to get saved. There are a lot of misconceptions concerning the definition of sin; primarily among non-Christians. When Christ is first in your life, your spiritual eyes open. Revelation is not a seeker-sensitive message. We will be accountable for what we believe. If you'd like to read more quotes, we have thousands in our archive! Visit http://quotes.jcsm.org. Plus, if you'd like to receive a new quote every day, please go to http://jcsm.org/Wisdom.htm and bookmark it!
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