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Hello! I hope you're having a great Labor Day Weekend. My wife, daughter, and I just returned from visiting my parents in San Diego. We had a great time at the beach and in the hotel pool. We hope you have had some quality time with your family, too. Sarine has been working hard on an awesome compilation of eternal security articles. In conjunction with Kevaughn Mattis, we are working to put approximately 90 different articles online from theologians all over the world. This project is several years in the making and all that is left is the formatting and uploading, but this is proving to be a very time-consuming task! Please pray that we can complete this project before the end of the month, so you and many others can be blessed with these magnificent articles. When it goes online, the eternalsecurity.org domain name will point to them. In the meantime, we will use that link as redirect to JCSM's main page. On Tuesday, Jars of Clay is releasing their newest album! This great Christian band has blessed countless people with their music, so we are sure that "Good Monsters" will be an excellent album. Thanks to everyone who has signed up for JCSM's Fantasy Football League! Don't forget that our draft is on Tuesday, September 5, at 1pm PST. If you haven't signed up yet, there's still time and room left, so click here if you're interested in joining this free, online game. The second installment of my diet plan begins on Tuesday. I'll be severely limiting my calories for 50 days, so please pray that I'll be able to persevere and succeed, again. This diet has been so successful that I've been considering writing a short book or web page about it. If you're interested in this "Math Diet" and how it works, please let me know. There are no pills or tricks involved and you can eat virtually anything you want, as long as you eat small portions. 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, Ph.D. Contact Us: http://jcsm.org/contact.php
JCSM's Weekly Devotions (click here to listen!) Promise #1 - Genesis 9:11 - "Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." Length kept: 4000+ years The result: There has not been another worldwide flood. Promise #2 - 1 Kings 8:56 - "Blessed be the LORD, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised. There has not failed one word of all His good promise, which He promised through His servant Moses." Length kept: 500+ years The result: God gave the Israelites rest and was revered as One who kept all of his promises. Promise #3 - Psalm 105:41, 42 - "For He remembered His holy promise, And Abraham His servant. He brought out His people with joy, His chosen ones with gladness." Length kept: 600+ years The result: God prospered the Israelites and kept his promise. Promise #4 - 1 John 1:9 - "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Length kept: 1900+ years The result: God forgives the sins of those who confess them to Him. Promise #5 - Joshua 6:5 - ". . . the wall of the city (Jericho) will fall down flat." Length kept: This promise was a prophecy that was quickly fulfilled. The result: Jericho’s walls fell. Promise #6 - Matthew 24:2 - "And Jesus said to them, ‘Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.’" Length kept: This promise was a prophecy that was fulfilled approximately 40 years later, during the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. The result: Jerusalem was torn down and the temple was dismantled, stone by stone. Promise #7 - Matthew 12:40 - "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Length kept: This prophetic promise was fulfilled approximately 1-2 years later, as Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead. The result: Jesus proved that He has integrity and that He is able to resurrect those who repent and trust in Him for salvation. Promise #8 - Matthew 18:20 - "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them." Length kept: 1900+ years The result: Jesus’ spirit is present wherever two or three are gathered in His name. He blesses those people and edifies them. Promise #9 - Genesis 3:16 - ". . . in pain you shall bring forth children . . ." Length kept: 6,000+ years The result: Due to Eve’s sin, which was the initial sin on Earth that broke the perfect fellowship between God and humankind, God promised women that they would experience pain in childbirth. Promise #10 - Genesis 3:17 - " . . . cursed is the ground . . . in toil you shall eat of it . . ." Length kept: 6,000+ years The result: Due to Adam’s sin, which accompanied Eve’s sin as the initial sin on Earth that broke the perfect fellowship between God and humankind, God promised men that they would have to work hard to bring forth food from the ground. Insight: God has kept all of His promises. This fact proves His integrity. God is trustworthy and good. He deserves our trust and complete devotion. Prayer: "Dear Lord, thank you for being good and faithful. There is no other like You. Thank you for keeping your promises for thousands of years! Help us to follow your example and be people of integrity. Forgive our sins. Lift us up and mold us. Praise You for having the highest hopes and the best plans for us. In Jesus' name, Amen."
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727), the famous discoverer of the laws of universal gravitation, also formulated the three laws of motion, which aided in advancing the discipline of dynamics, and helped develop calculus into a comprehensive branch of mathematics. Sir Isaac Newton was a mathematician, scientist, and philosopher. He constructed the first reflecting telescope, laid the foundation for the great law of energy conservation and developed the particle theory of light propagation. In 1704, Sir Isaac Newton wrote his work entitled Optics, in which he stated: "God in the beginning formed matter in solid, massy, hard, impenetrable, movable particles, of such sizes and figures, and with such other properties, and in such proportion to space, as most conduced to the end for which he formed them." ¹ Sir Isaac Newton asserted: "We account the Scriptures of God to be the most sublime philosophy. I find more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible than in any profane history whatsoever .... Worshipping God and the Lamb in the temple: God, for his benefaction in creating all things, and the Lamb, for his benefaction in redeeming us with his blood." ² "There is one God, the Father, ever-living, omnipresent, omniscient, almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth, and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus .... "To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him. That is, We are to worship the Father alone as God Almighty, and Jesus alone as the Lord, the Messiah, the Great King, the Lamb of God who was slain, and hath redeemed us with His blood, and made us kings and priests." ³ "The Book of Revelation exhibits to us the same peculiarities as that of Nature .... The history of the Fall of Man - of the introduction of moral and physical evil, the prediction of the Messiah, the actual advent of our Saviour, His instructions, His miracles, His death, His resurrection, and the subsequent propagation of His religion by the unlettered fishermen of Galilee, are each a stumbling-block to the wisdom of this world .... "But through the system of revealed truth which this Book contains is, like that of the universe, concealed from common observation, yet the labors of the centuries have established its Divine origin, and developed in all its order and beauty the great plan of human restoration." 4¹ 1704, in Optics. John Bartlett, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 313. ² Henry H. Morris, Men of Science-Men of God (El Cajon, CA: Master Books, A Division of Creation Life Publishers, Inc., 1988), pp. 23-26. Also Tryon Edwards, D.D., The New Dictionary of Thoughts - A Cyclopedia of Quotations (Garden City, NY: Hanover House, 1852, The Standard Book Company, 1963), p. 47. Henry H. Halley, Halley's Bible Handbook (Grand Rapids, Ml: Zondervan Publishing House, 1927, 1965), p. 19. Sir Isaac Newton. Charles E. Jones, The Books You Read (Harrisburg, PA: Executive Books, 1985), p. 118. ³ Sir David Brewster, Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries, of Sir Isaac Newton. Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, OR: American Heritage Ministries, 1987), p. 338.
4 T.H.L
Leary, Short Biographies of the People - Life of Sir Isaac Newton,
Vol. VI. Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud If you'd like to see more quotes from those that framed and founded America, please click here: http://jcsm.org/AmericasFounders/.
It's better to avoid making a promise that you cannot keep, but it's better yet to make a promise that you do keep.
Make a promise and keep it. If you promise something to God, be very careful to keep it. However, try and keep every promise you make, whether it be to God or another person. God bless you as you meet this week's challenge!
epaggelia (Greek, see Galatians 3:22): an announcement, pledge, divine assurance of good, message, promise
The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained "The Skeptic's Annotated Bible" claims: Exodus 12:12 - God explains to Moses that he intends to "smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. God will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt. So I guess there must be more than one god. "The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained" responds: * God does tell Moses His plan of judgment. * This Hebrew word for "god" is "Elohim." Not only is it used to designate the Creator God, it also has the following definitions: "magistrates, judges, angels, gods," etc. * There is one, true God. There are many "gods." Numerous things can be called gods. You could call television a god. You could call an idol a god. Something that takes your attention and worship away from God and puts it on them becomes a god. (This explanation came from "The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained", by Dr. Jason Gastrich. This book is on CD and gives over 4,000 answers to alleged Bible errors, 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 archive! Visit http://quotes.jcsm.org.
Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
Jason Gastrich, Ph.D. JCSM's Director ______________________________________________________ JCSM is a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization. Copyright © 1997-present.
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