Hello!
I hope you had a great week.
Are you on MySpace? Like most Christian ministries, JCSM has a page on MySpace to lead others to Christ. If you have a membership, please add us as a friend because we'd like to keep in touch. Click here for our page.
Do you know a Christian administrator at Wikipedia? For the most part, we have found Wikipedia to be hotly, anti-Christian (e.g. no Christian influence, lots of attacks on Christian articles and people, persecution of Christians, etc.). If you know any Christian administrators at Wikipedia, please let us know.
JCSM believes in the doctrine of eternal security. We have a great number of articles on the subject and we are about to release them. We will be hosting 83 articles from theologians and scholars all over the world. Next week, we'll have all of them online, so please read next week's devotional for the link.
Jordan's new school pictures are online. Click here if you'd like to see my daughter. Please pray that she continues to grow physically and in the Lord.
If you're in the San Diego area, you might want to see MuteMath play on Thursday night. They'll be playing at the San Diego House of Blues. They are like Switchfoot, in that they don't call themselves a Christian band, but they are. They have an interesting fusion of rock and keyboards and you can hear some samples on their MySpace page.
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!)
Ecclesiastes 10:1 "Dead flies putrefy the perfumer’s ointment, and cause it
to give off a foul odor; so does a little folly to one respected for wisdom and
honor."
Ecclesiastes 10:12, 13 "The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious, but the
lips of a fool shall swallow him up; the words of his mouth begin with
foolishness, and the end of his talk is raving madness."
Ecclesiastes 9:17, 18 "Words of the wise, spoken quietly, should be heard rather
than the shout of a ruler of fools. Wisdom is better than weapons of war; but
one sinner destroys much good.”
Matthew 24:23-25 "Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is
the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false
prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if
possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand."
Matthew 26:41 "Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed
is willing, but the flesh is weak."
James 3:6-8 "And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set
among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of
nature; and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of
reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no
man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison."
Insight: Fools need to seek wisdom. Wise people need to continue on a godly path. Evil lurks and wants more victims, so we need to be prayerful and careful. Prepare now to be tempted and do everything you can to stay close to Christ.
Prayer: "Dear Lord, bless us and help us to be wise. Help us to know and walk in your ways. There is no other like You and we need You. Thank you for your love and your patience with us. There is no other like You. Bless us and forgive our sins. Convict us with your Holy Spirit and help us to stay close to You. In Jesus' name, Amen."
Alabama Courts 1983, in the case of Jaffree v. Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County, 544F. Supp. 1104 (S. D. Ala. 1983), Judge Brevard Hand quoted from the nineteenth century Unites States Supreme Court Justice, Joseph Story, who succinctly clarified the original meaning of the First Amendment:
The real object of the First Amendment was not to countenance, much less to advance Mohammedanism, or Judaism, or infidelity, by prostrating Christianity, but to exclude all rivalry among Christian sects [denominations] and to prevent any national ecclesiastical patronage of the national government.
If you'd like to have the citations for the footnotes above, please email us. If you'd like to see more quotes from those who framed and founded America, please click here: http://jcsm.org/AmericasFounders/.
Fools are often characterized by the foolish things that they say.
Ask God to help you avoid making a foolish mistake that can undercut God's work in your life. All it takes is one slip and it could damage your reputation and your life, forever. Seek God's protection because we all have blind spots where we deeply need His help.
God bless you as you meet this week's challenge!
planaho (Greek, see Matthew 24:24): to (properly cause to) roam (from safety, truth, or virtue): go astray, deceive, err, seduce, wander, be out of the way
The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained
"The Skeptic's Annotated Bible" claims:
Exodus 21:20-21 - It's OK with God if you slowly beat your slaves to death. After all, they are your money.
"The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained" responds:
This passage of scripture proclaims that an Israelite master who murders a servant will be severely punished.
Exodus 21:21 is referring to Israelite servants (not slaves) and this scenario was explained with the parallels to the prohibition laws and divorce.
(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 two ways to live life; the way of wisdom and the way of
foolishness.
Don't take the little things for granted because they can make the difference.
One foolish mistake can ruin a career.
The world suffers from immature leaders.
Don't say something in private that you don't want people to hear in public.
The mouth is a powerful tool.
Make praying for wisdom a habit.
If it weren't for the hand of God in our life, we would be making lots of
foolish decisions.
If you'd like to read more quotes, we have thousands in our archive! Visit http://quotes.jcsm.org.
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
Jason Gastrich, Ph.D.
JCSM's Director
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