Hello!
I hope you had a super weekend.
Have you gotten your tickets to Spirit West Coast, yet? If not, why not? If I could count all of the miles I've traveled to attend Christian concerts, I would have driven across the United States several times. Click here to see this summer's Spirit West Coast information because you won't want to miss it!
The National Day of Prayer is this Thursday, May 3. We will be praying in JCSM's chat room at 3pm Pacific Standard Time (6pm Eastern Standard Time). Please come and join us if you can!
On Wednesday, May 2, Baskin Robbins is selling ice cream for just 31 cents a scoop! This is to honor fallen firefighters and their families for their courage. Support firefighters and get some inexpensive ice cream!
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!)
"The Fantastic Freedom of Forgiveness"
Psalm 32:1 "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered."
Psalm 86:5 "For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You."
Matthew 6:14, 15 "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."
Matthew 18:21, 22 "Then Peter came to Him and said, 'Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?' Jesus said to him, 'I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.'"
Matthew 18:32-35 "Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. 'So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.'"
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. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us."
Insight: It has been said that the time between someone sinning against us and forgiving them determines our character. Avoid holding grudges. Remember that God forgives you, immediately. Forgiving those who hurt you will free you from anger and will bless you more than you know.
Prayer: "Dear Lord, bless us and make us like You. Help us to forgive others, even when they don't deserve it. Thank you for forgiving us so deeply and completely, over and over. There is no other like You. Thank you for the life of Jesus and thank you that He forgive others because He loved them. Help us to love others this way as well. In Jesus' name, Amen."
Andre Marie Ampere (1775-1836), was a French electrician and scientific writer who discovered the relationship between magnetism and electricity and defined a unit measuring the strength of an electric current. (Amperes equals volts divided by ohms.) Ampere had written on a piece of paper before his death:
Believe in God, in His providence, in a future life, in the recompense of the good; in the punishment of the wicked; in the sublimity and truth of the doctrines of Christ, in a revelation of this doctrine by a special divine inspiration for the salvation of the human race.
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/.
One of our greatest needs is to know that we are forgiven by Almighty God.
Put some scriptures around your house! Print some of your favorite scriptures on your computer's printer and put them on your walls, so you can read them daily and be blessed.
God bless you as you meet this week's challenge!
afeeayme (Greek, see Matthew 8:21): cry, forgive, forsake, lay aside, leave, let (alone, be, go, have), omit, put (send), away, remit, suffer, yield up
The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained
"The Skeptic's Annotated Bible" claims:
Exodus 21:22-23 - If two men fight and cause a woman to miscarry, but do not hurt her, then the one who hurt her shall pay her husband an amount determined by the judges. Only if the woman dies is the punishment to be death. Apparently, then, with respect to abortion, God is pro-choice since he considers a woman's life to be more important that that of the fetus.
"The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained" responds:
The first part is written in the scriptures.
God is plainly and clearly pro-life. There are countless scriptures that proclaim God to be the giver and taker of life, knowing us before our birth, predestining us before birth, etc. JCSM hosts an article with a great number of scriptures that relate to abortion at http://abortion.jcsm.org.
(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.)
These quotes are from my upcoming book called, "10,000 Wise Quotes and Spiritual Sayings" (ISBN 978-0-9732797-8-8), which will be released in September. The following sayings are from the chapter called "Exhortations."
Don't become lenient to sin.
Don't conform to your culture. Your citizenship is in Heaven and there are different rules there.
If you aren't enslaved to a certain sin any more, rejoice and praise God!
People who have genuine faith and love for God will try to obey God.
Don't put God on and off like clothes.
Bring a backsliding friend to church.
Be accountable to one another; it will keep your heart pure.
Be enemies with your sins.
Share the good news with someone who is headed the wrong way.
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
______________________________________________________
JCSM is a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization. Copyright © 1997-present.