Hello!
I hope you had a super weekend.
This week, my daughter, wife, and I will be flying across the country to visit the Creation Museum. We'll be there on Saturday, September 15. We'll also visit our relatives in North Carolina. Please pray that we have a safe trip and a lot of fun. I'll have internet access and my cell phone in case anyone needs to reach me.
My daughter Jordan turns 5 this week! Please pray for her continued growth and joy. She started Kindergarten last week and we are blessed to have a happy, healthy, growing girl! Click here to see some pictures from her first day of school.
Have you ever used the Airborne herbal supplement to fight colds? I've used it for awhile and it's excellent. Click here for a free sample.
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!)
Psalm 100 "Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands!
Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before His presence with singing.
Know that the LORD, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we
ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter
into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the LORD is good;
His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations."
Deuteronomy 28:47, 48 "Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you."
Nehemiah 8:10b ". . . the joy of the LORD is your strength.”
Luke 4:8b ". . . for it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.'"
Romans 12:1, 2 "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."
Colossians 3:23, 24 "And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ. But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality."
Insight: Christians are called to a life of joyful sacrifice. We will always be serving the Lord and serving others and we must do it with gladness. Pray and seek God and He will bless you with supernatural joy as you serve.
Prayer: "Dear Lord, bless us and make us like You. Thank you for helping us to serve and be happy about it. Thank you for being amazing and real. Forgive our sins and forgive our fears, doubts, and worries. Remind us of the joy of sacrificial service and increase our joy as we serve. In Jesus' name, Amen."
Samuel Adams (1722-1803), was known as the “Father of the American Revolution.” Along with his cousin John Adams, Samuel Adams labored over 20 years as a patriot and leader. He instigated the Boston Tea Party, Signed the Declaration of Independence, called for the first Continental Congress and served as a member of Congress until 1781.
He helped draft the Massachusetts Constitution, and served as Lieutenant Governor, under Governor John Hancock. He later became the Governor of Massachusetts.
Samuel Adams formed the Committees of Correspondence, which were largely responsible for the unity and cohesion of the Colonist preceding the Revolution. The original Committee, formed in Boston had three goals: (1) To delineate the rights of Colonists men. (2) To detail how these rights had been violated. (3) To publicize these rights and the violations thereof throughout the Colonies. His reports were spread like fire through the towns and parishes, many times by an early pony express system. His work, The Rights of the Colonists, were circulated in 1772:
The right to freedom being the gift of the Almighty...
The rights of the colonists as Christians...may be best understood by reading and carefully studying the institution of The Great Law Giver and Head of the Christian Church, which are to be found clearly written and promulgated in the New Testament.
On September 7, 1774, on the second day of the congressional session, Samuel Adams proposed the meeting be opened with prayer, in spite of the various Christian sects represented:
Christian men, who had come together for solemn deliberation in the hour of their extremity, to say there was so wide a difference in their religious beliefs that they could not, as one man, bow the knee in prayer to the Almighty, whose advice and assistance they hoped to obtain.
As the Declaration of Independence was being signed, 1776, Samuel Adams declared:
We have this day restored the Sovereign to whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let his kingdom come.
On October 18, 1790, John Adams wrote in reply concerning these issues, stating:
You and I agree.
Samuel Adams, 1794, while serving as Lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, addressed the state legislature upon the death of Governor John Hancock:
In the supposed state of nature, all men are equally bound by the laws of nature, or to speak more properly, the laws of the Creator: -They are imprinted by the finger of God on the heart of man. Thou shall do no injury to thy neighbor, is the voice of nature and reason, and it is confirmed by written revelation.
Samuel Adams declared:
I conceive we cannot better express ourselves than by humbly supplicating the Supreme Ruler of the world...
that the confusions that are have been among the nations may be overruled by the promoting and speedily bringing in the holy and happy period when the kingdoms of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ may be everywhere established, and the people willingly bow to the sceptre of Him who is the Prince of Peace.
Samuel Adams wrote in his Will:
Principally and first of all, I resign my soul to the Almighty Being who gave it, and my body I commit to the dust, relying on the merits of Jesus Christ for the pardon of my sins.
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/.
Examine your priorities in light of scripture.
Joyfully serve the Lord! If you can't find a way to do this, please email us and we'll give you some suggestions. You can serve at your church, at a convalescent home, or you could even serve the Lord through JCSM! No matter where or how you serve, serve with joy.
God bless you as you meet this week's challenge!
awbad (Hebrew, see Psalm 100:2): to work, by implication to serve, till, enslave, keep in bondage, compel
The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained
"The Skeptic's Annotated Bible" claims:
Exodus 23:28 - God has hornets that bite and kill people.
"The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained" responds:
This passage says nothing about biting and killing. It simply says that God will use hornets to "drive out" the Hittites, Canaanites, and Hivites.
(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.)
When we withhold our possessions from God, He withholds blessings from us.
We are called to a life of joyful sacrifice.
God didn't call us to be segregated.
Pastors can't put issues on the back burner if God wants them on the front burner.
We can't be great without the help of others.
When you hear Bible-based things in your church that your pastor isn't saying, that's God speaking to you through the Holy Spirit.
Do you know how to be great in God's eyes?
Recognize the needs of other Christians and help as much as you can.
Some Christians don't grow because their church has lowered the bar.
Pastors who lower the bar to make them feel better are practicing idolatry.
To be great, we have to let God change the desires of our heart.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to be a great Christian.
No matter what you've done in the past, today is a brand new day.
To be great, we have to let some things go.
Reconcile with your Christian brothers and sisters and let God handle the justice.
Ask God to help you serve others better.
All of my treasure and all of His treasure is really His treasure.
We all need to be candid about our mistakes.
If we'd come clean, we'd be cleansed.
Examine your priorities in light of scripture.
Christians need to be committed to each other.
Once your church's vision has been articulated, you have to decide whether you'll support it or not.
These quotes were inspired by the Holy Spirit and Howard Everett.
If you'd like to read more quotes, you'll want a copy of Dr. Gastrich's book called, "10,000 Wise Quotes and Spiritual Sayings"! It's the largest collection of Bible-based quotations in the world.
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
Jason Gastrich, Ph.D.
Executive Director
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