Dear Subscribers,
I hope you had a very good weekend.
This is the fifth part in an eight part series on the Christian experience. If you missed any of the past devotionals, you can click here for them. Each week, there will be an text devotional, an audio devotional, and a song. We pray you're richly blessed.
Please pray for JCSM's volunteers. We have been blessed with a number of new helpers lately. They have a mixture of strengths and weaknesses and we need to utilize them in the best possible ways.
This week, my daughter starts going to private school for the first time. We are very happy to send her to an excellent, local, Christian school instead of the public school. While we know there are good people, teachers, and administrators in public schools, we also know that they cannot openly talk about Jesus Christ and the Bible. The public school's "Holiday Pageant" was the last straw for us because they sang about Santa about 10 times and never mentioned the name of Jesus, even though it was supposed to be about Christmas.
Please pray that Jordan enjoys her new school and makes friends quickly. It'll be a much better place for her. She'll have a Bible class each day and won't be urged to sing about mythical people like Santa any more.
Welcome to the new readers of this message! Here is your Devotion, some Cool Facts, 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!)
"Quality Christian Fellowship"
Proverb 27:17 "As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend."
Hebrews 10:24, 25 "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching."
Matthew 28:18-20 "And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.' Amen."
Acts 17:10-12 "Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men."
2 Corinthians 6:14-18 "Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: 'I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.' Therefore 'Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters,' says the LORD Almighty.”
Insight: Christian fellowship is essential for Christian growth and Christian living. We all need to be encouraging other believers and we also need their encouragement. Make it a point to have quality Christian fellowship in your life.
Prayer: "Dear Lord, thank you for the quality Christian friends in my life. Thank you for those people who speak to me about You and about the things of God. I want to know You more and be a reflection of You! Thank you for being a good God and worthy of my praise and devotion. There is no other like You. Help Christians to find other Christians to connect with. In Jesus' name, Amen."
On January 21, 1979, Neptune became the outermost solar system this week, remaining so for the following two decades. Planet Pluto has a highly elliptical orbit, as occurred in 1979. In contrast, the Earth’s solar orbit is much more circular and stable. If the Earth’s orbit was elongated like that of Pluto, drastic seasonal temperature changes would make life impossible. The unending variety within the solar system shows the exquisite design of the Earth for our comfort and survival.
This excerpt was taken from Donald DeYoung's book called, "365 Fascinating Facts From the World of Discovery."
If you don't have a relationship with a Christian under 10 years old and over 60 years old, you're missing out on a lot.
Do you have quality Christian fellowship in your life? If not, find some believers who you can talk to about things. God will bless you and them.
God bless you as you meet this week's challenge!
koinonia (Greek, see 1 Corinthians 1:9): partnership, (literally) participation, (social) intercourse, communion, fellowship
The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained
"The Skeptic's Annotated Bible" claims:
Exodus 32:27-28 - God orders the sons of Levi (Moses, Aaron, and the other members of their tribe that were "on the Lord's side") to kill "every man his neighbor." "And there fell of the people that day about 3000 men." Is this the same God who commanded "Thou shalt not kill" in Ex.20:13 and Dt.5:17? Well, maybe he changed his mind again. Maybe he just couldn't control himself then he saw that golden calf and all those naked bodies.
"The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained" responds:
* In Exodus 32:25 and 26, Moses calls all of the people who loved God and they came to Him. The other people stayed in their sins and were punished.
* God told humans not to murder in Exodus 20:13 and Deuteronomy 5:17. However, God did command the Israelites to perform several military missions which included killing pagans and idolaters.
* These people weren't just dancing naked. They built an idol and they were worshiping it. They had been delivered from Egypt by God and now they were rejecting Him. Therefore, God judged them with their lives.
* God's command was against murder; against humans arbitrarily deciding to murder other humans. God is the rightful giver and taker of life. However, He has used humans to enact His judgment and this was one of those cases.
(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, if you like to read wise quotes, you can either visit our Quotations Archive or get 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.
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Jason Gastrich, Ph.D.
Executive Director
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