Dear Subscribers,
I hope you're having a great day.
Do you have any good Thanksgiving or Christmas recipes? If so, you can always share them! I recently posted my recipe for Super Yummy Peanut Cookies and they're surprisingly easy to make!
We are preparing to give our weekly devotions and our web site a facelift! If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please email them to us. If you have an idea, we'd be happy to hear what you have to say! Most of the changes will not be revealed until January 1, 2009, but we can say we're adding an RSS feed to our html devotionals, so you can easily subscribe and read with a mobile device or web browser.
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
Romans 6:4 "Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."
Romans 7:6 "But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter."
2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."
Insight: Christians have been given new life through their repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. We do not have to be slaves to our old selfishness and foolishness. We have been forgiven and redeemed and we can walk down a different path, the path of righteousness, and thrive by our Creator's side.
Prayer: "Dear Lord, bless us and make us like You. Thank you for working on us with love and patience. Thank you for giving us life anew! There is no other like You. Forgive our sins. Remind us that You are near. Help us to pray to You often. Give us joy and peace, Lord. In Jesus' name, Amen."
“Do or do not. There is no try.” - Yoda
Stretch! Your body needs to be and stay flexible. Gently stretch all of your major muscle groups. If you need a particular stretch, please let me know and I'd be happy to suggest one.
God bless you as you meet this week's challenge!
kahee-not-ace (Greek, see Romans 7:6): renewal (figuratively), newness
The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained
"The Skeptic's Annotated Bible" claims:
Matthew 4:7 - Jesus quotes Dt.6:16 saying, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." Yet James (1:13) says that "God cannot be tempted." Is it necessary to prohibit an impossible act?
"The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained" responds:
Jesus is indicating that the Devil should not provoke God. He is not talking about tempting God to sin. God cannot sin and cannot be tempted to sin.
James is telling us that God cannot be tempted to sin. There are two, different, Greek words to indicate two, different meanings in these texts (Matthew 4:7 and James 1:13).
In Malachi 3:15, the present situation was being mentioned. The unrighteous people were prospering. They were "testing God's patience" and going (seemingly) unpunished.
In Acts 15:10, this Greek word for "tempt" is better interpreted "test" and is referring to the same thing as above: testing God's patience.
(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.)
“See people as they could be, inspire them to get there, but love them where they’re at.”
"Pray for the fruits of the Spirit, like love, peace, patience, joy, self-control, and you’ll be in a better place. You’ll become like Christ and Christ’s qualities are satisfying, comforting to possess, and attractive".
These quotes came from the Holy Spirit and Jason Gastrich. If you'd 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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San Diego, CA 92169
Jason Gastrich, Ph.D.
Executive Director
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