Monday, September 25, 2006

"Pandering Prophets"

Joel Osteen
Darrell over at the The Dawg Howse found this one but I thought it worth while to post on it too. His post and my reply says it all so I will not comment any further here.

Here is the link: Joel Osteen Is At It Again.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Fire the Plumber!


Sometimes at work after lunch I take a walk to get some fresh air and some natural light (I work in the basement). Yesterday was one of those days I did. Right as I walked back in the front door of the building my cell phone rang and the ladies that work the front door said “Call your wife you have a leak in the basement!” It was my wife calling on the cell phone to tell me the same.

(note) We have been putting in a bathroom in our basement and a week ago I finally got a working sink installed.

My wife said that there was water on the floor around the sink. One of the guys at work had talked her through shutting off the main water value to the house so the leak was stopped for the moment.

After some questioning of my wife to get a idea of the magnitude of the problem I decided to take off work early and go see what the problem was. To make a long story short I found that the "plumber" had not screwed the hot & cold water hoses on tight enough to the sink faucet.

I think my wife actually caught the “plumber” in action NOT getting the hoses tight enough!



After a few turns with a crescent wrench the problem was solved. I need to have a talk with the "plumber"!

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Blessed or Cursed?

Blessed or Cursed?
My continued trek through Deuteronomy, chapter 11

Is God’s blessing on your life? Do not say “Yes, I’m a Christian, of course” to soon. God’s chosen people the Israelites had some conditions to God blessing on their life. Just because they had been unconditionally given the Promise Land they did not automatically have God’s blessing (favor) on their lives. Read this:

Deuteronomy 11:8-28
Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that ye may be strong, and go in and possess the land, whither ye go to possess it; (9) And that ye may prolong your days in the land, which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give unto them and to their seed, a land that floweth with milk and honey.

(10) For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs: (11) But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven: (12) A land which the LORD thy God careth for: the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.

(13) And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, (14) That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. (15) And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full.

(16) Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; (17) And then the LORD'S wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you.

(18) Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. (19) And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. (20) And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates: (21) That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.

(22) For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him; (23) Then will the LORD drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves. (24) Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea shall your coast be. (25) There shall no man be able to stand before you: for the LORD your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that ye shall tread upon, as he hath said unto you.

(26) Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; (27) A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day: (28) And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.

Are you constantly struggling? Nothing ever seems to go “your way”? Every time you get some extra money something breaks? Constants strife in your family or relationships? You do everything right but you constantly fail? A one hour project takes all day?

In this passage I see no middle ground, if you are not blessed then you are cursed. “Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse…” The lack of the blessing is the curse.

So I ask again, is God’s blessing on your life? If you have the signs of the curse let’s look at the cause of the blessing.

“Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day”

“And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul”

“For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him”

God wants your obedience. Do you reward your children for being disobedience? This ain’t rocket science folks! No need to send me a love gift so that I can send you a 7 part CD series on this.

Don’t live your life under a curse. Choose the Blessing of God on your life.

Monday, September 18, 2006

Sunday is the First Day of the Week


Sunday is the First Day of the Week, not the last!

I read Deuteronomy 10 this morning. Here is part of it.

Deuteronomy 10:12-22
And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, (13) To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?


(14) Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD'S thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is. (15) Only the LORD had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day.


(16) Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more
stiffnecked. (17) For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward: (18) He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.


(19) Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of
Egypt. (20) Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name. (21) He is thy praise, and he is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which thine eyes have seen.

(22) Thy fathers went down into Egypt with threescore and ten persons; and now the LORD thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude.




What is your idea of God?
What is God like?
Does He care about you?
What does He require of you?
Where is God in your life?
Is He really first?
How does this affect the way you live your life?
How does this affect how you interact with other?

Is Sunday the first day of your week?

Deliverance Comes By Deliverers


Another Tozer Devotional...
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Revival: Deliverance Comes By Deliverers

Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.
--Exodus 3:9-10

Yes, if evangelical Christianity is to stay alive it must have men again--the right kind of men. It must repudiate the weaklings who dare not speak out, and it must seek in prayer and much humility the coming again of men of the stuff of which prophets and martyrs are made. God will hear the cries of His people as He heard the cries of Israel in Egypt, and He will send deliverance by sending deliverers.
It is His way.

And when the deliverers come--reformers, revivalists, prophets--they will be men of God and men of courage. They will have God on their side because they are careful to stay on God's side. They will be coworkers with Christ and instruments in the hands of the Holy Spirit. Such men will be baptized with the Spirit indeed and through
their labors He will baptize others and send the long-delayed revival. This World: Playground or Battleground?, 20.

"Lord, send those men to the church soon. Raise up a mighty army even among young people today who will become that kind of men. We need a great movement of the Spirit of God that would bring the much-needed revival. Amen."

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source: http://lmi.gospelcom.net/

Thursday, September 14, 2006

A Growing Hunger After God



September 14
A Growing Hunger After God

As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
--Psalm 42:1-2a

In this hour of all-but-universal darkness one cheering gleam appears: within the fold of conservative Christianity there are to be found increasing numbers of persons whose religious lives are marked by a growing hunger after God Himself. They are eager for spiritual realities and will not be put off with words, nor will they be content with correct "interpretations" of truth. They are athirst for God, and they will not be satisfied till they have drunk deep at the Fountain of Living Water.

This is the only real harbinger of revival which I have been able to detect anywhere on the religious horizon. It may be the cloud the size of a man's hand for which a few saints here and there have been looking. It can result in a resurrection of life for many souls and a recapture of that radiant wonder which should accompany faith in Christ, that wonder which has all but fled the Church of God in our day. The pursuit of God, 7.

"O Father, may their numbers increase more and more--those who 'are athirst for God, and [who] will not be satisfied till they have drunk deep at the Fountain of Living Water.' Amen."

source: http://lmi.gospelcom.net/