Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Christianity in... "The Lorax"


My friend Will gave me a most excellent idea recently.  He said that for Dedicated Christians we should do a series of posts explaining the truth and Christian principles in various movies.  Hopefully we can get him to do a couple, but for today you have me.  I do want you all to know that not all the authors agree or would watch the movies reviewed.  The opinion belongs to the individual author and not to Dedicated Christians as a whole.

I recently watched "The Lorax," and after viewing was struck with the incredibly hard challenge to find truth in, as a friend put it, "the vast amounts of propaganda and worldly thought."

I just knew there was truth in the movie, and here is what I discovered.

The Lorax is the story of a young man who leaves his home to make a fortune by selling a sweater/hat-like piece of clothing that was made from trees.  The propaganda in the movie is pushed to an extreme as the whole movie is focused on "saving the earth" and "tree huggers."  There were two parts in the movie that later struck me as truth we can take from this movie.

The first is truth itself.  After cutting down the first tree the Lorax, a magical critter, tells him he needs to stop and shows him what could happen.  Onesler, the main character, promises the Lorax that he will not cut down anymore trees, and instead starts to get the tops of trees by picking the leaves, something that is "good for the environment."  After his family gets there to help with his business they start to pressure Onesler until he caves in.  He decides it is okay to cut down a few trees, just not all of them.  This slowly changes until every tree is gone.

The truth of this is showing the consequences of a broken promise, which is lying.  A little compromise of a promise moved into something bigger and bigger until it created a catastrophe.  It is the same with us as Christians.  We need to realize that lying is a sin.  We see throughout the Scripture that we "should not bear false witness," and in the Revelation we see "All liars will have their part in the lake of fire."  A little lie might not seem like much, but it escalates in what it can lead to and how God sees it.  It escalates how, like in the movie, a little lie moved to a bigger lie.  But how does God see something as small as a lie?

The Evangelist Tony Miano put it this way (paraphrased).  Imagine you lie to your baby brother.  Chances are nothing will happen to you.  Now, if you lie to your Mom, you will most likely be punished.  But if you lie to the President, you can be sentenced to jail or death.  The crime did not change, but what changed was who the crime was against.  It is the same way with God, just a little lie to Him is a great offense, and worthy of being thrown into the lake of fire.  For this reason we can learn from The Lorax the consequences of a lie or broken promise.

The second lesson we can learn from The Lorax is the lesson of Stewardship.  The young man had in his power the fate of whether or not the trees would be cut down, and indirectly through that the fate of the animals living inside those forests, and the entire ecosystem surrounding it.  If you have ever heard Doug Phillips preach, you have probably heard what he calls the "Dominion Mandate."  This concept comes from Genesis 1:26-28, which says:

"Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”  God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.  God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”"

This is God telling man to take dominion over the earth and subdue it for His ultimate glory.  Now the Onesler did it so much he almost destroyed it.  He was like a man who plants apple trees in a garden, and in harvest comes and pulls up all the trees from the roots in order to harvest the apples.  He destroyed the whole ecosystem of the garden.

I am not personally a "tree hugger," but I do realize the importance of caring for the world God has given us.  In the example above the man was a fool to not care and nurture the trees in order to get a more bountiful crop, but instead focused on the immediate profit He would receive, which is not right.  So the second message I believe we can learn from The Lorax is that we need to take care of our world rightly, but also see that going overboard in either direction results in chaos.

So those are the two truths I found in The Lorax.  Hopefully if you ever have the misfortune to watch this movie you will see these two principles and apply them to your own life.

Matthew

Saturday, February 2, 2013

The Most UNBELIEVABLE Bible Verse!

What is the most unbelievable Bible verse? Is it Romans 5:8 “But God commendeth His love toward us, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us?” John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life?” Though these verses are miraculous, I believe the most unbelievable verse is the first verse in the Bible, Gen. 1:1. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

First of all, this verse says that there was a beginning. A beginning for creation; a preordained date for the beginning of time; one that was preordained by God. Therefore, if God preordained the beginning, He must have been before the beginning and if He had the power to preordain it, He must have been all powerful before the beginning.

Next we see that God and only God created everything. He needed no one else to help Him. He needed no one else to guide Him. He did it by Himself, with no assistance. Our lives are useless to Him, because He is all powerful and all knowing, for His knowledge and ability go beyond what our finite minds can fathom, yet He lets us live to see the wonders of His work, because He loves us! 

Then we see what He created. God Created everything! God created everything from the entire outer space and all the incredible stars and planets to the Hydrogen Atom, the smallest measurable mass. He created the earth and all that is in it. All the plants and animals, and, most of all, he created man. He created man in His own image to be able to research His creation, to take domain over the plants and animals, but to ultimately glorify Him. He also created man to be able to build things and create things with what God has given us. But we often fail at this. We try to do things, yet they never seem to quite come out the way we planned. But God never has that happen to Him! God did not need to sit down and write out His plan, or stop and think about how everything would work, He spoke everything into existence and it works perfectly, just as He designed it to. He knew how Nuclear Fission worked before He created Uranium. He knew how far the Sun is from the Earth before He created them. He knew all mathematical equations before numbers were created. All was preordained, all was created to work without us knowing anything about it, all was created in the beginning, right when He wanted it to. 
Conclusion:
So the verse could be translated: “At a time that was preordained by God, which God was before and all powerful before, God, and God alone, spoke into existence everything that was created in a certain order so that His creation would work flawlessly until the end of time.” From Gen. 1:1, we see that God is all powerful, all knowing, eternal, ruler of everything, loving, and demands our praise and allegiance! The message is clear, right in the first sentence in the Bible!
If you can believe the first verse in the Bible, you can believe any verse in the Bible.  

Matt

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Hitler, God, and the Bible


I was ecstatic when I saw our local library attained a Ray Comfort book, and even more excited when I saw which one it was.  Hitler, God and the Bible is the sequel to the movie "180" that talks about abortion. 

Comfort starts this book with the birth of Hitler, and proceeds to give a biography of his life, all the way up through the holocaust.  Through reading about Hitler's hard life, it gives you a more personal look at this man and the way he thought.  All of these culminated into turning him into the man we know him as.  

After fully learning about the history of Hitler, Ray tackles whether or not Hitler was a Christian during WW2.  He takes this topic and proves his point beyond a shadow of a doubt... showing that Hitler had not repented and put his trust in the Savior.  Ending this section of the book, he gives a clear gospel message.

He ends with a chapter on the modern day holocaust in our own America... abortion.  The thousands of babies murdered is horrible, just like the holocaust.  He compares the two and how alike they really are.  

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  I would like to say that this book should only be read by mature readers.  As you may imagine, with in depth information on the holocaust, abortion, and other topics, a young reader should consult his/her parents before reading it.   

Matthew

Returning

I apologize that there have been no posts on this blog for some time.  This is because of the busyness of all its writers with school and other various activities.  

Starting tomorrow I am going to try firing this blog back up, and hope some of you are still around to read.

God Bless,
Matthew

Monday, October 15, 2012

Dinosaurs? Alive? TODAY?

 



Are dinosaurs alive today? That’s a good question. A lot of us will jump to the conclusion that the idea is ridiculous, outlandish and totally impossible, not stopping to examine the facts and make an accurate assumption on whether or not dinosaurs might still be alive today. But the fact of the matter is, there is more evidence that dinosaurs are still alive than extinct. 




Before I pose the evidence that dinosaurs could still be alive, I would like to address the reason that most people believe they are not. The main reason is because the hypotheses of evolution says that they are dead. Evolution lives off of lies and, when put to the test, will decay under the stresses of scientific data and biblical truth.
Evolution states that the earth, and everything inside and outside of it, was made as a result of an intergalactic explosion about 4.54 billion years ago. Then, after several different stages on biological and geological changes, random chance created dinosaurs from some unexplainable and improvable oozy, spineless amphibian about 230 million years ago at the beginning of the Triassic period of the fabled stage of evolution. “Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, approximately 230 million years ago, and were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for 135 million years, from the beginning of the Jurassic (about 200 million years ago) until the end of the Cretaceous (65.5 million years ago), when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of most dinosaur groups at the close of the Mesozoic Era. The fossil record indicates that birds evolved from tetrapod dinosaurs during the Jurassic Period, and consequently they are considered a subgroup of dinosaurs in modern classification systems.” Quoted from Wikipedia’s page on dinosaurs.  According to evolution, the dinosaurs went extinct a long time before man came on the scene. They were wiped out by the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, which people say was an asteroid hitting the earth but they really don’t know, or it could have been some really big volcanoes or maybe they all turned into birds and flew away or, their newest guess, the dinosaurs flatulence burned a hole in the O-Zone layer and the UV rays from the sun killed all of the dinosaurs. All of their guesses on how the dinos went extinct are just uneducated guesses fueled by the false belief that there is no Creator. (The interesting thing about the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event is that the evolutionists admit that it happened over a short period of time. The death and fossilization of almost all living things in a short amount of time, a catastrophic event, it sounds more like a worldwide flood to me. ) So I am going to take the evolutionary “truths”, as they call them, and blow them out of the water.
Let’s start with the supposed evolution from dinosaur to bird. Supposedly, our little feathery friends came from dinosaurs. Let’s look at the impossibilities of this assumption. First, let’s examine the external parts of a bird compared to the parts on a dinosaur.
First, the legs. The legs on a dinosaur come off the side of the animal, the legs on a bird come out the bottom. It is impossible for the skeleton of an animal to change so much that the legs come out the bottom of the animal instead of out the side.  Second, dinosaurs were reptiles and, according to the evolutionary thinking, must have had scales. That poses a problem for the mutation. Scales are part of the skin, whereas feathers grow out of the skin and are not part of the skin. It would be impossible for feathers to grow out of scales and for the scales to change into skin that feathers could grow out of. Third, birds are designed to fly, but in order for them to fly, their bones need to be hollow. Dinosaur bones, with the exception of ptarasures (Flying Dinosaurs), have solid bones like humans, dogs, cats, and most other creatures.  In order for dinosaurs to become birds, their bones would have to be hollow, another impossible feat. Next, we have the respiratory system. A dinosaur breathes the same way we do; in one way and out the same. A bird breaths completely differently, it breaths in through its nose, but, instead of breathing out through its nose, the oxygen is sent out to the most active parts of the body to oxidize the blood (the tail, the wings, the heart, etc.). In order for the dinosaurs to become birds, their respiratory system would have to completely change. This is also impossible. You cannot have a half evolved respiratory system or else the animal would die! Lastly, this point has disproven all of the Macro-Evolutionary assumptions; an animal cannot and has never been proven to be able to change into another animal. A dog can never change into a cat and visa-versa. There are other points I could talk about relating to this subject.
What about the asteroid hitting the earth, the hole in the O-Zone layer and the really big volcanoes? Well, there is no substantial evidence for any of that except the volcanoes. Is this a problem for creation? Nope! Creationists believe that during the time of the flood, some major volcanoes may have accrued. In fact, many believe that they are mentioned in the bible. “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth and the windows of heaven were opened.” Gen. 7:11. It is possible that some of the “Fountains of the Great Deep” were volcanoes. So are volcanoes a problem for the creation model? Not at all, in fact, they better prove creation than evolution.
So what about the dinosaurs being extinct before man evolved from some lesser being? Well, there is a little problem with that. You see, there are dinosaur fossils in the fossil record and right next them are the fossils of people. That causes just a little problem with their evolutionary theory.

So now we ask the big question. What happened to the dinosaurs? The answer; nothing. Nothing that didn’t happen to other animals happened to the dinosaurs. How did they survive the flood? Well, how did other animals survive the flood? They went on the ark. But dinosaurs didn’t go on the ark, did they? “You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive” Gen. 6:19-20 answers that question very well, I think. We know the dinosaurs were alive during the time of the flood because they are in the fossil record from during the time of the flood. So if some of them died in the flood, then they were around when the animals went into the ark, which means they were around when God commanded Noah to put two of every kind of animal in the ark and the dinosaurs are certainly a creature that moves on the earth. So there for, dinosaurs must have been on the ark. But how could he fit the dinosaurs on the ark? Here is a little known fact. About 85% of dinosaurs are the same size or smaller than your average Labrador Retriever.  Only 15% are bigger than that and 5% of those are bigger than a horse. 2% of those lived in the water. This would cut down on the size of the space needed to have dinosaurs on the ark. Also, they might have taken babies of the larger dinosaurs. This would cut down on space and would lower the amount of food and waste. Also, we seem to forget that the ark was designed by God. If God wanted dinosaurs on the ark, he would have made it big enough to fit them.
So, once they got off the ark, what happened to them? The same thing that happened to the other animals. They spread out and covered the earth. Some species died out because they were hunted and killed. Others died because there was not enough vegetation. And some died because the climate could not support them. But the majority lived through the flood and the time after the flood. A lot of animals were also killed in the Ice Age. So, going through that process of elimination, how can I say that dinosaurs are still alive? Easy, dogs are still alive and they were at the ark. Cats are still alive and they were at the ark. So, why can’t dinosaurs still be alive? They can still be alive and, I personally believe, are still alive to this very day.
Yes, I know I sound quite a bit radical, but please hear me out. Since the days following the flood, different accounts of dinosaurs have shown up in history. One of the first accounts is found in the book of Job in the Old Testament. “Behold, Behemoth, which I made as I made you; he eats grass like an ox. Behold, his strength in his loins, and his power in the muscles of his belly. He makes his tail stiff like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are knit together. His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like bars of iron. He is the first of the works of God; let him who made him bring near his sword!” Job 40:15-19 ESV. And then again in Job 41. “Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook or press down his tongue with a cord?  Can you put a rope in his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook? Will he make many pleas to you? Will he speak to you soft words? Will he make a covenant with you to take him for your servant forever? Will you play with him as with a bird, or will you put him on a leash for your girls? Will traders bargain over him? Will they divide him up among the merchants? Can you fill his skin with harpoons or his head with fishing spears? Lay your hands on him; remember the battle—you will not do it again! Behold, the hope of a man is false; he is laid low even at the sight of him. No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up. Who then is he who can stand before me? Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine. “I will not keep silence concerning his limbs, or his mighty strength, or his goodly frame. Who can strip off his outer garment? Who would come near him with a bridle? Who can open the doors of his face? Around his teeth is terror. His back is made of rows of shields, shut up closely as with a seal. One is so near to another that no air can come between them. They are joined one to another; they clasp each other and cannot be separated. His sneezings flash forth light,
and his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn. Out of his mouth go flaming torches; sparks of fire leap forth. Out of his nostrils comes forth smoke, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes. His breath kindles coals, and a flame comes forth from his mouth. In his neck abides strength, and terror dances before him. The folds of his flesh stick together, firmly cast on him and immovable.  His heart is hard as a stone, hard as the lower millstone. When he raises himself up the mighty are afraid; at the crashing they are beside themselves. Though the sword reaches him, it does not avail, nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin. He counts iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee; for him sling stones are turned to stubble. Clubs are counted as stubble; he laughs at the rattle of javelins. His underparts are like sharp potsherds; he spreads himself like a threshing sledge on the mire. He makes the deep boil like a pot; he makes the sea like a pot of ointment. Behind him he leaves a shining wake; one would think the deep to be white-haired. On earth there is not his like, a creature without fear. He sees everything that is high; he is king over all the sons of pride.”
Some Christians believe that the references in Job are referring to an elephant or hippo and a crocodile. They say that God was talking about something else but it sounded like He was talking about a dino like creature or that Job just took poetic liberty writing down this part of his encounter and conversation with God. This, I believe, is more radical and dangerous than saying that dinosaurs are alive today. Why would God tell us something that is different from the actual facts? Why would Job, when writing about have a conversation with God and seeing His incredible creation, leave out or change anything that was said or happened? To me, it makes no since to say that. So, what about the ideas that the Behemoth is an elephant or hippo and that the Leviathan is a crocodile? I see them to be false. In verse 17 of chapter 40, it says that the tail of the Behemoth is “stiff like a Cedar.” Now look at the tail of an elephant or a hippo. The tail on an elephant is a string that hangs down in between their legs, and a hippo’s is a short little stub. Now tell me how you can make either of those animal’s tails “stiff like a Cedar?” Impossible! In one translation of Bible I read, though I do not remember which translation it was, they had changed Behemoth to Hippopotamus, and the foot note for verse 17 said something along the lines of “Probably the trunk.” The last time I checked, hippos didn’t have trunks. Another thing that they forget is verse 19 which says “He is the first of the works of God; let him who made him bring near his sword!” The first part of the verse can also be “He is chief of the ways of God” which, when translated from Hebrew, basically means “Greatest” or “Largest of the works of God!” So we know that the Behemoth was the biggest of all the land creatures, and we know that the elephant is larger than the hippo, and we know that there have been fossils of dinosaurs found that were a lot larger than elephants, so I would say that it is safe to assume that the Behemoth was not either of the two and Behemoth might have even been a dinosaur. Same with Leviathan: Crocodiles can be killed with a bow and a spear, they don’t make wakes in the ocean, they can’t shoot fire out of their mouth. All of these things are what made the leviathan so great. So, if it wasn’t a croc, what was it? I, along with many others, believe it was a dinosaur.
Why would someone want to say that these two incredible creatures that God made to show His power are not what God said they were? I see it as they are a shamed of what the Bible says. They think it makes the Bible sound like a “Fairy-Tale” when it talks about fire breathing dragons and creatures that are virtually invincible to mankind, and can make the deep “like a boiling pot.” But to me, it shows me that our Creator is powerful and is stronger than the strongest and most dangerous of the beasts of the earth. It also says that our God makes amazing creatures. Who doesn’t think a sea monster that can shoot fire out of its mouth and is so big that it makes a huge wake in the ocean isn’t cool?
Our next encounter takes place in the extended book of Daniel. Part of Daniel was left out of the canonized Bible, but is included in the Apocrypha. In Daniel chapter 14, it talks about Daniel’s encounter with a dragon.  “In the brief but autonomous companion narrative of the dragon (14:23-30), "there was a great Dragon, which they of Babylon worshiped." In this case the supposed god is no idol, but an animal. However, Daniel slays the dragon by baking pitch, fat, and hair (trichas) to make cakes (mazas, barley-cakes, but translated "lumps") that cause the dragon to burst open upon consumption. In other variants, other ingredients serve the purpose: in a form known to the Midrash, straw was fed in which nails were hidden, or skins of camels were filled with hot coals, or in the Alexander cycle of Romances it was Alexander the Great who overcame the dragon by feeding it poison and tar.1” It is not a huge reference to dinosaurs, but it still talks about them. But wait a minute; it talks about dragons in this reference, not dinosaurs! Did you know that the word “Dinosaur” was not invented until the 1800’s with the discovery of Iguanodon? During the time of the Bible and after, in records from different cultures and countries, there appear these strange references and drawings of “Dragons.” The descriptions and pictures of these dragons are very similar to the dinosaurs that have been excavated in the present day. It is very possible and likely that these dragons and the dinosaurs are one and the same.
Other references in the Bible are found in Psalms. David talks about both the leviathan and the dragon in the book of Psalms. And in the Revelation, John wrote about the dragon that gets thrown into the lake of fire in the last days.
What about the more recent sightings? What about the flying creature of Tombstone, the torpedoed sea monster in World War I and the “Flying Lizards” of Papua New Guinea? There is also the Loch Ness Monster and Champ and the supposed “Plesiosaur” that was pulled in by a Japanese fishing boat. And then there are the cultures that were built around the dragon or greatly influenced it. The Chinese culture was based on the dragon. In all of their artwork, you see the dragon. In Scandinavia, we have the story of Beowulf who saved his people from the dragon that was torturing his people. We also have the account of St. George and the Dragon, and the list of dragon or “Mysterious Dragon-like Creature” encounters continues to go on. Most of these reports have been researched and been found to be possible and some true, others have been found to be fraud or over-exaggerations like the “Plesiosaur” that was pulled in by a Japanese fishing boat was found to be a decapitated shark. But the winged creature of Tombstone, Arizona was found to be true. Others like the Loch Ness Monster are still not proven to be true or false. I hope you now understand why earlier I said that there is more evidence that they are still alive than against it. The only true argument that people have for saying that dinosaurs are not alive, is that they have not seen them, and, as we have just seen, that argument is not completely valid either.

Do we know if dinosaurs are still alive? In short, no, no one really knows if dinosaurs are still alive except for God. What if someone found a living dinosaur? Well, if someone found a dinosaur that was still alive today, the discovery would be monumental. For Creationists, it would help to further prove that Creation better fits science than Evolution, and Evolutionists would have a lot of explaining to do. If dinosaurs were found living, it would demolish one of the few remaining evolutionary pillars that the atheists cling to so dearly. But would they care about the new evidence, or would they cling to and continue to spread their poisonous lies to children through our corrupt education system? We do know that in the end, truth and good will overcome all.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Were they born that way?

Following the recent Chick-Fil-A controversy there has been a lot of homosexuality news.  People have been saying they were born homosexual and therefore they are good to go, since they were born that way.  Folks spread this message and people are believing it.

I see a very clear message woven throughout these people's message that is influencing the youth of America every day.

What is being done, effectively, is to say (besides the blatant "I'm important, I can do what I want") that God is okay with homosexuality... because that was the way they were born and they cannot do anything about it.

Homosexuality is really wrong.  People can say it is okay because it does not hurt anyone... but it hurts God.  He says in the Bible that homosexuality is wrong.  Romans 1:26 says this:

"Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.  Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.  In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.  Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error."

When you look in the Old Testament, there are verses that say homosexuality is against the law of God.  But in addition Genesis 1:27 says this:


"So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.  God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.  Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground."  God is saying here that one man and one woman should be married, and nothing else.

On a slightly different topic, I was emailing a friend the other day and he said people should become Christians because being one gives one a sense of happiness and contentment, one that sports, friends, etc cannot give you.  I would like to post a portion of my response here:

"[I]f I wasn't a Christian, that would not convince me of much.  I can say I have a family that loves me, a job I love, a great house, enough money, lots of great friends, and a dog that loves me.  I don't think I can be any happier or content with life. 
Look at it this way.  Mankind is suffering with a disease, it is called sin.  We are all born in sin and constantly struggle with it.  The only way into heaven is absolute perfection, but we cannot attain that since we have all sinned.  [Two thousand] years ago God sent His Son, the Lord Jesus, into this world to die on a cross and pay the full price for our sins.  To accept this free gift, we need to Repent of our sins and Trust in the Savior. 
So, in my opinion, the problem with mankind is sin.  And we need to hear the Gospel and become saved.  We need to be saved... from God ['s wrath] and the place he prepared for [lawbreakers], Hell."

Why I bring this up in a post on homosexuality is the one point I was stressing in the email.  Sin.  Ephesians 2 says this: says this:

"And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.  Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest."

Through reading this it is clear that we are born in sin.  So, in a sense, these people are correct.  Before we were even born we inherited a sinful nature, a nature of evil and vile intentions.  But they have it wrong, they are really not on the right track by pursuing those evil desires of the heart." Like all of us, homosexuals needs a Savior.  Ephesians 2 goes on:

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them."

What wonderful news!  What I said above is what you need to be saved by God.  You need to repent of your sins, apologize with a remorseful heart for breaking the law of God.  Then you need to trust wholeheartedly in the Savior, and make Him your Lord!

Matthew

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

What About...



Please listen to this song. Especially the third line, it applies especially to this post- the Joker more specifically.

Most of you have probably heard about the shootings in Colorado. Some guy dressed up as the Joker from the movie "The Dark Knight Rises" went into a movie theater and started shooting people. (Find the details here: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/07/20/witnesses-to-batman-massacre-describe-terrifying-scene/ and here: http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2012/07/23/shooting-suspect-in-court-with-orange-red-hair224093/ )

The stories I have been hearing about the heroic acts of others have been on my mind lately. Three guys and their girlfriends entered that theater. One guy and three girls made it out alive. When the shooting started the men either pushed those girls to the floor or threw themselves on top of them in order to save their lives. Two men died, the third was shot three times .
One of the men who died had earlier (in life) told his buddies that he wanted to die a hero.
Men and women died in that shooting. Children died in that shooting.
Children.
People all over the country are praying for the families who have lost loved ones.
What about the Joker*? Is anyone praying for him?
What about that young girl that could have been in the audience? What if she was totally excited for her birthday the following week because she would finally get to see her over-worked dad? What if she died?
What about the Joker? What traumatized him so much as a child that he would grow to hate mankind?
What about the rest of us? What are we supposed to do with this catastrophic even that just rocked so many of our worlds?
What about the Joker? What if he really is sitting in a jail cell grinning evilly at the chaos he has created? What if he really is crazy? Is there any hope for him- at all?
What about the mother ready to commit suicide because her husband and son are dead? Who will comfort her?
What about the Joker? Can he come to his senses and realize what he has done? Will he be the old man in a jail cell waiting to die? Will he be the one begging God for mercy when no one else will?
What about you and I? What will happen when we are put to the test?
“If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.” Proverbs 24:10 (KJV)
What about the Joker? Is anyone praying for him? Would I? If I gain the strength to pray for him, will I?
“And be ye kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” Ephesians 4:32 (KJV)
“forbearing one another and forgiving one another. If any man hath a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.” Colossians 3:13 (KJV)

will I?
Tirzah

* I am calling the murder suspect "Joker".