It's a Jungle

Taken from Weekly Devotional by Max Lucado:
The story is told of a man on an African safari deep in the jungle. The guide before him had a machete and was whacking away the tall weeds and thick underbrush. The traveler, wearied and hot, asked in frustration, “Where are we? Do you know where you are taking me? Where is the path?!” The seasoned guide stopped and looked back at the man and replied, “I am the path.”
How often do we get frustrated with not knowing the direction that God is taking us? However, usually we are most frustrated because we are not considering the direction that God is taking us, but instead, are focused on where our wordly "leaders" are taking us.
A large majority of the time, my times of frustration are a result of losing sight and faith in My Navigator.
If you are frustrated, irritated or discouraged, take a look at Psalms 46; pay particular attention to verses 1-5 and 10.

1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, 3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. Selah 4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. 5 God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.
6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. 7 The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah 8 Come and see the works of the Lord, the desolations he has brought on the earth. 9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire. 10 "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." 11 The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

Galvin

While looking and listening at the Free Music site, I heard a song that really caught my attention. I wanted to know who wrote and sang it, so I went to his site. What I found deeply moved me, and I would like to share it with you.
Galvin is a young Singaporean man who has recently come to Christ. His testimony is profoundly touching to me. You can read it at his website or view it a video explaining it. I recommend viewing both.
God has obviously blessed him with many talents including musical voice, composing, artistic ability....etc, but Galvin would likely tell you that his greatest blessing received has been God revealing Himself to Galvin and his family.

Debt Free

My wife and I are currently undertaking a major overhaul of our financial habits by implementing lessons learned from Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace seminar. One of the keys to accomplishing financial peace is removing debt and the tremendous burdens that debt can cause.
In this world today, it is very rare to find an adult that does not have debt. Furthermore, it is not uncommon to find adults that are absolutely overwhelmed by debt. I have been there, too. It is a desperate feeling to see the bills come in every month and having the realization that I am not in control of my finances. What a nauseating feeling to see the pile of debt and recognizing that your monthly income is greatly smaller than your monthly expenses. It is no wonder that finances are cited as the primary reason for most divorces and in the top 3 of reasons for suicide. WHY? Because, when you are faced with such an ugly monster that you yourself have created, there often appears to be no answer.
If this is where you are today financially, I highly recommend that you take a look at what Dave Ramsey has to offer in terms of regaining control of spending and reduction of debt.

NOW, imagine if someone would come to you and offer to accept all of your debt, and pay it all for you with no strings attached, no IOU. Imagine the relief. Imagine how it would impact you the rest of your life. Imagine how it would radically impact your family. Imagine the absolute freedom that it would give you to be the person that you would like to be and to do things for the ones that you love. Imagine how you would respond to that person that gave you such a remarkable gift. Imagine the joy!

Jesus Christ has done this for you!
The ugly debt of sin that we ourselves have created, that has no answer, that is corrupting the peace of our lives, that is interfering with our ability to give of ourselves to our loved ones, that is so amazingly overwhelming, and that appears to have no end in sight, HAS been paid in full upon the cross.
So NOW, imagine the relief. Imagine how it would impact you the rest of your life. Imagine how it would radically impact your family. Imagine the absolute freedom that it would give you to be the person that you would like to be and to do things for the ones that you love. Imagine how you would respond to that person that gave you such a remarkable gift. Imagine the joy!
Here is an excerpt from Alistair Begg's daily devotion for today:
We are now--even now--pardoned; even now are our sins put away; even now we stand in the sight of God accepted, as though we had never been guilty. "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."(Romans 8:1)

Max Lucado - Manna

Max Lucado - Manna From Heaven story

Max Lucado has always been one of my favorite Christian writers, and when I think of him, I have to think of my sister-in-law Renee. She is the one that introduced me to his writings. Renee does a fair share of writing herself, and after I read the above linked story, it struck me that Renee and Max both have the ability to relate to the reader through simply illustrated terminology and imagery.
I look forward to letting my kids experience the manna from heaven experience.

Get Service

If you've never been to SermonSpice.com, it is worth the visit. It is a for profit site that sales video clips that can be used in church services or at Bible study type events. There are a bunch of Mother's Day items available right now; some that are sappy and sentimental, and some that are just funny or thought provoking.

I have a bunch of favorites:
MeChurch - depicts a church that tries to bend over backwards to meet everyones needs.
Evangelism Linebacker-linebacker goes around tackling people who are not sharing their faith.
It's All About Me - worship singer sings selfish praise songs to himself.

Tonight, I found one that was profound. It has some Matrix or 6th Sense qualities to it. It is called Get Service, and it makes you wonder how different your response to the world would be if you really understood the needs of others.

What's In Your Offering Plate?

The topic of stewardship has been interesting to me over the past few years because a few years ago I learned that my long-held notion of stewardship was only partially right. In the past, as soon as someone said "stewardship" I immediately tuned out because I knew that they were talking about giving money, and I felt I already knew what I needed to know about that. Well come to find out, there is so much more to stewardship than the offering of money.
Likewise, there is much more to giving an offering to God than just putting money in the plate. Psalms 27:6 gives one example of this: ...I will offer sacrifices in His tent with shouts of joy. I will sing and make music to the Lord.
The Lord counts our praises as an offering as well. So, as you receive a blessing from God, voice your pleasure and thank Him sincerely.
Also, as you are singing hymns of praise and worship to God at church, remember that you are not just singing a song to set the mood for your worship or for your enjoyment/entertainment. Remember that you are offering Him your shouts of joy and singing as a sacrifice because your Creator is so deserving of the praise.

7 Words of Christ

Here is a well thought out look at the last 7 phrases uttered by Christ while on the cross.
Seven Words

National Day of Prayer - GFBC Event

Garrett FBC will be holding a National Day of Prayer evening prayer event tonight at 7pm. The primary focus of the National Day of Prayer is for praying Christians to unite to petition God on behalf of our leaders and those who are in authority over us, as we are instructed to do in 1 Timothy 2:1-2: "I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty."
As you humbly come before the Lord and seek His face, please pray that these men and women will be granted divine wisdom, guidance and strength to fulfill their important roles.
For a better understanding of what the National Day of Prayer organization would have you pray, take a look at What To Pray.
Pay particular attention to THE FREEDOM FIVE just passed the midway point of the page.

The World is Not Your Friend

Yet another daily devotional from Alistair Begg. As you walk further and further following Christ, it would seem that the walk would somehow get easier. I haven't found that to be the case thus far. Based upon the writings of some the Christian "greats", I reckon an easier walk is just wishful thinking. I don't recall reading anywhere in Paul's writings where he states, "Everything is going just great now. The Lord has blessed me with vacation, sunshine and plenty of relaxation. Yep. Everything is great."
This daily devotional explores the concept that "the world is not your friend." So, when the world is not treating hunky and dory, don't be shocked. It's not really your friend.

Expect trouble, then, Christian, when you look beneath you. Then look around you. Where are you? You are in enemy country, a stranger and an alien. The world is not your friend. If it is, then you are not God's friend, for whoever is the friend of the world is the enemy of God. Be certain that you will find enemies everywhere. When you sleep, remember that you are resting on the battlefield; when you travel, suspect an ambush in every hedge.

Take a look at the entirety of this daily devotional. If you get half way through it and start feeling discouraged, overwhelmed and scared, take heart. The ending is good. The victory has already been decided.

Free Music

If you like praise and worship type music and you are a fan of not paying for stuff, check out 4Praise.com
This site has a 1000's of songs that can be downloaded or just listened to. Many of them also have lyrics, MIDI and chords available. I did not see a single artist name that I recognized or a song title that I recognized, but of the 10 songs I've listened to, 9 were good to great. The EVENTS page was very good, and has listings by state of Christian groups (that I have heard of) that are playing this year. While there, I saw that ApologetiX will be in Owensboro in July.

The 3 Young Trees Parable

The following story was taken from the daily devotional page at Persecution.com, which is the website for The Voice of the Martyrs which is an interdenominational organization working with Christians around the world who are being persecuted for their faith in Christ. They have over 30 offices around the world with staff members from many different denominations, all working with the common goal of helping the suffering church.

The Parable of the Three Young Trees
In a forest one day, three young trees all agreed to pray that they would be used for some noble purpose rather than decay from old age.

The first tree wanted to become a manger where tired cattle could feed after a long day’s work. God rewarded the tree for having such modesty. It became a very special manger—the one in which the Son of God was laid.

The second tree prayed that it might become a boat. The prayer was answered, and soon its fine wood sheltered a very special passenger—the Son of God. It heard Jesus calm a fierce storm by saying, “Peace, be still.” The tree counted its life as worthwhile in order to witness such a scene.

The third tree, however, was made into a large cross to serve as an instrument of suffering. The tree was initially deeply disappointed in its fate. However, one day Jesus of Nazareth was nailed to its limbs. Strange, but the cross did not hear groaning and cursing as on other crosses. Instead it heard the Son of God offer words of love and divine forgiveness —words that opened paradise to a repentant thief.

The tree then understood that its part in the crucifixion of Jesus provided for the salvation of humankind.

Devout Non-Belief

I don't know if I was naive, ignorant, blind, shielded, deceived, non-perceptive, or just did not pay attention in the past, but until recently I always thought that people could be classified fairly easily: either they were theists (believed in a supreme being) or were atheists. And with the latter classification, I believed that the non-believers either had never really heard a believable form of theism or had heard it and rejected it. End of story.
I have recently seen more and more indications that many non-believers are not merely just non-believers. They are, in fact, ardent, devout, pious, fanatical, staunch believers of their non-belief. I have come across article after article, blog comment after blog comment, YouTube video after video, etc., of some non-believer spewing their non-belief beliefs. In a sick way, it is somewhat humorous to me to think of this spewing non-believer as being the identical twin of the Bible thumping Holy-roller that he so greatly despises. It would make a great comedic movie having some poor average Joe living in a home directly between the two.
My point is this... There is a very intelligent, highly motivated, highly dedicated, overly ardent, mobilized army of non-believers that are progressively becoming highly organized, focused and committed to their ideals and beliefs. They are not sitting back and being merely humored by "those silly Christians and their ridiculous beliefs." No. They are, frankly, quite upset with the God believing people of the world, and believe that a majority of the world's problems have either been created or have been perpetuated by God-believers.
There are multiple concerns that could be discussed regarding the organization of non-believers, but I want to address 2:

1.) With organization comes political persuasiveness.
2) The non-belief promotional information seems to multiply daily in mass and in creativity.

Regarding #1, take a look at FFRF which is The Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc. The FFRF is an educational group working for the separation of state and church. Its purposes, as stated in its bylaws, are to promote the constitutional principle of separation of state and church, and to educate the public on matters relating to non-theism. This is one organization and one website among a multitude of similar ones. It is nearly impossible to Google a religious type keyword without getting hits by one of these type sites. More importantly, the organizations and sites, for the most part, are not fly-by-night type ventures. They are well thought out, well articulated and highly persuasive.
To understand what I'm sharing regarding #2, take a look at a site like GodTube.com and read the comments that follow some of the content. You will find comments from people who are ranting regarding their agenda of non-belief, and often the comments have very little or nothing to do with the content of the video. Or, go to a site like YouTube, and search for Christianity content. You will find, again, very well thought out, well articulated, highly persuasive and extremely creative God-belief bashing.
It would appear that, in a world desperately in need of a Saviour, the pathway to the Way, the Truth and the Light is becoming increasingly harder to perceive.
So, if you, as a Christian, believe that you are serving God to your fullest by attending church services on Sunday mornings, praying on occassion and reading some scripture, maybe you could learn something about living an active life of belief by studying the life of some of these flag-waving non-believers. Just a thought.