Christian

A dream within a dream

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I have just awoken from my sleep to write down what just occurred within my dream. For as I have said before I am one of the old men in Acts 2:17.
So within this dream I was given a statement and I was given an answer to this statement. Then I found myself at an event which was a ceremony for those going into the world, and I was one of three speakers which were holy men. There had been other speakers, but I was the middle one of the three speaking for God. (Now remember this is just a dream and I am not placing any import to that statement. It is just how it was in the dream.)
So I get up to speak and I state that I had a dream about a statement I was given to say. The statement was:
“Go and feed my children.” Now, as I specified in my dream, those within the audience were the children. These “children” were all young adults about to start their live in the world, just so you understand.
So I said: “What is it we are to feed the children?” and commented that those listening were the children I was referring. At this point a girl next to me stated her view as to what to feed them which cause those in the audience to laugh and I mentioned that they just heard her answer.
I then tried to return to my topic when a young man close to the stage became disruptive trying to discourage any from listen and cause my speech to be shutdown. It got to the point that the young man got up from his table and came before the dais. At this time the previous speaker got up and tried to protect me. I become filled with a righteous anger, I moved the previous speaker aside and went down and literally picked up the young man under his arms and carried him back to his table and said he would be expelled from school if he continued his interruptions and the dean of the school agreed to do so. The young man has gotten fear upon his face even as I carried him bodily back to where he sat, and was silenced.
I then continued: “As you can see there will be those that do not wish to hear the answer. There will be those that interrupted with silly comments to distract and then there will be those that will become disruptive so as to shut down the word of God. But as you can see God’s word cannot be stopped. For how can you challenge the Creator of all there is? You can’t, you will lose.
“The answer to the question is: The knowledge of God, but what is the knowledge of God? It is not just the Ten Commandments, or more accurately the twelve commandments since Jesus Christ Himself added two more. That being to love God with all your heart and to place Him first in all that you do, and second to love your neighbor as yourself, which means simply to follow the golden rule of ‘Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.’
“It also means to understand that this knowledge states clearly in both the Old and New Testament that if it is called a sin it is a sin. That you must repent of these sins. For if you are to honor the greatest commandment which is to love God and place Him first, NOTHING can be before Him. If you would rather live within a sin, then it is first and not God and so you in this alone are not only sinning against God you are rejecting God for you do not wish Him to be first in your life.”
It is here that I awoke and came straight to my computer and wrote it down for all to read and think upon.
John 21:15 – So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. 16 He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. 17 He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.

Out of insignificance God causes greatness.

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Now why such a title?
This is why: Nazareth is the town Jesus was raised within when Joseph returned them to Israel from Egypt. It was such an insignificant town that there are skeptics that doubt it existed during the young year of Christ. In comparison it is like a going through the countryside on a two lane road, suddenly the speed limit reduces for forty-fire to twenty-five. You see a stoplight that is green for you, as soon as you pass through the intersection the speed limit returns to forty-five. That was a town, you didn’t give it a second thought and it was gone. That was Nazareth. As mentioned above this is where Christ came from and he is the greatest thing to have happened for this planet, which brings me to my next topic: this planet.
It is on the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy. One galaxy out of millions, maybe even billions. Yet is this solar system even close to anything? It is not even close to the center of its own galaxy, a galaxy that is off in the woods so to speak when compared to other galaxies as seen through astronomy.
So it is easy to say that this little planet of ours could be considered “insignificant.” Yet it is here that God chose to place Adam and eve upon. Yet it is here that He spoke to Abraham. Yet it is here upon an insignificant mountain in that a burning bush drew Moses to look upon it and hear the words of God.
So what greatness and wonders are there that we can look forward to in our eternal lives that we are promised to partake of? Just how great and wondrous will it be since we are in such an insignificant planet on the edge of nowhere.
The only way to find out is to accept Jesus as your Savior and to repent of your sins and never do them again.

The Plea to awaken for time is running out.

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More and more in what I see and hear, as I look about me, I believe more and more that the end times are upon all humanity. In Acts2:17 it states:
And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
I have no question that I am a dreamer of dreams that deal with the Body of Christ. I know of those that have seen visions. As of yet I am aware of any that have prophesied. There are other things occurring that meet what the Bible tells us to watch out for and I see them increasingly every day.
Events are taking place I never thought possible a decade ago, but now I see them and know ever more that God is real, that Jesus is real and the Son of the Creator of the universe, including this tiny speck of dust on the edge of that which He created.
Too many are lukewarm and I have been tasked to attempt to get these to hear, to awaken once again to the glory of God. I am praying and hoping some have heard and are endeavoring to fix their ways and their place with God.
The Bible says people will listen to false teachings. The newest craze is the “God Loves all” false teachings. The thing is they mix just enough of the truth into what they are saying to confuse and befuddle those that are not aware of the full gospel. Yes God does love all, but there is a “but.” (Couldn’t resist doing that sorry)
Here is what the Bible does say. Yes God loves us, why? Because who wouldn’t love that which they have created. If you write something, if you make artwork, if you build something, do you not love it? The answer is yes, but don’t you just feel there is something you could have done differently to make it just a bit better than it is, yet you leave it alone.
That is how God sees humanity. The think is the little difference needed is already placed within us. We just have to act upon it.
“What is it?” you ask.
It is accepting that Jesus is your Savior and committing to a FULL relationship with God through His Son. To do this you must stop sinning. If you live in a sin and place that sin over everything else, especially God, then you are not repentant, you have no real desire to serve God, for the is sin more important to you than God. This is living a lukewarm life.
We are to place God first in all that we do. To do that you must fully honor His instructions, which are given within the entire Bible. If the Bible state that something is a sin, then you must turn away from this sin 100%. This is living hot for God.
Now all true Christians know that we do commit ourselves 100% mentally, but there comes times when we falter and fall. We trip over our sins, but here is the difference, we feel remorse, we feel sorrow, we feel regret. That is because we realize that God is real, His Son is real and we have, even for a very short time, place God second to our sin nature.
Being human we are stuck in this body, this corruptible, until we are finally called into the presence of God, and it will be then that we will finally put on the incorruptible. It is then that we will finally be able to fully and completely be free from the taint of Adam and Eve’s rebellion against God.
However, do not mistake what I am saying as permission to still live in sin. It is not, you must fight against it, you must pray to Jesus for strength to overcome your weaknesses and seek His forgiveness and glory.
You must leave your sin behind. You cannot serve two masters. It is either the sin or God. The Glorified Jesus Christ makes this perfectly clear in Revelation 3:15-16. God would rather you be cold or black for Him or hot and white for Him. It clear states that for those that live both in their sin and say they are for God will be spit out. “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”
In 2 Peter 2, in John 15 and in the verse above it makes it clear. That there are those that came to Christ, but turned their back upon Him. This believe of once saved always saved which is a man-made doctrine. So is going to confession, another man-made contrivance into lulling you into sin. For anything made of man is corrupt and ultimately leads back to its roots.
This is what Satan wants. He wants all to fail so none will be higher than he. He still believes that he shall defeat God, unaware that he has been living within one of his own lies. The father of lies caught within his own lies, the irony of that is just mind-blowing.
You have to understand that below that Holy Trinity of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost will be those within humanity that overcome their sins and fully commit to God through Jesus.
The Great White Throne Judgment will literally weed out the rest.
Those that overcome will be in the service of God, as it should be for we are His creation, but we will be given wondrous tasks to fulfill in this service to our Creator. Can you get your mind wrapped about that?
The end is closer than many think or believe or fear to believe. It is important that you think now, that you act now, that you turn from your sin now. Understand that yes God loves you, but also understand that due to this love He is willing to allow you to live with your choices. If those choices due to free will that leads to the darkness then so be it, but know that is not where He wishes you to be. He wishes you to come to the light, live in the light, and know that if the Bible states a sin is a sin, that it is never meant for the light. Leave the darkness and come to the light and to the glory of our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen

WORSHIP WARS!!! (Maybe the most controversial thing I have ever written).

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Excellent point

amokarts's avatarAMOKArts

As creatives in the church, we will sometimes be called upon, by God and man to try new things, sometimes these things will work and sometimes they won’t and when they don’t there can be backlash. We in the church can become very protective of worship, and by worship I mean style of worship. Some time around 2010, I did a web comic that was probably one of the most controversial things that I have ever done.

worshipwars It was part of my Weird World of Weiss comic for Cyberlight Comics. It was written in a time of immense frustration and yet a whole lot of hope. You see I love the church of Jesus Christ. Having been in almost 150 different, diverse churches in the last four years makes me love it all the more. There are so many different expressions of God’s Kingdom out there, and here is what…

View original post 484 more words

So folks are getting on Billy Graham’s case are they?

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So Billy Graham has released a new book entitled “Where I am.” Per his son Franklin Graham he had originally indented it to be all about Hell. He changed it a bit and decided to talk about his insight into events in the eternal life we are all going to face.
The thing is people are trying to change Billy Graham’s message into one where all will go to heaven, or as I see it go and serve God and be able to explore all of God’s creation, but both Billy and his son Franklin say that this is not the message that he has taught. The message he taught we you must repent of your sins and accept the will of God through the salvation offered by His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.
This however is not what those that wish to live in sin and expect to get to heaven wish to hear.
This reminds me of how people said that the events in the Bible are a myth, but the letters and the gospels were all written when those that had witnessed the events were alive and could say this is true or that is not true.
Well in this case Billy and Franklin are saying this is not true. They are saying you MUST repent. You MUST stop sinning and you MUST truly ask Jesus into your life and honor the teaching of the Bible. If it is called a sin in the Bible then it is a sin… period. This is also what the Grahams are saying.
So these “critics” need to stop trying to turn the words given by the elder Graham and twisting them and trying to turn them into mythology.
I agree fully with the Graham family. A sin is a sin. If the sin is more important than God then the sin is your master not God. Repent, Turn from your sin and accept Jesus as your Savior or face the consequences which includes Hell, the Pit of Fire, the Lake of Fire, which ever term you don’t wish to hear.

Confessions of a screwed up middle aged man: The most compelling evidence yet

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Today as I was coming to the end of the book “The Case of Christ” by Lee Strobel I came across some of the strongest evidence of the reality of Christ’s resurrection. Now you have to understand. I have been a born again believer since 1985. I have had my ups and downs as is unfortunately normal for this day and age due to the weak society we live within. To hear this evidence worded in such a manner just deepened my belief and faith in God and His Son Jesus.
In the last chapter of the book Mr. Stobel is talking to Dr. J. P. Moreland. Here Dr. Moreland brings up the change that took place within thousands of Jews within Jerusalem. For thousands of year and to this day there were and is still a Jewish people. All other nations that existed since before Joseph led the Jewish nation into Egypt and their eventual enslavement have ceased to exist in their original form or are no longer even thought of. In that time the Jewish people have continued to exist. Many of those traditions are still in use today save the sacrifice and burnt offers. Yet soon after Christ’s crucifixion thousands of Jews abandoned these tradition. Why? Because many had seen the risen Christ and others were witness to the miracles performed by His disciples as well as seen the fires of Pentecost and heard the disciples talking in many languages which many of the Jew understood having come from far parts of the world upon pilgrimages to Jerusalem. This caused them to turn from their traditions to embrace Christianity.
You have to understand this. The world two thousand years ago was nothing like the world we now live within. Today those in this world are weak minded. Going to this fad or that fad. This bit of happiness over here and then a few days later running to this happiness over there. Face it we as a people are weak compared to those that lived not even a hundred years ago due to Television and other devices of technology. So it is hard for many to understand how people can turn away from their cultural foundations and wholeheartedly change literally overnight and stay that way the rest of their lives even under the threat of a torturous death.
God is real. Jesus is real. An eternal life is real and is for all of us. You, me, the person next to you. It is something that is truly worth dying for.
The disciples had run away from Jesus. They had thought Him killed, gone. Then within days after His death they suddenly were literally willing to die for their belief that Jesus rose from the dead, because He did and they attested to that till their deaths, many of which were horrifying.
Think upon that for a while.

Live on Forever

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This is partly inspired by The Afters “Live on Forever.”

What many have forgotten or were never told is that this life we now live in is not the end. There is life beyond this temporal world we now live within. No matter what you’ve been told. No matter what story has been fed to you. The truth is all that is here is not the endgame not the goal.
We are standing before the starting line stretching out muscles. Many have stopped stretching our soul muscles though. Many have stopped stretching and are seeking after the rewards before the race has ever begun.
What is the reward when you never run the race? The answer is nothing. An overly large house, a fancy car, fancy clothes and physical pleasures. All these things are nothing they will turn to dust. Are the Pharaohs still around? Are the Caesars? No they are gone, dust, nothing.
Then what is the purpose of this life? It is a testing, a purging. It is a world designed to weed out the weak, the worthless, the nothing, for nothing seeks after nothing. All the temptations that we go through are designed to see if we will overcome them and win, but can we do it alone? No, for all humanity is built to fail. For within us there is nothing but corruption and decay, there is nothing. Nothing of any true value.
Through Christ our real selves are revealed. Our real purpose is shown to those that listen. Our true life begins when we leave this reality. We truly are meant for more. We are to bow our knees to God as it should be for He is our Creator, but we are to be His tools throughout the universe. We are only answerable to the Divine Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. We are meant to lead, to be governors, tasked with whatever God asks of us to do for all will result in His glory.
There is truly an eternal life that is promised to all. It is not for some distant mythical progeny thousands of years from now, but you, me, and everyone.
The thing is many have chosen this life for this is all they believe that there is. Laughing at my words, thinking me and those like me that know there is a God and know that His Son Jesus is the true Messiah. Born at the time required, and then raised from the dead at the time required to cleanse us of our sin. To give our souls the rebirth mandatory to know that this live is needed to forge us into His tools. That will last for all eternity which will then live on forever.

Confessions of a screwed up middle aged man: I am so glad this is not all there is

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As I have posted before this life we now live within is a test. Within it is pitfalls and heartache; happiness and joy. Things we ourselves think would be good for us God says is not, or at least not now.
Yet it still hurts, especially when you are led to believe something you had hoped for will happen and then suddenly find out there was a “mistake” made and it is not going to happen after all.
I look forward to the days when honesty will always be given. I look forward to hearing true praise for your service and not be lip service. Humans these days do not know the Bible. Humans these days do not care to truly learn it and understand it, for they would rather seek after their own goals and glory no matter the personal cost to others.
I look forward to no longer having to be around people who think they are their own god and all must bow down before them or pay the cost for not doing so. I look forward to the day when people will actually understand that as you age there is more and more responsibility to those about us and not to their own joys which makes them appear to have never left their teenage years mentally. They do not know or care to know that with age truly does come wisdom and that the source for all goodness, greatness and joy comes from God.
I just wish I could cause these people to understand that they are doing more harm to themselves then to those about them. I want to get them to truly awaken to the fact that if they continue to live with this false image they have placed themselves into is escapism for what is truly real and important.
Too many seek after their own rewards upon this earth. The bigger car, the fancy house and the luxuries that go with it. It is not being able to live in sin and think all is well and good.
It is not a belief that God gives us His rewards here upon this earth in this short time span. For the Bible makes it clear that our rewards are not here and those that have their rewards here will have less in the next and eternal life.
God said there are things we must do. God has said there are things we must not do and if we find people doing certain things we are to avoid them for their actions could poison us to our Lord.
These are the things that I seek, but time to time I forget this as we all do and it still hurts when God says “No.”
But He says it for a reason. For His glory and His goals far outweigh mine, or yours.

What are the odds?

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As I explore deeper and deeper in my faith. I find just how much research has been done that just keeps showing that Jesus did walk the earth at this time two thousand years ago. Fact after fact, item after item confirming Jesus is real. What I found most fascinating though was that someone actually run the odds of a person showing up within the required time for Him to exist, which was just over two thousand years ago, and fulfill the prophecies set forth within the Old Testament. There are a total of forty-eight of these prophecies by the way.
Peter W. Stone ran the odds in “Science Speaks” published in 1969. He ran the odds for some person to accomplish all the prophecies which included a time frame as show in Daniel 22-27:
And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
The mere fact that a designated time frame was established for there to be a Messiah and Jesus was the only person to meet that criteria.
Anyway here are the odds as listed by Peter Stone for all forty-eight:
One in a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion or 10^156.
Yet Jesus Christ fulfilled every single prophecy set forth within the Old Testament. Only someone that is beyond human could, can, did accomplish that goal.
Ponder that as you consider if there is a God and if He had a Son and know that there is more evidence supporting that is Jesus real. More than there is for any other person in history, in recorded ancient history.

Those that sin really want to live that way

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I have stated in the past that selfishness is the ultimate sin. The core of all other sins. Today in a way I was given an affirmation of this believe I have come to so ardently hold to.
I have been reading “The Case for Christ” by Lee Strobel. Within this book he goes and interviews leading theological scholars on Jesus and how He is shown within the Bible. In his interview with D. A. Carson, Carson makes several observation about humankind and sin:
“They’re consigned there (hell), first and foremost, because they defy their Maker and to be at the center of the universe….. It’s filled with people who, for all eternity, still want to be at the center of the universe and who persist in their God-defying rebellion”
This is selfishness manifest. Dr. Carson also states, and I’ll paraphrase here, that if God totally removed His presence from the earth, humankind themselves would turn this planet into hell all on their own. I have to totally agree with this assessment.
Today, as those in power push God further out of the place He started at in this nation, this nation falls further into depravity. Mass killings are on the rise, the willful dissection of babies not allowed to fully develop for greed and profit. While those causing the slaughter and hacking up of these innocent lives sits in a hearing twisting the words of those that oppose their actions to make their actions against these children as if it is nothing at all. Then we have those that demand to bring their sins which were hidden in the shadows and bring them into the light, and force others to acknowledge their acts by demanding they be formalized with a document. Not realizing that this legitimization is actually them thumbing their nose at God and telling him “see we can sin and you must accept us in our sin now,” while God in return is saying that they have damned themselves deeper into the pit.
So yes it is true as God is removed this place becomes more and more like a living hell. Reflect that which these rebels so want and desire to come to pass. So who is to blame that when the time finally comes for the judgment of these people by God Himself to arrive? Who is really sentencing them to hell, God? No. They are casting their own judgment against themselves, not God, nor His Son Jesus Christ.
My first encounter with this believe came when I was a child and would watch John Wayne in “Angel and the Badman” (1947). In it the Quaker family had a saying on the wall:
“Each human being has an integrity that can be hurt only by the act of that same human being and not by the act of another human being.”
In the movie it was attributed to violence, but it can be applied to any act of rebellion otherwise known as sin against God.
God. The being that created all and all humans. God. A being that deserves for His creation to honor this creation and thus bow down and acknowledge that His is God. Is this so much to ask for He who cause us to be?
Yet all those that sin be it murder through mass killing. Be it murder through abortion. Be it murder through the rejection to reproduce as God design all life to reproduce. It is a selfish desire to place oneself over God. So as a result of this selfish self-serving desire and an unwillingness to turn from these sins. It is those that live this way and wish to dominate other human beings that the result will be an eternity in hell. That is how it is described in the Bible. I didn’t say it, nor am I condemning or judging any. They that are living in these sins are doing that to themselves.
Genesis 38:8 – And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother’s wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother. 9 And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother’s wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother. 10 And the thing which he did displeased the LORD: wherefore he slew him also.
Deuteronomy 27:25 – Cursed be he that taketh reward to slay an innocent person. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Revelation 21:8 – But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
Proverbs Chapter 6 – 16 These six [things] doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: 17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, 19 A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
Leviticus 18:22 – Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
Mark 7:20 – And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. 21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: 23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.