Words to Live By  

If you read nothing else in John chapter 4...

     Jesus said to the woman in Samaria, Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water spring up into everlasting life. 

     True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. 

     My food is to do the will of Him who sent me, and to finish His work.

     And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.

 His Nation Asks More 

 Part 2 ... in Capt. Sam Brown's words

     "My second guardian angel was ... a kind dietitian in the burn unit. She saw the joy and resolve I poured into my recovery, and she saw past the scars and struggles I faced. Within a year, we were married. We now have three beautiful children.

     "I dedicated my life to helping war-wounded soldiers. Through volunteering and through a medical supply business I built and sold, I've helped get them the healing they need - both spiritual and physical. 

     "Just as 9/11 called me to enlist...the grave threats facing America call me into service yet again! Washington politicians - like my opponent - recklessly legislate away our freedoms and neglect our safety from their heavily secured DC offices. 

     "They undermine our financial security with endless spending and runaway inflation... they ignore the out-of-control illegal immigration crisis... they refuse to address crime on our streets." 

     "I put my life in Jesus' hands. My mantra has been, 'The life I live is not my own.' Washington needs servant leadership." 

Views: Sam Brown's new purpose is to defeat his freshman opponent for U.S. Senate, in Nevada. It's a race that could put the Senate into Republican hands. 

 (which are not as good as Jesus' hands)

Captain Sam Brown 

     Heard of him? We'll let him tell his story.

     "Raised in a military family, I wanted to serve in the U.S. Army. After witnessing the 9/11 terrorist attack, that desire hardened into an ironclad resolve. I was accepted into West Point. 

     "I deployed to Afghanistan. In 2008, I was responding to a distress call from one of my West Point classmates when my Humvee drove over an enemy IED. The bomb exploded under the fuel tank, leaving me soaked in diesel, engulfed in flames. I knew that I would die.

     "One of my men extinguished the flames. I went from certain death to the realization that Jesus had planned a life for me. Still, that life was hard to accept at first. 

     "As I recovered in the burn unit and endured dozens of surgeries, I truly thought I'd rejoin my men on the battlefield. But my military career was over. I felt like a leader without anyone to lead...a servant without anyone to serve. 

      "In the hospital, I had two guardian angels. We (Brown and his mother) found special meaning in Romans 5:3-5: we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character; and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit."

Second "angel" tomorrow

Capture Every Thought 

     But not the noise.

     From a column we read, "Martin Luther is thought to have said, 'You cannot keep birds from flying overhead, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair.' 

     "A lot of our thinking is not worthy of the name 'thinking.'" 

     We can't avoid it entirely, but we don't have to feed it. By thinking along with Scripture and other truth, we make it harder for worldly chatter to break through. 

     In 2 Corinthians chapter 10, Paul wrote about "casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ." 

     Do we want to please our Savior or not?  

     Avoiding unworthy thoughts is part of "the good fight" Paul says. Initially, Satan appeared to Adam and Eve as a talking serpent. That wouldn't bite today. But the devil is still after our thoughts. 

     God gives us weapons that work against the "rulers ...authorities... powers of this dark world... and spiritual forces of evil."  

     In Ephesians chapter 6 Paul lists the weapons: truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and the Spirit...the Word of God. 

Note: We are preparing a terrific series on "righteousness," the quality of being right with God...a word we seldom hear in our generation. 

           Jimmy 

 Favoritism Forbidden   

     "Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? 

     "But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court?"

     Who is doing this? Democrats? 

     This was happening two millenniums ago. So wrote Jemes in his letter to the 12 tribes, here in chapter 2:6-7.

Struggles of Life

     "Living in itself demands struggle. Those who receive everything without work eventually become lazy, insensitive to real-life values, and selfish. 

     "That strife and hard work we try to avoid is the primary building block in our personality today." 

     Sounds like something a teacher or businessman might say.

     It was Pope Paul VI 

                Jimmy

 A Return to Thinking 

     Following up on two blogs from a week ago, we quote Andree Seu Peterson:

     "Man has a problem in our thought life. We are like that guy who talks and argues with himself. The difference is we don't generally do it out loud. Philosophers have no clue how to fix it." 

     So, let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, vv. 19-30: 

     "For it is written, 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.' Where is the wisdom, the philosopher of this age? 

     "Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. 

     "For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom... God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of the world and the despised things - and the things that are not - to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. 

     And to Christians, Paul added: "It is because of him (God) that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God - that is our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written, 'Let him who boasts boast in the Lord." 

 

 

Nimrod's Legacy Today  

     Nimrod, great grandson of Noah, wasn't one of the 21 worst leaders in history. (See our Friday/Saturday blog) But he deserves an honorable mention. Bible scholars consider Nimrod the first "antichrist." 

     America haters inviting unvetted people from 177 countries to crash our border might consider the following...some of them on the list two or three times:

Animism (some voodoo) - Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Indonesia, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Uganda. 

Cults - Congo, Malawi, New Zealand, Togo

Spirit worship, witchcraft - Ghana, Madagascar, Mozambique, Myanmar, Zaire, Laos, Liberia, Sierra Leone

Tribal - Guinea 

Spiritist - Jamaica

Mystical - Kenya 

Ancestor worship - Madagascar, Mozambique, Zaire, Laos, Lesotho, Liberia, Papua New Guinea

Astrology - Madagascar

Magic - Malaysia, Zaire, Zambia 

Head hunting - Malaysia

River spirits - Sierra Leone

     Most developed through the offspring of Ham, through Nimrod. Some of these practices have infiltrated the United States. There are billions more people in organized religions such as Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Shintoism and others. 

     Why is the world at war with normal citizens, Jews and Christians? 

            Jimmy