What Are You? 

   The soul remains a mystery. Philosophers, scientists and Darwinists think you are a brain, an assortment of matter, nothing more. Food rearranged. 

   What is consciousness? The answer eludes even the brightest, who should know. They use words like epiphenomenalistic and dialectical. 

   Our universities assume that we are our brains. Why? Because evolutionary theory cannot explain anything else. 

   For 15 centuries men knew what most scientists don't accept. They were consistent from Moses to the Lord Jesus himself, who created us. Here are some examples:

   Love the Lord our God with all your heart and with all your soul. Deut. 6:5, Moses 

   The Lord is my shepherd, he restores my soul. Psalm 23:3, David 

   As the deer pants for water, so my soul pants for you O God. Psalm 44:1. David

   Find rest O my soul in God alone. Psalm 62:5. David 

   Praise the Lord O my soul, all my inmost being. Psalm 103:1. David 

   He who guards his soul stays far from (thorns and snares). Proverbs 22:5. Solomon

   For every living soul belongs to me... The soul who sins is the one who will die. Ezekiel 18:4. the Lord

   Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Matt. 10:28. the Lord

   Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, and you will find rest for your souls. Matt. 11:29. the Lord

   Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Matt 22:37. The Lord's greatest commandment

   The word of God is living and active ... penetrating even to dividing soul and spirit... Hebrews 4:12. 

What are you?

         Jimmy

   

   

   

   

They Said It    

   "Wokeness is a problem and everyone knows it. It's hard to talk to anybody who doesn't say this. But they don't want to say it out loud." - James Carville 

   "In vain, I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I also gathered for myself silver and gold. I got singers ... and many concubines. All was vanity and a striving after the wind." - Solomon

   "The media ecosystem that centers on Washington, DC keeps peddling each news blip as a last-stand issue, an outrage bigger than the previous day's."          - Michael Reneau 

   "Choose between obedience and comfort. The next decades will ... bring antagonism to the gospel. And that's OK. That has been the reality for most of God's people through most of history." - Pastor Alistair Begg

   "There are some laws that communities find so morally offensive that they will never be fully obeyed." - Abraham Lincoln    (slavery, abortion)

   "Practiced in the acts of Despotism & Cruelty, we become callous to the Dictates of Humanity. To regard part of our Species in the most contemptible Degree, we lose that Idea of the Dignity of Man." - George Mason, two generations before the Civil War. 

   "Publishers and booksellers are playing a game without rules on a field without boundaries. There are no guidelines, only 'values.' No plan of action, only reaction. Postures, rather than principles. These are privately owned companies. But exclusion by preference is sometimes worse than law. Censorship can glamorize the forbidden. Cancelling merely smothers it." - Janie B. Cheaney 

   "One day, when I depart this body and find myself in the presence of the Lord, my time, however it will be measured, will be filled with the praises and the wonder of Jesus." 

   - Robert Lesslie, 70, physician, author and church elder, gunned down along with his family and two repairmen by a former NFL player, who took his own life.  

All May Go Well   

   In his third letter, written near the end of the first century, Apostle John commends his friend Gaius, a believer who excelled in helping traveling ministers. John said he had prayed that all may go well with you.   

   In the Greek, our commentary says this means "to have a good journey, continue in God's will and truth and enjoy his blessing." Don't we all want life to go well?

   It is God's will that we have shelter, food and clothing, and also enough to help others. 

   There are times however when he allows us to experience need. It may be to encourage us to trust him more, and to develop faith and spiritual endurance. Christians may be distressed when their testimony produces persecution and oppression from the world. Confiscation of property? (Hebrews 10:32-34.)

   We can experience poverty due to national or natural circumstances - war, famine, drought, storm or poor economic or social conditions. (Acts 11:28-30.)

   Our commentary says we must seek God's will, remain separated from the world, love God's Word, seek him in prayer, work, trust him and live by the principle of seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. All this is found in scriptures.   

   Faith that exists only when times are good is no faith at all. When we don't get our way, or have prayer answered to our liking, or a personal tragedy or injustice occurs - not that God caused it - our faith will be tested. 

   To quit on God when things go south is to harm ourselves eternally.

          Jimmy 

God Didn't Die After All  

   Fifty five years ago, Time Magazine suggested God is dead. 

   Today's evidence: Out-of-wedlock birthrate has tripled. Abortion toll tops 60 million. LGBT has triumphed. Killings and suicides happen daily. And lies. 

   Evidence of God's mercy: No nuclear war. Scientific discoveries undermine atheism, big time! 

   God and his people show that Biblical faith is still very much alive, although the percentage of Americans who "believe" has dropped below 50. We've read of Christ appearing in visions to individuals in Muslim countries where missionaries cannot go. Nothing is impossible with God.  

   Muslims turning to belief and being saved, while Americans ignore plentiful churches, Bibles, TV and radio sermons and testimonies, and lose out. 

   All-powerful God, temporarily tolerating Satan's rule over mankind, cares for his people, searches for more, and promises a joyful future atheists cannot fathom. 

Question 

   The sun is too bright to safely see with the naked eye. At sunrise or sunset, bending light rays give us the color of fire. 

   The sun's rays, reflecting off the moon, are white, although a moon rise or fall may show some color, again thanks to light rays bending around the earth. 

   So, what color is the sun, really?  

   We don't know. But God is light, and his children reflect that light, although not brilliantly. As it should be. 

            Jimmy 

 

Who Is Greatest? 

   From the beginning, who would you say is greatest of history's men and women? Would it be Alexander? Washington? Lincoln? Nightingale? Gutenberg? Einstein? Graham? 

   How about our Bible candidates such as Moses? Joshua? Daniel? David? Solomon? Paul? Mother Mary? 

   What qualities do we use to measure greatness? Wealth? Power? Contributions to mankind? Can you and I be great?

   By the Lord's standards, there is no one greater than the man Isaiah prophesied in chapter 40, A voice of one calling in the desert. This man would Prepare the way for the Lord. Also, Malachi quoted the Lord himself: I will send my messenger. Prepare the way for me. Suddenly the Lord you seek will come to his temple. 

   When virgin Mary told her cousin Elizabeth what an angel had revealed, Elizabeth's child "leaped" in her womb. God had already put his Spirit upon the baby, six months along, who would be named (in English) John, a name not known among the family. 

   The disciple Matthew in chapter 3 writes of John's clothing - camel's hair with a leather belt - and his food - locusts and wild honey. Matthew says throngs from Jerusalem and all Judea went to John to be baptized in the Jordan River (the desert). We assume God put this extraordinary mood of repentance into the hearts of many people. Then Jesus arrived, about to enter his ministry, and convinced John - who recognized him - to baptize him (God) "for the sake of righteousness." 

   Herod put John in prison. Matthew records in chapter 11 what Jesus said to a crowd in Galilee - Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist. 

   There's our answer. We need not idolize or envy anyone with a million dollar home, secret account in a Swiss bank, personal yacht, Hollywood or Nashville fame, or any other worldly glory. So too, anyone who occupies the White House. 

   Best of all, you can be greater than John. Jesus added: He who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. If you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. 

   Care to read that again?

              Jimmy 

   

Our Jonah Impersonation 

   We sailed for maybe three minutes, my cousin Allan and me. The largest lake in Pennsylvania was only 13 miles from home, and we aimed to become sailors. 

   Our sailboat came in a box, some assembly required. Right. The instructions said "a woman can put it together in 30 minutes." Of course, they didn't supply the woman. 

   We were well into our second hour on our front porch,  when our dads showed up and snickered about the 30-minutes. 

   Actually, it was a foldable canoe with a plywood skeleton and a board in the middle, into which goes the mast, and keels hanging over either end of that. 

  Growing Up, No. 8

   We didn't paddle the canoe on our maiden voyage. Oh no. We went straight for the sailboat adventure. 

   Choosing a beach about 100 yards from the dam, the deepest part of the lake, we pushed off, me holding the sail parallel with the canoe, and Allan using the rudder. Within a couple minutes the wind was tipping us to the right. While I held the sail tight, I yelled for him to turn the rudder, turn us into the wind. 

   Oh, did I forget to mention that we had life jackets in the boat, but not on? 

   So we held on to our preservers and Allan somehow got a grip on the sail which had separated from the boat. Then came a fisherman to see if we needed help. Duh! We asked him to tow our water-filled canoe to shore, thinking he would come back for us. 

   We couldn't swim with arms full, so we inched toward the dam, our only option. The road across the dam soon was full of drivers who stopped to watch us drown. I estimated we were in the lake for about half an hour.

Mark 4:39 - He got up, rebuked the wind, and...

   We could have used his help that day. But, he let me learn, first, you can't don a life jacket after you're already in the drink. Holding our jackets did save our lives. And second, when the wind blows from the side, you let out the sail as far as necessary. A few years later I bought a real sailboat, a sloop, and successfully sailed it on Lake Erie. Allan sailed with me on one of those outings. I should ask him why he trusted me with his life a second time.  

            Jimmy

Truth and Love 

   There was a song in the 1950s that went, Love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage. You can't have one without the other. 

   Our culture doesn't sing that song, does it? In fact, the government gives money to single mothers; no moral requirements. 

   Who would shut one window on a cold night while leaving another wide open? What family would invite a loose python to spend the night? Some things are all or nothing. 

   Late in life, before the Revelation, the apostle John wrote his second letter. He emphasized, love in the truth ... because of the truth ... in truth and love ... children walking in truth. This coupling is consistent throughout the New Testament. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:6, love...rejoices with the truth. 

   Some people think love, friendship and unity are the way, and are offended when others say truth is a condition for unity. It is also possible to teach Biblical truth and doctrines without having love and concern for others.  

   John wrote, Many (Christian?) deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch out that you do not lose what you have...  

   When John says, We know... in his first letter, he is referring to decades earlier when he was a disciple in training, the bitter day he watched Jesus' body die on the cross, followed by the awesome times he and others met with resurrected Jesus.    

   Belief in the blood is a condition for God's grace, mercy and peace. 

               Jimmy