Praise to God! I have not blogged lately, but I here I am. I see many viewers on my stats. I love to see the consistent Russian viewers. Please join in officially or comment. I would love feedback. Am I making a dent? I hope so. I am compelled to spread this Good News. Please join me in this powerful movement. Don't you see it in sports? Tim Tetow? So many professional athletes are giving the praise to our Lord for their achievements. I never appreciated that until being born again, myself. I used to think "How dare they give God the credit?" I can't believe what a flip I have made in my thinking. It was easy to imagine these born agains as being arrogant/chosen. Why am I not good enough? Will they praise God when they lose? Well, yes, I see that most do. Externally we have put on our armor (Ephesians 6:11) We deflect "feelings". We are driven by the Holy Spirit. Each and every day is a step more in faith, in growth. Oh, how the Bible is our best tool. Please, if you are not reading it daily or near daily, that is the missing link. Please understand how you cannot water the seed without the Word. It will be so difficult, you may just shrink back and not be effective for our Lord. Worse yet, you will be a poor example of what Christian life is. We need to do our part and God will do the rest. Share the yoke!
I have a friend who is doing an amazing thing in the public school! I will not submit any further information, so his mission will not be squashed by our lovely government, lawyers, rigid parents and board members. He simply writes a verse from the Bible on the chalk board. What he does not do is label its source! Boy, do the kids love it. It creates great conversation.
I imagine he is careful about which scripture to write on the black board, but you can imagine Proverbs or Psalms would be great for morality boosters.
I read in Dr. David Jeremiah's book "I Never Thought I'd See The Day" about The New-England Primer. This was a textbook that was used in the schools extensively into the 18th and 19th centuries. You may remember the prayer (I grew up with this one):
Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.
This was first published in the New England Primer.
Here is a poem that children learned the alphabet with in 1690 circa:
A: In Adam's Fall we sinned all.
B: Heaven to find, the Bible mind.
C: Christ crucified for sinners died.
D: The deluge drowned the Earth around.
E. Elijah hid by ravens fed.
Imagine that! Now, yes there is so much more for me to say about these textbooks, including The Protestant Tutor. But, you need to go to the library and research or check out the internet, or even read Dr. Jeremiah's book for this great history information.
What happened is that these books were replaced little by little, removing the Biblical portions.
If you want to compare our homes and schools to how they were functioning approximately 60 years ago, I guess you could say we have a problem. But, more disastrous is that our churches are functioning even worse. They seemed to have lost the Bible somewhere in the sanctuary! Darn, they better go get it and bring it out every Sunday. How about encouraging everyone to bring one as well.
I say this with zest because I was brought up in churches that did not have Bibles in worship. I feel I was robbed. Who can I ultimately blame? Guess who? Satan. He has even so carefully removed them from our pastors hands as he leads his flock.
I say this because as a born again this last 8 months, I have experienced incredible spiritual growth. That is why I am writing these blogs. That is why I am doing alot of my "mini missions". I have a sense of urgency. It is really wearing on me. (and yes, I am filled with such incredible joy I have never experienced in life! It is heavenly joy, possible on earth) My alarm is for what is happening. But, by golly Satan got the churches screwed up within the first few years, according to Acts. So, this is not a new problem, but we have generations of believers that are not reading their Bibles because their parents didn't, their pastors didn't drill it into them, they did not see it practiced in church. What you get is a short snippet of scripture, decided for you, typed on a bulletin. Very little discussion about what was really happening in that time of history. No real confirmation that what the Bible states is absolutely, positively true. I have had many Christians tell me without wincing these last 8 months that the Bible is simply a book of stories. And "We don't take it literally". Whose words are those coming out of their months? Does that make God cry? (Yes, God cries if we can cry).
Do what you can now to spread the message of our Beautiful Love Story, written for US. Personally. (It is hard for us Lutherans turned Catholics turned into Jesus Followers to believe that Jesus is talking to us!!) He is wanting to guide us, hold our hands, love us. How can He do that if we don't believe The Word? Don't get me started on miracles and prayers answered............
Satan's greatest trick against Christians is to keep them too busy. Too busy to read the Bible. Too busy to be quiet with God.
Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.
Ephesians 6:11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.
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