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Showing posts from March, 2008

You Are What You Eat #1. . .

I'm still praying and working at it, but I seem to be rather stumped on my series of compound names of Jehovah. I thought I would do a little series on the impact and implications of eating in the Bible. Here is my first article in this series: 1. Adam & Eve ate the forbidden fruit: Genesis 2:16-17 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: (17) But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Genesis 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. First of all we must grant that God is no fool. He created the entire universe in all its somber complexity, the intertwining tapestry of physical relationships and dependencies, beyond any mortal

Prayer Walk 3-25-8

We are praying and walking up and down the streets of our city. I am posting these reports of what happens on our evenings of street ministry. I bought a Radio Flyer Wagon to pull along behind us. That is kind of our trademark for people to recognize us by. Hello All, Terry Wallin and I had a super time tonight handing out fliers in the neighborhood. We did Middlebury street down to Main and back, completely covered the low income apartments at Prairie and Middlebury, much of the Gladstone area, and the area around Greater Wayside Temple/Penguin Point and the new apartments catty corner from the barber shop. We started a little before 5 and finished a little before 8. It was cool and some spotty sprinkles, but really not bad at all. The ATW Radio Flyer was just great on it's maiden voyage, it's shake down cruise so to say. . . :) We carried quite a bit of stuff. I haven't found a cooler that I like yet. I'm still looking, but I made up a little plastic min

Make Straight the Way of the Lord. . .

Isaiah 40:3-5 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. Matthew 3:1-3 In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Why was John the Baptist sent before the arrival of Jesus? What did John do that Jesus could not have done for Himself? He was told, his purpose was to "prepare ye the way of the Lord." When a king travels, when President Bush travels a man or more

The Power of a Name. . .

For the last nine months I have been working on writing articles on each of a list of 38 compound names of Jehovah.  These are names given to God both by Himself and by others in the Bible.  Right now I have been stuck, for over a month, on name #33 on my list.  I am waiting for God to reveal the meaning of this name to me.  I just have to be patient.   It is clear from reading the Bible that both God and people in biblical times placed importance on the meaning of names.  Here are just a few verse references to names and the reason for the giving of it: Genesis 4:25  And Adam knew his wife again; and she bore a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. Genesis 5:29  And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed. Genesis 11:9  Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the

My Heart. . .Soul. . . Mind. . . Strength

Mark 12:30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. Heart. . . This is the first of the first. . .My heart beats for you alone. My life's blood is taken in and set out by my heart. In first aid, it is this beating heart and the life giving blood that are the first priority. The heart distributes breath. . .to all my members. . .Without my heart I do not live. I am to love you with all of my emotions. My passion, my feelings are not to be led away to someone or something else. I am to be yours alone in all my feelings, all my emotions. The seat of this, the core of me is my heart. My life is to be a never ending love affair with you my jealous God. To love another in any way in competition with my love for you is to be an oath breaker, an adulterer. Soul. . . Your breath gave me my living soul. You took that which was already created of the dust of the ground, You

Matthew 25:31-46: The Sheep & Goats

Matthew 25:31-46 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: (32) And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: (33) And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. (34) Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: (35) For I was hungry, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: (36) Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. (37) Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? (38) When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? (39) Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, an

A Snowy Night. . .

Last night after Jackie and I got home from shopping, I took Luke, our St. Bernard, out to Pipewort Pond the little nature refuge north of Bristol where I take many of my pictures. What a wonderful night. A couple of months ago I bought a pair of snow pants at a resale shop. A couple of weeks ago I got a pair of like new insulated boots and a wonderfully warm and very heavy leather coat at the same store. I'll bet that coat weighs 10 lbs. This really isn't meant to be an advertisement for Goodwill, but all these things cost me less than $10 total and I was totally comfortable in the knifelike cold west wind and moonlit, knee to thigh deep snow. It is amazing what a difference warm clothing makes in your enjoyment of the winter weather. The loop around the refuge is a little less than 1 mile (.86 as measured on Google Earth). The wind was bitter, the snow was deep, it was very quiet. I was very warm and comfortable. The moon was in and out of the scudding clouds. It wa

Tests & Trials

One night I was on a long drive home from Peoria, Illinois when my wife called. She told me of the wonderful church service that night and how things went. She said that a good friend was having some complications from his surgery to correct complications from another surgery several weeks ago and that his wife was requesting prayer for him. After Jackie hung up and I was again alone in the quiet of the car with the long miles stretching ahead of me, I began to pray for my friend, but then I stopped and I wasn't sure of just what to pray. . . . I have great great respect for my friend. He and I came to Life Tabernacle at roughly the same time. He is much younger than I, just starting his family, but still we've grown together in our faith in many ways. I know that he is capable of huge things in the kingdom of God and while I want God to spare him an attack, a trial from the evil one, but then again I don't want him to miss a blessing by not enduring a test from God. . .

My Little Bottle of God. . .

My head hurts. I go to the cupboard. I find the bottle of aspirin, struggle with the child-proof cap for a moment and take one tablet to make my head ache go away. . . My heart hurts. I go to my prayer closet. I find God. I come into His presence for a moment and take one dose of Him to make my heart ache go away. . . When my head hurts, I take an aspirin. When something else hurts, I seek God. When I am lonely, scared, sick. . . I ask Him to do a mighty work of healing, to be with me, to support me. . . to demonstrate His power, His majesty, and grace to the unbelievers so that they might believe. I ask Him to heal my brothers. I can always count on God. Whenever I have a need, I open Him up and pour Him out. . . When He is done, I put Him away back in my cupboard until the next time of need. . . I thank you God for always being there when I need you! I ponder. . . in the cupboard, next to my little bottle of aspirins, is a big bottle of vitamins. . . . powerful multivitamins. . .100%