Sounds never to be repeated, words that remain. 

Substance turning to dust, imperceptible by the eyes.

Learning Obedience... Hebrews 5:8-9

"King Saul was made king without ever enduring hardship, but he never developed the character or maturity to handle God's assignment. David spent years in suffering and heartache. When he finally ascended the throne, he was a man after God's own heart.
Don't resent the suffering God allows in your life. Don't make all your decisions and invest everything you have into avoiding hardship. God did not spare his own Son. How can we expect Him to spare us? Learn obedience even when it hurts!"- Blackaby, Richard and Henry

Whenever we say "no" to temptations, we are at the same time saying "yes" to God's blessings instead.

The Church: school for sinners or socitey of saints?

Donatist viewed the church as a society of saints. The church was a place to get self-righteous.

Augustine  argued that the church is a school for sinners. Even though a saint's heart is in the right place, sometimes the flesh will fail. The church is supposed to be a hospital for forgiveness and restoration, a place of healing where people who fall can get back up. Augustine used Matthew 13:24-30 in reference to the church:

"²⁴ He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, ²⁵ but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. ²⁶ So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. ²⁷ And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ ²⁸ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ ²⁹ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. ³⁰ Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’"

I found this an interesting topic in my Church History class. Something to think about...

“God is wiser than I am, and what is immediately good actually may not be eternally good. And what is eternally good isn't always immediately good, but painful” - Greg Laurie.

I'm loving this song write now...

"Don't be afraid, for I am with you. Don't be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand" - Isaiah 41:10

The light of dawn has shone in my heart, it has lit my soul with great hope and peace. I pray that You, God, would use me to be a heart's ease - to bring the light of dawn to the downcast and to the hopeless...

Light is healing, purifying, and reviving. Light refreshes and is the giver of life in nature and spiritually as well. "The entrance of Your words gives light..." (Psalm 119:130).

Debate Live!

When I was in 2nd grade, I told my friends that Bill Nye the Science Guy was my dad. His show was one of my favorite to watch as a kid.

Tonight at 7pm Eastern time, Bill Nye the Science Guy will be debating Ken Ham from Answers in Genesis. Both men are brilliant, one an evolutionist and the other a creationist. You can watch the debate live, right now at this site: http://debatelive.org/

Our faith is a reasonable faith. God is the creator of the universe: the most brilliant designer and scientist.

"For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God" - Romans 1:20

"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool"- Isa. 1:18

Anne Bradstreet - America's first poet, a model wife and mother, "both a Puritan and a woman of great charm" (Packer)

"To My Dear and Loving Husband:

If ever two were one, then surely we.

If ever man were loved by wife, then thee.

If ever wife was happy in a man,

Compare with me, ye women, if you can.

I prize thy love more than whole Mines of gold

Or all the riches that the East doth hold.

My love is such that Rivers cannot quench,

Nor ought but love from thee give recompense.

Thy love is such I can no way repay.

The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.

Then while we live, in love let's so persever,
That when we live no more we may live ever"

Another of her poems:

 "By night when others soundly slept
And hath at once both ease and Rest,
My waking eyes were open kept
And so to lie I found it best.

I sought him whom my Soul did Love,
With tears I sought him earnestly.
He bow'd his ear down from Above.
In vain I did not seek or cry.

My hungry Soul he fill'd with Good;
He in his Bottle put my tears,
My smarting wounds washt in his blood,
And banisht thence my Doubts and fears.

What to my Saviour shall I give
Who freely hath done this for me?
I'll serve him here whilst I shall live
And Love him to Eternity."

Tumult is often the writer of poetry and the flame of prayer

Like the letters on this old page are the words of our life. The black ink flows onto the paper in meaningful lines of stain. The flimsy and delicate sheet holds their story. A story that passes by like the end of the page. Thousands of scribblings on the many papers - too numerous to be counted. They all speak of a life and lives, lived or died.

Like writing on a paper - ink blots and poems together making up one History. The page flips and a new one begins. Will this story make it to the next page? Or drift with the crumbling of it. Will the page be burned in a fire or preserved for a small while - perhaps hidden in a journal or under a bed in a box. The pen writes as if it was its own entity, and life evaporates with the last period mark.

But the Lord gives script to the heart, to the stories unspoken

FmlyBnd

Some Good Quotes from KWAVE today

“ If God’s going to use it, He’s going to allow it. If He’s not going to use it, he’s not going to allow it.”- Kay Smith

“It is interesting to me that God is never in a hurry. Throughout the Scriptures everyone else was in a hurry, but God never was. He was patient in the working out of His purposes. We would do well to be more like Him.” - The Word For Today with Pastor Chuck Smith

Are you Free?

What is freedom?


"Such it seemed, was the joy of man, either in elfland or on earth; the happiness depended on not doing something which you could at any moment do and which, very often, it was not obvious why you should not do" - G.K. Chesterton

Popular opinion continues to infer that freedom is found in throwing off all restraints and freeing oneself from every form of tradition or restriction. Freedom is equated to liberating the mind and body from any ideas of God or His demands. Much like a child sneaks under the radar of his parents instructions by trying to touch the stove with a mischievous and ingenious smile. True freedom, they say is to indulge and to do whatever feels good to the fullest - experimenting to discover all the mistakes we shouldn't make. Freedom is being the captain of your own life... hopefully with a good map. Then again, freedom is not having a map, but blundering along until you find that you have not found anything at all that was really worth it.

Enlightenment was once a noble task to discover truth - the responsibility of man to challenge and to question. It was intended that enlightened men should explore, find light, and seek out truth - yet now it is has become a great virtue to lose your mind and your light in a pointless madness. Society is so free that there is no longer any need for truth or obedience of any kind, only to do what feels good. Life's decisions are all up to personal preference - it is the greatest virtue to tolerate anything and everything. So has this really brought freedom?

"Tolerance is the virtue of a man without convictions"
- G.K. Chesterton

 As time goes on, it turns out that the promises of freedom never come. Doing what feels good to each his own, finds each his own in heavier chains.

"Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."- John 8:34-36.

What is freedom?

True freedom comes through submission  - the submission of oneself to Christ. This bond of slavery by choice, shatters the power of all other bonds and sets man free to walk as the creature God intended him to become.The freed man is free even in the darkest jail cell or hospital bed. No fetters can ever bind the soul that Jesus has set free.

Be Comforted

"For he shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways."

 - Psalm 91:11

"...Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: 

I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.

He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble;

 I will deliver him, and honour him.

With long life will I satisfy him, 

and shew him my salvation."- Psalm 91:14-16