A The Baptist Deacon

Good morning everyone. I just want to let you all know that I have a lot on my plate for the next couple of weeks. I will probably be unable to post more than once hopefully twice a week. I hope things get back to normal for me the first full week of May.

I plan to still check the site each morning and read as many post as I can and even make a few comments as before, so don’t worry too much if it seems that I am not as active on Christianblogsites as normal.

I do have a prayer request this morning. A lady in our church has to have a medical procedure on Thursday April 24^th. The doctor she goes to found a mass and they are going to do a biopsy to find out what it is. I was told that it could be one of three things. Two of the possibilities are not bad, but the cancer possibility is what is so scary.

My family is very close to this lady and her family. I have had the privilege to coach her son in Little League and this year he moves up with my son to Babe Ruth Baseball, and I have the privilege of once again coaching him.

An illness in any family is serious, but it seems when it is someone close to you that you tend to worry and hopefully pray a little more.

I have had prayer request before that I posted and I believe that those who read my site have prayed so once again I ask prayer for this lady, her husband and sons that God’s will, will be done.

I will leave you with this verse today: 1 Peter 3:12 For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.

Until next time may God Bless You.

ROMANS 14:10 But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.   14:11 For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.14:12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.14:13 Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.

I am not arguing with anyone here, simply stating my opinion, backed up by the word of God.  I allow comments on my site so if you disagree with me you can let it be know there, again not arguing.

I highlighted a in the verse above As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. I believe that. I have heard it said that there are no atheists in hell and that is a true statement. At the Great White Throne Judgment not one person will be an atheists or non believer. It will be too late if you are not saved.

John 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. What about Luke 3:6 And all flesh shall see the salvation of God. I am not saying everyone is going to heaven just that everyone will be offered the opportunity, what they do will determine whether or not they go. Look at Acts 13:26 Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent. Acts 28:8 Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it. Are we not Gentiles? Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Philippians 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

We are a free moral agent. A lost soul has the right given by God to refuse salvation. Why anyone would want to do that is beyond me, but people die everyday and go to a place that is called hell.

I pray that I am not a stumbling – block to anyone and those who read my post I pray that you find something you can use.

God Bless You.

Earlier this week I wrote about being distressed. I received several comments which I really appreciated and drew strength from. One comment really stood out. It was from http://loreelle044.christianblogsites.com/blog/ and here is the comment: i know He sees your heart and hears our prayers, joined in agreement with you, my friend. He is faithful to answer and show you. this reminds me of some stories about words. luke 12:12 He will show you...

Here is the scripture: For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.

I think I have things set in motion to meet with the man who asked the question that caused me to be distressed. Now I am not going to argue with him, I just want to be clear on his question and maybe between the two of us we can find an answer.

The verse above applied specifically to the witnessing of the disciples in the period before the New Testament was written. It also applies to us today. It does not excuse negligence in preparation through study and prayer before such encounters, but the principle still applies. The indwelling, guiding, energizing Holy Spirit is always there, assuming we have done our part, to speak through us as needed. We must keep ourselves where we need to be with God if we expect to have power with him. I seek knowledge, truth and a greater understanding of the Holy Sprit.

Thank you all for your prayers I appreciate them. Unless God changes my mind my next post will come from Romans chapter 14.

God Bless You.

"See, O LORD, how distressed I am! I am in torment within, and in my heart I am disturbed, for I have been most rebellious. Outside, the sword bereaves; inside, there is only death.

The above verse is from Lamentations 1:20. How often are we distressed in our souls? Maybe not for being rebellious but it could be from a conversation you have had with someone or a group.

I had such a conversation over the weekend with people a group of seven whom I have know either all my life or a most of my life. These people I regard as my brothers and sisters in Christ. I left the conversation with my soul in distress. I have more questions than I have answers. It was almost as if there were people there who wanted to disagree. Is that possible among Christians? Yes it is. Is it correct to want to argue? No.  Now let me clarify they did not argue, but there was a disagreement that could have gone to a heated argument if time would have allowed.

It is as if they did not want to agree. What? How can Christians not want to agree? I don’t claim to understand it. I have talked to my pastor about it and most importantly I have talked to GOD about it.  I pray that I will be able to speak to the person who asked the initial question so that I can be clear on what was asked and I pray that GOD will give me the answer(s) that I may need in order to speak with this man, who is a very close friend.  

But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish. – 2^nd Peter 2 verse 12. I do not want to blaspheme but I do seek understanding. Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit, and, "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud." 2^nd Peter 2 verse 22.

I try very hard each day to live the life that God will be pleased with. I seek wisdom and understanding. I seek to be bold I want to be instant in season as well as out of season. I seek answers. I seek truth.

Please help by praying that I will be bold, that my questions will be answered and that I may speak with boldness, wisdom and answers to my friend. Let me be clear. I was not involved in the disagreement nor do I wish to be involved but I do feel that I must pursue this farther and be the peacemaker (if that is possible).  I feel that is what God wants me to do.

God Bless You.

Ephesians 6: ¹Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. ²Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; ³That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.

What are we teaching our children today? There is an article in our local paper this morning with the headline “14 People cited for underage drinking”.  The youngest was 19 years old a legal adult. They were old enough to know the law and to know that they were breaking it because they were underage. You may think well this happens all the time. There are children younger than 18 that have developed drinking and even drug problems. This does not make it right.

Proverbs 22:6 teaches us to train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Children will follow there parents example(s)! How we live before our children will help to mold and shape them into the adults that they will become. It is our responsibility, not the school teacher or the school system. You can send you children to church and they will learn, but as soon as they get old enough they will not return to the church. Take your children and they may still leave, but they will have a better chance of staying because you took them instead of sent them.

I didn’t attend to go this way this morning. I started out to quote Ephesians 6: 1-3 and then tell you about a conversation I had with my children the other night. We talked about obeying your parents for this is right. I stressed that it is right. It seems that I have to have a talk often with my sons because they tend to not listen to there mother. I try to teach them by example but there are times when a bit more is necessary. I have made the statement more than once that when I stepped out of line I was corrected. It was not child abuse even though I might have thought so at the time. There is a difference between correction and child abuse.

The bottom line; it is your responsibility to teach your children. Do not expect the baby sitter, the day care owner, the School system or anyone else to train your children. It is your responsibility! How do you want them to turn out?

May God Bless You!

The Light of the World?

Matthew 5: 14 – 16   ¹⁴Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.  ¹⁵Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. ¹⁶Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

We think of the above verses as children’s verses. It is simple and easy to understand. You can’t see the light if you hide it. How can the world see Christ in you if you never show it? Mark 8:38 Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.  

Again another verse that is easy to understand. Good works will not get you to heaven. Make no mistake about that. Jesus died on the cross for our sins and arose to claim victory over death, hell and the grave. You must be born again, saved by the grace of God to enter into that kingdom. Let us not be ashamed of our Father.

Now when we are saved we should want to allow the world to see Jesus in our lives. Take that candle out from under the bushel and let it shine. Your life may be the only bible some people will ever read.

I mentioned above that we think of the candlestick and the bushel as being children’s verses. We try to make working for the Lord something harder than it is or should be. Lets stop take a look around and see how simple the plan of salvation is and then maybe we can see that even children’s verses are meant for us.

It is important that we tell as many lost people the good news. That good news is Jesus. Jesus Saves.

How bright is your light?

God Bless You!

This is a repost of my Valentines post. I am reposting it for savedbygrace.  Her post this morning was titled The Pain of Porn. In her post I could feel her pain. I wanted to comment but her blog does not allow comments. I hope she will be able to read this and draw strength. Viewing porn is wrong! That is my stand. Men that fall into this trap (and it is a trap) need help. The good woman standing by her husband may not be enough. Women don’t think that it is your fault if you man looks at porn and he shouldn’t look. I’ll explain below.

I know that the devil has things in the world to hinder the work of God and the work of marriage. One of those things is the internet. When used properly it is one of the greatest tools ever invented. It also provides a place for predators of all kinds. Some target children some target men neither are a good thing.

Men get trapped in an addiction to porn and I call it an addiction. Some men don’t even believe they are doing anything wrong. Have you ever known a man that viewed porn regularly? It is nearly impossible to break this addiction unless there is some accountability set up, a lot of prayer or just taking his access to the internet away. The porn sites are so easy to access.

I believe God made all women beautiful and men enjoying looking, I understand that and I also understand that some women use it to there benefit to get what they want. I’m not trying to make it sound like the women are to blame. Let’s go back to the Garden of Eden. In Geneses chapter 3 the serpent came to Eve. The deceiver had a conversation with her. Then the lie came in verse 4 when he told her “ye shall not surely die.” Then look at verses 5 & 6:  ⁵For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. ⁶And 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. The lie completed the deception.  She saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes.

This is how sin works. There was some truth mixed in with the lie. Sin pleases the eye and it pleases the flesh, but there is only pleasure in sin for a season. What price does one pay for deception and sin? It took Adam to complete the sin. In other words in this case it took two.

Women that exploit there beauty to get what they want only works if the man accepts in other words it takes two.

I would like to think that a Christian woman and a Christian man would be strong enough to avoid this kind of temptation, but sadly this is not always the case.

Now you can turn the tables, some men are able to exploit their good looks to get what they want out of women. Men will even take it a step farther and promise a woman anything to get what they want then they drop them like dirty laundry when they get it.

Let’s go back to the porn sites for a few minutes. They degrade women. They change mans perspective of what a real woman is. It is hard for a man who falls into this trap to distinguish between what is real and what is fictional. What about young boys who see this stuff by accident? I say by accident because it is out there looking for them. It could set there outlook toward women. They can even expect things that just can’t happen.

Proverbs chapter 31 verse 30: Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.

Husbands respect your wife. Men show women the respect they deserve. Do not get caught up in the unreal world of porn, if you do get help.

God created woman from man because he saw the he was alone and therefore a woman is a gift to man from God. Men treat your woman as a gift something to be cherished and loved. I believe all women (wife’s) deserve respect.

This year my wife and I will be married for 18 years. We haven’t always seen eye to eye on everything, she has been aggravating on several things and I sure she’s let me off easy compared to the aggravation I have caused her.

She truly is my soul mate. I truly am blessed more than I deserve with a woman that gives me her love for I really feel loved by her. She is a real gift from God. She is something real, with real love and affection. She completes me.

Good morning. I hope and pray each of you had a good weekend and were blessed in your church services on Sunday.

James Chapter 5:  ¹⁶Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. ¹⁷Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. ¹⁸And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.  

There is power in prayer so with that said I have a prayer request for the readers of Christian Blogsites. Saturday evening during our monthly business conference for the church when the service was just about over a young mother asked prayer for her son. He is not three years old yet and he has a speech problem. He can only make noise no words yet. His mother is convinced that there is a problem and she and her husband have taken him to different specialist, but so far no one has been able to help.

She has asked prayer many times before for him, but this time it was different or maybe I saw something different. I saw a good Christian mother scared that something was wrong with her child. She looks worn out and almost to her wits end and it is from the stress of worrying about her son.

There are a couple of people on Christian blogsites that are going through different trials in there life, we also need to remember those people as well.

I ask a special request for this family that the mother will gain strength, that the dad will remain strong, that the older sister who is 5 will continue to be healthy and especially that the little boy will be able to speak and one day tell his mother “I love you”. This is important.

May God Bless You!

A side note any scripture I use is always from the King James Version.

Creation Part 2

Okay, so what about dinosaurs? They lived on the earth within the last six – thousand years. That’s right within the last 6,000 years. You ask what about the billions of years the Earth is supposed to have been here? You need to read the first post I wrote about creation. The age of the earth is explained there. Are you still doubtful? Believe me I understand. The world has bomb - boarded us with doubt. We are taught from the time we enter school that the world is billions of years old.

In 1^st Corinthians Chapter 1 verses 24 – 31 we are able to read about how God uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.

 ²⁴But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. ²⁵Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. ²⁶For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: ²⁷But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; ²⁸And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: ²⁹That no flesh should glory in his presence. ³⁰But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: ³¹That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

You may be thinking well I understand that passage, but I’m not sure how dinosaurs could have lived in the last 6,000 years with man or if they existed at all.

On March 18, 2008 a news report from Fox News reported a mummified dinosaur was slowly being revealed. Here is the link:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,338930,00.html

The fossil was found in North Dakota and is being called Dakota. It was originally discovered in 1999 by a Yale University paleontology student in the Badlands. What makes this story of a dinosaur fossil different than most, though, is the incredible preservation of Dakota. The AP reports that the duckbilled dinosaur fossil includes fossilized skin that is “as hard as iron.” It thus joins only four other such mummified dinosaurs in the world.

Toeing the line of evolutionary timetables, Dakota was assumed to have fossilized some 65 million years ago.

Science uses something called carbon dating to get ages of fossils. So why assign it an age of 65 million years. You have to remember that that is what scientist do, they assign.

Now I will ask if you remember reading about a flood in Genesis. The earth was still very young. At most at the time of the flood it would have only been 1,700 years old. The Earth was very different at this time perfect, undefiled if you will with the exception of the wickedness of mankind, after all that is why God destroyed the earth with water.

The flood changed the face of the Earth it even carved out the Grand Canyon. Remember the reference above from 1^st Corinthians, when we mentioned the confusion of the wise?

Let’s go back to Dakota; scientists explain how Dakota must have been “buried rapidly.” That is exactly the explanation creation scientists give, but we have a clear, global explanation for the millions of fossils we have, which are time and time again shown to have been buried rapidly and catastrophically: the Flood of Noah’s day, which unleashed catastrophes worldwide and covered the world in water for a large portion of a year. Starting from this viewpoint, we can make sense of these many fossils buried rapidly and recently—just a few thousand years ago.

The flood destroyed a lot of “large animals” which included the largest of the beast.

Genesis chapter 7, records that Noah took of every clean beast by seven and of every un – clean beast he took in by two or two by two, to keep alive upon the face of the earth. This included dinosaurs, yes I said dinosaurs. Now you have to realize that the larger animals did not get on the ark and you also have to realize that a lot of animals have become extinct since the flood.

What about these large beast co – existing with man? Genesis chapter 2:  ²⁰And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field. Adam named each animal, each beast.

Something else you have to remember is all the animals were able to get along and co – exist with man before the flood. After the flood the animals became afraid of man. Look at Genesis chapter 9 beginning with verse 1:  ¹And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.  ²And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.

I ran a lot of references on verse 2. Every reference I ran talked about man being at piece with the animals. They were never meant to fear us or dread us, but as with everything man messed this up.

How did the animals get so big? A reptile will grow until it dies. People as well as animals lived for long periods of time in Noah’s day, so it stands to reason there were very large animals. Dinosaurs and man walked together on this Earth six – thousand years ago.

I pray that this has not confused you and has answered some question that you may have had. I hope you don’t think that I am totally out of my mind, but I have given you biblical proof. May God Bless you

Hi and welcome back to my blog. It would seem that all the blogs I read survived the upgrade. So far I like what I see on the new and improved site. Thank you to all who have commented in the past and I look forward to your future comments.

I am going to repost part one of creation this morning. In the morning I plan to post part two. Before you read each post I want you to know I have not written either of these post for argument. With that being said you should still leave me a comment even if you don’t agree. As long as it is not a hateful, spiteful or just down right mean I will allow the comment. You can disagree with me and not be hateful, spiteful or mean. After all aren’t we a group of Christian people trying to write what God wants us to?

CREATION

Creation; this is the subject of much debate. There are many different opinions about creation and the age of the earth, as an example just go to a search on the internet.

I want this to be laid out exactly how God wants it to be presented.

Why can’t we just take the Genesis account of creation and be finished with it? Why do we want to make the earth older than it is? Why do we want to be in confusion about the dinosaurs?

I can answer these questions simply it is because the devil is the author of confusion. We could leave it at that but for the sake of argument we will explore these questions and hopefully several more.

To let you know where I stand, I believe the Geneses account describes a literal six day creation with the seventh as a day of rest. 

I have heard people say that with God a day is as a thousand years. This may be true, but if so why wouldn’t the Geneses account have been clearer. (The Geneses account is very clear on creation week.) People also want to use this argument to try and prove that the earth is older than it is.

 Just so you know where we are in time, from Adam and Eve until today is just over six thousand years that’s it. Now let’s say that God used a thousand years as a day in creation that would only add at most 7 thousand years to the age of the earth. If my math is correct that is as most 13 thousand. So how can you say the earth is millions and even billions of years old? If you believe in God and if you are subscribing to the theory that it took about 7 thousand years or longer to create the earth how are you dealing with the first five verses of the bible?

Genesis 1

   ¹In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.  ²And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. ³And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.  ⁴And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. ⁵And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Did I read that correctly? The evening and the morning were the first day? So from the very first day light and darkness were separated therefore the beginning of time, not only time but days as we have days now.

What about dinosaurs? Science tells us they lived billions of years ago. I will try and address and answer the question of dinosaurs in the next post.

A web site you might want to check out is http://www.users.bigpond.com/rdoolan/index.html this site also deals with creation.

Until next time feel free to leave comments. May God Bless You!