When life gives you Snow.....

Snow! Snow! Everywhere Snow! There have been record cold temperatures and record snow fall for this early in the year in the Midwest (so much for global warming). It has been miserable. I hate the cold. I didn't always. Remember when we were kids and snow was a welcomed harbinger of days off school. We would be sledding down hills, building snowmen, building snow-forts, having snow ball fights and warming back up around the fire with hot chocolate and Charlie Brown Christmas specials on TV?

I have been pondering why was snow so much better back then? Then it hit me. Snow hasn't changed, I have! Now I am a snow scrooge. Snow means getting to work is difficult, shoveling the drive way, risking my life to go pick up a gallon of milk to make my kids hot chocolate, buying expensive snow boots for the kids because they already out grew last years, freezing while I scrape off the car windows, falling on the ice with gallon of milk, letting the stinky dog sleep in the back room so he wont freeze, and worst of all my old bones ache.

It's when I am feeling cold and grumpy I have a hard time obeying verses like these....

1 Thessalonians 5:16 "Be joyful always"

Romans 12:12 "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."

Philippians 4:4 "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!"

1 Thessalonians 5:18 "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

Ephesians 5:20 "Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ"

We should always be joyful, rejoicing, and giving thanks. That is the attitude we are to have at all times. To often lately I find myself sorrowful, complaining and ungratefull. Dear God forgive me. I was always a joyful spirit growing up. What has happened to me as of late?

I was driving to work through this stupid snow this week and feeling sorry for myself, when I had an idea. As I pulled into the parking lot at work, it was empty and covered with a new thin layer of snow not yet cleared off. No one was there to see me so I started doing donuts. It was a blast. Around and around I went in the snow. If you have never done donuts in your car on an empty snow filled parking lot, you are missing a great time. That is the kind of thing I would have done as a kid.

I am not old but I have gotten to old in my mind. I have all this responsibility and take life to seriously. I hate the sin, injustice, and death of this world. When I focus on all I have to do in the spiritual battle, I get depressed. I need to trust in God and let go of my worry, fear, and anger. I need to stop letting petty little things bother me. And so I find this little truth that has helped me find joy in the midst of a cold winter, rejoicing in the face of trials, and thankfulness in the face of a fallen world. I made the best of a bad situation. Be more positive. Take time to have some fun. And...

When life gives you snow, do donuts!

Have You read the News Today?

Scripturist News Update:

The Bible says in Genesis 6:4 "There were giants in the earth in those days" Several times the Bible talks about giants. Many have scoffed as such accounts. But the geological record indicates there was a time when giants roamed the earth. There were also many giant forms of animals.

Perhaps during the pre-flood era when the earth was covered by a thicker atmosphere which would prevent UV rays and aging, animals (especially reptiles) grew to be much bigger. That is just a guess. We are not sure why. But we do know there were larger humans and animals at one point. To read more go here.

Read some of the following from the News...

Giant Scorpian Found in Briton.

Giant Tree Fossil

Giant Alligator fossils found

Giant Human foot prints found

Giant Dragon fossil found (sounds like Job 40 & 41 to me)

Giant Crocodile Fossil in Amazon

Giant Lions & Kangaroos found in Australia

Giant men roamed Australia.

The most famous giant in the Bible was Goliath. And now there is not only the Biblical account, there is also other evidence that he lived. A shard of pottery unearthed in a decade-old dig in southern Israel has an early Semitic inscription of a Philistine rendering of the name of the biblical giant, Goliath.

See the pottery with Goliaths name on it

Today many teach that there is global warming and that the polar ice caps will melt and flood the whole earth like the movie Water World. It's funny because these same skeptics of the Bible will ask where all the water from the flood went. That is easy. After the flood God created the four seasons by tilting the earth and the extra water froze in the polar ice caps. But I know as a Christian the polar ice caps wont melt and flood the whole earth because God said there will never by another world wide flood. Global warming is an unproven theory based on bad science.

See More here...

Global Cooling hits America

There is a lot of Junk Science out there!

Hopefully cooler heads will prevail.

Record cold settles across Rockies, Midwest as far south as Texas.

Tis the season....

Go here to see why the unbelievers are laughing at christmas trees.

Christmas in America becomes battleground - see here

How To Nullify The Word Of God This Christmas

Question:
Dear Scripturist, What do you think about all these churches canceling Sunday Church because it falls on Christmas this year? Read about it by clicking HERE.

Answer:
If you don't have Church on Sunday just because it's Christmas, how will they obey this verse?

1 Corinthians 16:2 "On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made."

If you don't have Church on Sunday just because it's Christmas, how will they obey this verse?

Hebrews 10:25 "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another— and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

Or how will they obey these verses...

Acts 20:7 "On the first day of the week we came together to break bread."

1 Corinthians 11:1-2 "Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ. Now I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you."

2 Thessalonians 2:15 "Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle."

The command of God is to "imitate" Paul and "hold firmly to the traditions" he delivered. His tradition and example was to come together with the church and take the Lord's Supper on the first day of the week each week. We are to "hold to the traditions." We are to not "give up meeting together." We are to give to ministry each first day of the week in keeping with our income. How can we obey God's commands if we cancel to celebrate our MANufactured holiday?

Now observing Christmas is no where in the Bible. It is a man made tradition not an apostle given (thus God given) tradition. It's the teaching of men not God. Now that does not mean it's wrong to celebrate Jesus birthday. I am just saying, you could skip celebrating Christmas and still not sin. But if you disobey God's commands, that is a sin.

Therefore, when these churches cancel church on Sunday, they are disobeying God's command in order to keep mans made up tradition of Christmas. They say it's to honor Christ and celebrate His birthday. Is the way you celebrate Jesus Birthday to neglect ministry, outreach, corporate worship, evangelism, the Lord's Supper, giving, and fellowship with the family of God? Happy Birthday Jesus! For your present this year I plan on disobeying you by skipping church so I celebrate your birthday with "family time" (Code word for giving each other a bunch of expensive presents).

This is the same kind of Hypocrisy Jesus condemned the Pharisees and Sadducees for.

Jesus said in Mark 7:9 "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!"

And again in Mark 7:13 "Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that."

People who cancel church to celebrate Jesus birthday nullify the word of God by their tradition and are setting aside the commands of God to do what they want.

Jesus said in Matthew 15:6-9 "...Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: "‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’"

When you set aside the commands of God to worship God with man made traditions, your worship is in vain. All the people who stay home with families to celebrate his birth and cancel church are celebrating in vain. They honor him with their lips but their hearts are far from him. Jesus said in John 14:15, "If you love me, you will obey what I command."

Click here to ask the Scripturist a Bible question.

Children banned from public places

There is an increasing tendency for businesses to ban children. Go here to read more.

They blame children for being unruly, disruptive and out of control. Children are not allowed, they say. But a child’s actions are not the result of their own mature choices but rather a demonstration of their parent’s skills at discipline. It is the parent’s responsibility to teach children to behave. Now my child can’t go some places because other people couldn’t keep their kids under control.

You have seen them in the Wal-Mart or a restaurant. We have seen the parent with the out of control child. We noticed the parent berating and yelling at a child with empty threats or the sad gloomy face of a parent who had resigned themselves to just endure incessant cries of the child’s temper tantrum. Neither has a firm and loving response to the out of control behavior. We have seen the parent who neglected to discipline and so the child continually acts up in public to the point the parent’s anger finally motivates them to vengeance rather than an appropriate from of discipline. This only angers the child and enflames the situation. We have seen the kids that the above article is talking about.

Today parents don’t take responsibility for their child’s behavior. If a child acts up it’s never the child’s fault. It’s never the parents fault. It must be society. It must be other people’s fault. It’s not the child’s fault. It’s the teacher. It’s the school. It’s the other kids influencing them. It’s Attention Deficit Disorder. It’s that the child is spirited. It is because of anyone and anything but the real problem, the primary care givers. No one will admit the truth that it is the parents fault.
Parenting and discipline is not a mystery. It’s not an unattainable goal. It’s not magic. It’s not out of reach. It doesn’t take strong mood altering drugs. Good parenting and discipline are a lost art because the parent has to take the responsibility. It’s an elusive virtue in society because it’s hard work. It’s out of the reach of some because they have bought into the empty philosophies of this age, like never spank a child. It’s rare because it’s a team effort that takes both parents and half the kids are coming from split homes with one parent who has to work all the time. Children are hurt by being raised without married parents.

Now children are despised and banned from public places because they have become such a nuisance. They have no respect for parents or anyone in authority. They are rude, whinny, selfish, unstable, unteachable, ungrateful, immature, under disciplined, and over indulged. They have had all the “facts of life” shoved in their face on television and in movies without ever learning self-control or decency. We are raising a self-centered, obnoxious and lewd generation.

2 Timothy 3:1-4 says, “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”

The solution is not to ban children from public. We should return to wisdom and start reading what the Scriptures have to say about good parenting.

Go here to buy a great book on how to train children based on Biblical principles.

He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine!

What will it be like when we get to Heaven? I can only Imagine!

The Bible gives more description about Hell than Heaven. Sure there are all the metaphorical descriptions in Revelation but considering everything around those descriptions is the allegory of apocalyptic literature, how can we take those descriptions as anything but symbolism. But those mere symbols to represent something even more grand. What will it be like?

I know it will be beautiful to behold God in His temple (Psalms 27:4). David said it was his one desire to see behold God there. Maybe the reason God doesn't explain it more is that our mere human minds cannot fathom the majesty of it all. It's beautiful beyond description.

1 Corinthians 2:9 says, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" Did you catch that? We have not seen what he has prepared. We have not heard. We have not even conceived of what God has planned. Could it be that heaven is more wonderful that we could even imagine?

I believe if we could see the eternal home of Heaven that is being prepared for us that we wouldn't be able to describe it because we would have nothing to compare it to (if in fact we would be permitted to tell such things). 2 Corinthians 12:4 tells of Paul when he "was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell." Some things are to wonderful to put into mere words.

Image that you met someone who was born blind. They had never seen a thing their whole life. They ask you to describe the color green. What do you say? How would you describe it? You can't! There is nothing to compare it to. That is why I believe we have so little information about Heaven. It is more wonderful than anything we could conceive or imagine. There is nothing wonderful enough for God to compare it to.

We know it will be a place of joy, peace, perfection, provision, and home for those who have been adopted through faith in Christ as the children of God. I long for a home I have never seen that is better than I can imagine. If you would like to know more about how to have the hope of eternal life in Heaven with God as your savior, click here.