Sometimes, it’s easy to get discouraged: whether it’s a difficult situation at work or a personal or family struggle, money woes, a health concern or a myriad of other things that can go wrong. It often feels like you’re on the receiving end of constant abuse. As Christians, we know trials come and are supposed to come but it doesn’t make it any better. All we know is that Jesus told us “to be of good cheer” for He has already overcome. So, in whatever situation you find yourself, remember these two very simple words…”But God“.
May you be blessed! Don’t forget to pass this on through your Social Media.
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We spend lots of time arguing and debating with people about #morality and #creation and evolution but in the end all that matters is #Jesus. In the end, winning the #debate is nowhere as important as winning the #soul.
I pray that this poem blesses you in your daily walk with #God and we encourage you to share it with as many people as possible. It’s a bit long but it’s worth it.
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In all my years on this planet, I’ve seen a lot of crazy things, done some very stupid things and condoned some very awful things. I’ve been called lots of names; most of them were true, but I thank God that He saw in me what He also saw in you. He called my name from the inside out, from a place deep within, a place I usually kept filled with all different sorts of sin.
This is a retelling of stories many of you may know, I pray that it blesses you and it helps you to grow. For all the things I have loved, I treasure them no more; The God of Heaven called my name, He gave me something to live for.
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Please share with someone you believe may benefit from this.
Through so many conversations this week with both believers and non-believers, new converts and #exvangelicals, #Christians and #atheists, it got me thinking: what do people see when they look at us? the answer to this question is the crux of our Christian walk; is the world a better place because of our testimony or do people stumble because of our insistence on making fools of ourselves in the most public of ways?
I pray that this poem inspires your Christian walk or brings you to a better understanding of the struggles of #everyday #Christianity. God Bless You!
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I recently had the opportunity to debate several people….at the same time. It’s easy, really: simply post a totally reasonable question on #Twitter and wait for the #sharks to show up! My mortal sin was asking them the following question:
Q1: is there ANY evidence u would accept as proof positive of A god?
If you can imagine, I got lots or replies, just none that actually answered the questions I was posing. I can say that what I did get was lots of attacks on religion, my religion, my personal beliefs, my intelligence and my dignity. I put my very best foot forward and kept soldiering on. I have to say that after engaging with a few people that seemed genuine, I quickly got the gist of the situation: none of them were interested in debate, especially one they would lose. A few, after having given it some thought accused me of circular reasoning, without having said a word!
I took a break; it was my oldest 9th birthday yesterday and it wouldn’t have been nice being on the phone with all those guests there. After sleeping on it overnight, went to church and spoke to a pastor friend of mine. He showed me that I was going about it all wrong: I was trying to show them my reasoning. “Atheism is not about reasoning” he said “it’s an evil demonic spirit. be careful. They don’t attack your ideas, they attack your core, your inner-man”.
With this new found knowledge, I returned back home and spread my net out again to see what I would catch. I asked again:
Q1: is there ANY evidence #atheists would accept as proof positive of A #god?
Immediately I had more bites, not just some of those from the day before but new names and approaches quickly fired back. As you can predict, many were insults but two seemed sincerely interested in the conversation. I restated for them again, hoping to clarify and try to use neutral words like “validate”, “prove” and the like: I didn’t want them to accuse me of language or syntax bias or bias of any kind. With all my good mannerisms, they could not distinguish God from religion and could not give me a straight answer. So I decided to stroke their egos a bit and change my approach. So, here it is! You’re ready? How I check-mated #atheists on #twitter with 3 simple questions, of which 2 were ego-stroking freebies:
Do you believe in science?
What self-respecting auto-proclaimed master of the universe would say “no” to that? Of course! Science is the breadbasket of their ego; it’s where they go to feed from and reinforce each other in the belief that there is no need for a God since all they need is science. They will gladly take the first step into your lion’s den.
2. Do you believe in the “Big Bang”?
Are you joking? Of course! It is the quintessential substance of being a good, secular, science-proves-all-things atheist! They will answer yes, but the more astute among them might object to this line of questioning: not because it’s wrong but because they might sense you have something up your sleeve; they can feel you forcing them in a corner and they’ll cry “foul play” even before you get all “religious” on them.
So far, these two questions were the “gimmes”, the easy bonus questions meant to give them a certain sense of calm and that the conversation is going in their favor. Even as I write this post, I’m fending off at least 10 people on #twitter all attacking the “God of the Bible”, attacking the Bible itself, the stories in the Bible, how they contradict and so on and so forth: if you’ve been a Christian longer than a week or have been conversing with non-believers at any point in your life, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
Now, the question that deserves a “thinker’s” answer. The first two are reflex reactions, even Christians can answer “yes” to those first two questions and not break with their worldview. No, the last question forces anyone with strongly held believes that claims to have reached them by reason to go deep and give a legitimate answer not based on sarcasm or stereotypical beliefs about the other side of the conversation. The last question proposes that idea of a “creator” in a language that is not your typical language that atheists are used to hearing when asked about a “un-caused cause”. So here it is:
3. Please explain your answer to question #2.
it seems a very low-ball question that you can easily and simply over-step and dismiss. But not so quickly! You see, you can believe is science and you can believe in the big bang but “something” started the Big Bang. Whether they say that it came from a “previous” universe that “collapsed” or quantum physics or the Spaghetti Monster, it doesn’t matter: whatever their answer is, that IS their god. Whatever idea we have of God, or which god is God, or whether your tradition is polytheistic, monotheistic, deist or pantheist, it doesn’t matter, the baseline definition, the lowest common denominator of the definition of “god” is somewhere between “un-caused cause” and a entity with nothing that is superior to it.
Whether you believe in the chicken or the egg theory, “something” must’ve created one or the other.
If Quantum Physics created the universe, God is Quantum Physics, if the Big Bang and the Universe created itself, the Universe is God, if the Spaghetti Monster created the Big Bang, then he’s god. In effect, an atheist, cannot be an atheist: what we have just shown is that the opposite of theist/deist is not atheism but agnostic. Atheists can only claim “who” or “what” or “which” god is god, but they cannot claim there is no god. Even more metaphysically “reason” can be god: if they believe, as they often do, that “one day science will give us an answer” they have just given us the definition of who their god is…science.
Ultimately, everyone believes in a higher power: some of us call him Jesus, others YaHWeH, still others by various other names. There are others, however, who call him by a more familiar name with a much more familiar face: the image staring back at them in the mirror.
This is not, of course, meant to insult anyone but to show that, in the end, all of humanity has a built-in belief in a higher power, we all believe there is something greater than ourselves, greater than all of us. The Bible says that “God has set eternity in the hearts of Man” so that we would search Him out. We all are looking for Him. want to find Him, want to know Him and desire a deep and personal relationship with the Maker of all things.
It is our most sincere and genuine prayer that, all of us, in our searching for Truth, find Jesus Christ and come to know Him as our personal Savior. The Bible teaches us that “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart“. Also, Jesus taught that “You will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free“. We belief the Truth is knowable and it is discover-able and it is in the person of Jesus Christ. We encourage you to search, study, question and draw your own conclusions. We trust that an honest search will discover the honest Truth. Please share this article with anyone you feel may find it interesting and thought-provoking. Feel free to comment and we look forward to hear from you.
I just wanted to share our Mission Statement with everyone. We’re working to file and be recognized as a 501(c)3 non-profit religious organization. Please read our Mission Statement, share it on your TL and prayerfully consider supporting our ministry. God bless you all!
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The words of a famous hymnal read “Some though the fire, some through the flood, some through great trials, but ALL through the BLOOD”! This poem is about where I was when Jesus came looking for me. I didn’t know Him, didn’t want Him, didn’t think I needed Him. Thankfully, He knew better. I pray that you may be blessed.
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Please share with someone you believe may benefit from this.
I hadn’t been on Twitter in a loooong time. My previous experience had totally turned me off to the whole “everyone has a valid voice” pitch of social media. Most of the voices that claimed to be “Prophets in the Wilderness” were simply Predators in the Wild West. Everyone was screaming against something, never for something.
In the little time I’ve been back, I have to say that I have been pleasantly surprised. I’ve had some very honest, open and sincere conversations with believers and non-believers alike: one gentleman in particular was even gracious enough to say that, to have a better-informed conversation, he needed to come back at a later time, after having done some digging.
I encourage all of us, as Christians and non-believers alike, to realize that if we are truly interested in discovering the TRUTH for ourselves and exposing others to it, and not simply proselytizing with our ears clogged, we have to withdraw from name-calling and insults and taking personal offense at other people’s ideas: if we all can at least agree that we share a common humanity than we are all equally capable of understanding: especially the Truths we espouse are so easily and readily accessible. In this very crucial time in our republic and one of the most divisive times in man’s history, let us all find each other in this old and powerful Scripture: “Come, let us reason together”, knowing and believing that “I don’t agree” is not synonymous with “I hate you”.
As Christians we are convinced that Jesus loves sinners because, well, He loves us! Let us therefore debate people’s ideas, not their dignity.
Imagine for a moment, you’re a New Yorker living in the five boroughs somewhere and you’re taking your children to school or taking them to Central Park or any other of the thousands of children-friendly things there is to do in such a city as ours. Living in New York gives our children experiences and exposure to many great things of all shapes and sizes.
As parents, we go out of our way to shield our children from certain things that, in our judgement, they’re not ready for or, better yet, no one should have to put up with. We put parental blocks on computers, tv, internet, certain shows and anything else that we as parents would like to address at the proper and under a controlled environment. Even the movie industry itself, under government guidelines, flawed as the system may be, uses the rating system and gives us an idea of what is appropriate to watch for certain age groups and content. rightfully so, school districts across the country implement training for staff and parents on how to properly address certain topics. Parents can have their child opt out of certain parts of the curriculum that they may want to address on their own time.
Enter the New York City MTA!
Museum of Sex Ad campaign is still going strong, even after residents, drivers had asked for and MTA had said the campaign would be discontinued.
As of last year, the MTA had reportedly given in to pressures from both residents and bus drivers themselves. That was a year ago. Please #share this post in an effort to pressure the MTA to remove this campaign that supposedly had expired last year.
We understand that America is a beautiful place because everyone has equal rights: men, women, companies, government agencies, and lastly, as in this case, children. So many things in society are wrong, and unfortunately, so many of them, as individuals, we can’t do anything about. Luckily, this is low-lying fruit. Let’s get this garbage off the streets!
There are few things as intense and yet as informative as sitting in New York City traffic. As you’re crawling along at racing-snail speeds and cars volley for a few feet of advantage over each other, your fellow concrete jungle dwellers are constantly sharing some very personal and, at times, intimate insights into their lives. How you say? Bumper stickers! I know, it sounds silly but next time you’re stuck in traffic just take a look around. You’ll see national flags, state flags, family crests, blue donkeys and and red elephants, campaign stickers from election cycles gone-by, Confederate flags, clenched fists, pro-law enforcement, anti-abortion and a whole slew of other tell-tale signs of who the people inside the car profess to be and what they hold dear.
It seems that these days “intersectionality” is the new catch-phrase: the rhetoric of politocians and the messages on tv sway individuals to identify themselves by checking off a series of boxes. They want us to identify by race, color, ethnicity, nationality, political affiliation and all the rest; all in the name of so-called “pride”. The only thing this has accomplished is to make us more polarized and more isolated from each other and erased any progress we may have achieved in these last decades.
But what about us? No, I don’t mean what bumper stickers adorn our back bumpers but “who do we profess to be?”; when people ask us who we are, to which bumper sticker do we refer to? What’s our go-to answer? Do we say “I’m a Met Fan”, or “I’m Italian” or “I’m Democrat”? If someone were to ask us to describe ourselves in five simple words, how far down the list would “Christian” be? Would it even make the list? Would anyone know we were Christians by either our profession of it or the fruits of lives?
Now more than ever, it is imperative that, we as Christians, proclaim who we believe to be and we must be who we claim we are! We must not only have the courage to proclaim who be are in boldness and love but have the strength of character to live out this Christian life in plain sight of all men! Fear of stumbling is not a good reason for not proclaiming to be a Christian. We will most assuredly stumble and fall but, with God’s help, less severely and less frequently as the years go by and as we strive to emulate the One in whom we’ve put our trust.
Our loyalty must be first and foremost to Christ Jesus: He is the only thing that gives our lives meaning and context. Our lives must be, as the apostle Paul wrote “a living epistle, easily read of all men”
So, let us not strive to proclaim our allegiance to Christ through catch-phrases or mere stickers: all those things are ancillary and avoid the central theme that connects them all! We need to proclaim ot through the the open-source testimony of our everyday lives, as we live them for Jesus!
