VRSpock

G-d gives many signs and wonders all of the time. Few end up on the headline news of CNN or MSNBC though....and when they do, they rarely if ever give any credit to G-d, but instead credit miracles to luck, charma or some other pagan belief. I would definetly be weary of anything that acquires a "super stardom" status, be it a sign, wonder, miracle, so-called pastor, etc. We are living in a time of great deception. Many believe they are grounded in the truth when in fact, they are grounded in an imperfect version of the truth. The times we are in right now are much like Isreal in the book of Judges...everyone has fooled themselves into believing that they are in the right...even though the truth...G-d's Word...is right under their noses. The only sign I'm watching right now is Israel and whether or not they wipe Hamas off the face of the earth, which they have every right to do. Taking us back to Ezekial 38 and 39, no apparent opposition to Israel as a state would set up the stage for a peace treaty between Israel and the rest of the middle east....that is until Iran decides to retaliate for losing their left arm (Hamas).

Ok...first of all, I want to disspell a great myth in the universe. That myth being "Micro-evoltuion". Pharmecuetical companies have recently discovered that certain viruses are already immune to a brand new anti-biotic that they have developed that the virus HAS NEVER BEEN EXPOSED TO IN THE PAST, because prior to their initial experiments, the anti-biotic did not exist! Upon close examination, they have discovered that what is happening with viruses and super viruses is NOT an adaptation to a new drug that secular scientists like to call "micro-evolution", but is instead a random mutation that has nothing to do with exposure to anything. Therefore, micro-evolution does NOT exist. The idea of micro-evolution suggests that organisms adapt to their surroundings at a molecular level and the recent discoveries made by pharmaceutical companies proves this to be a flawed concept. I also want to disspell another great myth of the universe and that myth is that mankind has mastered human DNA. We have not mastered anything of the sort. In fact, mankind has no idea what 99% of the protein sequences in human DNA actually do! To be able to clone something doesn't mean that one has mastered protein sequencing. I can copy/paste PHP code to my hearts content and make bits and peicies of programming code work together in a Frankensteinish manner, but that doesn't mean that I know squat about what the bits and pieces of code actually do. I'm only talking about human DNA here...much less the DNA in animals, plants and all the other organisms in existence. True science, not the hollywood Jurassic Park science that we are finding in more and more school text books, does not assume anything, yet secular scientists speak as if they have great understanding of DNA molecules and can construct all of these fantasies about how life neatly evolved out of a puddle of goo, yet when they are questioned by others they end up falling all over themselves because they don't have any real data that they have collected, only speculations and assumptions. Do blue-eyes prove anything? If I mix yellow and blue paint together does it evolve into green paint? Of course not!

From my understanding, the dead that awaited in Abraham's Bossom are the 144,000 referred to in Revelations and are the dead saints that arose upon Christ's resurrection and followed Christ in His ascension into heaven. Bottom line though is that you can't talk to the dead in the form of a ghost...only a demonic, familiar spirit pretending to be the ghost of whoever. So all those Ghost Hunter episodes on the Sci-Fi channel....they're actually encountering demonic spirits on those shows and so is anyone who seeks to commune with the dead.

It is impossible for us to even comprehend our worth in G-d's eyes. We only have a finite ability to fully recognize exactly what was done for us on the cross. I believe that we are to walk in the confidence of knowing and being aware of the gifts that G-d has blessed us each with, but with an equal amount of humility and willigness to recognize, acknowledge and work with our weaknesses or lack of knowledge in a specific area. Having those gifts, it is also our responsibility to teach others who have those same giftings as well as be taught. For example, I help out with media and sound at our church. There are times when I hear something in the sound or see an issue with the media and I confidently go and quickly help alleviate that issue. There are other times when I am humbled by one of the other people who help out with sound and media because they know how to quickly fix something that I did not. People who are full of pride will get upset when corrected or sometimes even helped by others. People who are confident are confident of their weaknesses as well as their strengths and are willing to work with others "iron sharpening iron" and be edified in the process.

Actually the ENTIRE Word of G-d is written specifically and directly to Christians...or more accurately believers in Jesus, Y'shua. We know this because we are told through out scripture that it is impossible for the lost to have any understanding of G-d's Word and when understanding that, it seems kind of silly to think that any scripture is meant for the lost. The lost are condemned to hell...period. G-d's Word is irrelevant to the lost because the lost has no interest in it and G-d will not stand in the way of one's free will desire to go to hell. The only way that they cannot be condemned to hell is to repent and once repented they are now believers and once believers they begin to have understanding of G-d's Word and then it is expected by G-d of them to become disciples of His Word and actually follow it, which is the fruit of the Spirit spoken of in Galatians. It is when we believe that G-d is speaking to the heathen on the other side of the street that we have put ourselves in a very dangerous mindset because we are failing to realize that we, ourselves are heathen too in the eyes of G-d without the covering of the blood of Christ.

The major artists that I am referring to have made statements like that in interviews. They were very bostful about being a Christian band/artist UNTIL they ended up on VH-1 or MTV. When this happens, I have a major issue with them because it is very evident, despite what they may say, why they have begun to state such things in interviews and have begun watering down their lyrics to appeal to the masses and culture (or doing whatever the major record label is trying to dictate to them to do) rather than continuing in what the Lord intended them to do. I listen to artists such as Lecrae, KJ-52, Skillet, Pillar, P.O.D. and many others who are very bolsterous in their stance on Christ while at the same time, they can and do write songs that are not praise and worship songs. Every Christian song does not have to be a praise and worship song and there are groups like Family Force 5 who have been able to pull this off quite well while still having very obvious messages within their songs that keep the focus on Christ even though the song is not a priase and worship song. On the other side of the coin, there are secular artists who have sung the most beautiful renditions of gospel songs and yet every other song they produce has to do with glorifying audultry, alcoholism, etc and their very own walk in life lacks the fruit of the spirit. We're either hot or cold but heaven help us if we're luke-warm.

I have seen a couple of major artists out there say "well...all of our band members are Christian, but we don't won't to be labled as a Christian band because...blah blah blah" Romans 10:9-11 "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that G-d hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed."

Actually, we used to joke in college way back in 1990 that the Internet WAS SkyNet...lol. That was before I truly knew Christ and I used to think it would be cool to have a chip implant in my brain so I could surf the net and experience virtual reality without having to rely on my outer senses. I used to think the idea of a Borg Collective was cool too. Ok...I admit it, I was one warped little atheist geek.

I have to agree that the movie did end quite horribly as Marnie said. I can only think of Pet Cemetary having a more shocking effect to it and that was because it was the first movie to hit the big screen that showed a toddler getting pancaked by a semi. I'm not sure where Stephen King's relationship with Christ is at or how his stories reflect that. Many things can have a positive, warm-fuzzy spiritual element to them and be further from G-d than the deepest pits of hades. For example, my wife just showed me a new song by Kid Rock called "Amen" that would almost fool the very elect into thinking they just heard a Christian Rock song if it wasn't for taking God's name in vain in one lyric, telling people to lay off of him if he decides to get high on weed. James 3:11 "Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?" In the music video there is the flashing of a sign that says "respect all religions" when Christ Himself said that He did not come for peace, but to divide and put father against son, mother against daughter as the real Truth is a two-edged sword that seperates bone from marrow, spirit from soul. While Kid Rock is posing religiousity with such a song, the lyrics and video are very anti-Christ in nature. Jesus isn't about warm fuzzies. I'm not sure if there was any malice intentions with the storyline of the Mist or not...it does show that this woman was considered crazy...but she was also the only person that was speaking forth scripture as well....and that's where I have an issue with this story. If it was a native village in the deep rain forests of South America, I might believe that no one else had any real knowledge of scripture to rebuke the crazy woman who was spouting off stuff she might have heard in Sunday School when she was 5 years old that got scrambled in her messed up brain....but this was supposed to be a town in the U.S. The movie also portrays the idea that in the worst of situations, everyone will lose their marbles and become like animals....which may be true in a natural sense, but there's always those who have a supernatural relationship with Christ.

Resistance is futile.....you shall be assimilated. Ummm...sorry...couldn't resist that one.

My wife and I watched Stephen King's The Mist here recently. I don't make a habit of watching his movies anymore, but this one was presented in the previews as being a "creature feature" from what I saw...you know...giant bugs, killer bees, rabid bats, killer aligators...those types of movies....so I was a bit interested in seeing it based upon that. While it started out as a typical creature feature, the story line of this movie morphed into something totally different. People in a small town were all huddled into the local grocery/supply store, having been told that there was something in the mist and then hearing someone scream in agony outside in the mist before vanishing. No one in the store knew what was really going on, except for a couple of guys, but you didn't find that out until much later. Anyhow, the story shifts from that of a creature feature to that of one particular local town woman who...well...for better sake of terms was off her rocker. As the story progressed, she began feeding on the fears of the local town people by spitting out vague and partial verses out of the book of revelation and saying that this was the last of days, that the town people were being judged and that the only way to appease G-d was through the shedding of blood. I guess she was missing all of the New Testament (except for revelation) and from the sounds of things, a pretty big chunk of the old testament. She was obviously being portrayed as a religious doomsday nut. The fear and paranoia of the town folk caused most of them to begin to believe her and begin to do whatever she said without question right down to sacrificing someone to one of the big giant bugs outside. The most amazing thing about this whole story was that out of what was supposed to be a typical small American town, absolutely no one seemed to have any sound knowledge of scripture whatsoever in which they could refute any of this woman's cult-like babblings. I get the impression that this was sadly a depiction of Christianity painted by Stephen King. In the end, the only half-way sane people in this story ended up having to kill her to keep from being killed by the mindless masses who followed her. They then proceeded to flee the store through the mist until they ran out of gas and ended in a very abrupt and disturbing conclusion to this story filled to the brim with the spirit of murder, suicide and despair the likes of which I have never seen a movie reach before....and I was a huge horror fan in my past, so I've seen the greatest of despair in movie form. Oh yeah and all those mindless masses ended up surviving. The moral this movie seems to portray: Hate those who speak about end time events or are even the slightest bit "religious" in any way. My wife believes this movie was made for the mere purpose of promoting persecution.

The scary thing about some people's attitude towards divorce, especially those who consider themselves to be Christians (and I'm speaking about people in general here and not making accusations toward anyone who has posted on this thread), is that G-d doesn't ask us to make believers out of men....He asks us to make disciples. The devil believes Jesus is the Son of G-d...especially since Jesus resurrected 3 days later! So what makes someone who claims to believe in Jesus any different from the devil? They follow G-d's written Word and they realize that they are not the ones who affix the label "Christian" on their foreheads, but it is G-d who judges us and not ourselves. When we begin justifying things based upon our own personal perspectives or personal theology, then we have attempted to put ourselves in the Judgement Seat and we see where that got the angel Lucifer who was once G-d's servant. G-d gives clear instructions concerning marriage and divorce and like I said in a previous post, I myself am a past victim of divorce. Sometimes divorce is not by our choice, or the situation at hand has scriptural merit for divorce (physical abuse or physical adultry) or the other person who is walking away is simply not a follower of G-d's word despite whatever they have convinced themselves of. If you actually study out what G-d's Word says then clearly advising someone to divorce their spouse is not permitted, no matter how pure the intentions are, as that is a violation of the sanctity of Holy Matrimony. It doesn't matter if the person advising is a friend or even a parent of the person in question.

One thing a friend of mine who knew me when I was a somewhat arrogant atheist (who thought he had all the answers and if he didn't, could find the answer)...... It's OK to say "I don't know." lol After them repeating that to me several times one day, I finally said for the first time "I don't know." Secular scientists need to learn to use that phrase more often.

The house would be new....it would be an entirely different object than the 500 year old tree; even though made from it. Yes, but according to the carbon dating of the wood, the house is over 500 years old.

Another thing to note on this subject is that for accountability sake, men should minister to men and women to women. When I said you should have a third person present, I was referring to times that you are socializing or working with this person. Accountability helps keep the enemy from prying open any potential doorways. After all, the enemy is out to kill, steal and destroy. I agree with biblicist in that it's no matter what either of you believe your intentions or feelings are with regards to her consoling in you as a friend. Ministering and/or counseling them is a totally different matter because you are a friend and therefore have a subjective viewpoint on the situation. This is why our Pastor doesn't do counseling, because he doesn't want to know people's dirty laundry because it would put him under bondage on the pulpit if he were to be led by the Lord to speak on something that may or may not have anything to do with a situation someone in the congregation is in. We have others in our church who are ordained to council. I also agree with whoever said that it can only be physical due to the ups and downs we all go through spiritually and emotionally as the flawed human beings that we are. A "spiritual" or "emotional" abandonment is merely a perception of things. A physical abandonment is a reality of things.