Are you “afraid” of something? Do you fear spiders, snakes, water, or night? Are you a “fearless” person? Are you afraid of being alone? Are you afraid of cancer? Are you afraid of unemployment? Are you afraid of heights? Are you afraid of fire?

Use the comments box to describe your fears or what you think of as a “silly fear.”  Why not take the “fear survey poll?”

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Get a FREE on-line Bible commentary on the book of Romans through www.abiblecommentary.com.  You may also get a FREE daily devotional by subscribing to my rss feed – http://abiblecommentary.com/blog/feed/ or follow me on twitter.  I also operate a Christian blog on blogspot.

Please take a moment to complete this Alzheimer’s Disease survey question poll:

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 Get a FREE on-line Bible commentary on the book of Romans through www.abiblecommentary.com.  You may also get a FREE daily devotional by subscribing to my rss feed – http://abiblecommentary.com/blog/feed/ or follow me on twitter.  I also operate a Christian blog on blogspot.

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Are you thinking about a reverse osmosis system for your house?  I have used one and LOVED it.  They are not cheap, but they do make for TASTY water.  If you have been if “a reverse osmosis system is worth it,” the answer may be found in just how important “good water” is to you.

Here is your chance to participate in a “reverse osmosis survey.”

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Get a FREE on-line Bible commentary on the book of Romans through www.abiblecommentary.com.  You may also get a FREE daily devotional by subscribing to my rss feed – http://abiblecommentary.com/blog/feed/ or follow me on twitter.  I also operate a Christian blog on blogspot.

 Get a FREE on-line Bible commentary on the book of Romans through www.abiblecommentary.com.  You may also get a FREE daily devotional by subscribing to my rss feed – http://abiblecommentary.com/blog/feed/ or follow me on twitter.  I also operate a Christian blog on blogspot.

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   There must be awards for the television program that shows the most repulsive images. I’ve seen (short) clips of people swallowing indescribable objects and organisms just so their face can appear on the TV screen.
   I’m confident there are better ways to find one’s fifteen minutes of fame. I refuse to watch such programming.
   On Wednesday, November 11, the Associated Press told of a man in Peru who swallowed hardware. Doctors in Cajamarca, Peru reported finding a pound and a half of metal objects in the stomach of Requelme Abanto. The objects included nails, coins, rusted wire and scrap metal.
   In the story, Abanto bragged of swallowing seventeen five-inch nails in one day. He speculated that he might begin giving public performances of his unusual appetite. Not surprisingly, some suggest that Abanto may have mental health issues.
   Most would never think of swallowing live worms or rusted nails. But do we regularly swallow other things that have even more serious effects?
   Jesus warned us about gazing upon things that are sinful:
   “The lamp of the body is the eye. If    therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye isbad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that
   darkness!” (Matthew 6:22,23, NKJV).
   Ours is a visually-oriented society. Thanks to television and the Internet, we see activities that our ancestors never knew about.
   Satan knows how much we like to look. Eve’s decision to disregard God’s law came when she “saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise…” (Genesis 3:6).
   Once the image was allowed to remain in her mind, it was a short distance to committing the first sin.
   Christians today often place too much confidence in their ability to resist temptation. “I can handle this,” they answer while watching a show filled with sinful content. “It won’t affect me.”
   We need to be reminded of Paul’s words: “Do not be deceived: ‘Evil company corrupts good habits'” (1 Corinthians 15:33).
Are those words less true because the “company” is present by means of a cable?

I consider it a healthy thing to be grossed out by the thought of swallowing repulsive objects. Why are we not upset at the idea of swallowing things that might fatally infect our souls?

by Tim Hall

Get a FREE on-line Bible commentary on the book of Romans through www.abiblecommentary.com.  You may also get a FREE daily devotional by subscribing to my rss feed – http://abiblecommentary.com/blog/feed/ or follow me on twitter.  I also operate a Christian blog on blogspot.

Once upon a time, in the heart of an ancient Kingdom, there was a beautiful garden.

And there, in the cool of the day, the Master of the garden would walk.  Of all the plants of the garden, the most beautiful and most beloved was gracious and noble bamboo.  Year after year, bamboo grew yet more noble and gracious, conscious of his Master’s love and watchful delight, but modest and gentle withal.  And often when the wind came to revel in the garden, Bamboo would dance and play, tossing and swaying and leaping and bowing in joyous abandon, leading the Great Dance of the garden, which most delighted the Master’s heart.

Now, once upon a day, the Master himself drew near to contemplate his Bamboo with eyes of curious expectancy.  And Bamboo, in a passion of adoration, bowed his great head to the ground in loving greeting.  The Master spoke: “Bamboo, Bamboo, I would use you.”  Bamboo flung his head to the sky in utter delight.  The day of days had come, the day for which he had been made, the day to which he had been growing hour by hour, the day in which he would find his completion and his destiny.His voice came low: “Master, I’m ready.  Use me as you wish.”  “Bamboo,” The Master’s voice was grave “I would have to take you and cut you down!”  A trembling of great horror shook Bamboo…”Cut …me… down?  Me.. whom you, Master, has made the most beautiful in all thy Garden…cut me down!  Ah, not that.  Not that.  Use me for the joy, use me for the glory, oh master, but do not cut me down!” 

“Beloved Bamboo,” The Master’s voice grew graver still “If I do not cut you down, I cannot use you.”   The garden grew still.   Wind held his breath.  Bamboo slowly bent his proud and glorious head.   There was a whisper: “Master, if you cannot use me other than to cut me down.. then do your will and cut”.

“Bamboo, beloved Bamboo, I would cut your leaves and branches from you also”.  “Master, spare me. Cut me down and lay my beauty in the dust; but would you also have to take from me my leaves and branches too?”  “Bamboo, if I do not cut them away, I cannot use you.”  The Sun hid his face. A listening butterfly glided fearfully away.  And Bamboo shivered in terrible expectancy, whispering low: “Master, cut away”

“Bamboo, Bamboo, I would yet… split you in two and cut out your heart, for if I cut not so, I cannot use you.”  Then Bamboo bowed to the ground: “Master, Master… then cut and split.”

So did the Master of the garden took Bamboo…
and cut him down…
and hacked off his branches…
and stripped off his leaves…
and split him in two…
and cut out his heart.

And lifting him gently, the Master carried Bamboo to where there was a spring of fresh sparkling water in the midst of his dry fields.  Then putting one end of the broken Bamboo in the spring and the other end into the water channel in the field, the Master gently laid down his beloved Bamboo… And the spring sang welcome, and the clear sparkling waters raced joyously down the channel of bamboo’s torn body into the waiting fields.  Then the rice was planted, and the days went by, and the shoots grew and the harvest came.

In that day Bamboo, once so glorious in his stately beauty, was yet more glorious in his brokenness and humility.  For in his beauty he was life abundant, but in his brokenness he became a channel of abundant life to his Master’s world.

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). 

–Mike Benson

Does your Bible say “thy will be done ON earth” or “thy will be done IN earth” in Mt. 6:10?

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God’s will IN and ON the earth

 1)    In Mt. 6:10 the KJV says “thy will be done IN earth.”

2)    The ASV says, Thy will be done, as in heaven, so ON earth.”

 3)    What is God’s will for modern man?

4)    Rom. 12:2 –  “Do not be conformed to this world.”

5)    In 1 Thess. 4:3 Paul said, “this is the will of God.”

a)     Two points are made in 1 Thess. 4:13 – READ

6)    1 Thess. 4:13 says, “abstain from fornication.”

a)     Paul said we do not want to be involved with sexual sin.

b)    We do not want to commit this sin as individuals.

c)     Neither do we want to let our mind accept thinking that tolerates this type of activity.

d)    Eph. 5:17 – READ

7)    The word “foolish” has the sense of “mindless.”

8)    There are people in life who have a “mindless” approach to Christianity.

9)    1 Thess. 5:18.

10)           Paul said it is God’s will that we be thankful people.

11)           God wants us to be grateful in our life no matter what our circumstances.

a)     Based on the preceding passages, God’s will is often NOT done on the earth.

b)    Think of how many people are NOT thankful.

c)     We live in a world of thankless people.

12)           God’s will is not done in the area of wisdom.

13)           People commit the most mindless acts that lead to death, injury, and prison.

a)     God wants people to be holy (Rom. 12:1-2), but think of the ungodliness in the world.

14)           God says pray that His will be done ON earth.

15)           This is so important it is included in what many refer to as the model prayer.

a)     Many have said a better world starts with us.    

16)           Jesus’ life did not change everyone.

17)           Our life is also going to affect others.

18)           We can help God’s will be done on the earth by first doing it in our own life.

a)     Doing God’s will falls into two different categories.

19)           We cannot start to do God’s will unless we become a Christian.

20)           Part of God’s will is becoming one of His people.

21)           Then we must be the best Christian we can possibly be.

Evolutionary dating methods are inherently flawed.
Even those who espouse the ancient earth
philosophy are forced to admit that their dating
methods are often wildly inaccurate and that they
produce anomalous results. Consider:
 
“Several years ago some scientists discovered
human bones buried under thick deposits of mud
in California. The bones were submitted to
‘competent’ authorities who declared them to be
about 75,000 years old. Unfortunately, however,
as they dug deeper, they found an old United
States Army button. Now, maybe the United States
had an army 75,000 years ago–or just maybe the
scientific dating methods are not all that
reliable” (Wayne Jackson, “Scientific Red
Faces,” Reasoning from Revelation, Jan., ’91,
p. 3).
 
“Recently an archaeological excavation team, led
by professor Mitsuo Kawaga of Beppu University,
discovered drawings on the wall of a cave on the
Japanese island of Kyushu. The excited scientists
announced that the drawings were from 10,000 to
13,000 years old. Alas, a lifelong resident of
the area came forward to confess that he had
often scribbled on the walls of the cave when he
was a boy. The ‘scientists’ had only missed it by
about 99.99%” (Ibid).
 
“USA Today. February 2000. Red-faced scientists
today were forced to admit that archaeoraptor,
which editors of National Geographic magazine
had announced in the July 1999 issue as the
“missing link” between dinosaurs and birds,
turned out to be a clever forgery by a Chinese
smuggler. The supposedly bird-like creature,
with the tail of a meat-eating dinosaur,
sprouted its remarkable tail recently, rather
than 120 million years ago” (Duane Schmidt,
“Red-Faced Scientists,” And God Created Darwin,
p. 118).
 
“In the June 1982 issue of Industrial Research
and Development, Dr. Frederic B. Jueneman said,
‘The age of the globe is thought to be some 4.5
billion years, based on radiodecay rates …
Such ‘confirmation’ may be short-lived, as nature
is not to be discovered quite so easily. There
has been in recent years the horrible realization
that radiodecay rates are not as constant as
previously thought, nor are they immune to
environmental influences …  And this could mean
that the atomic clocks are reset during some
global disaster, and events which brought the
Mesozoic (Age–of the geologic time scale) to a
close may not be 65 million years ago but, rather,
within the age and memory of man.”

Commenting on Dr. Jueneman’s disclosure, Wayne
Jackson observed, “This is an utterly devastating
admission. It concedes that if some global
disaster has occurred in the ancient past (what
about the biblical Flood?), then the radiometic
clocks are virtually worthless” (Wayne Jackson,
“Earth-dating Techniques–Assumptions Required,”
Creation, Evolution, and the Age of the Earth,
p. 9).
 
These kinds of examples could be multiplied a
thousand-fold, and yet theistic evolutionists
continue to produce and endorse “evidence” (i.e.,
propaganda) of an old earth while simultaneously
wiping egg off their faces.

How can they consistently do so? The answer is,
they can’t. But rather than admit the accuracy
and authority of Scripture, so-called scientists
hold up fanciful conjecture as indisputable fact.  
 
The earth did not evolve over eons of time; it
was created in less than a week. Moses, through
inspiration (2 Timothy 3:16; cf 2 Peter 1:21)
wrote, “For in six days the Lord made the heavens
and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested”
(Exodus 31:17; cf 20:11).
–by Mike Benson

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There is a beautiful and convincing explanation given by the Chinese as to why wedding rings are worn on the fourth finger. Each finger represents a relationship:

Thumb: your parents

Second (index) finger: your siblings

Middle finger: yourself

Fourth (ring) finger: your life partner

Last (little) finger: your children.

First, open your hands (palm to palm), bend the middle fingers, and hold them together-back to back. Second, open and hold the remaining three fingers and the thumb-tip to tip.

Now, try to separate your thumbs (representing the parents). They will open- because your parents are not destined to live with you lifelong, and have to leave you sooner or later.

Join your thumbs as before and separate your index fingers (representing siblings). They will also open, because your brothers and sisters will have their own families and will lead their own separate lives.

Now join the index fingers and separate your little fingers (representing your children). They will open too, because the children will get married and settle down on their own some day.

Finally, join your little fingers, and try to separate your ring fingers (representing your spouse). You will be surprised to see that you cannot, because husband and wife have to remain together all their lives-through thick and thin!

“For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth.” -Romans 7:2

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(Be sure to take the “skunk survey” at the end of this article)