In less than one week, in the United States, families will gather around for Thanksgiving dinner.  It reminds me of a time when I was a child.  We would always play football on Thanksgiving day.  My uncle, six years my senior, would always call the play “Same thing but different” that meant if I ran left the first time, I ran right this time.  It sounds like an oxymoron, but it is also a great spiritual lesson too.
Same thing but different.  That’s what our lives are like.  Paul wrote this to the Corinthian church: “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit.  There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.  There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.”

We are all so different but have the same thing working in us.   We have the Holy Spirit of God within us.  We may not understand why someone doesn’t believe exactly the same way we do.  Why do some believe in the laying on of hands while others wonder what good it could really do?  Why do some pray on their knees only but others feel all you need to do is open your heart to God.  Why do some worship on Saturday and some on Sunday?  Why? Because we are all different and have different spiritual gifts and God may even lead us in different understandings.

I have become convinced that many of the mistakes I made in life were ordained by God so I would understand people better.  I believe He allows some to believe differently or just be different so He can use their experiences to further their gifts or to help them understand Him better.  He’s like a master chess player and He never loses.

Hebrews tells us that it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God, for judgment yes.  But it is a fabulous thing to be moved by the hands of the living God too.

Ok right off the bat, I am not sure if bounceable is word.  Firefox underlines it so I am guessing it is not.  But for today I want to use it to illustrate a point.

Exodus 7:13 Yet Pharaoh’s heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the LORD had said.

I am sure you recognize the passage.  This occurred just after Moses and Aaron put the staff before Pharaoh and it became a snake.  What eventually happened to his heart?  It was broken by the death of his son.  The natural physical fact is that if something is hard, it stands a better chance of breaking than if it is soft in which case it may bounce back.

Don’t try this at home but consider in your mind.  If you have a drinking glass and a styrofoam ball that weigh exactly the same amount and drop them from 10 feet unto a hard surface, which will break?  The glass of course.  I am not going to get into the physics of mass and momentum and amount of force exterted, etc.  My point is the harder item breaks.  Ok, make it a plastic drinking glass then.  But still if you crush it, the harder substance will break first.

Why am I telling you this?  Because I see too often around me the hearts of God loving, God fearing Christians being hard and they don’t even realize it.  My heart was hard for a while but no one would have ever told you it was.  I didn’t show Pharaoh qualities, but I showed “i am positive I know what it means” qualities.

Do you know what your future holds?  Do you know all you can know about God?  Do you know what God requires of you?  If you do, then you have gone farther in life than I ever will.  We can never know enough.  To know it all is to have the mind of God and to have a hard heart.

Jesus said that He would come a time we don’t expect and then in another place asked if He would find faith on the earth.  Why?  Because people get in the mindset of “The temple must be built” or even the one I used to be in “The altar must be built” or “there must be a war in Israel”.  I know longer believe these things are musts.  In fact, I believe they are minute possibilities at best.   Well, the war will probably happen sooner or later, but it doesn’t mean that it is the start of or end of or even midst of the Daniel’s 70th week.  Jesus told us to be aware and watch.  I believe that means with a humble heart and not an “I know for certain” attitude.

When you allow yourself to be open to other interpretations, you stand the chance of being decieved.  But if you allow yourself to be lead by the spirit in all of your understanding and faith, you will not be deceived.  I speak to you on a very high level right now.  I realize that.  But all that i am asking is that you from this day forward, put just a small amount of effort into your prayers for understanding and wisdom so that when the time comes, you can be counted with those of Daniel 12:3 that have insight and understanding.

Here we go again. Oil drops daily for a few weeks and the price of gas finally hit $2.45/gallon yesterday. Ironically when oil costs this much a year ago, the price was $2.20/gallon and I am sure if the price of oil had remained steady, over a week or two, the price would have lowered back to that rate. But yesterday the price of oil jumped $6/bbl and instantly the price of gas jumped too.

God doesn’t like unequal scales. But this is out of our hands and unfortunately we must pay the price if we choose to drive a vehicle. God will handle the issue in His time and in His way and until then we will praise Him for his sovereign control and be thankful for all his many blessings.
I must admit though, filling up the tank for nearly half of what it cost me in July was pretty nice. While it lasted anyway.

Galatians 6:2 - “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”

There’s that nasty word, law.  It seems to make the skin of many Christians crawl when they hear it.  Law brings legalism and legalism invades grace’s role and that just can’t be.  But guess what Christians, it’s not what you think.  No, I am not here to try to negate God’s law. I would not be so bold to negate anything God has put forward, but I want to try to explain something in hopes that maybe someone may grow from it.

Do you feel like God uses you?  God uses anyone and everyone.  Whatever God wants, it happens.  God can use anyone at anytime to help another person.  You may be driving slow on a two lane road someday and thus keeping someone from speeding and hitting a cat that is running across the road and in the end, some child doesn’t go to bed with a broken heart.  You may lead hundreds of people in a Bible Study and not be sure how they are responding, but God could be using you to improve their lives.  You could be an attendee in that Bible Study that tells the leader thank you and thus letting him/her know that what they are doing has validity. 

There are many ways God can use you but God loves a joyful giver most of all.  No, not money, I mean giving of yourself.  When you realize that others are more important than you and you give of yourself to help somoene else, they may not thank you, but God will.  When you bear the burdens of someone else, you have fulfilled the law of Christ.  When you freely give, freely you will be given in return.  Cast your bread upon the waters and after many days you will find it again.

The days are coming when we will have to put aside all differences.  We should not grumble against one another or feel like we are better than someone.  We will need to bear one another’s burdens as a means of daily survival.  Why not get some practice now.  It will make you more prepared when that day comes.

Have you heard the song by Mercy Me called “Goodbye Self” from the “Coming Up To Breathe” CD released in 2006.

The song is about giving up your life and allowing it to be changed to a life in Christ.  That’s a concept we all need.  God can change you and He can change anyone.  He changed me, He may have changed you and He needs to change me more and He needs to change you more too. Daily we need to change.

What are you following?  What are you hanging on to?  Do you feel like it will never go away and like you can’t change?  Well, you can and if you just say Goodbye Self, God will change you. You can overcome that sin.  You can overcome that immoral desire.   You can adjust your lifestyle, you can stop sinning.  Yes you can.

Do you believe God can bring someone through a surgery?  Do you believe God can calm a storm?  Do you believe God can raise up a nation or tear one down?  Yes, God can and has.  If you are Christian then you believe that God raised His son from the dead.  If He can do that, then He can help you change.  Don’t give up, keep trying.

A friend of mine asked me today what I thought of a Ouija Board.  I didn’t have time to answer her so I posted the answer here for her and all of you to read.  The Parker Brothers game known as Ouija is nothing more than a piece of pressed wood with a Yes in the left corner, a No in the right corner and letters across the board.  A piece of plastic shaped like a heart is set on the board and moves across it.  IF that’s all you get out of a Ouija Board, then you are safe.  However……

If you feel that this board is going to help you contact spirits, you are treading on dangerous waters. Extremely dangerous waters.  At this point, the game becomes something else.  Skeptics say that you can blindfold people and ask a question and get unintelligible answers.  Sure, that’s probably true.  But consider the matter further.

You can replace the plastic with a drinking glass and take a piece of plywood and write letters on it and get teh same results.  The matter is not the board itself, the matter is trying to speak to spirits or use divination.  It is an abhoration to the Lord and should not be considerd among Christians at all.  It’s not the Ouija Board, it’s the intention that is the problem.  I don’t care what the skeptics say, evil spirits do exist and they are the only ones answering.  The dead cannot be contacted, they are dead.  Demons, for now, are very much alive and would love to make you think you are contacting a loved one or someone that used to live in your house.

It’s sometimes involuntary muscle movement or subconscious movement.  However when I was a teenager, I played with a Ouija Board with my friend while my brother looked up a Bible passage.  He yelled out the verse and chapter and the Ouija board spelled out the first four words then went to yes.  I repeated the words to my brother and confirmed.  The heart startd moving back and forth from yes to no before I pickd it up and threw it in our campfire.  I did not know even 3 books of the Bible let alone a full verse.  My friend didn’t either.  So for the skeptics, how was that unconscious movement?  It wasn’t.  I was dabbling with the occult and I am glad I didn’t go further.

Yes, they are harmless as is a spoon or a cereal bowl.  That is harmless utnil you try to summon a spirit through it.  Demons don’t need the objects.  It’s not the object, it’s the intentions of the heart that are the problem.  Stay away from them!

I started watching the VP debate and after 15 minutes had enough.  I can’t tell you enough how disenfranchised I am with politicians and our government in general these days.  So I decided to read the Bible a bit and then jump on here and offer some thoughts. 

God is amazing and amazing is a word that is not accurate enough to describe Him but right now, it’s how I feel.  He’s given us a most amazing piece of literature in His Bible too. It truly is living.  Living things can change other living things.  A child can be shaped by parents or by society or both.  A doctor can fix you up if you are ill and a politician can mislead you or be your voice when no one else will listen to you.  We can kill trees or animals and they can kill us too.  Living things can change living things.  

The Bible is indeed living.  It doesn’t meet the seven criteria for living beings that scientists have listed over the years, but it is alive.  It connects us, it unites us, it gives us all hope.  It overcomes barriers.   It doesn’t breath or grow, but it gives us the breath of life and helps us grow.   It doesn’t reproduce by itself but it has been reproduced more than any other book in human history.  It doesn’t communicate verbally but communicates the intricacies of God and the gospel of truth to anyone that will hear it.  Yes, it’s living. 

So why do I try to change it?  Why do you try to change it?  Why does your pastor or your neighbor or your parents try to change it?  Why does the person you have never met who lives on the other side of the world try to change it?  We are all guilty of this at one point or another.  We seek to change it but we don’t call it that.  We call it discerning it or understanding it.  The problem, I feel, is that we read something, start to understand it and then pride kicks in often and we expand on the little understanding and voila, we get a human understanding.  

I have really sought in the past two years to allow the Bible to change me and the Bible hasn’t failed in it’s task but I have failed in allowing it to do all that it sought to do.  But God knows my frame and that I am but dust.  He will lead me, I shall follow.

Time is short everyone.  Let’s spend more time seeking first His kingdom and seeking to know Him more and seeking to understand the times and seasons that are upon us lest we be like the Pharisees and not see what is happening. God was standing in the flesh, in their midst and they didn’t recognize Him.  He is not here in the flesh, but He is here in spirit.  Let’s not miss Him.  Seek Him!

Have you ever tried to live the scriptures? Whether you have or not, try this:  Pick a verse in the Bible, but not just any verse.  First ask God to lead you where He wishes you to go.  Start reading and when you hit that verse, stop and read it again.  You will know which one because God will let you know.  Take that verse and recite it to yourself many times during the day and if it is an instruction, try to do it.  IF it is a praise, think of God when you say it. If it is a warning, make sure you heed it.

Try this today, try it tomorrow.   Make it a daily activity and see how your life starts to change.  I promise it will.

As I write this post, waves are as high as 46 feet in the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricane Gustav looks as if he wants to make a name for himself like Katrina, Rita, and Wilma did in 2005 and others like Hugo, Floyd, David, Bob, Camile and Bob did in the past. Who’s next? Hanna, Josephine? Time will tell. But one thing is for sure, it appears that people will be talking about Gustav for years much like we all know what Katrina means nowadays.

But one name still remains the only name by which anyone can be saved. Jesus Christ is the name that has meaning in any language and in any culture. Sometimes this name brings hope but sometimes it brings hate. Gustav will initially bring despair, he will bring much needed rain to northern states. But Jesus Christ always brings hope and when His name is hated, it is always because those that hate are of the world.(Isaiah 66:5, Luke 6:2)

Let’s pray that Gustav not be what he could be and pray that in our lives, Jesus is all that we often won’t let Him be.

For this 100th post in the Christian category, I wanted to take time to think about who it is this blog is all about.  Oh sure, it’s also got the dotnet side but this and everything in this world is all about the one that created this world.   It’s all His and He has chosen to allow us to live here.  So all there is to know about computers is all about Him, so this blog, it is His too.

Stop and think about where you are right now.  Wherever in this world you are, it is a small location.  It would take hours to fly to other side of the world, and you certainly couldn’t walk there because of the vastness of oceans this world has.  Yet, wherever you are, He is there too.  Wherever I am, He is here too.  Wherever you go, He goes too.  There is no where to hide from His sight and nothing is impossible for Him.  He can see the tiniest germ crawling on your skin right now or he can see the vast buildings that may be surounding you.  He knows the number of hairs on your head and He knows the number of atoms that make up those hairs.  He knows why protons are attracted to electrons and why zinc explodes when nitric acid hits it.  He knows how many fish are in the ocean and every single word of every single language we have come up with in human history.

He knows it all.  WOW!  How insignificant are we in His sight, yet He has chosen to fellowship with us and He loves us.  WOW!  There is none like Him,

Behold His Glory Today!