be of sober mind,...

Communism...
Socialism...
is it good?

some say it is... Some Christians are saying it is.. Some Christians are saying it is wonderful... The government should control, payfor and run our healthcare... our schools... our homes.. Why should we as parents have any rights?  they are not our children... are we not raising "good citizens" for the country?

Are we?

Are you?

I am not... I am raising children, to grow up to be honest, whole, healthy people,who hopefully will see enough of Christ in their father and myself, hopefully have seen enough of Him in their own life to really know Him, and walk with Him all their days..  I am raising them in the Lord..  I am training them in many things, I am teaching, admonishing, encouraging, discipling, loving, and even enjoying them as they grow into adults... Adults who shall think... ponder, process thoughts, ideas, world views, all their own...  It is not my job to raise them to be good little soldiers for any cause of man...

There have been times, and are still places in the planet where the church of our Lord Jesus has had to go "underground" as they call it... Where worship of Christ has been obscured, not been so out in the open... In the book 'Tortured for Christ', Pastor Richard Wormbrand writes about such an occasion...

"One of our workers in the Underground Church was a young girl.  The Communist police discovered that she secretly spread Gospels and taught children about Christ.  They decided to arrest her.   But to make the arrest as agonizing and painful as they could, they decided to delay her arrest a few weeks, until the day she was to be married.  On her wedding day, the girl was dressed as a bride -- the most wonderful, joyous day in a girl's life!  Suddenly the door burst open and the secret police rushed in.
When the bride saw the secret police, she held out her arms toward them to be handcuffed.  The roughly put the manacles on her wrists.  Whe looked toward her beloved, then kissed the chains and said, "I thank my heavenly Bridegroom for this jewel He has presented to me on my marriage day.  I thank Him that I am worthy to suffur for Him."  She was dragged off, with weeping Christians and a weeping bridegroom left behind.  They knew what happens to young Christian girls in the hands of Communist guards.  Her bridegroom faithfully waited for her.  After five years she was released-- a destroyed, broken worman, looking thirty years older.  She said it was the least she could do for her Christ.  Such beautiful Christians are in the Underground Church."

They sat in sometimes in prisons listening for 17 hours a day for weeks, months, years to chants...
communism is good!
Communism is good!
Communism is good!
Christianity is stupid!
Christianity is Stupid!
Christianity is stupid!
Give up!
Give up!
Give up!
....

when I turn on the Tv.. I hear similiar chants... over and over through TV shows, movies, and other media... but they pretend communism is dead, they call it other things...but a rose by any other name is still just a rose.......

Christian just means little Christ... are you a Christian?

Jesus answered...
"Verily verily I say unto thee, except that a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 

That which is born of the flesh, is flesh:and that that is born of the Spirit, is spirit.

Marvel not that I said to thee, Ye must be born again.

The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh,
and whither it goeth: so is every man that is born of the Spirit.

how then do you answer?  like that of Nicodemus, to whom Jesus was speaking?  He wondered HOW such things could be.. Jesus told him that we would speak of what we know.. we can only testify to what we have seen... that he'd not be able to receive our witness... to tell him earthly things.. to give him justifiable reasons to believe perhaps? would not CONVINCE Nicodemus to unto salvation... ultimately...  Jesus says THIS...

For no man ascendeth up to heaven, but that had descended from heaven, that Son of man which is in heaven.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must that Son of man be lifted up.

That whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have eternal life.

For God so loveth the world, that he hath given his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life. 

For God sent not his Son into the world, that he should condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

He that believeth in him, is not condemned: but he that believeth not, is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the Name of that only begotton Son of God. 

And this is the condemnation, that the ligth came into the world, and men loved darkenss rather than that light, because their deeds were evil.

For every man that evil doeth, hateth the light, neither cometh to light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 

But he that doeth truth, cometh to the light, that his deeds might be made manifest, that the are wrought according to God."

thoughts welcomed.........
may we walk together in the light...
may we reprove, and believe, and rejoice in His love..........

drowning.......

Through the EYES of a Buddhist...

story told by Ron Carlson

Ron asked a converted missionary, "Why did you become a Christian? 

What is the difference between Buddhism and Christianity?"

He replied, "Ron, when I was a Buddhist, it was like I was drowning in a big lake, and I did not know how to swim.

I was going under for the third time,

when Buddha walked up to the edge of the edge of the lake

and began to teach me how to swim.

Buddha said,

"start moving your hands and kicking your legs,

but you have to make it to the shore yourself!"

Then Jesus Christ walked up to the edge of the lake,

but he did not stop there!

He dove into the lake,

swam out,

rescued me,

and brought me to shore.

After he brought me to shore,

then he taught me how to swim,

so I can go back and rescue others!"

My daughter read this quote to me this week. 

It was in a book by Ron Carlson & Ed Decker called Fast Facts on False Teachings,
 a book that I read years ago. 
I gave it to her, because she is reading the book KIM by Rudyard Kipling, and wanted to understand... really UNDERSTAND this people group, this llama, and this boys' culture.. Understand Buddhism..
Not that she might be all rude and sassy, but that she might able to know what they believe..
to be able to better LOVE them.... 
 It is why such books are on my shelf.. So that we might know them a little better, love them a little more, and not be ignorant as we read, and live, and walk about in this world..
That we not fear people, but confidently walk forward in GRACE and TRUTH, and welcome others into our life, freely sharing Jesus with them, as the Spirit leads us to...

I don't need to study Buddhism anymore, or the Koran, or Wicca, the Book of Mormon, or New Age,
 or any of it...

It took years for me to finally just pick up a Bible and read THAT all the way through...

I read so many other so called "holy" books...

I shared this quote with you, because it is so powerful..

so like my own testimony.

till Christ Came

I was drowning,

and now..

though the waters can be rough,

and I weary.

I am a swimmer swimming.

But only because

Jesus saved me

Once upon a time...

"Once upon a time, there was a King who walked astride his world--
here, there, and everywhere.

He became poor in order to be like the people
he loved,
and he lived among the out casts in order to feel their pain."
Tales of the Kingdom...

-d & k mains