The best Friday ever.

So today I am up at 5am, I shower, get dressed, and shuffle out the door to the commuter lot. In my still asleep mind, the thought…no wait, dream crosses my mind, “Should I drive in, it’s like 100 below zero and FRIDAY!”

I decide to drive to WAWA to get coffee and try and wake my mind up to make a decision. For those readers who are not familiar with WAWA, it is THE BEST gas station ever with great coffee and pretty good food. I don’t know I’m American, I love stupid things.

Anyway, I have coffee now, but can’t drink it because it is 200 degrees. I think I ate a bagel sandwich-yes I know, I said my mind was sleeping. I drive back to the commuter lot, get out, stand in line, get in a car, 45 minutes later I’m on 14th and New York ready to start my walk west down Pennsylvania Avenue. Yes, the same location as the Bologna mystery of a previous blog, also the new address of the soon to be President Obama, maybe you have heard of him.

So now it is a brisk 10 degrees with about a 10 mile an hour wind in my face…so if my math is correct that comes out to 1000 degrees below zero. Now my face and legs feel like they are on fire but it’s only a half mile to go, so I push on. I now have to dodge security and blockades all down the Pennsylvania Ave….lucky I didn’t forget my badge, oh wait, ah here it is. 10 minutes later I am at my building and shocked that my coffee didn’t freeze solid. My math may have been off on the temperature calculation.

I am now frozen; face burning worse than any ski trip wind burns I have received before. I get into the elevator and look up into the mirrored ceiling to confirm my face is still there, it is, but is a very nice shade of pink. 7th floor, I’m here. I walk down the hallway turn into my cube where a coworker asked why I’m here. What do you mean “Why am I here?” Oh, no my heart sinks…today is my work from home day! I got up 3 hours early and came here for nothing. Happy Friday!!!!

I’m taking the train home where my wife will pick me up and take me to get my car. I must be a constant source of amusement to her.

Podcasts are coming everyone, will be recording this weekend.

Thanks for checking in and God Bless.

Does the belief in God or the Bible inconvenience you?

Why are there so many people wasting energy trying to deny the existence of God?

This was placed on my heart today remembering a part of a sermon given by my Churches Associate Pastor a couple months ago on “Why don’t people believe?”, and I just wanted to share with you some of my thoughts.

I have stated before that I feel most people deny the existence of God or the validity of the Bible because they just don’t want to be inconvenienced. They don’t want to change a lifestyle they feel is “not so bad”. They want to say that people should believe what they want to believe or do what they want to do when in fact that is not truly what they want. What they truly want is to pick and chose what people are allowed to freely think or do. I think they would be a bit distressed by a NAMBLA member or pedophile living next door to them and their children. I believe their thoughts, beliefs and actions would not be welcome. I feel much better with people acting on Gods and only Gods absolute morality and truth, than I feel with humans running around applying their own and possible distorted morality and situational ethics.

There are others who want to try and poke holes in the truth of the Bible, misquoting, misinterpreting and bending Gods words, replacing Gods truth with their own misguided secular “Theology”. Some take the easy way out by placing their eternal or spiritual life in the hands of someone else’s ignorance from a website, general conversation or bumper sticker quote. Most people put more thought into picking out a car, meal, movie, TV, or outfit for a function than they do the single most important decision anyone can make, truly accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as your savoir.

There are people who are simply are scared to actually study the Bible, because ignorance is bliss. Some are scared because if they do find what it is they are looking for it will require them to make a drastic change and conform to absolute truths. They would have to really examine their lives.

There is a triune God, God the father, God the son and God the Holy Spirit. Jesus did shed his blood and die for our sins and he did rise on the third day. Nothing we do is good enough to earn our way into Heaven and we are saved through God’s grace trough our faith alone. Works are the fruit of our salvation not the cause of it.

Some say they believe in God and try to put God in a box, they want to reshape God to conform to their own beliefs. They want to distort Gods word to try and justify their sin. They talk about what they “think” God would do or say instead of just reading what he has already spoken.

People seem to be more wiling to believe false teachings about Christianity because they want to be justified or relieved of the guilt of their sin. I speak from experience, I know what it is like to think like the people I mention above, as I have at points in my life been there before I fully committed to my faith.

Like water we all have a tendency to flow toward the path of least resistance. The good news is God has already given us the path and a guide to help us on our journey. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” -John 3:16

Luke writes in Luke 11:9-10:

”So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”

I want to encourage everyone to if you are not already to read and study the Bible daily. Truly devote time to learning about our faith.

Thanks for checking in and God Bless.

>>John

Episode 2 Part 2 of 1 Peter 1:1-2

Have you ever felt people think of you or treat you differently because you are a Christian? Have you ever felt the pressures of staying true to your faith and still fit in in an ever growing secular world. Peter has some words for us concerning this topic and more as we move into Episode 2 part 2 of the study of 1 Peter.

Thanks for checking in and God Bless.

Happy New Year! Hello 2009!

Wow! I have received much encouragement and so many great responses about the first Podcast on the Intro to 1 Peter, thank you all so much for that! We are now listened to in 11 countries around the world! Praise God!

The Episode 2 part 2 on 1 Peter 1:1-2 is almost ready. The last two nights have been absolutely crazy and it was not in the cards to get the Podcast up. I just spent 3 hours getting my home network back up and before that 2 hours dealing with my RSS feed and trying to get ITunes to display the correct information.

I hope you all have a wonderful New Years, be safe and watch out for each other on the roads out there. Look out for the new Podcast that is coming tomorrow.

1 Peter 1:3-

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

Like the resurrection of Jesus gave us a new birth into a living hope, may starting another trip around the sun bring us all a fresh start into the New Year. May we reaffirm our commitment to God and grow more mature in our Christian faith in 2009. Amen!

Thanks for checking in and God Bless!

John

Merry Christmas to all and may God Bless

Merry Christmas to all and may God bless all of you. Thank you SO much for all the support. All glory to God! More Podcasts are coming, we start getting into 1 Peter next post! Taken the Wife and kids to see grandparents today, the kids are jacked!! I am all hopped up on pumpkin pie...mmmmmm

In Him,

John

Thanks for Checking in and God Bless.