Dr. Adrian Rogers - Jesus Is Our Enduring Savior

Jesus is the only one who rose from the dead.

Dr. Adrian Rogers - Is Jesus the Lord, a Liar or Lunatic?

Romans chapter 1
4and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

This Week on TV

This link will take you to Andy Stanley's sermon on being Bold for Christ. Please watch! It is uplifting!

This Week on TV

Being Bold For Christ

Jesus told the disciples of the trials they would face for preaching  in His name.
This week on In Touch , Dr. Stanley's son Andy Stanley preached an outstanding sermon  on the apostles in Acts and how they prayed for boldness to continue preaching Jesus Christ to the world though they were persecuted. This is basis of the message he taught.


Matthew 10:17
17“Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues. 18On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. 19But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, 20for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

 In Acts Chapter five the apostles were persecuted and flogged for preaching in His name just as Jesus prophesied earlier in the book of Matthew. Though they were beaten within an inch of their lives the apostles rejoiced and continued preaching the Word of God.


 Acts 5:41:42

  41The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. 42Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.

Jesus told them in the past to count their persecution as a blessing and that's exactly what they did.

  Matthew Chapter 5:10-12

10Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. 

The Narrow Path

What did Jesus mean when he talked about the narrow gate that few will find?
Matthew chapter 7
13“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

  A couple of days ago I was sitting in the break room with another employee watching the chaos in the middle east unfold on the news. The girl seemed to have some Christian background as she mentioned what a mess the world was and how soon it could all come to an end. Then she proceeded to say how scared she was and how she really must get her life together. I realized she was  thinking she had to work to get her life right to make it to heaven. Though I don't feel I explained it as well as I could I informed the girl as long as she knew Jesus Christ she didn't have to be afraid.

When Jesus promised the criminal on the cross next to Him that he would be in paradise that day, He did not say "But first you're going to have to get your life together". The only thing thief uttered was,"Lord remember me when you enter your kingdom". This man didn't have time to live the perfect life and right all his wrongs of the past. In that one phrase he showed Jesus of his belief in Him as the Son of God and the realization that he was a sinner who needed forgiveness. He depended on Christ and not his own self.

  John 3:16 says
 16“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 14:6

6Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

 When Jesus died on the cross for us he took every sin we ever committed upon himself  and died so that we would not have to. He is the Savior of anyone who repents of all sin and believes in Him and what He did. What sense would it make for God to allow to Jesus to suffer and shed His blood for us if we could make it to heaven through our own doing? God the Father would not have been the loving Father He is if He had let Jesus  suffer for something we could do on our own. The Bible tells us in Romans that all people are sinners and we all have come short of the glory of God.



  Romans 3:10-18

10As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;

11there is no one who understands,

no one who seeks God.

12All have turned away,

they have together become worthless;

there is no one who does good,

not even one.”

13“Their throats are open graves;

their tongues practice deceit.”

“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”

14“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”

15“Their feet are swift to shed blood;

16ruin and misery mark their ways,

17and the way of peace they do not know.”

18“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Only Jesus Christ, who lived a perfect and sinless life,  could save us from our sins by the shedding of His blood.He repaid in full the sin debt that none of  us could even hope to repay. Through belief in Him and what He did our sins our covered by His blood. When God sees us He doesn't see our sin, but the righteousness of His Son Jesus Christ who intercedes for us.

  Hebrews 7:23-28

23Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; 24but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

26Such a high priest meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. 27Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. 28For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.

 We could never live perfectly enough to work our way to heaven.  That narrow gate is knowing Christ and fully depending on Him and His righteousness instead of depending on ourselves. We could never say that we know Christ, yet frantically think it's our works and and how good we are that gets us there. To say that our good works get us to heaven is to fall off the narrow path onto the wide path of destruction.

  Isaiah 64:6

6All of us have become like one who is unclean,

and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;

we all shrivel up like a leaf,

and like the wind our sins sweep us away. 

 Romans 3:23

23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

 

  Don't think however , that it doesn't matter how we live our lives. To be saved by Christ is to be set free from the bondage of sin. Our good works don't save our souls but our good works show who we are following. We don't sin because we are saved and follow Christ, not so we can save ourselves.

 Romans 6:1-4

1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

 Romans 6:14

14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. 

 Romans 6:20-23

20When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Simply put, the narrow path is repenting of all sin and accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and following His Word. We have to fully trust and depend on Him and his righteousness. We could never get our lives together on our own and hope to be perfect enough to enter the kingdom of heaven. If we have to hope we're good enough to get to heaven, we have the assurance that we will never make it there.

Gaining Control of My Martha Tendency

It's been a while since I've last posted , much to my dismay, but I've gotten so distracted from writing these past few months. I've noticed it's very easy for women to become worry wart Marthas and allow themselves to be caught up by the cares of this world. I've not only let the household chores and my nursing career to put  hobbies on the back burner, but my relationship with God as well. By the end of each day I'm so exhausted I end up crashing on the couch and watching television, instead of devoting the moment to time with the Lord or my writing. Prioritizing is something I'm struggling with but is something I hope to have mastered within this next year. It's an art I definitely will need by September since that is when my second child is due. I'm excited to have another little one in the house but I can only imagine how hard it will be juggling a household with two children in tow!
Hopefully the Lord will turn me into more of a Mary within the next few months, if I trust Him to take full control of my life.


40But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

41“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42but only one thing is needed.^f Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Luke Chapter 10

My Political Views Make Me a Self Hating Racist

  In the last few months I have now discovered what it means to be a racist. Can you hint the note of sarcasm there? Not only have I become a racist, but a self hating racist who has fallen for conservative christian values in order to gain approval of white people. I had noticed in the days that followed the election of  our current president, that many whites were increasingly being accused of racism for not liking or supporting him. It was ludicrous to me that people could not seem to separate politics from racial issues. Sadly, people believe in this myth that if you're a conservative republican you're probably racist, and if you're a liberal democrat you are tolerant of everything and everyone.  Contrary to this ridiculous idea, there are many people who consider themselves to be democrat that are  as racist as the devil. And if liberals these days are so tolerant of everything, then why are they so ready to persecute Christians, Christian organizations and anything that has to do with conservative values?


  Our "black" president ( who is really biracial ) was supposedly going to bring everyone together in racial unity, but in contrast to that ideal, racial tensions seemed to have increased. Anyone who dares to criticize the way Obama runs this country is attacked and proclaimed a racist. This persecution is not limited to whites only but people of color who also  hold a conservative stance. If you're black or biracial ( black and white) your doubly attacked with labels of   "self hatred"  and " betrayal of your people"  listed along with your crimes of conservatism and criticism of the president. The president's race has become more important than his character.
Every time someone says something critical of the president the response is always the same. "He's the first black president!".  What , I say, does the accomplishment of being the first black president really mean if the president is not a good leader? Is it really a true accomplishment if he isn't a moral man? Obama being the first "black" president pales in comparison to all the damage he has done to this country.



  I myself have been the recipient of  these meritless accusations because of my political stance. The first time it happened on facebook because of some articles that I posted on my wall. Sadly enough the attacks came from some of my black  relatives, ( whom I will not name. they are still my family. ) who were pretty sore at me for criticizing the first "black" president. The arguments when on for days.  It wasn't my wish to put up the articles to start an argument but to put some info out there for people to read. I was put in a position to where I had to defend myself and my beliefs, along with letting people know I wasn't ashamed of my black heritage, just because I disapprove of the president. A friend of one of my relatives even had the audacity to tell me I was a racist and angrily deleted me off of her friend list. I didn't really know her so it was no loss to lose her as a "friend". Being called a racist really got under my skin, especially because I don't even view Obama as a black man. I see him as biracial just like me. Most importantly I see him as a person  who's character is questionable. Someone who thinks killing millions of babies is ok is just not my cup of tea.


  My most recent attack was by one of my youtube subscribers a few days ago. Now mind you, this isn't for videos I made , this is for videos I like and favorite. Accept for a couple of lame videos showing my trip to the Memphis Zoo, I don't upload anything. I subscribe to channels and favorite any videos I happen to really like. I wasn't looking for any subscribers but I gained a few in the process by no effort of mine. I  subscribed to this channel called drinkingwithbob which features rants against our current administration. Every now and then I might disagree with Bob on something , but for the most part I agree with everything he says about the government and the president. I pretty much favorite all of the man's videos. One day , as I was checking my account, I came across some awful comments in my inbox from a an angry subscriber who didn't like that I was adding most of Bob's videos to my favorites.

Here are some of the comments I received regarding Bob and his videos:

"OMG, just join the KKK. You have been brainwashed into hating your own people. They will never let you join because you have to have TWO white parents. Yet, you have fallen for their diatribe hook, line, and sinker...game, set, match. This is what they say about YOU when you walk out of the room. I've heard what they say when they think we're not around. And they smile in our face and act like they're not racist. Honey, this is how they really feel. They feel like this about you to!"

"
They don't care that you have a White mom. It doesn't count after she's had sex with a black man and had his kid. Don't you get that? Racist white people don't care anything about you. Do you not hear what he is saying about Obama who is half-white just like you? That little bit of white you have in you doesn't matter to this man in the video. Wake up! He's not talking to biracials in this video. He's talking to his people. People with two white parents. Not you. Wake up!"


"
You're favoriting his videos like he care's that your mom had you with a black man. You want to be white so bad that you would side with an openly racist white man. Don't you get that you have to hate your people to get him to like you and he still wouldn't give a hell about you because you are black in his eyes. He'll tell you it ok because you're light skin. And then he will proceed to talk about you to your face. Because biracial & black means the samething to people like him."



  I have watched many of Bob's videos and have yet to see anything racist about them , unless  you believe not liking Obama is racist. These comments are just a few of many that I will have to endure for being biracial with conservative Christian beliefs. There is a question I have for people who come against me. What happened to :

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." ?
Martin Luther King

How do you judge whether Obama is good for this country, by his skin color , or his character?