Filed under: Spiritual Matters | Tags: Bible, God, hope, Life, praise, pray, prayer, Scripture, Spiritual Matters
Prayer, a subject which every Christian knows intimately. I mean, it’s what we do, we know all the ins and outs of it all…….or do we?
What do you think of when you think of praying to God?
- Needing help with something?
- Asking for Him to give you something you want?
- Asking that your food be Blessed in all ways as you shovel it into your mouth?
Well here is the rub of it all, here is what many people don’t do or even think about.
Prayer
Prayer has two sides to it. Praise as well as Petition. Most people understand that, but prayer is not meant to be a one way conversation (a one way conversation isn’t even a conversation, it’s a monologue). There is nothing wrong with closing your eyes, bowing your head and folding your hands and giving God praise, thanking Him for how great life is, or thanking Him for the things you have. There is also nothing wrong with asking God to give you something, asking Him to help you figure out how to make through a particular hardship, or asking Him to deliver you from persecution, in fact the Bible tells us to do just that when we are in need.
So what about the other side of prayer. Prayer is meant to be a conversation between you and God, but how often to we stop petitioning or praising God ans wait for Him to speak to us? Well, when is the last time you were praying and just stopped and stayed silent and allowed God to just fill you with Himself, with His peace and comfort. The thing is not many people remember that they need to be quiet and listen for God, that is why we sometimes miss what He is trying to convey to us, we are to busy gabbing and not taking enough time to just shut our mouth and focus on His presence.
Remember, prayer is a CONVERSATION, not a MONOLOGUE. Stop and let God talk to you, or just stop and enjoy the fact that He is there and just let His presence speak to your Spirit.
Filed under: Spiritual Matters
The post I wanted to do today on the Armor of God, I need to do a little bit of double checking on, so today’s post is postponed till later this evening or tomorrow.
Sorry.
Acrid
Filed under: Politics, Spiritual Matters | Tags: 2008, campaign, candidate, christianity, Christians, elections, Politics, President, United States
The Candidates are Coming! The Candidates are Coming!
The campaigns for President for the 2008 elections have begun. Candidates are touring the nation garnering support for themselves, trying to convince the masses to vote them into office so that they can sit in The Big Chair of the United States for 4 years. The problem many people face right now, is choosing a candidate. Each party has a minimum of 5 candidates running for the nomination for the 2008 election. Keeping the facts straight as to which candidate stands on which platform has become a dizzying juggling act for the mind completed and made more-so by the ever changing stances of key candidates on the most crucial of issues.
To help keep your mind on straight, check out On The Issues. This website has been dedicated to keeping straight every political position of every single political leader you can name in the United States, in order that you might be informed of the facts without having to siphon through biased website after biased website of slander or promotion of a single candidate.
So now you have access to the facts, but here is where it gets more difficult still. Who the heck should I vote for?
Well, I’m not going to tell you who to vote for, but I will lay out the best possible way you could decide on who to vote for.
First and foremost, which candidates are Bible believing Christians. Which actually walk the walk and vote or pass legislation based on defending the integrity of Scripture, as well as following the Scripture. I do not think that a candidate who claims to be Christian, yet clearly supports abortion should be in the White House, because they clearly are not following what they believe. Just as a candidate who professes to be a Christian but decides to stand for the Bible being taken out of schools and teaching only evolution is a similar case of not walking in what you believe.
[To add to this, I do not think that Mormonism is a branch of Christianity even though the Bible is a major part of the religion. The Mormon faith at its foundation has gone against scripture and even admit to it (without saying verbatim "Hey, we go against The Bible even though it's a major part of what we profess to believe." But this is a topic for another day and time. However, I would elect a Mormon before a Socialist as to the fact that a Mormon still holds to great values.]
Second, after you get through the qualification of Spiritual Beliefs, you are faced with other key political issues. The biggest issues I see are Homeland Security as well as the war. On issues of Homeland Security, I believe that the defense of our nation needs to be of highest priority to whoever wants to be eligible for President of this country. If a candidate is not finding it priority to keep us safe from terrorists and crime then they do not have the best interests of this nation in sight. As for the war, the United States has made a commitment in the past to doing what is right throughout the world. We have made a commitment in the Middle East and if we are to back out of that commitment then we have failed to follow through on a commitment we made and can no longer be taken seriously by the rest of the world.
Third – The United States Constitution. The Founding Fathers laid down in the original Constitution of the United States. If a candidate does not believe in following the original founding ideas of this country then once again they clearly don’t have the interests of the nation within their mind.
I have said all that I believe needs to be said on the issue of elections this coming year.
Feel free to disagree with me in part or in whole, either way I respect your opinion and uphold your right to speak as laid down in The First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
-God Bless, Talk To You Soon-
Acrid
www.OnTheIssues.org
Filed under: Spiritual Matters | Tags: Bible, christian, christianity, doubt, forgiven, forgiveness, God, hope, love, sin
You are flooded with doubt, you feel worthless, you feel you are the biggest sinner in the world and that God can’t possibly use you because of how bad a person you are.
Well guess what, no matter what, God can use you.
Want Proof???
- Noah got drunk
- Abraham was too old
- Isaac was a daydreamer
- Jacob was a liar
- Leah was ugly
- Joseph was abused
- Moses had a stuttering problem
- Gideon was afraid
- Samson had long hair and was a womanizer
- Rahab was a prostitute
- Jeremiah and Timothy were too young
- David had an affair and was a murderer
- Elijah was suicidal
- Isaiah preached naked
- Jonah ran from God
- Naomi was a widow
- Job went bankrupt
- Peter denied Christ
- The Disciples fell asleep while praying
- Martha worried about everything
- The Samaritan woman was divorced, more than once
- Zaccheus was too small
- Paul was too religious
- Timothy had an ulcer
- and Lazarus was DEAD!
So the next time you are feeling down about yourself and suffering from doubt about your usefulness to God, just remember some of these things and then smile, because God Loves You and has great plans for your life. If you are a Christian then all of your sins have been forgiven and God has a plan to use you no matter what you believe about yourself.
God Bless You,
Acrid
Note: This list borrowed from the Spartans, Covenants, & Sinners Blog that belongs to a friend of mine….all credit goes to him and wherever it was he got the list from originally.
For more information about becoming a Christian go Here.
For more information about God go Here.
Filed under: Spiritual Matters | Tags: Bible, christian, cursing, cussing, encouragement, language, Scripture, tongue
Today I just wanted to speak to all my Christian brothers and sister.
Every single day I see people walking around cussing worse than a rated R movie, and nothing positive comes from the mouth of ANYBODY, everything I hear is negative. It’s sad when even positive messages are tinged by cynicism, sarcasm, or even just underlying spite. I even hear many Christians doing this, or people who claim to be Christians.
Now, I have not always been the most clean mouthed person, sadly all during my Christian life, but I realize the damage I could have done to my witness to others as an example of somebody close to God.
I now truly believe that a Christian should not cuss….I mean, there are times where things slip, but we are only human, imperfect in every way except by the Eternal and Limitless Grace of Go, but for the most part, a Christian should not cuss.
Many would say a Christian should not cuss simply because he is using vile language, but I say it for another reason.
Look at it this way, cuss words are never being used in a positive and clean manner, there is never a time where a cuss word is used to lift somebody up, it is ALWAYS used to tear somebody down. As a Christian, I don’t think we should be in the business of tearing each other or any human beings apart through our language. By not cussing, and even asking people not to cuss around us, we can become an example to others, making them ask/think questions such as “Why doesn’t this person cuss?” or “What does this person have against cussing? Everybody else is doing it.” In this way we make ourselves an example to those who may know nothing about our beliefs, and this can be used as a springboard to teach others about what we believe.
Now, there will be persecution over such things seeing as how we live in the world of the lost, but we must stay strong, for peer pressure and disapproval may hurt, but isn’t the approval of God so much greater?
When it comes to things we should say, I promote that we say things like “God Bless You” or “Have a Blessed Day”. Simple, encouraging, and empowering.
God Bless You All,
Acrid
Filed under: Spiritual Matters | Tags: Acrid, Bible, christ, christian, encouragement, hope, love, romans, Scripture, thought
I just wanted to share something this week, my favorite scripture from the New Testament.
In my mind this is some of the most encouraging stuff you could find in all of the Bible (remember this is just my opinion and I am not saying this is THE most encouraging thing, I am just saying it has helped me through many a hard time in my life).
Romans 8:35-39
Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
All I find in this scripture is hope.
I have nothing more to say.
-God Bless-
Acrid
