Thoughts on Christ and His Word

Many people today and many churches today worship uninvented Jesus. That is a Jesus that they have fabricated and not the one that is declared in scripture. This is what the Israelites did with the Lord. Exo 32:3-5: "So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, "Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD." They made a golden calf (an idol), and put around its neck "the Lord", and they thought with that, everything was good. Today many people claim to worship Jesus,  they preached sermons in his name and write books in his name, but in reality it's their invented Jesus and not the one revealed in the  New Testament.

Many times we use God gifts to us for our selfish purposes and even for our own Glory. This is what the Israelites did with what God had given to them. As Moses spent 40 days up on the mountain top we're God was giving him more instructions, the people came to Aaron and said "make us gods who will go before us, as for this fellow Moses who brought us out of Egypt we don't know what happened to him." So they blew him off and wanted to continue their own Journey towards a better land. Exo 32:2 - "Aaron answered them, "Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me." This was the very gold that God gave them from the Egyptians as they left the land of slavery in Egypt. Now they were going to use God's gift to them to make idols in Rebellion against God. So many times we use our God given gifts (talents, time and treasures) to further our own purposes and even our own little kingdom here on

"When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, "Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him." Exodus 32:1 How quickly we forget God and the leaders who represent him. Aaron and the Jews had seen God and even eaten with the angel of the Lord (20:9). The people saw a consuming fire and the cloud on top of the mountain. They had promised full Devotion to God and his commands (24:3, 7). And yet when God detains Moses for 40 days to give him further instruction they blow off Moses and asked for idols to be made for them to continue their Journey (Exodus 32:1). These were ungrateful and rebellious people.

God has several universities. Any person that God wants to use greatly he will take through one or more of these training grounds. "Joseph's master took him and put him in prison the place where the Kings prisoners were confined." Genesis 39:20. Joseph went from "Slave U" to "Prison U" to be trained by God in faith and humility. Moses, years later, went through a similar university called "Wilderness U" for 40 years to learn similar lessons. When God wants to use a person in a great way he will first train them in his many universities of Trials, troubles and tribulation in order to get their selfishness and self-centeredness out and replace it with a God-centered, humble, and Faith filled life.

When does a Christian have the right to self-defense? Clearly we understand through the New Testament that when the government persecutes the church we are to allow the government to kill us as Martyrs for Jesus Christ. But does that mean that a Christian cannot bear arms to defend his family, community, or Nation? Defending one's own people and towns goes as far back as the Book of Genesis. When Abraham's nephew Lot was taken buy some rogue nations he pursued them with "318 trained servants" (Gen. 14:14) and rescued him and his family. These weren't just farmers, Abraham had trained them in warfare for cases just like this. The American Patriots Bible has an article which reads like this: The Second Amendment to the US Constitution reads "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." Having fled persecution in Great Britain the Puritans had laws requi

Writing about our times of Trials, troubles and tribulations those desert times that come to every person, Chuck Swindoll writes in his book about Moses the following. It's dry. It's lonely. You feel dismal inside. But whatever your emotions may be telling you, the Bible says you're not alone. God is there. He encircles you. Cares for you. Guards you like the pupil of his eye. And he promises to guide you through that strange habitation with neither landmark nor path. You have not left him nor has he left you. In fact, he may be closer to you at this moment than he has ever been before. Moses had a four-decade course study in the wilderness so that he might know how to lead a whole nation through the similar Wilderness. Listen to what Moses told the Israelites as they were about to enter the Promised Land: "You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that he might humble you, testing you, to know what was i