Decisions

It might seem trivial to ya'll, but I'm excited because I've decided to move my blog from blogspot to wordpress. I like the way wordpress works and the options it offers. the url for it will be (For lack of a better url, I couldn't think of a good one and the explanation of why I choose it might bring an oppurtunity to witness to someone) is http://www.thorntree.wordpress.com/

:-) Hope this doesn't inconveinience(sp????) any of you. Shouldn't cause much troublwe, just change my url in your blog links and type in a new (and catchier) URL.

Just thought I'd share this with you

Just thought I'd share this with you because I found it online and I like it a lot.

Ten Reasons To Not Ask Jesus Into Your Heart

By: Todd Friel
The music weeps, the preacher pleads, "Give your heart to Jesus. You have a God shaped hole in your heart and only Jesus can fill it." Dozens, hundreds or thousands of people who want to get their spiritual life on track make their way to the altar. They ask Jesus into their heart.
Cut to three months later. Nobody has seen our new convert in church. The follow up committee calls him and encourages him to attend a Bible study, but to no avail. We label him a backslider and get ready for the next outreach event.

Our beloved child lies in her snuggly warm bed and says, "Yes, Daddy. I want to ask Jesus into my heart." You lead her in "the prayer" and hope that it sticks. You spend the next ten years questioning if she really, really meant it. Puberty hits and the answer reveals itself. She backslides. We spend the next ten years praying that she will come to her senses.
Telling someone to ask Jesus into their hearts has a very typical result, backsliding. the Bible says that a person who is soundly saved puts his hand to the plow and does not look back because he is fit for service. In other words, a true convert cannot backslide. If a person backslides, he never slid forward in the first place. "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation." (II Cor.5) No backsliding there.

Brace yourself for this one: with very few if any exceptions, anyone who asked Jesus into their hearts to be saved…is not. If you asked Jesus into your heart because you were told that is what you have to do to become a Christian, you were mis-informed.
If you have ever told someone to ask Jesus into their heart (like I have), you produced a false convert. Here is why.

1. It is not in the Bible. There is not a single verse that even hints we should say a prayer inviting Jesus into our hearts. Some use Rev. 3:20. To tell us that Jesus is standing at the door of our hearts begging to come in.
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock." There are two reasons that interpretation is wrong.
The context tells us that the door Jesus is knocking on is the door of the church, not the human heart. Jesus is not knocking to enter someone's heart but to have fellowship with His church.Even if the context didn't tell us this, we would be forcing a meaning into the text (eisegesis). How do we know it is our heart he is knocking at? Why not our car door? How do we know he isn't knocking on our foot? To suggest that he is knocking on the door of our heart is superimposing a meaning on the text that simply does not exist.
The Bible does not instruct us to ask Jesus into our heart. This alone should resolve the issue, nevertheless, here are nine more reasons.

2. Asking Jesus into your heart is a saying that makes no sense. What does it mean to ask Jesus into your heart? If I say the right incantation will He somehow enter my heart? Is it literal? Does He reside in the upper or lower ventricle? Is this a metaphysical experience? Is it figurative? If it is, what exactly does it mean? While I am certain that most adults cannot articulate its meaning, I am certain that no child can explain it. Pastor Dennis Rokser remindsus that little children think literally and can easily be confused (or frightened) at the prospect of asking Jesus into their heart.

3. In order to be saved, a man must repent (Acts 2:38). Asking Jesus into your heart leaves out the requirement of repentance.

4. In order to be saved, a man must trust in Jesus Christ (Acts 16:31).Asking Jesus into your heart leaves out the requirement of faith.

5. The person who wrongly believes they are saved will have a false sense of security. Millions of people who sincerely, but wrongly, asked Jesus into their hearts think they are saved but struggle to feel secure. They live in doubt and fear because they do not have the Holy Spirit giving them assurance of salvation.

6. The person who asks Jesus into his heart will likely end up inoculated, bitter and backslidden. Because he did not get saved by reciting a formulaic prayer, he will grow disillusioned with Jesus, the Bible, church and fellow believers. His latter end will be worse than the first.

7. It presents God as a beggar just hoping you will let Him into your busy life. This presentation of God robs Him of His sovereignty.

8. The cause of Christ is ridiculed. Visit an atheist web-site and read the pagans who scoff, "How dare those Christians tell us how to live when they get divorced more than we do? Who are they to say homosexuals shouldn't adopt kids when tens of thousands of orphans don't get adopted by Christians?" Born again believers adopt kids and don't get divorced.
People who ask Jesus into their hearts do. Jesus gets mocked when false converts give Him a bad name.

9. The cause of evangelism is hindered. While it is certainly easier to get church members by telling them to ask Jesus into their hearts, try pleading with someone to make today the day of their salvation. Get ready for a painful response. "Why should I become a Christian when I have seen so called Christians act worse than a pagan?" People who ask Jesus into their hearts give pagans an excuse for not repenting.

10. Here is the scary one. People who ask Jesus into their hearts are not saved and they will perish on the Day of Judgment. How tragic that millions of people think they are right with God when they are not. How many people who will cry out, "Lord, Lord" on judgment day will be "Christians" who asked Jesus into their hearts?

So, what must one do to be saved? Repent and trust. (Heb.6:1) The Bible makes it clear that all men must repent and place their trust in Jesus Christ. Every man does have a "God shaped hole in their hearts," but that hole is not contentment, fulfillment and peace. Every man's heart problem is righteousness. Instead of preaching that Jesus fulfills, we must preach that God judges and Jesus satisfies God's judgment…if a man will repent and place his trust in Him.
If you are reading this and you asked Jesus into your heart, chances are good you had a spiritual buzz for a while, but now you struggle to read your Bible, tithe, attend church and pray. Perhaps you were told you would have contentment, purpose and a better life if you just ask Jesus into your heart. I am sorry, that was a lie.

I like this verse

Today I was feeling down and bummed.
I was praying and reading my Bible, but I found no peace. I was praying for trust and faith, but I had no peace. I was doing my Doctrine of God Bible Study that I got from Aaron, and one of the verses I had to look up was Isaiah 40:28-31.

28Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth
Does not become weary or tired
His understanding is inscrutable.

29He gives strength to the weary,
And to him who lacks might He increases power.

30Though youths grow weary and tired,
And vigorous young men stumble badly,

31Yet those who wait for the LORD
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.

Oh my. Hahaha, did you read verse 30? That hit me pretty hard. Of course, it took a while to fully kick in. I was talking to Tiff and being unreasonable and she was calling me a baby. And she said, Do you want to be a man of God. And the Holy Spirit reminded me of that verse. I asked for about 10 minutes and I prayed for awhile.
I just have to trust in Him and take solace in His promises. He promises to be there for us and to always love us and be faithful if we are His. I am His and He will always be with me and inside me. It just depends on how much I trust Him. I'll get tired and weary, but if I wait and trust in God, He'll lift me up. This is a promise for us. Our walk will not be slow and weary if we wait on God.
By the way, I highly encourage doing the Doctrine of God Bible Study by Paul Washer
you can download the PDF here
http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=131080700
:-) I like it.

I find it funny

One of my unsaved friends (though not for lack of seeds, I've witnessed to her several times and always try to get her to listen, bu tshe is very hardened against the gospel) is diabetic. She recently posted a Pubic Note on Facebook asking everyone to please be "hoping/believing/wishing that the cure will be legal by this time next year." I find it very funny, yet incredibly saddening that she will not just say pray. It's like, ok everyone just think really hard about this happening and it will. Reminds me of Tinkerbell...

Please pray for her.
Clair Flynn.

I thought he was going to get stabbed

Watch this, it happend about two years ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVco8t-R8KU


So, apparently Ray Comfort and the camera man who shot this were walking down by the pier in this city a few days ago, and the camera says, Remember those guys Kirk witnessed to a few years ago, the ones we thought were going to but him? I think that's one over there.So they go over and ray comfort asks him, Um sir, are you in a gang?And the guy says, No sir. I'm a Christian.And Ray Comfort says, Umm Sir, about two or three years ago, did you have a talk with a fellow named Kirk Cameron about Jesus here on this peir? And he says, Yes sir, we did. I'm a Christian now, and I feel terrible about what happened that day. I was drunk and I was a fool, and God has saved me now, and I'm living for the Lord. And the other guy Kirk talked to, he's gotten saved too. He's no longer a robber, he's no longer getting drunk, he's married, and he's teaching Sunday School.The power of God. To take a completely corrupt mass, and remake it into something beautiul.:-)How wonderful to have these brothers.

:-)

I love my brothers and sisters in Christ.

They cheer me up.
They make me think right.
They snap me out of silly thinks.
They help me when I need it.
They stay up late to give me advice.

They do it because they love me.
They do it because God loves them.

:-) Our family is the greatest family.
Our family is God's family.

Thank you guys.

What does this mean?

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me."



What does that mean? Not any interpretation, just read it. Seriously, what does it mean?

What about:

He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.


What's that mean?

How about this?

"And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved."



I talked with a man who says he is a Christian, but ultimately believed the Bible couldn't be trusted. There were two kids on the bus ride to Austin talking about God, and they ask the same old question, "Will a Buddhist go to Hell, will a muslim, will a pagan...etc." So I speak up and say, "The main problem isn't that they're not Christian, but that they're sinners, and God must judge them." I quoted The top verse and then the "Christian" sitting behind me started debating with me about how we can't trust that that's what that verse means because of age, translation, etc.

Poor man, I pray he's really saved and just misled for a time, but I don't know. I haven't had a chance to talk to him about this yet, but I plan to, God willing.