My God is an Awesome God

This chorus echeos frequently in my head. There is so much about God....my God that is awesome.

He is the Creator. This is the first revelation He give to me in Genesis. Though this world is decaying and fading....I see His finger pring in the beauty that I have seen from the babies I have held in my hands to the beauty of Yellowstone and Yoesmite.

He is my Father. He loves and cares for me unconditionally and bestows grace to sustain me through trials and difficulties.

He is my Savior. He saw how helpless I was in my sins that He sent His Son with the Holy Spirit to satisfy His offended law and to pardon me from all guilt. He gave Him to died my death and raided Him from the dead so I could live in His righteousness.

He is my Security. He began a good work in me and He will see it through to completion. He will not give up until He is finished.

My Song Love Unknown

Harry Potter and J.R.R. Tolkein

Fantasy is enjoyed by some Christians, avoided by others and condemned outright by others. Any genre of fiction that is enjoyed by Christians....like movies and T.V. shows...require discernment. Romans 14 on questionable matters needs to be considered between those who are either strong in faith or those who are weak.

I enjoy fantasy literature. I view them as vehicles for the author to convey their worldviews. Since I am in the world but not of the world...I know those I will share the gospel the unsaved who will have fantasy literature and movies to shape their worldview. For me to reach them I look for areas we can connect. I respond biblically to a fantasy worldview. I share with them that Jesus is God and his power does not come from magic, the force, or human potential but from His nature. He is holy, righteous and pure. He created all that is and will be. He died on the cross for our sins and raised from the dead for our life. In the real world...Jesus will conquer evil, sin and death when He set up His kingdom. Only then will there be righteousness, holiness and life with out end.

This sermon will is very good to address the issues of concerns with fantasy litrature and the respose a Christian should have.

A Sinner Saved By Grace

This is a good song. The statement is true in the past....in the present...I am a saint in Christ who sins. I am a new creature in Christ....so God not longer regards me as a sinner...and His grace and power is available to render sin ineffective in my life (see Romans 6:1-14).

It is a stand in because I could not find an arrangment at You Tube that I wanted to post on the hymns we studied in Sunday School last Sunday. Brother Bruce taught on:

Saved By Grace

The hymn…was called into being through…a ser­mon preached by Dr. How­ard Cros­by who was a dis­tant rel­a­tive and dear friend of mine.
He said that no Christ­ian should fear death, for if each of us was faith­ful to the grace giv­en us by Christ, the same grace that teach­es us how to live would al­so teach us how to die. His re­marks were af­ter­ward pub­lished in a news­pa­per, and they were read to me by Mr. Big­low. Not ma­ny hours af­ter I heard them I be­gan to write the hymn.

Crosby

However, these words al­most didn’t see light of day. They came to pub­lic no­tice by ac­ci­dent, during a con­fer­ence Fan­ny at­tend­ed at North­field, Mass­a­chu­setts. Dur­ing the meet­ing, the great evan­gel­ist, Dwight Moo­dy, asked if Fan­ny—like so many others—would give a per­son­al tes­ti­mo­ny to the au­di­ence. Not want­ing to draw at­ten­tion to her­self, she al­most de­clined, but fin­al­ly got up to speak, and said:

There is one hymn I have writ­ten which has never been pub­lished. I call it my soul’s po­em. Somet­imes when I am trou­bled, I re­peat it to my­self, for it brings comfort to my heart.

Words: Fan­ny Cros­by, 1891.
Music: George C. Steb­bins, 1894

Some day the silver cord will break,
And I no more as now shall sing;
But oh, the joy when I shall wake
Within the palace of the King!

Refrain

And I shall see Him face to face,
And tell the story—Saved by grace;
And I shall see Him face to face,
And tell the story—Saved by grace.

Some day my earthly house will fall.
I cannot tell how soon ’twill be;
But this I know—my All in All
Has now a place in Heav’n for me.

Refrain

Some day, when fades the golden sun
Beneath the rosy tinted west,
My blessèd Lord will say, “Well done!”
And I shall enter into rest.

Refrain

Some day: till then I’ll watch and wait,
My lamp all trimmed and burning bright,
That when my Savior opens the gate,
My soul to Him may take its flight.

Refrain


In the Sweet By and By

Words: San­ford F. Ben­nett, 1868.
Music: Jo­seph P. Web­ster

Mr. Webster, like ma­ny mu­si­cians, was of an ex­ceed­ing­ly ner­vous and sen­si­tive na­ture, and sub­ject to per­i­ods of de­press­ion, in which he looked up­on the dark side of all things in life. I had learned his pe­cul­i­ar­i­ties so well that on meet­ing him I could tell at a glance if he was mel­an­cho­ly, and had found that I could rouse him up by giv­ing him a new song to work on.

He came in­to my place of bus­i­ness [in Elk­horn, Wis­con­sin], walked down to the stove, and turned his back on me without speak­ing. I was at my desk. Turn­ing to him, I said, “Webs­ter, what is the mat­ter now?” “It’s no mat­ter,” he re­plied, “it will be all right by and by.” The idea of the hymn came me like a flash of sun­light, and I re­plied, “The Sweet By and By! Why would not that make a good hymn?” “May­be it would,” he said in­dif­fer­ent­ly. Turn­ing to my desk I penned the words of the hymn as fast as I could write. I hand­ed the words to Web­ster. As he read his eyes kin­dled, and stepp­ing to the desk he be­gan writ­ing the notes. Tak­ing his vi­o­lin, he played the mel­o­dy and then jot­ted down the notes of the cho­rus. It was not over thir­ty min­utes from the time I took my pen to write the words be­fore two friends with Web­ster and myself were sing­ing the hymn.

Sanford Fill­more Ben­nett (1836-1898)

There’s a land that is fairer than day,
And by faith we can see it afar;
For the Father waits over the way
To prepare us a dwelling place there.

Refrain

In the sweet by and by,
We shall meet on that beautiful shore;
In the sweet by and by,
We shall meet on that beautiful shore.

We shall sing on that beautiful shore
The melodious songs of the blessed;
And our spirits shall sorrow no more,
Not a sigh for the blessing of rest.

Refrain

To our bountiful Father above,
We will offer our tribute of praise
For the glorious gift of His love
And the blessings that hallow our days.

Refrain

State of the Nation - Answers in Genesis

State of the Nation - Answers in Genesis

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Listen to what Brother Ham is saying.

We are in a Post-Christian nation...and we came to this point in history because our Bible collages, Pastors and members of the Church have questioned the truthfulness of the Bible to the point that God's word is irrelevant on matters of history, science, and morals.

I accepted Genesis as true from my childhood. I had to deal with well intentioned parents who felt I had to learn the theory of evolution too. I had teachers who wanted to indoctrinate me into a atheistic worldview of random chance processes. I had Christians and Pastors tell me to get through secular collage by going along with Evolutionary teaching to get my degree. However...I could not compromise. I felt it was wrong then....and I still feel this way today. I will not surrender to peer pressure just so I can advance in this world and be accepted.

The truth about Christ, the gospel, the covenant with the nation of Israel and even the coming millennial kingdom rest on the truthfulness of Genesis. If we allow any other interpretation of this book that is not literal...we have begun down the slippery slope of questioning other books of the Bible at face value and seek for other interpretation for them as well. In the end we pass to our children and the next generation that the Bible is only as reliable as we judge those parts that we deem as being taken literally.