Thursday, November 22, 2007

Thanksgiving Day

We have a very good Thanksgiving! It was quite restful. I didn't think that we were going to have turkey today because my older sister and her husband are coming over on Saturday, so we were saving the turkey for them. Mom surprised us this morning and bought another turkey for today. She is a gem! Dad lead us in a wonderful devotion this morning, then we spent time thanking God for the many blessings that He has poured on us. We played quite a few games as a family (including football). It was a good time together! Tomorrow is my older sister's birthday and the day that the 3 of us older kids were baptized exactly 10 years ago.

I updated the Verse Memorization Tool. Now you can go back to the verse after you have converted it. Thanks to Chris Dortignac for that idea. He also suggested that I make a printable version for 3 X 5 cards. I will see what I can do to get that up and running in the near future. http://www.aspspider.info/VerseMemorization/

I was really surprised in 2 Corinthians 6 today. If you have been in the church for very long, you have heard that Christians are not to be married with non-Christians. I would go as far to say that Christians shouldn't date non-Christians because the purpose of dating is to lead into marriage. Missionary dating isn't the way to go! If you want to present the gospel to them, hold to the commitment of not being in a relationship with a non-Christian, and present the gospel. Almost anyone will "say the prayer" to get what they want. This does not mean that it is from the heart. I would challenge anyone in this situation to step back, and watch for the fruit which comes with a relationship with Christ. Other passages talk about being unequally yoked. I think this is talking about more than just Christian and non-Christian. I think it is important to be of the same mind, having nearly the same maturity in Christ. All of this was to say that I was surprised by the context in 2 Corinthians 6. I am not going to post it here because it is basically the whole chapter (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=54&chapter=6&version=49), but I will describe the situation. Paul is urging the Corinthians to believe in Christ, "Now is the day of salvation." In other words, if you have been debating in your mind if you should trust in Christ or not, stop it! You do not know if you will live another day on this earth. Now is when you need to give your life to Christ! Paul goes on to explain that he has suffered much hardship in the process of presenting the gospel without offense. Paul expresses that he has opened his heart toward them, and yet the are not responding because of their selfish desires. He urges them to open their heart to hear what he is trying to communicate to them. Immediately after saying this, he states that Christians are not to be with non-Christians. God's Word is always true! Sin hurts God, hurts us, and hurts others. Do not think that this is your life and you can do what you want, because you will give an account for every action. I challenge you to live a life of Biblical purity! Don't wait until God needs to break your heart in order to draw you back to Himself.

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