Todays an exciting day, as our Son and our daughter-in-law are at the hospital right now preparing to bring our first grandson into the world.

My wife has hardly slept all night as she awaits to hear the news of when he’s arrived, seems to be taking his time!

Then all the fun begins of diapers, feeding, crying, burping, smelling strange things, crying,  no sleep, sickness, crying, smiles, giggles, first steps, crying, and all the otherr things that goes with child rearing.

But how are we to raise our children?  Some say you should never let them cry,  but doesn’t that build up their lungs?

Some say you should give them everything that makes them happy, but doesn’t that create a spoiled self indulgent ego maniac, that no one can stand to be around?

Some say you should never spank them, but doesn’t that just create a person who doesn’t know how to change direction in their lives and that sometimes being told no turns out to be the best for you?

Some say your to be your childs best friend, then why did God give us parents, what good are they, best friends might give me advice, but parents help direct my life, stick with me my whole life, best friends tend to drift away.

Some say you must pour out only love, never make them afraid of you.

But doesn’t the bible say that fear is the beginning of wisdom?  Doesn’t fear cause you to respect something greatly?

I don’t get into a wrestling match with a bear because I fear it and have great respect for its power.

Same is true for parents, I feared my parents, not because they beat me, but because they were the authority in our home who could and would correct me.

I respected who they were, but they also poured out love for me, I knew they could be trusted,

My wife and I also raised our kids the same way, we instilled fear in them, we were the authority in our home, we would and did correct them.

But today, we are extremely proud of all three of them, who are grown up and very responsible for themselves.

If you want a peaceful home while your children are growing up, lay the groundwork with fear,  we never needed drugs to control them.

There are kids who do need certain drugs because of a real physical problem, but in most homes their children are on drugs and out of control  because the parents don’t have any control over their homes.

Their children have no fear of their parents, and so the only way a parent can get some peace is to drug their kid into a stupor.

Raise kids Gods way and not mans, and you’ll find peace in your home and a relationship with them that is joyful.

Last week, we had a new couple visit our church which is very small and traditional, as we were talking, I told them that it was very laid back here and it takes one a little time to get use to how they do things.

I was told that it was fine with them because they were tired of all the contemporary junk that was going on in churches and it was nice to visit a church that was more family friendly.

I think theres allot of people who are tired of all the rock and roll good time charlie baloney thats going on in churches today.

In almost all churches in the area that we live, you have the little praise bands with ego filled people leading their flocks in song.

They raise their hands and get dreamy eyed and sway to their spiritual highs of melody singspirations!!

Women often wear provocative clothing to help the men who are eyeballing them to get the most out of their worship service.

And the men wear casual todays look clothing, half shaved for that sex appeal to help the women who are eyeballing their macho guitar strumming,  he men  (or metro sexuals) to help them get closer to Jesus.

Its a scene that goes on in many churches every Sunday,  how people look, who’s looking, music centered gatherings all in the name of Jesus.

Its the same scene on Friday nights in a concert of Lady Gaga or Coldplay, how people look, who’s looking and music centered gatherings all in the name of money.

The world has come into the church, theres no difference between a Sunday service and a Friday concert or for that matter a bar gathering.

One must really visit every church in your area to hopefully find a church that God is blessing.

You can go to a church that is growing and at first you think it has Gods blessings, but then you realize its not growing because of God, its growing because of man who is building it on mans talents, sex appeal and feel good theology of how to sell their church.

How do you think so many singers like Lady Gaga, Britney Spears or Madonna got so rich and famous? They were built on talent, sex appeal and a good theology of how to sell that person.

Many churches today aren’t being built and blessed by God, their being built and filled by the world and its programs.

And whats even sadder is the fact that Christians are growing dumber and dumber about what the bible says and how we are suppose to live as believers.

Many today take a verse and build their own beliefs out of it and ignore what God says with-in that verse.

Jesus said that his true church would be, persecuted for righteousness sake, I don’t see todays American church being persecuted for righteousness.  I haven’t seen too many churches come under fire for trying to bring salvation to a community.

When you go back to the book of Nehemiah Ch. 8-9  we see in there what a church is that is being blessed by God.

First of all we see the people gather together, but it wasn’t to sing and dance to Jesus or to show off their looks.

They gathered together and asked for the Word of God to be taught.

The true church of God is built on the Word of God, not music. Music can be used in a service like it did in Davids time, but it is not to be the center of a service, the bible is.

As the people in Nehemiah gathered together and asked for Gods Word, Nehemiah began to read, and the leaders began to teach what Nehemiah read,  something happened.

The people began to weep.

They wept because first of all they heard what God was saying to them, they put away all of their preconceived beliefs and they listened to what God said.

Secondly, they wept because they realized their beliefs went against what God said,  God says there are certain things that are sin, no questions about it.  But we make excuses for sin or place degrees on them.

That day the people quit making excuses and said Lord show me my sin.

Thats a first church service, the people gathered,  they wanted to hear the Word of God, they wanted to see themselves as God sees them.  Whens the last time you went to church and wanted those things?

God showed them where they had gone off course and they fell on their faces and prayed for Gods forgiveness.

Whens the last time you sought Gods forgiveness? When you wanted to be seen by God as an obedient child and not a rebellious child?

After they repented, they rejoiced,  they knew God had forgivened them and was pleased with them.

Thats a church service, but what we have going on in todays church is far from what pleases the Lord.

When people gather and seek the Lord, seek to have a right heart, thats when the good times start in a church service.

We can good times in church that are built on Jesus Christ that will last, or we can have good times that are built on mans flesh that won’t last.

We are looking at starting a church in a few months if we can find a building and we desire that its built on the Word of God, repentence and forgiveness.  We want good music, but its not to be the center of our services.

Nehemiah brought the Word of God to the people, and thats what people need today, we can either have a rock and roll good time charlie in a church, that leads to destruction, or we can bring the Word of truth that brings everlasting salvation.

I’ve been putting together a message for church in a couple of weeks on Valentines Day, which of course made me think about marriage

Adam and Eve are our perfect example of how marriage began and how God had intended it to be for every couple.

First of all In Genesis 2 it says that Adam was alone, although he had the Lord to keep him company, he didn’t have anyone like himself to share his life with and God said that it wasn’t good that he was alone.

And God caused Adam to fall asleep and then he did surgery on him, and from his side he took out a piece of flesh and created woman (Eve)

Notice, God took her from his side, not his head which would have made Eve superior to man and probably would have left Adam brain dead (no jokes ladies)

God didn’t take Eve from Adams foot, this would make Eve a servant (no jokes ladies)

God took her from his side which represents equality,  She’s not above man or below man, but equal with man.

Man is incomplete without a woman,  she completes him, together they are a whole, a man with a man or a woman with a woman are still two halves, only a man with a woman can complete a person.

Thats the way God designed it,  after he created Eve, he brought her to Adam and they had a marriage ceremony. This was the first thing that God instituted for the man and woman, marriage is the gluing of the two halves together making a completed person.

Its this completed person through marriage that glorifies God.

But In Ephesians it says that  a woman is to submit to her husband,  these verses have been so misunderstood it isn’t funny.

The word submit means to respond, the woman is to respond to her husband.  Ever talk to yourself? Not much of a conversation is it?

When a husband speaks to his wife, she is suppose to respond or answer him,  when he touches her, she is suppose to touch back, she responds to him.

Its commanded for a husband to love his wife, but it is not commanded for the wife to love her husband, but she is to respond to him.

If a husband loves his wife as God loves the church (willing to die for her) she will respond to him.

If a man says his wife is a cold fish, this tells us theres something wrong with the husband and his love for his wife because shes not responding.

The man is to take the lead and be the leader, he was created first, thats the role God gave him and his wife is to follow and respond to him.

But today, man is trying to destroy marriage, in Psalm 2:3 it says that they will break the bands asunder and cast away the cords

Man is trying to break the bands and cast off the cords

The band is the vows of marriage and the cords are the institution of marriage that God ordained,  mans removal of marriage is their attempt to remove God.

Couples that shack up together outside of marriage is their attempt to rid the world of God, no one will ever convince me that a true believer in Jesus Christ can live in sin outside of marriage.

Homosexual marriage is just another attempt to rid the world of Gods institution of marriage and rid the world of God.

Marriage is also for a lifetime,  Adam lived for over 900 yrs.  can you imagine being married to the same woman for 900 yrs?  Some can’t imagine being married for 9 days!!

But when your in a right relationship with God,  and loving your wife as God loves you, its not impossible but normal.

Adam was faithful to his wife, she was faithful to him for 900 yrs, and that Glorified God.

Marriage is what makes the world work right, a man and a woman married makes a completed person.

Have you ever noticed when you have an indoor cat, that they choose the worst days to go outside?  Ours is like that, either its snowing so bad that you can’t see across the deck, or like this morning, its pouring rain out and it thinks its a great time to go and smell the roses!

Ours of course wants to stand in front of the door and shake its paws and think about it for an hour, and so I have to slowly put my foot behind it, and kick it out the door!!!!

The cat then decides it don’t want to be out there and stares at me to let it back in, but I’m not so easy, let it stare, Keith can let it in!!

Cats and people are allot alike, they see something they want,  they get it, then decide this was a bad idea and then stare at it and wonder how in the world they can get rid of it!

Right now our cat is getting soaked, but I figure you can’t get it in a tub to bathe it, so nature is taking care of a problem for me!

God is so good.

What have you desired to have and after you got it, then wished you didn’t gotten it after-all?

If we think about it, all of us have done it a time or two, this past summer I wanted to own my own business and so I got into expediting with my own van. I loved driving all over the country, but I was going in debt faster than my wheels could turn.

Now of course I wish I hadn’t done that, we have to dig ourselves out somehow, and its not going to be easy.

But one thing I’m thankful for is an understanding wife, who should have killed me before I got so far in, but thankfully she didn’t, otherwise it would be difficult to write this, being dead and all!

I’m also thankful to our Lord who also will give you enough rope to hang yourself, but will continue to love you despite our dumb decisions at times.

Over the years I’ve made allot of dumb decisions,  but thats what happens when your making your own decisions and not letting God direct those decisions.

You have to pray and pray,  be patient and let the Lord open the opportunity that he wants for you and sometimes it won’t even be the thing that you thought you wanted.

Just like the cat this morning he saw an open door of opportunity that he wanted, but after he went through it, decided it wasn’t the right thing,  He Should Have Prayed First!!

One of the most mis-understood teachings in scripture is the that of Election, and the confusion stems from the Reformed religion.

They have always connected it with the doctrine of Salvation and although they are related in some ways, election doesn”t  determine if we will enter heaven or not, actually Election is not listed as a scriptural doctrine.

What determines our entrance into heaven is when we accept Christ as our Saviour by faith, and anyone can make a choice if they want to go to heaven or not.  “Jn 3:16 says whoever believes in him can be saved.”

God made a provision that through his son,  that anyone who accepts him can be saved.

If God elected only certain ones to be saved and some to go to hell, that would make him the author of evil and a liar because he said that anyone can be saved.

If election was the only way to heaven,  would mean,  if a family had 4 children, raised them  in church, and if only mom and 2 of the children were elected,  then too bad dad and the other 2 children, you spent a lifetime in church being good for nothing, because you will have to face the fires of hell.

God called all mankind to salvation and when we get saved we become a part of an elect group of people who have been given a guarantee of heaven.

What the Reform also connect to election and salvation is predestination.   In Ro. 8:29 it says  For who he did foreknow,  (and folks, he did indeed know at the time of creation who everyone is that would be born.)

Then it says he also did predestinate, which means he predetermined something to happen before it happened.

But what did he predetermine?   According to the Reformed,  he predestined certain people to heaven and others to hell, but look at the verse closely.

“To be conformed to the image of his son that they might be the first born among many brethren.”

He says that we who are going to be saved will be able to become like Christ, and that there will be others saved after us.

After you get saved, we are to go on to maturity, we are to become more loving, graceful, helpful, faithful, have a servants heart just as Christ did.

We are to become more like Jesus,  God predestined beforehand to give us the ability through his empowering Spirit to be like Jesus.

Its sad that an entire religion can lead so many astray just because they refuse to read what scripture says.

Its also sad that an entire religion is so enthusiastic in condemning so many to hell instead of being able to offer help to the hopeless.

Its my opinion that this religion is the same as the Jehovahs Witness who are elitist, they believe unless your in their belief system,  then you are without help and cannot enter heaven.

I”m thankful that I serve a God who sent his son to redeem anyone who believes that he came to the cross, died and rose again for those who will accept him by faith.