Keep the Faith Now

"But all these things that I once thought very worthwhile, now I've thrown them all away so that I can put my trust and hope in Christ alone. Yes everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have put aside all else, counting it worth less than nothing, in order that I can have Christ, and become one with Him, no longer counting on being saved by being good enough or by obeying God's laws, but by trusting Christ to save me; for God's way of making us right with Himself depends on faith, counting on Christ alone. Now I have given up everything else, I have found it to be the only way to really know Christ and to experience the mighty power that brought Him back to life again, and to find out what it means to suffer and to die with Him. So whatever it takes, I will be one who lives in the fresh newness of life of those who are alive from the dead. I don't mean to say I am perfect. I haven't learned all I sho...

So watch yourselves. “If a brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.” Luke 17:3-4 (TNIVB) "The Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his account up to date. In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him $10,000,000! He couldn't pay, so the king ordered him sold for the debt, also his wife and children and everything he had. But the man fell down before the king, his face in the dust, and said, Oh, sir, be patient with me and I will pay it all. Then the king was filled with pity for him and released him and forgave his debt. But when the man left the king, he went to a man who owed him $2000 and grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment. The man fell down before him and begged him to give him a little time. Be patient and I will pay it he pled. But his cr...

"It is the thought-life that pollutes. For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts of lust, theft, murder, adultery, wanting what belong to others, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, pride, and all other folly. All these things come from within; they are what pollute you and make you unfit for God." Mark 7:20-23 (The Living Bible) What is global warming? Global warming is when the earth heats up (the temperature rises). It happens when greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, water vapor, nitrous oxide, and methane) trap heat and light from the sun in the earth’s atmosphere, which increases the temperature. This hurts many people, animals, and plants. Many cannot take the change, so they die. Global warming is doing many things to people as well as animals and plants. It is killing algae, but it is also destroying many huge forests. The pollution that causes global warming is linked to acid rain. Acid rain gradually destroys almost everything it to...

"Listen, all of you. Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Pray for the happiness of those who curse you; implore God's blessing on those who hurt you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, let him slap the other too! If someone demands your coat, give him your shirt besides. Give what you have to anyone who asks you for it; and when things are taken away from you, don't worry about getting them back. Treat others as you want them to treat you. Do you think you deserve credit for merely loving those who love you? Even the godless do that! And if you do good only to those who do you good is that so wonderful? Love your enemies! Do good to them!" Luke 6:27-33,35 (The Livivng Bible) Blacks During the Holocaust The fate of black people from 1933 to 1945 in Nazi Germany and in German-occupied territories ranged from isolation, and in few cases to persecution. After World War I, the Allies stripped Germany of its African colonies. The German military stationed ...

"I want to remind you that in the last days there will come scoffers who will do every wrong they can think of, and laugh at the truth. This will be their line of argument: "So Jesus promised to come back did He? He'll never come! Why as far back as anyone can remember everything has remained exactly as it was since the first day of creation. They deliberately forget this fact: that God did destroy the world with a mighty flood, long after He made the heavens by the word of His command, and used the waters to form the earth and surround it. And God has commanded that the earth and the heavens be stored away for a great bonfire at the judgment day, when all ungodly men will perish. But don't forget this, dear friends, that a day or a thousand years from now is like tomorrow to the Lord. He really isn't really being slow about His promised return, even though it sometimes seems that way, But He is waiting, for the good reason that He is not willing that any should p...

"Come back we beg of you, O God of the armies of heaven, and bless us. Look down from heaven and see our plight and care for this your vine! Protect what you yourself have planted, this son you have raised for yourself. Strengthen the man you love, the son of your choice, and we will never forsake you again. Revive us to trust in you. Turn us again to yourself, O God of the armies of heaven. Look down on us, your face aglow with joy and love, only then shall we be saved." Psalms 80:14,15,17-19 (The Living Bible) The Azusa Street Revival was a historic Pentecostal revival meeting that took place in Los Angeles, California, and was led by William J. Seymour, an African American preacher. It began with a meeting on April 14, 1906, and continued until roughly 1915. The revival was characterized by ecstatic spiritual experiences accompanied by speaking in tongues, dramatic worship services, and inter-racial mingling. The participants received criticism from secular media and Ch...

"Don't be impatient for the Lord to act! Keep traveling steadily along His pathway and in due season He will honor you with every blessing, and you will see the wicked destroyed. For the goodman, the blameless man, the upright, the man of peace, he has a wonderful future ahead of him. For him there is a happy ending. Psalms 37:34,37 (The Living Bible) The life as a slave was extremely difficult. I would like to share some of the conditions of a slave's life. Every year, slaves usually received maybe one or two shirts, maybe one or two pairs of pants , one jacket, one pair of socks, one pair of shoes, an overcoat, and a hat. The food slaves usually received were cornmeal, salt herrings, and eight pounds of pork or fish each month for food. Their place of residence consisted of houses which were usually wooden shacks with dirt floors, but sometimes these houses were made of boards nailed up with cracks stuffed with rags. The beds were collected pieces of straw or grass,...