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Food for Thought...

I believe our nation is headed for very hard, even disastrous times.  I do not believe politics will fix our economy - it's too far gone - too much debt to ever pay back.  We depend completely on our fragile technological infrastructure for food, water, shelter, transportation, and entertainment.  Any number of events could cause a sudden  collapse of our system e.g., electric grid collapse from terrorism, natural event like solar flare, simple breakdown from lack of modernization, or Israel attacks Iran and the price of oil skyrockets, or China stops buying our treasury bonds.  I am feeling called to prepare for such disaster by working to be less dependent and more self-sufficient.  If you have interest in or questions about this line of thinking, please e-mail me by replying to this e-mail.  Below are some of my favorite links:



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           Psalm 119:27-28

27 Help me understand the meaning of your commandments, and I will meditate on your wonderful deeds.  28 I weep with sorrow;
encourage me by your word. 

Our lives are cluttered with rule books, but the authors never come with us to help us follow the rules. But God does. That is the uniqueness of our Bible. God not only provides the rules and guidelines, but comes with us personally each day to strengthen us so that we can live according to those rules. All we must do is invite him and respond to his direction.

Verse and commentary above is copied from the Life Application Study Bible Reading Plan on YouVersion.  Check it out at http://www.youversion.com/ .  

  Any Dr JOE comments will be in BLUE :0) 

  

                 John 6:41-47

41 At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said,"I am the bread that came down from heaven."42 They said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I came down from heaven'?"  God does what He does the way He does it.  Jesus' teaching was radically different from what the Jews expected.  He taught that if we let Him into our very being, let Him take us over, that we will be right with God and be saved from our sinful nature.  It's not that the rules the Jews were trying to follow were wrong, it's just that none of us can follow them well enough to deserve heaven.  The indwelling of Jesus is the only way to be cleansed enough to be acceptable to God.  The Jesus in us allows us to live in the Spirit of the laws God gave the Jews through Moses.

43 "Stop grumbling among yourselves," Jesus answered.44 "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.

I believe that the Father calls or draws everyone that will come to Him.  I don't believe that the Father chooses some people not to call, but that He knows who will never come if He would call.  This is my understanding of the Armenian way of looking at who is eligible for salvation.  Calvinists believe that there is an elect group of us that are called by God and that there is a group that He doesn't call - that He essentially created to condemn (Any of you Calvinists out there, please correct me if I'm wrong).  However, whether we are Armenian or Calvinist, it is clear we are commanded to love our neighbor and to spread the gospel of Jesus to the end of the earth.

45 It is written in the Prophets: 'They will all be taught by God.  'Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me.46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father.47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life.

Jesus again claims His divine status as sent by God the Father and being the only one who has ever seen the Father.  

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