Archive / January, 2012

Judas Changed His Mind

“I’m going to Change my Heart and Obey now” I have often marveled at how God teaches me about myself and my relationship with him through my son. The day after Max was born I lay in my hospital bed staring at his tiny frame in the bassinet beside me and I felt like I caught a glimpse of how Jesus was able to die for me. I hardly knew this little person yet, but I knew I would die for him that instant if necessary. Then when he was about three years old my husband, Shane, was trying to vacuum our living room and Max insisted on “helping”. He could barely hold the vacuum cleaner by himself, but as he struggled away I realized that just as we did not need Max’s help to vacuum (in fact it kind of slowed the cleaning process down) but we wanted him [...]

Share in the Suffering

Sharing in the Suffering of Christ – Matthew 26:30-35 If the World Hates You… Suffering with Christ. This is a subject that I feel very unqualified to write about. As I sit in my warm living room sheltered, well fed, and safe it’s hard to imagine lying on the cold floor of a prison, being beat, or cast out of my family because of my faith in Jesus. I just finished reading several stories of Christian men and women who were persecuted and martyred for their unapologetic and unwavering devotion to Christ and biblical truth in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. Then I went to The Voice of the Martyrs website and read the most current updates of Christians who are suffering right now as I write for their testimony of the gospel. One young pastor in Uganda is trying to recover tonight from the physical and emotional scars of being [...]

180Movie.com Hits 2 Million VIEWS

By: Shane Martin Social Media & SEO Director: http://180Movie.com 180Movie.com:  If you haven’t already heard, 180Movie.com has reached 2 Million YouTube views as of January 10, 2012. 180 Movie has stirred the internet since it was released in late September. The award winning Pro-Life documentary shows us how our lack of education coupled with a love for self has resulted in a modern day holocaust. A holocaust that even now as I write it would be too painful to describe the scenes that race through my head of butchered babies in abortion mills we call “Planned Parenthood”. As a father myself it’s hard to fathom why anyone would associate the word ‘Parent’ with an abortion clinic, but regretfully we do.  Just yesterday I was left breathless as I watched a partial-birth abortion procedure. I will spare you the graphic details other than as I watched this little lifeless baby being pulled from his/her sanctuary of safety I couldn’t help but wonder [...]

Fools and Their Traditions

Hand Washing Rituals – Luke 11:37-41 Opening Thoughts: I’m going to start tonight by saying that Danae and I appreciate all of you that have been reading our material and posting your wonderful comments. It is encouraging to hear someone say, “What you wrote really spoke to me and has caused me to study the Word more”. What we hope not to hear is, “This is great, now I can just read your blogs and forget about reading my Bible!” Isn’t this what has actually happened in much of our church culture these days? We read books, articles, blogs, Twitter updates, Facebook Status updates and more, yet so many people don’t actually read their own Bibles. In many ways we’ve become more like cult followers rather than Christian Disciples. We have people read our Bibles to us and shed their opinions, then we can either agree or disagree according to [...]

Woe to You Pharisees Part 1 – Tithing

Luke 11:41 – Woe to You Opening Thoughts: Have you ever been in the situation where you have been invited over to someones house for dinner and there is ongoing friction between you? Is it hard to enjoy yourself or even keep your cool for that matter? Let’s see what Jesus does. For those of you who are reading in for the first time I will set a bit of a background to the text. Jesus was invited to one of the Pharisees homes to eat. However He quickly stirred up a hornets nest when he failed to follow the traditions of men by way of ceremonial hand washing. Jesus purposely stirred things up so that He could point out areas of hypocrisy, how’s that for a meal with Jesus? Once the ice has been broken Jesus begins to pronounce woes on them along with revealing their sin. Luke 11:42 [...]