Daily Devotional; formerly Chaplains Corner

[jack404]

just remember WHO your dealing with

trust me ya cant fight Him .. cant argue , cant put Him off , if He wants you , you'll be there , happy or not , He's good that way eh

[Juker]

Thanks for the message, Terry. My wife and I remind each other every day that no matter what befalls us in the coming days, our time here on Earth is but a fleeting moment compared to a perfect eternity with Him!

[ampaterry]

Heavenly Father -

I come before you this evening with a request, Lord.
The father of the man known here as 218bee has passed away two days ago.

I ask, Lord, that you would be with this man and his entire family at this time.
I ask that you would be with them especially on Tuesday when they will be having the service for his dad.
I ask that you would give each one a measure of peace, Lord, especially at a time when understanding is so difficult.
Let each one know, father, that you are there to lean upon at this time, to draw strength from, and to be comforted by.
And I ask these things in the name of Jesus the Christ, the Resurection and the Life -

Amen -

[jack404]

Amen

[hunter29180]

Amen

[lonewolf204]

Amen!

[jbmid1]

Amen

[jbmid1]

Originally Posted by ampaterry

Yesterday, I spoke to you a bit about the communication that animals once had with man, based upon the conversation between the serpent and Eve. Some say that because the serpent was in the control of Satan, this is not evidence that man and the animals once communicated easily.

In the story of Balaam's ass, the ass has spiritual vision that Balaam lacks. Three times, an angel of the Lord stands in their path to block them, and all three times the Ass sees the angel, and does NOT go that way. Not one of the three times did the human see the angel. Then, after Balaam beats the ass for not going where he tells it to;
Numbers 22:28-29 (KJV);
"And the LORD opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times? And Balaam said unto the ass, Because thou hast mocked me: I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee."

Now, those who choose to doubt that animals once were able to communicate much better with humans than they do today may say that the ass only spoke because the Lord opened it's mouth. If that is true, why did Balaam not act surprised that his animal spoke to him? I have seen videos of dogs saying "hamburger", "run around", and "mama" - all reasonably clearly - and people go crazy over it. Let's say that you are sitting with your dog, who you have just swatted three times for chewing up your slippers, and instead of making a growl that sounds something like "mama", he clearly says "What is it that I have done wrong that caused you to strike me three times?" Would you calmly answer him, and tell him it was because he chewed up your slippers? You would freak!
Did Balaam freak? No, he simply answered the question his ass had posed to him, in a normal conversational manner, because the words of the ass were not a huge surprise to him. The only reason I can think of for this accepting behavior is that either animals could speak to people at that time, or there was clear knowledge of a time previously when they could do this.

This kind of speculation is fun, but it isn't a salvation issue! You don't have to recognize the intelligence of animals in order to be saved; you only have to recognize Jesus as your savior, and make Him Lord of your life!

God bless you, guys -

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/war...fghanistan.htm

Thought this story might fit nicely here.

[ampaterry]

Originally Posted by jbmid1

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/war...fghanistan.htm

Thought this story might fit nicely here.

I get a DNS error on that link, but will try again later - I have Hughes net, so it could be my ISP -

For today -

When she turned 21, Tammy Harris from Roanoke, Virginia, began searching for her biological mother. After a year, she had not succeeded. What she didn't know was that her mother, Joyce Schultz, had been trying to locate her for twenty years. According to a recent Associated Press story, there was one more thing Tammy didn't know: Her mother was one of her coworkers at the convenience store where she worked!
One day Joyce overheard Tammy talking with another coworker about trying to find her mother. Soon they were comparing birth certificates. When Tammy realized that the co-worker she had known was, in fact, her mother, she fell into her arms. "We held on for the longest time," Tammy said. "It was the best day of my life."

What do you think about that story? For my part, I do not understand people that have been adopted feeling that they must locate their 'biological' parents. Your parents are the ones that RAISED you, that LOVED you, that took CARE of you. It is no great achievement to have biological children – kids do that every day by accident. Only a loving and caring person can be a real mother or father, and in THAT is the real achievement.

But that story does have this lesson: Each week we rub shoulders with people whom we may barely notice. But if we find they are actually close relatives, we suddenly find that we are much more interested in them, that we want to talk to them more, do more things with them, and want to learn all about their interests, and tell them of ours. We find that we CARE for them, that we even love them, where prior to this knowledge we felt nothing.
But if they share a birth in Christ, they are our dearest relatives. Why do we not realize that?

The Word of God tells us:
John 1:12 (KJV);
"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:"

Ephesians 2:18-19 (KJV);
"For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;"

May God bless each of you, my brothers and sisters!!

[jack404]

Brothers and Sisters in Christ ,

and thats how it aught to be

cheers to you Terry

[lonewolf204]

Thank's Terry!

[Woodnut]

AMEN! Thanks

[ampaterry]

The troubles are not Hughes, they are this computer.

So excuse my scarcity here - planning on replacing this box today, then comes that horrid, long, involved, hair pulling time of getting a new computer all set up with all the programs I need -

But for today, at least, I am here -

There was a church in Colorado that had just gotten a new pastor. To welcome his wife , the deacons' wives held a dessert one evening. To further acquaint her with Colorado and the church, the secretaries hurriedly typed questions to be randomly selected and answered by the deacons' wives. One question stole the show: "Why do you like living in Colorado?" There was a typo on the card, and the question came out as "Why do you like loving in Colorado?" Naturally, the shyest wife got the question. She read it out loud, blushed, then stammered, "I guess ... uh ... because of the cold nights."
That caused quite a stir. In many Christian circles, the love between a husband and his wife is simply not spoken of. Instead, they dwell upon BROTHERLY love, and tend to sort of sweep marital love under the carpet, where it will not be seen. I believe this is a grave error. The Bible tells us:

Genesis 2:24 (KJV);
"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh."

Song of Solomon 8:7 (KJV);
"Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned." Read the REST of this book; it gets really6 juicy!

Ephesians 5:28 (GWT);
"So husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies. A man who loves his wife loves himself."

I believe that marital love is given to us as a gift by God, a very special gift that is a foreshadowing of what we will feel when we get to heaven and live for eternity together. The joy, the bliss, the wonderful warmth we feel is just a hint of what our eternal togetherness will be.
And until that time, we have this blessing here, in this life, and we should enjoy it fully. Enjoying our marital love is nothing to be ashamed of or downplayed. It should NOT be hidden in the attic like the strange aunt that no one talks about. It is a true statement that Jesus SAVED us – he did not KILL us. We should all live in accordance with that fact.

May God bless each and every one of you today -

[Woodnut]

AMEN!
Terry, I sympathize with you on getting a new computer and getting it set up the way you want. I have had this one for almost a month and still am working on it. The Windows 7 is good, but so different than XP, some things are hard to grasp. Good luck, and may God Bless, and give you the strength to get it done asap.

[lonewolf204]

Another good one Terry! Thanks!

[ampaterry]

I have the new one sitting in the corner, and plan to start setting it up this afternoon.
KILLER box - but oh, the work involved!

Thank you, guys, for the support; it is appreciated!

Today, the Muslims celebrate Nuzulul Qur'an. I have searched the internet, and have not found a single site that explains this holiday in anything but the worst sort of pigeon English, but it seems that today's date in the month of Ramadan was, through some unknown logic, selected as the day to celebrate the giving of the Koran to mankind. The Koran itself, in 2:185, directs to celebrate the giving of the Koran this month, but does not give the day. Since the Koran was given in multiple stages over a long period of time, I have no idea why this date was selected to celebrate it.

But I did find one very interesting fact from researching this on the internet. Virtually every site that mentions this holiday talks about it as the time that the Koran was handed down from God to Muhammad. But their English is such that they have a difficult time conveying that idea. One sight calls it the Genesis Koran, while several others have difficulty translating the concept of handing the Koran down to their profit – er – I mean prophet. Most of them speak of this as the decline of the Koran.

Applicable scripture:

Jeremiah 14:14 (KJV);
“Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.”

1 John 4:1-3 (KJV);
“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.”

So today, Brothers and sisters, please join me in working for proper Christian/Islam relations:

In keeping with their own words, Pray with me for the decline of the Koran.

May God bless each and every one of you -

[Woodnut]

AMEN! Thanks Terry

[lonewolf204]

Thanks, Terry

[jack404]

from the writings of Justinian the greek

"there are times to come when man will be told lies of false gods and of false heroes,
fall not for these tricks to deceive you my brothers
as there is only one true God , and know He loves you all , evil and good alike
If ye think this is unfair that he love the evil , know this
man is but man , the dust( maybe soil ) of God's creation and He cares for all His Creations
He gave us free will to do as we wish , but He hopes we all will come to Him freely, of our own given will, evil can become good IF God is allowed into his heart
So pray for the evil among you , that they too find the peace of our Lord and follow His path , as there is no surer way to defeat evil but removing the evil from God's creation and making it Holy". ( could be clean )
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Excuse my translation , theres probably better about , but this is how i read it

Thanks Terry and your pretty spot on with the info , and because they know the koran was a collection of leaves scrolls bones etc ( he scribbled on anything handy ) the Koran was not finalised until way after mohammed's death and the sharia ( of which the Koran only references once and in relation to modesty only ) was not finalised until over 140 years after mohammods death, and that took approximatly 250,000 dead to sort out who would write it ..

[ampaterry]

More thoughts on animals this morning.
A person could get the impression that animals are a very large part of my life.
They would be correct.

Thales Kaster wrote in Christian Reader: “My wife had just returned from shopping and couldn't wait until she modeled her new blouse for me. "How do you like it?" she asked proudly.
“I wanted to say, "I don't! It's ugly!" but fortunately hesitated just long enough that our poodle, Tia, began barking ferociously at my wife as though she were an intruder.
“As the poodle continued barking, my wife came to a sad conclusion: "I don't think Tia likes my new blouse."
“That gave me the courage to say, "Well, I can understand her feeling!"
“Surprisingly, there was no further discussion or arguing. My wife accepted the unanimous verdict calmly--but I had to return the blouse!
“When the clerk asked for the reason I was returning the blouse, I simply told her the truth: "Our dog didn't like it."
That humorous story leads to a point I want to make about animals. Native Americans put a lot of stock in animals. The hoot of an owl, the yap of a coyote, the chirping of a cricket, all speak volumes to one close to nature. Just as Balaam should have noted what his ass tried to communicate to him, we would be better off at times if we paid attention to what animals are trying to tell us. An example is the number of deaths from Tsunami's. In the areas where they hit, the animals often start heading for high ground well before the wave hits the shore. We do not know how they have the ability to detect such things, but we do have plenty of evidence that they have it.
We have learned, over the years, to trust our animals. If my horse was really fighting me to not go in a certain area, I learned that she had good reason, as there would be anything from a copperhead to a yellow jacket nest there, and I would go around that spot. If our dogs raise their hackles and growl at someone, we believe they have good reason to do so, and exercise caution ourselves. In at least one case, we later learned the person arousing their suspicions was dealing in illegal drugs.
Proverbs 12:10 (KJV);
"A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel."
We need to do this. We need to go beyond this as well, and have regard not only for the beasts life, but for his demeanor, attitude and temperment.

May God bless each and every one of you!

[hunter29180]

well said and very true!

[Woodnut]

Amen!!
Very Well Put, Thanks Terry.

[jack404]

Amen ,

Excellent Terry

[lonewolf204]

Thanks, Terry!

[preacher60]

I'm new to the forum and have been reading some of your post and I think they're great.
we all need to start our day with the word of God. Being a preacher i have tried to do just that. I'm pleased to be part of the forum and know that there are some that are not ashamed of the Word. Just saying Hello this is my first post and am glad to meet everyone. thank you Terry.