Ecclesiastes 12:10

    One of the biggest mistakes new Christians make is the assumption that being a Christian means that things will always go perfectly. To be fair, they might think that because many false teachers proclaim that. They imply that if you follow God, you won’t suffer, you won’t struggle, and life will be the best possible.   Yet that isn’t what the Scripture teaches.  Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted . 2 nd Timothy 3:12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; 1 st Peter 4:12 so that no one would be disturbed by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we have been destined for this. 1 st Thessalonians 3:3   Though even with this knowledge, we can still say that the Christian life is the best possible. It will come with suffering and trials and afflictions, but these will not compare to th...

Crazy hypothetical: D ō mo arigat ō , Mr. Roboto * You have been offered an opportunity to have your body replaced with a sophisticated android.  You will look and sound the exact same [1] but your body will be able to do amazing things.  It will be much faster, stronger, and more durable.  It would in essence make you the most physically gifted person in any field.  It will not wear out or get weaker.  The only down side is you would lose most sensory feeling.  You could no longer smell or taste anything.  While you would still see and hear, your sense of touch would be limited to the most basic like wearing a very thick glove over your entire body.  So a hug or handshake would have no warmth to it.  You would never feel hot or cold or a breeze across your skin.  You would never feel tired, or hungry but also never satisfied or well rested.  All bad or good sensations would cease. You would be the exact same all the tim...

    To be rich and famous is the new American dream.  In a recent Pew Research Center poll, eighty-one percent of 18- to 25-year-olds surveyed in a said getting rich is their generation's most important or second-most-important life goal; 51% said the same about being famous.  Author Jake Halpern in his research for his book, Fame Junkies , teamed up with several academics and conducted a survey of some 650 teenagers in the Rochester, New York area.  In one of the questions in the survey, teens were given the option of “pressing a magic button” and becoming stronger, smarter, famous, or more beautiful.  As it turns out, boys in the survey chose fame almost as often as they chose intelligence, and girls chose it more often.  And why wouldn't they think that?    Maybe, because celebrity is the most celebrated attribute in our nation.  When famous people testify before congress it makes the news, even if they ...

    In Judges 16:30, we read, “ And Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines!" And he bent with all his might so that the house fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he killed in his life. ”           In the end, Samson accomplished more in his death than in his life. The reason lies not in his amazing death but in his poorly led life. As he read about Samson in Judges, we see a leader more concerned about his own desires than his peoples needs. We can see his impulsive nature in how he selected a wife, (Judges 14:1-11) dealt with his in-laws (Judges 15:1-8) and acted with Delilah (Judges 16:1-27). The great power that was given to him by God was often only used to get revenge on those he had felt had wronged him. But in the end, a blinded and imprisoned Samson turned to God to give him strength to defeat the enemies of Israel. Imagine if had allowed God to...