Christian Apologetics
& Research Ministry
July
30, 2008| - CARM HOME PAGE |
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Scripture Quote
| "So David blessed the Lord in the sight of all the assembly; and David said, “Blessed art Thou, O Lord God of Israel our father, forever and ever. 11 “Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Thine is the dominion, O Lord, and Thou dost exalt Thyself as head over all. 12 “Both riches and honor come from Thee, and Thou dost rule over all, and in Thy hand is power and might; and it lies in Thy hand to make great, and to strengthen everyone. 13 “Now therefore, our God, we thank Thee, and praise Thy glorious name. 14 “But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer as generously as this? For all things come from Thee, and from Thy hand we have given Thee. 15 “For we are sojourners before Thee, and tenants, as all our fathers were; our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope. 16 “O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided to build Thee a house for Thy holy name, it is from Thy hand, and all is Thine. 17 “Since I know, O my God, that Thou triest the heart and delightest in uprightness, I, in the integrity of my heart, have willingly offered all these things; so now with joy I have seen Thy people, who are present here, make their offerings willingly to Thee. 18 “O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, preserve this forever in the intentions of the heart of Thy people, and direct their heart to Thee; 19 “and give to my son Solomon a perfect heart to keep Thy commandments, Thy testimonies, and Thy statutes, and to do them all, and to build the temple, for which I have made provision.” 20 Then David said to all the assembly, “Now bless the Lord your God.” And all the assembly blessed the Lord, the God of their fathers, and bowed low and did homage to the Lord and to the king. The New American Standard Bible," (1 Chron. 29:10-20). |
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| Devotion From Your Hand |
"But who am I
and who are my people that we should be able to offer as
generously as this? For all things come from You, and from Your
hand we have given You....16“O Lord our God, all this abundance
that we have provided to build You a house for Your holy name,
it is from Your hand, and all is Yours," (1 Chronicles
29:14,16). King David had appealed to the nation of Israel for supplies to build the Temple. The result was a great influx of of wood, silver, bronze, iron, precious stones, and other materials. David was, of course, well pleased. But what is interesting is how David recognizes where the true source of provision was from. David says that the abundance he had was from the hand of God. I love the statement "...from Your hand we have given You." What a wonderful truth. We have no temple today to which we can send our support. That is a bit unfortunate only in the sense that by giving to something such as a temple, we would be able to go and see with our own eyes and even touch with our own hands the result of our giving. Not so today. So now, the way we offer generously to the Lord is through our tithes, offerings, prayer, and help at church. But still, in our lives don't we sometimes refrain from tithing to the Lord and in so doing we forget that it is from His hand that we give back to Him. Don't we sometimes neglect our prayers and neglect opportunities at church to help? What we have has been given is from God and it is right and proper to give back to the Him who is provided so much for us. To do so is worship and a demonstration of the appreciation of God's provision as well as a demonstration of our trust in him. Doesn't everything belong to the Lord? Isn't He the one who provides, who guides, and who demonstrates to us His love in the person of Jesus Christ through the cross? All these things are all answered in the affirmative and when we answer them thusly we can better appreciate the kindness and greatness of God and His provision to us...and this should comforts us as well as motivate us. |
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| From Ryan Turner |
Ryan is out of town this week and will be back in the office in a few days. |
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| Twin Falls Temple | I have already mentioned in a
previous newsletter that Ryan, my daughters, and myself have
been taking a 2 Hour drive once a week to attend a Mormon Temple
opening in Twin Falls, Idaho. Whenever Mormons build a
temple, they open it to the public for several weeks so the
public can take tours. One of their goals in doing this is
to attract more converts. Therefore, as a ministry, we go
to the temple openings and stand in front of them with signs and
literature hoping to dissuade people from joining. And, of
course, we hope to help Mormons leave their false religion and
come to a true and saving relationship with the real God of the
universe. This past week we have all been out there at different times and it's been rather interesting. One of our guys was flipped off by a cop who drove by. Yesterday one of my daughters was flipped off 10 times (she kept count). I've been flipped off several times, told to get a job, told to get a life, told to go home, cussed at, etc. I think I already mentioned how I was told I was of Satan and threatened with arrest if I were to even talk to one particular man's children. The Mormon run newspaper in Twin Falls ran an article saying that we were impeding the Mormons' freedom of religion. I don't know how standing on the sidewalk in front of a temple is impeding their religious freedom. But that's what they claim. They also said that we were making a spectacle of ourselves. I'm not sure exactly what that means considering we were only exercise our constitutional rights politely, with respect, and without hindering pedestrian or vehicular traffic. Anyway, they also called the police on us to inform us that we were not to walk on the grass. We were told that the grass between the sidewalk and the streets belonged to the Mormon Church and we had to stay off. Talk about nit picky! Please pray for us that the Lord would supply our needs as we go there. Please pray for our protection as well. Want to see some pictures? http://www.carm.org/temp/temple_pics/temple.htm |
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| The Shack | In the book The Shack is very popular in Christian circles. It has a lot of good in it and dealing with emotional healing and forgiveness. But there are some problems with it and I will be speaking on the shack in a local church on July 31, 2008. If you are interested in an article I've written on this, please go to http://www.carm.org/features/theshack.htm | |
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| Please Support CARM | If you like what CARM does and want to support it, we have some options. | |
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| Head in the Sand |
 What
the Heck?This feature is not so we can make fun of anyone. This is serious stuff. It is to show what kind of thinking is out there. We regularly get stuff like this. Pray for this ministry. --------------------------------- Dear CARM, It seems that there are some "new age/occult female astral projection travelers" who feel they need to be in my SOUL-BODY cos they feel that I am wasting my life away. I also am dealing an Unknown astral female who likes to hide in my lower back of my soul on a daily basis. I am providing some internet links to you to help you understand where I am coming from and to back up what I have stated. I also totally disagree with Ron Rhodes' Book - The truth about Ghost, Mediums, and Psychic Phenomena. Also I do not have a secret astral plane mistress either. I have picked up pictures of a white lady with long blonde hair. Most of my "harassment" comes directly from the Astral PLane. Nothing else either, literally. Also, It doesn't make sense to be adored by New Age Females who have to be new age in order to have a career either. Also, I don't remember informing you that I didn't "visualize" in my junior Year of High School. I had Graduated May of 1982. There were three other white-guys who had attended the local Presbyterian Church. I do believe that my former sunday-school classmates had visualized. Visualization leads directly into Witchcraft. That is the main reason why I do not have a career at 44 years of age. In the Spring of 1999, I had attended www.haskell.edu and had flunked out and put on Academic Probation. I haven't returned. In the time frame of 2001-2003 I was literally taken out on two separate occasions by someone in the New Age. I know for a fact that I didn't restore myself in anyway. I did find brief work thru a temp agency in 2004. But that didn't last cos of an Ethical dilemma I think that it was the lady-in-charge fault. I also had to take a tb test and I had been prescribed TB medication for the next six months of 2004 because I had tested positive. Oh yeah, It was totally quiet and I wasn't harassed on a daily basis from the astral plane. However, I was visited by two people on separate occasions who had known me in the 1990's and they had made contact with my mind and they were a mental picture briefly. A little note here: While I was in the USN in the early 1980's. I was stationed in San Diego, CA. I had briefly visited the Servicemen's center. I had said a sinner's like prayer. Even though there was a pause. I think that it didn't do any good cos when 1988 came by I had went thru a deep spirit-world experience and a demon had pulled my soul out of my body and had asked me if I had wanted to sell my soul and another spirit-world incident had happened in which I had to keep my word.... I didn't and I was cussing like crazy during that episode. Since then, nothing like that episode has ever happened. |
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| CARM Needs | Programmer:
We need a programmer who is familiar with web-based development.
You don't have to move here to do this. But we are looking
for godly Christians who have a knack for programming for some
projects on CARM. Please do not contact us unless you are
very serious about this.
carmstuff@yahoo.com
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| CARM Needs Staff | Want to work with CARM in
Boise, ID? We are always looking for qualified people who
are willing to move here and work with his ministry. The
interview process takes a while and there are several hurdles to
overcome. But, CARM reaches literally millions of people
annually and though we are struggling to make ends meet
financially, we are hoping that there will be people who can
provide their own support who would be willing to come here and
work with CARM. This is not an easy request to make,
especially asking people to move in rates from support.
But that's the situation we are in now. We need researchers, writers, programmers, and an office administrator. The rewards are small, the challenges are huge, you get ridiculed, there's spiritual attack, sometimes you don't know if you are going to make it financially, you have to support yourself, and you have to research and write about false systems and compare them with Scripture. There is occasional mundane office stuff to take care of.... but, this is not a boring ministry. Does that sound appealing? If so, then are interested in working with CARM? You can be male or female. You have to agree to the CARM statement of faith, and I prefer (though it is not necessary) people who are educated and/or experienced in their field of expertise. But I must reiterate; this is not an easy ministry. It is time-consuming, often unrewarding, frustrating, etc. But, there are rewards. You get to know that what you produce will affect thousands of people for years to come. This ministry is a challenge and it is not for the fainthearted. Interested? If so, contact Matt at matt@carm.org. |
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Love and Hate Mail
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Matt Slick CARM President |
