Voting on Nov. 4th

Friends, I just wanted to drop a really quick post to remind you all to vote this coming Tuesday. It doesn't really matter who you vote for, just vote. Ask the Holy Spirit for guidance and vote. Lots of great men and women have died and suffered to defend this right of yours, so do them some honor by going and letting your voice be heard.

I am of the line of thinking that if you do not vote, you should forfeit your right to whine and complain about politicians until the next election. If you do vote, then you can whine and complain all you want!

This is a really important election, and some of you will get to vote on things just as important as our next president, like gay marriage, prayer in school, ROTC in our schools, and illegal immigration, so let your voice be heard!!

And believe me, every vote counts...have you seen the latest polls? Remember in 2000 when Bush was elected by fewer than 500 votes? Your vote DOES count!! And don't give me the excuse that you don't know most of the candidates outside the presidential race! Just leave the ones you don't know blank or vote according to your traditional political party!

Until next time, God bless!

PS. My surgery seems to have been successful this past week, as once the soreness wore off, I seem to be doing a lot better! Hey, I can even feels some of my toes now!! Praise God!!

Christians Being Persecuted

I would like to ask prayer for a missionary family that we support. I cannot give their names, but rest assured they are real people.

You may have seen on the news that the city of Mosul in Northern Iraq's Nineveh province have been being killed and kidnapped. They have burned churches, and executed at least ten people in front of their families.

I received this short e-mail on Saturday: "Please pray! Christians being persecuted in Mosul and Nineveh. Our church burned...We are going to try to make Turkey...were turned away from the US base. A nomadic tribe has offered us safe passage in exchange for medical supplies. Thank God our children are no longer here as we sent them to their grandparents three weeks a go. Please pray in your churches tomorrow."

Its a shame that we in America see it as a challenge to wake up on Sunday mornings to make it to church and consider persecution as someone "talking bad about us." A real shame.

As someone who has worked with missionaries before, let me tell you it is not an easy task. But if you want to truly see the Holy Spirit move, spend a week or two with missionaries. You can find them through your congregations mission board or denominations main web page. They always need extra hands, and they will help you reach them.

In the Middle East, these people are being flogged and beaten for going to church...yet go any way.
They are executed for preaching Jesus to Muslims...yet preach any way.
Their children are forced to attend Madrasas...yet they "un-teach then any way.

Now friend, tell me...Jesus said we would be persecuted for serving Him if we were true servants...are you being persecuted?

Jesus said that the world would hate you because it hated Him first...Does the world hate you?

If you read in the book of Revelations, you will notice that a special place is prepared for those that lose their lives for the Gospel; the Bible calls them martyrs. They are in the presence of the throne of God at all times, and beg Him daily to take vengeance on those that persecuted them and to bless those that helped them.

Which category do you fit in? Made fun of Christians lately? Talked bad about the church down the street? Or do you bless them and support them.

It is not easy being a Christian in America; just look at the two presidential candidates who have suddenly "found Jesus" and the vice-presidential candidate that has been ostracized for attending a church that "speaks in tongues." So we either have a false relationship with Jesus or we are made fun of for truly believing in Him.

But that has no relation to being a Christian elsewhere. Those people in India and Thailand that are tied to a metal post and whipped until they are almost dead would surely trade places with you; they would have loved to be made fun of for believing...yet they continue believing, and you stay in bed so people don't see you going to church?

A real shame...

Watching Them Hurt

Isn't it hard to stand by and watch one of your friends (or maybe family) fall off of the deep end? In this case, I am talking about addiction (to pain medicine), but you could put any situation in here, whether it is domestic violence, depression, drugs, etc.

Drug addiction is a hard battle to win, but no one can do it for you. In my line of ministry, I see people fail every day because they are "doing it for my ______". You have to do it for you.

Something all addicts have in common is they hit rock bottom. Looking back, and talking from experience, I will tell you the feeling I felt was utter despair. You start believing your own lies, and everyone else becomes a liar. You start to dip into depression, and maybe even violence. (Thank God I missed that one) But it always happens, and this is a critical time in their addiction cycle, because one of three things ends up happening: 1. Death (overdose, suicide, etc) 2. Lose your mind, causing harm to others, or 3. You start the process of becoming clean. This is absolute rock bottom, and some people have to hit it several times in their "cycle" before becoming victorious. Some never make it. The text's and "experts" probably will not agree with the above statement, but I am speaking of reality, not their "utopia" world of "hello, my name is ______ and I am an addict." That could be why our program has a 97% success rate, and NA (Narcotics Anonymous) has a 20% success rate.

What brings this up is not someone who is going through our program, it is a very good friend who is probably not a friend any more, due to pain pills. He was in the "panic" mode of desperation because he was out, and he accused me and his dad of having some and not wanting to share. We were liars (to him), no matter what. He is at the stage I spoke of above, and refuses any help. Believe you me, I have offered, but he "doesn't have a problem." And no one in his family thinks he has a problem, except his dad, and defend him and help him justify his behavior.

It is sad, but it is not hopeless. We as friends, and especially as Christians, should not think in terms of defeat. Keep offering encouragement, and pray, pray, pray. Remember the woman who Jesus healed? She prayed for 16 years, and then Jesus told her, "Woman, thou art loosed." It is the same with addiction; keep praying, and keep encouraging. When they get clean, they will seek you out and apologize for their wrong doings toward you. That is part of the process of defeating Satan's weapon of choice, addiction.

But it still hurts! It hurts for your best friend to call you a liar! Them's fighting words for most men...its up there with calling them an sob, but today I walked away. My pride has hurt, but I am praying that God will deliver him from his affliction and take his excuses.

I know this post seems jumbled, but I just wanted to share this with you. Don't give up, and remember pride is a root for a lot of hurt and evil in this world. It is what caused Satan to be thrown from heaven, so if yours is challenged, remember the words of Jesus, "I have overcome the world", so He can definitly help you overcome pride.

Which Bible?

OK folks, its question and answer time again. Here it goes:

Which version, or translation of the Bible should I be using? My church says I should only use the King James Version.

This is one of those "touchy" areas that I will be more than happy to give my spill on. Let me give you the short answer first: Pray, and let the Holy Spirit guide you.

Now for the long answer: There are literally hundreds of English translations of the Bible. The most popular versions in America according to the American Bible Society are 1. King James, or Authorized Version 2. The New International Version 3. The New Living Translation 4. The Message and 5. The New King James Version

If you included all of the translations done by missionaries, there are well over 1000 English translations. But of those, only THREE, yes three, come directly from the ORIGINAL Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. They are the original King James Bible, the New International Version, and the New Living translation.

A panel of scholars recently (1995-1999) spent over 10,000 hours pouring over the original text's to make a decision on which were the most accurate. They included the top scholars of all the major denominations including Baptist, Southern Baptist, Independent Baptist, Church of God (Cleveland), Assembly of God, Catholic (eastern orth. and Roman), Lutheran, Anglican, etc. And over 20 non denominational doctors of Religion. Their conclusion: There were no "perfect" English translation of the Bible using today's language.

Consider this: Since the King James Version was first published, the English language has grown by more than 9,000,000 words and phrases. It was concluded that this version of the Bible was accurate at its time of publication, and could still be considered true scripture today. Just a note, this version of the bible has been updated over 1100 times since its original publication. There is exactly 1 "original" left at Oxford university, and most of us would not understand one word of it compared to today's version.

The most up to date version that was the closest to the original scriptures is the New International Version. This was the version the panel recommended for use in today's church. They compared it to Luther publishing the Latin Vulgate in German: This is an up to date English version that is even more accurate than the KJV. This is because the scholars that translated the NIV had 5,000 more manuscripts than the translators had in 1600 due to archaelogical finds.

The worse English translation: The New King James Version. Their report calls this version the "biggest travesty of scriptures since the Vatican changed scriptures with every new Pope". They reccommend not using this version at all.

Another accepted version was the New Living Translation (NLT), which uses original manuscripts along with the KJV, NKJV, an NIV and puts in into todays language. They reccommend this version for new Christians and for "home Bible studies".

They did not say a lot about The Message Bible, but found that it "may be useful in bringing teenagers into the church, but it should not be considered authorative because it is a "paraphrase" of original scriptures and is used in many New Age Churches.

Bored yet? I use the King James Version and the New International Version, with a Holman Illustrated Bible as a back up. If you are serious about Bible study, consider getting a Interlinear Bible, which has the original Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic scriptures with the direct English translation word for word underneath. You will be amazed at the difference and you will quickly realize why an up to date Bible like the NIV is needed.

This is my reccommendation: If the King James Version seems like a foreign language to you, go with the New International Version. It is easy reading, and is more accurate than any other version out there when compared word for word to the original text's.

And a shout out to all of those who are preaching that any version other than the KJV is heretical, I will be sure to tell all of the Apostles that there versions of Scripture were wrong when I see them in heaven, and you say hello to all the Pharisee's for me as well. I'm just joking, but see how ridiculus this whole debate is???

Jesse

Jesus, where are you?

I have been away for quiet a while, and I will tell all of those that already do not know that I have been facing an attack like you would not believe. First a physical attack, then emotional, and finally spiritually. An attack from whom, you ask? See the earlier post on whether hell is real, and draw your conclusion from that.

A question to all of the Christian readers out there: Have you ever come to the point where you just want to hang it all up? Tell God the price is too high and to go find someone else to fulfill your calling? Before you skeptics start bragging about how Jesse's Jesus "phase" has finally ended, wait until the end.

I do not remember if I spoke about it here, but my old blog it was quiet a topic, but let me summarize. A lot of you know that I was medically retired from the Army for a combination of injuries received while serving and a disease called Crohn's Disease. Crohn's disease is a auto-immune disease of the digestive system which is poorly understood and is incurable. Your immune system pretty much attacks your stomach and small intestine (for me any way). It can attack the large intestine, but I have missed that one. A very small percentage of people with Crohn's also develop a rheumatoid like arthritis. I am in that percentage. An even smaller percentage develop a condition called spondylarthropy, which is where the joints in your spine calcify and grow together. Yes, you guessed it, I have that. I have been in remission for a couple of years now.

Now fast forward to about a month and a half ago. I just did not feel right, and knew a flare was coming so I went to the VA (Veterans hospital) emergency room. They said there was nothing wrong, to go home. Mind you, the VA hospital is 2 hours away. That was on a Saturday. On Monday, I got really sick, vomiting blood and passing it as well. No way was I going to go back to the VA, so I went to my family doc, and she gave me steroids which brought the flare under control. 1 out of 10 people who take steroids develops a really bad infection. Guess who got a really bad infection? You got it. So I finally got an appointment to see my GI doc at the VA, and she tells me whatever is going on, its not Crohn's and she is not real sure why I came to see her!

So here I am, really sick, and no one knows what the h** is going on. I have been to church exactly 1 time in the last 6 weeks (not good for a minister), and only leave the house to go to the Dr. or to visit those in our drug ministry who are in "crisis". I can stay out of bed for about three hours at the most, and then I collapse out of exhaustion. So there is the physical attack.

Along with that comes the emotional attack. My Pastor doesn't say much, but she has definitely let me know that my church attendance is interfering with her giving me any responsibilities withing the church. This is not really surprising, as I would have done the same thing in her position, except that she doesn't like my "style" and has basically let me know that I really wasn't needed around there except to come to church and pay my tithe. But that is another story, as I am there for the long haul because the Lord will not let me leave. So since I can't really get out of bed, I get to think about that a lot. Top that off with me not being able to cook for the kids (my job, since my wife works 14 hour days), play with them, or do anything with them it starts wearing on you. I let our garden die and rot since I could not pick it.

Now for the spiritual attack, and the Christian message (now you know I couldn't let that go...that's the whole purpose for this blog). I have a wonderful walk with God. I am not bragging, just trying to set the background. He guides me, leads me, corrects me, and is my best friend. Yet through all of this...nothing. A man who has been called a prophet since he was 14 years old hears the echos of silence when praying, singing, meditating, or worshiping. I can feel the Spirit nearby, but the presence of my Savior....not there. I mean He is there, but not answering. He let me know long ago that He would heal me, to be patient, but never have I felt so alone. I who have seen countless people healed miraculously is lying in bed hoping to die. At this point healing or death is both victory, because if healed I can continue to lead others to Christ, and death brings me home to Him forever.

All of this brings to mind the story of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Remember that story from John chapter 11? What most of us remember is that Lazarus was raised from the dead and many Jews "believed on Him". (v 45). But that is not the part of the story I want you to focus on.Before Lazarus died, he was very sick. His sisters, Mary and Martha, immediately sent for Jesus, telling Him "Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick" (v3). In today's language we would say, hurry, your best friend is about to die. Now verse five states that Jesus "loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus". But you know what? Jesus DID NOT COME!

Ever been there? Ever been at the absolute end of the line; rock bottom, and cry out to Jesus, "Lord, where are you", and He did not come? That is where I am right now.

Is the welfare people coming for your kids? Repo man for your car? No food to eat? Bank foreclosing on your house? A loved one dieing from an incurable disease? LORD WHERE ARE YOU? And He did not come.

NOW, read the rest of the story. Go ahead, I have time to wait........OK what did you see? Jesus did in fact come. Four days later than when His friends needed Him. Now these were not just any people, these were Jesus' "people". They knew Him and they had a personal relationship with them. He stayed in their home when He was in town. When He arrived, He wept because Lazarus was dead. Or did He? We know He wept, but was it because Lazarus was dead or because of His disciples lack of faith? They had seen Him raise Jairus' daughter.

Now, here is my point (finally). Jesus' followers were looking for Jesus to do what He did every day: heal someone that was sick. Jesus was looking to fortify their belief and show that He was more than a prophet and a healer. He was more than a future ruler of Israel, but would also rule the greatest enemy of all: Death. The Apostle Paul says in 1 Cor 15:26 that the last enemy to be destroyed was death and Revelations records death and Hades (the grave) being thrown in the pits of hell (Rev. 20:14). Jesus told Martha, "I am the Resurrection and the Life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? John 11:25-26.

Of course I believe this, but where does that leave me lieing here in absoloute pain? I'll tell you: with a sweet blessed Hope. My Lord and my God may not come when I want Him to, but He WILL come. Isn't it great, that our Lord is so powerful that He can come four days late and still be on time! Praise God Al mighty, who reigns forever and ever.

I hope and pray that this strengthens you as it did me. If you are not going through a crisis right now, save it, or highlight it in your Bible, because eventually you will. And there Jesus will be, right on time!!