So how many of you out there are using a Christian based ISP?

If not would you if one was available?

I know there are not many out there that offer anything more than dialup.  But if you had one in your area that offered some form of broadband would you use their service over that of a standard provider?  Even if say the speeds were not as strong (1.5MB vs 3MB type of difference)?

Just wondering.

Brother Jerry

It is amazing how many folks are still out there with 95,98, and Me.  Of course MS pretty much quit supporting ME about a year after it came out

"still is not getting people to upgrade as quickly as [the company] would like" I love that line...made me laugh...
Of course Microsoft would like to get people to upgrade everytime they came out with a new OS...that is the way of business.  Could be worse though...you could have a Mac

Brother the only first thing I can say to this is AMEN.

I have two boys myself and they are being raised to respect who they are, who God is, and the role they play in God's plan.  They are to be spiritually strong and lead their families when they have them.  God gave men the role of leaders of the household, just as Christ was head of the church. 

Let me tell you in my personal life that the first few years of marriage were very rough for my wife and I.  She was very strong willed and I was very weak spiritually.  We went through some very dark times and the last one God had me down.  I came up from that time renewed in my faith (I was already saved but not walking the walk).  In short order my spiritual walk was turned around, and I stepped up to do what God had created me to do.  Jesus was in our house again as a companion and friend, instead of "overbearing overseer" and in the past 4 years since that time my wife and I have had one arguement, and that was settled peacefully, quickly and with Jesus as the mediator.  Our household is blessed and when it comes to matters of the church I lead the way as it was meant to be.  And I thank Jesus every single day for getting allowing our home to be His home too.

Let me also state that you will not find in the Bible where a woman is directed to love the husband.  You will find where they are to respect their husband.  But the husband is directed to love the wife.  Sit back and think about that and what you as a wife or you as a husband really thrive on.  I know that myself and most men want and need to be respected moreso than anything else.  Yes to have our wives love us is greatly important, but to be respected is top.  A wife and women I know around me, they talk about their husbands, boyfriends, etc and they speak of being loved.  And when the man does not show that they love their wife the wife in turn loses respect for the man.  Amazing how God told us that all along. 

And the first step in the circle of marriage has to come from the man.  If a man will show that he loves the wife and this is in the actions of the man, then the wife will respect him.  A man walking with Jesus and leading his family in a good Godly walk will have a wife that will follow him to the ends of the earth.  Not just out of love but a love born of respect for the man that is leading her.  And what deeper love can we experience between two people.

Men step up and be the man that God tells you to be.  Grab that beautiful woman by you and take her out on a date.  We have it backwards if we think we date to get married.  We should be getting married so we can date.  Show her you love her and allow God to show in your love for her.  And peace will reign in your home and your entire family will be blessed.

Brother Jerry

Just imagine that we as a race go about trudging through the world for a few hundred more years.  Enough to actually get out and explore space.  We travel off to a distant solar system to discover a different form of intelligent life.  We greet them and begin to talk to them, and build a relationship with them.

Now imagine if we find out they too have a religion that is based on one God.  Their texts after translating and double checking the translations refers to their God as Jehovah.  Wouldn't that be neat....and what would skeptics think?  What if the history of that religion also has a savior that appeared in the flesh, was crucified, died, and was resurrected.  And they called him Jesus as well.  What would the skeptics think?

I sometimes wonder if there are planets out there that have Adam and Eve on them for that life form, but they never ate of the forbidden fruit, thus are still living in the paradise of the garden.  Wouldn't that be neat.

Ah now just some musings of an over active imagination

Later
Brother Jerry

I used to work for one.  Well one that proclaimed that it reportedly was....but the people behind had proven to me over time that they were not.  Nor did thier web page even proclaim anything pertaining to Jesus or thier Christian heritage. 

I know that there are several churches and things in this area that would sign up for service and hopefully their congregation as well.  I also know that I would have to offer other services more secularized such as standard Enterprise circuits, colocations and things of that nature.  But that would still not deter me from my primary focus.

And thank you both for the words of encouragement.  Right now it is coming down to praying for patience as God opens the doors.  Which is always the worst part of it

Brother Jerry

Besides the daily grind I have been praying hard about starting a faith based ISP in my area.  I have been feeling the tug of God on this and have been on my knees many times concerning this.  I feel the need and am now finishing up the plan and waiting for God to provide the further guidance to go or not.

So keep praying on that. 

Brother Jerry

LOL...100 years is good enough for me...no further math needed

But as another side thought concerning the Ark, and it whereabouts today.  Many people have been looking for the ark for many years and have come up short of finding it.  You would think that something that size would be somewhere wouldn't you?  As well as very hard to hide, even under the ice of the mountain wouldn't it?  Sure it would.

But what if it is not on the mountain any more?  Imagine you are Noah and his family...or more to the point Noah or one of his family, unless schitzophrania is a problem   You just finish up with a huge trial of rain, being at sea for months and the destruction of the world as he knew it.  But now you have landed.

You want to start the world anew.  Along with your 3 sons you set out to build yourself a house.  Now would you go out and either cut down or move trees that are knocked down to where you want to build this home/villiage?  This would entail cutting the wood, shaping the wood, covering the wood, weatherproofing the wood, etc, etc.  Or would you look back and see this ship that has carried through the worst storm in history, floated on the waters for months, and then say to yourself "Why that wood has been cut, shaped, and treated already.  Instant lumber for a new home"

I would guess that most would consider using the lumber that they already had that was already covered in pitch to prevent the rain from coming in and the ocean out as well.  So it is going to keep any future rain from coming in for a while.  The limbs and such have already been cut from them so you do not have to worry about that either, just cut to length needed (or get the lengths already cut) and start building that house.  And future generations could have also used that lumber as well because they would want the plants and such to repopulate and grow.  So they would be using what was available and the ark was available.

If we want to look for the ark then look down the mountain for timbers used in ancient homes and I bet we can find parts of the ark down there.

Just a though

Brother Jerry

Amen to that brother.

There was nothing like being at sea.  During the day looking out over the ocean and seeing nothing but blue sky and water was wonderful.  And at night hitting the weatherdecks during a darkened ship condition and a clear night was beautiful to see the stars.  I remember one night in the North Atlantic region the Northern Lights were ablaze it was simply awe inspiring.

I have a CD of ocean sounds if you would like it

Brother Jerry

AMEN

But really it is all just a random occurance with odds that defy the possiblility of winning 1 million super powerball lotteries in a row, right? 

Wonderful words brother to describe a wonderful creation.  One that every time I smell that flower I thank God not only for the flower but the nose in which to smell it.

Brother Jerry

[Could the Ark really hold all of those animals?]

Could the Ark really hold all of those animals?

One of the common arguements brought up by non-believers is the ark.  Not even the global flood thing but they often state that there is no way that the ark could have held all of those animals.  This is often filled by our own artistic downfalls.  We often see the ark painted in cute pictures and such as something about the size of a 40' yacht, all made of wood and just looking really pretty and cute.  However the reality of the Bible is something different.

Lets take a look at some of the numbers and see if it is truly feasible for the ark to have held all of those animals.  First we have to take a look at the ark.  Genisis chapter 6 lets us know that the ark was 300 cubits long, by 50 cubits wide, by 30 cubits deep.  And that it was constructed of 3 decks.  Now this puts the ark on par with an aircraft carrier that was used in World War II.  Just as tall and wide but not quite as deep.  But then some people find it hard to imagine that an air craft carrier could carrier as many planes as they did. 

So now that we have that lets dig a little deeper.  A cubit is a measurement that runs anywhere from 18 inches to 21 inches depending on who you talk to.  For the sake of arguement we will stick with 18 inches.  So the ark was 5,400 inches long, by 900 inches wide by 540 inches deep.  Lets now figure out the volume with in the ark itself.  5,400 x 900 x 540 equals 2,624,400,000 cubic inches. 

Now that we have the volume of the ark figured out we need to look at the contents of the ark.  Currently we figure there are about 1.4 million named species of animals on the earth.  They figure that there could be anywhere from 2-100 million species.  To make the math easy we will look at 100 million species.  So lets see how much space would each species take up if you gave them each equal space.  2,624,400,000 / 100,000,000 = 26.2440 cubic inches for each species.  But we know that it was 2 of each kind of the unclean animal so lets divide that by 2 and we get 13.1220 cubic inches for each animal.

But wait.  Because we all know that is not good enough because the Bible tells us that of the clean animals we took 7 pair for a total of 14 of the good animals.  We really have no way of knowing all of the good animals...not without doing some very exhaustive research on breaking down the species...so let us just assume it is a perfect world and 100% of the animals are perfect animals.  That would mean that there were 1,400,000,000 different animals on the ark.  And each one would have taken up 1.8745 cubic inches.

Now most people are going to say that an elephant cannot fit into 1.87 cubic inches, and they are correct.  And I am not about to say that God shrunk them down so they could (although He could have if He wanted to).  However there are other considerations to look at as well.  Over 50% of the known species to exist today are insects.  And quite honestly 14 ants do not need to take up roughly 26 cubic inches of space.  Neither do 14 termites, 14 lady bugs, or 14 of most insects for that matter.  So a great deal of space could be made up of them.

Not enough you say?  Approximately 18% of the known species counted today are plants.  None of them went on the ark.  So if we remove them from the equation and still assume 100% clean.  Then we are taking 1,148,000,000 animals on board.  And space for each individual animal grows to 2.286 cubic inches.

Still not enough?  You are beginning to push it   But let us not forget fish, mollusks, crustacians, and other aquatic life.  Let us just for simplisity state they are 15% of known species.  Now we are taking 978,800,000 different animals on board the ark.  And each one of them is taking up 2.6894 cubic inches.  That would be an astounding 37.6 cubic inches for those 14 ants. 

I think that is more than enough to show that the ark had plenty of space for all of the animals.  These numbers being very conservative and on the side of those that would argue against it being possible.  Since we have not even breached 2 million species and these took into account 100 million.  These figures also did not take into account that of the unclean animals there was only 2 on board the ark.

Just for fun let us take the number of species down to 2 million.  All other factors the same, such as 100% clean.  We would end up with 134.47 cubic inches for each individual animal. If we took 100 million species and upped the cubit to 21 inches we would have 4.27 cubic inches for each individual.  And then if we dropped the species down to 2 million with cubit at 21 inches then we would have an astounding 213.54 cubic inches per individual animal.

All in all it is very safe to say that the ark had room to spare when it came to the creatures of the world that would have had to fit into the ark. 

I hope that was insightful. 

Sincerely
Brother Jerry

pumkin,

How many years ago was the Bible created?  Who knows cause as John states in the beginning there was the Word.  Now as far as when was the Bible as we know it compiled and "put together"? The OT was no later than 150BC.  The NT was in all actuality within the 1st or 2nd century. 

How many books are in the Bible?  66.  39 in the OT and 27 in the NT.  Now if you really want to get technical about it there are 43 in the OT and 23 in the NT.  The 4 Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were actually OT since the NT actually starts with resurrection, thus most of the 4 Gospels were before that and could actually be classified as OT scripture....but that is a topic for another day

How do we know that we have an accurate, unchanged accout of those books?
This is always a good one.  1st off historians and scholars alike will comment on how the Jewish people are meticulous in their transferring their scripture from one generation to the next.  There was a group of Jewish scribes that actually had a checksum in their copying.  If the math did not line up when they were finished with a section they would throw the entire section away and start over.  If the entire book they were working on did not match up then the whole book would be tossed and started over.  Archeology has shown that with the thousands of manuscripts, fragments, scrolls, etc that we have found from antiquity that OT has remained intact from as far back as the 1st-2nd century BC.  And the same can be said of the thousands of the same for the NT as well (just not BC, but more like 3rd-4th AD). 

ON top of the physical evidence that shows us that the Bible we have today is in the same state as it was about 2000 years ago we can look at the nature of God who is the true author of the Bible.  Would God allow His Word to be corrupted?  No. 

Are we putting faith that what we have is unaltered and accurate.  Sure we are.  But the evidence is showing that we are correct in that faith.  THe Bible has been unchanged for 2000 years it is safe to assume that the OT was unchanged for 4000+ years before that as well.

Why can there not be prophets in these last days?  Quite honestly there is no need.  Jesus was the greatest of prophets being God...who better to state the desire of God than God Himself?!  The important thing to note is that even if there were further prophets they would not teach anything against the Word of God.  Look at the prophets of the OT.  Not only do they refer from one to another but they NEVER counter or contradict what God has said.

So all in all if we can safely trust that the Bible as we know it is accurate and has not been changed.  Which is not a leap of faith but historically shown to be that through the many findings of ancient pieces and such.  Now we also know there will be no further covenants for Jesus taught us that He was it.  But even in Hebrews 13:20 lets us know the covenant is eternal "Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant"

Many have already addressed the comments about a "dislike for fellow man."  Not the man but sin. 

You also mentioned something of "believe that everyone has their own 'free agency" which is not true Biblically.  Jesus told us that there is but one way, and that was through him.  It is Jesus who acts as our agent.  And it is God, through Jesus, who provided us the path needed.  There was no negotiating our route to Heaven.  Paul and the others let us know that it was not through works that we gain salvation, it is not from anything we do but by the grace of Jesus that we gain acceptance into Heaven. 

You had also said "At the end of the day, it is not you who will sit in judgement of them, so why worry?  Concentrate on your own shortcomings and try save yourselves first. "  And as a Christian we are to do both.  We are to be examples (thus ensuring we are walking correctly).  Examples to who?  To the unsaved.  If we were to only worry of our own shortcomings before worrying about other people then we are selfish.  And we are not in accordance with Jesus.  Jesus told us that if a man were to ask for our coat we should also give him our shirt.  Above and beyond.  The reason we "worry" about our selves and our walk with Jesus is because we want to be an example to those that are unsaved.  It is because we have been given a Great Commission to teach the Word of Jesus to the world that we keep our walk Christlike.  Such a vicious circle   But because of our love for other people and not of ourselves we try to keep our spiritual life as well as secular life glorious to Jesus.

I am sure I speak for many here when I say that we love you and will pray for you.

Sincerely
Brother Jerry

syf,

I think everyone else has done a great job of providing scripture and encouragement for you.  Let me take a moment to talk about Da Vinci Code.

I am about 100 pages short of finishing the book.  A book that has wasted much of my time   550 pages worth of a thriller that could have been put into 150 pages.  The rest was Dan Brown trying put his theory out there, one that is founded on nothing. 

What he states as fact even in the front of the book is fabrications.  Do a google on Priory of Sion and you will find it is a social group started in 50's by Pierre Plantard.  Les Dossier Secrets mentioned do exist and are in the National Museum of France in Paris.  However they have been found to be fraudulent.  Their author even admits them to be falsehood.  Who is the author?  Pierre Plantard.  For those that do not know what the Dossier entailed...the royal geneology of France basically...a lost blood line of the royal family.  And who did they say was one of two current members?  Pierre Plantard...imagine that.

So right off the bat there is falsehoods in the book.  Which sets in motion the doubt behind everything else that one may debate.  One issue is Leonardo's Last Supper.  The theory being that the person sitting to the right of Jesus is Mary Magdelene.  And the story states that Mary was the wife of Jesus and bore him a child.  She was to be the true leader of the church.  And that it was Constantine during the Nicean council that altered the course of religion.  During this council the book states, the Sacred Feminine was removed from scripture and all aspects of Christianity.  That Christ was a man and not divine until then as well.

Now some problems with this entire story.  The book would make you think that Constantine had such power that he not only altered Christianity, but also Judiasm.  A religion that had been around for quite some time.  Although it focuses only on what Constantine did to Christianity, but fails to take into account the Jewish faith and how they have never had a Sacred Feminine.  However Dan did mention this once in the book that even the Jews had a male and female and that was what was in the Holy of Holies in Solomons Temple.  But if that were the case then by the time Christ came about they would have had to have already gotten rid of the feminine.  There would have been no way for Constantine to not only change the New Testament, but also change the whole of Judiasm as well to fit the aspect of the book.  And if Teabing (the historian of the book) could come back and state that the Jews had already moved the feminine out, then there would have been nothing for Constantine to have done, Jesus was a Jew and would already have been establishing a faith built on masculine and not feminine.  So that is out.

Even ignoring the above and looking at other aspects of the story.  The Last Supper painting.  Yes the figure to the right of Jesus is feminine looking.  However even in Leonardo's notes which have preliminary scetch of the painting with names above the figures, states that is John.  John was considered the youngest of the Apostles and thus was painted in a very youthful appearance.  And young boys have fair complections and smooth skin, as do all young people.  The story brings in the Holy Grail legend here as well.  By making people toss out their common sense.  There is nothing Biblically that mentions the Holy Grail, or that if there was a sacred cup at the last supper that it was something extravagent.  The book points out that there is no one cup on the table that is super duper or anything, that there are 13 cups on the table.  Well DUH, 12 apostles, 1 messiah = 13 cups.  It was dinner, the host would have either had 13 of the best cups out there for their guests or they would have all had 13 regular ones.

You could go on and on about the errors in the Code.  But it is pointless because once you start on one piece, quickly do the rest fall apart.  Dan Brown said in an interview that he spent years researching this book.  He could not even get the dates on the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls correct...5 seconds on Google brought that up.  Let alone he said there were Gospels found there....NOPE it was a Jewish sect and had Jewish writings and such, not one NT piece of literature.

So please just put the book down and pick up the best book there is to read (The Bible).  Continue to do the will of God and your faith will be bolstered.  James teaches us that as we continue to do things in accordance with God's will, then God will bless us.  The more we are blessed by God the more our faith grows.  It is a circle of building.  Pray and be thankful that God loves you so much He is always willing to take time from His day to listen to you talk about how your day was.

Sincerely
Brother Jerry

Above are some great answers.

If you are looking to spend some money (and a soul is always worth some investment) I would recommend a couple of books

Josh McDowell "The New Evidence"
Lee Strobel "Case for Christ", "Case for a Creator"

Or pretty much anything by either of those two.  They deal with facts and generally do not delve into Biblical references.  "The New Evidence" can be a harder read since it is laid out like a text book but it is packed with tons of fact based information. 

And most of all pray.  I know that I will add your wife to our prayer list.

Hope it helps

Sincerely
Brother Jerry

I think that Schenck is thinking about it entirely wrong.  He makes it out to be that leaders are urging people to go see the movie.  And that is entirely incorrect.  Most leaders, teachers, pastors, etc are not urging people to see the movie or even read the book, but what they are wanting to do is to teach their congregation how to address the issues the movie has brought up and to reflect the correct light on the errors the movie potrays.

I just finished doing a 2 week lesson on the book/movie in an effort to show the men in my class the premise behind the book and to equip them with the true Facts.  Then to show them the opportunities on how to address possible questions that may arise from folks who are not saved that did see the movie.

Just as The Passion provided opportunities to witness to poeple so does this book and movie.  The big difference being that one started off in a positive direction while this one starts off in a negative direction.

Sincerely
Brother Jerry

Amen brother and sister

Outstanding posts.

It is really sad to me that there is more evidence for just the mere existance of a man named Jesus (not even looking at the Spiritual aspect) than there is for Ghengis Khan but more accept that Ghengis lived and conquered most the Asian continent.

Brother Jerry