American Polytheism

When we explore the religious practices of the ancient Greco-Roman world we see that they did not practice different religions, but they practiced many different versions of the same religion. Basically honoring various gods with temples, rites, and various rituals, and tributes, which is referred to as polytheism.  They had many gods and many temples.  Each god had unique attributes and had control over certain aspects of life, and the world.  Each one would be sought at different times depending on the circumstances of the individual seeking help from the gods, or wanting to honor, or worship a god for a specific perceived blessing that was received.

It has been recorded in the history books that Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in the fourth century AD.  This is a misrepresentation of what actually took place and what the Emperor was endeavoring to accomplish.  He did not convert to Christianity.  What he actually did was he converted Christianity, and adopted the Christian God to the religion of the Empire.

He did not remove all the other gods from the Roman religious repertoire, he merely added another god to the list of very important gods in the Roman religious experience. We see many pagan aspects of this fact when we examine the main religion that eventually emerged from Constantine's corruption of the truth.  The Roman Catholic Church developed as a result of many pagan practices mixed into the corrupt "Christian" framework that Constantine fabricated. It was some years after Constantine that the pure pagan polytheistic practices were removed comletely, and the Roman Catholic Church became the dominant religious influence in Europe.

Family Devotions - King Josiah

Last week Rich read the story of King Josiah from 2 Chronicles 34 through verse 21 where the book of the Law was found.  This week he picked up in 2 Chronicles 34 verse 22 and read to the end of chapter 35.  This records all the reforms that King Josiah did after the book of the Law, that was recorded by Moses, was found hidden in the temple.  What a powerful account of a life dedicated to God and making changes to practices that had been done for many, many years long before his birth.  He completely cleansed Judah of false worship.  It just made us both weep as we listened to the account of Josiah's life.  It says in 2 Kings 23:25 "Before him there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him."  We then reviewed the 2 videos that we posted in last week's Family Devotions - Create in Me a Clean heart.  Mary enjoyed them a lot, especially the first one.  It ended with this thought, "Why is this story important? Because true knowledge is learning what God says and knowing what God says can make you wiser than you can imagine."  We do identify with this story and statement for that is what we have been endeavoring to do this last year since we have left the church/religious system of our culture.  We want to know what God says about worship and about how we are to be as a body of believers.  Not according to traditions of men but according to God's word and example set before us in the scriptures.  We explained this to Mary and she understands why we have left the church system and why we worship at home together as believers.  We then sang these two hymns, All Creatures of Our God and King and Crown Him with Many Crowns:

Here is the link: http://youtu.be/0d3gO6qDLNA

Here is the link: http://youtu.be/YuMh_ept-Js

We closed in prayer thanking God for who He is and that we know Him.  We also for all the believers who are seeking Him for the truth of His word and our brother, Todd, in Bakersfield who we have the privilege of fellowshipping with.

Family Devotions - Create in Me a Clean Heart

We read the story of King Josiah this morning out of 2 Chronicles 34.  We found two You Tube Videos that were good.  One for smaller kids and one for kids and adults.  So here they are:

Here is the link: http://youtu.be/3csjqtYoxcs

Here is the link: http://youtu.be/dJyQHcmrK40

We also sang the B-I-B-L-E children's song and then Create in Me a Clean Heart

Here is the link: http://youtu.be/BGPmMcDeRpM



We closed in prayer asking God to purify our hearts this week and help us to always be close to Him and love His words and put them into practice.

Family Devotions - Coin in the Fishes Mouth

Rich picked our Bible story this morning.  He read Matthew 17:24 - 27

²⁴ When they came to Capernaum, those who collected the two-drachma tax came to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the two-drachma tax?” ²⁵ He said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth collect customs or poll-tax, from their sons or from strangers?” ²⁶ When Peter said, “From strangers,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are exempt. ²⁷ However, so that we do not offend them, go to the sea and throw in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth, you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for you and Me.”

We talked about trusting Jesus in providing for our needs.  Not extravagant things, but our basic needs.  We told Mary a story from my childhood.  When I was very young my parents were going through a hard financial time.  They made up a list of thing to get at store.  When they got there they divided the list and each took part of the items to get.  They got their stuff and went back home.  When they got home they realized that neither one of them got milk or cottage cheese and they had spent all their money.  This was the days before credit cards, so once your money was gone, it was gone.  They were upset at not getting the items and were arguing about who was supposed to get it.  Right in the heat of their discussion, they heard a knock on the door.  They got real quiet and went to the door.  There was standing a brother in the Lord and he said that he had just been to the store and thought that we could use some milk and cottage cheese and was bringing it over to them.  They accepted with a big smile and were rejoicing that God knew their hearts and situation and had provided for them!  Mary's face lit up and loved hearing a story of God's provision in my life before I could even remember.

We found a sweet song that Mary did a little dance and motions too.

Here is the link: http://youtu.be/-LJRndQuFnQ

We also sang this song "I will make you fishers of men".

Here is the link: http://youtu.be/KL7uV5jF8Rk

This is our hearts prayer is that we will be fishers of men as we follow Jesus and his words.  We closed in prayer for all our dear brothers and sisters in the Lord and thanking Him for all that he has done in our hearts and lives.

Family Devotions - Because He Lives

Family devotions can be so encouraging especially if it was like this last week for us.  The landlords put in new carpet in our living room and hallway.  The carpet was old and we were OK with that especially with a dog and little kid.  But they got a really good deal and wanted to do several of their rentals.  So we packed up all our stuff and they moved the furniture out and back in and we did the rest.  So this week was pretty busy and tiring but we made it through and now we have new carpet!  For some reason I woke up early and felt sad and discouraged and shed a few tears, so this mornings devotions was a blessing.  Rich started singing "On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand"  after breakfast and Mary and I joined in.



Here is the link: http://youtu.be/rkMapZB8qMk

We pulled up another of our favorites, "Because He Lives" on the internet. 

Here is the link: http://youtu.be/4M-zwE33zHA
We sang and Mary did a little dance to it. 

That is what I love about our family times, is that they are all spontaneous and interactive.  After, Because He Lives, we sang one of our most favorite modern Hymns, Christ Alone, and then finished with a Psalm 23.

Here is the link: http://youtu.be/AjR_A2pGPrY

After we sang, Mary read this poem:                                                          

 " Jesus, My Friend"

"When my heart is heavy and the tears are falling,

I look up to Jesus and know he understands.

And my heart fills to running over

when I think how he understands.

I can see him on his heavenly throne,

longing to come and comfort me

like he could have when he was here on earth.

But Lo! he said that 'I will not leave thee, nor forsake thee'.

So I say, in faith, believing: ' Jesus, I know you understand,

and I give myself to thee.'

All other friends may turn their backs on me,

but Jesus will always love me, no matter what may come.

I now consecrate this body and life to this wonderful friend.

Take it and use it like it was your own body.

All I desire is to be yours, dear blessed Jesus.

May this always be my prayer."

It was written by her grandma, my mom, many years ago.  Again this brought tears to my eyes and comforted my heart so much.  Rich picked out a Bible story to read, The Tower of Babel, and we talked about how God caused the people to separate and go out all over the world.  Mary told us her spin on the languages being changed.  She said that they all used to speak English with an accent and then God changed their languages so they spoke Chinese, German, Russian and English and they didn't speak English with an accent any more.  lol  She always cracks us up with her perspective on things.  We ended our time with prayer remembering our friend, Todd, and other dear friends who are not with us in body but in spirit that they would be blessed this week. 



Family Devotions

We have been doing family devotions on Sunday morning and each time we come away so blessed.  Our daughter picked the Bible story for us to read.  As you can see it was about the fall of Jerusalem and the prophet Jeremiah.

After the story we talked about why the Israelites went into captivity and the hope of their return after they had repented and the rebuilding of the city.  That reminded me of a song I used to sing when I was young.  It was a scripture song from Psalm 30: 11-12.  I sang it and then Rich did a search on the internet and he found this amazing website that has music to almost every section of scripture in the Bible.  It had that song with the words and the music.  So we sang it and printed the music and I played it on the piano.  We were able to thank the Lord for all He has done for us this week and pray for all those who are part of God's wonderful work in our lives.  Here is the song we sang this morning and a link to the website.  At the very end of our time our little dog, Mac, came up to Rich and wanted to sing a little bit too!  So we got him on video.  All I can say to that is, "Praise Him all creatures here below!"

Here is the link to the song: https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/1334

Letter to the Churches

Dear brothers, and sisters.

For a long time I have felt that something was going to happen, like we are on the brink of some great event, I don't know if you have had that feeling too, but I am beginning to understand what I have been sensing.

In our American culture there is great apostasy, apathy, deception, and distraction. Our culture struggles heavily with greed, materialism, and the most destructive ... immorality, and sensuality. These cultural poisons have found their way into the American church, and have been tolerated for so long now that the destructive heresies that they propagate are seen as normal, and are even perceived as  being innocuous.