dystopia

Book Review of How God Makes Babies By: Jim Burns

Amanda Bradbury

I loved this book as well, it seems like the author has a whole series starting with young children going all they way through teenage years. This book is also illustrated beautifully and the pictures are awesome. The book offers the Christian perspective and is a great tool for teaching children about sex and babies. I think this is an easy way for parents of children to openly and honestly talk about sex, babies and their bodies. Sometimes I think it is never too early to start talking to a child about these very important things that may affect the rest of their lives. I would recommend this book to anyone with children or as a gift to a family member or friend with young children.

Book Review of God Made Your Body By: Jim Burns

Amanda Bradbury

I loved this book and the whole series! This seems like an easy way to talk to children about their body and about sex and babies. It is short and to the point, it has excellent and clear pictures for children to look at. The book has the Christian perspective and is great for anyone wanting to teach their children about God and their bodies. The book emphasizes God and makes several good points along with relating the information to children in a simple and direct manner. I do not have children yet, but I am definitely hanging onto this book and probably going to get the rest of his series because it can help me talk to my child one day when I have one. I would recommend this book to anyone with children or as a gift to a family member or friend with young children.

“The Jesus Book” by Stephen Elkins was illustrated very beautifully and was simple to read and understand for a small child. I was delighted to find that the book included a CD with a ton of songs for young children to listen to and sing along with. This is a very comprehensive book for children to learn who Jesus was and what He has to offer us. The pictures are very colorful and the book is very informative. This book would make a great gift for a child or the parent of a small child. This is the type of book a child will keep and cherish forever. My husband was also curious about what the book said and took a look at the book, he offered the opinion that the book should’ve talked a little more specifically about when Jesus was born to make it a little clearer for young children to understand, other than that the book did an amazing job of presenting the information in a clear and understandable way. I would recommend this book to friends, family and anyone with children. I am a book reviewer for Thomas Nelson Publishing Company, if you would like more information about Thomas Nelson Publishing Company please go to http://brb.thomasnelson.com.

Book Review of Max Lucado’s “Fearless”

By: Amanda Bradbury

From the author Max Lucado is his new book “Fearless”, which is an amazing book and one that is so timely and needed right now. This book talks about fears that everyone has in life and this existence and how to deal with those fears by giving them to God and trusting God. The book is filled with biblical stories and references to highlight fear and why we should not fear. The message of the book is that people who follow God should fear not. “Though the world may collapse, the work of Christ will endure”, seems to be the main message overall to all people, Christians or not. The book also offers encouragement that you shouldn’t be afraid, you shouldn’t worry; you shouldn’t fret because it is all in God’s hand and part of his divine plan. This was a great book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading and learning from. I would recommend it to all my friends, family and Christians and non-Christians alike. After reading this book, I think I want to read more of Max Lucado’s writing. He puts stories together very nicely and has a way of always expressing God’s word to intertwine with the story. The author and the book made me stop and think, question my thoughts, my fears and my relationship with God. Max successfully conveyed Biblical truths in his book and the information was clear and easy to understand. The book was able to hold my attention and I didn’t want to stop reading it once I became engaged with it. I am a book review blogger for Thomas Nelson Publishers. If you would like to become a book review blogger or learn more information on it please go to http://brb.thomasnelson.com/

“I know of no other way to perfection but love.” ~ St. Therese

There is no other way that is better than love. We must love each other in these hard times and we must continue to love each other in good times too. Love is what binds us, connects us together and keeps us alive. There is no other way to exist than to love, because if you do not love and feel love there is no reason to exist. God wants us to love one another as we love ourselves and to not be selfish, mean-spirited or hold grudges. We are to forgive one another and find the kindness and love in our hearts to truly care about others and their well-being and their lives like our own. I think a big part of our society has lost its empathy and feeling towards others and there are very few genuine people who truly care about others feelings, thoughts and well-being. One of Savage Garden’s songs says “Feelings of aggression are the absence of the love drug in your veins.” If we tried to love more and hate less, what a better world we would all live in. This isn’t to say that we all need to be the same to not hate each other, because a world where everyone and everything is the same would be awful too. It would be programmed and we would all be like helpless robots trying to think of one good original thought, but unable to because our minds had been sucked out by the massive push towards making everyone “alike”. We don’t need to be the same to be happy, we just all need to agree on love. We need to embrace our differences and love each other for them. Of course, I know, as well as you, that we don’t live in a perfect little world, a perfect little bubble. We live in a world full of misery, hatred, agony and awfulness everywhere. But if we all band together and unite we can make it better. Perhaps we will have to do so just to survive what the future holds. No one knows for sure what the future has in store for any of us, but wouldn’t it be a better world, a more prepared, loving and kind world, if we could just love each other unconditionally?

God wants us to love Him and each other above all else. He knows we are sinners and that we will sin and even when we asked to be saved and accept Jesus Christ as our savior, we will still be in sin, however, we must try to turn away from sin and ask God to forgive us of our sins. We know we are not perfect and we will probably sin again against God, ourselves or others, but we know in our hearts what we’re doing is wrong and we ask God to forgive us, for we truly do not know(or realize) what we do hurts Him, ourselves and others. God wants us to hate sin, but love the sinner. We are so quick to judge others, when it is not our place to do so. I know I am guilty of this. Many times I want to point out to people that what you’re doing is not right so I can try to explain to them why it’s not right and why they should choose to do things a better, more loving way. But many times it is hard to talk to people and make them see things how you see them or how God wants it to be. I am not perfect, no church is perfect, no other human being is perfect and we are all failures in the eyes of God, we have all sinned and are all sinners and we must realize there is no other way than love. Above all, Jesus preached love. I may never be perfect and no church may ever be perfect, but at least we can say we tried to be the best Christian we could be and we tried our hardest to follow God and what He wants in our life, living through Him. That is all we can do at the end of the day, is just be the best Christian we can and pray for forgiveness from God. Perhaps, as I’ve heard it said before, all we can do at the end of the day is be there for each other and love one another.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

—John 15:12-15

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

—John 3:16

The lost books of the bible are also known as the apocrypha. Unbeknownst to many a bible with the apocrypha can still be purchased. Just search for one on Barnes & Noble or ask for one at a local book store and you are sure to find a book with all the stories that have been left out of the normal King James Version or you can get a King James Version with the apocrypha in it.

Why are these books left out of most bibles? Perhaps one of the best kept secrets of the modern Protestant church is that the Bible used by that body is not the original King James Bible.  That translation, completed in 1611, and the Bibles published for the use of the clergy and the church members until late in the 19th Century, contained 80 books.  Although attempts to remove the 14 books known as the Apocrypha from the Bible began immediately after the King James translation was completed they remained in the Bible until the end of the 19th Century.  There is no doubt that the 14 books of the Apocrypha were controversial, but it cannot be denied they were included in the original King James Bible. There are 155,683 words and over 5,700 verses contained in 168 chapters now missing from the King James translation of the Bible due to the exclusion of the Apocrypha.  Although this only happened just over a hundred years ago, their existence as fully accepted scripture is virtually unknown. One person claimed that “The books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the Canon of Scripture; and therefore are of no authority in the Church of God, nor to be any otherwise approved, or made use of, than other human writings.” (Westminster Confession, 1647).  In 1880 the American Bible Society voted remove the “Apocrypha” Books from the King James Version. These 14 Books of  the Apocrypha had been part of the King’s bible since 1611.  The “Apocrypha” was officially removed from the English printings of the KJV by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1885 leaving only 66 books.

Should people who are Christians be concerned that these books should be part of the bible? Or should these books be left out, like they have been? I’m not sure how important the missing books are to the Bible and word of God, but if it is the word of God and influenced by God then why isn’t it in most bibles that are now distributed today? Should this be disturbing to me as a Christian? Isn’t the last couple of lines in Revelation warning us against adding or taking away from the Bible, the word of God. “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from teh words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” Or, does that just mean taking away or adding to the book of revelation? Anyways, shouldn’t we be able to read these books even though they may have been thought of as not entirely genuine or from God’s word but from the people of the time?

If you’d like to find a bible that has the apocrypha in it still search for these bibles:
The Bible: Authorized King James Version with Apocrypha: Published by Oxford University Press; ISBN: 0192835254
KJV Standard Reference Edition With Apocrypha: Published by Cambridge Univ Pr (Bibles); ISBN: 0521509467
1611 Edition: a reprint of the 1611 KJV With Apocrypha, Published by Nelson Bible; ISBN: 0840700415
The Dake Annotated Reference Bible, Standard Edition: King James Version With Apocrypha, Published by Dake Publishing ISBN: 1558290699

Or to read the books online go to: www.notinthebible.com

The seven deadly sins are those transgressions which are fatal to spiritual progress. You probably commit some of them every day without thinking about the rich tradition of eternal damnation in which you’re participating. The seven deadly sins are the ones that will end up hurting you and maybe even contributing to your death. Here’s a list of the seven deadly sins:

1. Pride: Excessive belief in one’s abilities that interferes with the individuals recognition of the grace of God. It has been called the sin from which all other arise. Pride is also known as vanity.
2. Envy: The desire for others’ traits, status, abilities or situation.
3. Gluttony: An inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires. Wow, look around and this is everywhere, we seem to be an all consuming society.
4. Lust: An inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body.
5. Anger: Manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts instead for fury. It is also known as wrath.
6. Greed: The desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual. It is also called avarice or covetousness. Wow again, look around and see this all over society.
7. Sloth: The avoidance of physical or spiritual work.

Everywhere you look there is sin on Earth and in the heart of people. We can be better than this though, with effort and a pure heart we can choose to not sin against ourselves, against others and against God.
 
Your torture in Hell for whichever sin you participated in the most, along with the animal and color according to “The Picture Book of Devils, Demons and Witchcraft”:

Sin  Punishment in Hell    Animal   Color
Pride  broken on the wheel    Horse   Violet
Envy  put in freezing water     Dog   Green
Anger  dismembered alive    Bear   Red
Sloth  thrown in snake pits    Goat  Light Blue
Greed  put in cauldrons of boiling oil    Frog   Yellow
Gluttony  forced to eat rats, toads, and snakes  Pig   Orange
Lust  smothered in fire and brimstone  Cow   Blue

The 10 commandments come from Exodus 20:1-17. Here is the verse:And God spoke all these words, saying: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the

land of
Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”

1. You shall have no other gods before me.
    
2. You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
    
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
    
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
    
5. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
    
6. You shall not murder.
    
7. You shall not commit adultery.
    
8. You shall not steal.
    
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
    
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

The above commandments need no explanation. They mean exactly what they are saying. It’s quite amazing how many of these commandments are being broken on a regular basis, even by Christians themselves. If you look very closely at each of these commandments, they really do cover a broad spectrum as to what God is expecting from each one of us.They are good, basic laws that will help keep us right before God, and also help keep us out of trouble with ourselves, our families, our friends and our neighbors. God knows what is best for all of us and He simply wants all of us to stay out of trouble in order that we may be able to live in peace and harmony with Him and one another.The fact that God would go so far as to have these 10 basic commandments manifested on a stone tablet really tells me that they are very important, and that each Christian should know what they are and do their best to abide by them. Feel free to pass this list of the 10 commandments onto your friends and family.

Taken from: http://www.bible-knowledge.com/10-Commandments.html

There are so many reasons to believe in the existence of God. I am currently reading a book by Francis Collins with the title: The Language of God. In it, Francis, a DNA scientist and Head of the Genome Project, talks about the evidence for belief in God. He cites many good reasons that you have to believe in God and to know that there is a way for science and religion to mix together and stop fighting about who claims to be ultimately right. Here are some reasons to believe in God: 

A “moral law” is something we all feel and is a universal feature of human existence. We all feel a tugging obligation of right and wrong in our heart and wish to do right, even though we do not sometimes. 

The idea of God is not just wish fulfillment. We all feel a desire in which we cannot satisfy. People or creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. We have a deep seeded inkling in our spirit that drives us to want more, something pointing us to something beyond us.  

People question why a loving God would allow suffering in the world, but God has given us free will to do as we please and much of the harm that is done to us is done by each other. We created guns and bombs. We create much of the suffering in the world.  

The universe, our DNA, everything in the world and the world itself suggest an intelligent design and intelligent designer who is aware of our existence and involved with us. Look at the complexity of nature, the complexity of the human being, the complexity of the universe. This all suggests a God that created everything and exists outside of the constraints of time.  

“The Big Bang Theory cries out for a divine explanation. It forces the conclusion that nature had a defined beginning. I cannot see how nature could have created itself. Only a supernatural force that is outside of space and time could have done that.” – Francis Collins 

“Now we see how the astronomical evidence leads to a biblical view of the origin of the world. The details differ, but the essential elements and the astronomical and biblical accounts of Genesis are the same; the chain of events leading to a man commenced suddenly and sharply at a definite moment in time, in a flash of light and energy.” – Astrophysicist Robert Jastrow 

There are, of course, many more reasons to believe in the existence of God and there is much more evidence to support the belief in God. I would highly recommend reading the book “The Language of God”. It is very insightful and will open up an atheist’s eyes to the possibility, as well as confirm what a believer already knows. If you have any doubts whatsoever, and even believers doubt sometimes, you should definitely check this book out. It offers lots of good information. 

6 Reasons to Believe That God is Really There 

http://www.everystudent.com/features/isthere.html 

The Language of God 

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?r=1&ISBN=9780743286398&ourl=The%2DLanguage%2Dof%2DGod%2FFrancis%2DS%2DCollins 

To read an excerpt from the book “The Language of God” 

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=2192678&page=1

C.S. Lewis : “Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exist.”

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” – C.S. Lewis

“Life is suffering.” – Buddha

To be a Christian means accepting Jesus Christ as your lord and savior and following him and the world of God. The reality that constitutes becoming a Christian is the presence of the Spirit of Christ in the spirit of an individual who receives Him by faith. “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him” (
Rom. 8:9), which means he is not a Christian. If you do not have the Spirit of Christ, you are not a Christian.  

This indwelling of the Spirit of Christ in the spirit of an individual is the life and presence of the Person and Being of the risen Lord Jesus. Paul encouraged the Corinthians to evaluate whether they were really Christians, by asking, “Do you recognize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you?” (II Cor. 13:5). The spiritual mystery of the gospel is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27); the basis on which Paul declares, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me…” (Gal. 2:20). 

Becoming a Christian is personal by coming to God in faith. Faith is not believing the accuracy of certain data about Jesus Christ, nor is it having an existential experience of ecstasy. Rather, faith is a willful choice of receptivity to the activity of Jesus Christ, willing to receive the redemptive efficacy of Christ’s death on our behalf, and willing to receive Christ’s life into our spirit. “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born…of God” (John 1:12,13). “Having believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise” (Eph. 1:13). 

What does it mean, then, to be a Christian? Christianity is Christ! A Christian is one in whom Jesus Christ lives by His Spirit, and one who allows the life and character of Jesus Christ to be lived out through his behavior, in order to function as intended to the glory of God (cf. Isa. 43:7). This is how God wishes us to live, through him, to bring happiness and glory to him. God wants us to be happy and he wants to work in our lives, if only we would allow him to.