"Yes, Jesus Claimed To Be God"

Taken from an article from the OnTheBox blog, written by Mark Spence.

One of the many "cut and paste" objections unbelievers levy against God and His Word is this: "Jesus never claimed to be God."

Truth: The Bible does not record Jesus saying these words in a single sentence: "I am God."

Truth: Jesus repeatedly asserted He was and is God, and that is why the Jewish religious leaders sought to murder Him (Mark 14:60-64; Luke 22:66-71; John 8:48-59; John 9:35-41;John 10:30-33).

The Bible is replete with the words of Jesus and the words about Jesus, which clearly show (to those who are not spiritually blind), that God the Father and Jesus (God the Son) are one in essence and character while, at the same time unique in their personage. God the Father and God the Son, along with God the Holy Spirit, comprise the Trinity of God. God is one God in three Persons.

What follows was compiled by Mark Spence and published as part of Lesson 49 of The School of Biblical Evangelism. Feel free to copy and paste this into a Word document and size it to fit inside your Bible. The next time someone foolishly challenges the deity of Jesus, you will be all-the-more equipped to give the reason for the hope that is in you.

Read the Rest HERE and find a list of verses where Jesus claims to be God.

God Bless!!

Adventures In Apologetics: What Does It Mean To "Honor Your Parents"?

"Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you." ~Exodus 20:12

As a Christian, I understand that the Ten Commandments are a mirror meant to show our desperate sinfulness and need for a Savior, and as a teenager, I understand the the meaning of everyone of them....except this one!?

What exactly does it mean to "honor" our parents, and what do Jesus mean when He says that we must "hate our parents" to follow Him?

Well, the think the answer too all question of Scripture questions should start in Scripture itself.  What does the Word really say?

Darwin's Heretic: Did the Co-Founder of Evolution Embrace Intelligent Design?

This is an interesting video. Did the co-founder of the theory evolution not actually believe it?

Watch for yourself and found out.

"The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." ~Romans 1:18-20 

God Has Already Done The Work!

I received this anonymous questions:

"Hello, I have a question: I love God but I feel as if I'm not living up to His expectations and that I'm not praising him enough. I pray to Him every day and night, and in my prayers I always praise Him. What else can I do to show God that I love him?"

Well, let me say, praying and praising God is great and will keep a soul on fire for the Lord.

I want to begin with a few points, then answer your question with Scripture.

1) God's expectations are too high for us too reach.

The fact is, we are commanded to "be perfect as our Father is Holy" (Matthew 5:48)

But the Bible also says that we can not do it without God helping us. (2 Peter 1:3)

"For He has made perfect forever, those who are being made holy" Hebrews 10:14

2) God can never be praised enough. He is worthy of praise and worthy to be praised.

We don't have to look any further then the Gospel too tell us that.

God came into the world, lived a sinless life, suffered and died on a Cross to save us from our own sinfulness, give us new life, give us His Spirit and redeem us as His children. Then He rose again on the three days later to just prove Himself as God.

Once we repent and trust in Christ, He grants us new, eternal life.

I say this because the Gospel should be the foundation of our worship and prayer towards God.

I was actually just read this from Titus 2 in my time in the Word this morning:

"For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good."~Titus 2:11-14

But, the best advice I can give you is too stay in His Word, pray continually, stay in fellowship of a local Biblical Church, and share your faith with others.

Last thing that I would like to encourage you with comes out of the book of 2 Peter.

"His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge;6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins." ~2 Peter 1:3-9

Pray this encourages you!

Keep doing what you're doing and walk with the Lord! God Bless!

Happy Valentines Day!

Image from:
http://www.fernerb.com/images/GodsValentinePicture_HeartWithJohn3-16.jpg

 Check out this post from one year ago today about Valentines Day!

It feels so long ago and I've grown so much since I wrote it...

If someone were to ask me, “What was one word to sum up the last couple weeks of my life?” I would emphasize one word; SNOW! Yes, snow, we’ve been spending the last several weeks of school on edge as to whether or not they will close and today, we were sent out in the freshly dusted world an hour early.

With all this going it’s hard to remember the scariest day of the year for guys everywhere…Valentine’s Day. “Oh, what am I going to get her?” “Please, don’t say anything stupid.” “Aw, she’ll love me even if I don’t get her anything.” Guys don’t forget love is shown through works! Our love can only be shown through what we do and how we live our lives. This is similar with God and how our relationship stands with Him.......

Life is Short: Whitney Houston, Dead at 48

Today we received the news that music legend, Whitney Houston, died today at the young age of 48.

Her music has a major impact on culture, and though beginning in the Gospel music genre, moved later to pop music.

She had many troubles in her life with drugs, but was looking to a comeback around her death.

My prayers are with the family.

There is one thing we can ALL learn from this and that is that life is too futile. We could all die anytime.

None of us can directly speak too where Whitney is now, but the question remains, where will you go when you die?

When all men die, we must stand before a Holy, Perfect God.

If we've ever told a lie, no matter how small, it makes us liars. God also looks to the heart of man and sees the motives behind what we do. Jesus hatred is the same as murder and lust is the same as adultery. (Just take a look in Matthew 5)

If we die in our sins, God, being a Holy Judge, must punish sin in a terrible place called Hell.

But, God made a way for us too be saved. He sent Himself in the form of Jesus Christ to suffer and die on the Cross for our sins. Jesus paid our fine before God, so that we can go free. All we must do is repent and Trust in Christ for salvation.

You never know when you are going to die. Repent and Trust in Christ today.

 "For God so loved the world, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." ~John 3:16

 "In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
~Acts 17:30-31

Happy 180 Day!

This is an annual day (the second Wednesday of each month) to share the award winning documentary "180 Movie"

This movie is changing the heart of the nation, and even the whole world, with a powerful pro-life message.

Are you pro-choice?  Check out what is changing the hearts of millions to pro-life, and on many other issues, with just one question.

What one question changed these peoples minds about abortion?

If you haven't please take out 33 minutes to watch this video!  "33 minutes that will rock your world!"

God Bless!

Fantastic Evangelism Tool!

These are the surveys, created through the ministry of H.L. Hussmann, we've used in the past, including this past weekend at a door-to-door evangelism outing.

Pray for the conversations they have started and will start!

If you'd like to use these surveys find out more info about them HERE.
You can get these surveys to print off HERE.

Check out my testimony to the surveys in a mall "contact evangelism" outing but clicking on the word "Survey" above.

To God to be the Glory!

"Go and preach the Gospel to all creation" ~Mark 16:15

"Why I Love Jesus, But Reject Islam"

Awesome video!! I invite everyone to check out this video.  And share it with friends!

I post the video to point any of the readers to the Truth.  The Truth as too who Jesus is and was, and that is God and Savior of the World.  And if you repent and Trust in Him He will take away your sins the way no "good works" can, saving you from eternal condemnation in Hell and give you eternal life with God.

Please, watch this video and consider what it says.

"But he continued, 'You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.'" ~John 8:23-24

Much love, God Bless!

Christmas Killed Religion

Christmas Killed Religion from Matt Shown on Vimeo.


This was a message I preached back in November of 2011, at Yellow Creek Baptist Church as a part of the "Christmas in April" youth event.

Check out the Worship band Days Of April: facebook.com/pages/Days-Of-April/164163037001968

One thing I learned from this was to PUT THE STAND IN FRONT OF ME NEXT TIME!! haha. Still learning I guess.

To God be the Glory!!

John Piper on Evangelism

Image from HERE.

"Millions of Christians live with a low-grade feeling of guilt for not openly commending Christ by their words. They try to persuade themselves that keeping their noses morally clean is a witness to Christ. The problem with this notion is that millions of unbelievers keep their noses morally clean. Christians will—and should—continue to feel bad for not sharing their faith. Christ is the most glorious person in the world. His salvation is infinitely valuable. Everyone in the world needs it. Horrific consequences await those who do not believe on Jesus. By grace alone we have seen him, believed on him, and now love him. Therefore, not to speak of Christ to unbelievers, and not to care about our city or the unreached peoples of the world is so contradictory to Christ’s worth, people’s plight, and our joy that it sends the quiet message to our souls day after day, this Savior and this salvation do not mean to you what you say they do. To maintain great joy in Christ in the face of that persistent message is impossible."

 ~John Piper "When I Don't Desire God" pg 227-228