Addiction

http://www.intouch.org/Resources/GodsPromises/Content.aspx?topic=2095

Nate Pfeil - The Fire

This is one of the most convicting and amazing videos I've ever seen! It has left me speechless, and ashamed, for I am the very person he is talking about who calls himself "Christian" yet bear no fruit! Lord, have mercy on me any any out there that see this video and feel the same!

Good?

Why do we attribute the word "good" to everything in life that we like? He/She is a "good" person... that was a "good" movie... that's a "good" song... etc etc...

Here are the definitions of the word "good"... 
Dictionary.com... good[good]

 Show IPA adjective, bet·ter, best, noun, interjection, adverb
adjective
1.
MORALLY excellent; virtuous; righteous; pious: a good man.

Merriam-Webster
a : something that is good
b (1) : something conforming to the MORAL order of the universe (2) : praiseworthy character : goodness

Google
good/go͝od/
Noun:
That which is MORALLY right; righteousness.

"Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone." -Luke 18:19 (NASB)

If Jesus is God, why would He say this...? Because the Son is subservient to the Father and does His will through the Holy Spirit. He (Jesus) does nothing on His own but is given authority over all things by His Father in Heaven through the Holy Spirit. So Jesus is correct when He challenges the rich young ruler when He asks “Why do you call Me good?"

The Red Lizard of Lust

Although I do not agree with some of Lewis' theology at the end of the story, it is still a wonderful tale of overcoming lust, and sin in general by "dying" to self and submitting to Christ.

The Red Lizard of Lust

C.S. Lewis

 From The Great Divorce

Editor’s note: C.S. Lewis wrote The Great Divorce to demonstrate the differences between Hell and Heaven. The people in this story travel to the bright borders of Heaven, and as such, appear as ghosts as they near it. This excerpt metaphorically and poignantly shows how challenging it can be for some people to let go of lust, but it also shows how we are strengthened and advanced once we muster the courage to finally do so.

  

I saw coming towards us a Ghost who carried something on his shoulder. Like all the Ghosts, he was unsubstantial, but they differed from one another as smokes differ. Some had been whitish; this one was dark and oily. What sat on his shoulder was a little red lizard, and it was twitching its tail like a whip and whispering things in his ear. As we caught sight of him he turned his head to the reptile with a snarl of impatience. “Shut up, I tell you!” he said. It wagged its tail and continued to whisper to him. He ceased snarling, and presently began to smile. Then be turned and started to limp westward, away from the mountains.

“Off so soon?” said a voice.

The speaker was more or less human in shape but larger than a man, and so bright that I could hardly look at him. His presence smote on my eyes and on my body too (for there was heat coming from him as well as light) like the morning sun at the beginning of a tyrannous summer day.

“Yes. I’m off,” said the Ghost. “Thanks for all your hospitality. But it’s no good, you see. I told this little chap,” (here he indicated the lizard), “that he’d have to be quiet if he came -which he insisted on doing. Of course his stuff won’t do here: I realise that. But he won’t stop. I shall just have to go home.”

‘Would you like me to make him quiet?” said the flaming Spirit—an angel, as I now understood.

“Of course I would,” said the Ghost.

“Then I will kill him,” said the Angel, taking a step forward.

“Oh—ah—look out! You’re burning me. Keep away,” said the Ghost, retreating.

“Don’t you want him killed?”

“You didn’t say anything about killing him at first. I hardly meant to bother you with anything so drastic as that.”

“It’s the only way,” said the Angel, whose burning hands were now very close to the lizard. “Shall I kill it?”

“Well, that’s a further question. I’m quite open to consider it, but it’s a new point, isn’t it? I mean, for the moment I was only thinking about silencing it because up here—well, it’s so damned embarrassing.”

“May I kill it?”

“Well, there’s time to discuss that later.”

“There is no time. May I kill it?”

“Please, I never meant to be such a nuisance. Please—really—don’t bother. Look! It’s gone to sleep of its own accord. I’m sure it’ll be all right now. Thanks ever so much.”

“May I kill it?”

“Honestly, I don’t think there’s the slightest necessity for that. I’m sure I shall be able to keep it in order now. I think the gradual process would be far better than killing it.”

“The gradual process is of no use at all.”

“Don’t you think so? Well, I’ll think over what you’ve said very carefully. I honestly will. In fact I’d let you kill it now, but as a matter of fact I’m not feeling frightfully well today. It would be silly to do it now. I’d need to be in good health for the operation. Some other day, perhaps.”

“There is no other day. All days are present now.”

“Get back! You’re burning me. How can I tell you to kill it? You’d kill me if you did.”

“It is not so.”

“Why, you’re hurting me now.”

“I never said it wouldn’t hurt you. I said it wouldn’t kill you.”

“Oh, I know. You think I’m a coward. But it isn’t that. Really it isn’t. I say! Let me run back by tonight’s bus and get an opinion from my own doctor. I’ll come again the first moment I can.”

“This moment contains all moments.”

“Why are you torturing me? You are jeering at me. How can I let you tear me to pieces? If you wanted to help me, why didn’t you kill the damned thing without asking me—before I knew? It would be all over by now if you had.”

“I cannot kill it against your will. It is impossible. Have I your permission?”

The Angel’s hands were almost closed on the Lizard, but not quite. Then the Lizard began chattering to the Ghost so loud that even I could hear what it was saying.

“Be careful,” it said. “He can do what he says. He can kill me. One fatal word from you and he will! Then you’ll be without me for ever and ever. It’s not natural. How could you live? You’d be only a sort of ghost, not a real man as you are now. He doesn’t understand. He’s only a cold, bloodless abstract thing. It may be natural for him, but it isn’t for us. Yes, yes. I know there are no real pleasures now, only dreams. But aren’t they better than nothing? And I’ll be so good. I admit I’ve sometimes gone too far in the past, but I promise I won’t do it again. I’ll give you nothing but really nice dreams—all sweet and fresh and almost innocent. You might say, quite innocent …”

“Have I your permission?” said the Angel to the Ghost.

“I know it will kill me.”

“It won’t. But supposing it did?”

“You’re right. It would be better to be dead than to live with this creature.”

“Then I may?”

“Damn and blast you! Go on can’t you? Get it over. Do what you like,” bellowed the Ghost: but ended, whimpering, “God help me. God help me.”

Next moment the Ghost gave a scream of agony such as I never heard on Earth. The Burning One closed his crimson grip on the reptile: twisted it, while it bit and writhed, and then flung it, broken backed, on the turf.

“Ow! That’s done for me,” gasped the Ghost, reeling backwards.

For a moment I could make out nothing distinctly. Then I saw, between me and the nearest bush, unmistakably solid but growing every moment solider, the upper arm and the shoulder of a man. Then, brighter still and stronger, the legs and hands. The neck and golden head materialised while I watched, and if my attention had not wavered I should have seen the actual completing of a man—an immense man, naked, not much smaller than the Angel. What distracted me was the fact that at the same moment something seemed to be happening to the Lizard. At first I thought the operation had failed. So far from dying, the creature was still struggling and even growing bigger as it struggled. And as it grew it changed. Its hinder parts grew rounder. The tail, still flickering, became a tail of hair that flickered between huge and glossy buttocks. Suddenly I started back, rubbing my eyes. What stood before me was the greatest stallion I have ever seen, silvery white but with mane and tail of gold. It was smooth and shining, rippled with swells of flesh and muscle, whinneying and stamping with its hoofs. At each stamp the land shook and the trees dindled.

The new-made man turned and clapped the new horse’s neck. It nosed his bright body. Horse and master breathed each into the other’s nostrils. The man turned from it, flung himself at the feet of the Burning One, and embraced them. When he rose I thought his face shone with tears, but it may have been only the liquid love and brightness (one cannot distinguish them in that country) which flowed from him. I had not long to think about it. In joyous haste the young man leaped upon the horse’s back. Turning in his seat he waved a farewell, then nudged the stallion with his heels. They were off before I well knew what was happening. There was riding if you like! I came out as quickly as I could from among the bushes to follow them with my eyes; but already they were only like a shooting star far off on the green plain, and soon among the foothills of the mountains. Then, still like a star, I saw them winding up, scaling what seemed impossible steeps, and quicker every moment, till near the dim brow of the landscape, so high that I must strain my neck to see them, they vanished, bright themselves, into the rose-brightness of that everlasting morning…

“Do ye understand all this, my Son?” said my Teacher.

“I don’t know about all, Sir,” said I. “Am I right in thinking that the lizard really did turn into a Horse?”

“Aye. But it was killed first. Ye’ll not forget that part of the story?”

“I’ll try not to, Sir. But does it mean that everything—everything—that is in us can go to the Mountains?”

“Nothing, even the best and noblest, can go on as it now is. Nothing, not even what is lowest and most bestial, will not be raised again if it submits to death. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. Flesh and blood cannot come to the Mountains. Not because they are too rank, but because they are too weak. What is a Lizard compared to a stallion? Lust is a poor, weak, whimpering, whispering thing compared with that richness and energy of desire which will arise when lust has been killed.”

Excerpted from The Great Divorce (1946), New York: The Macmillan Company, pp. 98-106.

Home... FINALLY!

GOOD TIMES!!!! Much happier!!!

Do you call yourself "Christian"?

How do you think Jesus views Christianity today in view of all the different denominations and infighting and arguing we do concerning issues regarding doctrine and non essential garbage we fight about as so called "Christians"? Here's a couple of quotes from the Master Himself... "11 I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be 'ONE' even as We are." emphasis mine -John 17:11 (NASB) and... “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; 21 that they may all be 'ONE'; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me." emphasis mine -John 17:20-21 and again in the very same prayer... "22 The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be 'ONE', just as We are one; 23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me." again emphasis mine -John 17:22-23. Why would Jesus emphasize unity and oneness SO much in one prayer before His death if it were not significant?! Christians in persecuted nations such as Iran and North Korea or China do not fight about doctrine they LIVE Christianity! We ought to be ASHAMED and DISGUSTED with ourselves we are utterly sinful and have become the Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus' day, full of hypocrisy!!!! SHAME on us and God help us!