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Posted by David Carroll
My daughter Bethany asked me the other day why the Apocrypha is not included in our Bibles (meaning our protestant Bibles since of course it is included in the Catholic Bible). My answer was not very deep but I told her that these books were written during the inter-testamental period in the 400 years of silence. The silence refers to a period of time when God was not speaking to prophets. The other part of my answer to her was that none of the apocryphal books were quoted as scripture in the New Testament. At that point I had exhausted
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Posted by David Carroll
Wednesday, I was set free. Doc says I can go without the neck brace. Freedom is a wonderful thing but scary too I found out. I still walk around like I had the brace on and I am scared to turn my head too much. It’s weird, almost like I want to put it back on for comfort. Delaine tells me I snored last night too and I have not been snoring. I knew immediately what it was, my chin was being held up keeping my jaw from dropping which kept my mouth shut and kept me breathing through my
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Posted by David Carroll
In the previous post, I talked about the requirement of salvation which cannot be earned or purchased. That requirement is faith. Faith includes and is evidenced by all sorts of things like obedience, childlike trust, and most of all desire to be delighted in Jesus Christ. But how does that faith come? First of all it is a gift from God but it comes through the mind by hearing the word of God preached. Someone must tell you the good news of the gospel of the Kingdom which is Jesus Christ who is the King. When you understand and receive that
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Posted by David Carroll
You cannot earn salvation from God. Why? Because He has already purchased it through the death of Jesus Christ, God the Son. God offers salvation freely to those who come and and receive it. But you cannot have it if you will not come. Why does God not offer salvation for some sort of special offering or force us to earn it in some way. It is because God will not share his Glory with anyone. To earn or work is to be owed a debt or a wage. God has already fully paid the price. But still there is
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Posted by David Carroll
Listening to some old sermons that I had never heard before, I just finished my longest and heaviest workout since, well, maybe since this past summer. I got my heart rate up to 140 sustained for about 10 minutes but walked for a total 30 minutes. Ten of those minutes were outside but Toby and I had to turn around because it was too cold and windy to stay (for me anyway), so I finished my walk on the treadmill.That’s an older shot of Toby racing the cars on Walnut Grove road at Shelby Farms when we used to go
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Posted by David Carroll
I felt pretty good this afternoon so I was ready for a bit of walking. It was too cold outside so I went upstairs to do the treadmill. I have nice Nautilus weight machine sitting there which has gone unused since before my lumbar fusion surgery in May of last year. I’ve told you all about my continuing pain in my neck and shoulders. So on the way past the weight machine toward the treadmill I get the bright idea to do some inclined presses to give those hurting shoulders a bit of a workout. Normally I’d put about 60 lbs on
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Posted by David Carroll
Believe it or not, today was the first day I have been back at a worship service since my surgery. Things went great for a while then we all stood to sing a number of wonderful hymns in a very worshipful attitude. I was singing my heart out. (Delaine my wife, wants me to “blend” a bit more”) But I was really getting into it. Then I started noticing that my diaphragm was hurting and I was running out of breath. Finally a bit of dizziness started to develop and before I knew it, I had to sit down. I got
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Posted by David Carroll
I have been memorizing scripture for more than twelve years now on a regular basis. Most of the time it has been part of a small group accountability effort. I cannot overestimate the value of memorizing scripture for the impact it will have on your walk with God. It affects so many areas of the Christian life to have a verse ready for any situation, witnessing, counseling, meditation, encouragement and fighting sin.I wrote a Pocket PC application to help me organize and practice the memorization process a number of years ago. And of course it still works like a charm.
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Posted by David Carroll
An exciting thing that came out of one of my meetings this week is that I was asked to teach the Creation Science Course again but to a Spanish audience and have the whole series video-taped to use for training pastors in Central and South America. Actually the video would become part of a whole series of pastor training material of which there are already 96 hours completed. I know just the right man to translate for me as well. He is Dr. David Harms, a medical doctor who gave up his medical practice to become a missionary to the Honduras people
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Posted by David Carroll
I feel like I have gotten a lot done this week. I had another great class Wednesday Night and folks came up afterwards and asked some great questions. The last two days, I have had some long meetings with various people and my stamina continues to improve. One thing I just realized today is not only have I not had any low-back pain since my surgery but I have not noticed any arthritis pain in my left hip which was almost as painful as the sciatica pain I was having. In fact I was even considering a hip replacement. Now I still
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Posted by David Carroll
I was listening to another Piper Sermon this morning and I knew I needed write this down and study it and make it part of my own understanding to share with others. I listen to Piper sermons devotionally because his words draw me to Christ in a tearful, making me love so much more, and that is such a good thing. But there is more to the motivation for writing these particular notes. Piper is a Calvinist and I am maybe a three point Calvinist. So in the intramural debate between Christians on this subject we would be on opposite
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Posted by David Carroll
I am a pretty good person. I treat other people decently. I don't steal, kill, lie much, or swear much, and I give to my church and other charities. I live a pretty easy life too. I’ve got happiness in my nice wide-screen entertainment center complete with game console and I just want peaceful evenings to spend there. I want my job which is not too stressful and pays me pretty well. I want a nice long vacation. I want a secure retirement. And I want some cancer-free years in my den. Then I’ll have joy.But what have I left out of that nice description
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