Bible Challenge 2009 - Week 17

Knights and Ladies,

Jesus replied, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning.
Matthew 19:8

Marriage is an important issue today. Can men marry men, women marry women, can there be multiple marriage partners (of whatever type), can we have unlimited divorces, etc. . .

Jesus goes back to the standard, back to the creation before sin, and defines marriage, then explains that because of sin, the hardness of our hearts, Moses allowed for civil divorce.

Divorce and other cultural forms of marriage may be (or become) legally acceptable, but they are not morally acceptable. God’s standard, His original design for marriage still applies!

If you’ve violated God’s standard for marriage, as I have in the past, then let’s throw ourselves on God’s mercy and grace and strive to live for him and train the next generation to not make the same mistakes that we have!

So, what is marriage? "Haven't you read," [Jesus] replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." (Matthew 19:4-6)

Sunday, August 2, 2009 - Matthew 23
Monday - Matthew 24
Tuesday - Matthew 25
Wednesday - Matthew 26
Thursday - Matthew 27
Friday - Matthew 28
Saturday - Mark 1

“Jesus replied by asking whether they had not read the account of the creation, and the first example of marriage; thus pointing out that every departure therefrom was wrong. That condition is best for us, and to be chosen and kept to accordingly, which is best for our souls, and tends most to prepare us for, and preserve us to, the kingdom of heaven. . . And we learn that the married state should be entered upon with great seriousness and earnest prayer.”
(Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Bible)

“All the traditional disciplines, like setting aside time for prayer and fasting, keeping periods of silence, or denying ourselves certain legitimate creature comforts — these disciplines all have the same character: they are not ends in themselves, but a means of replacing faulty desires with the desire for God.

Retraining ourselves to do what is right is just like physical exercise, and we have to work at it. Paul tells us that physical exercise is good, but spiritual exercise is far more important. Sin comes naturally; holiness doesn't. It requires the constant supervision of the Holy Spirit and constant prayer, study of the Word, and discipline of the individual Christian. But soon we find we can't live without it. We hunger more for virtue than for vice.”
(“The Faith: What Christians Believe, Why They Believe It, and Why It Matters”
by Charles W. Colson and Harold Fickett )

Accept the challenge, take the quest!

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
(2 Timothy 3:16-17)


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Bible Challenge 2009 - Week 16

Knights and Ladies,

"But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken."
Matthew 12:36

Ouch! A painful reminder for me!

Thank God for our Savior! It is by God’s grace that my sins will be forgiven, and it is only through His great work of transforming my heart that I can even acknowledge that often what comes out of my mouth is careless and worthy of God’s holy and righteous judgment. I am, however, merely a work in progress.

Keep working in me and transforming me, my God! May my words be pleasing to you.

Sunday, July 26, 2009 - Matthew 16
Monday - Matthew 17
Tuesday - Matthew 18
Wednesday - Matthew 19
Thursday - Matthew 20
Friday - Matthew 21
Saturday - Matthew 22

“The heart is the fountain, words are the streams. A troubled fountain, and a corrupt spring, must send forth muddy and unpleasant streams. Nothing but the salt of grace, cast into the spring, will heal the waters, season the speech, and purify the corrupt communication. An evil man has an evil treasure in his heart, and out of it brings forth evil things. Lusts and corruptions, dwelling and reigning in the heart, are an evil treasure, out of which the sinner brings forth bad words and actions, to dishonour God, and hurt others. Let us keep constant watch over ourselves, that we may speak words agreeable to the Christian character.”
(Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Bible)

“This is why the Apostle Peter calls on us to be always clear minded, self-controlled and alert, that is to say, emotionally stable, so that we can pray (1 Peter 4:7, 5:8). He talks of prayer as having the potential to keep us emotionally, psychologically and spiritually stable. This stability, which comes from real communication with God and faith in him, gives us the necessary poise to either avoid or overcome temptations. “
(“The War Within: Christians and Inner Conflicts” by A. C. Chukwuocha)

Accept the challenge, take the quest!

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
(2 Timothy 3:16-17)


{ The War Within: Christians and Inner Conflicts (Hippo) }


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Cry Out America! A Call to Action!

America is in a Spiritual Crisis - - Your Participation Can Make a Difference!

62% of Christian children walk away from the faith!
61% of those that walked away regularly attended Sunday school!

The statistics are staggering! They are based on Barna research and research that Ken Ham and Britt Beemer did for their book “Already Gone: Why your kids will quit church and what you can do to stop it” (www.answersingenesis.org/events/state-of-the-nation).

The first commandment is for families to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:28), and the greatest commandment, quoted by Jesus, is to love the Lord our God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength, and how, by keeping God’s commandments upon our hearts and impressing them upon our children! (Deuteronomy 6:5-7, Matthew 22:36-40)

Without a doubt, America is in a Spiritual Crisis! And based on the statistics above, we have been falling short of our duties. Therefore, the Church in America is in great need of repentance and awakening! We must once again declare our complete dependence on Jesus Christ and humbly submit to our duty as disciples and disciple makers, particularly in our homes.

This is the overarching theme for the second year of the Peoria County Cry Out America. We will also be incorporating an outreach component to share the gospel with people around the Peoria county court house.

When: September 11, 2009, Noon to 1pm
Where: The Peoria County Courthouse Plaza
Cost: Free
Contact: Mick Dobra C: 309-231-4542 { Contact Me Form }
Updates: { Peoria Co. Cry Out America! }

Rain Plans!
To Be Determined

Can you please help with the expenses of the event and outreach? If you feel moved to do so, please make checks payable to Richwoods Christian Church and make a note that it is for Cry Out America c/o Mick Dobra (mail to address below). We will need approximately $400 to offset expenses, the largest of which are printing, sound system, and outreach materials. Any donations above and beyond our expenses will be donated to VOM (The Voice of the Martyrs www.persecution.com) to aid our brothers and sisters living for Christ in nations without religious freedom.

Mail checks to:
Mick Dobra
Richwoods Christian Church
8115 N Knoxville Ave
Peoria IL 61615

Thank you and I pray in Jesus Christ’s name that God would be glorified, the faithful strengthened, and the lost saved!




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“cleansing” Somalia of all Christians

Convert from Islam Shot Dead in Somalia

Intent on “cleansing” Somalia of all Christians, Al Shabaab Islamist rebels shot Mohammed Sheikh Abdiraman to death. Abdiraman was the leader of an underground “cell group” of Christians in Somalia.
Full article: Convert from Islam Shot Dead in Somalia

My brother, Abdiraman, was a cell group or small group leader like me. God bless him.

Consider adopting a terrorist for prayer!

“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”
Matthew 5:44

Visit atfp.aatfp.org to adopt a terrorist for prayer!


Daughters of Hope: Stories of Witness and Courage in the Face of Persecution


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For my son: "Faith, Family, Others" the official site of Albert Pujols

My son has a new "ding bat!" That's what he calls aluminium bats after hearing them at his older cousins baseball game. He's three and a half, and he nearly took my head off with a line drive, and it wasn't even off the tee, but from a pitch!

One of our favourite players is Albert Pujols, because he puts his faith and family first!

This is what I want my son to learn:

1. Too many people make their love of a sport or team an idol before God!

2. Too many professional and college athletes are terrible role models and we should not pay tribute to those who's character does not deserve it no matter how good they are at the game.

3. That we should respect and admire players for their character no matter what team they are on!

4. We are Christ followers first, and all else second.

I praise God for role models and witnesses like Albert Pujols, and I pray my son will learn these lessons well.

"In the Pujols family, God is first. Everything else is a distant second. . ." www.pujolsfamilyfoundation.org



Heart of an Athlete


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Bible Challenge 2009 - Week 15

Knights and Ladies,

"The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock."
Matthew 7:24

The rain will fall, the streams will rise, and the winds will blow. We will be tested, is your foundation built on the rock?

It is becoming increasingly unpopular to be a Christian in America today. Some even claim that teaching children the bible is child abuse. Are you prepared for the storm?

All true Christians know the truth, they have seen and felt the life transforming power of Jesus Christ, it can’t be denied! But be ready to give an answer for the hope that is within you, be ready to defend your faith and weather the storm!

“Some build their hopes upon worldly prosperity; others upon an outward profession of religion. Upon these they venture; but they are all sand, too weak to bear such a fabric as our hopes of heaven. . . May the Lord make us wise builders for eternity. Then nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ Jesus.”
(Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Bible)

Sunday, July 19, 2009 - Matthew 9
Monday - Matthew 10
Tuesday - Matthew 11
Wednesday - Matthew 12
Thursday - Matthew 13
Friday - Matthew 14
Saturday - Matthew 15

"You are a king, then!" said Pilate. Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." (John 18:37)

“The John Rylands papyrus is the oldest copy yet discovered of any portion of the New Testament, dating back to the first half of the second century A.D. A tiny fragment of a codex of the Gospel of John, it contains parts of John 18:31-33 on one side and verses 37-38 on the other. Despite its tiny size, this papyrus fragment is highly significant. It testifies that by the first half of the second century the Gospel of John was already being read in Egypt, far from Ephesus in Asia Minor, the most likely place of its composition. It seems unlikely that John's Gospel could have been composed much later than the end of the first century, since it would have taken time for it to have been accepted and disseminated so far from its place of origin. The manuscript of which the John Rylands papyrus is a fragment may have been copied within 25 to 30 years of the composition of the Gospel itself.”
(Archaeological Study Bible: An Illustrated Walk Through Biblical History and Culture)

Accept the challenge, take the quest!

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
(2 Timothy 3:16-17)


Archaeological Study Bible: An Illustrated Walk Through Biblical History and Culture


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Bible Challenge 2009 - Week 14

Knights and Ladies,

"A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham:"
Matthew 1:1

Genealogy is the study or record of family decent. I have been amazed in my bible studies of late at the central importance of families.

From the very first family commanded to be fruitful and multiply (Adam and Eve, Genesis 1:28), to the one righteous family that God used to start over (Noah, Genesis 9:1), to the father of God’s chosen people (Abraham, Genesis 18:18-19), to the Savior of the world born of the Holy Spirit and a humble virgin and raised by a carpenter (Jesus, Matthew 1), and to your family today!

The reason God hates divorce so much is because families are His primary discipleship group, church, or small group if you will. Families are a primary part of His plan for evangelizing the world! (Malachi 2:13-16, Malachi 4:4-6, Luke 1:16-17)

Our primary duty to our Savior God is to love Him with all of our heart, mind, and strength; to keep his commands in our hearts, and to pass them on to our children! (Deuteronomy 6:5-7 quoted by Jesus in Matthew 22:36-40)

Sunday, July 12, 2009 - Matthew 2
Monday - Matthew 3
Tuesday - Matthew 4
Wednesday - Matthew 5
Thursday - Matthew 6
Friday - Matthew 7
Saturday - Matthew 8

“Here are means for maintaining and keeping up religion in our hearts and houses. 1. Meditation. God's words must be laid up in our hearts, that our thoughts may be daily employed about them. 2. The religious education of children. Often repeat these things to them. Be careful and exact in teaching thy children. Teach these truths to all who are any way under thy care. 3. Pious discourse. Thou shalt talk of these things with due reverence and seriousness, for the benefit not only of thy children, but of thy servants, thy friends and companions. Take all occasions to discourse with those about thee, not of matters of doubtful disputation, but of the plain truths and laws of God, and the things that belong to our peace. 4. Frequent reading of the word.”
(Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Bible, emphasis mine)

“It is always best to drink at the well and not from the tank. You shall find that reading the Word of God for yourselves, reading it rather than notes upon it, is the surest way of growing in grace. Drink of the unadulterated milk of the Word of God, and not of the skim milk, or the milk and water of man's word." ("How to Read the Bible" a sermon by C. H. Spurgeon)

Accept the challenge, take the quest!

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
(2 Timothy 3:16-17)


The Natural Family: Bulwark of Liberty

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Bible Challenge 2009 - Week 13

Knights and Ladies,

"As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day."
John 12:47-48

Who is Jesus? Who did He claim to be?

Jesus didn’t come to judge while here on earth, but to proclaim the kingdom of heaven, to save us and show us the way of salvation. He is the only begotten Son of God, the Savior that took the punishment for our sin. Believe it and have eternal life, do not believe it and His very testimony, His words, will be our judge.

Jesus I believe!

“Beholding in Jesus the glory of the Father, we learn to obey, love, and trust in him. By daily looking to Him, who came a Light into the world, we are more and more freed from the darkness of ignorance, error, sin, and misery; we learn that the command of God our Saviour is everlasting life. But the same word will seal the condemnation of all who despise it, or neglect it.”
(Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Bible)

Sunday, July 5, 2009 - John 17
Monday - John 18
Tuesday - John 19
Wednesday - John 20
Thursday - John 21
Friday - Acts 1
Saturday - Matthew 1

“During the first centuries of Christianity, the church was battered within and without. Pseudo-Christians distorted the faith and misled the faithful, while the powerful Roman Empire persecuted Christians with torture and death. The persecutions ended when, by God's mercy, the Roman Emperor Constantine had a miraculous conversion in 312 AD. However, a new distortion of the faith was about to arise. A priest named Arius proposed that, if Christ is the Son of the Father, he can't be the same age as the Father. Christ must have been created by God, at some point before the universe was made.

That theory may sound familiar to you; throughout the centuries, there have been many who find it more appealing to see Jesus as an exalted man than to recognize him as fully God. The teachings of Arius provoked great controversy, and Emperor Constantine summoned church leaders from around the known world to come to Nicaea, a suburb of Constantinople, to settle the matter (not to reconfigure the canon and burn the banished books, as many have claimed). The Council of Nicaea rejected Arianism and affirmed that Jesus is truly God — ‘begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father.’”
(“A Faith and Culture Devotional: Daily Readings on Art, Science, and Life” by Kelly Monroe Kullberg and Lael Arrington)

Accept the challenge, take the quest!

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
(2 Timothy 3:16-17)


A Faith and Culture Devotional: Daily Readings on Art, Science, and Life

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July 4 Family Devotional

This is a short devotional I wrote to share with the kids.

Independence Day – July 4th

The American colonies were once ruled by a bad King, much like God warned Samuel about when we trust in and depend on earthly kings instead of God:

“’This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons. . . He will take your daughters. . . He will take the best [of everything you have]. . . and you yourselves will become his slaves.’”
- Paraphrase of 1 Samuel 8:7, 11-18

Thankfully, the leaders of the 13 American colonies decided to declare independence from the rule of the bad King and rule themselves. In the Declaration of Independence, they declared:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
- The Declaration of Independence

These truths of our Creator God are self-evident, as the Apostle Paul says, “since what may be known about God [the Creator] 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 men are without excuse.”
- Romans 1:19-20

The founding fathers also declared the role and limited power of government:

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it,
- The Declaration of Independence

By God’s Providence and the leadership of General George Washington America became a free and independent nation!

George Washington said, “It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the Providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor.”
- George Washington, October 3, 1789

Acknowledge and Praise God and then may God bless America!


George Washington's Sacred Fire

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