NCarolinian

  "Love Me Tender" by Elvis Presley. Performed on Twitch Sings platform by me and Joliet4. Enjoy.

The following is a video I want to share of the song "Hero" by Mariah Carey. This was done on the Twitch Sings platform where one person (usually on the left) records their half of the song and the other person comes to that person's presence on Twitch Sings and completes the other half (usually on the right). This is me and BatSam. Hope you enjoy.

In the movie "Shawshank Redemption" Red says to Andy - "Hope is a dangerous thing my friend, it can kill a man." Andy replies, "Hope is a good thing, maybe even the best of things. And good things never die." God gave the world Hope thousands of years before Christ arrived. Many Christians who study the Scripture know of Old Testament passages that reveal the prophetic word of Jesus' miraculous birth, His life, suffering and death for the redemption of all.  However, how many of us know or research the Old Testament passages that foretell Christ's resurrection? Paul mentions this prophetic support  of Christ's resurrection in the O.T. in his letter to the believers in Corinth. “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, . . . that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in ...

Jesus was different. He taught peacefully, most of the time, about many good things. However, all His words and miracles depended on having some kind of relationship with Him.  Sometimes the relationships were established before He spoke or performed His miracles. Sometimes the relationships were established after and due to His words and/or miracles.  The Savior had come to save and that was a shock that sent ripples throughout the world, but the way He saved was different. How can a Savior King save while hanging from a cross instead of ruling from a throne in Jerusalem over the Romans and all the Earth?  He was received at first, criticized, shunned and eventually rejected or crucified.  The Holy Spirit is God, but He too was received at first, criticized later and found so different to many that He has been shunned or ignored.  The creation has the audacity to say to The Creator, the Holy Spirit is weird, if anybody is weird - we are weird.  I heard it ...

There are two mountaintops that people, Christians in particular, have their feet on the summit of and cannot make a decision which peak to live on - Mt. Fear or Mt. Hope. Hebrews 12:18-24 states it like this -  "You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded: 'If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.' The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, 'I am trembling with fear.'" But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the media...

I want, seek and pray to be a man of integrity. In Paul's second letter to Timothy the charge is made - "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth." (2 Tim. 2:15) Paul advises Timothy and all Christians striving for integrity that to be of sound moral character - We should be accountable to God We should work as employed by God We should correctly handle God's Word. Not all of us surrender these on a daily basis, therefore we deal with our own consequences when we respond to issues in a day from a non-Godly guided manner. If we are Christians who are presenting ourselves to God as approved, then that means we are seeking what God's Word says meets His approval and doing it. Paul challenges the believer to act in the faith as a worker who is not ashamed to be employed in the service of The King. The words - He died for me, I'll live for Him - are easy to type but...

Psalm 139:23-24 "Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." (NIV) Recently I discovered that the word "anxious" in the phrase "know my anxious thoughts" from Psalm 139:23-24 was missing in other translations like the King James Version, New Living Version and perhaps others. This is a big deal to me because I want God to know my anxieties. I know God knows all my thoughts for earlier in the same Psalm, David declares "you perceive my thoughts from afar" (v.2) . However, if David was praying for this and Christ prayed three times for His anxieties to pass in The Garden of Gethsemane then I deem it an important word to keep. The actual word, Sarappiym , is found only in two places in The Bible - Psalm 94:19 and Psalm 139:23-24 and only in the plural form, therefore meaning not just one troubled thought, but many. The Psalm 94:19 pass...