“THE TRUE ENVIRONMENTALIST”

Good Evening to All!

“But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee;  and the fowls of the air; and they shall tell thee:  (8) Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee;  and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. (9)  Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this?  (10)  In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.  
I read the “devotional” that went with this scripture passage and must say I was a bit disappointed.
While I agree that the news media regularly report how the earth’s resources are diminishing rapidly, I do not see the correlation of these scriptures and the subject of her devotional.
The writer said that she had visited friends and one had asked if animals went to heaven. 
It sounded to me as though the writer did not answer her question, but beat around the bush.  She said, “I reminded her man alone is made in the image and likeness of God, and also the recipients  of salvation.  She called it a pat answer, but to me it did not answer anything.  The answer also left her friend unsatisfied and I understand why.  She then continued to offer another verse of “comfort”  “There is no creature hidden from His sight”  (Hebrews 4:13).  According to the KJV it says, “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight:  but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
I have yet to figure out what that has to do with animals going to heaven. 
If we look at this realistically  and logically, God breathed His breath into mankind which provided us with a soul.  All other creatures were created, but not breathed into, therefore they do not have “souls”.  It is our souls which enter into the eternal heaven or hell, therefore anything not having a soul will not be entering either place. 
I don’t mean this to sound harsh to animal lovers.  I love animals, and I had a dog who was just like a member of my family.  I wish that I could say I would see her again when I get to heaven, but realistically I know this not to be possible. 
“For in Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth. . . all things have been created through Him and for Him”  (Colossians 1:16).  It’s important to remember that Christ created animals for our enjoyment.  Therefore, be grateful to the Lord. 
This being said, while truthful, I still cannot see what these scriptures have to do with animals entering heaven. 

 What might your opinions be?

Please forgive the "elementary style" of my blog post.  I have been having a lot of problems getting this post established.  I will not be able to post for a couple of weeks at my house, so I wanted to at least get this post out to you.  I pray you won't give up on me.  See you in a couple of weeks.  I have also been unable to retrieve any pictures for my post, so I hope the content will be enough to peak your interest. 

Have a wonderful night and May God Bless!

BIBLE TRIVIA--"SOME AMAZING ANIMALS"

Good Morning to ALL!

I hope that while I was “gone” for a while, you still continued to grow in Biblical knowledge and found a source to continue feeding your soul with the Word of God. I know that people tend to read “key scriptures” and retain them, but lets see if you kept any knowledge of just some of the “interesting things” that are not “key to the way we are suppose to live”, just interesting facts. Let's see how much knowledge your have retained while studying God's Word.

1. What four creatures did God send as plagues upon the Egyptians? (Exodus 8:10)

2. What venomous creature bit Paul on the hand but did not harm him? (Acts 28:3-6)

3. What did Jesus use to feed the five thousand? (John 6:9-12)

4. Where did Jesus send the legion of unclean spirits he had cast out of a man?  ( Mark 5:13)

5. What did Peter find with a coin in its mouth? (Matthew 17:27)

6. What did God send to destroy the vine that shaded the sulking prophet Jonah? (Jonah 4:7)

7. When children laugh at Elisha for his baldness, what appeared that mauled the children? (2 Kings 2:24)

8. What croaking birds fed Elijah in his solitude by the brook Cherith? (1Kings 2:11)

     9.  What two animals owned by the Philistines carried the ark of the covenant back to Israel? (1Samuel 6:7-12)

10. What foreign prophet had a talking donkey to ride on? (Numbers 22:28)

11. What bird served as food for the Israelites in the wilderness? (Exodus 16:13)

12. What animals, considered rather loathsome in Bible times, at the carcass of Jezebel? (2 Kings 9:36)

13. What did God provide as a sacrifice in substitute for Isaac? (Genesis 22:13)

   14. What miraculous animals parted Elijah and Elisha as Elijah was taken by a whirlwind into heaven? (2 Kings 2:24)

I hope you all enjoyed doing this Bible Trivia quiz as much as I enjoyed it, and hoped that it may have lit a spark in you to delve into the wonderful Word of God.  

Have a Wonderful Day and May God Bless!

Bible Challenge - Animals

Good Evening to All!

Yes, yes, I know! You've all been sitting on pins and needles waiting for Sunday to arrive with your new Bible Challenge. I'm sure you've all been studying your heads off just so you can say, "I aced PJ's Bible Challenge! NOT! Anyway, Here goes! The answers can be found in the scripture provided at the end of each question. I will give the answers in tomorrows post. This week's challenge is about:

Animals Part I

1. God substituted this sacrificial animal for Isaac after Abraham passed his test of faith. (Gen. 22:13)

a) goat
b) ram
c) calf
d) pig

2. What kind of animals gave Pharaoh a troubled night's sleep? (Gen. 41:1-4)
a) lions
b) swine
c) snakes
d) cows


3. When they marched up into the hills, the Israelites were set upon by the Amorites, who chased them like ______________. (Deut. 1:44)
a) leopards
b) horse flies
c) bees
d) gazelles

4. Why did Samson torch the tails of 300 foxes? (Judges 15:4-5)
a) to destroy the Philistines' crops
b) to create a smoke screen for his escape from captivity
c) to flaunt his power
d) as a sign of God's anger

5. God sent______________to feed Elijah, who was in hiding east of the Jordan.
(1 Kings 17:2-6)
a) doves
b) sparrows
c) ravens
d) crows

6. Because the children of Bethel mocked bald-headed Elisha, they were attacked by________.
(2 Kings 2:23-24)
a) female wolves
b) female bears
c) male lions
d) crows

7. What kind of sea creature swallowed Jonah? (Jonah 1:17)
a) whale
b) shark
c) dolphin
d) great fish

8. The Lord used an angel and a ________ to get the soothsayer Balaam's attention.
(Num. 22:22-31)
a) donkey
b) dove
c) leopard
d) turtle

9. Jesus overturned the chairs of merchants selling____________in the temple.
(Matt. 21:12-13)
a) lambs
b) doves
c) goats
d) rats

10. Revelation predicts an end times plague of ___________that will last five months.
(Rev. 9:3-11)
a) ants
b) locusts
c) beetles
d) crabs

As Before, the answers will be in tomorrow's post. I hope being given the scriptures will encourage you to take part and see how much you can recall. Apparently there are a lot of animals in the Bible. Next weeks Challenge will be on Animals Part 2.

I hope y'all enjoy these little Challenges as much as I do. I don't think there's such thing as learning too much or should I say recalling. I'm sure that most if not all have had some amount of Bible teachings at one time or another, but if you are like I am, unless it is completely pertinent at the time, such as a predicament or crisis I'm going through,or a little trick for the memory, it tend to forget it pretty quick.

Good Night and May God Bless!

Love & Prayers,

A Work in Progress Still Learning the Ropes

Image via Wikipedia

Tomorrow's Bible Verse according to the NIV: Isaiah 1:18

Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson they shall be like wool.

Daily Inspirations from the NIV:

Jesus said, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him,...I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever."

John 5:44, 47-51

Good Evening to All!

I can see I still have a lot to learn. I worked the good part of the afternoon and evening trying to get my "Matching Mondays" post set up, but as I have said in the past, I am not very up-to-date on computers. I have been trying to link children's pictures and information from the databases to my blog, but to no avail. I tried everything I could think of, but no luck. I will get it set up or at least see if Lynette can show me how to link them up. Unfortunately, I am one of these people who learn better visually and auditorily. My husband gets frustrated with me because you can tell him how to do something one time and he gets it with no problem. Anyway, hopefully I'll get it done by next Monday. I'll be busy all day tomorrow cleaning a house, and besides that, Lynette is out of town until Tuesday.

Another thing I plan on doing is going to our local Animal shelter and taking pictures, then posting them up for adoption. I don't know if it's opened tomorrow, Comanche is a small town to the point that the Driver's License Place is only open 2 days a week, we have a once a week newspaper, and most of the sidewalks roll up at 2 pm as far as restaurants. Therefore, I'm not sure if the Animal shelter will be open. If they are, you'll be seeing some cute little animals on here tomorrow. I'll also check and see if they have a website.

This is Emma from the Seattle Animal Shelter. Her crime was "cattin' around. Will she get time in the brig, or the death penalty? Hopefully, she'll get adopted soon.

This dog is at the Paws "No Kill Shelter". The sad look on his face says he/she doesn't know how lucky he/she is. Hopefully (it) will get adopted quickly.

I hope tomorrow I will have some pictures first-hand of adoptee animals.

Good Night All and May God Bless!

PJ

Prayers, Thank you's and God's Word

Image by Lel4nd (busy) via Flickr

The above Verse of the Day according to the Amplified Version: For this same reason you pay taxes, for [the civil authorities] are official servants under God, devoting themselves to attending to this very service.

Good Evening to All!

My post has several facets tonight. First, I would like to send a huge THANK YOU to Lynette for saving me all of her aluminum cans. She gave me a Very large bag, several medium bags and several small bags of cans. I collect these cans and sell them to create money to send to our "Foreign Missions at church. At this time, aluminum isn't going for much, so needless to say, it takes quite a lot of cans collected to make a difference. By donating cans to me, y'all are also helping to fund our Missionaries over seas, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thanks again Lynette.

Now for the next facet of this post. I would like to ask you all to say a little prayer for a gentleman by the name of Dr. Bill Calhoun. He is one of the sweetest people I know, and I am honored to know him. He is the 87 year old widower that I mentioned in my blog a while back who is the WWII Veteran who's WWII Website I linked to. He is very sharp-minded for his age and always has an interesting story to tell me while I'm cleaning his house. Anyway, he fell the other day and hurt his arm pretty bad. He didn't want to go to the doctor because he said he already has a VA appointment next week, but between his daughter and I we got him to go. I harped at him to go by telling him all the things that could go wrong, (it looked like he was losing the circulation in his arm as it was very discolored and swollen down to his knuckles, then his fingers mid-knuckles down were pure white. Anyway, his daughter made an appointment For him and he went. Luckily, I might add. When he got to the doctor, the doctor listened to his heart then all focus on his arm pretty much vanished and all was placed on his heart. Come to find out, his heart was skipping beats badly. As God would have it, the hospital had a visiting Cardiologist there today. Dr. Calhoun's doctor asked the Cardiologist to look at Dr. Calhoun, and after a battery of EKGs, and so forth, it was determined that Dr. Calhoun would need a pacemaker implanted into his heart. Now if it were a younger person, it wouldn't bother me so much, but at his age, any kind of surgery is dangerous. So please keep Dr. Calhoun in your prayers. I appreciate this very much.

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Daily Inspirations from the NIV (Devotional)

The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Romans 14:17-19

The Amplified Version says it this way: (17) [After all] the kingdom of God is not a matter of [getting the] food and drink [one likes], but instead it is righteousness (that state which makes a person acceptable to God) and [heart] peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
(18)he who serves Christ in this way is acceptable and pleasing to God and is approved by men.
(19) So let us then definitely aim for and eagerly pursue what makes for harmony and for mutual upbuilding (edification and development) of one another. Romans 14:17-19

We ought always to think God for you,l brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing.
2 Thessalonians 1:3

The Amplified Version says it this way: We ought and indeed are obligated [as those in debt] to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, as is fitting, because your faith is growing exceedingly and the love of every one of you each toward the others is increasing and abounds.
2 Thessalonians 1:3

Each of us will give an account of himself to God....Make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way. Romans 14:12-13

The Amplified Version says it this way: (12) And so each of us shall give an account of himself [give an answer in reference to judgment] to God. (13) Then let us no more criticize and blame and pass judgment on one another, but rather decide and endeavor never to put a stumbling block or an obstacle or a hindrance in the way of a brother. Romans 14:12-13

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I hope y'all will forgive me for such a short post, but my hubby and I have to get up extra early in the morning to go to his VA doctor appointment in Temple. It's been a Very Long Day, and I'm about to fall asleep sitting here typing.

Please click on the Animal Rescue Button.

Good Night All and May God Bless.

PJ

My Three Favorite Things-The Bible, Kids and Animals

The verse above...2 Corinthians 3:6 Amplified Version
[It is He] Who has qualified us [making us to be fit and worthy and sufficient] as ministers and dispensers of a new covenant [of salvation through Christ', not [ministers] of the letter, (of legally written code) but of the Spirit; for the code [of the Law] kills, but the [Holy] Spirit makes alive. [Jer. 31:31.]

According to my study Bible ( The Inspirational Study Bible by Max Lucado), He explains the verse this way in his "Life Lesson". He is teaching on Verses 1-18, but I think we can get the idea: The situation: False teachers confused the Corinthian church and undermined Paul's ministry.

Observation: As a minister of the New Covenant, Paul defended the sincerity of his ministry. Paul also illustrated that salvation was received by accepting the gospel rather than by trying to keep the Jewish Law.

Now my favorite part is the Inspiration: The outstanding characteristic of a Christian is this unveiled frankness before God so that the life becomes a mirror for other lives...Beware of anything which would sully that mirror in you; it is nearly always a good thing, the good that is not the best. (I don't know how many of you knew this definition, but according to Webster's sully means to soil or tarnish). Now back to the point. The golden rule for your life and mine is this concentrated keeping of the life open towards God... The rush of other things always tends to obscure this concentration on God...Let other things come and go as they may, let other people criticize as they will, but never let anything obscure the life that is hid with Christ in God. (From My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers.)

Application: Our first reactions to people and circumstances tell who we really are. If someone cuts you off on the road, what is your first reaction? If someone corrects you, what is your first reaction? What will be your first reactions to the people and places you encounter today? Which ones need a make-over?

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Daily Inspirations from the NIV

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. Galatians 6:9-10

The one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Galatians 6:8

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Good Evening Everyone!

I went over to the "r House Blog" and saw some of the most adorable children up for adoption. It just makes your heart melt to see these kids and know that they need to be adopted into good homes. I wish we could, but it's not in the cards for us. I am going to try and do my little part to help them by joining in Matching Mondays. At least I hope to, I'm gonna talk some more to Yaya when I get a chance between now and Sunday, I hope. I'm one of those that needs a lot of details in what and how to do stuff. Anyway, that's something new on my "agenda".

I am also taking up the ASPCA torch. I've got this little button on the left sidebar of my blog and if y'all will click on it, your clicks will provide so many bowls of food for the animals in shelters. By clicking, it will take you directly to their website which will explain the how's, why's and wherefore's. Anyway click away. It doesn't cost anything. You might save a puppy or kitten or whatever else the shelters pick up. I would love to see them do away with Euthanasia (except for Rabid dogs, or dangerous dogs that have mauled people). Anyway, that part's just my opinion.

These causes being stated, my main reason for this blog has been and still is as a Christian blog to get His Word out. Thus, the Bible Seeds Devotions, and Scripture. I love learning about the Lord and it helps me to type what I read. It seems to stick better. This way, I learn it and may plant a little seed here and there while doing it. I'm continually trying to find different books to get lessons or devotions out of, and come up with different ideas to keep you interested in not only reading my blog, but also maybe getting more interested in the Word. You know, maybe reading something I have written, then doing a little more research on it and as the Bible says proving ( or testing what I have said, to make sure it lines up with the Word of God, not that it wouldn't because I get it straight from the Bible except for the Book the Bible Seeds, which is just a little devotional book. Although it does list the scriptures. The other is directly from the NIV Devotional Bible. The rest of my Biblical material is straight from the Bible, be it, New King James, King James, NIV, Amplified Bible. or even the Revised Standard Version which I received when I was about 9 years old. Thank goodness His Word never changes! I don't take to change well.(Ha).

Good Night All and May God Bless!

PJ

Dogs are Family Members Too.

Good Evening All!

Well, tonight I guess you might say I'm "flying by the seat of my pants". That would be all right, except the only time I come close to wearing pants is when I'm working out at Curves. Anyway, I have been racking my brain on something to talk about and have come up short. I will however, say that I might have done a little over-kill last night. I inserted one of my articles which I had written, and to my chagrin, got no comments. I don't know if all of the print scared people off, or if they read it and didn't like what they read, or what, but I kind of got worried over that.
I've spent the last 3 hours checking out different blogs and there are a lot which talk about their children or pets.

I have no children, so that kind of knocks that out, and my precious 4-legged baby of 17 years or 119 in dog years passed away in 2003 the day before Christmas Eve. She was about as photogenic as I am and looks like she's been on a 3 day drunk! Anyway, she was our baby. We drove an 18-wheeler for about a year and a half (my husband drove a lot longer than that), but we (Taffy and I) joined him on the truck and started driving team. She went everywhere we went, and ate what we ate. She was my husband's best fishing buddy. Needless to say, he won't allow me to get another pet because he was so attached to her. We do have some stray cats that hang around our front door waiting to be fed all the time, but I'm more of a dog person. I wouldn't mistreat a cat, or let them go hungry, but I'm a dog lover.

As you can tell, I haven't quite got this picture thing down yet. I do pretty well with the Zemanta Pictures, but my own which I scanned and tried to resize I need more practice on.

I'm still looking for things to enhance my blog, at least until I am able to start Give-Aways, Book Reviews and the like, but unfortunately, imagination got left behind when God made me or ...no, I won't say when He made me, lets just say as I was growing up my imagination got left behind.

Now that's strange. I'm talking about dogs and cats, my imagination, and Zemanta pops up with a picture of a mouse's brain. Yuck!

On that note, as it is 1:26 a.m., I guess I should call it quits for the night. I guess you could say I'm making up for the length of last night's post. I hope you enjoyed my article.

Good Night All and May God Bless!

PJ