To Get List (given by Tomtom)

Verse

Hey guys, just wanted to share a verse that I found to be encouraging:

Habakkuk 1:5~

"Look among the nations and watch—
Be utterly astounded!
For I will work a work in your days
Which you would not believe, though it were told you

~Charlie

I dream HIS dream!

Hey Everyone!

Its Thursday!!!! The weekend is almost here!! Well anyway, I was just reading John 3, the story about Jesus and Nicodemus. From reading that, I feel that God has to change our plans for us to see the big picture. His plans are much different from mine but what's amazing is His plans are much greater than mine.

We are made for Jesus!! I just encourage everyone to redirect that focus constantly. Write it down if you have too, keep yourself in check. What Jesus wants and not what I want. The other night after Bible Talk. I knelt to the floor so weak and desperate for God to reveal himself to me and you know what, I can testify to

Ps 30: 2

"Oh Lord my God, I cried to you for help and you have healed me."

I know we can all be a witness to the very fact that when you consume yourself with the Lord there is no greater joy. Have a great week!

-Jason

MUNIS

Home Sweet Home

It's good to be back

Even in the midst of responsiblities and work that needs to be caught up on...there's no place like home. Being in that place where you know you belong, being in that place where you're loved and you can be yourself, Being in that place where you're not a stranger or visitor. There's nothing like it.

It's funny because every time I travel I am so excited to leave New York. Excited to leave the congestion, leave the traffic, leave the people who are always in a rush to get everywhere and honking their horns the second the traffic light turns green. Even when I'm at the destination I'm traveling to, the last emotion I am feeling is excitement to get back to those things. But every single time those tires land on that runway and I take a step out of that plane...I am so happy to be back.

There's no place like home.

Everything starts at home. Whether good or bad - home is where it all begins.

I have a whole lot of things that I could tell you about the Grand Canyon and my trip. A lot of ways that God spoke to me, A lot of things I learned, A lot of things I realized that were right in front of me the whole time. But moreover than any of those, a lot of perspective on the things I have yet to do and how much work I have ahead of me to get there.

All of which I will be pouring out in the weeks to come, on the blog, at ((Bibletalk)), at church, in conversations...

but if all you cared to know about my trip was to be molded into one sentence, it would be this...

Being in a place like the Canyon...not only humbles you but puts you in perspective of how small you really are.

Keep in mind there's only so much a camera can capture. Those of you with cameras should know that with your failed attempts at capturing the beauty of a sunset or the starry midnight sky

This picture doesn't do any justice

I guess you'll just have to go see it for youself

- Ben Thomas

Study the Word! Work Hard and Get Equipped!

2 Timothy 2:15-"Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth."


2 Peter 3:18-"But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen."


Have you ever shared your faith and got stumped!?

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Study how to share your faith with your family and your neighbors, and at your workplace.
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Why is there suffering? Why does Scripture appear contradictory?


Click the Link Below to get answers to over 100 of the most commonly asked questions about, and objections to, the Christian faith

http://www.evidencebible.com/witnessingtool/browse.shtml

All Because of Jesus :),
Tom

Solitude

"Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while" -Jesus


"The name of the Lord is a strong tower; The righteous run to it and are safe" -Proverbs 18:10


- Lisa

Off the Computer!

"The average distance of the moon from the earth is about 400,000 kilometres. This is very small compared with the distance from the earth to the sun which is about 150 million kilometres. The distance of the sun looks quite considerable, but is actually quite negligible when compared with the distance of the nearest star.When calculating distances to the stars, ordinary units of measurement will not do, for they lead us into fantastically large figures. Scientists and astronomers therefore use the "light year" as the unit of measurement - that is, the distance that light travels in one year. Remember that light travels about 300,000 kilometres (or 7 times around the earth) in one second. So the distance that it travels in one year comes to over 9000 billion kilometres.Let us consider the distances to some of the stars. The nearest star visible to the naked eye is a star called "Alpha Centauri" - which is four and a half light years away - that is, about 250,000 times the distance to the sun. This means that if you traveled at the speed of light, even though you would reach the moon in one and a half seconds and the sun in eight and a half minutes you would have to travel for four and a half years at that speed to reach "Alpha Centauri." To get a better idea of what this means, consider a scale model of the universe where the earth is represented by a grain of sand and the sun by a marble, 3 feet away from the earth. All the planets of our solar system would then come within a radius of 100 feet from the sun. But the nearest star would be 150 miles away from the earth on that scale model of the universe.The farthest star visible to the naked eye is in the Andromeda Galaxy, which is more than 1.5 million light years away. There are still more distant galaxies that are visible through telescopes, 6,500 million light years away.Now look at the sizes of some of the stars. They look so small that little children say "Twinkle, twinkle little star". The earth looks pretty large! It takes us many hours to get from one place to another on this earth. But the sun is so large that 1 million spheres the size of the earth could fit into it, if it were hollow. Yet even the sun is small compared to some stars. Some stars are so large that 500 million spheres the size of the sun could fit inside each of them if they were hollow.The star Betelgeuse, 520 light years from the earth, is one of the bright stars of the Orion belt. Its diameter is 500 million kilometres - which means that if it were hollow, the earth could comfortably revolve around the sun, INSIDE THIS STAR, in its normal orbit! (The earth's orbit around the sun being only 300 million kilometres in diameter).Now consider the number of the stars. Our solar system is part of a galaxy called the "Milky Way". Astronomers have estimated that there are at least 100,000 million stars in this galaxy. The sun is just one such star. And the Milky way is just one galaxy among many. Astronomers tell us that there are at least 100 million galaxies in the part of space that telescopes can see. There are many more beyond.Consider too the perfect precision with which these heavenly bodies move in their orbits. The best man-made watch is not more precise than the stars in the heavens. Surely there must be a Supreme Intelligence behind this universe, that created and planned each star and planet."-Zac Poonen


A millionaire might own acres and acres and acres and acres of land but his little child is FAR more precious to him than those Beautiful acres of land he owns.The same goes with God, Space is very big and the stars are HUGE but God loves and cherishes man more than all of creation. In the Psalms David said "When I look up into the night skies and see the stars, I can't understand oh God why you should pay any attention to puny man" WOW thats just AMAZING look at that we have an opportunity to even talk to the GOD who made all these wonderful stars and your reading this! OFF THE COMPUTER AND GO TALK TO GOD!
                                                                                                                                   
                                                                                                                                               -JIVIN :)  

RE: I am nothing

Amen.

- Ben George.

I am nothing

I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Psalm 40:17

I just wanna say that i'm an idiot. it wasn't anything that i did that made me realize any of this. it's just me sitting in my room and thinking about what i have and what i don't have. and guess what.. I have nothing.

I dont have anything in this world. none of it is mine. even the extra sleep i try to get in the morning.. it's not mine. everything is given to me from God. and if i truly believe in God, then i also have to believe that He gives all things. i have nothing.

I hate myself. and thats right. that's how it should be. i should hate me. cuz i'm bad, im horrible, im evil. i need to rid myself of me. im despicable when i step in front of a mirror. the worst place for me to be is away from God, cuz i do stupid things and say stupid stuff. sometimes you have to come to a point where you see you have nothing to understand that you aint nobody apart from God.

and I am nobody. I do dumb things. and sometimes the things i do, i dont even think im doing anything wrong until something goes wrong or someone gets hurt. and then it takes people around you to show you, sometimes you think you're not doing anything wrong but you are.

i thought i was good at communicating. that's not true. i'm far from it.

I cant even read people, I only see face value.

I have no gifts. I have no special abilities. I have no special person. I dont even have any money.

so why do I think i'll be alright by myself? cuz i'm an idiot. that's right.

I suck.

GodHonestTruth, there is no good in me.

and any goodness i've ever shown, any small feat ive ever accomplished, it was only because of Him.

I get it, and it's not the first time i realized this, so lets just say tonight is a re-realization. i couldn't even care less that it's 1 am and i've barely finished my paper for class today. i couldn't even care if i didnt get any sleep today. If God wants to energize me for the day, He can do that.

but how the hell do i look at the time and say, nope. no time for prayer because i need to study.

how do i do that? because i suck. why do i think of a million different things to distract me when i try to pray? because i'm not good. why do i get frustrated when the passage i read in the bible doesnt apply to my on-going situation? because i'm selfish and i suck. that's it. i'm a horrible person when i'm happy thampikutty. and i hate it. there is nothing that goes on right in my life when i live this miserable, "me-first" life.

it's a struggle, it really is.

and then on top of that, i think i'm alright. and as soon as i think i'm alright, God says, "you think you're good at that?, well lemme show you someone that's better".

and, "you think you knew how to talk to people?, lemme place this person in your life and show you, you have no clue on how to communicate"

and "you think I'm using you to do good works?", "yeah well, lemme use the simplest person to actually teach you a thing or two".

- i thought i had a thing or two, i thought i was good at something, and i thought i had it made in the shade. WRONG. i dont have anything and i am nobody.

another thing about life, don't open your mouth to talk the talk, if you can't walk the walk. Cuz if you cant walk the walk, dont expect anyone else to either.

I am nobody.. but God is still God. He can use the biggest loser to win the greatest victory. that's God. i can't even do any justice with words to what He could do. all i know is,

I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Psalm 40:17

man, I suck, I have nothing, and I can't do anything, but God still considers me valuable. He thinks about me. He knows i'm stupid, but He uses stupid to confound the world, and He uses the weakest to cause the mighty to be surprised. (1 cor 1:27)

I have not much to offer you, not near what you deserve, but still I come because your grace, has placed in me, my worth.

His Love Compels Us

¹⁴ For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; ¹⁵ and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

- 2 Corinthians 5:14-15

This verse really hit me this morning when I read it. One major reason being, that Paul says that the love of Christ compels us. - Not anything else but our LOVE for Him who died for us and gave us this new life we read in 2 Corinthians 5. I really loved that! But then he goes further, and says because of this, we no longer live for ourselves, but for Him.

I sat back and thought to myself today .... am I no longer living for myself and am I really embracing what Paul says, when he states, we live for Him who died and rose again!

This verse really made me put a lot of things into perspective ....

Just a thought to ponder ....

-Betsy

You already know

I'll be leaving in about 10 minutes, just wanted to stop by to say a quick farewell...

I'm really looking forward to this trip, it's a time for me to just get away and experience something that I've never experienced before. You already know I'm going to come back with all these inspirational thoughts about how awesome God is. Unless I happen to trip and slip off the edge of the canyon...then I won't have much to say at all.

But in all seriousness i'm going to have a lot of time to think and just be still. 5 hours on the plane to LA...4 hours to the Canyon...3 days at the canyon...Another 4 hours back from the Canyon...Another 5 hours back on the plane to NY. Point is, I'm going to have a lot of down-time with God. I'm going to have a lot of down-time to really sort things out.

Last night I was a little troubled, troubled with things that I've been trying to work through for quite some time now, I was brought to Psalms 120:7 and I was pretty speechless.

I am a man of peace; but when I speak, they are for war.

I literally laid there in my bed repeating those words over and over and over out loud for about 20 minutes trying to figure out what this verse means. I kept racking my brain as I asked God to reveal to me what this verse means. It seems so contradictory... how can a man be a man of peace and yet speak for war? I desire to be a man of peace, how does it make sense to speak for war?

I have a feeling that this trip is going to teach me what this verse really means.

I ask that you keep me in your prayers. Pray that I really do come back inspired, that during this trip I can find the contentment, peace, silence, but most importantly, wisdom that I have been searching for. Pray that this trip leaves me speechless about how beautiful God really is, and that God gives me ability to convey that effectively to his people. Pray that this verse comes to life before my very eyes.

My phone will be off for the next 4 days. I'll be using this time to just get away and be still, to renew, refresh, refill - whatever you want to call it. If there is something you really do need to contact me about, leave me a voice mail, and don't hesitate to do so. I'll try to check my phone every night.

take care guys,

I'll be extremely eager to hear about all the awesome things that will happen in the next 4 days.

later

- Ben Thomas

drum roll please....

so we realized something

everytime we tried to tell someone our website url they'd be like "what? wait - what was that? .blohgot?, can you repeat that? can you spell that? is that two dots? wait you can have two dots in a url? so, let me get this right bibletalkministry...oh, nevermind bibletalkfellowship.blohgpot? theres a .com after that? What is this blohgot? ohh..blogspot? wait - what is that? Why do you have to add that at the end? Okay just go letter by letter I'll write it down, I can't do this, can you just write it down?"

okay so we're being a little dramatic

but the point is we figured that it would just be easier for us to tell others about our blog if it wasn't so long. In the wise words of costin and jayson it was time to "cut it" - that "it" being something in our url.

so that's exactly what we did

from now on all you have to do is type in http://www.bibletalkfellowship.com/ and you're all set!

No more .blogspot, no more explainations about how its a "blogger" account so you have to type in blogspot, no more people not being able to find it because they forgot a dot here or there. This should make it all the more easier for us to share the url with others that we come into contact with as we outreach or even when we meet others in our daily interactions.

We also added an "Announcements" section to the right to post up all of our announcements - I'm sure we didn't have to explain that, but you never know... with guys like charlie around you kind of have to explain everything...

:) smile....God is good all the time...and all the time...?

God is good

let's keep running and striving to be more like Jesus

and let's not slow down for anything

amen? amen

- Ben & Happy

Let this be your PRAYER everyday

Psalm 19:14
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

At times we as humans dont even realize what comes out from our mouth but keep in mind we are accountable to the almighty God for each and every thing.

In Christ
Jabin

Top of the Morning To Ya

Yesterday morning, I hit the snooze button a few times before I woke up. So when I said good morning to God, this is what He showed me. Proverbs 6:6-8

"Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!

It has no commander, no overseer or ruler,

yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest."

Haha God is awesome. He's the only one that can call me a sluggard, and not offend me, but encourage me.

An ant. A simple ant. That tiny creature that you cross paths with while walking outside, and often don't mind stepping on when it gets in your way. Somewhere in that tiny body it carries, it knows responsibility, it knows discipline.

How often have we sat around and watched the day go by? Minutes pass like seconds, and hours pass like minutes.

Today I encourage you to make good use of the time that you have. Be productive. Set aside something you want to get done today, and DO IT. Be assured that I will, and don't forget about those ants =).

-jayson