Snippets

This page contains the resources that I have found useful in my personal and professional life. Admittedly, it is an eclectic list. It contains everything from quotes and books that I like to podcasts, videos, and slideshows.

If you don’t want to scroll through the entire list, you can click on one of the links below and filter the resources by specific category.

I will update this list as I discover new resources. If you have a resource you think I should add, please email me.

#030: What’s Communion Simply Defined [Podcast]

Communion is the most solemn and holy of the ordinances of the church. It is the sacred of the sacred. The holy of the holiest. But what does it mean? What do all the elements convey? A.W. Tozer had his opinion. He said “The communion table will not have ultimate meaning for us if we do not believe that our Lord Jesus Christ is literally present in the Body of Christ on earth.” 1. Today we are going to look at some of the Bible words surrounding this most revered ceremony. We are going to look at Communion in simplest terms.

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Watch Out for This Invasion of Privacy

TV in the white roomSamsung gives warning about talking in front of the Smart TV. http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2o6ztk/WXBN1D3F:eSLFK-rK/www.thestar.com/business/tech_news/2015/02/09/samsung-gives-warning-about-talking-in-front-of-the-smart-tv.html

A voice command feature on Samsung’s Smart TV could allow the interception of private living room conversations and their transmission to third parties, the company says in a privacy statement highlighted Monday by online news site the Daily Beast.

Memorizing Entire Books of the Bible

Family-bibleA few years before the war, a humble villager in eastern Poland received a Bible from an evangelist who visited his small hamlet. He read it, was converted, and passed the book on to others. Through that one Bible two hundred more became believers. When the evangelist, Michael Billester, revisited the town in the summer of 1940, the group gathered to worship and listen to his preaching. Billester suggested that instead of giving the customary testimonies they all recite verses of Scripture. Thereupon a man arose and asked, “Perhaps we have misunderstood. Did you mean verses or chapters?” “Do you mean to say there are people here who can recite chapters of the Bible?” asked Mr. Billester in astonishment. That was precisely the case. Those villagers had memorized not only chapters but entire books of the Bible. Thirteen knew Matthew and Luke and half of Genesis. One had committed all the Psalms to memory. Together, the two hundred knew virtually the entire Bible. Passed around from family to family and brought to the gathering on Sundays, the old Book had become so worn with use that its pages were hardly legible.

Stunning! Evangelicals and Catholics Daring Marriage Report

Marriage certificateHere is an excerpt from a joint Evangelical Catholic statement on marriage.

As Christians, it is our responsibility to bear witness to the truth about marriage as taught by both revelation and reason—by the Holy Scriptures and by the truths inscribed on the human heart. These age-old truths explain why Christians celebrate ­marriage—the coming-together of a man and woman in a binding union of mutual support—as one of the glories of the human race. Marriage is the primordial human institution, a reality that existed long before the establishment of what we now know as the state.

Click http://www.firstthings.com/article/2015/03/the-two-shall-become-one-flesh-reclaiming-marriage-2 to view the rest of the statement.

Why Playing It Safe Does Not Work

Open Safe With Coins Shows Safety SavingsIt is a curious coincidence that ‘stephanos’, the Greek word for crown, translates also as ‘Stephen’. Wasn’t Stephen a Christian martyr, perhaps even the first Christian martyr? At least Acts thinks so (Acts 7:58-60). With bold spirit breathing words, Stephen declared God’s dealings with Israel. I have read his words often and marvel at the turn in Acts 7:51. Stephen signed his own death certificate with those words. Couldn’t he have left those words out and lived longer? I mean, his story was accurate to this point. Do you muse about this? How many could Jesus have saved through a life lived instead of one tossed aside? God was using him to do miracles and wonders (Acts 6:8). Why not pile some more wonders up? You know stack them high and deep. Jesus has the answer to this. He said, “A single grain of wheat doesn’t produce anything unless it is planted in the ground and dies. If it dies, it will produce a lot of grain (John 12:24 GW). They buried Stephen. Devout men did what devout men do (Acts 8:2). Before his warm body could grow cold, the wonder of wonders started. Gospel germination began. The disciples scattered preaching everywhere because of Stephens death (Acts 11:19). Stephen produced more in his death than all the miracle credits he would have amassed by leaving verse 51 out of his sermon. And as for Stephen?  ‘Stepahnos’ Stephen will wear the first New Testament awarded ‘stephanos’ crown of life. It’s all because he spoke out verse fifty one instead of playing it safe.

For more on this subject see ‘Enduring Tests and Trials: The Crown of Life; James 1:12’

Finally, Obama Admits Genocide Against Iraqi Christians

iraqi-childrenAs ISIS continues to wage genocide against Christians in Iraq, your voice is making a difference.

For months we’ve been telling you about the plight of Iraq’s Christians as ISIS has unleashed a barbaric and deadly wave of persecution throughout the region.

ISIS—the Islamic State—is using its radical jihadi army to target, persecute and murder Christians in unthinkable ways. ISIS is decimating churches, slaughtering Christian men, raping and enslaving Christian women and even beheading Christian children.

For months we’ve called it what it is: genocide against Christians.

For more on this see: http://www.charismanews.com/opinion/48299-finally-obama-admits-genocide-against-iraqi-christians

How Confirmation in Christ Makes You Shine in the World

TestThe idea of confirmation by trial is a Bible idea. God’s Word, for example, has gone through ‘verification’ seven times according to the psalmist (Psalms 12:6, 119:40). What about your words? How’s your count going? You remember Abraham? Do you recall how he faced the trial of his life about Isaac his only son? When God gave him his test results the Lord also said, “Now, I know that you will not withhold your only son from me.” The three Hebrew boys in Daniel (Daniel 3:8-30) also come to mind in this way. Tests sometimes come from the Lord (Proverbs 17:3, Psalms 66:10). They come by His still small voice speaking and asking you to do something way outside your comfort zone. Tests that have the Lord’s digital signature are unlike the enemies assaults in this way. God’s tests come to corroborate you, to confirm you (Zechariah 13:9), to add value to your life. It’s all positive. His workings make champions out of wannabes. The enemy’s tests come to destroy you. His bag is to make your life and testimony powerless. This negative stuff is what’s on James’s mind here.

For more on this subject see ‘Enduring Tests and Trials: The Crown of Life; James 1:12’

Who was St. Patrick, and Would He Drink Green Beer?

14224-green beer 2.800w.tnShort answer: No, he never drank green beer. Patrick was a maverick, an iconoclast, a trailblazer. And though he was high born, he never forgot the naked shepherd boy, cold and hungry and huddling on an Irish hillside. “The imagined Patrick to me is interesting as a cultural phenomenon, but not as a breathing man of faith,” said Philip Freeman, author of “St. Patrick of Ireland.” “He suffered terribly, was tormented by self-doubt, yet he always pressed forward to spread the Gospel.” He was also the first church father to speak out against the abuse of women, especially slaves. And at a time when Christian biggies like the Apostle Paul and St. Augustine never left the boundaries of the Roman Empire, Patrick was the first missionary to people considered barbarians. In the words of Thomas Cahill, “The step he took was in its way as bold as Columbus’, and a thousand times more humane.”

For more of this article see Who was St. Patrick, and Would He Drink Green Beer?

Teen Dead for 45 Minutes Comes Back to Life as Mother Prays

A Missouri teen who fell through ice on Lake Sainte Louise and was clinically dead for 45 minutes has miraculously came back to life after his mother said a fervent prayer.
According to Christian News Network, John Smith, 14, was playing on the lake with two friends when all three fell through the ice. One boy made it out of the water and another boy held to a piece of ice, but it took rescuers 15 minutes to find Smith.
By the time Smith arrived at a local hospital, he had been clinically dead for 45 minutes and had received 30 minutes of CPR. When Dr. Ken Sutterer informed Smith’s mother, Joyce Smith, of the grim news, she started praying.
“I don’t remember what all I said,” Joyce Smith told a local news station afterward. “But I remember, ‘Holy God, please send your Holy Spirit to save my son. I want my son, please save him.’”
Immediately after Smith’s prayer, her son started showing signs of life.
“[A]ll of a sudden I heard them saying, ‘We got a pulse; we got a pulse,’” she said.
Another one of Smith’s physicians, Dr. Jeremy Garrett, called the incident “a bonafide miracle.”
The teen was able to return home after a stay in the hospital for rehabilitation.
“I don’t remember much about it to be honest. Hearing what the doctors and the paramedics said, I’m pretty surprised at the outcome,” John Smith said.
“I’m surprised I’m alive, but it’s a real miracle that I’m alive, and I thank God I’m alive. There’s a reason I’m alive, so I’m just going to kind of follow what God has in store for me throughout my life.”

New Jersey Teen Wins Court Case Against Atheists to Keep ‘Under God’ in Pledge of Allegiance

“I’m so grateful the court decided that kids like me shouldn’t be silenced just because some people object to timeless American values,” said Jones, who was a defendent-intervenor in the suit.

“Ever since I was little, I’ve recited the Pledge of Allegiance because it sums up the values that make our country great. The phrase ‘under God’ protects all Americans — including atheists — because it reminds the government that it can’t take away basic human rights because it didn’t create them.”

A state judge dismissed the case brought by the American Humanist Association seeking to gut “one nation under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance after hearing Jones and her family’s testimony against it.

This is the second time a state court has stopped the American Humanist Association from outlawing the federal pledge. Their first state-level suit, raising identical claims, was unanimously rejected by Massachusetts’ highest court last year, according to the Becket Fund.

In a case filed in February 2014, the American Humanist Association, claimed the recitation of the pledge violates Article 1 of the New Jersey’s constitution. The case was filed on behalf of an unnamed New Jersey family from Monmouth County against the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District.

Last November, Jones told Fox News “our rights don’t come from the government but from a higher power, so they can’t take away the rights.”

“The message today is loud and clear: “God” is not a dirty word,” noted Eric Rassbach, deputy general counsel for the Becket Fund in a press statement. “The Pledge of Allegiance isn’t a prayer, and reciting it doesn’t magically create an official state religion.”

From Christianpost.com