Who needs a Saviour. When you die you die. end of story. !

Does dowsing always fall into the category of divination, a form of
idolatry?

Clearly the world is full of spirits and some of them are unclean. Does
that imply that some spirits are clean? When dowsing, is it possible to
get the help from clean spirits?

If one prayed to Yahweh for help in locating water, healing, or some
other need, why is that not dowsing? Only because when Yahweh is being
addressed for one's needs, then it no longer meets the definition of
idolatry, correct?

So, in other words, is dowsing always a Biblically forbidden divination,
or could it with narrower parameters be no different than answered
prayer? So, if the parameter is that the provider of the knowledge is
Yahweh and only if it be His will for us to know, then it's answered
prayer, right?

When the Road of Life gets Scary

We won't often go very far in life without encountering a patch of road that
is somewhat scary.

Unless, of course, we choose to stay off the roads and paths of life
altogether. Some people do that. They avoid all conflicts in life by
parking themselves in front of a TV, a computer, or some other private
diversion, keeping to the shadows. They may not even work outside the home,
if possible, so that they can remain hidden, protected from the pains and
difficulties that others must endure.

But I'm talking here about most of us. We are traveling down the road of
life, taking the path we believe we should be on. We are trying to make some
progress, and like Bunyan's Pilgrim ("Christian," by name) we face many
kinds of obstacles, some difficulties, and not a few seeming opportunities
along the way.

The Screwtape Letters

Overview: http://Bibleweb.Info/Bibleweb.Info-The-Screwtape-Letters.pdf

The Screwtape Letters are purported to be letters from an administrative
functionary in Hell to his Nephew who is a front line tempter, trying to
gather in souls. It is filled with advice about how to make a Christian
turn away from God. Through it we see all the follies that man is heir
to and if we read closely we can find our way to being better Christians
and avoiding the usual pitfalls.

"The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of
Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn."
-Luther

"The devill . . the prowde spirite . . cannot endure to be mocked."
-Thomas More

3+ hours of MP3 audio + .PDF file of the material

Available in our Guet Area

Never Too Old ... Part I

"So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as
the day Moses sent me out; I'm just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I
was then. Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day.
You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were
large and fortified, but, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as
he said."1

When the Israelites were conquering the Promised Land that God had given to
them, Caleb said to Joshua, "Give me this hill country to conquer!" Caleb
was eighty-five years of age at the time. (Admittedly, they lived a lot
longer back then.)

If God had given the Israelites the Promised Land, how come they had to
fight for it? Because God's giving it to them made it possible for them to
conquer it. Had God handed it to them on a silver platter, they never would
have learned to trust him nor become responsible and mature individuals.

Caleb achieved his goal because he knew precisely what God's purpose was for
both Israel and himself, and he didn't allow his age to hold him back.

Learning to love the wrath of God in Scripture

Every good thing is possible with God. I discovered that principle by
reading and learning to appreciate the message of God in Old Testament
scriptures. And I also learned that the New Testament confirms and
reaffirms the same truth.

Too many sincere Christian believers avoid reading much from the Old
Testament Scriptures. When they do try to read the OT, especially in some
of the prophets, they often find it difficult to make their way through all
the "judgment" passages.

For example, the first 10 chapters of the prophet Isaiah are filled with
warnings and promises of doom. Sins and attitudes are listed and reasons
are given for the coming wrath of God.

But of course that's not all that's given. We are also promised a Messiah,
the birth of Jesus Himself. In the 14th verse of chapter 7, we read:
"Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall
conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. (NKJV)"
Immanuel (or Emmanuel), Matthew

BOOT CAMP: Back to the Basics

"I hope I didn't humiliate you, letting you beat me only two out of three
games," Ron gasped as Greg and he sat in the sauna at the racquetball club
following their match. After a few moments of sitting in that pine-covered
"frying pan," the conversation turned to a discussion about leadership, a
favorite topic of theirs.

In the middle of this interaction, Russ, a third man in the sauna, commented
from his sprawled-out position on the bench, "The best way to get back at a
leader is to dig around in his garbage."

Ron and Greg glanced bewilderedly at one another, and Ron responded,
"Why do you want to look in a guy's garbage can?"

"Not garbage can, but garbage. You know, dirty linen, problems, dirt... you
know!" retorted Russ.

Having learned many years before that this kind of "off the wall" discussion
was a prime introduction into spiritual issues, Ron turned the discussion that
way and said, "I have enough problems with my own dirt and it doesn't excite
me to try to exploit anyone else's."

"I guess I know what you mean," Russ concurred half-heartedly.

THINK BIBLICALLY: The Strategic Command Center

The late Martin Neimoller painted a stark picture of what happened in
Germany with the rise of Hitler and the subsequent holocaust in which more
than eleven million people (Jews, Gypsies, aged, mentally ill) were
exterminated:

In Germany

they first came for the Communists

and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,

and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists,

and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics,

and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me...

and by that time there was no one left to speak up.?1?

KINGDOMS AT WAR: Seeing the Unseen

It's a scene repeated thousands of times daily. A businessman boards a plane,
removes his coat and leans back in his seat for a moment of reprieve from the
pressures of work. He pulls out the airline magazine from the seat pocket in
front of him. As he leafs through the publication, he passes a full-color picture
of a sensuous woman in a bathing suit. He flips back for a closer look.

The alluring woman, with a rich suntan, is reclining on a sun-drenched beach
in front of a resort hotel. "When you're in Miami," she says, "here's where
you'll find me."

Now, why does he want to find her? She's not suggesting a game of
checkers. She's suggesting sex. Such advertisements, filled with sexual
overtones and other kinds of subliminal seduction, pervade nearly every form
of mass media. And the media experts know that catering to the sexual drive
is one of the most potent forms of selling anything.

Why are such advertisements so dangerous? They usually bypass our rational
minds and appeal subliminally to our emotions. They reflect a deeper, more
dangerous battle that rages around us, unseen by our eyes, yet every bit as
real. Unless we recognize that battle, we will never succeed in seeing a moral
and spiritual revolution in our country.

EDUCATION: Brainwashed or Informed?

In April of 1983, an eighteen-member panel appointed by then Education
Secretary Terrel H. Bell revealed the results of a year-and-a-half-long study by
the National Commission on Excellence in Education. Its report, entitled "A
Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform," stated:

If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the
mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have
viewed it as an act of war.?1?

We have every reason to be outraged concerning the quality of public
education in the United States. In 1910 the U.S. Bureau of Education stated
that public schools would "in a short time practically eliminate illiteracy."?2?
Today, according to Department of Education statistics, there are "24 million
functional illiterates in the United States, virtually all of whom have had from
eight to twelve years of compulsory public schooling," says historian and
educator, Samuel Blumenfeld.?3? Time magazine reports that 13 percent of all
seventeen-year-olds are functionally illiterate. ?4?

By almost any means of evaluation, our system of public education is in trouble.
As "A Nation at Risk" states: