Election

After careful consideration and much reflection I have come to a major conclusion in my life.   As I now understand, with out a shadow of doubt,  Mrs. Clinton lost the election to Mr. Trump because of interference by the Macedonians with the aid of the Perezites, Hitites, Canaanites, Ammonites, Moabites, Amorites and Hivites.  There is also a strong possibility that the Jebusites and Babylonians were also somehow involved.  I would like to thank an unnamed source for helping me reach this decision.

Science has brought us some marvelous innovations in the last few years and  the  one that amazes me most is the Hubble Space Telescope.  What a wonder of wonders!  We can actually see things through infra-red technology that are 12 billion light years away.   That's twelve billion times six trillion miles.  Who can comprehend that? A light year is the distant that light will travel in one year at 186, 282 miles per second.  Through this telescope we can see nebulae, supernovas, blackholes, distant solar systems.  Even in our own galaxy, the Milky Way, there is a star named Eta Carinae that is five million times brighter than our sun.  If you are interested go on-line to the Hubble Space Telescope site and check-out the jaw-dropping photographs. Our habituation of course is planet Earth which is one of the smaller planets in a very small solar system compared to others that have been discovered.  When we think of the vastness that lies outside of planet earth  and how small that each of us is on this tiny planet we have to remember that it is not about us.  It's about God.  The Bible says, "The heavens declare the glory of God." and "Lift up your eyes and see who created these things".  The things that God created communicate His Majesty and Glory.

When I see a new baby for the first time I am always reminded of what King David said in the Psalms.

 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.   Psalms 139:14

If you touch a baby's hand it will wrap little fingers around yours.  A precious child made with little fingers and an opposing thumb able to grasp things.  He'll even be able to communicate.  When he cries we know he's not happy but it's up to us to discover the reason.  Is he hungry, does he need a diaper changed, is he scared, is he sick, or does he just need to be held? As the child grows older he will be able to lift objects and move them.  He'll learn to be mobile.  First he'll roll over in bed and then he'll learn to crawl or scoot along on his bottom.  He'll pull up on the coffee table and as his legs grows stronger he'll lift himself up on his feet.  As his balance and courage improves, with a little urging by Mom and Dad, he'll let go and walk.

From birth he is able to see, although not so well at first.  He'll begin to notice his surrounding.  He'll giggle at people making funny facing and others making strange sounds because he can hear.  He'll learn to communicate verbally, at first with unintelligible sounds , then words and then sentences and of course the seemingly endless questions.

Let's not forget his sense of touch.  He'll learn what he likes to touch and what he doesn't, too hot, too  cold, ahh that's nice, I like that.

My list could go on and on but the point is we are all fearfully and wonderfully made.

...  Mike

Today while looking through some notebooks in which I sometimes write notes to myself, I found my hand scribbled 2016 new year's resolutions for my prayer life.  I must confess that I failed to pray about some of these as I should have.  On one piece of paper I had general things I wanted to pray about and on another I had specific people and things that I wanted to talk to God about on a regular basis.  To be perfectly honest, there were some things on both lists that I just forgot.  I guess I got busy with life, which, of course, is no excuse.  So, I added a few items and then I put them back where I found them and made a mental note to look at them often and speak to God about them.  While I will not nor should share the specific list, I will share the general list.  Maybe it will remind everyone that God hears and answers prayers and that He is still in charge.

Forgiveness

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http://mikechoate.weebly.com/



The goal of JUST A THOUGHT is to reflect on the writings of some of the great theologians past and present with articles written by special guests and a few of my thoughts added.  There are links to websites that are dedicated to help better understand God's Holy Word.  Plus there are other links to ministries and various Christian organizations. Soli Deo Gloria (For the glory of God alone).

While we may not all agree on some of the doctrine found in these pages, I hope that you will consider them with the attitude of Sola Scriptura, by scripture alone.  The Holy Word of God must be our only authority, not the reason nor the traditions of men.

"The fact that our heart yearns for something Earth can't supply is proof that Heaven must be our home." 
                                                        C. S. Lewis

Website

Just A Thought.......

I've added several new items to my website.  There are several great articles by Dr. Dennis Ellis, Rev. Richard Parker, Rev. David M. Choate, Jr. and sermons by Rev. Fred R. Choate.  You'll find thoughts by some of the great theologians of the past and present as well as a few of my own.  All this was done to glorify the name of our God and His Son Christ Jesus.  Check it out at

http://mikechoate.weebly.com/

Repulsion Over The Election

Frankly, Folks, I am to the point of total repulsion!  I have had all the Hillary and Trump that I can stand.  Over three hundred million people in this country and these people are our choices?  Who choose these people to run for the leadership of the greatest, most powerful country on earth?  Not me!  It is as if there two comic book characters attacking each other.  If it were a Batman episode it would be "The Joker" versus "The Penguin".

Does anyone know the stances of either candidate on the issues, taxes, job creation, public safety, immigration, trade, etc.?  Each one with the help of the media is focusing on abasing each other.  It seems to be a race to see who can trash the other the most.  Even supporters are shouting their opponents down.  Civility is dead!

Hillary is the worst possible candidate that the democrats could possibly have chosen to run for the office but not to be outdone the republicans nominated a man who seems to know nothing about government and is only interested in defending himself from democrat attacks and calling his opponent names.  All of us could name people who could have handily defeated either one.

While I am repulsed by both candidates, I realize there is a very important issue involved in this election.  Who will get to appoint SCOTUS?  If the republicans in the senate and house fall to democrats and Hillary is elected she will appoint, with little opposition, far left judges to the supreme court.  While this country could survive four years of Hillary, it cannot survive liberal justices who are appointed for life. The constitution of the United States will be ignored and left wing ideology will be prevalent in all SCOTUS decisions.

There are many of us who feel that we are watching the demise of The United Sates of America.  Our children and grandchildren and generations to come will never again be able to enjoy the freedom that has been experienced from the beginning of this country.

Our economy is going to be in shambles, our Bill of Rights destroyed, our military weakened, our bureaucracies will enact heinous retractions without the consent of congress, the IRS will impose regulations on anyone who opposes government, etc., borders will be open.  Why?  To make us all dependent upon the federal government.  If the people are dependent, they are controllable.

I am going to do two things (1) I am going to vote for Donald Trump to protect our SCOTUS from falling into liberal hands, hopefully. (2) I am going to pray to a sovereign holy God that He will protect our great nation that He has blessed since its inception.

So that there is no misunderstanding, if Hillary Clinton is elected I will also pray that she is the very best president that we could possibly have, that she will recognize God's will for our nation and lead accordingly. 

Religious Distracters

I wonder what those on the left will say about the disclosure that the Clinton campaign has a low view of people of religion. Could they have hatred in their hearts? It concerns me. This country needs more people of faith and less distracters.

Just A Thought.........

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 This is beautiful Tellico Beach in Tellico Plains, Tn,
at the entrance to Cherokee National Forest.

Maya Angelou

Forgetting to Blush

Forgetting How To Blush

            Sin is a strange thing.  It is the breaking of divine commandments.  It is the             breaking of one's own integrity.  D. H. Lawrence

Jeremiah the Profit said, "Are they ashamed of their detestable conduct?  No, they have no shame at all;  they do not even know how to blush" (Jer. 6:15)

What lies at the heart of a culture that no longer knows how to blush is a culture that no longer knows the truth.  The apostle Paul said about his own generation, "God gave them over to sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.  They exchanged  the truth of God for a lie."  (Romans 1:24-25)

"The Church in an Age of Crisis- New Realities Facing Christianity"

                                                                        by James Emery White

Does any of this sound familiar?  Has America forgotten how to blush?  What does our music, television, movies, and just or common everyday conversational language say about us?

Harm's Way

Click on picture to enlarge.

I bought a group of old World War II photographs today and this one really caught my eye. It is of two very young men (soldiers) in a pup tent sometime in 1944 on some island in the south pacific. On the back it says that they are Junior Bob Post and Paul Jewell. They are reading Esquire magazine. I guess the thing that really impressed me about this picture is the fact that it is our young men who we put in harm's way. I hope these guys came home.

7 Unbiblical Statements Christians Believe

The common misconceptions about what 

the Bible actually says.

By Shane Pruitt

April 7, 2015
Shane Pruitt is a husband, a father, a pastor in Rowlett, TX, and a speaker for camps, conferences, Shows, etc. He also writes about Biblical truth and culture at alreadyam.com.  We don’t often stop to consider the magnitude of what the Bible represents. It is literally God revealing Himself and communicating Himself to mankind in written word.  Orthodox Christianity teaches that the Bible was inspired and authored by the Holy Spirit of God using human instruments. And many Christians believe that—in its original languages of Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic—it is without error and fault.  However, there are many things that Jesus-following, Church-going, Bible-believing Christians believe that are completely unbiblical. How does this happen? Often, we’ll hear someone quote a statement that sounds nice to us, and we’ll begin repeating it as though it’s biblical truth without ever researching it in Scripture.  Several of these unbiblical statements have gained enough traction that many people believe they’re actually Bible verses. Not only are the statements unbiblical; some of them teach the opposite of what the Bible teaches.  Here are some popular unbiblical statements that Bible-loving Christians tend to believe:

1. God Helps Those Who Help Themselves

God gave us gifts and talents that we’re supposed to use, but self-reliance and self-righteousness, or the attitude of trying harder and doing better actually gets in the way of the work of God.  This statement is actually anti-Gospel. Obviously God gave us gifts and talents that we’re supposed to use, but self-reliance and self-righteousness, or the attitude of trying harder and doing better actually gets in the way of the work of God.  In reality, Jesus saves those who die to themselves: “Then Jesus told His disciples, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me'” (Matthew 16:24).

2. God Wants Me to Be Happy

It’s a common belief that God exists to be our “personal genie” waiting to give us our every wish. It’s amazing how we will justify our sinful actions by saying, “God just wants me to be happy.”  Happiness is tied to feelings and emotions that are often based on circumstances, and those change all the time. God wants us to be obedient to Him, trust Him and know that everything He does is for our good, even if it doesn’t make us feel “happy” in that moment.  “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

3. We’re All God’s Children

Although God has created everyone, not everyone relationally belongs to Him. Only those who have repented of sin, placed their faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and possess the Holy Spirit of God inside of them can claim Him as their Father:  “But you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, 'Abba! Father!' The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:15-16).  "So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ ... If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Galatians 3:26-29, emphasis mine in both verses).

4. Cleanliness Is Next to Godliness

The people around you may appreciate you staying clean, but this is not Scripture. Parents may us this to motivate their kids to clean their rooms. However, I’d suggest using an actual biblical statement: “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12). (I can’t guarantee that will make your children want to clean up either, though).
5. God Won’t Give You More Than You Can Handle  The point of living in a fallen world is not for us to try really hard to carry our heavy burden, but rather realize we can’t do it alone and surrender to God instead.
Actually, all of life is more than we can handle. The point of living in a fallen world is not for us to try really hard to carry our heavy burden, but rather realize we can’t do it alone and surrender to God instead. That’s what faith is all about.  Everything is more than I can handle, but not more than Jesus can handle: “For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself” (2 Corinthians 1:8).  “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

6. Bad Things Happen to Good People

The sentiment of this makes sense, but if we follow it all the way through, the idea of a good person is very subjective. Often, we place ourselves in the judgment seat of what is good and bad, or who is good and bad.
The most popular way to make that judgment is by comparison. For example, Bob is a good guy, because he is not as bad as Sam. However, according to the Bible we’re all on equal ground because none of us is inherently good: “as it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one’” (Romans 3:10).

7. When You Die, God Gains Another Angel

Plain and simple. Humans are humans, and angels are angels. This remains so even in eternity. In fact, angels are intrigued by the interaction between God and His “image-bearing” humans: “It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look” (1 Peter 1:12).  The fact that many Christians believe these unbiblical statements shows our unfortunate overall biblical illiteracy. Instead of swallowing popular statements hook-line-and-sinker, may we be like the Bereans in the Book of Acts. When they heard Paul preach, they wanted to research the Scriptures themselves to authenticate what he was saying: “They received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:10-11).

Demonizing of Republicans

It appears to me that the Democrat party has gone from trying to demonize the Republican party candidate to demonizing the Republican surrogates who speak their convictions and now they are portraying the people who say they are Republican voters as uneducated, ignorant, backward, bigoted and racist. Is it because the Democrat policies do not work and have not helped America to prosper as it should? Can they really run on their record? If not, they have no choice but to demonize. The divide has grown wider and we are a divided nation. It truly bothers me because we are all citizens of a great country and more importantly WE ARE NEIGHBORS and we care for each other. I wish that we could make all candidates talk about issues as well as honesty and ability. Americans, we are better than this rhetoric!

The Size of Sin

I am reading A. W. Pink's essays on "The Depravity of Man" which are very interesting but quite laborious to read since I must have a dictionary handy as some of the words are not in my vocabulary or even in common usage today. While reading the thought came to me that we have a tendency to rate or categorize various sins into "big" or "little" and "important" or "trivial" but the sin with the most consequences was the eating of a piece of fruit. It is willful disobedience that separates man from God, not the size of the sin as judged by man.

Something to think about..........

Recently I had the good fortune to play checkers in the Tennessee Open Checkers Tournament which was held at Lebanon, TN.  The tournament started on Friday and ended on Sunday.  As is our custom most of the players arose early Sunday morning and attended a church service held by the checkers players themselves.  Of course there were songs and prayers which were very good and praiseful.  One of the players who is a preacher from Alabama spoke to us.  There is an aura about this man that you just feel that he has a special relation with our Savior.  His ability to quote scripture is remarkable and well as his understanding of that  scripture.  As he spoke to us about how the things that we do influence other people in a positive way, he just kind of leaned on one side of the podium and related the following story not to brag but as way of illustration..........

A few years back he saved up enough money to buy a new Thompson Chain Reference Bible which was one of the most expensive at that time.  One day in his office as he was looking through his new bible and examining all its marvelous maps, concordances, commentary, etc. a young man that he didn't know entered and sat down in a chair near his desk and began to converse with him.  As they talked he felt called upon by the Holy Spirit to give his bible to that young man.  He thought "but Lord this is my new bible that I saved up for".  He didn't really want to do that but he felt so impressed to do so he gave the young man his bible.  To make a long story short, that same young man is his pastor today and not only that but he is one of the most respected preachers in that area of Alabama.  He went on to say that maybe this was one of those positive influences.

I would say that looking around at some of the men in this room of checkers players from all over the country and seeing the tears rolling down their cheeks that some of them had the same thought that I did.  How many times Lord have I failed to follow God's will and influence people positively?