Tyler got the Good News! Saved his life and turned him around! WHO IS TYLER? EDUCATION - TEACHING - HUMAN RESOURCES Classroom Instruction ... Training/Staff Development ... Program Development ... Employee Relations Customer/Community Relations ... Social Casework ... Client Counseling/Training ...Mail Courier ... Summer Bible Camp Counseling... DVBS Teaching... Junior Church Directing ...Sunday School Teaching (K- College/Adult) ... Home Bible Study Leading When I was young, I believed Jesus was real, but I sure didn't think that He Loved me, and I was actively considering a suicidal life style or suicide itself because I didn't care to live in a world that only had selfish and conditional"love". I didn't believe that any human really LOVED any other human. The proof that persuaded me that God not only could but actually did Love me was that Christ died for me. I could argue with most other points, but I couldn't deny that Jesus died. Even unbelievers believed Jesus lived and died. To me that was a historical fact that few disputed. So when I saw that I had solid historical evidence that Jesus died, I was ready to seriously consider that just maybe He Loved me enough to really die for me. I respected and believed the Bible, so when she showed me book after book, chapter after chapter, verse after verse that plainly stated that the reason Jesus died (that solid historical fact), was because God so Loved me and the world and because He wanted to Love me as Father, as Shepherd, as King, as Deliverer in a very intimate and personal relationship, - - - - my eyes began to see, my mind to understand my heart wanted that Love. When she showed me why He let them kill Him, that it was His choice, that He died to take my place in the court of Divine Justice------- well she had me. I couldn't deny that he died, and she persuaded that God so Loved me that He sent His only begotten Son to die in my place so that I could be His child ------- Eureka! Yahoo! I had discovered the Love I was looking for, a Love that I could live for, a Love to give my life to and for. I already had believed that He rose from the dead and was coming back, but now I could have a Father-son relationship with the GOD who was Love. I believed her, accepted Him and got all excited. I told her that I had to check all of this out with the youth sponsor, Chuck Hill, to make sure that all that she told me was right on. After Chuck confirmed everything the woman had told me, I thanked him and went up the other hill side to pray my prayer of thanks, believing, receiving and trusting Jesus as my God, my King and Saviour. I was such a babe I didn't realize that I had been born again as soon as I talked to Chuck, because I believed Jesus and had faith in Jesus alone to bring me into right relationship with God, as soon a Chuck confirmed it all. I believed, received Him and was born again even before I made my big formal acceptance prayer. Talk about a radical life change in a few weeks! Within a month of my 8th grade year (Oct. or Nov.) my grades rose from D+ to an average of "B". Instead ofbeing the expelled disrupter of my youth group, I became a leader in my church youth group, my school's Bible club (the girls had a hard time believing I had changed). Instead of letting my twisted and dysfunctional family pull me downwith them, I determined to do what I could do for my messed up family, especially my mom and dad. Dear Reader,d o you know exactly where you stand with the God and Creator of the universe? Have you asked Him to be your Father in the Heavens? Have you believed/trusted/relied/depended on the Lord/King Jesus Christ ---the God anointed Saviour King of Israel ----to save you from your faults, failures and mistakes? Salvation from personal faults/failures/mistakes belongs to the poor in spirit. Matt. 5:3 says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." If you recognize that you are spiritually destitute---totally incapable of deserving or earning salvation from your errors in any way, you are poor in spirit-- you are humble. The poor in spirit, the humble, understand that they are sinners, totally impotent to please or to serve God. To acknowledge that you are a sinner unable to save yourself is humility. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15). Isaiah said, "When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see [His] seed. He shall prolong [His] days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the distressing travail of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities." Poverty of spirit (humility) is interwoven in the act of repentance, the life-altering change of mind about you, your sin and God. When you repent (change your mind), you see yourself as you really are and you change your mind in respect to your relationship to God the Father and to His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The act of repentance brings you to see your sin as ugly as it is, as God sees it, and you come to a point where you want to be free from it. Of course, freedom from sin comes only by believing/trusting/ relying on the Lord Jesus Christ. The one who is regularly committing sin is the slave of sin. However, if the Son shall set you free from regularly committing sin, you shall be free indeed (John 8:334,36) The poor in spirit see their impotence to free themselves from sin/failures/faults/errors. They see that freedom is possible only through Christ's death for us as our substitute. They recognize that salvation/deliverance comes by God's act of undeserved and unmeritted kindness and mercy alone. They choose to believe God and His Word about themselves and their relationship with Him. One cannot speak of the Crucifixion apart from the Resurrection. It is the resurrection that gives us newness of life. Christ's resurrection testifies to two vital truths. One, it shows that God was propitiated, or satisfied, with the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ. Jesus became the bearer of our sins. Isaiah's word is "But he was wounded/pierced for our transgressions, bruised/crushed for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes (from the cutting whips) we are healed." In Romans 4:25 we read, "[He] who was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised [from the dead] because of our justification." "Raised because of our justifica- tion" means that because Jesus' payment (the death of His body) for our sins was adequate to satisfy the demands of justice and a Holy God, God could then declare us righteous, justified and made acceptable in His sight. Jesus was raised from death because His death for us satisfied the righteousness of our Holy God. His resurrection shows us that Jesus Christ conquered death. Death had a holdover man because of his sin/error/failures/faults. However, once the death penalty of sin was paid for by the death of Christ's body, death no longer had any holding power. "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law" (1 Corinth. 15:56). Jesus paid the price of redemption, redeeming us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us ---for cursed was everyone who was hung on a tree/stake (Deut. 21:23; Gala. 3:13). His death took away the power of sin. Jesus also took the stinger out of death by paying for our sin so that we need have no fear of what awaits us in and after death. Because our sin debt is paid for in full by Christ, death has no power over us. Dear reader, have you come to the end of yourself? Have you seen your total impotence, your total unworthiness? Have you seen your nothingness apart from God? And have you seen Jesus, God the Son who took upon Himself flesh and blood that He might die for you and for all people? Have you decided that you want His Way and Will in and for your life instead of your own will and way? Do you believe that? Do you believe He died in your place? Do you believe that He was made sin for you, so that you, a helpless and hopeless enemy of God, might have His righteousness and His life? Have you repented---turned away from self-will to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ----the God anointed Saviour King of Israel? Out loud with your mouth agree with God about the God anointed Saviour King of Israel, and you will be saved, "for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses [Jesus], resulting in salvation." Romans 10:10-13. Joel 2: 32 And it shall be, whoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be saved; for salvation shall be in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, as the LORD has said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call. Ps 119:6 Then I shall not be ashamed, when I have respect to all Your commandments. Ps 119:80 Let my heart be sound in Your statutes, so that I may not be ashamed. Ps 119:116 Uphold me according to Your word, that I may live; and let me not be ashamed of my hope. A PRAYER FOR YOUR TODAY Holy Father, I praise You for the wonder that You are. God, I thank You for showing and proving Your Love for me by revealing Yourself as Jesus Christ of Bethlehem. I accept Jesus as my refuge, strength and very present help in the trouble of this world, in the trouble of male-female relationships in this world today. Holy Father, I acknowledge my own personal inadequacy for the trials of this world. Merciful God, I acknowledge that apart from You I am a part of the problem of this world, not a part of the remedy for this world. Holy Father, I agree with You that apart from Jesus I can do no good thing of eternal merit. I give my body, soul, strength and mind to You as Jesus enables me. I accept only Jesus as my King, my Saviour, my Director, my Shepherd and my daily Deliverer. Holy Father, I ask Jesus to come into me and live in me and work in me to become Your child, and to become what You want me to be, whatever that may be. Father, I acknowledge my total daily need of You and my total dependence on You to live well, safely and successfully. Thank You for being my Father, my Shepherd, my Counselor, my Companion and my Comforter. Please keep me safe in Your hand, and in Your loving embrace. Most of the preceeding Good News presentation is a paraphrase of K. Arthur's "Lord Heal My Hurts" K. Arthur may neither subscribe to, nor endorse my files described below, but the Lord uses her teaching mightily in the mending, healing and restoring of broken lives, and in the nurturing of believers. For more helpful information to help you with your decision and walk in Christ, write K. Arthur at Precept Ministries P.O. Box 182218 Chattanooga, Tennessee 37422 (423) 892-6814 Other resources for your walk in Christ: http://www.emmaus.edu/ http://www.insight.org http://www.freedominchrist.com *********************************** Today, as a Christian social activist and reformer I find myself in the midst of controversy. I readily acknowledge that I know "nothing yet as" I "ought to know", that I have an imperfect understanding and my mentality is finite. Yet I have web and ftp sites (see below) where my cross cultural files are an attempt on my part to deal with real and contemporary life-issues within a Judeo-Christian context as I have experienced them, and I believe that they have validity and relevance no matter what the reader's marital status, culture, status, race or nationality might be. The only "culture" advocated and endorsed is the Judeo-Christian "culture", no love here for the status quo. The ultimate authority accepted here is the God-breathed Word of God as found in the Old and New Testaments of the Holy Bible. I have been called an extremist and informed that I am in a very small minority because of the beliefs expressed in these my files. Like Luther, I have to live by what I believe, so here I stand depending on the sovereignty of God and His unending mercy to show me my error or use my vision to help another pilgrim who has found that the "average American Christian life" is lukewarm and thus grossly inadequate to deal with today's issues and circumstances. These are the subjects/titles available: ¥ Abortion, Malicious Bias, & Genocide (abortion.txt) ¥ Angels, Demons & Spirits (AngelsDemonsSpirits.txt; YouAndAngels) ¥ Biblical Insights on Sex, Morality &Pornography (BiblcaLSexPornMorality) ¥ Black Families' Crisis (PlightOfBlkFem-Fam.txt; BlackFamResrcs+.txt; Black.Family.Resrcs) ¥ Camelot, a Tale of Tragic Love ( A_Camelot_Dedication.txt) ¥ Cherishing Your Women (CherishYourWomen1.txt) ¥ Christian Divorce (Divorce_Remarriage.txt; Divorce_&_Polygamy.html; Christian_Divorce.txt; Christian_Divorce) ¥ Christians and the Tithe ( ChristianTithe.txt ) ¥ Common Law &Informal Marriages (ComnlawInfrmlMarriage.txt) ¥ Crisis Resolution in the Unity of the Spirit (CrisisResolution.txt) ¥ Disciples and Their Suffering (Why_Disciples_Suffer.txt; WhyBelieversSuffer.html) ¥ Divorce & Remarriage (Divorce_Remarriage.txt; Divorce_&_Polygamy.html; Christian_Divorce.txt; Christian_Divorce) ¥ Easter Insights (Easter_Insights.txt; Easter_Insights) ¥ How and When to Marry (WhenHowMarry.txt) ¥ How to Survive Divorce (HowSurvive_Divorce.txt) ¥ Husband Wife Relations (HusbandWifeRelatnsMngny.txt; Husband.Wife.Relatns) ¥ Husbands Rule Wives? (HusbandRuleWife.txt) ¥ Interracial/Interethnic Marriage (InterracialEthncMarrg.txt; RacelessMarriage) ¥ Is Jesus Jehovah God? (IsJesusJehovahGod.txt) ¥ Keeping One's Word (KeepingOne'sWord.txt ) ¥ Keys to Loving Unity in Families and Fellowships (KeysMLovingUnity.txt; Keys4LovingUnity.txt) ¥ The "Let" command of 1 Corinthians 7:9 (Let_Command.txt ) ¥ Man's Need Of Woman (Man'sNeedOfWoman.txt; MenNeedWomen) ¥ The Marriage of the Godly Lasts Until Death Separates (Divorce_&_Polygamy.html) ¥ Marital Intimacy Manual for Contributors (MrtlIntmcyMn4Cntrs.txt) ¥ Matchmaker Resources (MatchmakerResrcsInt) ¥ Me In Christ, What Does It All Mean Really? (WhatIAmInChrist1.txt) ¥ Me In This World, Why? (Why_Me_&_This_World.txt; Why_Me_Now.txt; Why_Me_In_World.html) ¥ No Wedding Vows (NoWeddingVows.txt ) ¥ Oaths, Swearings, Promises (OathsSwrngsPrmss.txt; MarriageOaths) ¥ Plight Of the Black Family (PlightOfBlkFem-Fam.txt) ¥ Plight Of the Black Female (PlightOfBlkFem-Fam.txt) ¥ Power Of Female Beauty (PowrOfFemBeauty.txt) ¥ Prayers for Loved Ones (Prayers4LuvdOnes.txt) ¥ Prisoner Abuse (PrisonerAbuse.txt) ¥ Quotes On Polygyny (QuotesOnPolygyny.txt ) ¥ Racism, Nationalism and Bigotry (racsm.natnlsm.bigtry.txt) ¥ Safe sex? (safe_sex.txt) ¥ Seniors & Polygamy (senior_polygamy.txt) ¥ Sex and Dependent Singles ( Youths_Singles_Sex.txt; UnderageSexBurning.txt) ¥ Song Of Solomon Part1 (SongOfSolomonPt1.txt) ¥ Spiritual Warfare (Spiritual_Warfare.txt) ¥ The Suffering of the Innocent, (Why_Disciples_Suffer.txt; WhyBelieversSuffer.html) ¥ The Tithe & Christians (Tithe&Christians.txt) ¥ Truth vs Falsehoods (truth_vs_lies.txt) ¥ Underage Sexual Burning and 1 Corinth. 10:13 ( Youths_Singles_Sex.txt; UnderageSexBurning.txt) ¥ Unequal Yokes, Interfaith Marriages (UnequalYokes.txt) ¥ Unplanned Polygyny, a Trail of Tears (UnplannedPolygyny2.Txt) ¥ Wedding Covenants (WeddingCovenants.txt) ¥ Who is Tyler? (WhoLTyler.txt) ¥ Why Only One Husband? (WhyOnly1Husbnd.txt) ¥ Why Do "Good" People Suffer? (Why_Disciples_Suffer.txt; WhyBelieversSuffer.html) ¥ Why Would a Wife Share Her Husband? (WhyWifeShreHsbnd.txt) ¥ Polygamy Resources ( PolyResources2.txt) ¥ Polygamy, Divorce & Remarriage (Divorce_&_Polygamy.html; Divorce_and_PolygamyPt1.html; Divorce_and_PolygamyPt2.html; Divorce+PolygamyPt1.txt; Divorce+PolygamyPt2.txt) ¥ Polygamy and Christians Today (ChristianPolyToday.txt ) ¥ Polygamy and Concubines in the Bible (PolygamyConcubines.txt) ¥ Polygamy and the Law (Legal_Polygamy.txt) ¥ Polygamy and the Reformation (reformationpoly.txt) ¥ Polygamy in a Nutshell (minipoly.txt, Polygyny_core.txt; polyamory_unknown.html ) ¥ Polygamy, Traditional Criticisms (objections2poly.txt) ¥ Polygamy's Transition from Old Testament to New Testament times (Ot2NtDivRemPoly.txt) ¥ Polygamy, Morality and Pornography (PolyMoralityPorn76.txt; polyandry) ¥ Polygamy's/Polygyny's Scriptures and Contexts (PolyScripsQuotes.txt; PolygynyInScrips; Biblical_polygamy.html) ¥ Polygynous Families: Keys to Loving Unity in Polygyny ( KeysLovingUnity; Keys2LovingUnity.html) AVAILABLE AT: http://www.etext.info/Religious.texts/Polyamory --- http://www.mindspring.com/~oldservant http://www.etext.info/Religious.Texts/Polyamory ¥ftp.www.etext.info;User:Anonymous; Password: your email address; Directory: /pub/Religious.texts/Polyamory --- ¥ftp.mindspring.com; User: Anonymous; Password: your email address; Directory:/users/oldservant Peace, Tyler oldservant@mindspring.com http://www.etext.info/Religion-----then click on Polyamory http://www.etext.info/Religious.texts/Polyamory http://www.mindspring.com/users/~oldservant