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There is an important primary in South Carolina today, are you praying about it?

Polling averages expect Gingrich to get 32%, Romney 30%, Paul 13% and Santorum 11%. The highest recent poll shows Santorum with only 15%.

My wild speculation is that Santorum will be around 20%, Paul won’t quite have 13%, and Romney will edge out Gingrich.

Now that 99% of the precincts are reporting, how did I do?

John 12:42-43 – Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess [him], lest they should be put out of the synagogue: For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.

How many times do we act like these rulers having accepted Jesus free gift of salvation, but not confessing him openly?

Proverbs 30:8b – give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me:

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Many of us have heard this verse.

I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. – Psalm 138:2

It is truly an amazing thing that God has exalted his word even above his name.  Today though I came across a verse with a similar structure.

Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.  Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?  But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be? – Matthew 26:52-54

It is interesting to me that the reason Jesus gives for not using the sword is not that it would thwart the plan of salvation that required his death on the cross, but instead his concern was that the scriptures would not be fulfilled. Obviously the plan of salvation also had to be fulfilled for scripture to be fulfilled, but the emphasis is still interesting.  If it were me, I think I would have mentioned the jeopardy of the plan rather than the jeopardy of the book predicting the plan, but obviously God’s emphasis is not mine.  Praise the Lord for his word that has been fulfilled.

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God is not Santa Clause.  He doesn’t weigh our good works against our bad to determine whether we will go to heaven or not.  Before our salvation our righteousness is worthless.

But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.  – Isaiah 64:6

After salvation our good works have nothing to do with keeping our salvation.

I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.  – Galatians 2:21

Salvation is a free gift of God that I’m so glad I didn’t have to earn, because I could not.

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Jesus death I used to see as simply the only resolution between God’s love and God’s justice.  God’s infinite love desired that all men be saved, but God’s infinite justice required a payment for sin.  This sounds right, but it seems now as inaccurate.  God’s love and justice would both have been served by sending sinners to hell without hope of redemption.  It is God’s mercy that provided a way of salvation through Jesus Christ.  It is the only way God’s love, justice, and mercy could all be satisfied.  God’s love does not require his mercy.  God is love whether or not he extends mercy.  It makes his extension of mercy even more great because it was not required for his love.

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I just ran the numbers and with Broward county being the 18th largest county in the United States, that gives it almost the same population as half of Alberta, Canada.  This is with a land mass 146 times smaller.  Needless to say, we are in a very populated area.  You would think with all that population I would be able to find an Oracle Database Administration job.  Well, I haven’t given up yet, but so far no results.

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I just stumbled accross this site.  I have no idea what else it may be teaching, but I did find this bit that is right on target.

Within this tiny egg, only about an eighth of an inch long, is an entire world of genetic information. It contains the instructions for the construction of the caterpillar with the intelligence it needs to operate all of its organs (eyes, antennae, legs, etc.), to maneuver within its environment, to digest leaves, to avoid predators, to know when and how to molt, to pupate, etc. It contains the instructions for the incredibly complex process of the final molting and formation of the pupa, including the amazing cremaster mechanism. It contains the instructions for the death and dissolution of the caterpillar into a biological soup and the reformation of that soup into a beautiful butterfly. It contains the instructions not only to construct the butterfly in all of its mind-boggling complexity (e.g., its proboscis, its compound eyes, its intricately shingled wings, its sensory organs, its reproductive organs) but also the instructions to create the butterfly’s brain and the intelligence needed to thrive within its environment, to fly, to land, to avoid predators, to find the right plants and flowers, to drink and digest nectar, to keep its cold-blooded metabolism in balance, to reproduce. It contains the instructions for a bewildering multi-thousand mile migration to a place it has never been and in the absence of any earthly guide. It would seem, in fact, that the genetic code within that tiny monarch butterfly egg contains a map of a large part of the earth. And it contains the information for constructing hundreds of copies of itself. If the butterfly evolved, then evolution is miraculous and has the attributes of Almighty God!