Author Archives: Troy

Rebuilding America’s Foundation

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It was difficult for me to celebrate Independence Day this year.  From a Bible-believing Christian’s point of view, the United States is really coming apart.  It was brought to my attention that the leadership of the United States is going in exactly the opposite direction than when the was country founded.  Let’s look at some of the quotes from America’s leaders:

“The Bible is the best of all books, for it is the Word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and in the next.  Continue therefore to read it and to regulate your life by its precepts.”
– John Jay, Original Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court

“The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings which we get from Exodus and St. Matthew, from Isaiah and St. Paul.  I don’t think we emphasize that enough these days.”
– President Harry S. Truman

“The teachings of the Bible are so interwoven and entwined with our whole civic and social life that it would be… impossible for us to figure to ourselves what life would be if these teachings were removed.”
– President Teddy Roosevelt

“The Bible is the rock on which our Republic rests.”
– President Andrew Jackson

And these are just a few examples.

Just a couple of weeks ago, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that what the Bible says about marriage doesn’t matter anymore.  That may seem like a small thing at first, but it’s actually monumental.  The crack in the foundation of the United States that is now widening by the day, has to do with who’s ultimately in charge of our lives.

As we can read in these quotes, there was a time when not only did the people and leadership of the United States believe that God was in charge, but that it was the Bible that would show us exactly how.  The thing that is destroying the United States today is the thing that Presidents Truman and Jackson warned us about.  The foundation for any people is the world of God.  Here’s what God has to say:

“Jesus answered him, saying, ‘It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”’”
– Luke 4:4, Jesus is quoting the Old Testament from Deuteronomy 8:3 while He is starving and being tempted to simply make bread to eat.

“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.”
– Proverbs 14:34, King Solomon of Israel (The wisest man that ever lived)

So, as you can see for yourself, the problem the United States has is that many of the people and the leaders have decided that man’s opinions are to be trusted over the clear words of God.

The wonderful thing is that there is something we can do about it.  We can live our own lives based on the Bible today.  That means that we need to know what it says.  That’s one of the many reasons why I am writing about the Bible, I can’t think of anything that is more pertinent to us right now.  As long as we trust in the opinions of man, we are under a curse.

“Yahweh says:

“Cursed is the man who trusts in man,
and makes flesh his arm,
and whose heart departs from Yahweh.
For he shall be like a bush in the desert,
and shall not see when good comes,
but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness,
a salt land and not inhabited.
 “Blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh,
and whose confidence is in Yahweh.
For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters,
who spreads out its roots by the river,
and shall not fear when heat comes,
but its leaf shall be green;
and shall not be careful in the year of drought,
neither shall cease from yielding fruit.”
– Jeremiah 17:5-8

Lifted Up – An Excerpt from 183 Days in John

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Here’s a free excerpt from Day 28 of my book 183 Days in John.  Enjoy:

John 3:14-16 :
“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,  that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world,  that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

Here, Jesus predicts His death on the cross. He also provides us with a  story that explains the reason for His death. The story takes place after the the first Passover  when God delivers Israel from slavery. As they are moving toward the promised land  this happens:

Numbers 21:4-9 :
They traveled from Mount Hor by the way to the Red Sea, to compass the land of Edom:  and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.  The people spoke against God, and against Moses,  “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?  For there is no bread, and there is no water; and our soul loathes this light bread.”  Yahweh sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people;  and many people of Israel died. The people came to Moses, and said,  “We have sinned, because we have spoken against Yahweh, and against you.
Pray to Yahweh, that he take away the serpents from us.” Moses prayed for the people.   Yahweh said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard:  and it shall happen, that everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”  Moses made a serpent of brass, and set it on the standard: and it happened,  that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked to the serpent of brass, he lived.

Jesus said that He is like the serpent. This is a pretty bad thing to say. The serpent  usually represents Satan:

Revelation 20:2 :
…the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole inhabited earth…

Not only this, Jesus said that He would be “lifted up” on a pole. Now, this  is a horrible thing to say also. Listen to what the Bible says about  people that are lifted up on poles:

Deuteronomy 21:22-23a :
If a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be put to death, and you hang him on a tree;  his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him the same day;  for he who is hanged is accursed of God;

Jesus is saying that the people have, like Israel, sinned against God and God sent Him specifically  to become like a serpent hanging on a pole, that whosoever believes, will be saved from the death that  they deserve. You see, our sinning against God is worthy of death too, just as it was for Israel.   Jesus was made into evil, like Satan, and hung on a pole. It satisfied God’s justice to see that  our sin was paid for by this evil that was cursed.

Isaiah 53:10a :
Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him.
He has caused him to suffer.

Jesus is better than the serpent in the desert and our sin is worse than Israel because eternity is  involved. Jesus is the everlasting God, and our sin is worthy of eternal punishment in Hell. If you  look to Jesus to save you, you will not die eternally, but have eternal life. This is the glorious gift  of life that has been offered to us by God. This is the Gift that changed everything for those of us  who have believed.

Galatians 3:13,14 :
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.  For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,”  that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Christ Jesus;  that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

2 Corinthians 9:15 :
Now thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift!

This was an excerpt from day 28 of my book 183 Days in John.  If you want to be notified about special offers by email and stay up to date on what’s going on with me, make sure you sign up for Troy’s List.

Copyright (c) Troy Taft 2013 All rights reserved

Turn Your Smart Phone Into a Kindle

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My book giveaway is over, but it isn’t expensive.  Get it here.  Don’t worry if you don’t have a Kindle.  You don’t need one to read Kindle books.  That’s what this post is about.

I think that one of the big reasons that Kindle books are so popular is because you don’t actually need a Kindle to buy and read Kindle books.  They have made it easy for just about anyone with an ability to occasionally connect to the Internet, to enjoy a Kindle books.

What Amazon did, is they created free Kindle apps for all of the major computers and devices.  You can even turn a Blackberry into a Kindle reader.

Probably the simplest way to turn your smart phone into a Kindle is to go to your smart phone’s app store.  When you search, type in the word “Kindle” and take the free app that Amazon provides.

If you have a Windows 8 computer of device, you can search the Windows 8 app store the same way.

If you have an older Windows PC or laptop (all the way back to XP) you can still download a Windows PC app.  All of these apps are completely free.  Click here to see all of the options that Amazon provides.

That doesn’t keep me from getting a Kindle, though.  There are three big reasons I like a separate reading device.  First, it’s easier to read a screen that isn’t backlit like a laptop or a phone and we tend to read for long periods of time.  A Kindle Paperwhite screen is like paper.  Light shines on it, so you can read it in sunlight just like a book.  The second reason is that the battery life is extremely long.  Unlike a phone or a tablet, it lasts for weeks.  Again, it’s almost like a real book only lighter and contains a whole library.  Finally, I like the fact that they gave away free wireless 3G.  This means that you don’t have to have a separate payment plan to connect the Kindle Paperwhite to your library or to go shopping for new books.  If you want this option, though, you have to make sure and buy that option.

Even if you don’t really want a separate Kindle, they have really made it easy to buy and read Kindle books on almost every kind of computer and computerized device.

One last thing:  If you got the book, please review 183 Days in John on Amazon, it helps the books ranking and it helps people make the decision when they are shopping.  Thanks for your help.