Ray Comfort in another great video

Solar Oven

Solar Ovens

Today was a hot California day. The temperature outdoors reached over 102 degrees Fahrenheit. I have been waiting for some time to build a solar oven instead of using our microwave. Today seemed like a blessed day to do so.

The design is simple-- I placed a smaller box into a slightly larger one. I then placed small pieces of paper into the space in between the two boxes to have an insulation effect. Afterwards I wrapped tinfoil all around the inside of the box and on the flaps as well. The oven is now ready for use.

Outside I placed the oven in the middle of our patio and put a thermometer inside the oven


When the oven has been in the light for about 45 minutes, the thermometer read 170 degrees as shown in the picture above. We decided to cook sliced apples as our first solar cooked dish.

The apples ended up coming out fine, though it could have been cooked a little longer. Overall the oven worked perfectly. I'm not sure why more people don't use solar ovens instead of their microwaves.

~ timothy 14
~ Nathaniel 6

A Day at History Class

I arrive at Palomar—ten minutes after my class started. I yank open the door and race down the hallway, narrowly avoiding hitting a rather amused man. Although I have gone to class three times already, my sense of direction has never been very keen, and I'm lost for several minutes. Finally I manege to reach the right room, number 105. (But then again, the building is very small; I was bound to hit it sometime.) I slowly, guiltily, approach the door. Do I dare enter? What if my teacher hates me? Cautiously peeking around the corner before entering, I see that my teacher hasn't even come yet. With assurance that I won't be caught this time, I walk to my desk.

My desk is rather standard, must like those from movies and books. However, to a homeschool student like me who has never sat behind one before, any desk is a curiosity. In the front is a tray-like piece of wood connected to the chair by a armrest on the right side. I have supposed this armrest is for resting one's arm while taking notes, although this function is lost on me, a left-hander. Below my chair is a strange metal cage, presumably for putting books, but which looks more like a prison cell than anything. Unlike in some movies, I don't have any place for storing my pencils and what-not. I'm not sure I would really want to anyway; I don't really trust any of the people who attend Palomar.

I pull out my textbook and notebook from my backpack and then take out a mechanical pencil. No, this one is out of lead. I try another. This one will do. I then open my textbook and read a few paragraphs. It's too noisy in the room for studying so I shove my textbook back into my backpack. Around me the other students are getting impatient; some are even planning on leaving before the teacher comes in. “Ya know, if a teacher doesn't come after fifteen minutes,” Joe, who was sitting one seat behind me, said hopefully, “it's a decided-on rule that class is dismissed.”

“Yeah, well, I once had a teacher who did that, and we all left, and so he marked us all absent.” Lauren, sitting directly behind me, loudly informed Joe.

“Ooh, harsh!” Joe replied sympathetically.

In front of me sits the friend trio: Jodi, Hannah (not me), and Karen. Jodi, who is directly in front of me, has long, flowing black hair, clear skin, a sweet voice, and a nasty lagging cough. She is truly the image of beauty; that is, until she coughs in her gurgling way. Contrasting with Jodi is Hannah, with knotty blond hair, a face full of freckles, and a constant pout from her many woes. “My roommate's cat is such a—I just want to kill it! She goes and scratches and scratches at the carpet, and I say, “No!” but she doesn't listen. And whenever I open the fridge—boom! She's there! I shove her ugly head out, but she keeps coming back. I just hate cats. I inherited it from my mother, her hatred of cats, you know.” Throughout this dialogue Jodi encouragingly “oohs” and “aahs” and at the right moments. Occasionally Karen will enter the conversation to say something loudly like, “Oh, I KNOW!” or “That happens to me ALL the time!”

Directly to my right sits A.J., a very muscular man of about twenty. I admit that I never sit still. Whether at home or in public, at peace or deeply disturbed, I always fidget and wiggle my legs. However, A.J. takes this to a new level. He doesn't just wiggle his legs; he jumps them up and down like he was having epileptic seizures. Also, he spends nearly the entire class period with his head down and his hands hiding his face. This behavior confused me at first. I soon learned why he did this, however. During class he texts on his phone, sometimes breaking into spontaneous giggles (yes, it was funny seeing him giggle), other times raptly absorbed in his little device. Today A.J. came in after me, and as he walked by I noticed that he smelled of cigarette smoke. It was not really so much to bother me, but I was surprised that someone could have such a strong smell on them.

After nearly ten minutes, my teacher bubbles in, completely oblivious to the grumbling, and begins happily informing the class of the exciting deal she had just gotten on some textbooks (a very teacher-like thing to get excited about). She then starts right in with the lesson. “Alright, today we are going to talk about life in the Spanish colonies.” I jot down, “Spanish colonies.”

She continued.“Now, the Spanish colonists were basically only men. And you know when guys are all alone... So they needed wives. But Spanish women didn't want to come. So then what? They went for the native women of course! Hey, it's the only game around! They would prefer Spanish women, but you know... So there were lots and lots of mixed marriages going on. And it was good for the native women as well. You see, the native American women had a custom of marrying members of conquering tribes, so it was only natural for them to go along with it. What else could they do, you know? And now countries like Brazil where the Spanish used to colonize have so many different types of races. We only have four: white, black, yellow, and—what was that last one?—oh, red! But they have so many, like burnt yellow, and coffee with milk, and pale with pink edges. They just have so many different kinds! It's ridiculous!” I wrote down, “interracial problems.”

“And now, the most important thing to remember is—” “—and you know my husband, he's always just, “Blah, blah, blah!” And I'm like, “Dude, what the heck?” And he's all like...” Lauren practically yells to Joe, making it impossible for me to hear what the teacher is saying.

“OK, let's take our break now. If anyone came in late and didn't get on the attendance list, come see me.” My teacher says, sitting down at her desk. Half the class and I start coming to the front.

“Huh, all of you?” My teacher asks, confusion all over her face.

“You didn't take role call today, remember!” Lauren loudly reminds her.

“Oh yeah, that's right. I came in late. Alright, I'll do it after the break!” My teacher bubblingly informs us before walking out of the classroom. We follow. The friend trio head for the restroom while Lauren and Joe walk out the door together, to get lunch I assume. A.J. stays where he is, absorbed in his conversation. I leave, happy to get away from the tobacco smell, and wander out the door and down to the front desk. I look at the brochures. There are some openings in the ESL class. I don't think I need that. There will be a blood drive at Palomar next month. I'll have to remember to avoid that. Uninterested, I start walking back. Only, as I have said, my sense of direction has never been very keen, and I end up wandering around in circles. I find the library that will be opening up. I can just barely see the empty bookcases through the small, taped-up window. I walk on. Up ahead is the admissions building. I was wondering where they kept that. And now here's the library again. It's still not open yet. And so I go on like this for the entire break until I finally stumble on number 105, my classroom. At the door the friend trio stands around. Hannah (still not me) angrily pounds on her cellphone, nearly breaking it in half, and grumbles to the other two, “ARG! I can't stand it! This stupid thing, it keeps getting jammed. It just won't open!”

“It's awful, isn't it? Mine does that too sometimes,” Jodi soothingly says. “Let me try.” She then works at it, twisting and fiddling with the rebellious phone. I would like to stay and see if Jodi is successful, but I feel I should be heading in. A.J. is still texting, oblivious to his surroundings. After I have sat down, Lauren and Joe come back. As Joe walks past me to get to his desk, I am overwhelmed with tobacco smell. I'm not sure who smelled more like tobacco: Joe or A.J.

Pretty soon (for her) my teacher comes back and starts the role call. Now, to be perfectly honest, I didn't know that college teachers did role call. I know they did with elementary-school students, but I always thought attendance wasn't required at a college lecture. But oh well. “Jennifer?”

“Here,” was the reply.

“Jodi?”

Without speaking Jodi raised her hand. That seemed acceptable enough and my teacher went on.

Now, to be perfectly honest, every time my teacher does role call I'm scared I won't realize I've been called or I won't say “here” loud enough and she'll pass over me. Things like this have happened before, and I want to make sure I get a good grade in my class. So I listen to each name very intently, ready to raise my hand at any moment.

“Hannah—”

“Here!” I say at my loudest (really not that loud) while raising my hand.

“—Baker?” My teacher finishes, looking up. The real Hannah in question (not me) raises her hand. I shamefully slump in my chair. Finally role call is over, and my teacher begins the lesson again.

“Alright, now let's talk about the early English colonists. When I ask students what the first colony in Virginia was, they usually answer, 'Jamestown.' Well, they're wrong. It's actually Roanoke. Now, do any of you know about Roanoke?”

“Oh yeah, that's where John Smith—no, that's where the Pilgrims came, and they had thanksgiving, right?” Lauren loudly blurts out.

“Well actually...” My teacher begins.

“No, no, that's where there was no one. Like they all died! Yeah, they were all dead!” Lauren tries to correct herself.

“Yes, Roanoke is the first colony in Virginia. At first it seemed to do well. However, Raleigh, their leader, went back to England for supplies but was delayed for ten years by war. And when he came back, everyone was gone without a trace. Creepy. There were no signs of struggle, only the word, 'Cherokee,' written on a tree. So what do you think supply ships thought when they came there and everyone was gone? Indian raids of course! They were scared of Indian attacks! So when they made Jamestown, they chose a place in the middle of a swamp to keep out Indians. That's the only reason they chose such an awful place to put a city. Jamestown is the first successful English settlement, but they had a whole lot of trouble. First there was the...”

While my teacher is talking, I try to take notes on all she is saying. However, while I'm doing this, Jodi leans back, and her hair falls on my desk. I move my notebook back a little to avoid accidentally pulling her hair. She leans back farther. I pull my notebook towards me. She leans back farther. My notebook is practically on my lap. She leans back farther. I am forced to move my notebook on the armrest to escape the invading hair. She finally sits up straight again. I have my desk to myself again.

My teacher usually talks slow and enhances her speech with interesting stories and the like. However, near the end we were running out of time and she still had a lot to cover. “TheEnglishdon'twantanythingtodowiththeIndiansbuttheFrenchandtheDutchweredifferenttheyintermarriedandtradedandtookontheirwaysanddidtheirpeacesmokingthingstheywereallhappytheIndianslikedtheFrenchandtheDutchtheyhadgoodsettlementseveryonewashappytheend.”

I couldn't keep up. I wrote, “The English Indian French Dutch happiness.”

“Alright, class is over. See you on Thursday!” Even before she had finished talking, everyone had packed up their books and headed out the door. It is the end of another day of class—with many more to follow. I pack up too and walk to the front door to wait for Mommy to pick me up.

New Desk Setup

Today we decided to change around our computors. It started yesterday when mommy's computer broke down because of a virus attack. After cleaning out the computer and updating the software, I managed to successfully install a operating system called Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a free alternative to the windows operating system. I'm now typing from the fixed computer. Everything's working fine and I hope to update the software later tonight.

Timothy 14

Harmony Grove Fire

A fire started by a metal weed eater consumed a total of 3 acres near our home. At about 2:30 PM we began to smell smoke in the air. We rushed outside to see the hill adjacent to ours engulfed in smoke. I took the first picture ( see first photo ) before we decided to evacuate. We drove all the way up to the side of a mountain. We watched in amazement as the firemen put out the last flames. I took out the binoculars and faced my camera lens through them to get a in-depth look at the charred area ( see second photo ). I also noticed that a large flock of birds were flying near us, so I decided to take a picture of them ( see third photo ). After we realized the fire was out and we were safe from harm and smoke we returned home.

I began to think it's just a matter of time until another fire threatens our house. There is not much we can do to prevent a fire from starting, but there is a lot we can do to weaken it's effects.

First, clear away as much brush in your yard as possible. I know this many be a great ordeal for some homes, especially ours, but anything counts.

Second, always be prepared to evacuate. You never know when something much happen. The best way to be safe is to be prepared.

Third, own smoke masks. The greatest killer in a fire situation is the smoke it produces. Normal dust masks do help, but they don't prevent most of the toxic gasses produced in a fire. Also they are likely to become over loaded by the smoke particles in the air. A way to prevent smoke inhalation is to wet a towel and wrap it around your face. This can be troublesome because you have to keep holding it. The best solution is a professional smoke mask. These masks can be expensive, but it's a worth while investment.

Read more about the fire here!
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/escondido/article_754dab2e-80a2-11df-adb5-001cc4c03286.html

-Timothy 14

Oceanside Field Trip

We drove to the town of Oceanside as a field trip. Oceanside is a relatively small beach town about sixty miles southeast of Las Angeles.

Our first stop was the California Surf Museum. The museum exhibit was about women surfers. At the beginning of the museum they had a swimsuit on display from the early nineteen hundreds, if I remember right. The early swimsuits were much more modest than the modern swim clothing. As we made our way through the museum we came across the real surf board of Bethany Hamilton. She was a woman who lost her arm in a shark attack off the coast of Hawaii in October 2003. She survived the attack and went back to surfing in only three weeks. The board obviously has a large portion of it bitten out. After we were done looking we went back to the car.

The next museum we went to is the Oceanside Museum of Art. The theme of this museum was World War II art. The paintings were very interesting. They were beautiful, but the paintings were of tanks and anti-aircraft weapons. Still, the paintings were nicely balanced. After we were done we decided to go into the next room of the museum. The entire other room was filled with abstract paintings from only one artist, opposed to the other room with very detailed and meaningful paintings my many different artists. I actually didn't like the paintings in there very much. When we were done downstairs we began to explore the upstairs. Upstairs there were much fewer painting. My favorite paintings on the upstairs were ones of Oceanside itself. There were paintings of areas we drove past earlier on our trip. When we were all done we went back down stairs and back to the car.

I noticed the culture of Oceanside is very different from the rest of society, especially speaking of the dress code. Women can walk down the main streets only wearing a swimsuit which would be very socially unacceptable or even against the law in other towns. The city is built around the "Surf culture".

Overall the field trip was a great learning experience. We learned a lot about the community which we couldn't have done without actually being there.

-Timothy 14

Nathaniel Joke Time

Question: What two months are married?

Answer: May and June! (May has Mother's Day and June has Father's Day.)

Comic: Timothy the gardener

We have our own gardening bullfrog to grow food for us! He's got tomatoes and basil so far. :D

monster drawing

Nathaniel tried drawing me as a monster and himself as a nice person, but at the last minute I changed the names around.

Nathaniel says "I hate timmy!"

Comic: ...

You never know who you're going to get stuck behind in the bus! We got a nice view of the kissing lesbians in front of us.

Catalina Island

Catalina Island
Located 22 miles across the sea from the Los Angeles county, and is in fact still a part of LA county. This rocky island has been a tourist attraction for the past hundred years. Catalina is roughly 22 miles in length and it's highest peak reaches 2097 ft above sea level.

The only official city on Catalina is Avalon, a laid back seaport village located in the southwest canyon of the island. Avalon has a permanent residence of over 3,000 with additional residence living outside the city limits.

The primary transportation on the island is walking or using a golf cart to maneuver around the city.

Living on Catalina
Anyone who considers living on the island should know the following. Although Catalina is located in a desert climate, the island still has enough water from it's reservoirs to supply the need of the city. They also have a desalination plant in case of further water needs, though it is avoided due to high costs. Also to further save water all the city toilets are run by salt water, which has been know to cause problems in the water treatment plant.

Avalon is also know to have a bacteria problem in the city's bay. This problem has cause the bay to be unfit for swimming, thus has had a negative effect on tourism. The city also closed off a popular road due to unstable cliffs, which has also has a negative effect on tourism. Citizens have also reported a rise is crime in the city, though the city counsel denies this claim.

Only by Gods grace can this city regain what it was once like. Who will lead this city out of it's obscurity? Does it really matter?

Comic: Lake San Marcos

We tried to visit the lake of Lake San Marcos, but we discovered they are rather touchy about visits to their lake.

Comic: allergies

We went tract-ing today and we starting having terrible allergy symptoms. Very annoying.

Island Geography

Greetings! In case you didn't understand the relationship between Cookie Island and it's name, we decided to aid you in your understanding of island geography. We also colored the island brown to further join the relationship to the entities, also for our entertainment.

(Note, the real cookie is to the right.)

Cookie Island!

Cookie island is an imaginary place Nathaniel made up. He wrote it down and told us all about the island. I decided to made the entire place in a 3D modeling program I know called Blender. Nathaniel told me what to do and I did the modeling. Enjoy!


Ossa is city completely surrounded by water on all sides. A box shaped dam is used to ensure the water stays out of the city. The dam is slightly tilted inward, like /\ instead of being straight up and down like | to ensure there is no collapse.





- Nathaniel age 6
-Timothy age 14

Comic: tumors

tonight we found tumors in our meat. TIME TO SUE SOMEONE.

Comic: Cookie Island

Click to see bigger. Cookie Island has a lot of interesting geology for a place that doesn't exist.

Jack's Pond Park

Today we decided to broaden our horizons and embark on an ever lasting quest of local geological information. Enjoy the photographs!

Egg Drop!

My entry was made out of:
a plastic cup, a paper plate, a styrofoam bowl, and a small rock to balance the weight.
(In case you're wondering I played the music in the background!)

- timothy

Christian Evangelism

Hello all. :)

This is an evangelistic article I wrote. Any corrections (grammar, spelling, anything!) or suggestions will be most helpful and appreciated!!

So, you call yourself a Christian?

I grew up calling myself a Christian, but there were some things that had always confused me about my religion. I've found out that I was not alone in these problems. But recently, I've also found some very good answers.

Have you ever met Christians who are just so... intense... about their faith? Maybe they're really emotional in church, maybe they bring up religious things at inopportune times, maybe they're willing to give or witness or just do things that you'd never do; they're just intense, they're just radical. And you wonder if you're supposed to feel guilty because you're not like that. These are the Extreme Christians. You can't understand how they can take all this so seriously, even to the point of hurting themselves.

If you're anything like me, you've always done everything you can to live as a good Christian. You make an effort to walk upright. You want to be a good person. I was the perfect Christian teen: ultra-conservative, Bible-toting, and hyped about apologetics and evangelism.

But even then, there were some parts of my religion that confounded me. They were just weird; I didn't get them. Not only did they confound me, these ideas went against everything that I was. I hated them.

What was I to do? I hated parts of the religion I claimed. I liked being a Christian, but some of these things just seemed wrong to me. So I declared war against these things that were contaminating my chosen faith. To my peers, I would call it "liberalism leaking into the church", "emotional manipulation", or “extremism.”

I told myself my hatred was OK because, according to my beliefs and my contemporaries, liberalism, manipulation, and extremism WAS wrong. And it's still wrong. But I used those words as a label to express my disgust at certain parts of my religion.

But then there were these PEOPLE who stood in my way. Extreme Christians who followed these terrible things as if they were the only important thing; no, as if they were the CORE of Christianity. I believed them to be soft, squishy, over-emotional fools led by crazy extremists and manipulators to adopt a self-depreciating, watered-down version of religion that could accept terrible things.

I felt like these idiotic and insane Christians were ruining EVERYTHING. I tried SO HARD to be a good Christian, and these guys just made me look bad. I knew that they had to be fakes. I knew they had be, at best, stupid and gullible, or at worst, liars and manipulators.

I was wrong.

It turns out that this “emotionalism” was the true emotional response of repentance towards Jesus Christ, our Savior.

And these “emotional manipulators” were men radically floored and changed by the mercies of God through Christ.

Their “softness” was the love they now had because Christ first loved them, though they were unlovable.

They “watered down religion” by only speaking of the character of Jesus Christ.

This “depreciation” was when our Lord washed the feet of His disciples.

And the “acceptance of terrible things” was the fact that our Lord came to save SINNERS.

Now, manipulation, liberalism, etc. really are bad things. But I had been giving out these labels wrongly. If only I could have somehow realized the things I hated were the CORE of my claimed religion, its heartbeat.

I missed the heart of my faith COMPLETELY; and the religion I ended up with was entirely based on works. And if I had been right in my belief that only way to gain a right standing with God is to work, to “be good,” then of course all those things were wrong. If “works” is the way, then I am someone to be praised, and washing another's feet is below me. And if I am a good person, the saving of what I consider a wretched man is an abomination.

The only problem is that men are SINNERS. YOU CANNOT BE SAVED by good works; you cannot be saved by your life alone.

Of course, you've heard language like that before. And you might ask me, “didn't you know we are saved by faith alone??” Of course I did! I took classes on theology and everything. I knew what distinguished Christianity from other religions. I probably knew way more than most people.

But THIS is the issue. It wasn't a reality in my life. Though I emphatically claimed to believe it, my life proved I truly did not believe it at all. I did not live out my life and behave as if it were TRUE. I did not truly believe because I never acted on my supposed "belief." My life proved me to be a liar.

When people spoke of such things as grace, mercy, or the love of God in Jesus Christ, I had no emotion, no response. I could not understand. It was part of my supposed chosen religion, so I held my tongue. I understood on a superficial level, but to me it was just a story. And in my pride, I told myself that I was right. It is just a story, just part of my doctrine that I don't have to worry about.

But LISTEN: If I had died then I would have gone to hell- and it would have been perfectly just.

JESUS CHRIST HAS COME TO SAVE SINNERS. So familiar to read, but has this ever confused you? Does it stand out in contrast against your experience of Christianity? Where your proximity to God depends solely on your personal “Christian-ness”?

See Jesus Christ- the friend of sinners and tax-collectors and all the wretched, truly vile, sinful and DISGUSTING PEOPLE OF THE WORD. This confused and insulted me to no end.

I heard that Jesus Christ came into the world to seek and to save that which was lost. He came to save the SINNER. He is the one who gives GRACE to the humble and brokenhearted! But I, I would not look at them, as I was FAR MORE HOLY THAN THEY. I tried hard to serve Jesus; WHY do these terrible sinners get to come to Him? I tried so hard, I always followed His laws- why do they get ANYTHING??

But I was trying to impress God by my ability to earn His forgiveness by being the best Christian I could. It was self-righteousness, and it was a damning sin.

Yes, God has laws, yes, God has dictates, YES God loves those who are upright in their walk. But PLEASE DO NOT FALL INTO THE TRAP THAT I DID- The laws and the things that are spoken of as RIGHT in the Bible are NOT there primarily to show you what to do- but HOW YOU WILL NEVER ADD UP.

YOU WILL NEVER BE GOOD ENOUGH. YOU WILL NEVER LIVE RIGHTLY BEFORE GOD!

All those verses about all the rewards of the godly- that's not YOU. I read the Bible thinking, "Oh, I am a good person! All this is supposed to happen to me. God is going to do all this great stuff for me because I'm so holy"- no, not only is that a wrong way to interpret the Bible, but also I WAS NOT THAT GOOD PERSON.

THAT WASN'T ME.

Look at the Ten Commandments. Have you ever lied, cheated, or stole? Always obeyed your parents? What's your thought-life like? Where does your browser go when no one else is in the room? Could you say that God is first in your life, even for one moment?

Look at the beatitudes. Can you honestly say that you have been pure in your heart? Are you meek? Are you poor in spirit, have you ever been BROKEN over your sins??? Do you thirst for righteousness like the righteousness of Christ?

We have not been peacemakers, but troublemakers. We are not pure in heart, we are impure and vile. We are haughty, proud, and arrogant. We are quick to declare our own righteousness above other men.

Discover your dire plight and desperate need.

You are NOT the good man, YOU ARE THE HATER OF GOD. YOU DESERVE TO BE PUNISHED. YOU ARE THE WRETCH, YOU ARE THE ADULTERER, YOU ARE THE SINNER IN THE HANDS OF THE ANGRY GOD.

My pride lead me to believe that I was not. I thought to myself: “Oh- I must be in the right, everyone else is so much more evil than I am!”

But listen- I was wrong.

I was wrong. Every time I felt convicted, I said to myself, "Oh, that can't be me, because I'm a good person and I want to go to heaven." Don't let your pride blind you; it is not worth it! I'll say it again, don't let your PRIDE blind you! What WILL it profit you to gain the WHOLE WORLD- but lose your soul?

God is righteous, He cannot accept Your SIN.

You might say, “Yes, but IF YOU CONFESS THAT CHRIST IS LORD...”

The only problem is that YOU CONFESS WITH YOUR LIFE THAT YOU ARE LORD.

Please listen to me.

The point of the Christian life is not to live as morally as possible so that you might get into Heaven. It is NOT ENOUGH to live as morally as possible. This is NOT what the Bible TEACHES. This is one of the reasons I hate it SO MUCH when people say, "The Bible is just a nice book of morals”- NO.

Jesus said that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Pharisees are not just the ugly-looking meanies we think of the on the Bible cartoons. Let's evaluate this properly. They believed in the inspiration of the Torah, the supernatural, the resurrection (unlike the Sadducees), and the necessity of blood atonement as God had said. They were orthodox, fundamental in their theology; they were evangelistic, converting people to Judaism from paganism; they hoped for the Messiah; they fasted two days every week; they were devout; they prayed; they tithed properly.

Devotion, tithing, correct theology, praying- does your righteousness consist in anything of these things..?? Not that they are bad things, but they are not going to save you from hell!

He's saying that even the best of the BEST of religion is NOT ENOUGH TO SAVE YOU. Even if you were to live perfectly from this moment on, the debt of you sin would remain. YOU NEED TO BE BORN AGAIN. YOU NEED TO BE WASHED CLEAN. YOU NEED THE LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST CREDITED TO YOUR ACCOUNT INSTEAD.

The point of being a Christian is that YOU are known by your Lord, Master, and OWNER, Jesus Christ.

He is your LORD, because without His purchasing you with His blood and making you a part of his house- THERE IS NO HOPE FOR YOU.

If you are not a part of His household, you will be destroyed. Not just because you are not a part of His household, (people don't go to hell because they've never met Jesus), but BECAUSE YOU ARE A REBEL, TRAITOR, AND CRIMINAL AGAINST GOD. And unless you are SOMEHOW seen by the King as justified, THERE IS NO HOPE FOR YOU.

YOU WILL BE CRUSHED UNDER THE JUST WRATH OF A MIGHTY GOD- AND IT WILL UTTERLY DESTROY YOU!!!!

EVEN if you claim to be a Christian. Even if you try your best to live good.

This may sound unfair, but hear me out for a second. You have not offended some king of some far away country. You have not offended some old man who lives in the clouds. You have not offended a good-looking man with long brown hair who wears a white robe with a blue sash. No, forget all about that for a second, because we both know that none of those images are anything to be afraid of.

You have offended a God, an infinite being who is intelligent enough to have written the laws of gravity; the engineer who designed the DNA in every cell of every living thing on the planet; the writer of the laws of physics; the designer of the human eye; the programmer of all life. He hung the vast amount of stars in the cosmos and HE STARTED all the ENERGY and POWER of the UNIVERSE. HE is the most intelligent and powerful being that there is- and HE has lavished on you every good thing- HE has given you eyes, taste buds, and food; He created the people you love and placed you near to them; HE created you a BRAIN to think and create with; IT IS HE. He is eternal. He is a God who will stand sovereign and immense, eternal and unchanging, even when the last electron in the universe fizzles out and winds down into darkness.

HE IS POWERFUL, HE IS INTELLIGENT, AND HE HAS BLESSED YOU SO GREATLY- CAN YOU SEE HOW YOUR OFFENSE MIGHT BE GREAT AGAINST HIM? He is an infinite and Holy GOD- He gave you EVERYTHING.

How will you stand before Him on Judgment Day?

The question is NOT, “Have you asked Jesus into your heart?” but, "Is Christ your LORD?" Does HE KNOW YOU? Will He know your face when you stand before Him on Judgment Day?? If not- what hope do you have? Jesus is all you have.

Have you seen yourself as the traitor God declares you are?? Have you seen yourself as a rebel?? Have you seen yourself an anarchist? You willingly choose your own way; you set yourself up as an enemy of God, despite His absolute benevolence towards you all the days of your life.

Have you seen yourself a criminal- always seeking your own will and your own pleasure?

Then repent.

Even though I have railed against Him my whole life- He saved me. He is merciful and mighty to saved.

Why will you DIE?

Being a 'good Christian' won't save you. Doctrine won't save you. Come to Him.

How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?