here's my thought of the day:
while most of us christians would be willing to die for our own faith, another thought to put is, would i be willing to die for someone else's faith? i know most of you have probably heard of the situations where someone is point-blank at gunpoint and asked if they believe in god, and they said yes and died for it. but would you be willing to take a bullet for someone else? i remember one of my friends last friday stating that he'd take a bullet for anyone in our church, and that got me thinking; i would be willing(though hesitant at first) to die for my faith, but would i be willing to die for others? that's christlike thinking for you. cause he died for us. (there is of course a difference between this and the suicide radical Islamic bombers; violence in the costume of religion is nothing but evil).

i know God answers prayers; he did for me once(in a sort of miraculous way); i'll put down the story later.

sometimes i have trouble doing what's right. but then i go and do it, what's my motivation? there's this new testament verse that goes something like if you fear and love the Lord, you'd follow his commands. so i think to myself; i'm not doing this for (insert person here), i'm doing this for God.

3 reasons for God not being more painfully obvious(many people think that by doing so people would line up to believe him):
-God already did that; read Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy to see a time when God WAS painfully obvious and yet the people didn't believe him
-God predicted that once he gave Israelites the land of Canaan that they would eat their fill then forget God(hence getting everything doesn't always lead to a more spiritual life)
-2 words: Jesus came