I have, in my Truck a CD set, the Word of Promise, New Testament. It’s the entire New Testament very professionally read by a long list of actors. I don’t recall exactly where on the internet I purchased it from but I enjoy it so much I have bought 4 more sets and given them away. This is the official web address, www.thewordofpromise.com/wp1/ .
Whenever I am in the Truck, and not on the phone, one of these CDs is playing. Normally I spend at least 2 hours a day in the truck so I hear a lot of the New Testament. For this reason I spend most of my reading time in the Old Testament.
I just finished up reading 2 Samuel and started 1 Kings this morning. While reading the adventures of king David a thought began to grow. David, like us, made some big mistakes. Those mistakes cost him, many of his mistakes cost the lives of many in Israel. However, when the lights came on and David realized his mistake or sin he repented and God forgave him. Consider this, God called him (David) a man after his own heart 1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22.
This is very good news for you and I. David was under the Law and despite his failures and weaknesses God considered him a man after his own heart. How much more can depend on God now that the Law has been fulfilled through the Lord Jesus Christ. We are under Grace, having the Risen Christ as our savior.
“Lord God , help us every day to remember that it is by your Grace and Power that we have access to you through your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to hold fast to Jesus knowing that He is faithful and able to deliver us through this day. Open our Eyes that we may see Your Kingdom clearly. Open our ears that we may hear Your voice and the direction of the Holy Spirit. Heal our crippled bodies that we can walk daily with You.
I ask this in the name of and under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ,
Amen”
Friday, October 3, 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Waiting for Gods direction
I don’t think I am much different from most Christians. I think most of us try, among other things, to be good Christians, to read our Bibles, pray for those in need and be good witnesses for Christ. I also think most us spend a lot of time seeking the Lords guidance.
I feel I have reached a cross road in my life, well maybe a fork in the road, possibly you feel the same way. Something deep inside, the Holy Spirit, is me prompting me. To or for what I am not sure.
In my mind and heart I know that God, the Author and Creator of all that is, has the ability, authority and power to do anything, including making his will known to you and I.
His ability to make his will know to me can not be hindered by me. I can choose to ignore his direction but I can not choose to not hear it.
If necessary God can speak through a dumb animal.
Numbers 22:28-30
Then the LORD opened the donkey's mouth, and she said to Balaam, "What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?"
29 Balaam answered the donkey, "You have made a fool of me! If I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now."
30 The donkey said to Balaam, "Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden, to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?"
I KNOW God can, has and will speak to me as sure as I know anything . (This is one of those cases where my use of language fails me. KNOW seems too weak a word to convey this reality) Yet, I do not yet hear the guidance that I long for.
While I seek answers to questions I am unable to verbalize I’ll place my trust in His Power and Faithfulness.
Psalm 25
1 To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul;
2 in you I trust, O my God.
Do not let me be put to shame,
nor let my enemies triumph over me.
3 No one whose hope is in you
will ever be put to shame,
but they will be put to shame
who are treacherous without excuse.
4 Show me your ways, O LORD,
teach me your paths;
5 guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Savior,
and my hope is in you all day long.
6 Remember, O LORD,
your great mercy and love,
for they are from of old.
7 Remember not the sins of my youth
and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me,
for you are good, O LORD.
8 Good and upright is the LORD;
therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.
9 He guides the humble in what is right
and teaches them his way.
10 All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful
for those who keep the demands of his covenant.
11 For the sake of your name, O LORD,
forgive my iniquity, though it is great.
12 Who, then, is the man that fears the LORD ?
He will instruct him in the way chosen for him.
13 He will spend his days in prosperity,
and his descendants will inherit the land.
14 The LORD confides in those who fear him;
he makes his covenant known to them.
15 My eyes are ever on the LORD,
for only he will release my feet from the snare.
16 Turn to me and be gracious to me,
for I am lonely and afflicted.
17 The troubles of my heart have multiplied;
free me from my anguish.
18 Look upon my affliction and my distress
and take away all my sins.
19 See how my enemies have increased
and how fiercely they hate me!
20 Guard my life and rescue me;
let me not be put to shame,
for I take refuge in you.
21 May integrity and uprightness protect me,
because my hope is in you.
22 Redeem Israel, O God,
from all their troubles!
May our Lord and Father in Heven help us all to hear his voice clearly ,understand his direction and be willing to follow his guidance.
Bill
I feel I have reached a cross road in my life, well maybe a fork in the road, possibly you feel the same way. Something deep inside, the Holy Spirit, is me prompting me. To or for what I am not sure.
In my mind and heart I know that God, the Author and Creator of all that is, has the ability, authority and power to do anything, including making his will known to you and I.
His ability to make his will know to me can not be hindered by me. I can choose to ignore his direction but I can not choose to not hear it.
If necessary God can speak through a dumb animal.
Numbers 22:28-30
Then the LORD opened the donkey's mouth, and she said to Balaam, "What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?"
29 Balaam answered the donkey, "You have made a fool of me! If I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now."
30 The donkey said to Balaam, "Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden, to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?"
I KNOW God can, has and will speak to me as sure as I know anything . (This is one of those cases where my use of language fails me. KNOW seems too weak a word to convey this reality) Yet, I do not yet hear the guidance that I long for.
While I seek answers to questions I am unable to verbalize I’ll place my trust in His Power and Faithfulness.
Psalm 25
1 To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul;
2 in you I trust, O my God.
Do not let me be put to shame,
nor let my enemies triumph over me.
3 No one whose hope is in you
will ever be put to shame,
but they will be put to shame
who are treacherous without excuse.
4 Show me your ways, O LORD,
teach me your paths;
5 guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Savior,
and my hope is in you all day long.
6 Remember, O LORD,
your great mercy and love,
for they are from of old.
7 Remember not the sins of my youth
and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me,
for you are good, O LORD.
8 Good and upright is the LORD;
therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.
9 He guides the humble in what is right
and teaches them his way.
10 All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful
for those who keep the demands of his covenant.
11 For the sake of your name, O LORD,
forgive my iniquity, though it is great.
12 Who, then, is the man that fears the LORD ?
He will instruct him in the way chosen for him.
13 He will spend his days in prosperity,
and his descendants will inherit the land.
14 The LORD confides in those who fear him;
he makes his covenant known to them.
15 My eyes are ever on the LORD,
for only he will release my feet from the snare.
16 Turn to me and be gracious to me,
for I am lonely and afflicted.
17 The troubles of my heart have multiplied;
free me from my anguish.
18 Look upon my affliction and my distress
and take away all my sins.
19 See how my enemies have increased
and how fiercely they hate me!
20 Guard my life and rescue me;
let me not be put to shame,
for I take refuge in you.
21 May integrity and uprightness protect me,
because my hope is in you.
22 Redeem Israel, O God,
from all their troubles!
May our Lord and Father in Heven help us all to hear his voice clearly ,understand his direction and be willing to follow his guidance.
Bill
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
What I believe to be Unchangeable truths
This list is in no way intended to THE entire embodiment of the Truths of God. Its more a condensed version. I started this list for my own purposes to distill what I believe out from all of the background noise.
Having committed it to paper, so to speak, I decided to go ahead and post it. Please feel free to share your thoughts.
What I believe to be Unchangeable truths
God created all that there is.
God exists as One in the three persons on the Trinity; The Father, the Son and The Holy Spirit
That it is by Gods will and his will alone all that there is exists.
God created man (and women) beings in his own image; as such God gave man free will
God gave the earth and everything in and on it to man and gave man **stewardship over it **(8/20/11 revision was dominion)
Through the exercising of man’s free will, man brought sin into the world.
Because of man’s sin man became subject to the power of sin, (Satan) . Thus subjecting all creation, all that man had **Stewardship over, to Satan’s control.
Through sin the world and all of mankind became subject to evil, Satan. (subject = slaves)
God, because he is all knowing and exists in all time, knew from the beginning (before creation) that this would happen and planned a way to free the world and mankind.
God himself, The Son, became flesh in the form of Jesus Christ and was born of a Virgin.
Because of the Virgin birth Jesus, equally the Son of Man, Son of God and God, was born free of the bondage of sin that had controlled mankind from Adam until then.
Jesus, “The Christ” (Christ is the Greek word for Hebrew word Messiah ) was 100% man and 100% God.
Jesus, the man lived a sinless life. However, he was tempted in all ways like all of mankind.
Jesus, the Son of God, the Son of Man, God incarnate, offered himself up through crucifixion to pay for all of the sins of mankind.
Because of God’s sacrifice of himself in the Son through crucifixion the barrier between man and God was removed. ** God could always approach man but man, because of sin and guilt could not come to God.
Jesus was raised bodily from the dead through the power of God to conquer the power of death and to redeem the world.
The sacrifice of God, Jesus freed the world from the control of evil. Giving the power and Lordship over the earth back to man through the resurrected man Jesus the Christ.
All men are now called by the Holy Spirit, the 3rd person of God, to be reunited to God as Adam was once united.
Access to God is now available to all mankind through the resurrected Jesus Christ.
All mankind are invited to become sons of God, as Adam, through the cleansing of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
To be reunited with God this is what we must do:
Accept that we, on our own, are lost sinners and unworthy to approach God.
Accept Gods own sacrifice, the crucifixion, as payment for our own sins and short comings.
Admit or confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and accept his Lordship over our individual lives.
While at CFNI, Christ for the Nations Institute, www.cfni.org/ I was privileged to hear a lesson that we should learn to separate “Eternal” Truths” from “ temporal truths” The cliff notes version is that some doctrines of faith will pass away with this world and thus are temporal. While other doctrines of faith will last through all eternity.
Examples are:
Jesus is Lord = Eternal Truth He will always be Lord
The laying on of hands= temporal truth in the world to come there will be no need for the laying on of hands because we will be resurrected like Christ in un-corruptible bodies.
All of the above “statements” are supported by scripture. I’ll be back soon to post an updated version with scriptural notations to back them up.
Having committed it to paper, so to speak, I decided to go ahead and post it. Please feel free to share your thoughts.
What I believe to be Unchangeable truths
God created all that there is.
God exists as One in the three persons on the Trinity; The Father, the Son and The Holy Spirit
That it is by Gods will and his will alone all that there is exists.
God created man (and women) beings in his own image; as such God gave man free will
God gave the earth and everything in and on it to man and gave man **stewardship over it **(8/20/11 revision was dominion)
Through the exercising of man’s free will, man brought sin into the world.
Because of man’s sin man became subject to the power of sin, (Satan) . Thus subjecting all creation, all that man had **Stewardship over, to Satan’s control.
Through sin the world and all of mankind became subject to evil, Satan. (subject = slaves)
God, because he is all knowing and exists in all time, knew from the beginning (before creation) that this would happen and planned a way to free the world and mankind.
God himself, The Son, became flesh in the form of Jesus Christ and was born of a Virgin.
Because of the Virgin birth Jesus, equally the Son of Man, Son of God and God, was born free of the bondage of sin that had controlled mankind from Adam until then.
Jesus, “The Christ” (Christ is the Greek word for Hebrew word Messiah ) was 100% man and 100% God.
Jesus, the man lived a sinless life. However, he was tempted in all ways like all of mankind.
Jesus, the Son of God, the Son of Man, God incarnate, offered himself up through crucifixion to pay for all of the sins of mankind.
Because of God’s sacrifice of himself in the Son through crucifixion the barrier between man and God was removed. ** God could always approach man but man, because of sin and guilt could not come to God.
Jesus was raised bodily from the dead through the power of God to conquer the power of death and to redeem the world.
The sacrifice of God, Jesus freed the world from the control of evil. Giving the power and Lordship over the earth back to man through the resurrected man Jesus the Christ.
All men are now called by the Holy Spirit, the 3rd person of God, to be reunited to God as Adam was once united.
Access to God is now available to all mankind through the resurrected Jesus Christ.
All mankind are invited to become sons of God, as Adam, through the cleansing of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
To be reunited with God this is what we must do:
Accept that we, on our own, are lost sinners and unworthy to approach God.
Accept Gods own sacrifice, the crucifixion, as payment for our own sins and short comings.
Admit or confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and accept his Lordship over our individual lives.
While at CFNI, Christ for the Nations Institute, www.cfni.org/ I was privileged to hear a lesson that we should learn to separate “Eternal” Truths” from “ temporal truths” The cliff notes version is that some doctrines of faith will pass away with this world and thus are temporal. While other doctrines of faith will last through all eternity.
Examples are:
Jesus is Lord = Eternal Truth He will always be Lord
The laying on of hands= temporal truth in the world to come there will be no need for the laying on of hands because we will be resurrected like Christ in un-corruptible bodies.
All of the above “statements” are supported by scripture. I’ll be back soon to post an updated version with scriptural notations to back them up.
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