Knowing God

Take Up And Read

Let us get back to the Bible reading. It is very important. As we read the Bible we find out what God wants to reveal to us.
We can't know everything. The secret things belong to God and the revealed things can be known by us.
And just who does the revealing?
For us Christians, we know the answer is God.
He does that through the Bible. He does it using the Jewish scriptures and the books of the New Testament.
Sorry, Roman Catholics, not the extra books stuffed in.
And until we are rightly related to God through Jesus Christ, we don't really get any good out of it.
The reason is simple. We, as Christians, have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit. A gift, yes, in that God now dwells in us as He once dwelled in the Tabernacle in the wilderness. He is our teacher and lives in us revealing Scripture and sealing us.
And He carries with Him gifts to enable us to minister as His Body, The Church, down here on earth.
In my book blog I just finished reporting on a book called Open to the Spirit and you may want to go back and read it. So if you would just click on this link, you can go look at it.
It is very important we get our understanding correct. And I find books about the Bible help me understand better how to read the Bible. It is a book unlike any other book. But only the Christian knows what I am talking about. But that doesn't mean you are left out.
In earlier postings in this blog, and you can go back and do your own hunt, I discuss this subject. You can't miss it. Just keep going back until you find them.

Prayer Is A Weapon- posting two

Pray

We must never think of prayer is just worthless. It has great worth. But only in the hands of the right people.
  When I talk about right people I am referring to those who have a relationship with God. I am talking in the realm of family again.
   Jesus Christ died and rose again to give those who are His the access needed to have their prayers heard and answered.
    Why would we need prayer?
   This is easy to answer. Just the same way we need to ask our parents for what we need, we need to pray. God has set up a supply and demand route.
   Just as our parents supplied our needs when we asked, so God has set up a relationship that we can understand when we pray.
  Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and it shall be opened.
   It is a weapon also. 
   Along with it being a way for asking for what we need or just a conversation method with our creator, it is also a weapon for use in  the spiritual warfare we are in..
   When we become born again and start this relationship with God, like in a family-He the parent and we the child, we  get a spiritual enemy. It is the same one as Jesus has. Yes, there is a spiritual realm around all of us. The devil leaves people who have no relationship to God alone. Why should he, the devil, worry about them. They are his already.
    He goes after the relationship of those who are part of the family of God.
    We can read about the armor needed for this warfare in the book of Ephesians six.
     Prayer is a very important weapon. We fight back with the scripture we have memorized and hid in our heart. But we pray to God for the needed wisdom to strap on the armor and stand firm.   
    

Warning

        I was just looking at my blog page to see how it looked to the reader. I noticed that google ads has placed an ad for Herbert W. Armstrong' book. I must warn you about him and his organization.
       The book is full of untruth. His group used to be called "The World Wide Church Of God" and it reported to be the one true church. It also reported to have rediscovered the truth hidden for ages until (Gasp) it was revealed to Herbert himself who had made himself a prophet of God.

       He writes very persuasively. In fact, it was his books that drew me into his grasp when I first became a Christian and was searching for a church to join. He draws you in by saying all he teaches is from the Bible alone. That s not true. His doctrine of eternal punishment is wrong. He states there is no punishment but when you die you are no more unless you belong to the one true church, which is his. Only baptism by one of his ministers of his church is the true baptism. He denies the trinity.

     

I could go on. You get the point.
I respect Google's right to make money and its right to acccept ads from advertisers. I just want to warn you what you are getting into. Be careful what you read. Judge all things by what the Bible says.. that is, if you are a Christian.

Goal Setting

   It is important that we know where we are going with our lives and what we hope to accomplish. It is easy if you make no plans, to drift.
   A good life goal is to dedicate ourself to something greater than ourself.
   For the Christian I would hope that we would have the goal of  dedicating ourt lives to service that is pleasing to God. Not all of us can be ministers, I'm not, or a missionary or any of the front line people. Most of us have to be satisfied being background people. That we hold down jobs  that are not, in our sight, attaining any recognition. A dishwasher, a waiter, waitress, bus driver, and so on.
    But I am here to tell you, God is pleased with where you are. He knows where you are. And He is happy. He can use you and will use you.
     God can be manifested in every aspect of our existence.
     He has created us with great gifts and talents. Talents are not gifts. I know of one pastor who tells every Christian that their talent is the gift God gave them. No, if you are a Christian you have been given a gift or gifts by God, the Holy Spirit, to be used in the Church. A talent such as singing that you had before you came to Jesus can be used to fortify your spiritual gift, but it is not the gift. The voice you find you have to sing after you become a Christian, now that is another story. That voice and the songs you sing, if they are being used by the Church, could be a gift.
     God gives each one of us a bundle of interests and fascinations. It is important that we develop and cultivate and respond to these. It is important for us to see them as an avenue of pleasing God.
      Life is exciting,don't you agree?
      Feel free to communicate with me. Tell; me what your  gift is. Let me rejoice with you. 

Holy Spirit, God in the world

  I decided to talk today about the third person in the Godhead. He is often overlooked because He could be viewed as the backup. He teaches, to those who study the Scriptures, what the  Scriptures mean. For the world His job basicly is to convict of sin and unrighteousness. He works in conjunction with the Father to draw people to Jesus, the savior.
   In the Jewish Scriptures He hovered and entered some men to enable them to write Scripture according to their personality. Therefore David can sound different from Moses. Moses can sound different from Jeremiah, and so on. But always overshadowing in such a way that He made sure what was recorded was what God wanted recorded.
   He gives power to witness to Christians. He indwells them so as to make them tabernacles. He teaches the Christian what he needs to know. Hopefully the Christian has a Bible Study plan to be in the Word so that the Holy Spirit can inside the believer say, "pay attention to that".
   Also He helps in memorization. As the believer hides the word in his heart the Holy Spirit is able to use it.. bringing it back to memory when needed. This is meditation.
    The trinity is neat. All one in essence. All having a job to do. All needed.
    Keep on searching my posts. Follow me and don't miss any.