When God Closes a Door.- Dr. Charles Swindoll
Monday, September 30, 2013
Prayer Dimensions
By Johann Christoph Arnold
Audio length: 11:23
Download Audio (10.4MB)
More than ever before, people are alone. If not physically separated from others, they are certainly more isolated emotionally. This is one of the great curses of our time: people are lonely and disconnected, depression is rampant, more marriages than ever are dysfunctional, and a pervasive sense of aimlessness marks many lives. Why are we here on earth? I believe that the answer to this question can only be discovered when we begin to find each other—and, more than that, to find God.
Each of us needs to find God, since our “vertical” relationship with him is always a strong determinant of our “horizontal” human relationships. But what does it mean to find God?
Sometimes it seems that the word “prayer” carries too much religious baggage with it; it is worn out from too much handling by too many people. It has become a duty that people feel they must fulfill, and therefore even a burden to rebel against. Personally, I do not see prayer as a duty, but an opportunity to come before God and tell him my worries, my needs, my happiness, or my gratitude. In this sense, prayer is simply conversing with God—something anyone can do.
Prayer may be a rite that involves a written verse, a prayer book, a certain place and time of day, or even a specific position of the body. Or it may have no form at all, but simply be a posture of the heart.
For most of us, silence and solitude are the most natural starting points for finding God and communicating with him, since both entail laying aside external distractions and emptying our minds and hearts of trivial concerns. It is as if God has come into the room to talk with us, and we must first look up from whatever we are doing to acknowledge him before the conversation can begin. For others of us, the act of becoming silent before God is not only a preparation for prayer, it is prayer. Such conversation is like the unspoken dialogue between a couple, or any other two people who know each other so well that they can communicate without words.
Naturally a true conversation has both sound and silence, give and take, talking and listening. Yet it is clear that God does not desire self-centered prattling: he knows what we need even before we ask. And if we do not become inwardly quiet, how will we ever be able to hear anything but our own voice? Nor does he require long, wordy petitions. If our hearts are truly turned to him, a glance upward or a heartfelt sigh, a moment of silence or a joyous song, a tearful plea or anguished weeping will do just as well. Each of these can be just as much a prayer as any number of carefully chosen words. Indeed, they may be more.
There are many ways to pray. One woman I know told me that she envisioned herself in prayer “like a baby bird in a nest with my head stretched way up and my oversized mouth open and hungry to receive whatever my father would drop into it. Not questioning, not doubting, not worrying, just receiving and totally appreciative.”
Vemkatechwaram Thyaharaj, a friend from India, says:
I pray silently. All the same, though brought up as a Hindu Brahmin, I do not pray to an abstract being, but to the biblical Creator of the universe and of man—to God the Father. He is not distant from his creation, for Christ brought him down, close to man. It is to him I pray… Very often I resort to lonely places for prayer. In such times I experience the divine, unseen touch that imparts power and life to my body and soul. True, it is always an effort to get out of bed early, before dawn. But this has been my practice, to sit during the early morning in the presence of God when I meditate and pray. During such times my heart is filled with peace and unexplainable joy.
Vemkatechwaram touches on an important aspect of genuine prayer: insofar as it is a conversation, it is not a vague state of being, but something that moves or takes place between two or more people, even if without words.
According to the early church father Tertullian, praying is also more than directing emotions or feelings toward God. It means experiencing his reality as a power.
Prayer has power to transform the weak, to restore the sick, to free the demon-possessed, to open prison doors, and to untie the bonds that bind the innocent. Furthermore, it washes away faults and repels temptations. It extinguishes persecutions. It consoles the low in spirit, and cheers those in good spirits. It escorts travelers, calms waves, and makes robbers stand aghast. It feeds the poor and governs the rich. It raises those who have fallen, stops others from falling, and strengthens those who are standing.
Tertullian also refers to prayer as the “fortress of faith” and the “shield and weapon against the foe.” And Paul, in his Letter to the Ephesians, admonishes his fellow Christians to put on the “whole armor of God” and thereby enlist the aid of the Creator himself in times of trial.1
Valid as these metaphors may be, it is good to remember that even if God’s power can protect, shield, and comfort us, it is also a power before which we must sometimes quake. Especially after we have failed or done wrong, the act of coming to God in prayer and bringing our weaknesses to him means placing ourselves under his clear light, and seeing the wretchedness of our true state.
Our God is a consuming fire, and my filth crackles as he seizes hold of me; he is all light and my darkness shrivels under his blaze. It is this naked blaze of God that makes prayer so terrible. For most of the time, we can persuade ourselves we are good enough, as good as the next man, perhaps even better, who knows? Then we come to prayer—real prayer, unprotected prayer—and there is nothing left in us, no ground on which to stand.—Sr. Wendy Beckett
Given Sister Wendy’s recognition of the contrast between the Almighty and a puny human being, one might fairly ask, “Does God really answer me, or does my praying just get me used to the discomfort of my situation?” Indeed, there are skeptics who feel that prayer is simply a forum for working through our feelings, and those who say, “All I want is God’s will, and he can give that without my prayers.”
I have no simple answers to these riddles, but that doesn’t mean there are no answers. As I see it, it is a matter of relationships. If I claim God as my father, I need to be able to talk to him when I am in trouble. And before that, I need to be actively involved in my relationship with him—at least enough to know where I can find him.
Having given us free will, God does not force himself on any of us. He needs us to ask him to work in our lives before he intervenes. We must want his presence, be desperate for the inner food he can provide. Like the figures found on the walls of Roman catacombs, we must lift our eyes and arms to God, not merely waiting for him, but reaching upward to find him and to receive whatever he will give us.
In this sense, praying is much more than talking with God. Prayer gives us the opportunity to discern God’s will by coming into direct contact with him. It enables us to ask God for whatever we need, including judgment, mercy, and the grace to change our lives. It is even, as Henri Nouwen has written, “a revolutionary matter, because once you begin, you put your entire life in the balance.”
The one overwhelming message that stands at the center of the New Testament is love in action. And we have examples among his followers who, despite human failings, spread the gospel of love. The apostle Paul, who had earlier persecuted the Christians, became one of Christianity’s most powerful figures. In his prayers he rarely asks God for those things we most often pray for: safety, physical healing, material blessings. He is more concerned with strength of character, wisdom and discernment, love and sacrifice, personal knowledge of God and spiritual power, courage in spreading the gospel, endurance, and salvation. And unlike many modern Christians, his prayers are not selfish wishes uttered merely on behalf of himself or those dear to him. They are said for the whole earth.
Thousands of pages have been written about the Lord’s Prayer. I believe much of its power lies in its brevity and simplicity. When we have acted in haste or offended the Spirit of love, we need to ask for forgiveness. In hours of temptation, we need to ask to be led safely, and we need to be provided for and protected day by day. Above and beyond that, we need the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts and change us from our very foundations. For this to happen we must ask, “Thy will be done.” And we must mean it.
Johann Christoph Arnold is a noted speaker and writer on the topics of marriage and family, education and conflict resolution. He is a senior pastor at the Bruderhof Communities and also serves as chaplain for the local sheriff's department. His books have been translated into more than 20 languages. © Copyright 2011 by The Plough Publishing House. Used with permission.
Published on Anchor September 2013. Read by Jon Marc.
1 Ephesians 6:11.
Audio length: 11:23
Download Audio (10.4MB)
More than ever before, people are alone. If not physically separated from others, they are certainly more isolated emotionally. This is one of the great curses of our time: people are lonely and disconnected, depression is rampant, more marriages than ever are dysfunctional, and a pervasive sense of aimlessness marks many lives. Why are we here on earth? I believe that the answer to this question can only be discovered when we begin to find each other—and, more than that, to find God.
Each of us needs to find God, since our “vertical” relationship with him is always a strong determinant of our “horizontal” human relationships. But what does it mean to find God?
Sometimes it seems that the word “prayer” carries too much religious baggage with it; it is worn out from too much handling by too many people. It has become a duty that people feel they must fulfill, and therefore even a burden to rebel against. Personally, I do not see prayer as a duty, but an opportunity to come before God and tell him my worries, my needs, my happiness, or my gratitude. In this sense, prayer is simply conversing with God—something anyone can do.
Prayer may be a rite that involves a written verse, a prayer book, a certain place and time of day, or even a specific position of the body. Or it may have no form at all, but simply be a posture of the heart.
For most of us, silence and solitude are the most natural starting points for finding God and communicating with him, since both entail laying aside external distractions and emptying our minds and hearts of trivial concerns. It is as if God has come into the room to talk with us, and we must first look up from whatever we are doing to acknowledge him before the conversation can begin. For others of us, the act of becoming silent before God is not only a preparation for prayer, it is prayer. Such conversation is like the unspoken dialogue between a couple, or any other two people who know each other so well that they can communicate without words.
Naturally a true conversation has both sound and silence, give and take, talking and listening. Yet it is clear that God does not desire self-centered prattling: he knows what we need even before we ask. And if we do not become inwardly quiet, how will we ever be able to hear anything but our own voice? Nor does he require long, wordy petitions. If our hearts are truly turned to him, a glance upward or a heartfelt sigh, a moment of silence or a joyous song, a tearful plea or anguished weeping will do just as well. Each of these can be just as much a prayer as any number of carefully chosen words. Indeed, they may be more.
There are many ways to pray. One woman I know told me that she envisioned herself in prayer “like a baby bird in a nest with my head stretched way up and my oversized mouth open and hungry to receive whatever my father would drop into it. Not questioning, not doubting, not worrying, just receiving and totally appreciative.”
Vemkatechwaram Thyaharaj, a friend from India, says:
I pray silently. All the same, though brought up as a Hindu Brahmin, I do not pray to an abstract being, but to the biblical Creator of the universe and of man—to God the Father. He is not distant from his creation, for Christ brought him down, close to man. It is to him I pray… Very often I resort to lonely places for prayer. In such times I experience the divine, unseen touch that imparts power and life to my body and soul. True, it is always an effort to get out of bed early, before dawn. But this has been my practice, to sit during the early morning in the presence of God when I meditate and pray. During such times my heart is filled with peace and unexplainable joy.
Vemkatechwaram touches on an important aspect of genuine prayer: insofar as it is a conversation, it is not a vague state of being, but something that moves or takes place between two or more people, even if without words.
According to the early church father Tertullian, praying is also more than directing emotions or feelings toward God. It means experiencing his reality as a power.
Prayer has power to transform the weak, to restore the sick, to free the demon-possessed, to open prison doors, and to untie the bonds that bind the innocent. Furthermore, it washes away faults and repels temptations. It extinguishes persecutions. It consoles the low in spirit, and cheers those in good spirits. It escorts travelers, calms waves, and makes robbers stand aghast. It feeds the poor and governs the rich. It raises those who have fallen, stops others from falling, and strengthens those who are standing.
Tertullian also refers to prayer as the “fortress of faith” and the “shield and weapon against the foe.” And Paul, in his Letter to the Ephesians, admonishes his fellow Christians to put on the “whole armor of God” and thereby enlist the aid of the Creator himself in times of trial.1
Valid as these metaphors may be, it is good to remember that even if God’s power can protect, shield, and comfort us, it is also a power before which we must sometimes quake. Especially after we have failed or done wrong, the act of coming to God in prayer and bringing our weaknesses to him means placing ourselves under his clear light, and seeing the wretchedness of our true state.
Our God is a consuming fire, and my filth crackles as he seizes hold of me; he is all light and my darkness shrivels under his blaze. It is this naked blaze of God that makes prayer so terrible. For most of the time, we can persuade ourselves we are good enough, as good as the next man, perhaps even better, who knows? Then we come to prayer—real prayer, unprotected prayer—and there is nothing left in us, no ground on which to stand.—Sr. Wendy Beckett
Given Sister Wendy’s recognition of the contrast between the Almighty and a puny human being, one might fairly ask, “Does God really answer me, or does my praying just get me used to the discomfort of my situation?” Indeed, there are skeptics who feel that prayer is simply a forum for working through our feelings, and those who say, “All I want is God’s will, and he can give that without my prayers.”
I have no simple answers to these riddles, but that doesn’t mean there are no answers. As I see it, it is a matter of relationships. If I claim God as my father, I need to be able to talk to him when I am in trouble. And before that, I need to be actively involved in my relationship with him—at least enough to know where I can find him.
Having given us free will, God does not force himself on any of us. He needs us to ask him to work in our lives before he intervenes. We must want his presence, be desperate for the inner food he can provide. Like the figures found on the walls of Roman catacombs, we must lift our eyes and arms to God, not merely waiting for him, but reaching upward to find him and to receive whatever he will give us.
In this sense, praying is much more than talking with God. Prayer gives us the opportunity to discern God’s will by coming into direct contact with him. It enables us to ask God for whatever we need, including judgment, mercy, and the grace to change our lives. It is even, as Henri Nouwen has written, “a revolutionary matter, because once you begin, you put your entire life in the balance.”
The one overwhelming message that stands at the center of the New Testament is love in action. And we have examples among his followers who, despite human failings, spread the gospel of love. The apostle Paul, who had earlier persecuted the Christians, became one of Christianity’s most powerful figures. In his prayers he rarely asks God for those things we most often pray for: safety, physical healing, material blessings. He is more concerned with strength of character, wisdom and discernment, love and sacrifice, personal knowledge of God and spiritual power, courage in spreading the gospel, endurance, and salvation. And unlike many modern Christians, his prayers are not selfish wishes uttered merely on behalf of himself or those dear to him. They are said for the whole earth.
Thousands of pages have been written about the Lord’s Prayer. I believe much of its power lies in its brevity and simplicity. When we have acted in haste or offended the Spirit of love, we need to ask for forgiveness. In hours of temptation, we need to ask to be led safely, and we need to be provided for and protected day by day. Above and beyond that, we need the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts and change us from our very foundations. For this to happen we must ask, “Thy will be done.” And we must mean it.
Johann Christoph Arnold is a noted speaker and writer on the topics of marriage and family, education and conflict resolution. He is a senior pastor at the Bruderhof Communities and also serves as chaplain for the local sheriff's department. His books have been translated into more than 20 languages. © Copyright 2011 by The Plough Publishing House. Used with permission.
Published on Anchor September 2013. Read by Jon Marc.
1 Ephesians 6:11.
Thursday, September 26, 2013
The Secret to Making Daily Progress
A compilation
Audio length: 7:36
Download Audio (6.9MB)
The best way to ensure that you’re making progress is to make an effort each day to take a step forward. Take a step in the right direction in some area you're working on. Refuse to vegetate or settle down. Stay stirred up by launching out into some new venture. Try something new, learn something new, do something new.
Every day can be filled with excitement and challenges; all you have to do is seek them out. And you seek them out by not being satisfied with the way things used to be. Find a new and better way to do something. Be aggressive in your spiritual life. If you find yourself getting bored or stagnant or feeling as if you're in a rut, then it's time to break out. Look around you: Is there someone you haven't talked to in a long time? Is there something new I’d like to show you in My Word? There’s always something you can do to step up and grow.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy
*
The signs of life are principally manifested by motion, action: There must be change, movement. Just so, to stay alive spiritually, we must have movement. …
It is said that Alexander the Great died weeping that there were no more worlds to conquer. The irony was that he had hardly begun to take over the world! He wasn’t even aware that more than half of the world was out there! He had only conquered a little bit of the world—from Greece to India. But because he had conquered the entire world that was known to him, or at least the parts he considered valuable, he believed there was no more to conquer.
The minute you think you have something and sit down to enjoy it, that’s when you’re apt to lose it. That’s why many a great civilization, empire, nation, religious movement, or business has vanished from the face of the earth. They stopped advancing, progressing, and moving. They had all they wanted and thought they had arrived, so they sat down to enjoy it, and whoosh! God blew upon it and it came to naught.
When you stop moving, you die. Try it. Go to bed and never get up again. How long do you think you will live if you lie there and never eat or drink or move or get rid of waste matter? You might last a few days. Some people have lasted a couple of weeks. But if you stop drinking, eating, cleansing, and moving, you’re soon dead! And that is what is spiritually wrong with some people. They have stopped drinking the water of life; they have stopped eating their spiritual food, the Word of God; they have stopped eliminating their daily besetting sins, and therefore they have died on the vine!
There is no in-between! We cannot stop! It’s like breathing: We don’t dare stop or we’re dead. We have to keep doing more every day and progressing. We need to sit down at the end of the day and keep books with our soul. We need to weigh up the accounts and say, “Now what did I do today that I won’t have to do tomorrow? What progress, what accomplishment, what more have I done than the usual things I always have to do each day?”
There is a saying, “All things change, but Jesus never.” God Himself never changes, but He does change some of His tactics and messages and methods, depending on what suits His purpose and the situation. Paul said, “I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.”1 If we as Christians are not going to constantly keep changing our tactics and methods and modes of operation, just as God does, according to what He knows will work and what won’t with each new day and new situation and new people, then we’re going to become has-beens. If we’re not flexible, pliable, able to stretch or shrink or bulge or bend to accommodate the Lord’s new wine—whatever new thing He has for us—then we’re going to burst and lose even what we’ve got, and He won’t be able to give us any more.2
But as long as we love Jesus and lost souls, as long as we seek Him and desire to do His will, as long as we go to His Word daily for fresh vision and inspiration, we have nothing to worry about. He will continually renew us in body, mind, and spirit,3 and we’ll do more than stay alive. We’ll really go places and accomplish a lot for the Lord!—David Brandt Berg4
*
If you tend to switch into a mode of monotony when you're dealing with an aspect of your life, it could indicate that you’re getting in a rut. It could be your work, the way you handle your e-mail, your relationship with Me, the way you spend your time with your children, how you say good night to your husband or wife, or how you spend your time off.
It’s fine to have certain activities that you do often, or to have a certain routine of how you do things, whether in your work or with your family. But the danger is when you become resistant to changing those things or doing things differently because you've "always done it this way," or because changing takes time and effort and it's much easier to go on without that.
Maybe some things that you do fairly often are fine to continue to do as you have been; maybe I've shown you that those things should still be done as you've been doing them. But you can also ask Me if there is anything else you should be doing, or if there are any alterations you can make to improve that task or ensure that it's getting done more efficiently or better. Be open to doing things differently and changing even simple things if it will keep you progressing and moving forward.
Maybe the time you spend with your family is fun and inspiring, and you feel that you connect with your children and your spouse in a good and positive spirit. But have you asked Me lately if I have any other counsel or fun ideas to give you for that time?
It can be challenging to be on the lookout for better ways of operating. It takes effort—not just physical effort but spiritual effort—to seek Me for counsel, to put aside your plans and opinions and be open to My will. It takes effort. But that's the point. Ruts don't require effort; My way does.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy
Published on Anchor September 2013. Read by Gabriel Garcia Valdivieso.
1 1 Corinthians 9:22.
2 Luke 5:37–38.
3 Romans 12:1–2.
4 Greater Victories (Aurora Production, 2002).
Audio length: 7:36
Download Audio (6.9MB)
The best way to ensure that you’re making progress is to make an effort each day to take a step forward. Take a step in the right direction in some area you're working on. Refuse to vegetate or settle down. Stay stirred up by launching out into some new venture. Try something new, learn something new, do something new.
Every day can be filled with excitement and challenges; all you have to do is seek them out. And you seek them out by not being satisfied with the way things used to be. Find a new and better way to do something. Be aggressive in your spiritual life. If you find yourself getting bored or stagnant or feeling as if you're in a rut, then it's time to break out. Look around you: Is there someone you haven't talked to in a long time? Is there something new I’d like to show you in My Word? There’s always something you can do to step up and grow.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy
*
The signs of life are principally manifested by motion, action: There must be change, movement. Just so, to stay alive spiritually, we must have movement. …
It is said that Alexander the Great died weeping that there were no more worlds to conquer. The irony was that he had hardly begun to take over the world! He wasn’t even aware that more than half of the world was out there! He had only conquered a little bit of the world—from Greece to India. But because he had conquered the entire world that was known to him, or at least the parts he considered valuable, he believed there was no more to conquer.
The minute you think you have something and sit down to enjoy it, that’s when you’re apt to lose it. That’s why many a great civilization, empire, nation, religious movement, or business has vanished from the face of the earth. They stopped advancing, progressing, and moving. They had all they wanted and thought they had arrived, so they sat down to enjoy it, and whoosh! God blew upon it and it came to naught.
When you stop moving, you die. Try it. Go to bed and never get up again. How long do you think you will live if you lie there and never eat or drink or move or get rid of waste matter? You might last a few days. Some people have lasted a couple of weeks. But if you stop drinking, eating, cleansing, and moving, you’re soon dead! And that is what is spiritually wrong with some people. They have stopped drinking the water of life; they have stopped eating their spiritual food, the Word of God; they have stopped eliminating their daily besetting sins, and therefore they have died on the vine!
There is no in-between! We cannot stop! It’s like breathing: We don’t dare stop or we’re dead. We have to keep doing more every day and progressing. We need to sit down at the end of the day and keep books with our soul. We need to weigh up the accounts and say, “Now what did I do today that I won’t have to do tomorrow? What progress, what accomplishment, what more have I done than the usual things I always have to do each day?”
There is a saying, “All things change, but Jesus never.” God Himself never changes, but He does change some of His tactics and messages and methods, depending on what suits His purpose and the situation. Paul said, “I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.”1 If we as Christians are not going to constantly keep changing our tactics and methods and modes of operation, just as God does, according to what He knows will work and what won’t with each new day and new situation and new people, then we’re going to become has-beens. If we’re not flexible, pliable, able to stretch or shrink or bulge or bend to accommodate the Lord’s new wine—whatever new thing He has for us—then we’re going to burst and lose even what we’ve got, and He won’t be able to give us any more.2
But as long as we love Jesus and lost souls, as long as we seek Him and desire to do His will, as long as we go to His Word daily for fresh vision and inspiration, we have nothing to worry about. He will continually renew us in body, mind, and spirit,3 and we’ll do more than stay alive. We’ll really go places and accomplish a lot for the Lord!—David Brandt Berg4
*
If you tend to switch into a mode of monotony when you're dealing with an aspect of your life, it could indicate that you’re getting in a rut. It could be your work, the way you handle your e-mail, your relationship with Me, the way you spend your time with your children, how you say good night to your husband or wife, or how you spend your time off.
It’s fine to have certain activities that you do often, or to have a certain routine of how you do things, whether in your work or with your family. But the danger is when you become resistant to changing those things or doing things differently because you've "always done it this way," or because changing takes time and effort and it's much easier to go on without that.
Maybe some things that you do fairly often are fine to continue to do as you have been; maybe I've shown you that those things should still be done as you've been doing them. But you can also ask Me if there is anything else you should be doing, or if there are any alterations you can make to improve that task or ensure that it's getting done more efficiently or better. Be open to doing things differently and changing even simple things if it will keep you progressing and moving forward.
Maybe the time you spend with your family is fun and inspiring, and you feel that you connect with your children and your spouse in a good and positive spirit. But have you asked Me lately if I have any other counsel or fun ideas to give you for that time?
It can be challenging to be on the lookout for better ways of operating. It takes effort—not just physical effort but spiritual effort—to seek Me for counsel, to put aside your plans and opinions and be open to My will. It takes effort. But that's the point. Ruts don't require effort; My way does.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy
Published on Anchor September 2013. Read by Gabriel Garcia Valdivieso.
1 1 Corinthians 9:22.
2 Luke 5:37–38.
3 Romans 12:1–2.
4 Greater Victories (Aurora Production, 2002).
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo
Paperback
by Dalton Trumbo (Author)
http://www.amazon.com/Johnny-Got-His-Dalton-Trumbo/dp/0806528478/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380142230&sr=1-1&keywords=johnny+got+his+gun+dalton+trumbo
Amazon editor say:
This was no ordinary war. This was a war to make the world safe for democracy. And if democracy was made safe, then nothing else mattered—not the millions of dead bodies, nor the thousands of ruined lives…. This is no ordinary novel. This is a novel that never takes the easy way out: it is shocking, violent, terrifying, horrible, uncompromising, brutal, remorseless, and gruesome...but so is war.Johnny Got His Gun holds a place as one of the classic antiwar novels. First published in 1939, Dalton Trumbo's story of a young American soldier terribly maimed in World War I—he "survives" armless, legless, and faceless, but with his mind intact—was an immediate bestseller. This fiercely moving novel was a rallying point for many Americans who came of age during World War II, and it became perhaps the most popular novel of protest during the Vietnam era.
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Of the 2 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 0 page(s) resulted in
malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last
time Google visited this site was on 2013-09-24, and suspicious content was never
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This site was hosted on 1 network(s) including AS15169 (GOOGLE).
Has this site acted as an intermediary resulting in further distribution of malware?
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If you are the owner of this web site, you can request a review of your site using
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Is it Necessary to Keep Ten Commandments?
By Dennis Edwards:
Here's a reply I made to a young Christian man searching for answers.
Question from Jonathan,
Brother Dennis, so much that I disagree with in your post, apart from God is our salvation, but I will start off with the first mentioned. Where, in context, does Peter and Paul say pig, shellfish, shark, dog, etc. are clean to eat? When did God change His mind on this? Where is the record of it being shared with Peter or Paul? We must remember that when the word "food" is mentioned, it is actually talking about animals that God said were to be considered food/edible. Anytime "food" is said it is never meaning what the gentiles call food. Look it over and share back. Please, I tend to be a lazy reader, so help me out by keeping it in a few short paragraphs. Thanks brother. Shalom and God Bless
My response:
Sorry that you are a lazy reader. Maybe you had dyslexia when you were little and as a result you are a slow reader. But it can be overcome if you force yourself to read every day. Amen, Lord, help Jonathan to be able to read this through to the end. In Jesus' name we pray.
First read from Acts 10:1-11:18 where Peter has the vision of eating unclean food and its consequences. We see in this first reading, God sending a message to Peter asking him to eat unclean food. Peter protests saying he has never eaten anything unclean. The voice from Heaven says to him a second time,
"What God has cleansed, that call not common." [1]
We see how Peter interprets this vision in his agreement to go with the men who have come knocking at his door, men who are not Jews and whom the Jews would have little or no dealings. When Peter arrives at Cornelius' house he even explains this to Cornelius and his guests.
"And he said unto them, You know how it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God has showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean." [2]
So here we see the interpretation by Peter of his vision of eating unclean foods. Peter is beginning to understand that the old Levitical laws no longer apply. That God had freed them from the law of Moses into the grace and truth of the law of Christ.
"What God has cleansed, that call not common." [1]
We see how Peter interprets this vision in his agreement to go with the men who have come knocking at his door, men who are not Jews and whom the Jews would have little or no dealings. When Peter arrives at Cornelius' house he even explains this to Cornelius and his guests.
"And he said unto them, You know how it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God has showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean." [2]
So here we see the interpretation by Peter of his vision of eating unclean foods. Peter is beginning to understand that the old Levitical laws no longer apply. That God had freed them from the law of Moses into the grace and truth of the law of Christ.
Now read Galatians 2:1-21.Wow, that was quite strong. Paul really lost his cool over that incident. Peter had come done from Jerusalem and was fellow-shipping with the Gentiles and I assume eating their unclean foods and was everything dandy. Until some of the Jews of the circumcision from Jerusalem , in other words those who followed Jesus but still felt it necessary to keep the law, came down to fellowship also with Peter and Paul. However, these Jews would not sit down and eat with the Gentiles. Either it was because they were Gentiles, or because of the foods they were eating was not kosher. It is not specific which, but Paul gets really upset because even Barnabas gets carried away with this false hypocritical attitude. He says,
"Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified."[3]
"Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified."[3]
In Colossians, Paul goes on to say,
"Let no man judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of holyday, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days; which are a shadow of things to come."[4]
That's pretty understandable, isn't it? We are not to judge one another about these really not so important things. They may be important to our health and be good guidelines to follow, which I myself do, but they are no longer part of our religious rules.
"Let no man judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of holyday, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days; which are a shadow of things to come."[4]
That's pretty understandable, isn't it? We are not to judge one another about these really not so important things. They may be important to our health and be good guidelines to follow, which I myself do, but they are no longer part of our religious rules.
Then in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells his disciples when he sends them out to minister,
"And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give:..... And into whatsoever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you."[5]
That was a pretty radical statement. Hadn't they entered into Samaria with Jesus where a mixed Jewish population lived whom the strict religious law keeping Jews would have nothing to do with? And what did Jesus do, but break all their religious customs and laws by drinking water from a vessel of a woman who was a Samaritan and an adulterous.[6] You see Jesus was more interested in reaching out and touching people with love and truth than in keeping religious laws.
"And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give:..... And into whatsoever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you."[5]
That was a pretty radical statement. Hadn't they entered into Samaria with Jesus where a mixed Jewish population lived whom the strict religious law keeping Jews would have nothing to do with? And what did Jesus do, but break all their religious customs and laws by drinking water from a vessel of a woman who was a Samaritan and an adulterous.[6] You see Jesus was more interested in reaching out and touching people with love and truth than in keeping religious laws.
Paul, following Jesus' footsteps goes on to say,
"All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not....Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no questions for conscience sake: for the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, and you be disposed to go; whatsoever is set before you eat, asking no questions for conscience sake....Conscience, I say, not thine own, but of the other: for why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience? For if I by grace be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of for that which I give thanks? Whether therefore you eat, or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God."[7]
Wow, again we are told it is not necessary to follow the old Judaic laws, and we shouldn't worry about what other people are thinking.
"All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not....Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no questions for conscience sake: for the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, and you be disposed to go; whatsoever is set before you eat, asking no questions for conscience sake....Conscience, I say, not thine own, but of the other: for why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience? For if I by grace be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of for that which I give thanks? Whether therefore you eat, or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God."[7]
Wow, again we are told it is not necessary to follow the old Judaic laws, and we shouldn't worry about what other people are thinking.
And of course Jesus really opens our eyes to the fruitlessness of these Judaic laws for eating and cleanliness when he said,
"There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man..... Are you without understanding? Do you not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without enters into the man, it cannot defile him; Because it enters not into his heart, but into his belly, and goes out into the drought, purging all meats? ..That which comes out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within, and defile the man."[8]
We see Jesus was trying to open the eyes of the disciples to the spiritual truths and the hypocrisy of the letter of the law, and yet they seem to have a hard time understanding.
"There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man..... Are you without understanding? Do you not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without enters into the man, it cannot defile him; Because it enters not into his heart, but into his belly, and goes out into the drought, purging all meats? ..That which comes out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within, and defile the man."[8]
We see Jesus was trying to open the eyes of the disciples to the spiritual truths and the hypocrisy of the letter of the law, and yet they seem to have a hard time understanding.
Paul has some similar advice for Timothy.
"Now the Spirit speaks expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; (like today's new age religions) speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; (from watching so much violence and immorality and blasphemy on TV) Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, (the Catholic Church tried this one) which God created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For EVERY CREATURE of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving. For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer."[9]
"Now the Spirit speaks expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; (like today's new age religions) speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; (from watching so much violence and immorality and blasphemy on TV) Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, (the Catholic Church tried this one) which God created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For EVERY CREATURE of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving. For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer."[9]
Paul also says,
"For the kingdom of God is not in meat or drink; but righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost."[10] "I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteems any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean."[11]
So therefore, Jonathan, out goes the Old Levitical laws which never brought us salvation, only condemnation and were our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.
"Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we should be justified by faith. But after faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster."[12]
"For the kingdom of God is not in meat or drink; but righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost."[10] "I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteems any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean."[11]
So therefore, Jonathan, out goes the Old Levitical laws which never brought us salvation, only condemnation and were our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.
"Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we should be justified by faith. But after faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster."[12]
We can find the same argument about circumcision and how it was no longer necessary because God had clearly given his Holy Spirit to the Gentiles in Acts even before they were baptized or followed any Jewish doctrines.
"And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then Peter answered, Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?"[13]
He we even see that baptism in water is a symbolic ritual, as the new converts had already be baptized by the Holy Spirit before Peter suggests they be baptized in water. Sometimes it's hard for us to get the point. Even John the baptist had said,
"I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I comes,...he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire."[14]
"And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then Peter answered, Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?"[13]
He we even see that baptism in water is a symbolic ritual, as the new converts had already be baptized by the Holy Spirit before Peter suggests they be baptized in water. Sometimes it's hard for us to get the point. Even John the baptist had said,
"I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I comes,...he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire."[14]
I think this a pretty good argument that we are no longer under the old Jewish Sabbatical laws, nor eating laws, nor circumcision laws, nor any of the laws, not even the Ten commandments. It's all been thrown out. We are now called to enter into the Spirit and follow God's Spiritual law which Jesus summed up for us quite nicely when he said,
"Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind.... and love thy neighbor as thyself."[15]
"Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind.... and love thy neighbor as thyself."[15]
You see, Jonathan, if we are really saved, if we have really received Christ and understand what he has done for us on the cross, we are FREE! We are free from all those rules and are now married to another. No longer are we married to the dead law which could never save us any way, because we were unable to keep it. But we are married to Christ.
"Wherefore my brethren, you are become dead to the law by the body of Christ that you should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter."[16] "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death."[17]
Elsewhere, Paul writes,
"God, who also has made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life."[18]
"Wherefore my brethren, you are become dead to the law by the body of Christ that you should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter."[16] "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death."[17]
Elsewhere, Paul writes,
"God, who also has made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life."[18]
Jesus has paid the debt of the law when he died on the cross and said,
"It is finished."[19]
Which is also interpreted as meaning, "The debt is paid." These were the same words the High Priest was saying as he finished killing the sacrificial lamb without blemish for the Passover Feast just as Jesus was dying on the cross.
"It is finished."
We are no longer under the law. Jesus has freed us from the debt of the law and has paid the debt in full.
"Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us."[20] "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."[21]
"It is finished."[19]
Which is also interpreted as meaning, "The debt is paid." These were the same words the High Priest was saying as he finished killing the sacrificial lamb without blemish for the Passover Feast just as Jesus was dying on the cross.
"It is finished."
We are no longer under the law. Jesus has freed us from the debt of the law and has paid the debt in full.
"Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us."[20] "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."[21]
So there you have it. Following God by faith, listening to His still small voice to direct you, following loves dictates is a lot more complicated than being kosher and keeping rules which only tend to make us feel righteous in ourselves. Like Paul said,
"Who has bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth? ...Received you the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh?"[22]
"Who has bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth? ...Received you the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh?"[22]
Even James makes a similar point in his epistle. he says,
"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."[23]
You see, it's not about keeping religious laws, but having compassion which compells us to do good works for others, especially those in need. Like Paul said,
"Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ."[24]
"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."[23]
You see, it's not about keeping religious laws, but having compassion which compells us to do good works for others, especially those in need. Like Paul said,
"Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ."[24]
We no longer have a "do not" religion, but a "do" religion. Do good, love your neighbor, give to him that asks, pray without ceasing, go into all the world. Our religion is no longer a religion of works of righteousness and the keeping of rules and regulations. Our religion is the religion of love, love for God and all mankind. The world is yearning for the truth of the gospel. The "good news" is that Jesus has paid it all and all you need is to come to Him for salvation and no more "providing you go to church on Sunday or Saturday."
The Beatles used to sing, "All you need is love." And it's true. All we need today is love. Love for God and love for others. Like Paul said,
"All the law is fulfilled in one word even this, Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself.[25]
Jesus said,
"On these two (loving God and loving others) hangs all the law and the prophets."[26]
Paul said,
"Owe no man any thing, but to love one another; for he that loves another has fulfilled the law."[27]
What about Jesus' golden rule,
"Therefore all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets."[28]
It's just that simple. It's just that wonderful! I hope you understand. Dennis
"All the law is fulfilled in one word even this, Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself.[25]
Jesus said,
"On these two (loving God and loving others) hangs all the law and the prophets."[26]
Paul said,
"Owe no man any thing, but to love one another; for he that loves another has fulfilled the law."[27]
What about Jesus' golden rule,
"Therefore all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets."[28]
It's just that simple. It's just that wonderful! I hope you understand. Dennis
Footnotes:
[1] Acts 10:15
[2] Act 10:28
[3] Galatians 2:16
[4] Colossians 2:16
[5] Luke 10:7-8
[6] John 4:5-28
[7] 1Corinthians 10:23-31
[8] Mark 7:15-23
[9] 1Timothy 4:1-5
[10] Romans 14:17
[11] Romans 14:14
[12] Galatians 3:24-25
[13] Acts 10:45-47
[14] Luke 3:16
[15] Matthew 22:37
[16] Romans 7:4-6
[17] Romans 8:2
[18] 2Corinthians 3:6
[19] John 19:30
[20] Galatians 3:13
]21] John 1:17
[22] Galatians 3:1-3
[23] James 1:27
[24] Galatians 6:2
[25] Galatians 5:14
[26] Matthew 22:40
[27] Romans 13:8
[28] Matthew 7:12
The Birth of Evolution in a Nutshell
Charles Darwin was born on February 12th, 1809, the same day as Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was destined to become President of the United States during its darkest and deadliest hour when more than 500,000 American lives would be lost in the Civil War. At the war's end in 1865, Lincoln himself was assassinated dying at the age of 56. Darwin would live until 1882 and die at the age of 73. However, Darwin’s theory of evolution would captured the minds of millions and lead them from faith in God to scientific fatalism. Here’s the story.
Until the 19th century, in the western world, the idea that God created the world about 6,000 years ago was quite universally accepted. Archbishop James Usher´s The Annals of the World first published in 1658 dated creation to about 4004 BC. The age of the earth and geology traditionally had followed this Biblical world view. Society was largely structured on the values laid out in the Bible.
It was in 1788 that James Hutton first published The Theory of the Earth, his book on geology. Here he explained uniformitarianism, or the idea that the present was the key to the past. In other words, by measuring the rates of natural processes in the present, scientists could extrapolate backwards to determine how long it took for geological features to form in the past. Traditionally, the geological column had been judged as the result of Noah´s flood. Hutton suggested that geology must be judged by natural causes present today and not by supposed events of the past. “The past history of our globe must be explained by what can be seen to be happening now… No powers are to be employed that are not natural to the globe, no action to be admitted except those of which we know the principles,”[1] was Hutton's mantra.
Rather than seeing the Grand Canyon as the result of massive amounts of water draining off the continent at the end of the catastrophic flood event that happened some 4,500 plus years ago, it was now seen as the result of slow natural processes over millions of years. Hutton wrote, “But surely, general deluges (such as Noah´s Flood) form no part of the theory of the earth; for the purpose of this earth is evidently to maintain vegetable and animal life, and not to destroy them.”[2] The final line in his book stated, “The result, therefore, of our present inquiry is, that we find no vestige of a beginning,–no prospect of an end,"[3] confirming his idea that the creation and flood events should not be accepted as valid.
Charles Lyell, a contemporary of Darwin, following on Hutton´s ideas, wrote his own tome, The Principles of Geology, which was published in 1830. Lyell, like Hutton, was from Scotland. Lyell had trained as a lawyer and used his lawyer´s power of persuasion to draw a brilliant defence in favour of uniformitarianism and millions of years rather than the hitherto idea of catastrophism. Catastrophism was based on the Biblical events of the creation and the worldwide flood of Noah and therefore needed only thousands of years. of earth time to explain the geological record.
Lyell himself confessed that his goal in life was to get “Moses out of science,” for until that time the creation-flood / catastrophism or Biblical viewpoint had dominated the geological interpretation of the geological column. Lyell saw himself as “the spiritual saviour of geology, freeing the science from the old dispensation of Moses.”[4] His Principles of Geology was the most influential geological work in the middle of the 19th century and helped consolidate the concept of millions of years. He said during a lecture that “….the physical past of geological inquiry ought to be conducted as if the scriptures were not in existence.”[5] Such a position is not unbiased, but is recommending that science take an anti-Biblical stance and not accept the Bible's historical record of the flood event and dismiss it with the over 240 similar Flood Legends found in cultures around the world. In other words, scientists should not take their initial assumptions from what the Bible claims, but to the contrary, scientists should avoid Biblical assumptions flat out.
When Darwin took his five year trip around the world, passing through the now famous Galapagos Islands off the western coast of South America, he took his Bible with him. He had graduated university with a Divinity Degree, though it seems his object was to have a job which would offer him sufficient time to study nature. Erasmus Darwin, his grandfather, had already written a book called Zoonomia in which he speculated about a natural law that enable all the variety of animals to develop from a first animal. During Darwin's trip to the Galapagos, the captain of the ship, the Beagle, offered Darwin a copy of Lyell´s “The Principles of Geology.” Its reading slowly changed Charles' worldview. He abandoned the creation/flood model and accepted uniformitarianism and millions of years.
Once Darwin had abandoned the Biblical model and accepted uniformitarianism with the millions of years, his mind was now open to finding a new reason for the variety of life, not based on Biblical assumptions. Hutton had already toyed with these ideas, but had “rejected the idea of evolution originating species" as a "romantic fantasy". Hutton thought that natural selection allowed species to form varieties better adapted to particular conditions and was therefore evidence of benevolent design in nature.[6] Creation scientists agree with his idea completely.
People normally picture the scientist as an unbiased scholar searching for the truth of the how and the why of things or of nature. But the truth is quite different. Every scientist starts off his work with assumptions, or a belief system of how he interprets the world around him. The data or evidence does not speak for itself, but needs to be interpreted. The scientist´s world view will affect how he interprets the data or evidence that he discovers.
Let´s take a look at how the scientists on a famous TV program such as CSI or Bones do their science. The investigators are trying to find out how something happened. They cannot go back in time, so they make a theory, a speculation, an hypothesis, and then check to see if the evidence fits their theory. If the evidence shows the theory false, they throw out the first theory and develop another one or revise or adapt the first. By doing science in the present, they try to determine how the murder might have occurred in the past. However, since they were not there in the past, they can never be sure if they are right. Often in the program they first think it is one person, and then another, until finally they come up with the right person. Ultimately, they try to get a confession, or have an eyewitness testimony, because all they have is circumstantial evidence which might not hold up in court. Sometimes in a program a bad cop fudges the evidence to make it look like someone was guilty, when they were not. Sadly many of today´s scientists are fudging the evidence in order to have the public believe that the evolution of “molecules to man” has really taken place.
The famous British biologist David Watson, was Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at University College, London from 1921 to 1951. Back in 1929 he was dubious of whether natural selection was the mechanism for evolution and confessed the following: “Evolution is a theory universally accepted not because it can be proved to be true, but because the only alternative, special creation, [the idea that the universe and all life in it originated by divine decree] is clearly incredible.”[7]
Charles Lyell, a contemporary of Darwin, following on Hutton´s ideas, wrote his own tome, The Principles of Geology, which was published in 1830. Lyell, like Hutton, was from Scotland. Lyell had trained as a lawyer and used his lawyer´s power of persuasion to draw a brilliant defence in favour of uniformitarianism and millions of years rather than the hitherto idea of catastrophism. Catastrophism was based on the Biblical events of the creation and the worldwide flood of Noah and therefore needed only thousands of years. of earth time to explain the geological record.
Lyell himself confessed that his goal in life was to get “Moses out of science,” for until that time the creation-flood / catastrophism or Biblical viewpoint had dominated the geological interpretation of the geological column. Lyell saw himself as “the spiritual saviour of geology, freeing the science from the old dispensation of Moses.”[4] His Principles of Geology was the most influential geological work in the middle of the 19th century and helped consolidate the concept of millions of years. He said during a lecture that “….the physical past of geological inquiry ought to be conducted as if the scriptures were not in existence.”[5] Such a position is not unbiased, but is recommending that science take an anti-Biblical stance and not accept the Bible's historical record of the flood event and dismiss it with the over 240 similar Flood Legends found in cultures around the world. In other words, scientists should not take their initial assumptions from what the Bible claims, but to the contrary, scientists should avoid Biblical assumptions flat out.
When Darwin took his five year trip around the world, passing through the now famous Galapagos Islands off the western coast of South America, he took his Bible with him. He had graduated university with a Divinity Degree, though it seems his object was to have a job which would offer him sufficient time to study nature. Erasmus Darwin, his grandfather, had already written a book called Zoonomia in which he speculated about a natural law that enable all the variety of animals to develop from a first animal. During Darwin's trip to the Galapagos, the captain of the ship, the Beagle, offered Darwin a copy of Lyell´s “The Principles of Geology.” Its reading slowly changed Charles' worldview. He abandoned the creation/flood model and accepted uniformitarianism and millions of years.
Once Darwin had abandoned the Biblical model and accepted uniformitarianism with the millions of years, his mind was now open to finding a new reason for the variety of life, not based on Biblical assumptions. Hutton had already toyed with these ideas, but had “rejected the idea of evolution originating species" as a "romantic fantasy". Hutton thought that natural selection allowed species to form varieties better adapted to particular conditions and was therefore evidence of benevolent design in nature.[6] Creation scientists agree with his idea completely.
People normally picture the scientist as an unbiased scholar searching for the truth of the how and the why of things or of nature. But the truth is quite different. Every scientist starts off his work with assumptions, or a belief system of how he interprets the world around him. The data or evidence does not speak for itself, but needs to be interpreted. The scientist´s world view will affect how he interprets the data or evidence that he discovers.
Let´s take a look at how the scientists on a famous TV program such as CSI or Bones do their science. The investigators are trying to find out how something happened. They cannot go back in time, so they make a theory, a speculation, an hypothesis, and then check to see if the evidence fits their theory. If the evidence shows the theory false, they throw out the first theory and develop another one or revise or adapt the first. By doing science in the present, they try to determine how the murder might have occurred in the past. However, since they were not there in the past, they can never be sure if they are right. Often in the program they first think it is one person, and then another, until finally they come up with the right person. Ultimately, they try to get a confession, or have an eyewitness testimony, because all they have is circumstantial evidence which might not hold up in court. Sometimes in a program a bad cop fudges the evidence to make it look like someone was guilty, when they were not. Sadly many of today´s scientists are fudging the evidence in order to have the public believe that the evolution of “molecules to man” has really taken place.
The famous British biologist David Watson, was Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at University College, London from 1921 to 1951. Back in 1929 he was dubious of whether natural selection was the mechanism for evolution and confessed the following: “Evolution is a theory universally accepted not because it can be proved to be true, but because the only alternative, special creation, [the idea that the universe and all life in it originated by divine decree] is clearly incredible.”[7]
When talking about evolution, we are talking about “molecules to man” evolution or common descent from the first living organism. The evolutionary tree of life demonstrates all life springing from one source. Biologists often claim that since we can see that a change does take place in a species, "evolution" has occurred. A change within a species or kind of animal is an example of what Creationist scientists call “micro-evolution.” Creationist scientists agree that some form of “speciation” does take place, but never does a new type or “kind” of animal develop. Creationists would call the change that takes place "variation within a species," or “kind” of animal, not evolution.
Dr Jason Lisle talks about the shift of one meaning of a word in an argument to another meaning in his book Discerning Truth: Exposing Errors in Evolutionary Arguments. It's called the equivocation fallacy. He says, “Evolution can mean “change” in a general sense, but it also refers to the idea that organisms share a common ancestor or “particles to people” evolution. Many evolutionists seem to think that by demonstrating evolution in the sense of change it some how proves evolution in the sense of “common descent” or “particles to people” evolution. You might hear someone say, `Creationists are wrong because we can see evolution happening all the time. Organism are constantly changing and adapting to their environment.´ But the fact that animals change does not demonstrate that they share a common ancestor. This is a very common fallacy used in evolutionary arguments.”[8]
Scientists have even discovered that some bacteria possess a genetic capacity to resist certain antibiotics. Mutations are not involved. In other cases, structural defects are caused in the organism where the antibiotic would attach itself, thus making the bacteria resistant. But rather than saying that the bacteria gained resistant, we could say that the antibiotic lost its ability to attach itself to the bacteria. The mutation in the bacteria caused a structural defect in the bacteria, thus, prohibiting the attachment of the antibiotic.
Normally what we see in nature is variation within a kind of animal or organism, not “molecules to man” evolution. The term “micro evolution” is used in these cases, but “micro-evolution” plus millions of years will not give us “macro-evolution” or “molecules to man” evolution. The problem remains; neither natural selection nor mutations can add new genetic information to the DNA.
Sir Fred Hoyle, the famous British mathematician and astronomer, questioned the very origins of the first cell through evolution. He said, “The likelihood of the formation of life from inanimate matter is one to a number with 40,000 zeros after it. It is big enough to bury Darwin and the whole General Theory of Evolution. There was no primordial soup, neither on this planet nor any other, and if the beginnings of life were not random, they must, therefore, have been the product of purposeful intelligence.”[9] As a mathematician he strongly argued against the mathematical probability of life starting from non-life naturally. Because the improbability was so high, he concluded that abiogenesis, or the theory that life started from non-life long ago, was impossible.
“Molecules to man evolution” has no mechanism. There is no way for one type of animal to change into another, no matter how much time is involved. When Charles Darwin was writing his Origins of the Species, the scientific community knew nothing of Mendel´s genetic studies, which were later published in French in 1866 seven years after the Origins. Scientists did not become aware of Mendel's studies until the beginning of the 1900´s. At that time, evolutionists hoped that Mendel´s genetics would offer them the mechanism for evolution. But they were sadly disappointed. Genetics proved a dead end. It clearly showed that a great variety within a species was possible to obtain, but only to a limit. The gene pool was limited; therefore the genetic variation possible from the gene pool was also a limited. Genetics did not help. It just confirmed the idea that there existed a barrier between the different “kinds” of organisms and that barrier could not be crossed. In fact studies have shown that a good course in genetics, even if taught by an evolutionist, reduces the student´s belief in biological evolution.
Today scientists know that neither natural selection nor mutations can create new genetic information. New genetic information would be necessary, for example, to change a reptilian lung into an avian lung. Biologist Michael Denton does a good study on this topic which can be seen on YouTube on “From a Prince to a Frog,”[10] In his book Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, Denton wrote, “Neither of the two fundamental axioms of Darwin´s macro-evolutionary theory- the idea that all of life forms are linked together and ultimately lead back to a primordial cell and the belief that all the adaptive design of life has resulted from a random process – have been validated by one single empirical discovery or scientific advance since 1859.”[11]
Reiterating the point once again, neither natural selection nor mutations, which evolutionists claim are the mechanisms for evolutionary change, can form new genetic information.
Dr. Lee Spetner, who holds a PHD in physics from MIT said in his book called Shattering the Modern Theory of Evolution: “In all the reading I have done in life-science literature, I have never found a mutation that added information. All point mutations that have been studied on the molecular level turn out to reduce genetic information, not increase it.”[12]
British scientist Michael Pitman has commented that “neither observation nor controlled experimentation has shown natural selection manipulating mutations so as to produce a new gene, hormone, enzyme or organ.”[13]
A final quote on the subject by Dr. Wilder- Smith a famous British geneticist: “The chemistry of mutations in the genetic code has an effect similar to that of water on a text. Mutations modify or destroy already existing genetic information, but they never create new information, they never create an entirely new biological organ. Herein lays the error of New Darwinism which teaches that fundamentally new information is created by mutations.”[14] Some fascinating lectures and debates by Dr. Wilder – Smith can be found on YouTube.
Today, many children are born with one of the thousands of genetic defects or diseases. These defects/diseases are a result of mutations in the parental genes. Evidence from science clearly shows that mutations are usually deadly or dangerous and not beneficial. The few that may be beneficial, like sickle cell anaemia, are still caused by the loss of or damage to the genetic information.
Why are students still being taught in their textbooks that natural selection together with mutations are mechanisms for evolutionary change? Evolutionists do not want to let the cat out of the bag. They do not have a better answer and do not want to admit that they have not found a mechanism for evolution. They hide the facts because they believe their paradigm so strongly and because the only viable alternative is divine creation. Like one evolutionist Harvard Professor of Genetics Richard Lewontin said, “We take the side of evolutionary science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just so stories, because we have a prior commitment to materialism, that materialism is absolute for we cannot allow a divine foot in the door,”[15] or repeating the Professor David Watson quote, “Evolution is a theory universally accepted not because it can be proved to be true, but because the only alternative, special creation, is clearly incredible.”[16] Scott Todd from Kansas State University has said something similarly, “Even if all the data should point to an intelligent designer, such a hypothesis is excluded from science because it is not naturalistic.”[17]
The argument is not science verses religion as evolutionists like to present it. The argument is between two differing world views. Duane Gish said, “The battle is with the evolutionary philosophy and faith, not science. Evolution is a powerful religious concept, which if correctly understood, negates all of Christianity.”[18]
Evidence does not speak for itself. The fossils are not found with dates already attached. They do not talk. Science does not say anything. It is the scientists who make value judgments about their observations. But, if they are good scientists, they should make their judgments based on whether the evidence is in accordance with known laws of nature or physics, not according to their particular bias about origins. The evolutionist Bateson has confessed, “We cannot see how differences into species came about, variation of many kinds, often considerable, we daily witness, but no origins of species. Meanwhile, though our faith in evolution stands unshaken, we have no acceptable account of the origin of species.”[19]
Science can never prove what happened in the past. Scientists can speculate, and can formulate theories. But historical science can never be proved in a laboratory. Historical science deals with speculating about how events or processes took place in the past. Historical science is at best philosophical, because it deals with assumptions about past events. Neither creation nor evolution can be proven in the laboratory. They are historical scientific models or ways to view the evidence and interpret how events might have happened in the past. They are not scientific facts. However, the scientific facts or evidence should align with a scientific model that is accurate.
Science which we perform in the laboratory is called operational science and is done by following the scientific method: observation, hypothesis, experimentation, observation, conclusion, testing and verification. Operational science has given us the man on the moon, mobile phones, laptops, modern medicines and so on.
But “origins” or historical science is speculation about past events and as such does not come under the same category as operational science. We are not able to go back in time and observe what happened at the beginning of time. Scientists speculate about the past and make ideological judgments before doing the science or the mathematical equations. Like Stephen Hawking admits in his book The Brief History of Time. When talking about the big bang, he mentions that he must add “a mixture of ideology.”[20]
Internationally renowned astrophysicist George FR Ellis who worked closely with Hawking said when talking about the Big Bang that, "People need to be aware that there is a range of models that can explain the observations .... For instance, I can construct a spherically symmetric universe for you, with Earth at its center, and you cannot prove otherwise based on observations, (that it is wrong) ....you can only exclude it on philosophical grounds. In my opinion, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I want to bring into the open is the fact that we are using philosophical criteria in choosing our models. A lot of cosmology tries to hide it. "[21]
The point he is trying to make, as an honest scientist, is that the idea of the Big Bang without a center and without an edge is an ideological decision. Scientists choose a model without a center and without an edge to keep away from the Biblical idea that the earth is special and has a special place in the universe. However, if you start with the earth´s galaxy near the center of the universe, which the observable evidence cannot disprove and seems to agree with, you come to totally different conclusions. Dr. Russell Humphreys, starting with Biblical assumptions, has done some interesting work in area of Starlight and Time, which are worth viewing here.[22]. Today´s leaders of scientific inquiry purposely choose a center-less and edge-less universe for philosophical reasons, because they “cannot allow a divine foot in the door.”[23]
Basically, there are two worldviews in the scientific community: the Biblical creationist worldview and the naturalistic evolutionary worldview. The naturalists believe that the world and everything in it can be explained only by what we find in the natural material world. They do not believe in the supernatural. Naturalism was popular world view in the 19th century and on into the early 20th century. You have many naturalist writers at that time such as Stephen Crane, Jack London, and Ernest Hemingway, to name a few, which ultimately led to the existentialism of Kafka, Sartre and Camus.
We need to understand that naturalism is the underlining philosophy of evolution. The evolutionary scientists have tried or are trying to change the original reason for science and meaning of science. Science originally was the search for the truth of the how and the why of the world around us. Today's scientists like to define science as the search for naturalistic reasons to the how and the why of life and the world around us. Even if the evidence should point to the supernatural, evolutionists will not accept it. They claim that the supernatural is outside the realm of science. Evolutionary scientist Ernest Mayr said in 1988, “In scientific controversies, there is rarely any argument about facts. It is rather their interpretation that is controversial.”[24]
By buildings their theory on the false premise “there is no supernatural,” the evolutionists were bound to come to the wrong conclusion. A false premise will not lead to a correct, logical conclusion. The supernatural does exist. Thousands of people experience it every day. People experience healings. They hear voices that keep them from danger. They have dreams or visions that warn them about some evil or tell them of the death of a loved one. Scientist and doctors have written numerable books about people who have had life after death experiences. Just recently a book about a young child who had a Near Death Experience has been quite popular. People have supernatural experiences that change their lives. The supernatural is real.
Naturalism starts with the metaphysical conclusion that there is no supernatural. Therefore, naturalism is false. Therefore, evolution which is founded on naturalism is also false. Honest scientists should be more open to the problems within the theory of evolution and consider the creation model as a viable alternative. Dave Schoch in his book The Assumptions Behind the Theory of Evolution says, “The truth can only be made up of facts, not assumptions. We should not be teaching assumptions as facts to our children, especially a theory that only stands upon one assumption after another.”[25]
In the book In Six Days: Why 50 Scientists Choose to Believe in Creation,[26] scientists with doctorates in various scientific fields give clear testimony and reasoning to their personal decisions to accept the Biblical creation model over the current more popular evolutionary model. These scientists not only reject the Darwinian evolutionary model as unscientific, but chose a literal six day creation event to be the most scientific of the choices.
For more information on the creation/evolution debate from the Biblical creationist viewpoint the following websites are available, although there are many others:
http://www.answersingenesis.org/
http://creation.com/
http://www.creationtoday.org/
http://www.icr.org/
Also, on YouTube many creation documentaries can be found as well as interesting debates between creationists and evolutionists. Jesus said, “Seek and you shall find.”[27] He also said, “You shall seek me and find me when you shall search for me with all your heart.”[28] If you really hunger and thirst after “truth” you will find it. That´s a promise!
Footnotes:
1. Hutton, James; http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/scottishenlightenment/jameshutton/learnmore.asp.
2. Hutton, James; The Abyss of Time: Changing Conceptions of the Earth's Antiquity After the ...
By Claude C. Albritton; page 100 chapter 8.
3. Hutton, James;. http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/vestiges-of-james-hutton.
4. Lyell, Charles; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lyell.
5. Lyell, Charles; God and nature: historical essays on the encounter between Christianity and ...
edited by David C. Lindberg, Ronald Leslie Numbers, “Geologists and Interpreters of Genesis,” page 337.
6. James Hutton - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Paul N. Pearson (16 October 2003). "In Retrospect". Nature V. 425 #6959, p. 665. Comments on Hutton's 3-volume 1794 work, An Investigation of the Principles of Knowledge and of the Progress of Reason, from Sense to Science and Philosophy.
7. Watson, D; http://theevolutioncrisis.org.uk/to-the-reader.php.
8. Lisle, Dr. Jason; Discerning Truth; 20010, page 20.
9. Hoyle, Sir Fred; (1981)"Hoyle on Evolution,"
Nature, Vol. 294, No. 5837, November 12, p. 148
10. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtDX17KjjG0
11. Denton, Dr. Michael; http://www.trueorigin.org/isakrbtl.asp.
12. Spetner, Dr. Lee; Tornado in a Junkyard (James Perloff), 1999, page 26.
13. Pitman, Michael; Tornado in a Junkyard (James Perloff), 1999, page26.
14. Wilder- Smith, Dr.; Tornado in a Junkyard (James Perloff), 1999, pg. 27.
15. Lewontin, Professor Richard; “Billions and billions of demons,” The New York Review; http://dailyevidence.wordpress.com/2011/09/14/the-divine-foot/.
16. Watson, D; http://theevolutioncrisis.org.uk/to-the-reader.php.
17. Todd, Scott; correspondence to Nature 401(6752):423, 30 Sept. 1999; http://creation.com/a-designer-is-unscientific-even-if-all-the-evidence-supports-one.
18. Gish, Dr. Duane; Creation Scientists Answer Their Critics, 1993 p. 42,.
19. Bateson; http://www.scribd.com/doc/132636931/Predicament-of-Evolution quoted by George McCready Price, 1925.
20. Hawking, Dr. Stephen; http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/1998/01/21/review-relative-cosmology.
21. Ellis, FR. George; http://www.allaboutscience.org/big-bang-theory.htm.
22. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mooHSXTR2RE
23. Lewontin, Richard; http://creation.com/amazing-admission-lewontin-quote.
24. Mayr, Ernest; http://bevets.com/evobiaspics.htm.
25. Schoch, Dave; 2008.
26. John F. Aston (Editor), 2001.
27. Matthew 7:7
28. Jeremiah 29:13
Unplugged by Anna Spring
By: Anne Spring
Book Category:
Christian Missions,
Christian Life - Inspirational
Language: English
ISBN-13: 9781938526596
Pages: 146
Dimensions: 5.25 in × 8 in × 0.313 in
Weight: 0.354 lb
How a life became a mission ...
Raised during the hippie era, Anne Spring had an inborn desire to be free to experience life and the wonders of what she perceived to be God’s creation as she saw fit, free from the shackles of a 9 to 5 job just to survive.
She saw Jesus for what He was: a long-haired hippie in sandals who rebelled against the system of His day while loving the outcasts and the sinners.
But was it possible in this modern day and age to serve and follow Jesus, while remaining unplugged from the bonds of conformity?
Using Him as her role model, Anne Spring has been following Jesus’ example for 40 years, helping the needy, raising and home-schooling three children in the process. Unplugged from the Norm proves that it is possible to live a life like Jesus commanded, outside the established system, and that He actually likes it when we do. He has promised to supply everything we need, according to His riches, as we go.
Unplugged from the Norm is a non-fictional account of Anne Spring’s life, travels, service for the Lord, and His miracle supply over the past four decades across five continents.
Pursuing God’s Spirit
By Peter Amsterdam
His delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.[1]
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.[2]
Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”[3]
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.[4]
And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.[5]
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.[6]
The Family International’s second core value is:
Pursuing God’s Spirit. We desire to know and understand the truth of God’s Word, the essence of His divine nature. We value the foundational principles of the written Word, hearing from God, and following His guidance.
God’s Spirit within us empowers, changes, transforms, reforms, inspires, and moves us to do God’s will, whether it’s to love others, to witness, to teach, to preach, to speak, to create, among other things. The Holy Spirit is the living presence of God who dwells within us, and it is the Holy Spirit’s transformative influence that guides our conscience and empowers us to live according to God’s truth.
The key word in pursuing God’s Spirit is the word pursue. That word has definitions which include to try hard to achieve or obtain something over a period of time, to work at, to strive to gain or accomplish; to practice systematically.
As is brought out in these definitions, pursuing God’s Spirit requires action. If you are pursuing a master’s degree, it means you are putting work and time into your field of study. If you’re pursuing a career in a particular sport, you spend a lot of time practicing and working out so that your body is strong and fit for the rigors of the competition.
God’s Spirit speaks to us through His words, first through the Bible and then through other means, whether the writings or words of others, or through prophecy, revelation, etc. The Word prepares the ground of our hearts for the work of the Holy Spirit and opens our hearts, minds, and spirits to the influence of the Spirit. It is then our responsibility to follow God’s leadings in our lives.
We desire to hear the Lord’s voice and to be led by Him. We want to allow His laws of love to guide our lives. We are compelled to follow the moral code God has placed in our hearts, so that our actions are driven by love and integrity. We want the Lord’s Spirit to guide us into wisdom, truth, and love toward Him and others.
As with other things, how a person responds to the conviction of the Spirit in his or her life is a matter of personal choice and faith, but it is important to be open and adaptable to the movement of the Spirit in your heart and life.
A key element in letting God guide us, in finding His leading, and following Him is to be grounded in His Word.
We believe that drawing near to God by seeking to know and understand the truth of His Word is a high priority for all of Christ’s followers. The Bible is God revealing Himself to humankind, which is a marvelous thing, don’t you think? It’s through understanding the Word of God that we discover God’s plan for us. The next step is living that truth in our daily lives, to the best of our ability, by God’s grace.
In order to live that truth, we need to understand that truth. To understand it we need to pursue it, which means, as was said earlier, to work at it, to spend some time at it.
When Jesus was asked which was the most important of God’s commandments, He said to love God with your heart, soul, mind, and strength. He specifically mentioned the mind.[7]Desiring to know and understand God’s Word requires using your mind. It requires taking time to not just read, but to learn, to study, to grow in understanding. As we understand who He is through comprehending His divine nature, it increases our love for Him, our awe of His power, love, and wisdom. Knowing Him better draws us closer to Him.
The Bible is God’s personal word to each of us. In it you can find God’s counsel and answers as you seek His guidance in your life. As you ask Him for answers, for guidance and direction, for solutions, search the Scriptures, and let Him speak to you through His Word and through the leading of His Spirit.
Our faith in God and our understanding of Him grows stronger the more we read and study His Word. Faith is built by faithful study of God's Word and through applying its teachings to our everyday lives.
If you read the Bible you will find a constant and continual greater and greater revelation of more and more truth, fitting more and more missing pieces into the great and puzzling picture of God's complete and perfected and final overall design![8]
Cecil B. DeMille (1881–1959), who produced the well-known movie “The Ten Commandments,” said: "After more than 60 years of almost daily reading of the Bible, I never fail to find it always new and marvelously in tune with the changing needs of every day."
George Mueller (1805–1898) said: "The vigor of our spiritual life will be in exact proportion to the place held by the Bible in our life and thoughts."
What is the life-giving flow that gives life from God?—It's the Word! It's His Word that gives us life, food, nourishment, strength and spiritual health. Jesus Himself said, "The Words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit and they are Life!"[9] … There's nothing more powerful than God’s Word! The Word is the secret of power, victory, overcoming, fruitfulness, fire, life, warmth, light and leadership!—The secret of everything good is the Word of God![10]
I like to read a variety of books, especially history and historical fiction. But over the last years, as I’ve focused more on studying the Bible, the more passionate I grow aboutstudying the Bible. In the past I was content with reading God’s Word without deeper study. It fed my spirit as I did, but I’ve found that as I put more time and effort into studying Scripture, learning what it tells us about God and trying to more deeply understand what it teaches, that I am profoundly moved and changed by it. I’m grateful to be living in a time when so much information is available online and in print. It’s still work to study, but it’s so much easier than it was in the past. My goal is to pass on what I’ve learned to you through my posts on Directors’ Corner.
Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832), the poet and novelist, said, "The most learned, acute, and diligent student cannot, in the longest life, obtain an entire knowledge of the Bible. The more deeply he works the mine, the richer and more abundant he finds the ore."
Of course, the Bible isn’t the only book in the world one should read, but it is a book that should be read, meditated upon, studied, and absorbed over and over again. After all, it’s the book that reveals what God has told us about Himself. It contains His words to us, His answers to the life we live as well as information regarding the life to come. It teaches us how to interact with Him, how to become more like Him. And above all, it tells us how to enter into a relationship with Him, to receive Him into our life, to become connected with Him.
Reading, believing, and absorbing God’s Word profoundly changes us.
As D. L. Moody (1837–1899) said, “The Bible was not given to increase our knowledge but to change our lives.”
Charles Colson (1931–2012) said: "The Bible—banned, burned, beloved—is more widely read, more frequently attacked than any other book in history. Generations of intellectuals have attempted to discredit it, dictators of every age have outlawed it and executed those who read it. Yet soldiers carry it into battle believing it more powerful than their weapons. Fragments of it smuggled into solitary prison cells have transformed ruthless killers into gentle saints."
As you might know, Charles Colson was a Special Counsel to U.S. President Nixon. He served seven months in a federal prison and was the first member of the Nixon administration to be incarcerated for Watergate-related charges. As Colson was facing arrest, his close friend gave him a copy of Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis, which, after reading it, led Colson to become a Christian. His life was changed forever.
I recently read a beautiful testimony of another changed life. It’s the story of a successful businessman who was convinced that he didn’t need Jesus, nor did he believe that the Bible was God’s Word. His son, a born-again Christian, had witnessed to him for years, but to no avail, until a dramatic and tragic event changed everything. His son was hospitalized due to an emergency; he was in critical condition in the intensive care unit. The son told his father, “God is in charge. If God’s purpose in my suffering is to bring you to Christ, then everything I’m going through is worth it.” Needless to say, the father was stunned.
For days the father read to his son from the Bible as he lay in the intensive care unit. It was through that reading of the Bible that for the first time in his life the father began to see what the Bible was really about and who Jesus really was. Seeing his son’s strong faith in Jesus, combined with what he read in the Bible, made him realize that Jesus is real. He surrendered his life to Christ. His son was overjoyed. The son went to be with the Lord shortly thereafter, but the father had peace that passes understanding, knowing that they would meet again and be together forever in heaven.
Our lives are made better when we absorb God’s Word. It takes work to read and study His Word, but as we do we become more strongly connected to God and His Spirit. As we make the effort to spend regular time reading His words, as we discipline ourselves to put in the necessary time and effort, if we’re willing to pursue it, we will dwell richly in Him. Spending time with His words is spending time with Him.
As one author said, we don’t have to read Scripture. We want to read Scripture. We get to read Scripture. It’s our privilege. No one should tell me, “You have to kiss your wife.” No. Iget to kiss her, I want to kiss her. Because I love her.[11] We who are passionate about God, who love Him, who are willing to pursue His Spirit, want to know all we can about Him. We want to hear from Him and follow Him, and one of the primary ways to do so is spending time reading His Word.
We don’t study simply because we want to gain a greater knowledge about God and His divine nature. We do it because we want to know Him better, to love Him more, and to have Him participate in our lives. We desire His guidance, to hear His voice, to follow where He leads.
God speaks to us in a variety of ways, and we can hear Him if we listen. We listen when we meditate on His Word, when we ask Him to show us how to apply what we’ve read in our daily life. We also listen when we get quiet within ourselves and give Him the opportunity to speak to us. This too takes effort, as we open our hearts to His voice, being ready for however He wants to speak to us, whether it be through thoughts that He brings to our minds, through His voice in prophecy, through His written Word, or by speaking to us through other Christians. The key is being open, quieting our spirits, listening, and being attentive.
It’s a privilege that God wants to speak to us individually. And He will if we set time aside to hear from Him—either in prophecy or through His still small voice or the voice of the Word. It’s advantageous to have a notebook handy or some way to write down the message that He gives so that we can remember His instruction or leading.
The Bible reveals to us the general will of God, but not the specific will of God for the individual. God expects that each one of us will seek Him for His guidance and for how to specifically apply His general will in our lives.
A hallmark of TFI’s guiding principles is that we have the liberty to follow God and His fresh guidance day by day. We place great value on being Spirit-led, being guided by the Holy Spirit, and on hearing from God and receiving His personalized instructions for today. As it says in our Statement of Faith: “We believe that God is a living God who continues to speak to His people today and to impart His message through ongoing revelation, prophecy, and words of spiritual direction and counsel.”
God is our life partner. He wants to be active in our lives. He wants to lead us and help us to make good decisions. Following Him is allowing Him to have influence in our lives; it’s consciously asking Him for His guidance and doing what He shows us. It’s having a conversation with Him, speaking with Him as you would those you are closest to, and listening to His still small voice.
God loves us, He’s on our side, and we can trust Him. When we do that, He will not fail us; He will lead us. As we pursue God’s Spirit, as we put in the effort to connect with Him through His Word, through listening to His voice, and as we follow Him, we will live God-centered, God-filled, God-directed lives, full of love, joy, and great satisfaction.
Note: Unless otherwise indicated, all scriptures are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[1] Psalm 1:2 NIV.
[2] Psalm 119:105.
[3] John 14:23.
[4] Colossians 3:16.
[5] Acts 2:17–18.
[6] John 4:24.
[7] Mark 12:30.
[8] David Brandt Berg, "New Life, New Love," June 1978, 731:10–12 (adapted).
[9] John 6:63.
[10] Daily Might, March 22 (Aurora Production, 2004).
[11] Tony Merida, "Letting the Word Dwell in You Richly," accessed September 16, 2013.
His delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.[1]
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.[2]
Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”[3]
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.[4]
And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.[5]
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.[6]
The Family International’s second core value is:
Pursuing God’s Spirit. We desire to know and understand the truth of God’s Word, the essence of His divine nature. We value the foundational principles of the written Word, hearing from God, and following His guidance.
God’s Spirit within us empowers, changes, transforms, reforms, inspires, and moves us to do God’s will, whether it’s to love others, to witness, to teach, to preach, to speak, to create, among other things. The Holy Spirit is the living presence of God who dwells within us, and it is the Holy Spirit’s transformative influence that guides our conscience and empowers us to live according to God’s truth.
The key word in pursuing God’s Spirit is the word pursue. That word has definitions which include to try hard to achieve or obtain something over a period of time, to work at, to strive to gain or accomplish; to practice systematically.
As is brought out in these definitions, pursuing God’s Spirit requires action. If you are pursuing a master’s degree, it means you are putting work and time into your field of study. If you’re pursuing a career in a particular sport, you spend a lot of time practicing and working out so that your body is strong and fit for the rigors of the competition.
God’s Spirit speaks to us through His words, first through the Bible and then through other means, whether the writings or words of others, or through prophecy, revelation, etc. The Word prepares the ground of our hearts for the work of the Holy Spirit and opens our hearts, minds, and spirits to the influence of the Spirit. It is then our responsibility to follow God’s leadings in our lives.
We desire to hear the Lord’s voice and to be led by Him. We want to allow His laws of love to guide our lives. We are compelled to follow the moral code God has placed in our hearts, so that our actions are driven by love and integrity. We want the Lord’s Spirit to guide us into wisdom, truth, and love toward Him and others.
As with other things, how a person responds to the conviction of the Spirit in his or her life is a matter of personal choice and faith, but it is important to be open and adaptable to the movement of the Spirit in your heart and life.
A key element in letting God guide us, in finding His leading, and following Him is to be grounded in His Word.
We believe that drawing near to God by seeking to know and understand the truth of His Word is a high priority for all of Christ’s followers. The Bible is God revealing Himself to humankind, which is a marvelous thing, don’t you think? It’s through understanding the Word of God that we discover God’s plan for us. The next step is living that truth in our daily lives, to the best of our ability, by God’s grace.
In order to live that truth, we need to understand that truth. To understand it we need to pursue it, which means, as was said earlier, to work at it, to spend some time at it.
When Jesus was asked which was the most important of God’s commandments, He said to love God with your heart, soul, mind, and strength. He specifically mentioned the mind.[7]Desiring to know and understand God’s Word requires using your mind. It requires taking time to not just read, but to learn, to study, to grow in understanding. As we understand who He is through comprehending His divine nature, it increases our love for Him, our awe of His power, love, and wisdom. Knowing Him better draws us closer to Him.
The Bible is God’s personal word to each of us. In it you can find God’s counsel and answers as you seek His guidance in your life. As you ask Him for answers, for guidance and direction, for solutions, search the Scriptures, and let Him speak to you through His Word and through the leading of His Spirit.
Our faith in God and our understanding of Him grows stronger the more we read and study His Word. Faith is built by faithful study of God's Word and through applying its teachings to our everyday lives.
If you read the Bible you will find a constant and continual greater and greater revelation of more and more truth, fitting more and more missing pieces into the great and puzzling picture of God's complete and perfected and final overall design![8]
Cecil B. DeMille (1881–1959), who produced the well-known movie “The Ten Commandments,” said: "After more than 60 years of almost daily reading of the Bible, I never fail to find it always new and marvelously in tune with the changing needs of every day."
George Mueller (1805–1898) said: "The vigor of our spiritual life will be in exact proportion to the place held by the Bible in our life and thoughts."
What is the life-giving flow that gives life from God?—It's the Word! It's His Word that gives us life, food, nourishment, strength and spiritual health. Jesus Himself said, "The Words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit and they are Life!"[9] … There's nothing more powerful than God’s Word! The Word is the secret of power, victory, overcoming, fruitfulness, fire, life, warmth, light and leadership!—The secret of everything good is the Word of God![10]
I like to read a variety of books, especially history and historical fiction. But over the last years, as I’ve focused more on studying the Bible, the more passionate I grow aboutstudying the Bible. In the past I was content with reading God’s Word without deeper study. It fed my spirit as I did, but I’ve found that as I put more time and effort into studying Scripture, learning what it tells us about God and trying to more deeply understand what it teaches, that I am profoundly moved and changed by it. I’m grateful to be living in a time when so much information is available online and in print. It’s still work to study, but it’s so much easier than it was in the past. My goal is to pass on what I’ve learned to you through my posts on Directors’ Corner.
Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832), the poet and novelist, said, "The most learned, acute, and diligent student cannot, in the longest life, obtain an entire knowledge of the Bible. The more deeply he works the mine, the richer and more abundant he finds the ore."
Of course, the Bible isn’t the only book in the world one should read, but it is a book that should be read, meditated upon, studied, and absorbed over and over again. After all, it’s the book that reveals what God has told us about Himself. It contains His words to us, His answers to the life we live as well as information regarding the life to come. It teaches us how to interact with Him, how to become more like Him. And above all, it tells us how to enter into a relationship with Him, to receive Him into our life, to become connected with Him.
Reading, believing, and absorbing God’s Word profoundly changes us.
As D. L. Moody (1837–1899) said, “The Bible was not given to increase our knowledge but to change our lives.”
Charles Colson (1931–2012) said: "The Bible—banned, burned, beloved—is more widely read, more frequently attacked than any other book in history. Generations of intellectuals have attempted to discredit it, dictators of every age have outlawed it and executed those who read it. Yet soldiers carry it into battle believing it more powerful than their weapons. Fragments of it smuggled into solitary prison cells have transformed ruthless killers into gentle saints."
As you might know, Charles Colson was a Special Counsel to U.S. President Nixon. He served seven months in a federal prison and was the first member of the Nixon administration to be incarcerated for Watergate-related charges. As Colson was facing arrest, his close friend gave him a copy of Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis, which, after reading it, led Colson to become a Christian. His life was changed forever.
I recently read a beautiful testimony of another changed life. It’s the story of a successful businessman who was convinced that he didn’t need Jesus, nor did he believe that the Bible was God’s Word. His son, a born-again Christian, had witnessed to him for years, but to no avail, until a dramatic and tragic event changed everything. His son was hospitalized due to an emergency; he was in critical condition in the intensive care unit. The son told his father, “God is in charge. If God’s purpose in my suffering is to bring you to Christ, then everything I’m going through is worth it.” Needless to say, the father was stunned.
For days the father read to his son from the Bible as he lay in the intensive care unit. It was through that reading of the Bible that for the first time in his life the father began to see what the Bible was really about and who Jesus really was. Seeing his son’s strong faith in Jesus, combined with what he read in the Bible, made him realize that Jesus is real. He surrendered his life to Christ. His son was overjoyed. The son went to be with the Lord shortly thereafter, but the father had peace that passes understanding, knowing that they would meet again and be together forever in heaven.
Our lives are made better when we absorb God’s Word. It takes work to read and study His Word, but as we do we become more strongly connected to God and His Spirit. As we make the effort to spend regular time reading His words, as we discipline ourselves to put in the necessary time and effort, if we’re willing to pursue it, we will dwell richly in Him. Spending time with His words is spending time with Him.
As one author said, we don’t have to read Scripture. We want to read Scripture. We get to read Scripture. It’s our privilege. No one should tell me, “You have to kiss your wife.” No. Iget to kiss her, I want to kiss her. Because I love her.[11] We who are passionate about God, who love Him, who are willing to pursue His Spirit, want to know all we can about Him. We want to hear from Him and follow Him, and one of the primary ways to do so is spending time reading His Word.
We don’t study simply because we want to gain a greater knowledge about God and His divine nature. We do it because we want to know Him better, to love Him more, and to have Him participate in our lives. We desire His guidance, to hear His voice, to follow where He leads.
God speaks to us in a variety of ways, and we can hear Him if we listen. We listen when we meditate on His Word, when we ask Him to show us how to apply what we’ve read in our daily life. We also listen when we get quiet within ourselves and give Him the opportunity to speak to us. This too takes effort, as we open our hearts to His voice, being ready for however He wants to speak to us, whether it be through thoughts that He brings to our minds, through His voice in prophecy, through His written Word, or by speaking to us through other Christians. The key is being open, quieting our spirits, listening, and being attentive.
It’s a privilege that God wants to speak to us individually. And He will if we set time aside to hear from Him—either in prophecy or through His still small voice or the voice of the Word. It’s advantageous to have a notebook handy or some way to write down the message that He gives so that we can remember His instruction or leading.
The Bible reveals to us the general will of God, but not the specific will of God for the individual. God expects that each one of us will seek Him for His guidance and for how to specifically apply His general will in our lives.
A hallmark of TFI’s guiding principles is that we have the liberty to follow God and His fresh guidance day by day. We place great value on being Spirit-led, being guided by the Holy Spirit, and on hearing from God and receiving His personalized instructions for today. As it says in our Statement of Faith: “We believe that God is a living God who continues to speak to His people today and to impart His message through ongoing revelation, prophecy, and words of spiritual direction and counsel.”
God is our life partner. He wants to be active in our lives. He wants to lead us and help us to make good decisions. Following Him is allowing Him to have influence in our lives; it’s consciously asking Him for His guidance and doing what He shows us. It’s having a conversation with Him, speaking with Him as you would those you are closest to, and listening to His still small voice.
God loves us, He’s on our side, and we can trust Him. When we do that, He will not fail us; He will lead us. As we pursue God’s Spirit, as we put in the effort to connect with Him through His Word, through listening to His voice, and as we follow Him, we will live God-centered, God-filled, God-directed lives, full of love, joy, and great satisfaction.
Note: Unless otherwise indicated, all scriptures are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[1] Psalm 1:2 NIV.
[2] Psalm 119:105.
[3] John 14:23.
[4] Colossians 3:16.
[5] Acts 2:17–18.
[6] John 4:24.
[7] Mark 12:30.
[8] David Brandt Berg, "New Life, New Love," June 1978, 731:10–12 (adapted).
[9] John 6:63.
[10] Daily Might, March 22 (Aurora Production, 2004).
[11] Tony Merida, "Letting the Word Dwell in You Richly," accessed September 16, 2013.
What War Would Jesus Start?
By Greg Morin, Porcupine Musings, September 23, 2013
For a supposedly Christian nation that was presumably founded upon Christian values, the United States has a rather bellicose history that is entirely incongruous with the Christian message of loving your enemy and turning the other cheek. As easy as it was for most of us to have been caught up in the patriotic fervor of striking back at the stronghold of the 9/11 hijackers, that response was fundamentally un-Christian. Not only does Jesus say that one must turn the other cheek but that one must likewise love those that are engaging in the cheek slapping. That’s a pretty difficult message for anyone to accept. But if you are a Christian it is pretty unambiguous. Even if the message is honored at the individual level it must likewise be honored at the collective level. It is a rather large feat of cognitive dissonance to believe one man may not kill another man but that 100 men acting in unison may justifiably kill another 100 men. War is simply the collective actions of individuals. If it is wrong for the individual to kill then it is wrong for the collective to kill. If it is commanded that the individual love his enemy then it is commanded that the collective love their enemy. If you are a Christian and believe the US is justified in going to war against Syria then you need to reexamine your beliefs. You cannot simultaneously believe in the divinity of Jesus and pick and choose which of his commandments you will adhere to.
Now that I’m done chastising the pro-war Christians don’t think the pro-war non-Christians are getting off so easy. Even if you do not accept the divinity of Jesus, this particular directive of his, of loving your enemy, contains within it an essential lesson that is theologically neutral. What is that message? That in order to break the cycle of violence someone must be the first to actually break that cycle. Someone must step forward and say, “I have been wronged, but I refuse to respond in kind.” The ability to make a conscious decision about our behavior that runs counter to every instinct built into our being is one of the defining characteristics of humanity. “Mind over matter” is what separates us from the instinctually driven animal world. A dog bitten will bite back; he knows no other response. Two dogs caught in this cycle will continue until both are nearly destroyed or one dies. Are we mindless animals unable to rise above our base instincts of an eye for an eye? Or are we intellectually superior to our enemies such that we alone are capable of recognizing the merry-go-round we are on and realize the only way to get off is to simply jump and say “no more.”
So, Jesus’ message of “love your enemies” and “turn the other cheek” is not so much a commandment as it is a key. With this key we have the means to unlock the cycle of violence and finally bring true peace to the world. A peace based on mutual respect and understanding. Such a peace is preferable to the global peace currently being proffered by those running the United American Empire, namely the “peace” that exists between well-armed prison guards and their prisoners.
For a supposedly Christian nation that was presumably founded upon Christian values, the United States has a rather bellicose history that is entirely incongruous with the Christian message of loving your enemy and turning the other cheek. As easy as it was for most of us to have been caught up in the patriotic fervor of striking back at the stronghold of the 9/11 hijackers, that response was fundamentally un-Christian. Not only does Jesus say that one must turn the other cheek but that one must likewise love those that are engaging in the cheek slapping. That’s a pretty difficult message for anyone to accept. But if you are a Christian it is pretty unambiguous. Even if the message is honored at the individual level it must likewise be honored at the collective level. It is a rather large feat of cognitive dissonance to believe one man may not kill another man but that 100 men acting in unison may justifiably kill another 100 men. War is simply the collective actions of individuals. If it is wrong for the individual to kill then it is wrong for the collective to kill. If it is commanded that the individual love his enemy then it is commanded that the collective love their enemy. If you are a Christian and believe the US is justified in going to war against Syria then you need to reexamine your beliefs. You cannot simultaneously believe in the divinity of Jesus and pick and choose which of his commandments you will adhere to.
Now that I’m done chastising the pro-war Christians don’t think the pro-war non-Christians are getting off so easy. Even if you do not accept the divinity of Jesus, this particular directive of his, of loving your enemy, contains within it an essential lesson that is theologically neutral. What is that message? That in order to break the cycle of violence someone must be the first to actually break that cycle. Someone must step forward and say, “I have been wronged, but I refuse to respond in kind.” The ability to make a conscious decision about our behavior that runs counter to every instinct built into our being is one of the defining characteristics of humanity. “Mind over matter” is what separates us from the instinctually driven animal world. A dog bitten will bite back; he knows no other response. Two dogs caught in this cycle will continue until both are nearly destroyed or one dies. Are we mindless animals unable to rise above our base instincts of an eye for an eye? Or are we intellectually superior to our enemies such that we alone are capable of recognizing the merry-go-round we are on and realize the only way to get off is to simply jump and say “no more.”
So, Jesus’ message of “love your enemies” and “turn the other cheek” is not so much a commandment as it is a key. With this key we have the means to unlock the cycle of violence and finally bring true peace to the world. A peace based on mutual respect and understanding. Such a peace is preferable to the global peace currently being proffered by those running the United American Empire, namely the “peace” that exists between well-armed prison guards and their prisoners.
