Is there a God?
In: Bible Studies
22 Sep 2009Just once wouldn’t you love for someone to simply show you the evidence for God’s existence? No arm-twisting. No statements of, "You just have to believe." Well, here is an attempt to offer some of the reasons which suggest that God exists.
But first consider this. If a person opposes even the possibility of there being a God, then any evidence can be rationalized or explained away. It is like if someone refuses to believe that people have walked on the moon, then no amount of information is going to change their thinking. Photographs of astronauts walking on the moon, interviews with the astronauts, moon rocks…all the evidence would be worthless, because the person has already concluded that people cannot go to the moon.
When it comes to the possibility of God’s existence, the Bible says that there are people who have seen sufficient evidence, but they have suppressed the truth about God.1 On the other hand, for those who want to know God if he is there, he says, "You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you."2 Before you look at the facts surrounding God’s existence, ask yourself, If God does exist, would I want to know him? Here then, are some reasons to consider…
Dying to the Old Self
28 Aug 2009Dying to the old self is a life-long journey of actualizing through faith and obedience what Jesus accomplished at the cross and made available through the power of the Holy Spirit. We put off the old self in order to put on the new self. Dying to the old self is not the goal. Living to Christ is. Just by living to Christ, our old self is displaced. When we keep our focus on living to Christ something of the old self consequently dies, we forget ourselves. This forgetting of ourselves is a form of dying to the old self.
“Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Keep thinking about things above, not things on the earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:1-3)
This Colossians passage points out another reason why the goal is living to Christ and not dying to self. Because of Christ, we have already died. We have already died (in a sense, the most important part any dying to be done has already been accomplished for us), and we already have life hidden in Christ (in a sense, the most important part of any living to be done has already been accomplished for us), yet we must continue dying to (putting off, denying) the old self in order to continue living in Christ (I think this is what people call “sanctification”).
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The Creators Touch
In: Faith Living| Worship
28 Aug 2009Learn how betterment and improvement can brought though by you when those situations come your way and how much of a better leader would that make you. To learn to rise above and beyond the brim, that what comes with you flows through and beyond and falls on the unreached, the ones around and under you.
God tells us not to fear the ones who are a threat to you as it only brings harm (PS 37: 
.. more like the ones who constantly bug you, who keep accusing you of the things you haven’t done, and those people who constantly keep absorbing negativity into others about you. Those people are around, believe it or not but they are and you have no choice but to deal with them! the first things on our minds is to get mad at them. But then we miss the Big Picture!
In (Pslam37), God continually asks us to be patient & righteous in our every step, he further mentions committing our ways to Him, keep doing what is good, keep walking in the footsteps of righteousness and the Bible mentions in (Deut6:25) that a man will be called righteous only if he carefully observes and keeps all the commandments of his Lord. That law is the 10 commandments so following them, living according to them will be our righteousness. He adds to continually keep his ways, wait on him and delight in him and he will grant all the desires of our
heart (Ps37:4).
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The Beatitudes
28 Aug 2009Regarding the Beatitudes, Yancey once beautifully stated he “recognizes in them a richness that unmasks (his) own poverty.” Likewise we find that as we get drawn into Jesus’ beautiful poetry in the Beatitudes, we begin to realize the deep-seated change that God wants to effect in our hearts, and how far we are from even understanding Gods ways at times. The radical statements Jesus makes in this passage challenges a culture that prizes success, pride, fun and self reliance and whilst some of the concepts He shares are difficult to grasp, people in history have proven that it is blessed indeed to follow the paths Jesus describes in the Beatitudes.
Context of Matthew 5:3-16
The majority of Matthew 5:3-16 consists of what is known as the Beatitudes, which was a part of Jesus most famous teaching; the Sermon on the Mount. Hansen explains, that In the beatitudes Jesus uses a Jewish literary form known as a “Makarism” that says “it will go well with the one who.for that one shall receive” Thus we see this pattern repeated in verses 3-11, eg, the peacemakers will be blessed in that they will be called the sons of God. However it is what these Makarisms contained that made them so significant.
The verses prior to verse 3 of Matthew 5 say that Jesus “went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them.” (Matt 5: 1-3) This passage introduces us to the beatitudes, however scholars believe it has an importance all its own. Osborne and Fee both agree that Matthew significantly describes Jesus “on the mountainside,” to draw Moses revelation on Mount Sinai to mind, proving that Jesus was greater than Moses, ultimately pointing to Jesus as the Messiah. (Matt 2:13-20, 23:2) Therefore the text begins by confirming Jesus as Messiah.
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Acts 13:10 :: A Study
In: Bible Studies
28 Aug 2009Acts 13:10
And said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?
1. “And said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness”
a. subtilty [1388 * dolos] [Zodhiates: Bait, metaphorically, and generally fraud, guile, deceit.]
b. Although his name was Bar-jesus, which means “son of” or “follower” (see Acts 13:6), the Apostle Paul rightly calls him “child of the devil”.
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From Guilt of Humanity to the Righteousness of God
In: Bible Studies
28 Aug 2009Romans 3:10-18 (NLT)
As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous-not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.” “Their talk is foul, like the stench from an open grave. Their tongues are filled with lies.” “Snake venom drips from their lips.” “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” “They rush to commit murder. Destruction and misery always follow them. They don’t know where to find peace.” “They have no fear of God at all.”
In the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul was addressing the Roman Christians by letter. In this particular portion of scripture, Paul is actually quoting Psalm 14:1-3 which explains the sinfulness of all people. Whether Jew or Gentile, all humanity is guilty of sin.
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- Tags: Bible, Faith, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Righteousness
This Is the Judgment: Light Has Come into the World
In: Bible Studies| Devotional
20 May 2009John 3:16-21For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.
The focus of this message will be on John 3:19-21. The main point will be that there is a kind of judgment that came into the world when the Son of God, Jesus Christ, came into the world, and this judgment reveals that the guilt of not coming to Jesus lies in the heart of man, and the grace of coming to Jesus comes from the heart of God.
Or to put it another way: The coming of Jesus into the world clarifies that unbelief is our fault, and belief is God’s gift. Which means that if we do not come to Christ, but rather perish eternally, we magnify God’s justice. And if we do come to Christ and gain eternal life, we magnify God’s grace.
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- Kulaamar: I like this site really much. This is such a great place. This is not like other website, the [...]
- todd vetter: To see the most evidence collected on this topic to day click this link. http://www.thedeathandre [...]
- He Is Able: A very good supplement to the article, hope it helps to all those who study and prove the Word...! [...]
- john: Here is another look at the same chronology which includes first century Jewish sources: http://w [...]
- Vince Curry: There is one thing that seemingly is always missing from the account of us being clay on the potters [...]
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