יהוה-God is Holy and is the very essence of Love, Truth and Justice. He loves everyone who believes that Jesus is The Son of God(65), killed so we can truly live, and wants to have a real relationship with those who are seeking Him out(69). We can relate to Him through His Word which is the text of The Bible(75, 58), and the focused attention of prayer(67). He is the ultimate Dad(36), and wants His kids, who are the apex of His creation to know and appreciate Him(84, 88).
He shows no pretense and puts no obstacles in your way(31, 19). He doesn't immediately and fully show Himself to us because that would preoccupy us with self-preservation instead of a desire to be close to Him and freely experience His sincere friendship and immeasurable love(28). We, as the human beings He designed, would all end up separated from Him because our worship would only be out of fear of punishment from such a powerful, resplendent and glorious being(13, 61). Instead, He created us in an environment that allows for the uncontrolled experience and expression of love. His hiddenness teaches us about humility and trust(84), but He has openly revealed Himself to the world in the life of Jesus of Nazareth and the inspired manuscripts that make up The Bible.
Everything that He has created works to maximize our understanding and enjoyment of Him, but we tend to behave much like a herd of goats which focus on the visible/material or their fears, and do not understand that their supremely patient Shepherd makes decisions that will help them all to prosper and be productive(10). If we can overcome 'me' through denying and cross-carrying, we will meet the real and better us that He desires.
He doesn't want to punish or control you, but to fill you with His Spirit(16) and include you as part of His family(34, 36). You can't work for His favor or earn His love(84, 18). It is an immensely valuable gift, not a business transaction. He has already done His part, and He is also the catalyst making it possible for you to gracefully accomplish yours. All you must do is recognize that you are helpless without Him, having dispensed with the pretense of having control of your life(52). He will accept anyone who is humble and spiritually poor, showing contrition for the state of humanity instead of personal pride(84). He is not interested in your knowledge so much as your true love. It is the most important command of scripture(1). Just commit to Him with everything He has given you(1) and let Him lead you through your life journey(76, 52).
He has chosen everyone who believes this. You are no less valuable than anyone else to Him and all of us together have failed(5, 43). We are unable to do anything to make ourselves acceptable because our desires are twisted and depraved(12, 64) and we would rather be our own god(11). His integrity means that a perfect and costly justice must be applied- and it was, to Jesus, Himself. Just as our acts of 'good' cannot save us, our personal acts of evil are not what have brought us under condemnation- they have only confirmed it repeatedly. He doesn't want to shame us through condemnation(34), but convict us to change and be absolved(16).
Evil is not something that God created, but is a corruption of the things God created that causes them to rot and die. The original sin of the first human, Adam, infected us all(52, 11) with an attitude of defiance and hostility, and left a stain on humanity that must be removed(7, 64). We do not enter the world as neutral, innocent beings(91, 11), and God does not owe us anything. We are all born enslaved and selfish(54, 55). God made us with His own beautiful image in our soul, but Adam thought there was a better one offered. He broke fellowship with God and marked us all with death, and any one of us would have done the exact same thing(5, 11). Now that image has been marred so that it is almost unrecognizable and we foolishly try to replace the lost fellowship and identity with created objects or experiences or other people(who are in the same exact predicament).
Sin(which means to miss the mark) is not simply breaking rules, but choosing a dark path(10, 43) in thoughts, words, deeds or motives in opposition to God and others. Everything you do has an impact on the other people around you; people are either loved or they are used- they are built up by your actions or are torn down some more. D.A. Carson says, "Sin is social; although it is first and foremost defiance of God, there is no sin that does not touch the lives of others." Whether it's through epigenetics or lack of love, you are not alone in your sin(49). Our debt is infinite and should make our relationship with Him personal and enduring because of the infinite and irresistable grace He first provided(84, 66). Our life of service and worship should ultimately be about the glory that is due Him(16, 52).
Our body will still desire sin even after we have His Spirit in us(52, 43), but our new master will not let us fight it alone and His work in us is not merely cerebral. If we truly want to change, we will(16). The Gospel is explosively powerful against the intense pressures of selfishness and depravity in this world(3). Anyone can be purified and put on a more beautiful path, and Jesus knows precisely what is necessary.
Because we could never deserve such unsurpassed and unconditional love(65) on our own and because He will do whatever is necessary for His children(84, 47), God sent a form of Himself, Jesus(The Christ), to live as and die for us(80, 9) and provide hope in a cure for our condition(15, 60). It's almost like being told by a doctor that you were, at any moment and without any doubt about to die, but that he was going to freely give you one of his own organs so that you would live. Serving God is more like a physician's order than an employer's. He did not offer this privilege to the angels(who surpass us in every way, including intellect) and he did not make us to remain in our current faulty state. Jesus shines to reveal the dirt and blood on our hands and remove it(11).
Now, to honor the breath that He gave us(58) in the presence of our redeemer(83), we are personally compelled(in the tradition of those who first suffered and died for the privilege) to make His character and presence scrupulously known to this provisional world(39, 74). It is not a private practice. He deserves to be worshiped by all of humanity and all people will have that opportunity(7). We are currently, as Trip Lee says, in the waiting room(51). This temporary place means we are protected from instant destruction and thoroughly prepared for the inconcievable new experiences we will have in our perfect freedom to come. Before we can take our place in God's Kingdom, we must prepare ourselvers by caring for our brothers and sisters(1, 15).
Some of us will devote ourselves as soon as Jesus has courted us and others will never yield to Him. We will either try to build our own empire, chasing material things, or seek the real and endless fulfillment of a life with Christ Jesus(52). There is hope for the future. Soon, He will fix all that is defective and broken and polluted from our legacy of sin, restoring His creation to it's intended, incorruptible state(77, 11). When that happens, He will be fully seen in all His glory and power and there will be no more constraints on us such as what comes with having a physical body and being exposed to the noxious influence of evil(17, 54).
He is The Absolute Truth(2).
The unique revelation of who He is and what He has done(5, 88) has been crafted specifically for us whom He has made as a complex(but delicate) vessel of 'dust' and water. It is our greatest and most sacred treasure- there is no greater or more influential literature. God designed the language He gave it to us in and even inspired much of it in poetic form. Indeed, it has been integral in the widespread use of the English language as well as the major catalyst of early work in fields from the arts to social service.
It is The Good News, not just a book of good advice to be blended with the rest of your knowledge of the world. Since our creator inspired it, it is certainly binding on your life(31). Not to be taken for granted, it is well used as a foundation for our lives to be built on and a framework for our minds to organize around(52). It applies to men and women from every culture and class, and has remained valid throughout all of human history's transitions. In essence, it says these 5 things:
The books of our Bible were included in the canon as soon as they were written and needed no approval because they were known to be inspired by God(80, 83) and meticulously maintained by those He chose for the job(42, 31). The longest chapter of The Bible, Psalm 119 is filled with celebration of the all-sufficiency of God's Word and is an elegant acrostic of the 22 Hebrew letters(as are others) which represents order and obedience to The Alpha and Omega(1). The different books were not written to prove the truth of Christianity, but are coherent and axiomatic and the church codified and circulated what was already accepted(79). When some appeared that were not genuine, they were universally rejected and did not affect the Church.
More than stories, the most important of all news, The Gospels originated as oral histories of events for which there are no contrary sources of information, at locations that are largely known to us, written down while the witnesses were still alive and verified as to the correctness of the facts(21, 44). The four were independently written under unpredictable conditions, with each his own style and a differing primary audience in mind, but all reach the same conclusion(each one being a distinct but successive confirmation) and serve the same purpose of causing many people to follow Jesus Christ(76, 31). They were of no other value to their authors, and very few historians are so nearly connected with the subject of their narrative as these four(one would be sufficient) men are. As Eusebius remarked, "Nor were the apostles of Christ greatly concerned about the writing of books, being engaged in a more excellent ministry which is above all human power."
The apostle Paul, as a respected Roman citizen, scholar and member of the social elite(27), had spent much of His life actively trying to kill all Christians(which he was forthcoming about(31, 55)) before He experienced Jesus personally and publicly, and committed himself to serving Him and humbly proclaiming His Truth(21, 92). Even some who had been posing as prophets and sorcerers were converted(21). Judas eventually realized that Jesus was who He said He was after betraying Him and decided that he could not live with the knowledge of what he had done(31). When he told the Pharisees this, they acknowledged that they were not concerned with truth or justice or human life.
There were a lot of people who were influenced by or witness to the power of Jesus during His lifetime. Still today, peer-reviewed scholars, whether believers or not, acknowledge facts about Jesus such as that He was killed by crucifixion, was buried and then found missing on the third day, and His followers and enemies then believe they saw Him alive.
Since what He said and did(His resurrection in particular(83)) is known to be historical fact(31), then acceptance of the rest of what has been exegetically attributed to God(not men) by real scholars is warranted, regardless of whether you believe it(87). Abdu Murray said, "The evidence for the resurrection shows historically, as a matter of fact, not hope, that Jesus rose from the dead... And guys who rise from the dead have credibility."
There were quite a few appearances of Jesus to various groups of His followers after His murder(21). It is interesting to note that none saw apparitions of Jesus in a glorified state, as we might expect. Some noticed the peculiar wounds He had received during His slaughter. Our two most reliable witnesses, Peter and James, were definitely not playing and behaved much like anyone else would have. Peter was so scared of being next that he denied the truth several times, despite being told he would ahead of time. James was very skeptical about his brother being who He said before he saw Him, back from death, with his own eyes. And those eyes are reliable because, as Dr.'s Bergeron and Habermas argue, psychiatric or psychopathologic reasons for the disciples' belief in Jesus are in no way plausible and inconsistent with the clinical literature. What is consistent with the literature is the occurrence of mental illness in the real people of scripture, as Voddie Baucham has described.
Within a few years, The Church had formulated a kerygmatic creed(21) to convey the essential, amazing Truth of the event and it was recorded by Paul in his first letter to Corinth, 50 years later(21). He mentions the resurrection here prior to the writing of The Gospels as a testimony to the authenticity of the believers and the validity of their faith(59, 39).
Real historians have agreed that not only was Jesus a real person, but also that Paul's material is reliable. Archaeology continues to corroborate the events of these books much more than some of the other 'historical' documents we have(31, 18). There are more than 50 facts in John's Gospel alone. To one who might disagree, Dr. Craig Evans says, "That person doesn’t know the sources or the archaeological evidence."
The Roman Empire had a population on the order of 50 million people at the time of Paul's birth, and there were some 600 religions being practiced there(which did nothing to promote peace or morality). This culture was not naive or crude(though they considered the Jews as such), and living conditions were terrible. All of the original apostles and a great many of those converted soon after were so horribly persecuted that it cannot be seriously suggested that these new believers were not genuine in both writing and practice. They had no motive to lie. These men and women subverted established political and theological systems and confronted licentious societies because they were convinced. They consistently resisted all attempts to silence their message and did not deny Jesus even as they died of systematic and sustained tortures.
This is the fierce opposition that the first followers were voluntarily born into, and yet The Gospel has regularly overcame this intense resistance and continued to advance throughout history. Marcus Aurelius testified publicly(The First Apology of Justin and others) that he witnessed divine intervention when he called on his Christian soldiers to pray(after his own god had failed to deliver him from dire circumstances). It may be as William Paley later stated- "it is probable that Constantine declared himself on the side of the Christians because they were the powerful party", since Arnobius asserted that The Gospel was pervasive despite opposition, even among the greatest geniuses of the time. This happened before the Old and New Testaments had even been combined into a single volume. It was life-changing Truth, not a popular story, and their faith was based on actual events.
It is not circular to use Matthew or John to prove Genesis, and a dispute over one passage or account does not invalidate the rest(3). The account of Creation is a common target for those who are looking for an excuse to dismiss outright any claims of The Bible. If we cannot trust the accounts of people with a longevity averaging over 900 years, then who is prepared to give us any history? Noah's father(Lamech) was already about 56 years old at the time of Adam's death(his 7th great-grandfather) and his son, Shem knew Abraham(and even outlived him due to shortening lifespans during this time). Adam, Methusaleh and Shem cover the first 2157 years of history. Todays historians can't even be certain of the Egyptian chronologies, which they use to derive other dates.
The unique and extraordinary claims of The Bible might be less plausible if it were not for the large volume of prophecy surrounding it, the degree to which textual criticism has been applied to it and the resultant consistency of such fantastic truth being maintained over a great many centuries and through over 40 inspired writers with vastly different dispositions(21, 3). Dr. Lydia McGrew refers to them as undesigned coincidences. Despite character and translational differences, when The New Testament quotes the old, the true meaning is carried on. Lactantius remarked, "He performed miracles; we might have supposed him to have been a magician, as ye say, and as the Jews then supposed, if all the prophets had not with one spirit foretold that Christ should perform these very things."(3)
Many have devoted themselves to preserving The Truth in later centuries. Some notable early Church Fathers involved were Ignatius, Clement, Polycarp, Papias, and later Erasmus.
It is also interesting to note the extra-biblical accounts(and their subsequent effects) and admissions of other writings claiming divine inspiration such as the Quran(600 years after Jesus' death), with it's validation of The New Testament and Jesus(even calling Him Messiah and with God in paradise despite later contradiction), and Hadith 4434 & 4435 Sunan Abi Dawud, in which Mohammed testifies that The Torah or OT is from God. It would have been impossible to artificially maintain the consistency we have throughout The Bible or control it's circulation and content as we find was done with these other texts(see #509 and #510 Sahih Bukhari). The Bible does not depend on or refer to any other writings as being authored by God, nor does it give humans any authority to change it's message or add to it. Many times throughout history, people have made substitutionary texts to compete with the only worthy author, but which are clearly absorbed with human desires and agendas. They do not hold up to examination or critiques, and have no divine authority.
There are more than 14,000 Old Testament manuscripts and fragments, and the copying procedures for Hebrew scribes did not tolerate interruptions or questionable marks. The letters of a book would be counted several ways to validate their accuracy. For The New Testament, we have at least 5483 manuscripts in Greek alone(192 of which are from before 600AD) and 24,000 in other languages. No other work of antiquity even compares, and we have such an extensive amount of other writings about Christ's life and The Bible that they could be used to reconstruct the manuscripts.
Those who prefer the KJV should know that it is based on only about 6-12 of the more recent manuscripts and any argument for it's superiority would be even more valid for the older Geneva Bible or Latin Vulgate. While God's choice of words is important, we are called to worship The Living Word-Jesus(71), not mere knowledge of The Book. Translating it into Sign language or vernacular does not make it inferior- missing/ignoring the context or application does.
Thankfully, despite our constantly changing word usage and different connotations, His Holy Spirit illuminates His Truth for us(which does not change) beyond the version or language we read it in(32, 71) when we have a sincere desire to know it's real author(14, 52). His peculiar glory is recognized by the illiterate, the historically isolated, the mentally deficient and the newly arrived. Christ authenticates His Truth in our hearts so that we can trust it objectively and confidently testify before others that He is King(3).
His glory is known by internal evidences and personal manifestations. He is always present to personally expound His thoughts to us at the same time He provides our next heartbeat. It won't make much sense to the insincere or complacent or the one who already has all the guidance and fulfillment they want(3, 10). Like Pilate, many have asked
'What is truth?'(2), only to walk away without any effort to find the answer because they either think they already know or would rather let someone else decide.
We appeal to the law when we are wronged, with little or no compassion for the offender, but when we are the accused, we will generally seek to avoid punishment by giving excuses for our actions and shifting the blame. We are the only beings which God has created that treat truth as some kind of murky or elastic thing which needs our help or approval.
For most people, words are meant to remain open to interpretation or have a degree of nuance(56). It is interesting to note that there are some words which defy this tradition, such as saying 'I love you'. While this most common of phrases can be used deceptively, there is but one meaning and one appropriate response. It is often said as a way to try to validate or quantify it because the speaker is unsure of its nature. What Christians say should be believable without the need to back it up with an oath or convincing(56).
A beguiling devil has always tried to distort our perception of the truth and make his lies seem acceptable and innocent to us(12, 73). He constructs confusing, gray areas of pseudo-truth and makes actual facts seem like the opposite or incompatible. He wants us to spend our life absent from the present and in the dark so we will not rise above the limitations he tries to impose on us and not have a positive influence in the world around us(54, 1). Left in the dark, we fill in our own reality to combat fear. Tim Keller says, "Human culture is an extremely complex mixture of brilliant truth, marred half-truths, and overt resistance to the truth."
You cannot fight an enemy that you deny the existence of and will more readily accept his subtle and subversive lies that way(14). There must be leadership and accountability since every single one of us is prone to compromise. Satan would prefer children to grow up in families where there is no leadership from a truly loving father, who sacrifices his own interests for the sake of his wife and children. Boys do not learn how to be generous men who are worthy of respect and girls are not protected and shown an example of a relationship which will allow them to flourish(68, 62). In many homes, sacrificial love for children turns into one or both parents trying to find their identity in them or live vicariously through them at the expense of their marriage or the well-being of the child.
Jesus exemplifies goal-oriented truth and infinitely generous sacrifice(76, 33). He shows the discipline and patience to follow through on what He said and started(76, 51). Pride and conceit are the default settings of the human heart, but they are no challenge for God(3, 84). He could have simply squashed Paul for his intense initial persecution of The Gospel, but chose instead to use this 'foremost' sinner as a special envoy(55). The One who started the clocks is neither impulsive, nor can He be delayed in the fulfillment of His plans(15).
We live in a hasty world where distraction, non-committal, dishonesty and self-centeredness steers us toward a perpetually dubious state of mind where we remain over-entertained and under-challenged(64, 54). John Piper has said, “America is the first culture in jeopardy of amusing itself to death.” We have fake news, augmented reality, body enhancements, photo editing and artificial intelligence. Our culture values individual autonomy and self-authentication over commitment and community. However, success usually comes down to choosing the pain of discipline and delayed gratification over the ease of distraction, and your reliability affects the decisions of those around you as well(49).
When we watch a movie, we must suspend disbelief temporarily in order to identify with characters and fully enjoy the plot, due in part to our brain filling in what is not there between the mere 24 pictures we are seeing each second. We re-imagine reality with some blur. Scenes shot at higher frame rates and with less 'movie magic' do not lend themselves to the same passive viewing experience and begin to look somehow fake to us even though we are seeing more realism and detail(and imperfections). When it is over, we will likely resume a cynical attitude with real people in a real setting, disguising our speech with euphemisms or crude talk(56, 74), reacting evasively to questions and hiding intentions through posturing(64). It is easy to point out the faults and shortcomings of others while minimizing or making excuses for our own(90).
As Frances Larson has pointed out, watching real videos on social media gives us a detached experience of anonymity with a feeling of intimacy. The real feels less so and fantasy begins to affect our real behavior. Watching is participating- we either hamper or promote.
Some of us work very hard to hide what is real, focusing on how I look to others(74) and making decisions based on what others are doing(62, 71). We are fascinated by packaging and mystery, easily letting our eyes control our thoughts. Facebook and other social media easily become idols. Instead of building relationships, we begin to have an audience-oriented sense of self. Our experience of the world becomes fragmented such that we lose sight of the big and important and whole. Instead of fearing God, we get anxious about social situations, feel peer pressure or codependence, or are in awe of people who do amazing things or seem to have power(70). We have been approving of lies and smearing truth for thousands of years(57).
Many think that to not believe in any higher being or purpose means that they are liberated(57, 52) and the stories found in The Bible are not real or moral(11). Abdu Murray said, "We have confused freedom and autonomy. When you are autonomous, you aren't free. You are a law unto yourself; your preferences matter more than truth. So the problem is that autonomous creatures collide." The meaninglessness of that 'freedom'(which is really the right to never hear an opposing opinion) means that such a view is not only unsound, but baseless. They will even go so far as to make a truth statement, which belies their subjective, deterministic existence. They really are only a slave to their own physiology and its limitations- men become confined machines, executing a list of instructions until there is a break(11, 76). William Gurnall said, "I grieve to see the soul fallen so far beneath its divine origin! The body, which was intended to be its servant, has instead become its master, and rules with a merciless hand." These bodies will dishonor and destroy themselves.
There is no hope in this sinister thinking and we cannot be liberated where there is no accountability(60). Furthermore, for one to not believe that humans have an innate sense of truth and morality ultimately deconstructs that sense for the person who believes it(11). The claim that no one knows exclusive truth(4) or that there is no God, is itself an arrogant claim to superior knowledge(79, 2). Why would anyone be interested in the claims of someone who says that conciousness is an illusion? One who insists that his personal views are superior to all the views of religious people before him is a fool, and this same fool claims your values only apply to you. D.A. Carson said, "It remains self-refuting to claim to know truly that we cannot know the truth."
If truth is not true, then we have no grounds for condemning or embracing anything or anyone. During the Nuremburg trials, the Nazis argued that no one outside Germany could criticize their system of morality or their actions. Civil rights movements could not succeed without exclusive, universal truth to uphold in the face of cultural or social opposition. For true Christians, it is a consistent fight for life and liberty.
The egalitarian style of communicating on the internet has contributed to a low view of authority and undermined the order that is necessary for peace(70). Too many people(and projects) want to have a say in too many things. There is no discretion, and ideas are conveyed without application, trusted scrutiny, true context(even The Bible) or compassion. So many iterations muddy reality and the trend for internet discussions is to rapidly devolve as more users participate.
If we all do life our own way and only have time for I-stuff, we are creating pandemonium(90, 60) and slowly becoming sociopaths. Abdu Murray said, "When human autonomies collide, and your law and my law conflict and truth is no longer the arbiter, what is going to decide between us? It won't be truth because we've subverted that to our preferences. The thing that will decide between us will be power." If it's dog-eat-dog, at some point you will be eaten. We become lawless or obsess over safety to the point of being unable to function. We shovel as much data as we can to try to quiet our anxiety and end our limitations, but it doesn't work.
The Kingdom Of God is not a democracy where we can all vote to define the rules as we go or assume authority without responsibility, nor does it embrace the western obsession for impulsive production and consumption of all things material or physical and the idea that it is the basis for a persons value or prosperity(77). American dualism claims to free us by pitting body against soul, but God treats our whole self in unity with Him. His Kingdom instills community, providence and sacrificial love while culture insists that expressive individualism and self-actualization will make us content. John Mark Comer has said, "Our generation aches for belonging, yet wants to keep its options open. But you can’t have community without commitment."
According to the self-evident truths of The Declaration of Independence, we were each born with a value and purpose given by God, by virtue of being a human made in God's image(52). This means that your life is sacred and centers around meaningful connections and experiences with other sacred people(11, 76), not the value you can derive from people(which can be taken away). Your purpose and identity is assigned by God and does not presuppose a perfect body or ideal conditions or normal tendencies. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.”
We were not made to take ownership, but to steward all that God has provided to us. He presents us each with a lifetime of circumstances in which we show our intent, and He leads us as a good and merciful father should(35). He is not arbitrary in His caring for us, but treats us like His children by giving us good things(67). There was only one tree in the garden that was off limits, but it was there for our choosing and learning(7). Our will is only useful in subjection to One who is wiser and who knows the final outcome(26). How many times do people walk away from events or circumstances that by all accounts should have killed them? God is the real authority, His account is the only one which matters and His jurisdiction does not stop anywhere(88, 67).
Some would seek to discredit the truth through seeming paradoxes in scripture, but what we really find is that God's truth is multifaceted and He cannot be diminished in any way by our lack of understanding or faith(29, 30). He is not limited to what our minds can imagine, but is an endless array of things and uses metaphors so we can relate. The seeming contradictions(law and works versus grace, predestination and Sovereignty and free will, One God in three roles who also lived as a man, countless others where we must carefully examine the surrounding context and consider that we may not be ready to fully comprehend) are there to cause us to seek to understand and appreciate God more and apply child-like faith where we do not yet have knowledge(79). Wisdom and practice is required to apply His Truths. Seeking only knowledge leads to division(73), but God wants us to use these revelations to love and overcome(90, 32).
Children commonly try to resist their parents by twisting or using their words against them. There is no doctrine of Christianity which rests on a disputed text and passages are not mutually exclusive of each other. Attempts to make everything fit together nicely in our minds is discrediting of our real and infinite God and indicates a desire to replace or manipulate Him(11). We have more control over what we can explain.
While God's truth is absolute and universal, the application of it by each individual can be different(48, 74) because of what it leads to. Some people can use alcohol in a responsible and healthy manner while others will use it to escape reality. Lies are never true and Truth is not subjective. As Mike Licona has said, we know that we can walk on a board on the ground without falling but when it is between two skyscrapers we will not be so sure. People doubt because of emotional rather than factual reasons and many hold beliefs that are obviously irrational. We want proof for spiritual things beyond others' testimonies of their experiences, but want to define Truth by our own subjective feelings. Feelings should never be the basis for our beliefs or identity, as if we are not responsible for our emotions and intentions. Our emotions should not rule us.
Blaise Pascal said, "People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive.", which makes a post-truth society capable of anything and committed to nothing. In this way of thinking, disagreement equals hatred and justice is applied by the unqualified. C.S. Lewis said, "Though our feelings come and go, God's love for us does not." The fact that we feel so strongly about things like suffering and artistry show that they are not the effects of mere physiology, but a remnant of a more honest and just innateness that is hard to ignore(11).
While we tend to fabricate our own reality and identity through fairy tales, God knows each of us more personally and deeply than we know ourselves(53). How terrible it would be to realize at the end of your life that your 'story' was self-fulfilling fiction spun out of fantastical assumptions, blind endorsements and entertaining conjecture.
Living in your own 'bubble' of contradictions of reason and meaning inevitably leads to a moment where you realize how incoherent it is and have to deal with the legacy of your own delusion(11, 76). 'Be true to yourself' is a misnomer if you don't know who you are, and quiet time spent without God is a trap(54, 52). It is telling when someone claims that morality, justice or love is imagined but they are easily angered when they are mistreated(38, 54).
John Stuart Mill, wrote in The Spectator, "Those only are happy(I thought), who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness; on the happiness of others, on the improvement of mankind, even on some art or pursuit, followed not as a means, but as itself an ideal end. The enjoyments of life(such was now my theory) are sufficient to make it a pleasant thing, when they are taken en passant, without being made a principal object. Once make them so, and they are immediately felt to be insufficient. They will not bear a scrutinizing examination. Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so. The only chance is to treat not happiness, but some end external to it as the purpose of life."
Sex, for example, is a popular addiction where real intimacy is commonly avoided and what was a gift from God is corrupted into a superficial and unsatisfying 'product', only leading to more obsession and pain(54). It is a strong indicator of how far from God we are. Feelings of emptiness or unimportance often contribute to adultery or use of pornography, as with dependence on a substance. The use of porn in america has an incredibly deceptive and destructive history. Rather than fulfillment, the result of any addiction is disappointment and frustration as it leads to a drive for ever stronger stimuli from a threshold which is growing ever farther away. All who are involved are dehumanized and the 'commodity' loses value quickly. There are deeper pleasures than sex and, interestingly, seeking pleasure does not make people happy.
The ones who try to really help rather than enable meet opposition as the addict believes their condition is normal, meant to be or too strong. All sin seems to be satisfying as it enslaves, but the truth of Jesus can really free us from our increasing bondage and give us strength to overcome(60, 15).
Being a slave to Christ(true freedom) means losing your pride and self-interest so that you can be free to live(37, 76). Free from lies, emptiness and shame(60). Free to believe. While society encourages us to be 'heroes' and get glory, God tells us to serve and defer to others. As John Piper explains, “God loves us by liberating us from the bondage of self so that we can enjoy knowing and admiring him forever.” We can continue to 'enjoy' our physical nature(11, 49) or choose an eternal, spiritual existence with an amazing agenda(7, 16). You may reward yourself now, thinking the future spiritual life to be endless sitting around doing nothing. The real existence, though, will be infinitely more grand than we can now know.
Devils will use sin to enslave and control us, but The Holy Spirit will seek to positively and gently influence our choices rather than control us(60, 36). We need only devote our-self to and be passionate about Him instead of the countless hollow and contrived things that contend for our dedication(49, 48). Jonathan Edwards described free will as doing what we desire. The idea of free will is, for some, merely an excuse for their sin.
We all, by way of our time, energy, money, thoughts and words, worship(attribute worth, adore) or obsess over something. Every one of us is born with something missing from our soul- the happiness that comes from communion with our glorious God. This drives us to either search for or suppress The Truth. We glorify that which we spend the most time focusing on through the attention of our mind and the affection of our heart, whether consciously or not(67, 77).
We have a tendency to take good things and make them ultimate things, or as St. Augustine called them, 'inordinate affections'. Some people seek to be worshiped or gain 'followers'(38). Worship happens in stadiums, conventions, scenic areas, concerts, mobile devices, clubs, offices, shopping malls, car shows, gyms, mmog's, dining rooms and bedrooms, but no cause, experience, position, belonging, passion, accomplishment, team, doctrine, exploit, person or anything else created and temporal can compare to God who did the creating(49, 92). You can't replace God.
They are marketed as the thing which will completely fulfill and gratify, but over time they will not solve any problems or consistently deliver anything worthy of such esteem, and so you will begin to hate them for it(11, 76). They are mere pointers that we have mistaken for the real and eternal, an illusion of our own making(54, 17). Peace comes not from the gifts, but focusing on The Giver and giving ourselves(16, 52). This is what is real and eternal, and it is precisely what will benefit us and those around us(70). Moreover, to have any more or less than we have been given would be utterly ruinous.
In the words of C.S. Lewis from 'The Weight Of Glory', "We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."
God's Truth is perfect(71) and anything that does not match what is written(44) in The Bible can be freely discarded. All innovation happens in human hearts, not in His written Word. It is under attack more multilaterally and consistently than anything else, precisely because it is The Truth(82, 87). It is no wonder that those who don't want God waste so much time and energy trying to replace or erase Him(11,57).
It is the responsibility of each individual(74) to search the scriptures and be prepared(68) to speak The Truth whenever and wherever it is being obscured or discredited(73, 31), even in places of worship(44, 52). We must not lazily accept whatever is presented by anyone who comes knocking or become complacent in our familiarity with scripture(79, 41), but be proactive and study hard as do the purveyors of counterfeit gospels(14, 3). William Gurnall said, "Knowledge is to faith as sunshine is to the farmer. Without it, faith cannot see to do her work. Nor can the work, once finished, be adequately inspected in the dim light of half-truths. If you do not ground yourself in the truth of the Gospel, satan will play upon your ignorance to thwart your spiritual growth." Of the many forgeries of Christianity, some more common examples are Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormonism. For the latter, scriptures about rest and grace(60, 84) are helpful. You must know the difference between their doctrine and The Truth. Even devils know God's Word(72, 12), but we can be confident that the One who said it will authenticate His message in His true followers(86, 3).
There have been many distorted ideas and caricatures of God, His Word and the history of The Church, but what He says is all that matters(51, 32). False teachers can often be recognized for their selfish desires, such as greed, sensuality or pride. As Tim Keller has pointed out, “If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did.” The Bible is in no way a convoluted collection of anecdotes, but a straightforward and didactic arrangement of symbolic meaning and literal truth(31). Though a Rhinoceros has a horn on its head, we do not call it a unicorn.
We cannot yet understand everything and, if He told us it would only give devils more to use against us(17, 54) and would not generate the trust that is required for a loving and respectful relationship(29, 15). Rather than seeking to have all the answers, we should seek to know The Counselor better(1, 52). He wouldn't be much of a God if we could fit Him inside our minds or examine Him in a lab(30), and if we could see all that He sees it would overwhelm and crush us(13, 61).
We are His children(36), and as such it can be quite difficult to imagine how much more we can grow and learn. Explaining continually why you want your son or daughter to obey you does not teach them to depend on and respect you(36).
God gives us greater perspective as we follow Him and let His Spirit consume us, not giving so much credibility to what our physical senses tell us, but instead homing in on the greater reality that is apparent(28, 87). You might say we are our thoughts.
Our bodies are mere vessels containing our souls, designed to carry His Spirit through the world(39). These tents house our spirit while we are camped on earth temporarily(8, 30). If we are responsible and obedient in what He has already given us, He will entrust us with more(24, 34).
God deserves our full attention(46, 40), not our leftovers or trivial regards or sense of entitlement(37, 1). If you heard a lion roar close by(which can be heard up to 5 miles away), you would become immediately intentional(61, 53).
He is The Ultimate Life(2).
To live with God is to experience it as God does , with a sacred purpose(26) greater than your own selfish desires(37, 76) and with an awareness larger than just what you can see(28, 52). Mary Gardiner Brainard said, "I would rather walk in the dark with God than go alone in the light."
The triune and aseitic nature of God is not easy to describe, but it shows us unity which cannot be divided and perfect fellowship between different parts of one body(80,39). It fully explains the fact that God wants an utterly personal, truly loving relationship with us and why it is in our nature to desire community/intimacy and relate to one another through His gift of language and writing(80, 83).
Reading and obeying His Word purifies us so that we can become what He made us for(16, 36). It is food for us, making us sturdy and vigorous followers of Christ(32, 40). His Spirit is like refreshing water for our souls, enabling us to function and sustaining us through all difficulties(50, 71). He is not a mere observer, but a true helper(50, 63).
C.S. Lewis said, "God designed the human machine to run on himself. He himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other... God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing."(70)
He is The essential Way(2).
There is much artificial light filling our eyes now so that we won't notice Him or His work, and literally, few today have ever seen with their own eyes, the magnificent veil of galaxies stretching across the night sky. The light that He shines through us is the most extraordinary though(50, 22). Some have described the light from nuclear detonations as being so bright that although they covered their eyes, it was like looking at an x-ray of their hands. Our God could light the entire universe so that there is no shadow or reduced intensity at any point in the expanse.
He suffered so much for us that He became unrecognizable from all of our hate and disease resting on him at once(35), yet at no point did the angels or any particle of creation stop declaring His glory(13, 39). We ought not to have judged The Cornerstone of civilization(1), but His love is deep and true, and He was willing to go a long way to create the opportunity for you to become His(65, 84).
All of us have lied or cheated someone out of something and likely still do sometimes. None of us can live up to even our own moral standards and must humbly accept our weakness and need for Jesus' mercy and grace(84, 33), for He is our paragon(76). He knew the grievous sins of those He met, but did not call for them to be stoned(34). He knew they could change and encouraged them to. Even at our best, we are inconsistent(64) and should compare ourselves only to His example as no other is worthy, and only Jesus has perfect integrity and is able to present us spotless to The Father(4).
God gave the laws of the Old Testament through Moses to reveal and amplify the sinful nature that is within all of us(64, 7) so that we would recognize it(18, 11). The Old Testament was focused on our coming to God and seeing our problem(64), with Himself as the only solution. The Law wasn't meant to save us, just to mitigate the 'middle ground' and halfhearted efforts(5, 18). When we read The Ten Commandments and the more than 600 other laws given to Israel, we identify precisely how and where we are failing to act rightly towards God and others(45, 11). This is the only language that the defiant heart knows, since it is not really interested in holiness. When we ask 'Is what I'm doing wrong?', we probably have not thought about pleasing God or loving people(74, 60).
The response he desires is for us to move past this defiance and want to be freed from this unruly state, since Jesus Himself has fulfilled the purpose of the laws by coming here and showing us exactly what to do(45, 60). He made all Christians everywhere part of a holy nation and circumcision, replacing ethnic Israel and bearing true fruit(92). Jesus became the final sacrifice, taking the place of the temple and priests(18). The New Testament therefore changed our focus from learning about God to taking our revelations about Him and His promises to the rest of the earth.
If we focus only on The Law, we will fear God and not desire intimacy. If we ignore The Law, we will not truly repent of our sin(18, 87). Many Christians find it hard to stay moderately between the law and sin by being either overscrupulous(legalistic) or licentious(sinful)(60). Jesus is the balance, our justification being possible because of grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. In His love, He gives us the dignity of participation in this process. When asked by the religious legalists which is the most important command, Jesus summarized their essence in not one, but two revealing commands(33, 1), because you cannot have one without the other- to do one is to do the other. You must really love God and really love people. He made plain the intent of all of scripture and changed the focus for those who might play games or seek only to be intellectual(1, 48). His wants for us and commands to us are about our relationships, are meant for the good of people. Loving people is loving Jesus.
Now we are all in the same boat(5, 11) which is quietly headed away from God, but some of us will quicken, jumping out and swimming away from our selfishness and pride so that we can be graciously rescued from our fate as a castaway(84, 60).
God gives us assurance of our salvation as we apply His teaching and grow in responsibility. John Newton said, "We cannot be safely trusted with assurance 'till we have that knowledge of the evil and deceitfulness of our hearts, which can be acquired only by painful, repeated experience." We don't carry empty lamps or sit in idyllic places staring at the sky or try calculating when the last day will be. This life is about His personal and progressive work on our souls; if the soul is sick, it will manifest in the flesh. We are justified as our desire to be right with God results in real righteousness(mercy, purity, and peacemaking(38)) by His astonishing grace. We are sanctified as we struggle to be a true disciple of Christ by the power of His Spirit at work to make us holy in practice. This makes us more sensitive to the unrighteousness and injustice in the world around us, longing for the finishing touch. Finally, we will be glorified when we are completely transformed at His triumphant return, with our names being found among those of all the elect, in the Book of Life.
Life today won't be fair, comfortable or always go the way you want or think it should(15, 30), and it will take much focus and intrepid determination(55, 36). In this fallen world, no significant long-term fruitfulness will come without obstacles or resistance and as Nik Ripken has said, "The gospel continues to be authenticated by what people are willing to suffer for the cause of Jesus Christ." If we are to be like Christ, we will suffer with Him and be resurrected with Him(46, 7). Our desire will be like His- to lessen the suffering of others through love and reconciliation(38).
Most people will not take the hard roads of Christ(15, 87), but the payoff for those who do will be worth it(15). This is how His glory is revealed to mankind, because we would not appreciate His light without experiencing darkness(10, 51). We would not know the power of our freedom without being born in captivity(54, 55). We would not demonstrate His goodness or choose holiness or even know what real love is without being susceptible to evil(17, 54).
God's work is like the most beautiful symphony(from greek(67, 77)) that we will have ever heard, on a scale unimaginable. He is the composer of an engaging and emotional song, as well as the master craftsman of each and every instrument(us), which He created specifically for this joyful orchestration by Christ(58). After He has carefully tuned each one to His pleasure here and if we remain in His hands, He will produce a perfect harmony from us with each glorious movement, for all the angels of heaven and our own hearts to enjoy(77). What we hear on earth is only an echo of His glory.
Don't Forget:
References:
His Living Word(14, 52) is our specific, supernatural blueprint for obtaining a real eternal life in and with Him. The book we know as The Bible has no power in itself, but the divine message it contains is alive and transcendent(31). It is an objective message about the goal of history, but the knowledge it transmits is unrecognizeable, mere words without The Person who establishes our life of faith through it(10, 52). Jesus is The Word, and He is not only the evidence of truth(80,51) but is the very essence of it(32). The Old Testament was the groundwork needed for us to appreciate the work that Jesus later came and did personally among us, which it continually foreshadowed(75). God has gone to great length to give us all we need to know about what to expect and how we may live during our patently brief experience on earth. He did it with a book, and indeed, the entire history of literature reflects His glory!
The unique revelation of who He is and what He has done(5, 88) has been crafted specifically for us whom He has made as a complex(but delicate) vessel of 'dust' and water. It is our greatest and most sacred treasure- there is no greater or more influential literature. God designed the language He gave it to us in and even inspired much of it in poetic form. Indeed, it has been integral in the widespread use of the English language as well as the major catalyst of early work in fields from the arts to social service.
It is The Good News, not just a book of good advice to be blended with the rest of your knowledge of the world. Since our creator inspired it, it is certainly binding on your life(31). Not to be taken for granted, it is well used as a foundation for our lives to be built on and a framework for our minds to organize around(52). It applies to men and women from every culture and class, and has remained valid throughout all of human history's transitions. In essence, it says these 5 things:
- God created us for His glory.
- Every human should live for God’s glory.
- We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.
- We all deserve eternal punishment under God's perfect justice.
- In His great mercy, God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ to provide The Way for us to inherit all the benefits of His resurrection, including eternal life and joy.
For The Bible to be useful for you, it must be read/consumed(32, 22), repeatedly meditated on and thoroughly digested(40, 67), believed and relied on(42, 82), and applied in every facet of your daily life(43, 32). God personally reveals himself to us through His Word(75) and himself inspired all of these words(not just the parts we like) for our benefit(31). As we study more and more of His Truth, the nuances of right thinking and living that we have learned are further refined in us as it permeates and perfects us. It is a coherent, seamless fabric which we should be not merely familiar with, but intimately so, especially since it has remained unchanged and largely substantiated despite thousands of years of upheaval and attempts to distort or eradicate it(3). Whenever people have set out to undermine it's credibility and replace it with their own fiction, they have either become convinced of it's authenticity and accuracy or have willingly refused to believe it despite the evidence(57). People who don't want to believe the truth will choose instead to believe the opinion of a television program or 'lost book' or 'new research' without any of the evidences of the real gospel.
The Bible Manuscript Society says of the Leningrad Codex(digitized), "Think about the implications of that for a moment. Down through more than two thousand years, though world empires have come and gone, across cities, counties and continents, the Hebrew Old Testament has been miraculously and meticulously preserved. Wars have ravished. Cities have been plundered. Rulers have come and gone. Empires have long since arisen, died and disappeared into the history books. Yet amazingly, miraculously, the Hebrew Old Testament has been preserved intact down through all those intervening centuries, remaining as free from corruption and variation as mortal man is capable of."
The Bible Manuscript Society says of the Leningrad Codex(digitized), "Think about the implications of that for a moment. Down through more than two thousand years, though world empires have come and gone, across cities, counties and continents, the Hebrew Old Testament has been miraculously and meticulously preserved. Wars have ravished. Cities have been plundered. Rulers have come and gone. Empires have long since arisen, died and disappeared into the history books. Yet amazingly, miraculously, the Hebrew Old Testament has been preserved intact down through all those intervening centuries, remaining as free from corruption and variation as mortal man is capable of."
The books of our Bible were included in the canon as soon as they were written and needed no approval because they were known to be inspired by God(80, 83) and meticulously maintained by those He chose for the job(42, 31). The longest chapter of The Bible, Psalm 119 is filled with celebration of the all-sufficiency of God's Word and is an elegant acrostic of the 22 Hebrew letters(as are others) which represents order and obedience to The Alpha and Omega(1). The different books were not written to prove the truth of Christianity, but are coherent and axiomatic and the church codified and circulated what was already accepted(79). When some appeared that were not genuine, they were universally rejected and did not affect the Church.
More than stories, the most important of all news, The Gospels originated as oral histories of events for which there are no contrary sources of information, at locations that are largely known to us, written down while the witnesses were still alive and verified as to the correctness of the facts(21, 44). The four were independently written under unpredictable conditions, with each his own style and a differing primary audience in mind, but all reach the same conclusion(each one being a distinct but successive confirmation) and serve the same purpose of causing many people to follow Jesus Christ(76, 31). They were of no other value to their authors, and very few historians are so nearly connected with the subject of their narrative as these four(one would be sufficient) men are. As Eusebius remarked, "Nor were the apostles of Christ greatly concerned about the writing of books, being engaged in a more excellent ministry which is above all human power."
- The Gospel of Matthew (a publican and an original apostle and eyewitness) is focused on Jesus as The prophesied Messiah & King, and was aimed at Jews who spoke Greek and knew The Old Testament. It was even written down in Hebrew first. With the destruction of the temple, Matthew illustrates changes in personal worship of God through One greater than Moses.
- The Gospel of Luke was addressed to Greeks wanting to know what Jesus said and did as our human ideal to be followed. Luke was a physician who traveled with the apostles frequently, especially Paul, and thoroughly investigated the accounts of events he wrote about(44) in this book as well as The Acts of the Apostles. Mark and Luke were not high-profile characters as we might expect, but worked hard to support the mission, instructing us to serve others also. Sir William Mitchell Ramsay said, "You may press the words of Luke in a degree beyond any other historian's and they stand the keenest scrutiny and the hardest treatment..."
- The Gospel of Mark (Disciple of Peter who lived in Jerusalem at the time and regularly sheltered and attended to the apostles) illustrates for Roman Christians how to apply Jesus teaching, and understand His deity and servanthood.
- The Gospel of John (an original apostle and eyewitness) was uniquely aimed at those influenced by Greek philosophy. It centers around Jesus' deity and humanity as God-man, and as God's Word to the whole world. It has a more reflective, poetic style and was written from Asia.
The apostle Paul, as a respected Roman citizen, scholar and member of the social elite(27), had spent much of His life actively trying to kill all Christians(which he was forthcoming about(31, 55)) before He experienced Jesus personally and publicly, and committed himself to serving Him and humbly proclaiming His Truth(21, 92). Even some who had been posing as prophets and sorcerers were converted(21). Judas eventually realized that Jesus was who He said He was after betraying Him and decided that he could not live with the knowledge of what he had done(31). When he told the Pharisees this, they acknowledged that they were not concerned with truth or justice or human life.
There were a lot of people who were influenced by or witness to the power of Jesus during His lifetime. Still today, peer-reviewed scholars, whether believers or not, acknowledge facts about Jesus such as that He was killed by crucifixion, was buried and then found missing on the third day, and His followers and enemies then believe they saw Him alive.
Since what He said and did(His resurrection in particular(83)) is known to be historical fact(31), then acceptance of the rest of what has been exegetically attributed to God(not men) by real scholars is warranted, regardless of whether you believe it(87). Abdu Murray said, "The evidence for the resurrection shows historically, as a matter of fact, not hope, that Jesus rose from the dead... And guys who rise from the dead have credibility."
There were quite a few appearances of Jesus to various groups of His followers after His murder(21). It is interesting to note that none saw apparitions of Jesus in a glorified state, as we might expect. Some noticed the peculiar wounds He had received during His slaughter. Our two most reliable witnesses, Peter and James, were definitely not playing and behaved much like anyone else would have. Peter was so scared of being next that he denied the truth several times, despite being told he would ahead of time. James was very skeptical about his brother being who He said before he saw Him, back from death, with his own eyes. And those eyes are reliable because, as Dr.'s Bergeron and Habermas argue, psychiatric or psychopathologic reasons for the disciples' belief in Jesus are in no way plausible and inconsistent with the clinical literature. What is consistent with the literature is the occurrence of mental illness in the real people of scripture, as Voddie Baucham has described.
Within a few years, The Church had formulated a kerygmatic creed(21) to convey the essential, amazing Truth of the event and it was recorded by Paul in his first letter to Corinth, 50 years later(21). He mentions the resurrection here prior to the writing of The Gospels as a testimony to the authenticity of the believers and the validity of their faith(59, 39).
Real historians have agreed that not only was Jesus a real person, but also that Paul's material is reliable. Archaeology continues to corroborate the events of these books much more than some of the other 'historical' documents we have(31, 18). There are more than 50 facts in John's Gospel alone. To one who might disagree, Dr. Craig Evans says, "That person doesn’t know the sources or the archaeological evidence."
The Roman Empire had a population on the order of 50 million people at the time of Paul's birth, and there were some 600 religions being practiced there(which did nothing to promote peace or morality). This culture was not naive or crude(though they considered the Jews as such), and living conditions were terrible. All of the original apostles and a great many of those converted soon after were so horribly persecuted that it cannot be seriously suggested that these new believers were not genuine in both writing and practice. They had no motive to lie. These men and women subverted established political and theological systems and confronted licentious societies because they were convinced. They consistently resisted all attempts to silence their message and did not deny Jesus even as they died of systematic and sustained tortures.
This is the fierce opposition that the first followers were voluntarily born into, and yet The Gospel has regularly overcame this intense resistance and continued to advance throughout history. Marcus Aurelius testified publicly(The First Apology of Justin and others) that he witnessed divine intervention when he called on his Christian soldiers to pray(after his own god had failed to deliver him from dire circumstances). It may be as William Paley later stated- "it is probable that Constantine declared himself on the side of the Christians because they were the powerful party", since Arnobius asserted that The Gospel was pervasive despite opposition, even among the greatest geniuses of the time. This happened before the Old and New Testaments had even been combined into a single volume. It was life-changing Truth, not a popular story, and their faith was based on actual events.
It is not circular to use Matthew or John to prove Genesis, and a dispute over one passage or account does not invalidate the rest(3). The account of Creation is a common target for those who are looking for an excuse to dismiss outright any claims of The Bible. If we cannot trust the accounts of people with a longevity averaging over 900 years, then who is prepared to give us any history? Noah's father(Lamech) was already about 56 years old at the time of Adam's death(his 7th great-grandfather) and his son, Shem knew Abraham(and even outlived him due to shortening lifespans during this time). Adam, Methusaleh and Shem cover the first 2157 years of history. Todays historians can't even be certain of the Egyptian chronologies, which they use to derive other dates.
The unique and extraordinary claims of The Bible might be less plausible if it were not for the large volume of prophecy surrounding it, the degree to which textual criticism has been applied to it and the resultant consistency of such fantastic truth being maintained over a great many centuries and through over 40 inspired writers with vastly different dispositions(21, 3). Dr. Lydia McGrew refers to them as undesigned coincidences. Despite character and translational differences, when The New Testament quotes the old, the true meaning is carried on. Lactantius remarked, "He performed miracles; we might have supposed him to have been a magician, as ye say, and as the Jews then supposed, if all the prophets had not with one spirit foretold that Christ should perform these very things."(3)
Many have devoted themselves to preserving The Truth in later centuries. Some notable early Church Fathers involved were Ignatius, Clement, Polycarp, Papias, and later Erasmus.
It is also interesting to note the extra-biblical accounts(and their subsequent effects) and admissions of other writings claiming divine inspiration such as the Quran(600 years after Jesus' death), with it's validation of The New Testament and Jesus(even calling Him Messiah and with God in paradise despite later contradiction), and Hadith 4434 & 4435 Sunan Abi Dawud, in which Mohammed testifies that The Torah or OT is from God. It would have been impossible to artificially maintain the consistency we have throughout The Bible or control it's circulation and content as we find was done with these other texts(see #509 and #510 Sahih Bukhari). The Bible does not depend on or refer to any other writings as being authored by God, nor does it give humans any authority to change it's message or add to it. Many times throughout history, people have made substitutionary texts to compete with the only worthy author, but which are clearly absorbed with human desires and agendas. They do not hold up to examination or critiques, and have no divine authority.
God's authority never expires and no human council is responsible for establishing The Real Truth. We are to examine scripture to reveal what is there and honor only what it says. All truth is God's and what would He be without the ability to transmit His truth to us? For nearly nineteen centuries now, The Bible has been studied more and translated into more languages(and more accurately) than any other literary work, even languages which have no written alphabet.
There are more than 14,000 Old Testament manuscripts and fragments, and the copying procedures for Hebrew scribes did not tolerate interruptions or questionable marks. The letters of a book would be counted several ways to validate their accuracy. For The New Testament, we have at least 5483 manuscripts in Greek alone(192 of which are from before 600AD) and 24,000 in other languages. No other work of antiquity even compares, and we have such an extensive amount of other writings about Christ's life and The Bible that they could be used to reconstruct the manuscripts.
Those who prefer the KJV should know that it is based on only about 6-12 of the more recent manuscripts and any argument for it's superiority would be even more valid for the older Geneva Bible or Latin Vulgate. While God's choice of words is important, we are called to worship The Living Word-Jesus(71), not mere knowledge of The Book. Translating it into Sign language or vernacular does not make it inferior- missing/ignoring the context or application does.
Thankfully, despite our constantly changing word usage and different connotations, His Holy Spirit illuminates His Truth for us(which does not change) beyond the version or language we read it in(32, 71) when we have a sincere desire to know it's real author(14, 52). His peculiar glory is recognized by the illiterate, the historically isolated, the mentally deficient and the newly arrived. Christ authenticates His Truth in our hearts so that we can trust it objectively and confidently testify before others that He is King(3).
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| The Pilate Inscription |
'What is truth?'(2), only to walk away without any effort to find the answer because they either think they already know or would rather let someone else decide.
Many think of truth as always relative- what is true for now may not be true later or what is true for me may not be for you. That misrepresents truth as belief. We obsess over ideas of fairness and equality at our own convenience(51) and insist that 'my' point of view has not been taken into account. In a group context, our values are compromised by the collective tendency towards depravity and 'mob rules' ultimately prevail(57). Americans pretend to be united and unprejudiced while secretly maintaining criteria for their acceptance of each other. We have labels for everyone, especially those with values.
We appeal to the law when we are wronged, with little or no compassion for the offender, but when we are the accused, we will generally seek to avoid punishment by giving excuses for our actions and shifting the blame. We are the only beings which God has created that treat truth as some kind of murky or elastic thing which needs our help or approval.
For most people, words are meant to remain open to interpretation or have a degree of nuance(56). It is interesting to note that there are some words which defy this tradition, such as saying 'I love you'. While this most common of phrases can be used deceptively, there is but one meaning and one appropriate response. It is often said as a way to try to validate or quantify it because the speaker is unsure of its nature. What Christians say should be believable without the need to back it up with an oath or convincing(56).
A beguiling devil has always tried to distort our perception of the truth and make his lies seem acceptable and innocent to us(12, 73). He constructs confusing, gray areas of pseudo-truth and makes actual facts seem like the opposite or incompatible. He wants us to spend our life absent from the present and in the dark so we will not rise above the limitations he tries to impose on us and not have a positive influence in the world around us(54, 1). Left in the dark, we fill in our own reality to combat fear. Tim Keller says, "Human culture is an extremely complex mixture of brilliant truth, marred half-truths, and overt resistance to the truth."
You cannot fight an enemy that you deny the existence of and will more readily accept his subtle and subversive lies that way(14). There must be leadership and accountability since every single one of us is prone to compromise. Satan would prefer children to grow up in families where there is no leadership from a truly loving father, who sacrifices his own interests for the sake of his wife and children. Boys do not learn how to be generous men who are worthy of respect and girls are not protected and shown an example of a relationship which will allow them to flourish(68, 62). In many homes, sacrificial love for children turns into one or both parents trying to find their identity in them or live vicariously through them at the expense of their marriage or the well-being of the child.
Jesus exemplifies goal-oriented truth and infinitely generous sacrifice(76, 33). He shows the discipline and patience to follow through on what He said and started(76, 51). Pride and conceit are the default settings of the human heart, but they are no challenge for God(3, 84). He could have simply squashed Paul for his intense initial persecution of The Gospel, but chose instead to use this 'foremost' sinner as a special envoy(55). The One who started the clocks is neither impulsive, nor can He be delayed in the fulfillment of His plans(15).
We live in a hasty world where distraction, non-committal, dishonesty and self-centeredness steers us toward a perpetually dubious state of mind where we remain over-entertained and under-challenged(64, 54). John Piper has said, “America is the first culture in jeopardy of amusing itself to death.” We have fake news, augmented reality, body enhancements, photo editing and artificial intelligence. Our culture values individual autonomy and self-authentication over commitment and community. However, success usually comes down to choosing the pain of discipline and delayed gratification over the ease of distraction, and your reliability affects the decisions of those around you as well(49).
When we watch a movie, we must suspend disbelief temporarily in order to identify with characters and fully enjoy the plot, due in part to our brain filling in what is not there between the mere 24 pictures we are seeing each second. We re-imagine reality with some blur. Scenes shot at higher frame rates and with less 'movie magic' do not lend themselves to the same passive viewing experience and begin to look somehow fake to us even though we are seeing more realism and detail(and imperfections). When it is over, we will likely resume a cynical attitude with real people in a real setting, disguising our speech with euphemisms or crude talk(56, 74), reacting evasively to questions and hiding intentions through posturing(64). It is easy to point out the faults and shortcomings of others while minimizing or making excuses for our own(90).
As Frances Larson has pointed out, watching real videos on social media gives us a detached experience of anonymity with a feeling of intimacy. The real feels less so and fantasy begins to affect our real behavior. Watching is participating- we either hamper or promote.
Some of us work very hard to hide what is real, focusing on how I look to others(74) and making decisions based on what others are doing(62, 71). We are fascinated by packaging and mystery, easily letting our eyes control our thoughts. Facebook and other social media easily become idols. Instead of building relationships, we begin to have an audience-oriented sense of self. Our experience of the world becomes fragmented such that we lose sight of the big and important and whole. Instead of fearing God, we get anxious about social situations, feel peer pressure or codependence, or are in awe of people who do amazing things or seem to have power(70). We have been approving of lies and smearing truth for thousands of years(57).
Many think that to not believe in any higher being or purpose means that they are liberated(57, 52) and the stories found in The Bible are not real or moral(11). Abdu Murray said, "We have confused freedom and autonomy. When you are autonomous, you aren't free. You are a law unto yourself; your preferences matter more than truth. So the problem is that autonomous creatures collide." The meaninglessness of that 'freedom'(which is really the right to never hear an opposing opinion) means that such a view is not only unsound, but baseless. They will even go so far as to make a truth statement, which belies their subjective, deterministic existence. They really are only a slave to their own physiology and its limitations- men become confined machines, executing a list of instructions until there is a break(11, 76). William Gurnall said, "I grieve to see the soul fallen so far beneath its divine origin! The body, which was intended to be its servant, has instead become its master, and rules with a merciless hand." These bodies will dishonor and destroy themselves.
There is no hope in this sinister thinking and we cannot be liberated where there is no accountability(60). Furthermore, for one to not believe that humans have an innate sense of truth and morality ultimately deconstructs that sense for the person who believes it(11). The claim that no one knows exclusive truth(4) or that there is no God, is itself an arrogant claim to superior knowledge(79, 2). Why would anyone be interested in the claims of someone who says that conciousness is an illusion? One who insists that his personal views are superior to all the views of religious people before him is a fool, and this same fool claims your values only apply to you. D.A. Carson said, "It remains self-refuting to claim to know truly that we cannot know the truth."
If truth is not true, then we have no grounds for condemning or embracing anything or anyone. During the Nuremburg trials, the Nazis argued that no one outside Germany could criticize their system of morality or their actions. Civil rights movements could not succeed without exclusive, universal truth to uphold in the face of cultural or social opposition. For true Christians, it is a consistent fight for life and liberty.
The egalitarian style of communicating on the internet has contributed to a low view of authority and undermined the order that is necessary for peace(70). Too many people(and projects) want to have a say in too many things. There is no discretion, and ideas are conveyed without application, trusted scrutiny, true context(even The Bible) or compassion. So many iterations muddy reality and the trend for internet discussions is to rapidly devolve as more users participate.
If we all do life our own way and only have time for I-stuff, we are creating pandemonium(90, 60) and slowly becoming sociopaths. Abdu Murray said, "When human autonomies collide, and your law and my law conflict and truth is no longer the arbiter, what is going to decide between us? It won't be truth because we've subverted that to our preferences. The thing that will decide between us will be power." If it's dog-eat-dog, at some point you will be eaten. We become lawless or obsess over safety to the point of being unable to function. We shovel as much data as we can to try to quiet our anxiety and end our limitations, but it doesn't work.
The Kingdom Of God is not a democracy where we can all vote to define the rules as we go or assume authority without responsibility, nor does it embrace the western obsession for impulsive production and consumption of all things material or physical and the idea that it is the basis for a persons value or prosperity(77). American dualism claims to free us by pitting body against soul, but God treats our whole self in unity with Him. His Kingdom instills community, providence and sacrificial love while culture insists that expressive individualism and self-actualization will make us content. John Mark Comer has said, "Our generation aches for belonging, yet wants to keep its options open. But you can’t have community without commitment."
According to the self-evident truths of The Declaration of Independence, we were each born with a value and purpose given by God, by virtue of being a human made in God's image(52). This means that your life is sacred and centers around meaningful connections and experiences with other sacred people(11, 76), not the value you can derive from people(which can be taken away). Your purpose and identity is assigned by God and does not presuppose a perfect body or ideal conditions or normal tendencies. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.”
We were not made to take ownership, but to steward all that God has provided to us. He presents us each with a lifetime of circumstances in which we show our intent, and He leads us as a good and merciful father should(35). He is not arbitrary in His caring for us, but treats us like His children by giving us good things(67). There was only one tree in the garden that was off limits, but it was there for our choosing and learning(7). Our will is only useful in subjection to One who is wiser and who knows the final outcome(26). How many times do people walk away from events or circumstances that by all accounts should have killed them? God is the real authority, His account is the only one which matters and His jurisdiction does not stop anywhere(88, 67).
Some would seek to discredit the truth through seeming paradoxes in scripture, but what we really find is that God's truth is multifaceted and He cannot be diminished in any way by our lack of understanding or faith(29, 30). He is not limited to what our minds can imagine, but is an endless array of things and uses metaphors so we can relate. The seeming contradictions(law and works versus grace, predestination and Sovereignty and free will, One God in three roles who also lived as a man, countless others where we must carefully examine the surrounding context and consider that we may not be ready to fully comprehend) are there to cause us to seek to understand and appreciate God more and apply child-like faith where we do not yet have knowledge(79). Wisdom and practice is required to apply His Truths. Seeking only knowledge leads to division(73), but God wants us to use these revelations to love and overcome(90, 32).
Children commonly try to resist their parents by twisting or using their words against them. There is no doctrine of Christianity which rests on a disputed text and passages are not mutually exclusive of each other. Attempts to make everything fit together nicely in our minds is discrediting of our real and infinite God and indicates a desire to replace or manipulate Him(11). We have more control over what we can explain.
Sin is very insidious and many people deceive themselves or undermine their own minds(64, 11). They participate in their own deception because of their desires and prejudices(54, 79). Abdu Murray said, "Sometimes people... sacrifice reason on the altar of their preferences- the very definition of what happens in a post-truth culture." They would rather believe in the supremacy of man instead of the supremacy and sovereignty of our indomitable God(52, 15).
R.C. Sproul writes, "In the least transgression I set myself above the authority of God, doing insult to His majesty, His holiness,and His sovereign right to govern me. Sin is a revolutionary act in which the sinner seeks to depose God from His throne. Sin is a presumption of supreme arrogance in that the creature vaunts his own wisdom above that of the Creator, challenges divine omnipotence with human impotence, and seeks to usurp the rightful authority of the cosmic Lord." The rich man tried to simultaneously appeal to pride(which Jesus did not have) and usurp God's authority in declaring someone good. Jesus said, 'Why do you call me good?' in response to the man's pride(54).
Would a piece of clay presume to argue with The Potter(29, 39)? It's interesting how many people firmly believe in self-determination while not accepting full responsibility for their poor choices. Even a miracle would not convince them(87, 31). They claim control over their environment until something happens that shows otherwise, at which point it becomes 'luck' or can be rationalized in some way, as they are resistant to changing their paradigm. At the same time, they accept no responsibility for their actions and what they say means little to nothing(56, 43). We isolate ourselves from the effects of nature to feel less vulnerable, but our hold on life is still as tenuous as when we were born.
R.C. Sproul writes, "In the least transgression I set myself above the authority of God, doing insult to His majesty, His holiness,and His sovereign right to govern me. Sin is a revolutionary act in which the sinner seeks to depose God from His throne. Sin is a presumption of supreme arrogance in that the creature vaunts his own wisdom above that of the Creator, challenges divine omnipotence with human impotence, and seeks to usurp the rightful authority of the cosmic Lord." The rich man tried to simultaneously appeal to pride(which Jesus did not have) and usurp God's authority in declaring someone good. Jesus said, 'Why do you call me good?' in response to the man's pride(54).
Would a piece of clay presume to argue with The Potter(29, 39)? It's interesting how many people firmly believe in self-determination while not accepting full responsibility for their poor choices. Even a miracle would not convince them(87, 31). They claim control over their environment until something happens that shows otherwise, at which point it becomes 'luck' or can be rationalized in some way, as they are resistant to changing their paradigm. At the same time, they accept no responsibility for their actions and what they say means little to nothing(56, 43). We isolate ourselves from the effects of nature to feel less vulnerable, but our hold on life is still as tenuous as when we were born.
While God's truth is absolute and universal, the application of it by each individual can be different(48, 74) because of what it leads to. Some people can use alcohol in a responsible and healthy manner while others will use it to escape reality. Lies are never true and Truth is not subjective. As Mike Licona has said, we know that we can walk on a board on the ground without falling but when it is between two skyscrapers we will not be so sure. People doubt because of emotional rather than factual reasons and many hold beliefs that are obviously irrational. We want proof for spiritual things beyond others' testimonies of their experiences, but want to define Truth by our own subjective feelings. Feelings should never be the basis for our beliefs or identity, as if we are not responsible for our emotions and intentions. Our emotions should not rule us.
Blaise Pascal said, "People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive.", which makes a post-truth society capable of anything and committed to nothing. In this way of thinking, disagreement equals hatred and justice is applied by the unqualified. C.S. Lewis said, "Though our feelings come and go, God's love for us does not." The fact that we feel so strongly about things like suffering and artistry show that they are not the effects of mere physiology, but a remnant of a more honest and just innateness that is hard to ignore(11).
While we tend to fabricate our own reality and identity through fairy tales, God knows each of us more personally and deeply than we know ourselves(53). How terrible it would be to realize at the end of your life that your 'story' was self-fulfilling fiction spun out of fantastical assumptions, blind endorsements and entertaining conjecture.
Living in your own 'bubble' of contradictions of reason and meaning inevitably leads to a moment where you realize how incoherent it is and have to deal with the legacy of your own delusion(11, 76). 'Be true to yourself' is a misnomer if you don't know who you are, and quiet time spent without God is a trap(54, 52). It is telling when someone claims that morality, justice or love is imagined but they are easily angered when they are mistreated(38, 54).
You can know a lot of facts and still not see what is really happening(53, 28). Often, what we end up with doesn't look like the picture we were shown(22). There is no point in trying to avoid the truth or escape it(14). Unlike falsehood, it does not go away.
John Stuart Mill, wrote in The Spectator, "Those only are happy(I thought), who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness; on the happiness of others, on the improvement of mankind, even on some art or pursuit, followed not as a means, but as itself an ideal end. The enjoyments of life(such was now my theory) are sufficient to make it a pleasant thing, when they are taken en passant, without being made a principal object. Once make them so, and they are immediately felt to be insufficient. They will not bear a scrutinizing examination. Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so. The only chance is to treat not happiness, but some end external to it as the purpose of life."
Even though they may try to live in thoughtlessness and denial, an addict discovers at some point that what was once 'fun' is leading them towards death(54). They begin to hate the lie they live and the enslavement to it, feeling hopeless to escape.
Sex, for example, is a popular addiction where real intimacy is commonly avoided and what was a gift from God is corrupted into a superficial and unsatisfying 'product', only leading to more obsession and pain(54). It is a strong indicator of how far from God we are. Feelings of emptiness or unimportance often contribute to adultery or use of pornography, as with dependence on a substance. The use of porn in america has an incredibly deceptive and destructive history. Rather than fulfillment, the result of any addiction is disappointment and frustration as it leads to a drive for ever stronger stimuli from a threshold which is growing ever farther away. All who are involved are dehumanized and the 'commodity' loses value quickly. There are deeper pleasures than sex and, interestingly, seeking pleasure does not make people happy.
The ones who try to really help rather than enable meet opposition as the addict believes their condition is normal, meant to be or too strong. All sin seems to be satisfying as it enslaves, but the truth of Jesus can really free us from our increasing bondage and give us strength to overcome(60, 15).
Being a slave to Christ(true freedom) means losing your pride and self-interest so that you can be free to live(37, 76). Free from lies, emptiness and shame(60). Free to believe. While society encourages us to be 'heroes' and get glory, God tells us to serve and defer to others. As John Piper explains, “God loves us by liberating us from the bondage of self so that we can enjoy knowing and admiring him forever.” We can continue to 'enjoy' our physical nature(11, 49) or choose an eternal, spiritual existence with an amazing agenda(7, 16). You may reward yourself now, thinking the future spiritual life to be endless sitting around doing nothing. The real existence, though, will be infinitely more grand than we can now know.
Devils will use sin to enslave and control us, but The Holy Spirit will seek to positively and gently influence our choices rather than control us(60, 36). We need only devote our-self to and be passionate about Him instead of the countless hollow and contrived things that contend for our dedication(49, 48). Jonathan Edwards described free will as doing what we desire. The idea of free will is, for some, merely an excuse for their sin.
We all, by way of our time, energy, money, thoughts and words, worship(attribute worth, adore) or obsess over something. Every one of us is born with something missing from our soul- the happiness that comes from communion with our glorious God. This drives us to either search for or suppress The Truth. We glorify that which we spend the most time focusing on through the attention of our mind and the affection of our heart, whether consciously or not(67, 77).
We have a tendency to take good things and make them ultimate things, or as St. Augustine called them, 'inordinate affections'. Some people seek to be worshiped or gain 'followers'(38). Worship happens in stadiums, conventions, scenic areas, concerts, mobile devices, clubs, offices, shopping malls, car shows, gyms, mmog's, dining rooms and bedrooms, but no cause, experience, position, belonging, passion, accomplishment, team, doctrine, exploit, person or anything else created and temporal can compare to God who did the creating(49, 92). You can't replace God.
They are marketed as the thing which will completely fulfill and gratify, but over time they will not solve any problems or consistently deliver anything worthy of such esteem, and so you will begin to hate them for it(11, 76). They are mere pointers that we have mistaken for the real and eternal, an illusion of our own making(54, 17). Peace comes not from the gifts, but focusing on The Giver and giving ourselves(16, 52). This is what is real and eternal, and it is precisely what will benefit us and those around us(70). Moreover, to have any more or less than we have been given would be utterly ruinous.
God's Truth is perfect(71) and anything that does not match what is written(44) in The Bible can be freely discarded. All innovation happens in human hearts, not in His written Word. It is under attack more multilaterally and consistently than anything else, precisely because it is The Truth(82, 87). It is no wonder that those who don't want God waste so much time and energy trying to replace or erase Him(11,57).
We are lied to more than 200 times every day because talking has almost no value anymore. Face-to-face exchanges are now considered a liability or a buisness tool, so we present disembodied connections or highly edited versions of our lives to the world. We are rarely present and involved. When is the last time you had an uninterrupted and unhurried meal with several people?
The on-screen friends of (anti-)social networks prop up a standard of vain, narcissistic behavior which makes normal people feel lacking(38, 11). It disconnects us from real-life relationships and real issues such that moderates are rarely heard and nuance is missed. An article on Wired states, "The abdication of responsibility by social media CEOs has contributed to the dumbing down of an increasingly misinformed society". A cacophony of lies and hate keep people busy and impulsive. Re-sharing has also been shown to interfere with learning in much the same way as mentally formulating a response means you are not really listening to a conversation.
Those who are the most vocal are hardly the most informed or open and might respond differently once they are no longer on a digital platform(since one of the most common fears happens to be speaking before a visible group). Scores of people weigh in on whatever is currently dividing them without actually following the conversation or reading opposing views. That takes much more time and effort for an already disbursed consciousness. We know that the image people portray online is not reality if it lacks tears or tedium or depth, so it is probably of little value to you.
The on-screen friends of (anti-)social networks prop up a standard of vain, narcissistic behavior which makes normal people feel lacking(38, 11). It disconnects us from real-life relationships and real issues such that moderates are rarely heard and nuance is missed. An article on Wired states, "The abdication of responsibility by social media CEOs has contributed to the dumbing down of an increasingly misinformed society". A cacophony of lies and hate keep people busy and impulsive. Re-sharing has also been shown to interfere with learning in much the same way as mentally formulating a response means you are not really listening to a conversation.
Those who are the most vocal are hardly the most informed or open and might respond differently once they are no longer on a digital platform(since one of the most common fears happens to be speaking before a visible group). Scores of people weigh in on whatever is currently dividing them without actually following the conversation or reading opposing views. That takes much more time and effort for an already disbursed consciousness. We know that the image people portray online is not reality if it lacks tears or tedium or depth, so it is probably of little value to you.
It is the responsibility of each individual(74) to search the scriptures and be prepared(68) to speak The Truth whenever and wherever it is being obscured or discredited(73, 31), even in places of worship(44, 52). We must not lazily accept whatever is presented by anyone who comes knocking or become complacent in our familiarity with scripture(79, 41), but be proactive and study hard as do the purveyors of counterfeit gospels(14, 3). William Gurnall said, "Knowledge is to faith as sunshine is to the farmer. Without it, faith cannot see to do her work. Nor can the work, once finished, be adequately inspected in the dim light of half-truths. If you do not ground yourself in the truth of the Gospel, satan will play upon your ignorance to thwart your spiritual growth." Of the many forgeries of Christianity, some more common examples are Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormonism. For the latter, scriptures about rest and grace(60, 84) are helpful. You must know the difference between their doctrine and The Truth. Even devils know God's Word(72, 12), but we can be confident that the One who said it will authenticate His message in His true followers(86, 3).
There have been many distorted ideas and caricatures of God, His Word and the history of The Church, but what He says is all that matters(51, 32). False teachers can often be recognized for their selfish desires, such as greed, sensuality or pride. As Tim Keller has pointed out, “If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did.” The Bible is in no way a convoluted collection of anecdotes, but a straightforward and didactic arrangement of symbolic meaning and literal truth(31). Though a Rhinoceros has a horn on its head, we do not call it a unicorn.
We cannot yet understand everything and, if He told us it would only give devils more to use against us(17, 54) and would not generate the trust that is required for a loving and respectful relationship(29, 15). Rather than seeking to have all the answers, we should seek to know The Counselor better(1, 52). He wouldn't be much of a God if we could fit Him inside our minds or examine Him in a lab(30), and if we could see all that He sees it would overwhelm and crush us(13, 61).
God does not lie or deceive(85) and if we ask Him for understanding, He will answer(22). It may not pass through our logic easily but it will point us in a Biblical direction(10, 3).
We are His children(36), and as such it can be quite difficult to imagine how much more we can grow and learn. Explaining continually why you want your son or daughter to obey you does not teach them to depend on and respect you(36).
God gives us greater perspective as we follow Him and let His Spirit consume us, not giving so much credibility to what our physical senses tell us, but instead homing in on the greater reality that is apparent(28, 87). You might say we are our thoughts.
Our bodies are mere vessels containing our souls, designed to carry His Spirit through the world(39). These tents house our spirit while we are camped on earth temporarily(8, 30). If we are responsible and obedient in what He has already given us, He will entrust us with more(24, 34).
God deserves our full attention(46, 40), not our leftovers or trivial regards or sense of entitlement(37, 1). If you heard a lion roar close by(which can be heard up to 5 miles away), you would become immediately intentional(61, 53).
He is The Ultimate Life(2).
Jesus wants us to have a satisfying and rewarding life(54). That is not possible if we are full of hurt, bitterness, anger or guilt about the past, or if we carry worry, fear and anxiety about the future(38, 90). More than anything else, He commands us to not be afraid, praise Him, be thankful and be happy. Our reason for living changes so that comfort and security are no longer major concerns and the present moment is paramount. It is more intimate than facebook.
Our true motives are revealed in circumstances requiring faith, which prompts us to examine our hearts and really grow together(71, 83). Faith is not mindless believing in something without proof. It is believing in someone other than yourself and expecting more than what you are capable of or think is possible(70, 31). Even some of those who spent time with Jesus misunderstood it. When the disciples failed to remove demons, Jesus told them it was because they were not taking God seriously or hearing His voice(67). Ann Voskamp says, "Faith is confidence in the kindness of God, no matter the confusion of circumstances." It never involves denying reality, but having a right and sufficient focus. It is the opposite of selfish pride and is not focused on reciprocation(33).
If we must have absolute proof, it is because we do not want to love or submit or believe(28,11). Jesus gave us all the proof we need during His life, death and resurrection. Perfect faith is trusting in God's character and promises such that you do not hesitate to act on them, doing so with a passionate hope that is visible to others(59) and inspires them to do the same(28, 1). It magnifies God's love and power before the world.
If we must have absolute proof, it is because we do not want to love or submit or believe(28,11). Jesus gave us all the proof we need during His life, death and resurrection. Perfect faith is trusting in God's character and promises such that you do not hesitate to act on them, doing so with a passionate hope that is visible to others(59) and inspires them to do the same(28, 1). It magnifies God's love and power before the world.
Our God has an infinite mind, not human attributes, and is capable of being the closest and truest friend of every one of us at once(63). The Bible uses metaphorical language to show how we relate to Him. This King knows every single one of His servants/countrymen very well, and is never hesitant or moody or indecisive or surprised about anything. He is happy. St. Augustine said, "God loves each of us as if there were only one of us." Our definition of 'friend' today is quite broad and unspecific, but friendship with Jesus is the kind that means so much that you would be happy to spend hours with Him in slow, heavy traffic(1).
Real friendship is becoming quite rare and we have used technology to create feelings of intimacy without real closeness. God designed us in such a way that requires us to learn to cooperate yet value our individual perspectives and limitations in order to achieve things that bring Him glory and us fulfillment. We cannot thrive in isolation just as we will not get all the nutrients we need if we only eat one kind of food all the time(90).
We must make ourselves vulnerable by trusting Him in our relationships with and service to others(33, 52). Often, He would have us cultivate a relationship with the person we want to avoid or one who does not see things the way we do.
He created physical unity through our complementary bodies to show how we benefit from this togetherness in a tangible way, with the harmony permeating into our very spirits to bind us together(81). It also reveals the condition of our soul. Sex is a physical manifestation, but there are spiritual implications as well. Jesus is the definition of love.
Reading and obeying His Word purifies us so that we can become what He made us for(16, 36). It is food for us, making us sturdy and vigorous followers of Christ(32, 40). His Spirit is like refreshing water for our souls, enabling us to function and sustaining us through all difficulties(50, 71). He is not a mere observer, but a true helper(50, 63).
C.S. Lewis said, "God designed the human machine to run on himself. He himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other... God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing."(70)
Sin feeds our wants which corrupts and enslaves our body and mind(54, 55), but God provides for our needs and regenerates us(50, 60). At Calvary/Golgotha, Jesus defeated death and bought us real life(52). When we say no to ourselves, whether by getting rid of something that gets us into trouble or simply using our time and resources for more Christ-like purposes, we can say yes to Jesus and the blessings He wants to pour into us. To do this, we must be more impressed by God and His Truth.
If we spend all of our time in a virtual event, we miss all of the beauty of the actual events around us that God has created. The abundance of choices we have created for ourselves serves only to make us indecisive and unhappy with what we have. As we grow solid in our faith, we appreciate the limits our Father sets for us and find it easier to say 'no' despite what someone else may say or do. There is no room for self-righteousness or self-indulgence(38, 64).
We are not special in our own right, but made to work together as one body(90). We must correct wrong actions(79, 90), but we cannot be judgmental of what we have no knowledge, such as other people's heart or motivations(90, 38). Matthew tells us to ferret out our own sin before others' and make judgements that benefit others. God's love subdues us and magnifies Him(47, 65).
We must sacrifice individuality to realize our purpose(33, 52) and be willing to abandon all we now have for eternal assets, even if it means abasement(76, 1). We must build no reputation(47, 52). If we live for what we can get for ourselves, we will have nothing when we die(76, 49).
In His grace, He uses our wants and our mistakes in awesome ways to teach us and bring us together(48, 39), as well as reveal His glory through us(52, 33). Led by His Spirit, we experience great joy as we confidently charge towards and overcome whatever obstacles and difficulties we find in our way(15, 45).
He created you the way you are for a reason, and because He wanted you to be part of His pleasing design(58, 36). He also knew what words would come from our lips, yet He breathed life into our bodies anyway.
He builds masterpieces, not copies. He didn't stamp us all out in assembly-line fashion, but carefully and lovingly crafted each one of us(6) with unique weaknesses and gifts(62, 71), and the freedom to use them for our own prideful ends or His transcendent ones(48, 84).
As a butterfly must spend some time as a caterpillar, so too must we be preparing now for our transformation where we will leave our flesh behind(51). To live this short life without Him is to never know what you were meant for, to never be what you truly are(16). It is garbage compared to what we gain in Jesus Christ(66), and indeed, He will ruin your plans to realize something inconceivably more spectacular through you(52)!
You are at all times either living or dying, and you can't outlive God. He gave you the option to accept life through Him or death by default(14, 7) and He alone is the one who has the right to judge His creation according to His perfect standard(51, 11).
It is not on our terms(76, 84), and not a contest to live fast and party hard. A natural man thinks he must try to get all he can out of his life now by whatever means and do everything with everyone, so he does not miss all the fun. A spiritual man knows that The Sovereign God has already prepared an ideal way for him during this short probationary period and that the real life with it's supreme fulfillment is yet to come(77, 51). Although he sees suffering and death right now, he is assured that the good will suddenly be restored by Christ when the last child is found.
Many people think of God's punishment as unreasonable or harsh, but He is infinitely holy(2) and is the perfect essence of justice(83, 91). What have we done to improve the world? People have a lengthy record of being destructive and unreasonable. Far from indifferent, His love and forgiveness are as exceptional and irresistible as His wrath is for our remorseless wrongs(65, 16). If you strike a man, you could expect the same from him, but strike a king and it could cost you your life(61). Our King, however is very forgiving and merciful(34, 84), and we are likewise given benefits we do not deserve when we submit to Him(65, 38).
Many people think of God's punishment as unreasonable or harsh, but He is infinitely holy(2) and is the perfect essence of justice(83, 91). What have we done to improve the world? People have a lengthy record of being destructive and unreasonable. Far from indifferent, His love and forgiveness are as exceptional and irresistible as His wrath is for our remorseless wrongs(65, 16). If you strike a man, you could expect the same from him, but strike a king and it could cost you your life(61). Our King, however is very forgiving and merciful(34, 84), and we are likewise given benefits we do not deserve when we submit to Him(65, 38).
What is true of Jesus becomes true of us and nothing can torment us any more(45, 23) when we accept His authority and are grafted into His family as intended(36). His mind becomes our mind(3). His redemptive power invades us and nothing in this world, not even our own flesh, can dominate us any longer(55, 2).
Without Him, we hardly exist. We truly begin to live when we act with our full will to realize His full will in our life(7); We transfer ownership of all that we have to Him(16, 82).
He is the source of life and we must find our identity and serenity in Him(1, 51).
He is The essential Way(2).
Jesus said 'Follow Me'(76, 67), not impersonate me, act like you know me, collect stuff with my name or likeness, follow my social network or become religious(41, 78). It was not a casual suggestion or a discussion topic, but a challenge to start moving(88, 52).
He meant for us to inherit His traits, to stop what we are doing and do what He is doing(46, 88). Many of us are lazy(43), always wanting to be laying in the green pastures, using prayer and study as a retreat to personal enjoyment or a way to manipulate God rather than experiencing Him. Like Dr. Mark Allison said, “There's a thin line between religious thinking, which involves supplication, and magical thinking, which involves control.” When we read or pray, we should not be trying to lead ourselves through it or direct our own attention. It should affect our hearts(actions) more than our minds(words), which is considerably more challenging and cannot be scheduled.
The Word is a sword(71, 67) and Jesus said 'Go'(39, 20). Don't try to customize Him or His Gospel to fit your purposes(32, 53), but take it as-is to every context where it is missing(76, 74). Lest we forget, Jesus was from the east. Just as when Jews took it to the Greeks, it is a message that transcends cultural and societal constraints(74) while finding it's traction in the fellowship of small gatherings. We don't pick His servants or redeem them, He does(39).
That 'signal' is still going out through all space and time whether we acknowledge reception or not(3). We have His light in our hearts to seek Him(10, 54), no matter how much the darkened world tries to convince us that He does not exist or care(14, 52).
He is present no matter where you are and is patiently pursuing you(84) to respond and believe Him(19,28). Endless searching for that 'something' or 'someone' to fulfill you and make you complete, and the quest for the reason for your existence is over(69). There is no other valid philosophy or way(4, 79), and when you come before Him there will be no excuses(11, 87). Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
We often think of ourselves as more moral or caring than God, instead of considering the seriousness of our offenses(18). Jesus knew two types of people- those who thought they were righteous and those who knew they were sinners. If you spend your life, your adequate but only opportunity, estranged as an enemy of Jesus, calling Him evil and judging yourself as good and right(54, 89), He will give you what you ask for when final justice is rendered(91, 64). In the words of A.W. Tozer, one "should put away all defense and make no attempt to excuse himself either in his own eyes or before the Lord. Whoever defends himself will have himself for his defense, and he will have no other. But let him come defenseless before the Lord and he will have for his defender no less than God Himself." If you die resisting and rejecting Him, you will certainly be separated from Him forever in a diabolical place that you helped furnish.
Our Perfector lived a perfectly holy life among us, obeying every law perfectly and never sinning even in the depths of His heart. He was tempted in every way that we are and knows full well what it is like to feel the drawing of His flesh toward lust and selfishness(47). He didn't fit the mold that the Jewish leaders held for their Messiah and He certainly isn't the dirt-free, politically correct, easy-living American Jesus that is commonly portrayed today(35).
He was born in a barn to ordinary people and did not choose His circumstances during His life. He has felt the dirt on His feet and walked the streets, but He was not just another teacher or guru or imposter. He stands alone. To say that no one religion is more right than another religion is to say that your point of view is better than all the others. Mohammed or Buddha never claimed to be divine. Jesus actually did miraculous things(of which there is no comparison) which benefitted humanity rather than Himself. He submitted Himself to God and became The preeminent Redeemer of all people and the qualifying sacrifice that made it possible for us to know our Father(9) because He completed His work for us when we abused and murdered Him(83). That's inclusive.
Jesus arrived in a culture arguably more depraved than the western world today and yet His Words transformed it without force or fame. He was not stopped by the Pharisees, not faulted by Pilate and not prevented by Herod. Although he was blameless, he took responsibility for our sin on Himself without complaint(35), exchanging our debt of wrongdoing for His right-standing before God(19, 9).
He did not avoid confrontation or mince words(56, 3) and He was not the mousy or unassertive man that many picture, but a strong and dedicated King in a mans body taking your intense beating(9, 55). A crown made from the results of our sedition(7) was driven into His scalp and He was ridiculed and taunted before the elite(35).
He suffered so much for us that He became unrecognizable from all of our hate and disease resting on him at once(35), yet at no point did the angels or any particle of creation stop declaring His glory(13, 39). We ought not to have judged The Cornerstone of civilization(1), but His love is deep and true, and He was willing to go a long way to create the opportunity for you to become His(65, 84).
All of us have lied or cheated someone out of something and likely still do sometimes. None of us can live up to even our own moral standards and must humbly accept our weakness and need for Jesus' mercy and grace(84, 33), for He is our paragon(76). He knew the grievous sins of those He met, but did not call for them to be stoned(34). He knew they could change and encouraged them to. Even at our best, we are inconsistent(64) and should compare ourselves only to His example as no other is worthy, and only Jesus has perfect integrity and is able to present us spotless to The Father(4).
God gave the laws of the Old Testament through Moses to reveal and amplify the sinful nature that is within all of us(64, 7) so that we would recognize it(18, 11). The Old Testament was focused on our coming to God and seeing our problem(64), with Himself as the only solution. The Law wasn't meant to save us, just to mitigate the 'middle ground' and halfhearted efforts(5, 18). When we read The Ten Commandments and the more than 600 other laws given to Israel, we identify precisely how and where we are failing to act rightly towards God and others(45, 11). This is the only language that the defiant heart knows, since it is not really interested in holiness. When we ask 'Is what I'm doing wrong?', we probably have not thought about pleasing God or loving people(74, 60).
The response he desires is for us to move past this defiance and want to be freed from this unruly state, since Jesus Himself has fulfilled the purpose of the laws by coming here and showing us exactly what to do(45, 60). He made all Christians everywhere part of a holy nation and circumcision, replacing ethnic Israel and bearing true fruit(92). Jesus became the final sacrifice, taking the place of the temple and priests(18). The New Testament therefore changed our focus from learning about God to taking our revelations about Him and His promises to the rest of the earth.
If we focus only on The Law, we will fear God and not desire intimacy. If we ignore The Law, we will not truly repent of our sin(18, 87). Many Christians find it hard to stay moderately between the law and sin by being either overscrupulous(legalistic) or licentious(sinful)(60). Jesus is the balance, our justification being possible because of grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. In His love, He gives us the dignity of participation in this process. When asked by the religious legalists which is the most important command, Jesus summarized their essence in not one, but two revealing commands(33, 1), because you cannot have one without the other- to do one is to do the other. You must really love God and really love people. He made plain the intent of all of scripture and changed the focus for those who might play games or seek only to be intellectual(1, 48). His wants for us and commands to us are about our relationships, are meant for the good of people. Loving people is loving Jesus.
He completely wiped out our problem by obeying The Law perfectly where we were unable to and taking the appropriate punishment for us(19, 52). All that is necessary is for you to acknowledge this(21) and be reconciled with Him(20, 9).
When Adam & Eve were created, they were perfect and free(47), and responsible for taking care of all of God's creation(52). Eve was deceived(43), but Adam knew what he was doing and that he was responsible(6). They were created for a good purpose and should not have chosen to know evil, perverting God's perfect order and beginning a cycle of death and suffering(7, 5). They basically told Him to leave them(17, 54) so they could be their own god, redefining what is right and acceptable, and so He gave them the option(15, 11).
There is a terrifying yet unseen battle being waged for your soul(54, 17) and you are being called to join a campaign that is already won(55, 67)! In fact, you have been appointed by Almighty God(58) to His ultimate strike team. He wants to adopt you into His family(36), but it is your responsibility to stand up and be uncompromisingly involved(43, 31).
If you recognize that only He has absolute authority and real power over all that exists, that His truth is perfect despite our limited understanding and His love is genuine and unearned- then you can accept Him as your King, beautiful and deserving of all glory.
Surrender to Him right now(8), tell Him you want His forgiveness and agree that your nature is wrong and requires change, which is the start of repentance(25). He doesn't want us to carry guilt and withdraw because we feel bad, but to continually relinquish it through an honest and contrite heart(90, 67) that is thankful for His forgiveness(16).
Atz Kilcher, while talking about change and his relationship with his son, said "I have to believe that anything I've done wrong in the past- that's done. I can apologize. We can talk through it. That's all good, but it isn't as powerful as him seeing me doing something different today." Start living a new way with new choices and accept the challenge to do whatever God asks of you(16, 52). If you truly become His, your life will never be the same again.
Some think that you just repeat a certain prayer and join the club- like instant, 'Just add water'. You can say you have been saved or reborn(16), go to church every time there is a service and read a chapter of The Bible every day, but that won't guarantee anything(41, 53). It's not a magic formula, it's a practical guide. Jesus knows the difference between those who believe in what He says and does, and those who believe He is God and thereby worthy of worship. As Donald Miller puts it, "What I say I believe is not what I believe; what I believe is what I do."
In Preaching, Tim Keller says, "What the heart most wants the mind finds reasonable, the emotions find valuable, and the will finds doable. It is all-important, then, that preaching move the heart to stop trusting and loving other things more than God. What makes people into what they are is the order of their loves- what they love most, more, less, and least. That is more fundamental to who you are than even the beliefs to which you mentally subscribe. Your loves show what you actually believe in, not what you say you do. People, therefore, change not by merely changing their thinking but by changing what they love most."
In Preaching, Tim Keller says, "What the heart most wants the mind finds reasonable, the emotions find valuable, and the will finds doable. It is all-important, then, that preaching move the heart to stop trusting and loving other things more than God. What makes people into what they are is the order of their loves- what they love most, more, less, and least. That is more fundamental to who you are than even the beliefs to which you mentally subscribe. Your loves show what you actually believe in, not what you say you do. People, therefore, change not by merely changing their thinking but by changing what they love most."
You must have a committed relationship with Him(The bride of Christ) where you listen for His guidance, wisdom, conviction of hidden sin and cultivation of your heart(78, 1). The Gospel is powerful and full of intensity. If we really know Him, we will humbly serve and obey Him(88, 38) and produce fruit or evidence of His Spirit working in and through us(60, 71). We will love like He loves and hate evil such that we don't dabble in it. Loving God is putting His wants/commands ahead of our own(1).
His Spirit will testify to a real relationship with Christ(65), rather than a hypothetical one built on rhetoric or ideals(18). If you don't look a bit weird or stand out from the world, you may not truly know Him(16, 49). In the words of John Piper, “Why don’t people ask us about our hope? The answer is probably that we look as if we hope in the same things they do.” Those who have 'left' were likely never really a part, possibly because they were looking for happiness rather than meaning. Christians, like everyone, can be inconsistent or insincere, but if He is real to us, we will possess His character, value His words and dote on Him to others. To the degree that we absorb The Truth of The Gospel, our old passions and priorities will be undermined.
Sin and death will be arrested in you not by your acts, but because you have voluntarily given your will to His(23). He is more concerned about our feelings for Him than our attempts to please Him(23, 18), our consideration for His qualities and Kingdom rather than our own(52). It is not about the substance so much as it is the effects or intent(52, 18). His grace perfects it.
God gives us assurance of our salvation as we apply His teaching and grow in responsibility. John Newton said, "We cannot be safely trusted with assurance 'till we have that knowledge of the evil and deceitfulness of our hearts, which can be acquired only by painful, repeated experience." We don't carry empty lamps or sit in idyllic places staring at the sky or try calculating when the last day will be. This life is about His personal and progressive work on our souls; if the soul is sick, it will manifest in the flesh. We are justified as our desire to be right with God results in real righteousness(mercy, purity, and peacemaking(38)) by His astonishing grace. We are sanctified as we struggle to be a true disciple of Christ by the power of His Spirit at work to make us holy in practice. This makes us more sensitive to the unrighteousness and injustice in the world around us, longing for the finishing touch. Finally, we will be glorified when we are completely transformed at His triumphant return, with our names being found among those of all the elect, in the Book of Life.
We acknowledge Him as our King when we fear nothing else but Him and feel the soundness of our inner man despite the outer circumstances(1, 70). William Gurnall said, "If you are a Christian, what is there to fear? You have no life to lose if you have already given yourself to Christ. And while God has not promised immunity from suffering, He has undertaken to bear your losses and pay you a hundredfold, though your reward may not come until another world." There is no threat beside Him; they become irrelevant(63)! We must not only believe in Him, but live in Him by training our thinking to line up with what He says(46, 52). We cannot compartmentalize Him so that He is not part of our intellectual endeavors and money matters and routine duties and romantic experiences(52). John Piper says, “We waste our lives when we do not pray and think and dream and plan and work toward magnifying God in all spheres of life.” Your job and daily chores are worth doing for His glory.
What things remove you from His presence or quench His Spirit leading you? Many will look at the surface or take a quick dip, but He wants those who will submerge themselves in His presence(13, 79) and purpose(39, 79) without looking back or fearing ridicule from people(71, 55). As you totally surrender to Him, you realize that it takes less conscious effort to stay on His path and the future is much brighter.
Life today won't be fair, comfortable or always go the way you want or think it should(15, 30), and it will take much focus and intrepid determination(55, 36). In this fallen world, no significant long-term fruitfulness will come without obstacles or resistance and as Nik Ripken has said, "The gospel continues to be authenticated by what people are willing to suffer for the cause of Jesus Christ." If we are to be like Christ, we will suffer with Him and be resurrected with Him(46, 7). Our desire will be like His- to lessen the suffering of others through love and reconciliation(38).
Most people will not take the hard roads of Christ(15, 87), but the payoff for those who do will be worth it(15). This is how His glory is revealed to mankind, because we would not appreciate His light without experiencing darkness(10, 51). We would not know the power of our freedom without being born in captivity(54, 55). We would not demonstrate His goodness or choose holiness or even know what real love is without being susceptible to evil(17, 54).
Seeking what is God's good and perfect will sometimes requires a fight(54) and other times requires peaceful submission(54, 38). It can be difficult to explain goodness, but it is not difficult to show it or see it in action. God weeps when we make wrong choices and our pain is an indication to us that something is not right.
We have only experienced the very first moments of our existence from an eternal perspective, because change is coming. Compared to eternity, it makes no difference if you have lived on earth for 17 or 70 years. Everything will change tomorrow and you only have as long as the air God put in your lungs continues to flow in and out of them. He has given your heart an exact number of beats, and you don't know how many you or the person next to you has left. He owes you 0.
Momentarily(8, 92), you will meet the supreme creator of this vast and awesome universe, described as a consuming fire(2, 39). The entire history of man will be displayed in one big picture containing stories from every individual(74). He will find your name from among the names of every man, woman and child that was ever conceived, and read what has been written next to it(13, 91). Nothing has eluded The Most High(53) and there will be no deliberation, simply realization and consequences(19, 18). As John Piper has stated, “Remember, you have one life. That’s all. You were made for God.”
The hard, daring and resolute will be baffled by His unconstrained presence and unable to faint as every word that was spoken in the heart or on the lips is known for it's intent(56, 63). His voice will be amazing! His redeemed will hear Him say 'Well done!'(24, 74). After a brief consummation, all believers will join the real party(77) where our glorified, incorruptible bodies will experience and admire Him infinitely(7)! That means our joy will continue forever as we continue to learn about His beautiful truths, never growing tired or bored! All of the telescopes, detectors and satellites are busy now surveying and itemizing the visible objects of our inheritance(77).
For now, we must strive to be more like Him by loving and forgiving others(33, 76), overcoming differences(90, 32), bearing with one another despite our many mistakes and faults(33, 43) and always looking to grow the family(33, 74).
It is a privilege to be a part of God's Church(62, 71) and we must freely serve others out of a thankful and loving heart(5), not looking to get a return as on an investment(46, 33) or worrying about how it will affect me. A true leader will always serve as Jesus did, not seek to draw attention to himself(68, 61).
We must do more than merely talk about Him or stand on the corner and broadcast how we love Him without engaging with people(18, 43). We must remove any barriers to feeding and caring for His sheep(33, 39); there are no exceptions and He won't release us from this crucial task(79, 33). There is no excuse for not doing what He has told us and the time is coming when the mission will be over and the worship due Him by all of creation will begin(36, 51). The appreciation of His glory is the goal of salvation and all of history(84).
Real Churches are disciples of Jesus who disciple others for the purpose of spending time together in His worship.
Real Churches are disciples of Jesus who disciple others for the purpose of spending time together in His worship.
On our own, we can neither set the tempo nor render a single pure note. Worship God with others by offering Him your first and best always, regardless of time or place(1, 92). You should not come with expectations of an emotional experience or good performance, but involve both your mind and heart so that you are not concerned with anything else(1, 92). This worship includes confession of sin. Get baptised as a symbol of your commitment to Him by dying to your natural self and being made new. Be confident that He will not leave you(70) and will perfect His work in you(71). It's not just a song.
Focus on Him and don't ever take your eyes off of Him(1, 3)!
Don't Forget:
The verses referenced are only a fraction of God's wisdom and the context of each chapter is important for a thorough understanding. Lone Bible verses are of low value. You can only get a deep sense of meaning, application and thematic elements from reading large parts as an uninterrupted book. People seem to err on the side of not taking God's Word seriously or ignoring the parts that don't fit in their framework. We intend to provoke you to read and pray regularly, because God has a lot to say to those who will listen. If any part of The Bible is reliable and trustworthy, then the balance of it with it's passages describing God's immutable and inexhaustible power over everything that exists is absolutely established(60, 3).
John is an excellent book to begin with in continuing daily study(32, 68) and thankful prayer is the primary way to spend personal time with Him(67). Studying stimulates spiritual growth while personal prayer is our act of focused submission. Both are essential to a life with God, in contrast to the distraction and superficiality of American culture.
Don't just brush up against God or use Him as a cosmetic for your life, but really get to know Him(31, 52). Church events and Bible study should feel more like going to the gym than watching a movie because the focus should be on Him and we are striving to do and be the 'impossible'(43).
Hearing The Truth makes us believe and trust Him, which makes us use what we know, which reflects His Majesty's grace before all observers(of which we are also one). This has been proven in the lives of people(such as George Müller).
In The Bible, people always ran into God when they went 'out there' and did the hard or scary stuff(33). If we don't know any 'undesirable' or marginalized people, we might need to re-evaluate what we are doing(43, 79). These people are all around us and it is not our job to determine if they should experience God's Kingdom or our love and attention(33, 38). God commands us to care for these people in a way that will be just and beneficial. We must stop the disease of partiality which keeps showing itself in politics, racism, ageism, inequality, abortion, economic status and appearance(43). If you are following Christ, you were made to lead others to Him as well as show mercy generally to all human beings(33, 38). They are worth helping and not for labeling. Your 'affiliation' with God puts you on the same level as everyone else. It is to be our continual prayer(67, 22) and the obedience of our faith(39). We must go to and help, first, and possibly admonish or educate, second:
- those with addictions to substances or pathological behaviors like pornography and risk-taking(for dopamine)
- emotionally troubled, impaired and disabled people
- families in crisis and prisoners
- homeless or transitioning human beings
- patients with acute conditions or who are in hospice
- leaders and councils with heretical ideas
- sex workers and victims of enslavement or trafficking
- abused children and troubled or gang-affiliated juveniles
- traumatized veterans and their families
- next door neighbors and immigrants
- anyone for whom we feel prompted by The Holy Spirit or find ourselves in a position to do good to
It has been said that compassion is love that has work clothes on(63, 38). We must be willing to get our hands dirty telling others what it means to be a simple disciple of Jesus Christ(39, 76), reproducing His character(not ours) in other people by fully living it and working together to accomplish His will(74, 70). It will take much patience and humility, but your city is worth saving. Go serve your King! ✚
References:
1 ► Matthew 22:37-40, Joel 2:12-13, 1 Samuel 12:24, Isaiah 9:6, Revelation 22:13, Exodus 15:26, Ephesians 2:19-21, Psalms 18:1, Colossians 3:23-25, Deuteronomy 6:5, Deuteronomy 10:12-13 2 ► John 14:6, John 18:37-38, Hebrews 12:18-29, 1 Timothy 6:16 3 ► 2 Timothy 3:16-17, 2 Peter 1:16-21, 1 Corinthians 2:11-16, John 10:34-38, Isaiah 40:8, Psalms 19:7-11, John 7:16-20, John 5:41-44, 2 Chronicles 34:19-21, Psalms 119:160, 1 Corinthians 4:10, 1 Corinthians 14:37-38 4 ► Acts 4:12, John 10:9, 1 John 2:22-23, John 6:44, John 3:18, Isaiah 45:18-24, 1 Timothy 2:5, Isaiah 44:7-11, Psalms 96:4-6, Mark 9:7 5 ► Romans 3:9-24, 1 John 1:9, Proverbs 28:13, Romans 5:12-14, Mark 2:17, Romans 9:1-18, Job 34:19, Ecclesiastes 1:9, John 6:37, 1 Timothy 2:4, Psalms 51:1-6 6 ► Psalms 139:13-16, Isaiah 43:1 7 ► Romans 6:23, 1 Corinthians 15:22, Genesis 2:17, Matthew 6:24, Genesis 3:17-18, 1 Corinthians 15:45-58, 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10 8 ► James 4:14, Isaiah 65:17, 2 Corinthians 6:2, John 9:4, John 5:25, Romans 13:11-14, Job 14:5, 2 Corinthians 5:1-5 9 ► Romans 5:6-8, 1 John 2:2, 2 Corinthians 5:14, Hebrews 2, Galatians 3:9-14, John 17:24-26, Revelation 1:5, 1 Peter 3:18 10 ► John 1:9, 2 Corinthians 4:3-6, Revelation 3:20, John 8:12, 1 Corinthians 2:6-10, Psalms 36:9, Isaiah 9:2 11 ► Romans 7:14-16, Romans 1:18-24, Acts 14:16-17, John 15:22, Romans 2:14-16, 2 Timothy 3:1-9, Isaiah 59:1-8, Lamentations 3:37-39, James 4:17, Ecclesiastes 2:1-26, Habakkuk 2:14, Romans 1:28-32 12 ► Genesis 3:1, Galatians 6:7-8, Psalms 5:5-6, Ezekiel 28:12-19, Isaiah 14:3-17, Ephesians 2:2 13 ► Psalms 19:1-4, Psalms 97:5, Nehemiah 9:6, Revelation 20:11-12, Psalms 147:5, Revelation 1:12-20, 1 Kings 18:25-39, Revelation 22:1, Matthew 17:1-8 14 ► 2 Peter 3:5, Psalms 97:2, Isaiah 55:1, John 8:42-47, 1 John 5:6-15, Luke 19:42 15 ► Romans 8:18-30, 2 Corinthians 4:16-17, James 1:12, Hebrews 6:19-20, Colossians 1:24, 2 Chronicles 15:7, 2 Corinthians 1:3-5, John 6:66-67, Lamentations 3:19-30, 2 Timothy 3:12, Acts 9:15-16, 2 Corinthians 7:4, John 16:21-24, Romans 5:5, James 5:10-11, 1 Peter 4:14-19, 2 Corinthians 12:7, Acts 14:21-22 16 ► 2 Corinthians 5:15-17, Romans 12:1-8, Colossians 3:1-4, 1 Peter 1, John 17:16, Psalms 101:3, Ezekiel 36:26-27, John 3:5, Psalms 103:6-18, Ephesians 1:13-14, Ephesians 4:20-24, 2 Corinthians 7:9-10, 1 Corinthians 10:6-13 17 ► Luke 4:6, Daniel 10:13, John 16:11, Ephesians 3:10 18 ► Romans 5:20-21, 2 Corinthians 1:20, Philippians 3:9, Hebrews 10, Galatians 4:21-28, Galatians 2, Romans 10:1-3, Matthew 23:23-24, 2 Corinthians 2:17, Mark 2:27, 1 Corinthians 7:19, Romans 4:4-5 19 ► Romans 4:25, 1 Peter 2:24, John 3:16, Hebrews 9, 2 Corinthians 5:21 20 ► 2 Corinthians 5:18-20, Colossians 1:21-23 21 ► Romans 10:9, Acts 2:32, John 1:12, 1 Corinthians 15:1-20, Acts 8:9-13 22 ► Jeremiah 33:2-3, Job 33:14, Proverbs 2:1-6, Acts 8:30, Ephesians 1:17-18, 2 Timothy 2:7 23 ► 1 Samuel 16:7, John 12:42-43, Luke 10:18-20 24 ► Matthew 25:23, Revelation 21:4, 1 Corinthians 15:24-26, Revelation 22:3, Psalms 107:2 25 ► Acts 3:19-23, Revelation 3:19, 1 John 3:9, Acts 26:17-20, Acts 20:21, Psalms 51:7-17 26 ► Jeremiah 29:11, Acts 4:28, Proverbs 16:33, Proverbs 16:9 27 ► Acts 16:37, Acts 22:25-28, Acts 26:24-28, Acts 22:1-3 28 ► 2 Corinthians 5:7, 2 Corinthians 4:18, Hebrews 11, Matthew 16:1-4, Proverbs 25:2 29 ► Proverbs 3:5-12, Deuteronomy 29:29, John 16:12, Isaiah 45:9, Isaiah 29:16, Isaiah 64:8, John 14:1, Psalms 33:4, 2 Corinthians 6:8-10, Isaiah 41:14 30 ► Romans 11:33, John 21:25, Psalms 40:3-5, Ecclesiastes 3:11, Ecclesiastes 8:17, Ephesians 3:20-21, Hebrews 3:4 31 ► James 4:8, Matthew 27:50-54, John 14:9-10, John 3:11-12, Galatians 1, Acts 22:19-20, Acts 10:34-36, 2 Thessalonians 3:17-18, John 6:68-69, Matthew 16:15-18, John 7:46, Matthew 27:4-5, John 5:31-38, John 19:35, 2 Corinthians 11:23-33 32 ► Matthew 4:4, Revelation 1:3, Matthew 22:29, Ephesians 4:5, John 16:13, 2 Corinthians 3:5, Hebrews 13:15-17, Ephesians 3:1-6 33 ► Philippians 2:1-6, 1 Peter 3:8-12, John 21:16, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, Luke 6:31-36, Luke 17:9-10, Matthew 23:1-12, Mark 10:45, Micah 6:8, Philippians 2:17, 2 Corinthians 12:9-15, Romans 15, Acts 2:42-47, 1 Thessalonians 5:9-27, Ephesians 4:2, Colossians 3:12-14, Mark 11:25, Romans 13:8-10, Hebrews 6:10, 1 John 3:16-17, 1 John 2:9-11, Acts 4:32-37, 1 Thessalonians 2, Romans 12:14-16, Philemon 1:4-7, 2 Timothy 2:22-26, Hebrews 13:3, Matthew 25:31-45, 1 Thessalonians 3:9-10 34 ► John 3:17, Genesis 22:18, 1 John 1:5-6, John 8:11, John 20:22, Matthew 19:8, Romans 2:4, Luke 9:51-56 35 ► Isaiah 52:14, Isaiah 53, John 19:2-5, Psalms 22 36 ► Romans 8:15-17, John 14:18, Matthew 23:37, Ephesians 1:4-12, Galatians 6:10, Hebrews 12:4-13, Galatians 3:26, 1 John 3:1-3, James 5:19-20, Exodus 33:16, Lamentations 3:31-33 37 ► Philippians 1:21, 1 John 2:17, Psalms 94:11, Jeremiah 10:23, James 1:5-6, Mark 4:18-19 38 ► Isaiah 5:22, Psalms 37, James 4:11-12, Matthew 5:7-9 39 ► Romans 1:16, Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 1:8, Jeremiah 1:7, Mark 16:14-16, Psalms 40:9-10, Colossians 1:28, 1 Peter 2:9, Matthew 5:13-16, Matthew 10:32, Romans 10:14-16, 1 Corinthians 2:1-5, John 20:21, Luke 10:16, 1 Corinthians 3:6-7, Psalms 127:1, Acts 17:6, John 17:18, Isaiah 6:1-8, Luke 19:10, Isaiah 61:1-3, Acts 20:24, Matthew 24:9-14, 2 Corinthians 4:7, Acts 5:41-42, Acts 13:44-52, Ephesians 6:19-20, John 4:34-35, Romans 16:25-27, 2 Timothy 2:2 40 ► Psalms 1:2, Joshua 1:8, Job 23:12, Deuteronomy 6:6-9 41 ► John 5:39, Matthew 7:21, 1 Corinthians 13:2, Jude 1, Luke 6:49, Isaiah 1:13-17, Matthew 5:20, 1 John 3:10 42 ► Romans 10:17, Romans 1:17, Nehemiah 8:7-8, 1 Timothy 2:7 43 ► 1 Corinthians 14:10-12, Proverbs 22:17-21, Psalms 119:9, Romans 2:13, James 2, Ezekiel 33:30-32, James 1:22, Luke 8:21, 1 Timothy 4:6-10, John 2:5, Matthew 10:1-28, Galatians 6:1-5, Hebrews 3:13, Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, Romans 2:29, 1 Timothy 6:18-19, Job 29:12-17, James 1:27, Isaiah 58:6-7, Proverbs 22:13 44 ► Acts 17:2-3, Acts 17:11, Luke 1:1-4, 1 Timothy 6:20-21, Titus 3:8 45 ► John 16:33, Romans 8:1-4, Matthew 5:17-18, Isaiah 54:14, Romans 6:14-22, Romans 7:4-12, 2 Corinthians 4:10 46 ► Colossians 2:6, John 11:25-26, Ephesians 5, John 15:1-8, 1 John 5:19-20, John 6:53, Philippians 3:10-11, 2 Thessalonians 3:6-16, 2 Corinthians 10:18, John 3:23-35; Luke 22:24-26, Psalms 119:1-8, Psalms 119:67-71
47 ► Genesis 2:25, Hebrews 4:15, Hebrews 7:25-27, 1 John 3:5, Philippians 2:7, John 1:14, John 3:30 48 ► 1 Corinthians 6:12, 1 Corinthians 10:23-24 49 ► Colossians 2:8, Romans 1:25, Exodus 20:3-5, Romans 6:13, Mark 4:7, 1 Peter 2:11-12 , Jeremiah 2:13, 1 Samuel 12:21, 1 Corinthians 7:29-31, Isaiah 55:2, Philippians 3:17-21 50 ► Matthew 6:25-34, John 4:14, 1 John 1:7, Psalms 136:23-26, Revelation 21:6, Zechariah 4:6, Genesis 22:14, Deuteronomy 29:5, John 7:37-39, Proverbs 30:8-9, John 14:16-17 51 ► Revelation 4:11, Colossians 1:15-20, Romans 9:19-33, Genesis 1:31, 1 Kings 8:39, Revelation 3:7, Hebrews 1:1-3, Proverbs 16:4, Proverbs 16:11 52 ► John 9:1-3, Genesis 1:26-28, 2 Corinthians 3:16-18, Malachi 3:3, Romans 8:5-14, Matthew 6:22-23, Colossians 3:15-17, Luke 20:25, Matthew 5:3-4, John 15:11, 1 Timothy 4:4, Genesis 50:20, Matthew 7:24-27, Exodus 33:19, John 18:36, Proverbs 21:1 53 ► 1 John 3:20, Jeremiah 23:24, 1 Corinthians 8:2, 1 Chronicles 28:9, Matthew 26:75, 1 Corinthians 9:26-27, Matthew 7:13-14, Proverbs 15:3 54 ► John 10:10, Ephesians 6:12, Matthew 12:30, James 1:14-15, Proverbs 23:32, Matthew 10:34-39, Matthew 15:19, James 4:1-3, John 3:19-21, Proverbs 8:36, Proverbs 14:12-13, Matthew 5:10-12, John 12:27-31, Matthew 26:50-54, Philippians 2:21, Mark 10:17-19 55 ► 1 John 5:4, Psalms 55:18, 1 Timothy 6:12, 2 Timothy 4:7, Revelation 12:11, 2 Timothy 2:3-4, Hebrews 12:1-3, Romans 7:23-25, 1 Peter 5:7-9, 1 Timothy 1, Isaiah 50:4-11, 1 Peter 4:12-13, Ezekiel 37:1-14, John 10:17-18 56 ► Proverbs 18:2, Exodus 20:7, Ephesians 4:29, James 5:12, Matthew 12:36, Matthew 5:21-22, Matthew 5:33-37 57 ► Psalms 14:1, 1 Corinthians 1:18 , Luke 6:22-26 58 ► Ephesians 2:10, Jeremiah 1:5, Genesis 2:7, James 1:18, Job 12:10 59 ► 1 Thessalonians 1 60 ► Psalms 73:26, Isaiah 41:10, Galatians 5, Psalms 121:1-2, Matthew 11:28-29, John 8:32, 1 Corinthians 7:22, Isaiah 40:25-31, 2 Peter 1:3 61 ► Proverbs 19:12, Amos 3:8, Exodus 20:18-19, Exodus 33:20, Isaiah 64:1-4, Mark 3:11-12 62 ► 1 Corinthians 12, 1 Peter 4:10-11, 1 Corinthians 7:7, Ephesians 1:21-23 , 1 Peter 3:3-6 63 ► Proverbs 18:24, John 15:15, John 11:35, Psalms 139:1-12, Exodus 33:11, Luke 7:13, 2 Chronicles 16:9, Psalms 25:14 64 ► Jeremiah 17:9, Proverbs 4:23, Isaiah 64:6, Isaiah 5:20, Psalms 12:2, 1 Timothy 5:13, Ephesians 2:3, Psalms 118:8, James 3:13-17, Genesis 6:5 65 ► 1 John 4:7-21, Psalms 86:15, Romans 8:31-39, John 15:13, Jeremiah 31:3 66 ► Philippians 3:7-8, Matthew 13:44 67 ► Colossians 4:2-4, 2 Timothy 1:8, Matthew 9:35-38, John 14:11-14, Ephesians 3:14-19, Ephesians 6:13-18, Isaiah 62:6, Luke 11:9-13, 1 Timothy 2:1-3, Matthew 18:18-20, Matthew 7:7-11, James 5:13-15, Matthew 6:1-21, Matthew 21:21-22, 1 Peter 3:7, Matthew 17:14-20, Psalms 32:1-11; 1 John 3:21-24, Acts 26:29, Psalms 116:1-6, Psalms 145:18, Psalms 119:18, Mark 9:17-29 68 ► 2 Timothy 2:14-18, Psalms 119:11, Titus 1:5-9, 1 Peter 3:15, Psalms 66:17-18, 1 Timothy 3:1-16, Ephesians 6:1-4, Luke 12:8-9, 1 Corinthians 16:13, Ephesians 4:14, 1 Corinthians 14:20 69 ► Acts 17:27, Jeremiah 29:12-13, Proverbs 8:17, Psalms 40:16-17, Psalms 16:11, Psalms 17:6-8 70 ► Psalms 118:6, Psalms 23:4, Deuteronomy 31:6, Philippians 4:6-7, Psalms 48:14, John 1:5, Matthew 10:28, Psalms 91:1-13, 2 Timothy 1:7, John 14:27, Joshua 1:9, Psalms 94:18-19 71 ► Psalms 12:6-8, Proverbs 30:5-6, Philippians 1:6-11, Hebrews 4:12-13, Philippians 2:12-13, Philippians 3:12-14, James 1:2-4, John 6:63, Luke 9:62, Revelation 3:16, Ephesians 4:7-13, Lamentations 3:40, 2 Peter 1:5-9, Galatians 4:19, 1 Corinthians 1:8-9 72 ► Matthew 4:6 73 ► 2 Peter 2, Acts 20:30, Matthew 24:24, Matthew 24:5, 2 Corinthians 11:13-15, Matthew 7:15-20, 1 John 4:1, 1 Timothy 6:3-5 74 ► Romans 14, 1 Timothy 4:16, Ezekiel 33:6-8, Luke 17:1-3, James 3:1-12, Proverbs 24:11-12, 1 Corinthians 10:32,1 Corinthians 13:13, 1 Corinthians 4:1-7, 1 Corinthians 1:2, Philippians 4:8-9, 1 Corinthians 1:17, Colossians 4:5-6 75 ► 1 Samuel 3:21, Luke 24:27 76 ► Matthew 16:24-26, 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, Matthew 5:6, Matthew 5:29, Matthew 4:19-22, John 13:1-17, John 12:26, John 21:18, Luke 14:26-27, 1 Peter 2:21, 1 Corinthians 3:16, Matthew 5:38-48; Matthew 19:23-30 77 ► Luke 15:25, Revelation 19:6-8, Luke 12:15, John 14:2-3, 1 Corinthians 3:21-23 78 ► 1 Corinthians 8:3, 2 Corinthians 13:5, 1 John 2:19, Luke 3:8, Acts 17:28, John 10:14, 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5 79 ► 1 Timothy 4:1, 2 Timothy 4:1-5, Titus 1:11, 2 Corinthians 10:3-6, 1 John 4:3, 2 Corinthians 11:1-6, Deuteronomy 4:2, 2 Peter 3:16, Hebrews 5:14, Ezekiel 2:7 80 ► 1 John 5:7, Deuteronomy 6:4, John 1:1, John 1:32-34, 1 Corinthians 6:19, 2 Corinthians 13:14, Exodus 3:14, John 8:58, 1 John 1:1-4, John 17:20-23, Matthew 7:29, Colossians 2:9, Acts 13:2 81 ► Genesis 2:18-24, 1 Corinthians 6:16 82 ► John 17:17, Luke 1:37-38 83 ► John 19:30, Acts 17:31, John 20:27-30, John 21:24, John 17:8, Acts 3:15, Acts 1:3, John 6:39-40, Acts 10:39-43, John 17:1-5, Acts 5:29-32 84 ► Ephesians 2:7-9, Hebrews 4:16, James 4:6, Romans 11:6, 2 Peter 3:9, Ezekiel 33:11, Titus 3:4-7, Psalms 34:8, Matthew 18:2-4, Romans 11:30-32, Romans 11:35-36, Isaiah 65:1-3, Psalms 23:6, Ezekiel 18:32, Psalms 30:6-7 85 ► Titus 1:2, 1 Peter 2:22, Numbers 23:19 86 ► Isaiah 55:8-11, John 14:26, Jeremiah 17:7, Romans 3:4 87 ► Luke 16:31, Acts 28:17-31, Ephesians 4:17-19, Mark 10:32-34 88 ► John 14:15, Luke 13:24, Romans 13:1-7, Romans 12:9-13, 1 John 2:3-6, 1 John 5:1, John 13:35, Isaiah 43:10-13, Psalms 40:8, Romans 6:4, Proverbs 11:30, Matthew 14:13-21 89 ► Luke 11:15, Proverbs 21:2, 1 John 1:10 90 ► 2 Corinthians 2:11, 1 Corinthians 1:10, Philippians 1:27, James 5:16, Matthew 7:1-5, Romans 2:1-2, 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 91 ► John 3:36, 2 Corinthians 5:10, Psalms 11:5, Revelation 19:11, 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12, Psalms 18:25-27, John 12:47-50, Romans 2:5-11, Romans 5:18-19 92 ► 1 Chronicles 16:8-31, John 4:23-24, Luke 4:8, Philippians 2:9-11, Philippians 3:2-6, Revelation 4:1-8, Revelation 5, Psalms 86:10, 2 Samuel 6:16, Isaiah 29:13-14, Psalms 95:1-6, 1 Chronicles 29:1-20, Psalms 62:1-8, Matthew 2:10-11, Psalms 63:1-8, Deuteronomy 26:11
