One of the biggest problems why people do not get their prayers answered is they do not ask in faith.
I was listening to a man pray for somebody who was ill just recently and this is how he prayed.
“Dear Heavenly Father,
We are such awful people; we always do wrong and fall short of what you require from us. We are nothing in your eyes and are deserving of nothing. If it is your will, we ask you to heal this person.”
What’s wrong with that, you might ask.
Firstly, it is the prayer of the defeated. Or you might say the prayer of the hopeless.
Secondly, this kind of prayer lacks faith. There is no expectancy that it will be answered.
Thirdly, this prayer is an insult to God. The person praying is stating that God is a waste of time because he created humans as a waste of time.
Let’s get some facts right.
Firstly, it is true that people are born only to die and our lives are futile as a consequence of being born only to die. But this does not mean that there is no reason for us being here.
Secondly, if you are going to pray to God as your Heavenly Father, wouldn’t you expect Him to think of you as someone who is important to Him, as any loving father does of his own children?
Thirdly, if you are going to ask someone to do something, you do so in the expectation that the person will do it; even more so when it is a father who sees his children in trouble.
The Bible says the prayer of faith is answered.
Jesus said that if you have faith and do not doubt in your heart, your requests will be answered.
This is the problem with most people, they lack faith. They do not believe that God really cares. They do not really want to see God working on their behalf. They do not really want to have a genuine relation with their Heavenly Father.
The reason for this unbelief starts from a faulty basis of reasoning from which people approach God.
For instance, I know a person who has no family, believes he is the smartest person in the world, yet doesn’t see his life as futile. This is the case, even though he has no occupation, but believes he should be a CEO of a large company. The truth is he is a CEO, but not a chief executive officer of a company, he is the couch executive officer of the lounge room, who watches TV and drinks beer during the day and wine of a night. He lives off the government and has been doing so for the last seven years.
This person does not believe God exists because he is a scientist. He has no degree in science. He dropped out of university because it was too boring. Yet he claims he is a thinker and, according to him, science has proved that there is no God.
I was talking to a bus driver just recently who was telling me that global warming was destroying the world because the Earth was getting hotter every year. I asked him had he heard that the Earth had actually been cooling over the last decade. He hadn’t, but said most of the scientists said it was getting hotter, and he believed the scientists. I suggested he did some critical thinking. He replied, “I am a subjective thinker.”
So many people simply want to believe what they feel comfortable with and do not want to know the truth.
Either there is a Heavenly Father or this world is doomed regardless of what men or women do. Not asking the hard questions about existence, and then seeking God out with expectancy of being heard as to why you are here and what is your purpose in life is like saying I don’t really care if I live or die, or whether I enjoy pleasure or suffer pain.
The truth is nobody asked to be born. Therefore you have the right to ask, or even challenge God, to give you the answers you need. God has to reply. And the Bible teaches he answers the prayer of faith
www.tencommandmentstoday.com
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Understanding the Truth
Within Christianity there are many different views about what the bible teaches. One of the reasons for these many different views is the basis upon which a person or group of people begin to interpret the Bible.
Establishing a sound basis from which to begin to understand the Bible is important if you are going to find the truth and be set free from ignorance, fear and futile thinking.
Here are a couple of misconceptions that seem to bind people that call themselves Christians or, more correctly, identify themselves by some religious persuasion (Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical, Pentecostal, Charismatic, Fundamental) and carry a denominational brand; be it Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican (Episcopalian), Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Reformed, United Pentecostal, Assembly of God, Apostolic, Seventh Day Adventist, and so on.
One is that that Bible is the living word of God, when in fact the Bible states that Jesus is the Living Word of God and the Bible merely bears witness to him.
Another is that the Old Testament is no longer relevant for today, since it has been superseded by the New Testament.
Some more are:
You have to study to show yourself approved of God.
The King James Version is the Only True Word of God.
Man is completely and utterly incapable of doing a good act.
The Church is built upon the Apostle Peter.
If you do not accept the historical church dogma and statements of faith, you are of the devil.
Unless you are baptized, or sprinkled with water, you are going to eternal punishment.
Praying to saints is acceptable to God.
The second commandment of the Ten Commandments about manufacturing images and bowing before them does not really matter.
Once a person is saved, that person cannot lose his or her salvation.
All Catholics are going to hell.
All Protestants are going to hell.
Anybody who does not speak in unknown tongues is not saved and going to hell.
There is no such thing as eternal punishment.
Unless you keep the Sabbath, you cannot be saved.
Unless you believe the Earth was created in seven twenty-four hour periods, you are deceived.
God has ceased performing miracles like those recorded in the Bible.
The gifts of the Spirit are not available today.
Unless you speak in unknown tongues you have not been baptized in the Holy Spirit.
Speaking in unknown tongues is of the Devil.
The parable about talents is not about money, it is about abilities and gifts.
Good works will get you to heaven.
God does not require people to reason.
God is not really interested in human affairs.
God has not given humans a free will.
God has decided people’s destiny before they are born, so that nobody has any say whether in whether he or she shall go to eternal torment or share in heavenly bliss
God knows everything there is to be known ever.
God is not capable of creating anything he has not thought of yet.
The list goes on. There are so many erroneous ideas about God and man’s purpose for being on this earth, trying to work out what is true and false, right and wrong, incorrect or correct is similar to searching through a rubbish dump.
However, I can point out a couple of truths that you cannot deny. And if you are starting from the truth, then you will have a sound basis to progress towards gaining the freedom that comes with the truth.
First truth: Nobody asked to be born.
Second truth: Nobody would ask to be born on this earth only to die.
And a third truth is if anybody asked to born on this earth and they are going to die, this is nothing but futility. All this means is being born only to die is futile.
To me the basis of all truth has to be self-evident. If you start with self-evident truth, then you have a solid foundation with which to begin understanding what is true.
As Jesus said, ”The truth shall set you free.”
www.tencommandmentstoday.com
Establishing a sound basis from which to begin to understand the Bible is important if you are going to find the truth and be set free from ignorance, fear and futile thinking.
Here are a couple of misconceptions that seem to bind people that call themselves Christians or, more correctly, identify themselves by some religious persuasion (Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical, Pentecostal, Charismatic, Fundamental) and carry a denominational brand; be it Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican (Episcopalian), Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Reformed, United Pentecostal, Assembly of God, Apostolic, Seventh Day Adventist, and so on.
One is that that Bible is the living word of God, when in fact the Bible states that Jesus is the Living Word of God and the Bible merely bears witness to him.
Another is that the Old Testament is no longer relevant for today, since it has been superseded by the New Testament.
Some more are:
You have to study to show yourself approved of God.
The King James Version is the Only True Word of God.
Man is completely and utterly incapable of doing a good act.
The Church is built upon the Apostle Peter.
If you do not accept the historical church dogma and statements of faith, you are of the devil.
Unless you are baptized, or sprinkled with water, you are going to eternal punishment.
Praying to saints is acceptable to God.
The second commandment of the Ten Commandments about manufacturing images and bowing before them does not really matter.
Once a person is saved, that person cannot lose his or her salvation.
All Catholics are going to hell.
All Protestants are going to hell.
Anybody who does not speak in unknown tongues is not saved and going to hell.
There is no such thing as eternal punishment.
Unless you keep the Sabbath, you cannot be saved.
Unless you believe the Earth was created in seven twenty-four hour periods, you are deceived.
God has ceased performing miracles like those recorded in the Bible.
The gifts of the Spirit are not available today.
Unless you speak in unknown tongues you have not been baptized in the Holy Spirit.
Speaking in unknown tongues is of the Devil.
The parable about talents is not about money, it is about abilities and gifts.
Good works will get you to heaven.
God does not require people to reason.
God is not really interested in human affairs.
God has not given humans a free will.
God has decided people’s destiny before they are born, so that nobody has any say whether in whether he or she shall go to eternal torment or share in heavenly bliss
God knows everything there is to be known ever.
God is not capable of creating anything he has not thought of yet.
The list goes on. There are so many erroneous ideas about God and man’s purpose for being on this earth, trying to work out what is true and false, right and wrong, incorrect or correct is similar to searching through a rubbish dump.
However, I can point out a couple of truths that you cannot deny. And if you are starting from the truth, then you will have a sound basis to progress towards gaining the freedom that comes with the truth.
First truth: Nobody asked to be born.
Second truth: Nobody would ask to be born on this earth only to die.
And a third truth is if anybody asked to born on this earth and they are going to die, this is nothing but futility. All this means is being born only to die is futile.
To me the basis of all truth has to be self-evident. If you start with self-evident truth, then you have a solid foundation with which to begin understanding what is true.
As Jesus said, ”The truth shall set you free.”
www.tencommandmentstoday.com
Friday, August 27, 2010
The problem with being a Christian
The problem with being a Christian is that there are so many different views on what being a Christian means. In the end, this becomes confusing.
The difficulty is Christians have different views on yesterday, today and tomorrow. You might think that this is impossible if the Bible says that God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. But Christians, or I should say, people who claim to be Christians, simply do not agree on what should be quite obvious, if God is the same yesterday, today or tomorrow.
There are three subjects which concern yesterday, today and tomorrow. These are Creation, Salvation, and Judgment. Creation is about how the world came into being and is found in the first chapter of Genesis. Salvation is how people are able to discover the answers for existence and their purpose in life. Judgment is basically about the end times and whether or not people are going to receive just recompense for what has happened in their lives.
The Creation story is found in the book of Genesis. The first chapter talks about how God created light on the first day of creation and mentions that there was water and spirit. The light was not that of the sun, because the sun was not created until the fourth day of creation. So the light has to be something else other than what is understood by daylight or electromagnetic radiation from the sun. This fact alone suggests that the days of the creation are not twenty-four hour days. The twenty-four hour day is dependent on the sun and the earth turning on its axis. Neither the sun or the earth were created on the first day. Hence, it is quite obvious that the light on the first day of creation is not sunlight.
There a many different views on the length of the days on the creation period and these range from twenty-four hour days to billions of years. There are also theories about prior universes existing prior to the current creation. There are also different ideas of how humankind was formed. Some theorists claim that humankind evolved from a bacteria that was originally created by the Creator; others claim that humankind evolved from a primate form that was created by God; while the Bible simply says that God created man in their own image: male and female. This suggests that God is more than one, but the Bible claims God to be one, even though manifest in different forms of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The Creator is represented in different ways throughout the world. Some see the Creator as a some form of force. Some see the Creator as a vengeful judge. Some see the Creator as an indifferent entity who is not concerned with the universe. Some see the Creator as a loving Father. Some see the Creator as the Godhead who consists of the Father, His Son and the Holy Spirit.
This concept of the Godhead is also interpreted in different ways, with some accepting the Son of God as being God himself and others only seeing him as a demi-God. The Holy Spirit is also accredited with being God Himself or being less than God because the being emanated from the Father and the Son or an impersonal force that represents Godhead or executes the Father's fiats.
Salvation is seen as being predestined for some and not for others. Some see salvation as something that is obtained by performing certain rituals or doing good works. Some see salvation as something that has been universally provided for all and their is nothing that needs to be done to obtain it. Others see salvation as series of reincarnations or transmigrations. Some see salvation being only available to people who belong to a certain grouping. Yet the Bibles teaches that salvation is obtained by grace through faith in the death and resurrection of the Son of God, which some see as a progressive walk and others believe it is a once and only acceptance that cannot be lost.
The Bible also teaches that a person's name is written in the book of life. It also teaches that a person's name can be erased from the book of life. In the Book of Ezekiel, a whole chapter is devoted to how a sinner can be saved and righteous man can lose his salvation. Besides this, there is reference to people blaspheming the Holy Spirit and not being saved, and holding the word of God up to contempt. and spurning the blood of the covenant, and outraging the Spirit of grace, and being repossessed with evil spirits after having been made clean.
Judgment is about what happens in the end. Judgment not only refers to personal accountability and recompense, but also how the nations of the world will be judged. This is known as the study of the end times and there are many interpretations regarding this that are difficult to prove because end has not yet come.
Essentially, there are what as known as three interpretations which hold different schools of thought. There is the amillennium, premillennium and post-millennium views.
The amillennium view holds that world is already in the process of being judged and people of God are being tested, while at the same time God is working out his plan which will culminate with the church being triumphant and Jesus having fully established his kingdom on earth at the end of the age. Within this view there are many variations of interpretation. The Roman Catholic Church figures as the Antichrist in this view.
The post-millennium view holds that Jesus will return to earth and reign for a thousand years, after which the Devil and his angels will be released upon the nations of the earth. The judgments of God will be unveiled upon the nations and this will culminate in the great battle of Armageddon, after which the great white throne judgment will commence.
The pre-millennium view seems to be the most popular of the three positions. Within this view there are three perspectives known as Pre-tribulation, Mid-tribulation and Post-tribulation, that also have variations in interpretation.
What is known as Pre-tribulation is the popular view among Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians. This view holds that there is going to be seven years of tribulation just prior to Jesus setting up his kingdom on earth. Before this seven years of tribulation occurs (of which, somewhat oddly, three and a half years are not tribulation but peace) all the believing Christians are to be caught up to into the sky. Then the Antichrist will be revealed and all havoc will take place on earth. This will culminate with Armageddon taking place and then Jesus will reign on earth for one thousand years.
The mid-tribulation position holds that the Antichrist will be revealed and then those elect believers, who are not deceived by him, will be caught up to meet Jesus Christ in the sky just before the three and a half years tribulation, mentioned in the Bible, occurs on earth. Many subscribers of this view have the three and half years peace occurring during the time of Jesus ministry on Earth, while some place this as the working of the Antichrist prior to the tribulation.
The post-tribulationists have the Christians living through the tribulation period and meeting Jesus in the air as he returns to reign on earth. Some views have Armageddon occurring at the return of Jesus and others at the end of the millennium.
Then there are the different views on whether people are going to be thrown into an eternal Lake of Fire to be tormented for ever, or only for a period of time or will be burned into non-existence. Some people believe that members of their sect are going to be raised to live for one thousand years on Earth during the millennium of Christ rule and after this, there is nothing more to look forward to. Others look forward to spending an eternity discovering and learning about new experiences.
Regardless of what many people might claim, there is one way to know if Christians really know what the Bible means, and this is by considering the Ten Commandments.
www.tencommandmentstoday.com
The difficulty is Christians have different views on yesterday, today and tomorrow. You might think that this is impossible if the Bible says that God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. But Christians, or I should say, people who claim to be Christians, simply do not agree on what should be quite obvious, if God is the same yesterday, today or tomorrow.
There are three subjects which concern yesterday, today and tomorrow. These are Creation, Salvation, and Judgment. Creation is about how the world came into being and is found in the first chapter of Genesis. Salvation is how people are able to discover the answers for existence and their purpose in life. Judgment is basically about the end times and whether or not people are going to receive just recompense for what has happened in their lives.
The Creation story is found in the book of Genesis. The first chapter talks about how God created light on the first day of creation and mentions that there was water and spirit. The light was not that of the sun, because the sun was not created until the fourth day of creation. So the light has to be something else other than what is understood by daylight or electromagnetic radiation from the sun. This fact alone suggests that the days of the creation are not twenty-four hour days. The twenty-four hour day is dependent on the sun and the earth turning on its axis. Neither the sun or the earth were created on the first day. Hence, it is quite obvious that the light on the first day of creation is not sunlight.
There a many different views on the length of the days on the creation period and these range from twenty-four hour days to billions of years. There are also theories about prior universes existing prior to the current creation. There are also different ideas of how humankind was formed. Some theorists claim that humankind evolved from a bacteria that was originally created by the Creator; others claim that humankind evolved from a primate form that was created by God; while the Bible simply says that God created man in their own image: male and female. This suggests that God is more than one, but the Bible claims God to be one, even though manifest in different forms of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The Creator is represented in different ways throughout the world. Some see the Creator as a some form of force. Some see the Creator as a vengeful judge. Some see the Creator as an indifferent entity who is not concerned with the universe. Some see the Creator as a loving Father. Some see the Creator as the Godhead who consists of the Father, His Son and the Holy Spirit.
This concept of the Godhead is also interpreted in different ways, with some accepting the Son of God as being God himself and others only seeing him as a demi-God. The Holy Spirit is also accredited with being God Himself or being less than God because the being emanated from the Father and the Son or an impersonal force that represents Godhead or executes the Father's fiats.
Salvation is seen as being predestined for some and not for others. Some see salvation as something that is obtained by performing certain rituals or doing good works. Some see salvation as something that has been universally provided for all and their is nothing that needs to be done to obtain it. Others see salvation as series of reincarnations or transmigrations. Some see salvation being only available to people who belong to a certain grouping. Yet the Bibles teaches that salvation is obtained by grace through faith in the death and resurrection of the Son of God, which some see as a progressive walk and others believe it is a once and only acceptance that cannot be lost.
The Bible also teaches that a person's name is written in the book of life. It also teaches that a person's name can be erased from the book of life. In the Book of Ezekiel, a whole chapter is devoted to how a sinner can be saved and righteous man can lose his salvation. Besides this, there is reference to people blaspheming the Holy Spirit and not being saved, and holding the word of God up to contempt. and spurning the blood of the covenant, and outraging the Spirit of grace, and being repossessed with evil spirits after having been made clean.
Judgment is about what happens in the end. Judgment not only refers to personal accountability and recompense, but also how the nations of the world will be judged. This is known as the study of the end times and there are many interpretations regarding this that are difficult to prove because end has not yet come.
Essentially, there are what as known as three interpretations which hold different schools of thought. There is the amillennium, premillennium and post-millennium views.
The amillennium view holds that world is already in the process of being judged and people of God are being tested, while at the same time God is working out his plan which will culminate with the church being triumphant and Jesus having fully established his kingdom on earth at the end of the age. Within this view there are many variations of interpretation. The Roman Catholic Church figures as the Antichrist in this view.
The post-millennium view holds that Jesus will return to earth and reign for a thousand years, after which the Devil and his angels will be released upon the nations of the earth. The judgments of God will be unveiled upon the nations and this will culminate in the great battle of Armageddon, after which the great white throne judgment will commence.
The pre-millennium view seems to be the most popular of the three positions. Within this view there are three perspectives known as Pre-tribulation, Mid-tribulation and Post-tribulation, that also have variations in interpretation.
What is known as Pre-tribulation is the popular view among Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians. This view holds that there is going to be seven years of tribulation just prior to Jesus setting up his kingdom on earth. Before this seven years of tribulation occurs (of which, somewhat oddly, three and a half years are not tribulation but peace) all the believing Christians are to be caught up to into the sky. Then the Antichrist will be revealed and all havoc will take place on earth. This will culminate with Armageddon taking place and then Jesus will reign on earth for one thousand years.
The mid-tribulation position holds that the Antichrist will be revealed and then those elect believers, who are not deceived by him, will be caught up to meet Jesus Christ in the sky just before the three and a half years tribulation, mentioned in the Bible, occurs on earth. Many subscribers of this view have the three and half years peace occurring during the time of Jesus ministry on Earth, while some place this as the working of the Antichrist prior to the tribulation.
The post-tribulationists have the Christians living through the tribulation period and meeting Jesus in the air as he returns to reign on earth. Some views have Armageddon occurring at the return of Jesus and others at the end of the millennium.
Then there are the different views on whether people are going to be thrown into an eternal Lake of Fire to be tormented for ever, or only for a period of time or will be burned into non-existence. Some people believe that members of their sect are going to be raised to live for one thousand years on Earth during the millennium of Christ rule and after this, there is nothing more to look forward to. Others look forward to spending an eternity discovering and learning about new experiences.
Regardless of what many people might claim, there is one way to know if Christians really know what the Bible means, and this is by considering the Ten Commandments.
www.tencommandmentstoday.com
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