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| I | Questions About God. |
| 1. | What is God like? |
| 2. | How can God be 3 persons and 1 God at the same time? |
| 3. | Where did God come from? |
| 4. | Does the Bible acknowledge the existence of more than one God? |
| 5. | How was the Earth made? |
| 6. | Why did God create this world and give us life? How deserving are we? |
| 7. | Why does God love us? |
| 8. | Why doesn’t God show Himself to us? |
| 9. | Is the future already predetermined? |
| 10. | If God forgives our sins, why does the Bible say He punishes us? |
| 11. | How do I reconcile the seemingly vengeful, angry God of the Old Testament with the loving, forgiving God of the New Testament? |
| 12. | What are angels? |
| 13. | How can I understand God better? |
| 14. | How does God hear 50,000 people’s prayers at once? |
| 15. | How do I get a personal relationship with God? |
| 16. | Why did God allow all the death and destruction in Southeast Asia? |
| 1. | What is God like? |
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There are essentially 2 views that can be held concerning God. The first view is unique to Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The second view is the view held by almost every other religious system that has ever been held on the planet. |
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Let’s begin with the first view. According to this view, the universe itself is self-existent and self-sustaining. The universe encompasses all of nature that there is. Everything else exists within the universe. I represent this view as a large shaded cloud. Everything that exists, therefore, necessarily exists within this shaded cloud. If there is a god, then he also exists within and is a product of, this cloud. This is the Pantheistic worldview and if it is correct then it is appropriate for us to ask where is god, where is heaven and where is hell? And we have a right to demand that they be findable. Not necessarily found but certainly findable. The Bible presents an entirely different worldview. The Bible begins with the phrase,
"In the
beginning God created the
heavens and the earth."
The Biblical worldview maintains that God is the self-existent,
self-sustaining entity and that He is the creator and sustainer of
everything else. Hebrews 1:3 says, |
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| 2. | How can God be 3 persons and 1 God at the same time? |
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This is a great question and one that philosophers and theologians
have debated for the last 2000 years and if there are 2000 years left
for this planet there is no doubt the debate will continue. God is different from human beings not just in degree (He is not just more and better), but in kind (God is a completely different KIND of being). God is clearly supernatural, not just in the sense that He exists beyond the scope of nature, but also in the sense that He will be “superior” to whatever natural comparisons we might make in describing Him. The Bible does not teach that God is A person. It teaches Him to be such that in Him a trinity of persons exists in a unity of God. One God, three persons, in the sense of a multi-dimensional superiority over what we experience in the natural universe. It that sense, it teaches Him to be something different than what would customarily be called a person and yet we have no word for what that something is so we are forced to use the word person with the full knowledge that it is inadequate. Foundational to any attempt to explain the Trinity is the understanding that God is infinite and is therefore beyond finite, human understanding. There are things that, try as we might, we just don’t understand. Gravity, for example. We can describe what we mean by it. We can even quantify it mathematically. But we do not understand it. We can imagine no reason why 2 bodies should be attracted to one another. We can find nothing in the physical universe to explain it. It just is. But that does not prevent us from understanding it’s implications. The trinity is just one of those curious things in life. Yet, at the same time, if God were such that we could explain Him completely, we would most likely have to conclude that we had found the wrong God. For a God who could be explained in human terms could not have been the architect of the universe. The Bible describes God in this way, "For us there is BUT ONE GOD, THE FATHER, from whom all things came and for whom we live;" — 1 Corinthians 8:6 (NIV) The Bible teaches us that God is the Father and that the Father is God. It also says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and THE WORD WAS GOD. … {14}The WORD BECAME FLESH and made His dwelling among us." — John 1:1, 14 (NIV) The Bible teaches us that God is the Son, Jesus and that Jesus is God. It also says, Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have LIED TO THE HOLY SPIRIT … {4} … You have NOT LIED TO MEN BUT TO GOD." — Acts 5:3-4 (NIV) The Bible teaches that God is the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is God. This would all be understandable except that the Bible also says, "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, THE LORD IS ONE." — Deuteronomy 6:4 (NIV) One God who manifests Himself as 3 persons. Trying to fit such a God into our 3-dimensional framework creates an irreconcilable paradox. Much the same that trying to fit the concept of 6-squares being, at the same time, 1 object called a cube into a 2-dimensional framework. No matter how I do it, it doesn’t fit. In 2-dimensional space, I either imagine the 6 squares coinciding and thus destroying their distinctiveness and individuality or else imagine them side by side thus destroying their unity. The only way to resolve this conflict is to add a dimension. In 3-dimensional space, I can suddenly resolve 6 mutually independent squares into one unit that is a cube while still retaining their individuality. Each face of the cube is an independent square that is not the same square as any other face, yet they exist harmoniously and simultaneously. In fact, the cube is such that it does not exist if any individual face ceases to exist and each face exists by virtue of the fact that the cube itself exists. Our difficulties with the trinity are of much the same kind. The biggest problem humans have trying understand the trinity is our attempt to fit in our 3 dimensional model of a person, the multidimensional aspects of God. Another image that some people find helpful is drawn from Star Trek, The Next Generation. The Borg are a group of drones who are each unique extensions of a single consciousness which they call the “Collective”. The Collective is a single entity. It possesses a single purpose, a single mind, a single existence. Each individual member of the Collective refers to himself as “we”. I have been told that the single largest living thing on planet Earth is an Aspen grove in Colorado. The trees have been growing together for so long that their roots and branches are so intertwined that tracer dyes injected into the groundwater at one point show up in trees miles away in just a few days. They are no longer a collection of trees. They are a single interconnected Aspen Grove. Now picture the Borg or the Aspen trees. Give each member of the “Collective” a unique personality and you have a picture of the Godhead. God exists as a collective of three persons. Each is fully God and all are fully God. The thoughts of one are immediately thought by the entire Godhead. They are one in purpose and thought. There is only one God because you could never separate them. The difference between the Borg and the Godhead is that each member of the Godhead has a unique personality. The personality of God the Father as revealed in Scripture is different from the personality of the Holy Spirit. And both are different from the personality of the Son. A Unique difference with Jesus is that Jesus laid aside His divine power and authority and humbled Himself to be born as a baby human. God wrapped in human flesh. He submitted to Earthly parents until as an adult, He lived and died for the sins of men. When Jesus prayed, He was not talking to Himself but to the Father and the Holy Spirit. Paul wrote to the Philippians … "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: {6} Who, BEING IN VERY NATURE GOD, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, {7} but MADE HIMSELF NOTHING, taking the very nature of a servant, BEING MADE IN HUMAN LIKENESS. {8} And being FOUND IN APPEARANCE as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!" — Philippians 2:5-8 (NIV) One final illustration comes from the field of quantum physics. Quarks are believed to be the elementary particles on which this universe is constructed. Current quantum theory teaches that quarks cannot exist in isolation. They exist as triads (some particles are composed of a special arrangement of 2 quarks but the point illustrated is the same). Each quark in the triad is a unique entity but they exist to form unities based on 3. They are inseparable without destroying the unity that they form. The unit they form cannot exist without them. We do not understand it, but to seek to resolve it into something understandable would not reflect the nature of our universe. We do not fully understand the Trinity but to reduce it to something understandable would no longer reflect the nature of God. |
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| 3. | Where did God come from? |
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The Bible tells us, "Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations.{2} Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, FROM EVERLASTING TO EVERLASTING YOU ARE GOD." — Psalm 90:1-2 (NIV) In logic, we call this question the prime assertion, the premise or the primary cause. As we study the universe, we must make a choice. We must choose to be naturalists or supernaturalists. We must stipulate our prime assertion. The naturalist must stipulate the self-existence of space-time and of stuff - atoms, quarks, energy, whatever you want to call it. The supernaturlist must stipulate the self-existence of God. Stipulating the self-existence of anything rubs us the wrong way. We want to be able to know everything. But, the answer to what caused the prime assertion exists within itself and is completely unknowable to us. The naturalist tries to get around this by describing something he calls a “singularity”, by which he means it only happened once and in happening created space, time and stuff by purely natural means. The logical contradiction, of course, is that since the singularity caused nature, at the moment the singularity occurred, nature did not exist and thus the contextual framework necessary for the phrase “natural means” to have any meaning did not exist. The Bible simply states the prime assertion, "IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED the heavens and the earth." — Genesis 1:1 (NIV) God is self-existent, He didn’t come from anywhere in the sense that we possess a contextual framework for the word “where”. |
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| 4. | Does the Bible acknowledge the existence of more than one God? |
| One example of what this question is asking comes from Psalm 97:9, "For you, O LORD, are the MOST HIGH over all the earth; you are exalted far above ALL GODS." — Psalm 97:9 (NIV) In the previous question we discussed the self-existent nature of God as He is described in the Bible. Obviously there can only be ONE God like that. There can, however be any number of gods as defined by the pantheistic model. Gods in the sense of something that exists within, and is a product of, the natural universe, which man chooses to worship. Throughout man’s brief history on this planet, he has attempted to worship just about every possibility: wood, stone, metals, mountains, stars, sun, moon, volcanoes, thunder, lightning, rain, wind. The Apostle Paul even said in Athens in the first century, "For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD." — Acts 17:23 (NIV) These references in the Scripture are not a testament to the number of gods which exists but rather a testament to man’s obstinacy in worshipping anything but his Creator. |
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| 5. | How was the Earth made? |
| God brought the Earth into being. The Bible teaches us that God
“Imagined” the Earth in the same way that an artist imagines what he
will paint, or an author imagines what he will write. In God’s case,
He has the power to not just commit His thoughts to canvas or to paper
but to actually form the 3-dimensional objects of His imagination. The
first words of the Bible say, "In the beginning GOD CREATED the heavens and the earth." — Genesis 1:1 (NIV) The word “created” literally means “to bring forth out of nothing.” For generations, skeptics attacked the veracity of the Bible by pointing out that this verse violates everything we KNOW about physics. It never occurred to them that maybe we just didn’t know enough about physics yet. The current theories of physics teach that everything is made up of molecules, which are loosely bound together with lots of space in between them. Those molecules in turn are made up of atoms with more space between them. Those atoms are made up of infinitesimally smaller particles called protons, electrons and neutrons with about 98% empty space. Those protons, neutrons and electrons, in turn are made up of smaller particles called quarks and, you guessed it, more space. And, quarks themselves are theorized to be dimensionless points surrounded by an energy field. Now in layman’s terminology, a dimensionless point is what we call nothing. There is no THING there. When there is no THING there, we call that nothing. So let me summarize this. Everything that exists, boils down to a whole bunch of empty space and then the foundational piece, the core essence, is NOTHING surrounded by an energy field. Which is exactly what Genesis 1:1 says, except the part about the energy field. However, Hebrews 1:3 says, "The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, SUSTAINING all things by the POWER OF HIS WORD." — Hebrews 1:3 (NIV) The Greek word translated “power” is “dunameous” from which we get the word Dynamo. A dynamo is a tool for creating energy. In the beginning, God spoke into the void and His very Words created energy that animated nothingness, bringing forth the Heavens and the Earth. It goes on to say, “the Lord God spoke into the darkness and said, Let there be …” It is the Word of God that energized that nothing into something in the beginning and it is the word of God that sustains that nothing in being. I just love it! After 6000 years of technological advances, the most contemporary theories of modern physicists’ sound exactly like the Bible. |
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| 6. | Why did God create this world and give us life? How deserving are we? |
| Concerning deserving, the question has no meaning in the relationship
of a created thing to its Creator. We would not ask whether a pencil
is deserving of being created as it is. It isn’t a question of whether
it is deserving or not, it is a question of whether it meets its
creator’s needs or not. We were not created as living beings because we deserved to be created. Clearly, before we were created, there was no "we" to deserve any thing. We were created as living beings because that was the desire of our Creator. He is a living God and He created us in His image. Not because we deserved to be so created, but because it pleased Him to do so. The Bible tells us this … "YOU ARE WORTHY, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for YOU CREATED ALL THINGS, and BY YOUR WILL they were created and have their being." — Revelation 4:11 (NIV) In an interview a few years back, a newspaper columnist asked an Olympic gold medalist why she ran. She looked at the man for a moment and simply said, “Because I am a runner and that’s what runners do.” What she was saying is that she was wired to run. If she didn’t run, she would not be herself. She found her fulfillment and completeness in running. God created because that’s what God does. He IS the Creator. That’s what creators do. They create. God in creation was merely acting out who He is. If He didn’t create, He would not be the God we know Him to be. |
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| 7. | Why does God love us? |
| God loves us because that is who He is. The Bible tells us that … “God IS love.”— 1 John 4:8 (NIV) To ask the question “why?” about any character quality of God’s is to probe into areas we have no information about. The answer to any “Why” question is either a Cause and Effect response or a Logical response For instance, “Why did I just write that?” The cause and effect response is because that’s what was written in my notes. From the standpoint of logic, I wrote it because I believe it is true. When we ask “Why” concerning God, there is no Cause and effect answer because He is the primary cause. There is no cause that caused Him. So when we ask why He loves us, the only cause answer is that He is love. Nothing Caused God to be so, He just is. From the standpoint of logic, we do not have sufficient information to answer such questions about God. |
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| 8. | Why doesn’t God show Himself to us? |
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The answer is, “He DOES and He DID!” God came to Earth in human form
in the person of Jesus Christ. God reveals Himself every day in the
course of our lives to those whom Jesus said, “have eyes to see and
ears to hear.” Of course, to the person who does not accept the
supernatural or the miraculous, this answer will be unsatisfactory.
However, to ask God, stipulated to be a supernatural being, to reveal
Himself while simultaneously discounting the possibility of the
supernatural, is to create a logical conundrum that even God cannot
navigate. We offer a tape series called “Is It Reasonable to Believe?”
that seeks to describe some of the evidences for God’s existence. In
other words, some of the ways, He does, in fact, show Himself to us.
The third tape is entitled “Can we Know Him?” It describes how God has
revealed Himself to us in Jesus Christ. Hebrews tells us … “The Son is the RADIANCE OF GOD'S GLORY and the EXACT REPRESENTATION of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.” — Hebrews 1:3 (NIV) As we read in the Bible, it does appear sometimes through the Old Testament that God appears and speaks to individuals more than He does today. The truth is, that God appears and speaks to people today just as much as, if not more than, He did in the old stories. Two things, however, are different. The first is that fewer people are actually listening. It’s true. In this age of so called enlightenment, we think we are beyond all that. We can explain so much in scientific and technical terms that we think sometimes that we can explain away God. I had one man relate to me a story that he firmly believed was true of a High School science class that constructed a replica of the Ark of the Covenant, that box which symbolized the presence of God to the Israelites as they journeyed through the wilderness following the Exodus. The class supposedly found that the box acted like a gigantic radio transceiver and concluded that the stories from the Bible described some extra terrestrial communications that the Israelites mistook as words from God. I have two problems with the story. First, the ark was overlaid within and without with pure gold. Exactly how did a High School science class swing that one? Second, if their observations were true, then the scientific community has wasted $6 billion plus about $100 million a year, constructing and operating the SETI telescope in their search for extra-terrestrial life. I think this story illustrates the lengths we will go to in order to explain away the supernatural. The second thing that has changed is the mode through which God speaks. It is recorded for us in the book of Hebrews, chapter 1 … "In the PAST GOD SPOKE to our forefathers through the PROPHETS at MANY TIMES and in VARIOUS WAYS, {2} but in THESE LAST DAYS he has SPOKEN to us BY HIS SON, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. {3} The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the EXACT REPRESENTATION OF HIS BEING." — Hebrews 1:1-3 (NIV) God still speaks to those who listen. But now He speaks through His Son who is the exact representation of the invisible God. The words of God are recorded for us in this book we call the Bible and everything we need to know of Him is left for us there. We have 2 tapes entitled “Seeing God” and “Hearing God” that answers this question in more detail. Order tape numbers T210 and T211. The paradox is that we want God to reveal Himself to us in some way that we cannot explain in completely natural terms. The problem is that miracles are funny things. They can’t be used to prove that miracles exist because you can’t see them unless you already believe they happen. I sat in the circus next to a father and his 6-year-old son as the magician made a tiger disappear. The boy was totally amazed, the father was merely amused. The father didn’t know what happened to the tiger; he didn’t know where it went or how the magician sent it there. But he KNEW it did not disappear. If we do not believe in miracles, we will not see miracles. All we will see is something that we cannot explain. God performs a great many more miracles than we know because we are unable to see them. |
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| 9. | Is the future already predetermined? |
| The Bible describes God as being omniscient-meaning that He knows
everything, past present and future-and that He is sovereign over the
universe-meaning that He maintains absolute control. Does this exclude
human choice and free will. The answer is “No.” God is not bound by time. As humans, we experience time as a chronological sequence of events. We experience these events in order from start to finish. But God is not bound by the same constraints. God experiences all moments in time at any moment in time. The fact that God knows what you are going to do, doesn’t make your choice any less free. He simply knows what choice you will make when you get to that moment because He sees that moment before you do. My seeing you make a choice does not CAUSE you to make that choice. God has the unique ability to see events that are future to us. He is not foreshadowing that event. He is actually seeing it occur in space and time. It is still OUR will making the choice. Okay, so if God knows, then why do we see Him in the Bible sometimes ask questions when He already knows the answer? Why do I sometimes ask my children questions when I already know the answer? Because we learn best when we personally discover truth as opposed to having someone tell us. Sometimes God asks rhetorical questions to help us discover the truth of a situation. Why then does God sometimes ask us to do something even though He already knows how we are going to respond? Like, why did God ask Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac if God already knew Abraham was going to do it. The answer is that God knew what Abraham was going to do because God, in fact, asked him to do it and at a particular point in space and time, Abraham responded. Sometimes God asks us to do things because He wants us to do them and we won’t until we are asked. |
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| 10. | If God forgives our sins, why does the Bible say He punishes us? |
| The apparent difficulty in this question arises over the definition of
punishment. American Heritage Dictionary defines punishment as, “the
penalty imposed for wrongdoing.” The Bible tells us clearly, the
penalty for our wrongdoing is death. "THE SOUL WHO SINS WILL DIE." — Ezekiel 18:4 (NIV) When I used to tell my children they could not have dessert until they finished their dinner, my withholding their dessert was not a punishment. It was simply the natural consequence of their choices. I was not trying to punish inappropriate behavior. I was trying to make sure they were having a balanced input of amino acids and sugars. However, from my children’s perspective, it was indeed a punishment. They did not do what I said and now they were being punished. Punishment, unless it is just completely arbitrary on the part of the parent or the judge is a consequence to achieve a certain end from the perspective of the authority figure. From the perspective of the offenders it is the penalty for clashing wills. The Scriptures are written in large part from the perspective of men on the receiving end of such consequences and as children often do, misinterpret their Father’s actions as punishment. There is really only ONE penalty. That is spiritual death for all eternity for rejecting Christ. If you have surrendered the leadership of your life to Jesus Christ, then He paid that penalty for you when He died on the Cross. And, although in this life, you will experience the natural consequences of your choices and that many times, those will feel like a punishment, the penalty is forever paid. "For the WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH, but the GIFT OF GOD is ETERNAL LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD." — Romans 6:23 (NIV) |
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| 11. | How do I reconcile the seemingly vengeful, angry God of the Old Testament with the loving, forgiving God of the New Testament? |
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A great question and one that is often asked. The God of the Old
Testament does appear to be a God of wrath while the God of the New
Testament appears to be a God of love. But appearances can be
deceiving. The God of the Bible is One. He is holy and righteous and absolutely just. Because of that every violation of His laws must be judged. The Old Testament is primarily concerned with God revealing His nature and His character. In the Old Testament, God is revealed as a God of justice and righteousness but also as a God of love and grace. The New Testament is primarily concerned with God providing forgiveness for the sins of man. There is judgment and wrath-that’s what the cross of Jesus Christ demonstrates-but God takes the judgment and the wrath upon Himself. As humans, we tend to prefer that to us taking the punishment and are necessarily drawn more to the New Testament. The love and grace of God is revealed in the Old Testament but sometimes comes in through a door we don’t expect. Let’s take an example. God placed the first man and woman in the garden of Eden with only one rule. Don’t eat from a certain tree. Eating from that tree would result in a spiritual separation between man and God. The man ate from the tree and God kicked him out of the garden and placed an Angel at the entrance with a flaming sword and instructions to kill the man should he try to re-enter. That doesn’t sound like love and grace at first, till we look a little closer. And the LORD God said, "The man … must not be allowed to reach out his hand and TAKE ALSO FROM THE TREE OF LIFE and eat, AND LIVE FOREVER." {23} So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden." — Genesis 3:22-23 (NIV)
The purpose for the banishment was to
prevent man from eating from the tree of life and living forever in
the state of separation that he found himself in with God. |
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| 12. | What are angels? |
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There has been a recent explosion in “angel interest”. Part of the
reason is that angels provide us with a touch of the supernatural
without all the responsibility that comes along with God. Plus who can resist the message of the show, “Touched by an Angel”. God loves you. God will help you and take care of you and when you die, there will be someone there to take your hand and walk you through the valley of the shadow of death. I’m interested in that! First, Hollywood’s concept of angels being humans who have died, as in the once popular “Highway to Heaven”, or even Clarence in the movie, “It’s a Wonderful life” is not Biblical. See the section entitled “Questions About Heaven and Hell”. When we die, our spirits go to be with God. We remain human spirits. We do not become angelic spirits. Angels are a separate class of being, which God created. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 1:14 "Are not all angels MINISTERING SPIRITS sent to serve THOSE WHO WILL INHERIT SALVATION?" — Hebrews 1:14 (NIV) There is a definite distinction here between angels and men. It
says that one role of angels is to serve men. It that sense the show
“Touched by an Angel” is accurate, as long as you don’t expect a
revelatory scene with angelic faces all aglow to greet you at the end
of their assignment. Angels throughout the Bible steadfastly refuse the worship of men,
directing it always to God. |
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| 13. | How can I understand God better? |
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"Then you will CALL UPON ME and come and PRAY TO ME, and I will listen
to you. {13} You will seek me and find me when you SEEK ME WITH ALL
YOUR HEART. " — Jeremiah 29:12-13 (NIV) God promises that if you want
to get to know Him better, you will. We get to know God as we read His Word, the Bible. I have just recently begun to listen to the Bible on cassette as I drive in my car. In the last 2 weeks I have listened through the first 4 books of the New Testament. It has significantly impacted my spiritual life for the better. Audio Bibles are available from our resource center partner CBD. We get to know God as we pray. Talking to God. Not just asking Him for things but just talking about our feelings, our hopes and dreams, how our day went. We get to know God better as we join together with each other to talk about God at Church on Sunday and in small groups during the week. If you are not involved in a small group, you are cheating yourself a little bit. The next time we start up a group, join one. We get to know God better as we join Him in the work that He is doing. When we get involved teaching a children’s class or serving around the church as in the office. When 2 people work together, a bond is formed between them. The same thing happens when we work together with God. |
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| 14. | How does God hear 50,000 people’s prayers at once? |
| Let me begin by saying that I sincerely hope that there are at least
50,000 people praying at any moment in time. That equates to 30% of
the world population praying for one minute a month. So perhaps the
number is even more than 50,000. The question hints at a common misconception about God. Namely that God exists as a natural product of the physical universe. Pleaser read the answer to question 1 before continuing. We speak about God hearing our prayers because that is the human equivalent process. It would perhaps be better to speak of God KNOWING our prayers. Because our prayers are something that takes place within God, He knows it just like we know when we are hungry. We say that our stomach is talking to us but we don’t mean it in a strict literal sense. |
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| 15. | How do I get a personal relationship with God? |
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This question cuts to the core of the Christian experience.
Essentially, the answer is this. God created you for a personal relationship
with Him. “Now this is eternal life: THAT THEY MAY KNOW YOU, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” — John 17:3 (NIV) But there is a problem with the relationship. Essentially, we have
turned away from God. We have rebelled. We have taken control of the
leadership of our own lives. The Bible calls this rebellion sin and
says that every one of us is guilty of it. |
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| 16. | Why did God allow all the death and destruction in Southeast Asia? |
| God did not cause the earthquake, or the tsunami or the death and destruction that resulted from them. We don’t fully understand the mind of God. God says, “My ways are not your ways, my thoughts are not your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8).” Consequently, I don’t completely understand why God was unable to intervene in this tragedy. I DO know that God loves us. The Bible tells us in John 3:16 that, “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever would trust in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life.” So, since we know that God loves us, our next natural question is whether this a judgment on man’s sin? I don’t think so. We live in a world that was created perfect. After creating all that He created, the Bible tells us that God looked upon His creation and said, “It is VERY Good (Genesis 1:31).” God then created the first couple, Adam and Eve, and placed them in a garden paradise upon the Earth and put all the rest of Earth’s creation under their authority. And God, wanting a relationship with humanity that is based on love, was required to give us the option to choose: either to accept His love or reject it. When humanity rejected God, we moved out from under God’s authority and surrendered our own authority over nature. Consequently now Nature is out of control and sometimes we suffer the consequences of an ungoverned system. Even still, I know this. God grieves every single death alongside of each motherless child and childless mother. So much so, that God has made a way for us to escape it all. Romans 6:23 says that “the wages of sin are death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” We cannot go back to the garden and undo the damage that Adam caused but we can take the hand of Jesus Christ and go forward into the Kingdom that He has prepared for us. A Kingdom in which the Bible says there are no tears or dying or pain. THAT is what GOD did. And once again, the choice is up to us. | |
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John 1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God.
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 Life Spring Community Church - 5384-B Kazuko Ct - Moorpark - CA - 93021  Copyright © 2009 Life Spring Community Church |
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God
