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In this entry I would like to share the ways I have found to find and hear the voice of God.
Steps of Advice to Find God
First and most importantly, you must have a genuine and willing desire to find God. God knows our heart and thoughts and whether we are genuine or not and will not make his presence known if you are not sincere.
"And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." - Hebrews 11:6
Second, listen to your God-given conscience. You know when you are doing something wrong and will feel guilt and remorse for it. This is one way in which God can communicate with us, because our conscience came from God. I also recommend reading the Bible and steering clear of any obvious sins. Learning about God through his Word will also bring you closer to him as well. The easiest commandment in the Bible to remember and cover the most areas was given by Jesus.
"This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you." - John 15:12
Obviously you would not steal, speak out against, murder, or steal the spouse of someone you love.
Third, Pray to him. Ask him to guide you and to present himself to you. Tell him that you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior who died on the cross for you to clear you of your debt from sin.
For me, that was really all there was to it. I had stopped intentionally sinning. I worked on multiple bad habits. I will say it did take over a month of earnest praying and conforming to the will of God before I had my first "conversation" with him.
As far as the "conversation" it is hard to explain, but should be obvious when it happens. The best I can describe it, is it seems as if there is someone inside your head. My mind was flooded with guidance and ideas that were not my own, but became my own.
Additional Steps
After God reveals himself to you, it would only seem naturally to me that you would cherish this new relationship and continue to get closer to God.
Continue your quest to become Christ-like and not sin. Work on any bad habits you may have such as emotional issues with anger, stress, letting the world get to you, etc, sexual immoralities, bad mouthing people, etc. Habits CAN be broken, especially if you honestly wish to change and seek for help from God. Furthermore, you control your state of mind; if you move away from the negative aspects of your life, and curve your mental state into a positive direction, you will bring happiness to yourself.
Start to gain control "over the flesh" rather than letting your flesh control you. That is to keep your earthly desires in check such as over-eating, wasting money, sex, aggression, etc. Let your spirit and mind be in control of the flesh so that any actions or reactions come from your spirit and mind rather than out of habit or instincts of the flesh. This should help build your mind and spirit as you increase your understanding that there is more to existence than our earthly desires and activities.
You can also increase your spiritual sensitivity through fasting. Fasting is not starving yourself. It is doing without the things of the earth that you crave and desire and depend upon and having faith in God that he will provide for you. There is a lot to cover for fasting, which I will not be doing here, but make sure you do research if you intend on fasting, and start off very slow. (If you have any illnesses or are pregnant, do not even attempt to fast unless you clear it with your Doctor.) Try skipping breakfast and lunch one day and waiting till dinner, or try eating only vegetables. Or if you do not like the idea of skipping out on food, sacrifice certain activities for a period of time. Give up TV for a night or week, etc. The important thing is that you are giving up something that you desire and instead are putting that attention on to God through prayer and reading his Word.
That's all the advice I have for now. Be true and follow the will of God, and he will make himself known to you.
God Bless
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
Human Beings Should not be Followed
In this posting, I want to urge the reader to use extreme caution when reading and listening to the opinions of human beings, especially when it comes to forming their worldview. Virtually every human being is inherently biased when it comes to nearly any topic and just about every statement a human makes has a specific agenda behind it. Many human beings will try to reassure you that they are not biased, and have no agenda and that their words are reliable but they are wrong. They are simply another human being with an opinion that rests on either side of a given argument.
Take myself, for example. I am a Christian who believes that the Bible is the inerrant word of God, and He inspired the authors through the Holy Spirit.
Some liberal Christians do not believe in miracles and believe the Bible is full of embellishments so they pick and choose what they wish to believe out of the Bible.
And of course, non-believers believe it is just another man made religion.
When human beings process the historical evidence, our natural bias projects through the evidence so that human statements are blurred interpretations of the evidence. This is particularly important to remember when reading the works of scholars and other "professionals." It is important to know where the author of a given work stands in regards to the topic they are writing about. Knowing their history in regard to the topic is also important.
Sir William Mitchell Ramsay1 for instance, was a late 1800s, early 1900s archeologist who was raised an atheist. He was determined to set out and prove that the Bible was fraudulent by going through the book of Acts and comparing the accuracy of the book with his archeological findings along the way. However, he found that the book of Acts matched up with his numerous findings and actually converted to Christianity.
In contrast, modern day scholar Bart Ehrman2 grew up as a Christian and graduated from a seminary school. Through his investigations into early Christianity he actually lost his faith. I find his reasoning to be a fatal flaw as he bases his reasoning around human action. He is often heard speaking about multiple Christian sects, similar to the different denominations of today, and somehow draws the conclusion that this means Christianity must be fraudulent. He also often brings up so-called contradictions in the Bible such as the Gospels not agreeing on what day Jesus was crucified which is clearly incorrect on his part.
My point is that extreme caution should be used when taking statements of human beings as anything more than biased opinions. When it comes to Christianity and the Bible, one should find out for themselves through prayer and reading the Bible and talking with God rather than putting much weight in the words of humans.
Christian History can be very interesting, but can also be very dangerous when reading the biased opinions of others. It can test one's faith and in some cases, such as Bart Ehrman's, their faith will fail the test. Ultimately, the question of "Who is Jesus Christ?" is a question of faith, and not a question of history.
God Bless.
_____________________________________________________
1 - Sir William Ramsay
2 - Bart Ehrman
Take myself, for example. I am a Christian who believes that the Bible is the inerrant word of God, and He inspired the authors through the Holy Spirit.
Some liberal Christians do not believe in miracles and believe the Bible is full of embellishments so they pick and choose what they wish to believe out of the Bible.
And of course, non-believers believe it is just another man made religion.
When human beings process the historical evidence, our natural bias projects through the evidence so that human statements are blurred interpretations of the evidence. This is particularly important to remember when reading the works of scholars and other "professionals." It is important to know where the author of a given work stands in regards to the topic they are writing about. Knowing their history in regard to the topic is also important.
Sir William Mitchell Ramsay1 for instance, was a late 1800s, early 1900s archeologist who was raised an atheist. He was determined to set out and prove that the Bible was fraudulent by going through the book of Acts and comparing the accuracy of the book with his archeological findings along the way. However, he found that the book of Acts matched up with his numerous findings and actually converted to Christianity.
In contrast, modern day scholar Bart Ehrman2 grew up as a Christian and graduated from a seminary school. Through his investigations into early Christianity he actually lost his faith. I find his reasoning to be a fatal flaw as he bases his reasoning around human action. He is often heard speaking about multiple Christian sects, similar to the different denominations of today, and somehow draws the conclusion that this means Christianity must be fraudulent. He also often brings up so-called contradictions in the Bible such as the Gospels not agreeing on what day Jesus was crucified which is clearly incorrect on his part.
My point is that extreme caution should be used when taking statements of human beings as anything more than biased opinions. When it comes to Christianity and the Bible, one should find out for themselves through prayer and reading the Bible and talking with God rather than putting much weight in the words of humans.
Christian History can be very interesting, but can also be very dangerous when reading the biased opinions of others. It can test one's faith and in some cases, such as Bart Ehrman's, their faith will fail the test. Ultimately, the question of "Who is Jesus Christ?" is a question of faith, and not a question of history.
God Bless.
_____________________________________________________
1 - Sir William Ramsay
2 - Bart Ehrman
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
What Day was Jesus Crucified?
There seems to be much confusion between the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) and the Gospel of John. This is because the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke tell much of the same story (hence the nickname Synoptic) while the Gospel of John seems to have a much different style. Some people, including some scholars, even claim that the Synoptic Gospels contradict the Gospel of John in many places.
This posting will deal with the claim that the Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John do not agree on the day in which Jesus was crucified. The week leading up to the crucifixion, now honored as "Holy Week" in the Christian religion, was the week leading up to the Jewish Passover.1
According to the Gospels, Jesus was crucified on Preparation day which was the 14th of Nisan which was the day in which the Passover lamb was slaughtered and its blood was smeared on the door posts of Jewish homes so the spirit of the Lord would "passover" their homes. Jesus Christ was the Passover lamb for the world.
This Preparation day occurred between sundown Thursday and sundown Friday, but was considered the Jewish Friday, because Jewish days are from sundown to sundown.
On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus' disciples asked him, "Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?" - Mark 14:12
Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. - Luke 22:7
It was the day of Preparation of Passover Week, about the sixth hour. "Here is your king," Pilate said to the Jews. - John 19:14
The actual Passover began Friday at sundown until Saturday at sundown which also happened to be the Sabbath. Scripture makes it clear that Jesus died and was buried on Preparation Day before Sabbath which started at sundown.
59 Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60 and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. 61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.
The Guard at the Tomb
62 The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. - Matthew 27:59-62
42 It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath). So as evening approached, 43 Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus' body. - Mark 15:42-43
54 It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin. 55 The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. - Luke 23:54-55
31 Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. - John 19:31
The Gospels clearly agree that Jesus died and was buried before the start of Sabbath.
So where does all the confusion come from? People seem to get tripped up over the Last Supper, and whether the Last Supper was the actual Passover. Indeed, the Gospels do make it sound like they were eating Passover dinner together.
17 On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?" 18 He replied, "Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, 'The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.' " - Matthew 26:17-18
We know that it is not possible for Jesus to share the actual Passover Feast with his disciples as he died before Passover started. The only explanations are either Jesus and his disciples (who were life long Jews) did not know when the actual Passover took place, or the much more likely answer, Jesus wanted to have Passover dinner with his disciples, but could not, since he knew when and how he was going to die. So they shared their Passover dinner the night earlier.
15 And he said to them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer." - Luke 22:15
Interestingly enough, the answer to this so-called contradiction was in the Bible in plain view all along.
Many Blessings.
__________________________________________________________
1 - Jewish Passover
This posting will deal with the claim that the Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John do not agree on the day in which Jesus was crucified. The week leading up to the crucifixion, now honored as "Holy Week" in the Christian religion, was the week leading up to the Jewish Passover.1
According to the Gospels, Jesus was crucified on Preparation day which was the 14th of Nisan which was the day in which the Passover lamb was slaughtered and its blood was smeared on the door posts of Jewish homes so the spirit of the Lord would "passover" their homes. Jesus Christ was the Passover lamb for the world.
This Preparation day occurred between sundown Thursday and sundown Friday, but was considered the Jewish Friday, because Jewish days are from sundown to sundown.
On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus' disciples asked him, "Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?" - Mark 14:12
Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. - Luke 22:7
It was the day of Preparation of Passover Week, about the sixth hour. "Here is your king," Pilate said to the Jews. - John 19:14
The actual Passover began Friday at sundown until Saturday at sundown which also happened to be the Sabbath. Scripture makes it clear that Jesus died and was buried on Preparation Day before Sabbath which started at sundown.
59 Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60 and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. 61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.
The Guard at the Tomb
62 The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. - Matthew 27:59-62
42 It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath). So as evening approached, 43 Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus' body. - Mark 15:42-43
54 It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin. 55 The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. - Luke 23:54-55
31 Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. - John 19:31
The Gospels clearly agree that Jesus died and was buried before the start of Sabbath.
So where does all the confusion come from? People seem to get tripped up over the Last Supper, and whether the Last Supper was the actual Passover. Indeed, the Gospels do make it sound like they were eating Passover dinner together.
17 On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?" 18 He replied, "Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, 'The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.' " - Matthew 26:17-18
We know that it is not possible for Jesus to share the actual Passover Feast with his disciples as he died before Passover started. The only explanations are either Jesus and his disciples (who were life long Jews) did not know when the actual Passover took place, or the much more likely answer, Jesus wanted to have Passover dinner with his disciples, but could not, since he knew when and how he was going to die. So they shared their Passover dinner the night earlier.
15 And he said to them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer." - Luke 22:15
Interestingly enough, the answer to this so-called contradiction was in the Bible in plain view all along.
Many Blessings.
__________________________________________________________
1 - Jewish Passover
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