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Why I Believe the Bible #03 (The Bible Is A Book of History)

August 26, 2009 in The Bible with 1 Comment

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Well, sort of….The Bible is not primarily a history book.  It is a book about God.  It is a book that deals with God’s relationship with his creation (man), man’s rebellion against God (the fall), man’s redemption (through Christ’s death and resurrection), and ultimately God’s restoration of man to himself.

It does, however, tell that story within the setting of the history of mankind and therefore includes a multitude of references to specific historical people, places and events as it relates the story of God’s relationship with man.  Indeed, the Hebrew people are the only people on earth who can give such a clear and accurate picture of their origins and history.   In his book The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict, Josh McDowell cites the following quote from The Cambridge Ancient History:

“The Israelites certainly manifest a genius for historical construction, and the Old Testament embodies the oldest history writing extant.”

Indeed, scripture itself tells us about this important role played by the Hebrew nation in maintain a history of their nation: Continue Reading…

Dear God…You Rock! Amen!

August 25, 2009 in God, Personal with 0 Comments

This is the prayer my two year old says every night before he goes to be.  It’s actually kind of a second prayer as his bedtime prayer usually goes something like:

Thank you Jesus for this day.  Amen. You Rock. Amen.

I don’t specifically remember teaching it to him.  I may have at some point, but he has adopted it as his standard way of ending prayers.  And, when he says it, it is always with a smile and a giggle.  “You Rock, Amen!”  We were saying prayers last night, I was struck by how simple and profound those three words are!  How often in our prayers as adults do we focus on the problems of our lives and our day to the exclusion of the glory of God?  How often do we plead with God for those things we want in our lives without stopping to reflect on hoe great the God is that we serve?  How often do we pray just because we feel like we should rather and not realize that prayer is a gift given to us by the grace of God?  How often do we miss out on the joy of prayer because of our misperception of God?

Yes, God – YOU DO ROCK!  And, I pray that we would never forget it!

Why I Believe the Bible #02 (The Bible Calls Us to Test It)

August 19, 2009 in The Bible with 2 Comments

BIbleBefore I ever set out to learn about the Bible and Jesus and Christ, I had a very cynical view of Christianity.  To me, Christians were a bunch of people filled with blind and unfounded faith in a series of myths created by man to control them.  Then something happened.  One verse happened.  I would have said I stumbled upon it, but I now know in hindsight that God led me to it.  That verse was 1 Thessalonians 5:21.  It says:

“Test everything.  Hold on to the good.” [1 Thessalonians 5:21]

Nestled snuggly between verses about not quenching the Holy Spirit or despising prophecies and abstaining from every form of evil were seven words that forever changed the course of my life.  Here was a belief system which I assumed was based on a blind leap of faith, and instead God says, “Challenge Me!  Put me to the test!”  Indeed, we serve a big God and he, and his book, have withstood that test for thousands upon thousands of years.

Continue Reading…

Monday Morning Prophecy #17 – The Messiah Would Come From the Lineage of Abraham

August 17, 2009 in Prophecy with 0 Comments

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Last week looked at the proto-evangelica which prophesied that the coming Christ would come from the seed of woman and crush the head of Satan.  Over the next several weeks, we would look at a variety of individuals from the Old Testament who were told well in advance of Jesus’ birth that the Messiah would come from their lineage.  In this week’s prophecy, we will look at the Old Testament prophecies that the Messiah would come from the line of Abraham.

When God talked to Abraham and told him to leave his home, he promised him that the world would be blessed through his offspring (a prophecy fulfilled in the birth of the Messiah).  In Genesis 12, we read:

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” [Genesis 12:1-3]

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Why I Believe the Bible #01 (The Bible's Claims About Itself)

August 12, 2009 in The Bible with 1 Comment

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Let’s look first at the claims the Bible makes about itself.  Some might argue that this entry involves some circular logic.  Clearly, they will assert, you are trying to use what the Bible says to prove that the Bible is true.  Far from it actually!  I do not believe the Bible simply because the Bible says it is true.  As you will see in future posts (this is Part 1 of 25), there are innumerable reasons to believe the inerrancy and validity of the Bible. The purpose of this post is merely to lay the foundation for future posts by setting out what the Bible says about itself.

However, given that my assertion is that the Bible is the supernatural word of God inspired by the Holy Spirit and recorded by men chosen by God for the task, it seems logical that we would start with what claims the Bible makes about itself.  Indeed, given that the Bible is God’s Word, one would expect that it would make any number claims about itself.  Indeed, if the Bible did not make such claims about itself, we would be left to make those claims on behalf of the Bible.  So, let’s have a look at what the Bible claims.

God Spoke to Man in the Old Testament

There are many examples of this, and the following are just a couple.  When God led the Israelites out of Egypt he spoke to them:

And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.  [Exodus 20:1-4]

God spoke directly to the prophet Isaiah:

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” And he said, “Go, and say to this people: “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said: “Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste,  [Isaiah 6:8-11]

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Monday Morning Prophecy #16 – Born from the Seed of a Woman

August 10, 2009 in Prophecy with 0 Comments

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We just completed a series of prophecies related to birth and childhood of the coming Messiah.  In this installment, and for the next several weeks, we will look at eight prophecies regarding the lineage of the coming Messiah as prophesied in the Old Testament thousands of years before his birth.

In this first prophecy, we will look at the proto-evangelica – the very first prophecy contained in the Old Testament.  In Genesis 3, we read the story of The Fall of Man in which Adam and Eve are tempted by the serpent and disobey God by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  As part of the curse brought on by that disobedience, God tells the serpent (Satan):

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”  [Genesis 3:15]

The implication if that the offspring of the woman would be bruised by Satan (fulfilled in the crucifixion).  Meanwhile, the seed of woman (Christ) would crush Satan (bruise his head).

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Monday Morning Prophecy #15 – The Messiah Would Be Wise From Childhood

August 3, 2009 in Prophecy with 0 Comments

cross-pictureLast week we looked at the prophecy included in Isaiah detailing with amazing accuracy the coming of the wise men after the birth of Jesus.  This week we continue with the early childhood of Jesus and the prophecy regarding the Messiah’s childhood wisdom.

In a verse we looked at in an earlier post [Monday Morning Prophecy #10 – He Would Be Called Immanuel (God With Us)], Isaiah also tells us that the coming Messiah would be able to discern good from evil at a very early age:

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. [Isaiah 7:14-15]

Continue Reading…

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