Bible Teaching (11)
Bible Teaching can change your life forever to a positive, optimistic and happy person.It is not the words coming from a Bible Teacher that will make the difference; even I believe it is important to be a good creative Bible Teacher. The changing of your life will come when you start listen to the Holy Spirit through the Bible Teaching.
You may have to read in prayer the same verse or chapter over and over, seek explanation in other books of the Bible. And when you do so, you will experience that something inside you start to take form, a new person starts to show in you, the new you..
.. You in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ in you!
What is God like?
Three Characteristics Of The Nature Of God.
Preface
Have you ever wondered Just who is God? Have you ever thought about what God was like? Can God even be defined? How can we describe Him? If we are to know God personally where do we get the information?
We really don’t know much about God. It will be the most incredible happening in your existence the first time we meet God face to face. It will be that point in eternity that you will have the full understanding of just who He is. In Part, we do not full knowledge of God because we are not personally ready for it. Knowledge of God come in stages, depending on what we are ready for. He has reveals Himself to those who want to know Him. we will never understand all of Him until that day when we will stand face to face with Him. It has been said some where that “The more you learn about Him, the more you realize how little you know”.
It is hard to place one characteristic of God before another when thinking of this subject. In what order should these descriptions should be placed? Where are these characteristics listed? All of His characteristics are equally valid. None are more important than the other.
God is Spirit“We have a message in store for you. We try to make you feel something that you have never felt before, and that's the spirit of God.” Clarence Fountain
God is spirit. There is no article in the Greek text before the word spirit, and that emphasizes the quality or essence of the word. Furthermore, the word spirit occurs first in the sentence for emphasis.
Scriptural support for God is Spirit
1. God is Spirit
. "God is spirit" John 4:24
The Message (MSG)23-24"It's who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That's the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration."
Notes on this reading
Please notice that the scripture does not say "God is a spirit" .
If it did, it would have placed him in a class with “all spirits” God is "spirit" because He is "spirit"
Being spirit, he is omnipresent. He has no limits, no limitations.
God is Light
That is the message of the life of Jesus. That is what he came to tell us, and what he imparts to us as we learn to know him. "God is light and in him is no darkness at all."
Scriptural support for this notion
2. God is light 1 John 1:5
The Message (MSG)Walk in the Light
1 John 1:4-6
The Message (MSG)3-4We saw it, we heard it, and now we're telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. Our motive for writing is simply this: We want you to enjoy this, too. Your joy will double our joy!
Walk in the Light
5This, in essence, is the message we heard from Christ and are passing on to you: God is light, pure light; there's not a trace of darkness in him.6-7If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark, we're obviously lying through our teeth—we're not living what we claim. But if we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another, as the sacrificed blood of Jesus, God's Son, purges all our sin.
We all know that darkness is the absence of light. Light and darkness can not and will not ever coexist. It is impossible
In the Bible "darkness" is used to describe sin, evil, death. Light, on the other hand is used to describe the opposite. Light is used to describe holiness, goodness, life.
God is light
God is described as being light. Not one of the lights, but Light. God is light. This phrase means that God is not one of the lights, but He is the light. He is the sum of all goodness in the universe.
God is love
“Though our feelings come and go, God’s love for us does not”.
C.S. Lewis
3. God is love (1 John 4:8).
1 John 4:7-9
The Message (MSG)God Is Love
7-10My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can't know him if you don't love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God.
This says that God is love. Not that God is one of the “loves” in the world. It does not say that God shows love to the world. Or that God gives love to the world. No, it does not say these things. It says that: God, Himself is love. If said in any other way would make love just a part of Him. Love is not just one part of Him. God is love and love is His very nature.
Description of Love
In modern times the word love has the following meaning:
A profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.A feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend.
Sexual passion or desire.
Have love or affection for
Have a profoundly tender, passionate affection for
Have a strong liking for
In our society love is rather a weak and sometimes meaningless word. The meaning of love has became imprecise in overuse in our culture. We love Pizza. We love the Ford. We love our children. We love our mates. Finally we love God.
Normally when speaking of “Love” the impression that comes to mind is of amiable weakness. Sometimes it brings a picture of good-natured indulgence. Ever see a picture of a happy, smiling, eye twinkling god, with a little “G”? This sort of modern idea as reduced love to a mere weakling, ineffective sentiment, patterned after human emotion.
What is the truth?
We need a good dose of reality. We need a clear picture of truth. Then the world, God, and our relationship with either will become very clear. The truth is contained in the scriptures.
There is very little love for God, even the professing worshipers. There are many reason for this. One outstanding reason is that few people spend time thinking and communicating with God.
They Know Him But they Do not know Him
Some know a lot about God. Some know a lot about God and participate in worship and service to Him. But out side of that, these do not chose to bring their minds and heart to dwell on Him, without which He cannot reveal His nature to us. The more we seek Him the clearer His nature will be revealed to us. Many go through the motions and are fooling themselves.
The Love of God
The love of God is just that: The love of God. Gods’ love is much difference than the so called love displayed between mankind toward mankind. Mankind's love displayed in human relationship is based on something that can be gotten from it. The love that mankind displays is influenced and based on what can be gotten out of such a relationship.
This sort of love sets up a standard and if the relationship meets the standard, the relationship will qualify for love. If the relationship does not meet a certain standard, love will not be offered.
We need to understand this: We do not cause God to love us. We have nothing to offer in hopes of attracting the love of God. The love of God toward us is free, spontaneous and not caused by any attraction with in ourselves. We do not meet a certain standard that causes us to attract the attention of God. You cannot strut around and glory that you have done thus and so and therefor merit the attention of God. God lives us because His is love
He exercised His sovereign will in the act of loving are caring for each of us.
Deuteronomy 7:7
The Message (MSG)7-10 God wasn't attracted to you and didn't choose you because you were big and important—the fact is, there was almost nothing to you. He did it out of sheer love, keeping the promise he made to your ancestors. God stepped in and mightily bought you back out of that world of slavery, freed you from the iron grip of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know this: God, your God, is God indeed, a God you can depend upon. He keeps his covenant of loyal love with those who love him and observe his commandments for a thousand generations. But he also pays back those who hate him, pays them the wages of death; he isn't slow to pay them off—those who hate him, he pays right on time.
2 Timothy 1:9
The Message (MSG)8-10So don't be embarrassed to speak up for our Master or for me, his prisoner. Take your share of suffering for the Message along with the rest of us. We can only keep on going, after all, by the power of God, who first saved us and then called us to this holy work. We had nothing to do with it. It was all his idea, a gift prepared for us in Jesus long before we knew anything about it. But we know it now. Since the appearance of our Savior, nothing could be plainer: death defeated, life vindicated in a steady blaze of light, all through the work of Jesus.
1 John 4:18-20
The Message (MSG)To Love, to Be Loved
17-18God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we're free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ's. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.19We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.
20-21If anyone boasts, "I love God," and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won't love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can't see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You've got to love both.
God did not love us because we loved Him
The point here: God did not love us because we loved Him, but He loved us before we even knew Him.
Had God loved us in return for ours. There is nothing that we can do to cause God to love us. Love is spontaneous on His part.
Gods’ love is eternal
It is eternal. Thing that are not eternal are not stable. They are subject to change and are fickle. . God is eternal. God is love. There is not a shadow of change in Him.
Jeremiah 31:3
The Message (MSG)2-6This is the way God put it:
"They found grace out in the desert,
these people who survived the killing.
Israel, out looking for a place to rest,
met God out looking for them!"
God told them, "I've never quit loving you and never will.
Expect love, love, and more love!
And so now I'll start over with you and build you up again,
dear virgin Israel.
You'll resume your singing,
grabbing tambourines and joining the dance.
You'll go back to your old work of planting vineyards
on the Samaritan hillsides,
And sit back and enjoy the fruit—
oh, how you'll enjoy those harvests!
The time's coming when watchmen will call out
from the hilltops of Ephraim:
'On your feet! Let's go to Zion,
go to meet our God!'"
This tell is that God loved us before we even existed.
His love is spontaneous, existing before all time.
Ephesians 1:4
The Message (MSG)The God of Glory
3-6How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He's the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.
God’s love toward us had no beginning. God’s love toward us has no end.
3. It is absolute. God is absolute in all that he does. He obeys no laws because He is the law. God always acts in accordance to His own pleasure. God’s law is absolute He does as He pleases. God pleases to Love us. Because God is God.
Romans 9:18-20
The Message (MSG)14-18Is that grounds for complaining that God is unfair? Not so fast, please. God told Moses, "I'm in charge of mercy. I'm in charge of compassion." Compassion doesn't originate in our bleeding hearts or moral sweat, but in God's mercy. The same point was made when God said to Pharaoh, "I picked you as a bit player in this drama of my salvation power." All we're saying is that God has the first word, initiating the action in which we play our part for good or ill.
19Are you going to object, "So how can God blame us for anything since he's in charge of everything? If the big decisions are already made, what say do we have in it?"
20-33Who in the world do you think you are to second-guess God? Do you for one moment suppose any of us knows enough to call God into question? Clay doesn't talk back to the fingers that mold it, saying, "Why did you shape me like this?" Isn't it obvious that a potter has a perfect right to shape one lump of clay into a vase for holding flowers and another into a pot for cooking beans? If God needs one style of pottery especially designed to show his angry displeasure and another style carefully crafted to show his glorious goodness, isn't that all right? Either or both happens to Jews, but it also happens to the other people. Hosea put it well:
I'll call nobodies and make them somebodies;
I'll call the unloved and make them beloved.
In the place where they yelled out, "You're nobody!"
they're calling you "God's living children."
Isaiah maintained this same emphasis:
If each grain of sand on the seashore were numbered
and the sum labeled "chosen of God,"
They'd be numbers still, not names;
salvation comes by personal selection.
God doesn't count us; he calls us by name.
Arithmetic is not his focus.
Isaiah had looked ahead and spoken the truth:
If our powerful God
had not provided us a legacy of living children,
We would have ended up like ghost towns,
like Sodom and Gomorrah.
How can we sum this up? All those people who didn't seem interested in what God was doing actually embraced what God was doing as he straightened out their lives. And Israel, who seemed so interested in reading and talking about what God was doing, missed it. How could they miss it? Because instead of trusting God, they took over. They were absorbed in what they themselves were doing. They were so absorbed in their "God projects" that they didn't notice God right in front of them, like a huge rock in the middle of the road. And so they stumbled into him and went sprawling. Isaiah (again!) gives us the metaphor for pulling this together:
Careful! I've put a huge stone on the road to Mount Zion,
a stone you can't get around.
But the stone is me! If you're looking for me,
you'll find me on the way, not in the way.
The absoluteness of God’s love is absolute because we can do nothing to attract or deserve it.
Ephesians 1:4
The Message (MSG)The God of Glory
3-6How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He's the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.
Gods love is impossible to measure. He fills the heaven and earth.
He has complete knowledge and wisdom. There is nothing lacking in His wisdom. He can see the past present and future. He stands outside of time. His love is without limit.
Ephesians 2:4
The Message (MSG)Ephesians 2
He Tore Down the Wall
1-6It wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.
John 3:16
The Message (MSG)16-18"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.
We cannot estimate ant thing at all about God.
Ephesians 3:19
The Message (MSG)14-19My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you'll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.
God protects His own. God strives for us to learn. God will teach us about the problems with our lives.
Hebrews 12:6
The Message (MSG)4-11In this all-out match against sin, others have suffered far worse than you, to say nothing of what Jesus went through—all that bloodshed! So don't feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children?
My dear child, don't shrug off God's discipline,
but don't be crushed by it either.
It's the child he loves that he disciplines;
the child he embraces, he also corrects.
God is educating you; that's why you must never drop out. He's treating you as dear children. This trouble you're in isn't punishment; it's training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God's training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God's holy best. At the time, discipline isn't much fun. It always feels like it's going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it's the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.
God does not kid around with your sin.
Return to Me
from Angelina Bong's Cavern by Angelina BongListening to Brian Doerksen's album, Holy God in the quietness of my study room,
I felt moved by a few sentences that he proclaimed through his album..
I shall post it here..
"From the ancient days until today,
I have inspired prophets and poets...
And at the heart of every message..
Are these 3 words...
Return to me
I am your Creator,
Return to me
Am your Redeemer..
Your Father: Return to Me
I am Your Husband,
Return to Me"
How beautiful and simple
It dawned on me how true it is
All my poems are inspired by God directly and indirectly
Even if I talk about people or the sky or the world
All these are His creations
My Father is my muse
NO rather He is the poet,
I am His pen
I can only heed His words
Return to Me
Will you join me and make that journey
To return to Him
The Reformation was an reform movement that established Protestantism as a recognized branch of Christianity. The leaders of the movement were objecting to certain doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Catholic Church of that time. This movement led that what we know today as Protestant churches. The churches produced as the result of this clash ideas were the Anglicans, the Lutherans , and the Reformed churches . There were other smaller churches produced because of this clash of ideas.
What to do if you miss the rapture! Featured
Written by John O´BrienWe are seeing natural disasters today, all round us and in increasing frequency. They are occurring all around our world. We (Christians) have nothing to fear from these events. Tidal waves hurricanes, tornado's, earthquakes, fires and typhoons. It is all happening now. They are all around us. These events will continue in increasing frequency.
