We Need to be Reading our Bibles

 In the past 2 weeks, I have had a chance to share the wisdom of the Book of Proverbs on social media. Once, I was having a comment battle with someone about politicians and religion. They were very riled up and being, in my opinion, ignorant about so many civil issues. I didn't have the energy to argue with them so I just fired off verses from Proverbs. (There really is so much compact wisdom in that book.) Later I was on Twitter - where I rarely go - just tweeting verse after verse. 

After watching a YouTube video the other day (an American Greed episode), I made a comment and then had some responses to comment on.

Click the pic or 
read my typed version below

My comment that started the thread

 I cannot believe how many of my Christian brethren fall for the "God wants you to be rich" line. The Bible discourages us from pursuing wealth. I don't know when that message got twisted into the whole "prosperity gospel" shtick. And listening to their pastors and bishops like they are more than human. Sometimes they are just wolves... I won't badmouth or name names but... SMH 

One person responds

 I will- Eddie Long, Joel Osteen Joyce Meyer, John Hagee and the worship state of Israel scam, anyone on TV- you don't get on "Christian TV" w/o being zionist. 

My response to the above

 As a Christian - follower of Jesus CHRIST, a Jew, I am a zionist (zionist: a supporter of Zionism; a person who believes in the development and protection of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel.) So there's that. 

 Another person responds 

So you’re saying it is God’s desire for us to be poor? 

My response to the above

It's God's desire for us to be saved. Having money is not the problem; pursuit of money is. We were never promised material wealth. How many of the apostles were rich? I don't need to be rich to be saved. And I am not counting on wealth in this life because I could so easily go broke tomorrow. (Who am I kidding? I'm broke as I type this! LOL) Seriously though, if we worried as much about depending on God for our needs and being thankful for what we have as we do trying to get rich... (Because typed comments don't always convey true intent, I want you to know that I say all this in love and fellowship, not being snarky or judgmental. This is just what I believe.) 

I felt okay about the comments from folks. We were at least engaging in a civil way. Before I even watched the video, someone else mentioned that they "just stay home and worship". I feel that way myself but I know that we are supposed to engage in fellowship. It's just hard to find fellowship these days. The kind o fellowship that is about Christ and being Christians. I always find that churches are too politicized and involved in social issues that draw us apart as a Christian family instead of encouraging us to draw others towards the Gospel. This situation has gotten so much worse in the past few years. 

So I guess I just hope that we all get back to studying what the Bible says about things. We need to be in prayer and looking to the Lord for guidance instead of getting caught up with which candidate we support. Satan is crafty and he finds all sorts of ways to distract us from the Gospel and our salvation.

Stay prayerful people. Keep your noses in your Bibles as much as you do Facebook or someone else's business! LOL

Peace

--Free

P.S. - While reading Proverbs in the eSword app, I discovered the Easy Read Version of the Bible. I prefer the NASB, ESV, and KJV for serious study, but the ERV would be great for a person who wants to be introduced to daily Bible reading - or who has trouble reading. I like to read the ERV when I am just reading to be reading. I haven't seen many U.S. copies on the usual big box sites but there seem to be some on specific Bible seller sites. 

Here is a snippet I copped from a Got Questions article on the ERV:

John 1:1, 14 – “Before the world began, the Word was there. The Word was there with God. The Word was God. The Word became a man and lived among us. We saw his glory—the glory that belongs to the only Son of the Father. The Word was full of grace (kindness) and truth.”

Order and Perfection and Belief

 Reading part of the Bible - especially recently at the end of 1 Chronicles - I am again amazed at God's order and perfection in everything. I felt this way while reading Genesis and Numbers.

The way that God had Israel order everything from the way the citizens lived, the kings ruled, and the commanders led the army. Everything is about order and efficiency.

Also, once again, I am reminded that while many men do not believe in God, they inherited His sense of order. Scientists especially like order. They want to define things in sets and species and types and so on. Do they ever wonder where they got this from?  Do they think that they just "evolved" to be this way?

Everything about our intricate beings comes from God. How can it all be coincidental or accidentally or evolutionary? Evolution had to start somewhere. Time had to start somewhere. Life and thought and beauty and intelligence - it all had to start somewhere. And some people believe that all came from an accidental "bang"?

My mother used to say that some people were so smart that they were stupid. 

The other day, I was watching an episode of The Naked Archeologist. It was on language and the alphabet. It was exploring ideas and opinions about where language - written and spoken - came from. Where it started. It's this kind of thing that is a wonder to me. That man doesn't want to believe that it started with a Creator God. That we somehow all just came to be and came to be smarter and came to be more and more advanced as life forms. Out of what?

Even a (hopefully repentant) Nazi got it

I find it so amazing that people who criticize faith in God don't study His Word the way they study other things. Most scientifically minded people wouldn't debunk a theory without poring over it carefully. I suppose the only thing that amazes me more are people who choose to disbelieve even after studying the Word of God. And not always but usually that has to do with their ideas about either their own brilliance or another man's stupidity. 

The most amazing thing to me is that some of the same people who don't believe in God, will dabble in or go all out on believing in things like ghosts, aliens, magical-mystical long-lost cities, and civilizations. 

SOURCE: Chapman University

I have known people who have never read the Bible who believe in the ghosts of their dead loved ones. When I have pointed out that there is no such thing as ghosts but there are such things as evil spirits... Well, I was called gullible and weird. Really? 

So, once again, I am marveling at God and the wonder of all He created. Again, I marvel that there are men who still refuse to believe.

I am sure I will spend many more hours pondering all this. I just wanted to share the burden!

Peace

--Free

Questions, Theories & The Creator

 I watched a video and posted a comment. I want to leave them both here for others to think about.

This is the video:

And this is the comment I made there:

"Just making a comment here so don't come for me; I've heard all the insults already. Here goes:

As a Christian, I have always wondered why it's not obvious to some that there is a Creator. And my answer to the obvious question friends ask me is that the Creator isn't created. We would have no concept of creation without that Creator (who created "creation", and so on and on). Man can explain away everything else with science and theories (speaking on evolution, truth, meaning, death, etc) but cannot explain what time is or where it came from. It's a necessary concept that we cannot explain or invent or imagine outside of its existence.  It's the same with gravity and other things: man can theorize about what but not explain why or, in some cases, how. I'm constantly told that I believe in something (God) that I cannot explain and that no one alive witnessed but I say the same about the Big Bang.  Faith is faith, whether it be in God or in the Big Bang. I happen to believe in both."

By the way, the title of the video "3 Important Questions No One Knows the Answers To" made me think of the song "I Know the Master of the Wind". 

Peace

--Free