Monday, May 13, 2013

How Do You Know the Truth?



Dear Beloved,
I love you and am so happy that you are exploring your faith with an open and sincere heart but I need to let you know something as a fellow believer.
  I have a caution for you. Don’t fall into the trap that a heck of a lot of people do. That is, to say that they know God and know who or what He is based on their assumptions, opinions, experiences, studies of various alternative writers, and on and on. The only way to truly know and solidify in your mind who God is, is to find out who He says He is. God is saying: "If you want to get to know me, ask me, don’t ask everyone else who thinks they know me. Read what I wrote. Go straight to the source."


















You wrote:
             "I believe that we have within us the ability to heal ourselves from the majority of problems but I know that the mind and body can turn against you."

 That sounds real good, but if you are a believer, forgiven and redeemed, that’s a whole lot of unnecessary work. Why try to use your limited powers to work out your problems and healing?? The Bible plainly shows us it’s already been done for us
Isaiah 53:4-6
 Surely he took up our infirmities
       and carried our sorrows,
       yet we considered him stricken by God,
       smitten by him, and afflicted.

  But he was pierced for our transgressions,
       he was crushed for our iniquities;
       the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
       and by his wounds we are healed.

  We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
       each of us has turned to his own way;
       and the LORD has laid on him
       the iniquity of us all.

Our healing was made available when Jesus became the innocent sacrifice at Calvary. There is a lifetime of learning we can put into finding how that applies to each person, but the truth is it is there. If we could heal ourselves then why did Jesus have to die on the cross? If it is truly a matter of as you wrote: "Mind over Matter.  It all is controlled by the Mind"…  then one of the gentlest, wisest, and most loving teachers on the face of the earth was murdered for nothing. Our devotion, then, is only to a good man who spoke good words. The fact is He was not just a man. He was fully God as well as fully human. Completely innocent and yet completely aware it was our sins that created the Divine breach between us. There is a mystery to some of the things of God but most of it is expressed with childlike simplicity. It is easy enough for the youngest child to comprehend and wondrous enough for the aged saint to yet marvel over.

Later you said,
            “I have recently come to the conclusion that God is not an actual being like you or   me."

God is an actual being like you. He created man in His image. He has a form that can be seen and a voice that can be heard. In Exodus 33: 14-22 Moses has this exchange with God:

  The LORD replied, "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."

 Then Moses said to him, "If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.... 

  Then Moses said, "Now show me your glory."

 And the LORD said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.  But," he said, "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live."

 Then the LORD said, "There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock.  When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.  Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen."

God's face and voice are real. His presence and glory (shekinah) are a beautiful mystery to be sought after privately, individually, it is an intimate experience to know God at this level, but you can know him. Anyone can.

You also said,
" God is an entity, taking the form of a physical being if necessary."

God is triune, in that He is three in one. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. This is why we see Him say in Genesis 1:26
" Then God said, "Let US make man in OUR image, in OUR likeness"
The plurality of God allows Him to interact with us and others throughout time in different, personal ways. Pretty cool. He is more than an entity that takes a physical form at will. He purposefully chose to be fully human and fully God for a specific time and place. It is not a whim or way He sometimes “appears” God is deliberate in how He interacts with us, and not spooky or metaphysical at all.

 Most disturbing to me is when you wrote:
          "There is a strange theory in the Astronomical world about a "glue" that holds the universe together called "dark matter"." 
Theories from other disciplines are like gossip about celebrities, pretty much somebody's opinion, maybe with a little truth, but not to be taken seriously.

You continued:
           "What if this "glue" is the will of God and we just haven't been able to see it yet.  We are still in the dark ages.  God will ensure that soon we will all see the light."

God's will is so clearly and simply written all over His Word. All we need to do is read it. There is no mystery to it, no reason to not see it, and no reason to walk in darkness.
John 1: 3-5 describes Jesus like this:
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood[a] it. The light is here and the things of darkness have no more power over any who live in His salvation, mercy and grace.

Ephesians 5: 8-11 comforts us with this promise:
 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.

I guess the whole thing is, God knows when we first begin to develop a relationship with Him we stumble and learn daily. We need a whole lot of faith as we plunge into His Word. And that is the only safe harbor for a new vulnerable faith. The enemy knows that God’s Word is a powerful weapon to break down the strongholds he has used to keep us from God. Don’t ever blindly trust what anyone says about the Bible, God or Jesus. Look to the Bible for the final definitive answer to any question.

Be blessed

1 comment:

  1. Amen, sister. If we want to hear from God, we have to go to HIM. The Bible is His #1 way of speaking to us.

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