Why Are There So Many Different Interpretations to the Bible?

Why is the Bible hard to understand? Why are there many different ideas about God?

“The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 1st Corinthians 2:14, NIV.

This scripture teaches that you must have God’s Spirit to understand the things of God. The things of God are unnatural to us, they go against our logic. The things of God are unpopular to the man of the world, since “they are foolishness to him.” Foolish things seem juvenile, not thought out, or just plain stupid.

We are not equipped to understand the things of God. “Because they are spiritually discerned." We need God’s Spirit to show us. Instead, we take what small light we have and mix it with the ideological fog around us and come up with a wrong idea of God.

The world cannot understand the things of God such as:

• God is love.
• God would become a man.
• God would condemn sinners for their sin.
• God would die on the cross to pay for our sins.
• God gives man free will to choose Him.
• God waits for us to seek Him before He reveals himself to us.
• God gives free eternal life to those who receive Him.
• God rejects good works as terms of salvation and honors the act of faith in Jesus instead.
• God wants us to have a relationship with him instead of a religion.

To the worldly-minded these are foolish, but these are the truths God has chosen to reveal.

We can’t understand God without His help. We must be open to what He shows us of Himself. We must accept the things of God though they seem foolish and reject the world’s wisdom. We must come to God and agree to His terms.

Pray and ask God to reveal His truth to you, invite God into your life, and be open to His Spirit. Accept His plan of salvation.

I would rather be a fool for Jesus than wise for everybody else.


My Prayer for Understanding

Dear God, You are the All-Wise Lord of All, seen and unseen

I know You want to reveal Yourself to me with truth.
I confess I tried to conceive You on my own,
And build a concept of You out of cheap stuff.
My best ideas are far short of the Infinite You.
Forgive the idolatry and vain pride of my efforts.
My sin has quenched Your Spirit’s sweet voice in my heart.
Help me to cast away my lowly man made concepts.
Enter my life, and fill me with your Holy Spirit.
I pray that You reveal Yourself to me in pure truth.
Help me to be humble, help me to understand You.

Thank you, Father, for this new beginning with You

To learn more about how to understand God's plan for you click here to see my other blog.

(c) Adron 11/2/13

What Priorities Make a Good Life?

With the internet, instant communication and information overload we can easily be sucked into a fascination with things that are not the best and even injurious to us. What should we pay attention to, and how should we spend our time?

"Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives tails, rather, train yourself to be godly." 1 Timothy 4:7, NIV.

HAVE
The word, have, in this context suggests a choice; another word like choose would not change the meaning of the verse, but the word 'have' is stronger. We must be on our guard for those things that become a preoccupation with our thinking and take us away from the best.

NOTHING
We must be firm in our choice to turn away from the lesser occupations and pursue the best. We should not have any involvement in things that draw us from The Lord and that which is good. "Nothing" is a clear word and means be void, not minimal, some, or a few but not any at all. We must make it a point to abstain from and refuse to engage in these things.

GODLESS
This is the acid test, godly or godless if we weighed every decision on this measure we will be delivered from many troubles. Moreover, we will have cultivated a healthier mindset and blessing in life.

MYTHS AND OLD WIVES TALES
These are insubstantial, they are like vapors that melt away when tested and are not worthy of the time of one who is dedicated to knowing and serving God. Our times are full of fascination with fantasy and media fiction; sadly we know more about TV shows than we do about the life and words of our Savior.

TRAIN
We need to be disciplined in our lives. This may be foreign to many modern people who are directed by markets and media on how to think and spend their time. To train in the sense of this word is to exercise toward a goal like an Olympics. This training is done with diligence, sacrifice and fervor; it brings all areas of the athlete's life to submit to the rigors of the training- to the athlete the goal is worth the cost of training.

We can train ourselves by a few disciplines.

     * Spend time in the Bible.
     * Meditate on God's Word.
     * Become devoted to prayer.
     * Worship in community with sincerity and truth.
     * Serve God and mankind.
     * Turn away from sin.

GODLY
It is worth all the effort to obtain godliness and to have the gracious approval of the Father in Heaven.

To learn more about finding God in your life follow this link: Click Here.

(c)Adron Dozat 5/1/13

Can We Grow In Grace? 2 Peter 3:18

Can Christians grow in grace? We are admonished in scripture to grow, but what is it, and how do we grow in grace.

"But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." 2 Peter 3:18, NIV*.

GROW:
Living things grow, if we do not grow something is wrong. We may complete our physical growth but we should continue to grow mentally, emotionally and especially spiritually.

Growing involves changing. If there is no change there is no growth. Growing implies maturity and coming to the fulfillment of the purpose of the one growing: growing also implies the process of leaving the immature behind.

THE COMMAND TO GROW:
It must be possible to grow in grace or else the Apostle would not have finished his epistle with such a statement. Here we are instructed to grow in grace not as if was something that just happens but something that we must pay attention to do.

There are a few things we must do to grow in spiritual maturity.
      *     We must read God's word the Bible daily.
      *     We must spend time in prayer.
      *     We must participate in a community of believers.
      *     We must express our faith in service.
      *     We must share our faith.

GRACE AND KNOWLEDGE:
Salvation is by God's grace we often say we "are saved by grace." To grow in grace could not mean get more salvation, but it is the other part of salvation: it is the fruit of salvation that grows out of obedience with the attitude of faith that leads to becoming more like Christ.

Grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savor go hand in hand. They are mutually inclusive: you can't really have one without the other.

We can know facts about Jesus from the Bible or history and books, but we must know Jesus in a personal way. Our knowledge of Jesus should be a growing knowledge. We should be growing not only in knowing about Jesus and his life, teaching, work, and who he is, but we should by faith be growing in our personal experience of Jesus.

Knowing Jesus should lead us to knowing him as Lord. As we grow in knowing him more we will be obeying him more fully. We can't honestly call Jesus Lord and not do the things he commands.


To know Jesus as Savior follow this link to my other blog: click here.

* To read this vers in other translations follow this link: Online Parallel Bible.

(c)Adron Dozat

* * * * *

Thank you for visiting and reading my blog. I sincerely hope this post is helpful and an encouragement.  For more like this see the most popular post in the left sidebar, or use the search box above.  

Adron

Use the share buttons below to save and share this to your social networks. 

Fatherly Advice- You can’t be too wise. Proverbs 9:9

God Loves You

After years of school, you get a diploma but are you really done, or just beginning?

“Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning.” Proverbs 9:9, NIV.

MADE BY GOD
We are made by God to be creatures that not only grow but who crave to grow, failure to grow leads to entropy.  It seems that God intends for us to be able to add to our learning. We cannot say, “OK, I am wise and learned now. I am done getting knowledge and wisdom.” This verse implies that there is always more wisdom to acquire and more learning to attain.

WISER STILL
If we are wise we will welcome continuous learning. It is a marvel that the wise can become “wiser still.” It is as if the depths of wisdom can always go deeper, and as for knowledge no matter how much you know there is more to learn.

NOT SMART- RIGHTEOUS
Our verse does not say teach a smart man, a professor, or a teacher, but to teach a “righteous man,” and “instruct the wise man.”  We can’t all be professors, PHDs, or Nobel Prize laureates but by the gift of God’s grace, we may be righteous.  Learning is a gift from God and the righteous man sees God in learning.  Righteousness leads to humility and humility is the enabler that opens us to learning.

WISE OR RIGHTEOUS
When two words are interchangeable they are synonymous, they share the same meaning. In this passage of scripture the wise and the righteous are made equal and the same. Wisdom and righteousness go together, you cannot be a wicked man and have wisdom- it is mutually exclusive.  Without righteousness you cannot have wisdom.

THE TEACHER
This verse of scripture does not identify the instructor. Any of us may have something to teach the wise and the righteous. The wise will learn even if taught by the lowly, they know that common everyday people may have something to teach them.

HE WILL
Be encouraged that the righteous may add to his learning, it is a choice; notice the wise “will” be wiser and the righteous “will” add to his learning. It is not just something that happens by chance, instead, there is resolve and decision on the part of the wise and righteous to learn and grow in wisdom.

Let’s copy the resolve of the wise and keep on seeking wisdom and continue searching for knowledge. There is no end to it or its rewards. If you have an opportunity to add to your learning you are wise to take it. 

(c)Adron Dozat

____________________________

Thank you for visiting and reading my blog. I sincerely hope this post is helpful and an encouragement.  For more like this see the most popular post in the left sidebar, or use the search box above.  

Adron

Use the share buttons below to save and share this to your social networks. 

The End Result of Knowledge. Proverbs 22:19

We go to school or study and get our heads full of facts, formulas, dates, and data. What is it all good for? What is the real purpose of education?

“Pay attention and listen to the sayings of the wise; apply your heart to what I teach, for it is pleasing when you keep them in your heart and have all of them ready on your lips. So that your trust may be in the Lord, I teach you today, even you.” Proverbs 22:17-19. NIV.

We are made to learn and grow intellectually. A normal, healthy mind is curious and learns, even if it is the small and mundane things of the day today. The mind that does not learn is ill and experiences entropy.

In its wise sayings, the book of proverbs answers the end purpose of knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. The modern man says it to get ahead, or get a better job, or to fulfill the “American Dream,” but proverbs teach that knowledge is “So that your Trust may be in the Lord.”

God had a purpose when he gave us the ability to reason and learn. Learning about the natural universe around us reveals more of God, and thoughtful consideration of what we learn ought to point us to Him. Since God created all things, any subject, whether science, math, history, sociology or literature, or any other discipline, draws us closer to The Lord. Even to study the structure of a leaf, or the composition of an element or the progress of human history causes the thoughtful to see the Creator's hand. His universe demonstrates His greatness, power, immeasurable creativity, and awesome wisdom. To consider any discipline of study should cause us to declare, “Yes, there must be a God!”

Knowledge should cause us to trust in the Lord. How can you not trust in The One who is so All-knowing and All-powerful? How can you not trust The One who made mother birds, created sunshine, gravity, stars, atoms, the heart, the eye, sound, or any other thing you can consider?

Learning alone is not enough; we need help in our understanding. The proverb encourages us to “Pay attention and listen to the sayings of the wise.” God is not only revealed in creation, but He speaks in the Holy Scriptures to make clear to us His love and purpose. Let’s become devoted to studying His Written Word and His creation.

(c) Adron 7/25/10