Have you ever wondered why God delivered and rescued one person but left others to “suffer their fate”?

I remember reading about the story of Daniel in the Lions den, first as a child in my Sunday school class and then later with a little greater maturity under my belt. 

In the course of studying history and in particular the history of the Christian church I considered myself part of, I discovered that first century Christians were regularly “thrown to the Lions” in arenas as entertainment. I also learned of many other gruesome and horrific actions taken against and upon the persons of those who professed Christ including being burned alive and even being crucified just as Christ himself had been crucified. 

In meditating upon the word of God and thinking in my deepest soul about what the Bible stories revealed to me about the attributes and character of the God I was aligning myself with, I found myself wondering why Daniel was rescued from the Lions but those later Christians weren’t? 

I wondered why some people were delivered, like Shadrach Meshack and Abednego but not the Christians in Sudan or Nigeria today?


Did God only reach out his hand of power when there was a story to be told? Is it simply a matter of faith or lack of faith? Didn't the Bible teach us that God was not a respecter of persons, but a respecter of conditions? Was it about dedication or lack of dedication on the part of the believer or unbeliever? What about these stories could I discover about God himself and the people of God who believe and trust him? 

This one thought continually highlighted and pressed itself upon my heart; God has an eternal perspective that we in our limited humanity cannot even begin to grasp. 

Then I found myself wondering if that is the answer, is it an acceptable answer? Which actually leads me to a further question! Who am I or any other created being to question the one who created us? 

Which led me to think of Job. When he went through the devastation and the horrific loss along with his wife, of their 10 loved children and everything else in their lives, and he asked God about it, the answer he got is astounding and marvelous all at the same time; 

“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the world?” God asked back.

And that led me to what I felt was a simple answer. 

I am not God. You are not God. 

We do not know all of the many many mysteries of the universe and of the supernatural and the spirit and of God himself!  We simply don’t know what we don’t know!

Only God knows these mysteries, precisely because he alone is God! And we are left with a simple choice. 

Trust him and receive the many benefits that come from that, even while we suffer the effects of our sinful nature and this sinful fallen world we live in, or don’t trust him and accept the consequences of that choice whatever they may be.

Words vs Actions

While words are a powerful tool, words by themselves won't accomplish much.
Action taken is where the power becomes a truly formidable force.

In Matthew 21: 28-30 Jesus demonstrates this truth with a parable.

A father with two sons goes to each and makes a request of them.  One speaks negative words, declaring he will not obey, but then thinks better of it, and goes and does.  

The second speaks positive words, declaring he will obey the father straight-away, but then he fails to follow up his words with action, and does not do what was requested.

Jesus asked the crowd this same question I ask you now; which of these sons was obedient?

The one who DID the required action?
Or the one who SAID he would do the required action but didn't?

God initiates, we respond.

All action verbs requiring more than just mere words.

Well did the Apostle James tell us "What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?  But someone will say, You have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works."

To call oneself a Christian takes no more than mere words uttered.  

To be a Christian requires your actions reflect that state of being. We certainly have none of us arrived, but there should be clear evidence that shows we are on the journey!

Faith versus Flesh

Have you ever thought about how prayer and faith work?  I know I have been praying for all the years of my life that I can remember (which puts us at 50+) and I still wonder how it all works!

The prophet Daniel, who's story is found in the Old Testament of the Bible, prayed and kept praying for 21 days.  After 21 days an Angel showed up and explained that an evil spirit had delayed him coming.  What if Daniel had STOPPED praying after the first day?  Would the Angel still have showed up?

Daniel 10: 12-13 Then he continued, "Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. 13 "But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for twenty-one days; then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia.

Is the Lord moving on our circumstances dependent on our praying about them?  Where then is Faith?  How do faith and action work together?

James 2: 14 - 26  What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?  Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

If we stop praying, will God STOP working in our lives?
Job 42:10 AFTER Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored....

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednago had FAITH that God would save them.  What if they had obeyed in refusing to worship the Kings false idols but their FAITH had wavered?  What if just ONE of them had doubted?  Would they still have been saved from the fiery furnace?

When David faced Goliath, suppose the first rock hadn't felled the giant?  Would David have had the gumption to throw a second one?  He had, after all, picked up 5, not just one.

Is prayer about getting God to move on our behalf?  Or is prayer about getting US aligned with Gods truth?
Mark 9:24 "immediately the father of the child cried out and said "I believe, Help my unbelief!"

We know that the words we speak are powerful weapons.
Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue...

How powerful are the thoughts we think?  What about the feelings we experience?  Does how we feel also impact our world?

Luke 6:45 
A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

WHAT MOVES THE HEART OF GOD?

I know from the story of Hezekiah in the Old Testament that our powerfully emotional pleas reach Gods ears and DO MOVE His heart on our behalf. 

Consider the story found in Isaiah 38: 1-5:

In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’ Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord,  and said, “Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

 And the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying,  “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will add to your days fifteen years.

Right about now is where most people would expect I will reveal my "5 steps to putting faith into action" or "3 Ways to pray for the greatest answers".

Faith is about the heart before God, and each of us is individual in our hearts. As long as the basic elements of truth as laid out by Jesus are in evidence, see Matthew 6: 9- 13, it is certain from the examples in the Bible and in the lives of many millions of Gods children over the years of history that indeed, PRAYER operated in FAITH by a heart humbled before the Lord, works miracles.

Some receive answers quickly.  For others it takes times.  Some get the exact answer they want, others get the answer that is better for their circumstances than they were aware of.  But all who call upon the name of the Lord and pray get answers.  And isn't that the actual point in the first place?  To know we are not alone, we are not forsaken, we are not without hope.

Fruitful - productive, alive, nourishing
Action - exerting energy in specific ways
In 
Trusting - relying upon, being dependent on
Him - God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit

combined with prayer is one of the most powerful sources in all the Universe that God created.  

FATHER, I pray right now that these words of encouragement will lift and strengthen and empower the hearts and minds and lives of those reading them to reach out to YOU in whatever way they can or will or have learned, and because of that reaching out, they will receive knowledge of THE TRUTH and their eyes will be ENLIGHTENED and they will KNOW YOU and the power of the RESURRECTED CHRIST, YOUR SON JESUS, and it will set them FREE and deliver them into ETERNAL LIFE and glorify YOUR NAME, in JESUS name I ask, AMEN

Apologetics, debates and atheists

Do you ever feel like you have to "defend God"?

When other people scoff at your beliefs or dismiss them as weakness or fables, it is natural to want to defend those beliefs.

In reality, we aren't so much defending God as we are trying to justify why we believe what we believe.

Right here I’ll stop and make one point very clear; the belief system I am addressing is that of taking Jesus at His word.  That He is, as He declared, the Truth and the ONLY WAY TO HEAVEN.   That God, in the Beginning, Created the Heavens and earth and everything in it.  That our faith must be in Him, not in our church doctrines, our own feelings or the philosophy of others.

Recently on a Facebook post, a well meaning and very polite atheist expressed the opinion that Christianity is as easily dismissed a religion as any other religion practiced on this earth.

I shared some basic Truth, which he, as expected, dismissed or ignored while pressing forward, gearing up for a “fun” debate that would waste out time and perhaps only serve to supply him with some entertainment.

I spoke the Truth in Love and made it clear I would not join him in a debate, as Truth is not open to debate, it STANDS on its own.  Jesus needs no apologies and God certainly doesn’t need me to defend Him. (I did declare I would pray for him, did pray and will continue to pray that the Holy Spirit would deliver him from blindness).

According to the revelation shared by the Apostle Paul, it is both unnecessary and an exercise in futility to spend time on what he calls “endless genealogies” or “vain jangling”. 

Take a look for yourself:

1Timothy 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Savior, and the Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope;

2 To Timothy, my own son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.

3 As I asked you to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that you might charge some that they teach no other doctrine,

4 Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do.

5 Now the end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: (unfeigned is ‘not false’)

6 From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling;

1Timothy 6: 20  O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:

21 Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen.

Indeed, there are many mysteries that only God Himself knows and we are ignorant of their origins or how they affect our world and our hearts.  God, being God and Creator, is naturally superior to that which He created.  That is difficult for many to accept or comprehend.  They prefer to bring God down to their own level, debate lofty truths that we have no control over as though they did control them, and reject the very premise of a Creator that would make them not completely and absolutely autonomous in their own being.

As if, in rejecting the existence of God, they could actually diminish or dispel His existence and influence upon the earth and the creatures He created.

IT REMINDS OF THE JOKE ABOUT GOD AND THE SCIENTIST.

That’s the biggest problem with every argument I’ve ever heard from one who dismisses the existence of God.  All argument begins precisely with what God has already provided; LIFE.  They live because God made, formed and created man to begin with and gave man free will to choose to worship and trust God the Creator.

I have always had a problem with lies.  It stems from a childhood that was filled with them, and caused me fist clenching tooth grinding frustration that is with me to this day. When I was raising my children, I used to tell them that as long as we had the truth of any situation, no matter how bad or devastating it might be, we could deal with it.

That is the same way I view the Bible.  I may not understand all of it, I may not even want to agree with all of it, but since it is Truth and it reveals nothing but Truth, there is something substantial to deal with whatever the circumstances. 

Those who reject the Truth – and we should understand that Truth is not a “what” but a “Who”- Jesus Himself! – those who reject that Truth have no premise, no foundation to stand on.  So anything they come up with may or may not resemble reason or logic; BUT IT WILL NOT BE TRUTH.

To be sure, faith is a difficult thing.  Centuries of scholars have written discourse after discourse about it, refuting it, defending it and discussing it at length.  One post here can't even begin to deal with the intricacies of faith and I am not going to try.  What I will say is this; you don't have to have rock solid faith in and of yourself when your faith rests on the Rock Solid foundation of Christ.

When we consider faith only from our own perspective, then losing it, if only for a time at different times, is almost a given.  When things are going well faith is easy and strong.  

When the going is hard, the stuff of life deals us a blow or a defeat or failure, if your faith is based on how "good" you are treated, how often you get not just answer to prayer, but the answers you want - if faith is based on anything other than JESUS CHRIST THE SAVIOR, your faith will fail you.

When you recognize that faith in the Truth is based ON that Truth and not your circumstances or your feelings, you discover faith is steady, stable and continually growing stronger in every situation.

Faith is:

I'll bet our grandparents.....

I was listening to the news the other day, an activity I try to keep to a minimum in order to limit the number of things I find outrageous each day, and I began to contemplate hazy memories from childhood.

My grandfather and grandmother never addressed me directly about the news items of the day when I was a child.  Whether they thought it too much for a child to comprehend or they didn't want to frighten me or they just considered discussing the news an "adult" activity and it never occurred to them to include children.  But I do remember hearing bits and snatches of their conversations; I do remember a sense of their feelings about the news they read. I remember they were disgusted, disgruntled but that there was an air of "this is how it is and we can't really do anything about it".  Many years later, I would share the message of the Gospel with them, so they could have hope for the future. 

Meanwhile, as I listened to the news of the shooting and subsequent behavior of the citizens from Ferguson, MO and heard about the recovery of the two Amish girls taken from a roadside vegetable stand in New York and sketchy news of the continuing conflicts in Iraq and the uneasy and already broken by Hamas cease fire in Israel - I felt such a sense of urgency for the return of Christ.  Even in the midst of my distress over the state of this world which appears to be moving steadily and swiftly ever downward in a spiral of darkness, evil and immorality, my heart reached upward in HOPE.

Hope that others would hear and believe the saving words of LIFE in the message of the Gospel.

Hope that LIGHT would of course overcome the darkness.

Hope that some would turn to Christ and be saved.

Hope that I myself would not become depressed, as Robin Williams did and gave up on life entirely; but would be inspired to speak LOUDER, share more BOLDLY, proclaim with ever greater FAITH the good news that Christ came to bring a more abundant LIFE to those who put their trust and faith and hope in HIM.

As we recognize the "signs of the times" our response must never be to give up, give in and walk away.
Instead, we are to PRESS IN, GIVE MORE, WALK EVER CLOSER IN OBEDIENCE and even MORE BOLDLY proclaim that Christ Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and this world, fallen and sinful as it it, is His creation, that He loves and gave His life to save.

What's happening in this world, right now, these headlines, these events, are not surprises to God, the Creator, Master and Deliverer of this world He put in place.  He knew it was all coming.

Matthew 24: 3-14
 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 

For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 

And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.

 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.  

And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.  

And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.  But he who endures to the end shall be saved. 

 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come."

Our hope is not found IN this world, nor in this world suddenly changing and becoming "good" and pleasant to live in.  Our hope is in our ETERNAL LIFE through Jesus with God the Father.

As this world delivers bad news upon bad news, don't be downcast, but look UP, for there is our HOPE!

In the morning when we rise....

Our morning experience sets our tone for the entire day.  

If we wake up groggy, the whole day may seem to be lived in a groggy fog, even after coffee is administered.  Waking up and becoming bright eyed and bushy tailed can be as simple as taking a moment before we hop from beneath the covers, to greet our Lord!  Somehow that can make any day easier to deal with, even if later on in our day we suffer a set back.

For this reason the Psalmist exhorts:

Psalm 5: 1-3
Give ear to my words, O Lord,
Consider my meditation.
2 Give heed to the voice of my cry,
My King and my God,
For to You I will pray.
3 My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord;
In the morning I will direct it to You,
And I will look up.

Starting each day taking the time to get centered in the Lord sets up your heart to handle whatever may come your way each day.  For each day, you will have been calmly, lovingly reminded that you are not alone.  You are never alone.  Having read the words in the morning, they will come back to strengthen you throughout your day.

When you walk in agreement with Almighty God, maker of Heaven and maker of Earth, since nothing is too difficult for Him, and you abide in Him, nothing will be too difficult for you.  For truly you CAN do alla things through Him who loves you!

His peace will keep you, His love will sustain you.  His favor will provide for you.

Lamentations 3:22-24 

Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.   They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!”

Hope in the Lord, trust in the Lord and discover the JOY of the Lord in your daily living!  You will not be sorry, but you just might get happy.

Once a day, every day, all day long

My Dad used to say the sweetest things, to let me know he cared about me and was thinking of me.
He'd tell me he always thought of me once a day, every day, all day long.
I never doubted that he loved me.

Our decision to trust and obey God works like that.  We don't make it once, one time and it stays in place forever.  Our flesh is too fickle for such an easy way as that.

It is a decision we must make daily.

Once a day, every day, all day long; we need to choose to yield to the Holy Spirit.

Once a day, every day, all day long; we must decide we will obey the commands we were given.  To love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength.  And to love our neighbors as ourselves.

Many of us think we have the "Love God" part down really well, even if we do struggle with the "love the neighbors" part.

God says if we aren't loving the neighbors, we aren't loving Him.

1 John 4:20

If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?

Jesus put it clearly as well.  

John 14:21

He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.

To love is to forgive, show mercy, encourage and think the best of others.

Love God today.  You'll be amazed at the results.  He promises!

Dreams & Visions

When we pray, do we REALLY believe God will answer us?

Then why are so often surprised when He does?

I recently talked about examining our own hearts; an exhortation Paul makes:

2 Corinthians 13:5

Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.

Reading that one morning now too long ago, I asked God to help me examine my heart, and reveal if anything needed attention, repentance and change.

Interestingly enough, I had a couple of dreams in the next two weeks that appeared significant, as they stayed with me through the next day.  

Again, I sought the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Who leads us into all truth, and discovered to my surprise, then joy, that indeed I did have two specific areas that required further address. 

I also felt my surprise needed addressing!  When we pray in Faith, we certainly should expect to get an answer, don't you agree?

The Lord often speaks to us in dreams and visions.  It's one of the few times, I think, we're actually quiet enough to LISTEN!

I pray you, too, will find your faith increasing as you experience answer to your prayers!

When you pray....

Have you ever prayed - and nothing happened?  Then sometime later - answer to your prayer is received, but you may have forgotten you even prayed and so you don't notice?

I know that sounds odd, but I recently realized that actually has happened to me.  I thought it may have happened to others as well.  We think God hasn't heard us, hasn't answered us.  Life, our daily ups and downs and minor drama's continues and we forget prayers we prayed that seemed like a big deal at the time we prayed them, but now other concerns have crowded our hearts and minds for attention and we don't remember.

God's timing for answer comes and God hasn't forgotten.

In the Gospel of John I was reading chapter 7 this morning when verse 6 leapt out at me.

John 7: 6  Then Jesus said to them "My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready."

His timing isn't always OUR TIMING.  We want everything now, now, NOW!  Yet God always knows when the exact right time is.

Some who keep prayer journals have probably, like myself, gone back to read over what they've prayed in the past and suddenly seen that a prayer they forgot about was answered by the Lord.... in His perfect timing and not according to our timetables.

Our God is faithful... and He never forgets!

Lift your voice in prayer and put your trust in the One who loves you unconditionally.
Bless you today, in Jesus name!

Reputation vs TRUTH

Amazingly enough and although I’ve read the book of Acts numerous times, the other day while my husband read chapter 5 to me something I’d never noticed before captured my attention and demanded further investigation.

Read with me a little bit, and see if you catch it:

Acts 5: 17-29

¹⁷ Then the high priest rose up, and all those who were with him (which is the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with indignation, ¹⁸ and laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison. ¹⁹ But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, ²⁰ “Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.”

²¹ And when they heard that, they entered the temple early in the morning and taught. But the high priest and those with him came and called the council together, with all the elders of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.

²² But when the officers came and did not find them in the prison, they returned and reported, ²³ saying, “Indeed we found the prison shut securely, and the guards standing outside^[a] before the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside!” ²⁴ Now when the high priest,^[b] the captain of the temple, and the chief priests heard these things, they wondered what the outcome would be. ²⁵ So one came and told them, saying,^[c] “Look, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people!”

²⁶ Then the captain went with the officers and brought them without violence, for they feared the people, lest they should be stoned. ²⁷ And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest asked them, ²⁸ saying, “Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this Man’s blood on us!”

²⁹ But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men. ³⁰ The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. ³¹ Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. ³² And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.”

Take another look, specifically at verse 28.

Now if I may ask you a question. 

IfRo you put men in prison and the next morning they weren’t in there despite the locked doors and guards, wouldn’t your first question be HOW DID YOU GET OUT OF PRISON?

The very fact they didn’t ask the question indicates to me they already knew the answer.  So they were asking the only question that mattered to them – WHY DID YOU THWART OUR AUTHORITY?

Their only true concern was what they saw as the diminishing of:

Their POWER: because they liked ruling it over others

Their POSITION: in the community which afforded them “special” treatment

Their PRESTIGE: recognized and respected by everyone as being ‘above’ and more important

When we go about our lives, what are our major concerns?  Are we focused on the integrity and purity of God’s word and our adherence to it?  In our churches, are our concerns about teaching and demonstrating Truth or have we been swayed into false concern over protecting our own “reputations”?

Asking the tough questions will help us not only to examine our own hearts, but to keep them right and in alignment with the will and purposes of the Lord.

It's far too easy to slip and fall into "worldly" thinking and actions, especially when so many actions of our churches are difficult to differentiate from actions in the world.

To experience transformation that pleases the Lord, we are NOT to conform to this world!

(Romans 12:2)

Complete a Prayer Request - upper left corner - and receive HELP from the Holy Spirit of the living God in your circumstances.

DOUBTING GOD

Do you ever doubt God?  His interest in you personally?  His very existence?  Do you ever wonder if the bible really IS a book, written by people specifically inspired by an unseen being known as GOD?

One more question.  Would it shock you to know that I sometimes question all of this too?

Faith is a very interesting state of being.  If it were easy, it would never to be need be exercised.  If it were never exercised it, like actual human muscles, would lose strength!  So I am pleased and happy to have my faith tested, exercised and strengthened on a regular basis.

I worry a bit about those who are afraid of faith being tested.  I am concerned over those who are afraid of God being questioned.  

As if Gods feelings will be hurt and He’ll just curl up and cry because someone is uncertain of His powerful presence.  I decided a long time ago that a God who would tell Moses to tell Pharoah, at that time the most powerful human in all the world, that His Name is simply and straightforwardly ‘I AM’ probably doesn’t have any ego problem I need to compensate for.

I am far less interested in writing a set of rah – rah go GOD blogs, and far more interested in getting people to think, question and come to strong, firm conclusions others cannot easily talk them out of.

I trust God that much.  I trust that anyone who genuinely pursues knowledge of the Almighty will be confronted by it.  I trust that anyone seeking wisdom with a humble heart will discover wisdom that causes their heart to soar beyond any boundary they’ve ever considered existed.

I trust Him to keep His word.

Deuteronomy 4:29 But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Jeremiah 29:13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

Matthew 7:8  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

Hebrews 11:6  But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Diligence is more than a quick glance or one fast perusal.  Diligently seek Him honestly with your heart and soul and He promises you will find Him and receive reward as a result.  

His promise.  I trust Him to keep it.

I understand that the argument is that anyone can say that about any religion.  But only the One True God will keep a Word that has been written down, can’t be changed, and the reward is BOTH now and later.  Not just later, maybe, sometime in the future.  And not just some otherworldly reward.  REWARD NOW.  Tangible.  Obvious.  

He is a very individual God, so the reward may be one thing for one person and something else for someone else.  But it will be evident.  Evidenced in changed hearts, changed lives and in many other ways unlimited by human ability to conceive or explain them.

It is my strong and ever strengthening faith in God as Creator, Master, Savior, Deliverer and all that 'I AM' encompasses that keeps me preaching His truth and sharing His message of Salvation through Christ in spite of running across a few apparent evidences to the contrary.  

I don’t take them as isolated incidences and build unbelief based on them.  I don’t offer “explanations” for them.  I don’t pretend to know or understand everything in this vast universe.

Neither have I taken a few evidences of His existence and built belief based on those.  I have weighed the evidence of all I have been exposed to.  His Word, what I’ve experienced personally, what I have witnessed firsthand in the lives of other people and all the evidences presented. 

There are a few things on the “negative” side.  There are a great many things on the positive side.  That tipped the scales for me.  

Go ahead.  LOOK for evidence of the Almighty God, weigh that evidence for yourself.  I trust Him that you are in for a pleasant, Holy Spirit surprise.  I trust Him, because I’ve seen what He can and will do for those who seek Him.

I have come to know that I can trust Him.  Not that I will never have a difficult time in life.  Not that there will never be consequence because of my own bad choices.  Not that I will selfishly get everything I ever demand of Him.  

Trust happens when you KNOW someone.  Seek.  You may be surprised by what you find.

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