Yet more anti-Christian propaganda being thrown out by the scientists… apparently the Big Bang (which is still only a theory) doesn’t leave room for God to be involved. Once again, scientists stating things as if they were absolute fact, they do the same with evolution and it bugs me. They are acting more like religious leaders, not scientists – Stephen Hawking and Richard Dawkins, heads of the Atheist Church. One day they shall be humbled… but while we wait, have a look at the news article on the BBC website.
|
|||||
|
If you’ve been following this blog, you’ve probably noticed that I keep coming back to the advice given in my very first post, “How do I Find God?” Almost every post has ended by saying that we should continue to read the Bible and pray, to help us make sense of life’s problems, and to find the answers to our questions about God and draw nearer to him. However, just saying “go and read the Bible” is easier said than done. I am very aware that in today’s society, particularly here in the UK, many people do not even know basic Bible stories any more, let alone where to find a specific Bible passage. Bible stories are not taught in schools in the way they were 20 years ago, and now we have a generation of children growing up whose parents do not know Bible stories and therefore cannot pass this knowledge on. I do think this is a great shame. Of course I’m biased because I’m a Christian, but even so, I live in a nominally Christian country, and it seems a shame that people no longer even know the basics of a Christian culture for general interest purposes. Anyway, back to the point. If you are someone who is interested in God and Jesus and wants to know more about what Jesus did, and what God’s plan is – but you’ve never opened a Bible, where should you start? First you need to buy a Bible. This in itself is a big question – what version should you get? If you are reading the Bible for the first time I would recommend a modern translation as this will allow you to get the gist of what’s going on, without getting bogged down in archaic language. Many people like the New International Version (NIV), which is probably the most popular modern translation. Other translations you may like to look at are the English Standard Version (ESV) and the New Living Translation. To have a look at different Bible translations and compare the language used the website BibleGateway.com is extremely helpful. This website has over 100 different Bible versions on it – so plenty to choose from! Once you’ve got your Bible you need to know where to start reading. You can of course just start reading from page one and keep going to the end, but as the Bible is actually made up of 66 individual books its probably best to pick and choose to start with the books that will be most helpful for you. Here are some suggestions:
These are just a few ideas to help you get started. Now the next question is – how often should I read the Bible? The answer is “when you know you are going to be able to stick to it consistently”. If this means every morning when you wake up for ten minutes, that’s fine. If this means for one hour once a week on an evening you have free, that’s fine. If this means setting a goal of five chapters a week and fitting it in when you’ve got time, that’s fine. The key is consistency and working out what works for you. You will of course find many Bible reading planners on the internet which lead you through reading the Bible on a daily basis, and if this is something that appeals to you, it can be a very good way to consistently keep that reading going. See BibleQuizzes.org.uk to get some free Bible reading bookmarks in the free offers section! There is no one way to read the Bible, but let’s make sure that every time we open the book we pray for God to give us understanding and wisdom, and for Him to bless our search for the truth. We’ve had a lot of rain here in the southwest of the UK over the last couple of weeks. There have been a few days where the rain has started in the morning and not stopped until the evening. The worst that’s happened to me though is some very wet shoes, a few large puddles in the road and an overall feeling of dampness. I’m extremely grateful that we haven’t been subject to the awful flooding that has devastated Pakistan recently, and that the weather here in the UK rarely causes such tragedy. It has seemed of late that there is one ecological disaster after another. This year we have also seen the destructive earthquakes in Chile and Haiti which have again prompted worldwide concern and relief efforts. As well as ecological disasters, over the last couple of years the world has been experiencing what is probably the first GLOBAL financial economic crisis. There have of course been recessions and downturns many times before, along with periods of unemployment and failing businesses, but never before have the world’s banks been linked in such a global fashion. What happens in the USA affects the finances in Europe, and in Asia, and has a knock on effect all over the world. People debate as to whether such disasters are indeed more common than they used to be, or if the effects of global communication and increased population simply make us more aware of these events. Brief research on this subject to be honest is inconclusive. Ecological disaster is such a wide subject with so many variables, and over the years there have been many improvements in science which render comparisons over the years difficult. However the events taking place make me think of those verses in the Bible that talk about how we will know when the return of Jesus draws near: Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. – Luke 21:10/11, 25/26 Does this passage describe the world today? Remember that in the Bible “sun, moon and stars” often represents the leaders of the people. Whether or not we are close to the times of the end, or whether what we see around us is only the beginning, and I do believe that we are somewhere on that timeline due to the scale of all the wars, environmental problems, economic problems and inability of world leaders to sort things out, there is no doubt that we must sit up and watch and listen. Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. – Luke 21:28 So what can we do? Should we give to charities, for example, the Disasters Emergency Committee? Should we reduce our carbon footprint? Should we watch the news to keep an eye out for the signs of the times? Yes, these are all things we can do, but most importantly, let’s pray for the soon return of Jesus Christ, the only person who can sort out all these problems. He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! – Revelation 22:20 The migration of the BibleQuizzes.org.uk and BiblePuzzles.org.uk domains to new servers was initiated earlier this afternoon. We were running out of space and bandwidth so this upgrade should allow us to expand for the foreseeable future. It would be nice if it was a seamless transfer, but each server has their own quirks and there are a lot of scripts to reconfigure to work with the new server and it is inevitable there will be some errors for the end user. The transfer should be viewable to everyone within 48 hours, but it may take a few more days to find and solve all the little problems. We thank you for your patience and apologise for any inconvenience the server move might cause you. Ask a child what faith is, and he or she will probably tell you that it’s “trust in God”, or “believing in God”. Sounds easy! Ask any Bible student the question, “What is faith?” and he or she will probably give you the following answer: Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see. – Hebrews 11:1
Maybe it’s not so easy after all. This verse tells me that faith is a very difficult concept. First of all, what is it that we hope for, and what is it that we do not see? Hope in the Bible talks of the hope of God’s glory, and the hope of Christ and the good news of the gospel. That good news is the news of the coming kingdom of God, and it is that which we hope for. We do not see God at the moment, and we do not see Jesus either. The word of God which has been given to us allows us to see those invisible things, and read about God’s purpose with the world. The Bible is a window through which we CAN see God and Jesus, and it offers us proof of those things we cannot see by its accuracy, internal consistency, historical details, and fulfilled prophecies. But how do we get faith in the first place? And how can we increase our faith when we are being asked to believe in something intangible? If, as children, we went to Sunday school, or our parents told us about God, we probably believed them automatically. Faith seemed natural, and we did not doubt that there was a God in heaven looking after us. But sooner or later some incident, or simply the passage of time, will make us question that faith and look at its roots to see if we truly have a substantial faith or not. We may experience a serious illness or some kind of suffering. We may become overwhelmed by the suffering at large in the world. Perhaps we doubt God’s existence without physical proof. Perhaps unbelievers around us ridicule our faith and undermine the Bible. The apostle Paul tells us how to get faith, and encourages us to grow our faith: Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. – Romans 10:17
So if we want to verify our faith, if we want to question it, we shouldn’t be looking to man’s explanations – we should continue to read the Bible, and the words of Jesus. This means that when we feel spiritually low, or that our faith is lacking, we should do the one thing we probably don’t want to do – read our Bibles! Faith is still a difficult concept. The problem is that if there was an empirical proof of God’s existence, no faith would be required, and God would not know who His true believers are. By requiring us to have faith, he knows that we are truly interested in finding Him. Having faith does not negate a logical approach to believing in the existence of God, and does not mean we don’t need to study the Bible, but it gives us a quiet confidence in the things that we read, knowing that the kingdom we hope for will not be long in coming. Sometimes it’s best to go back to basics and look at things the way we did as children: In God I trust; I will not be afraid. – Psalm 56:11 |
|||||
|
Copyright © 2010 Finding God - All Rights Reserved
|
|||||
Recent Comments