About this Blog Seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.
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By Anushka, on 27th September 2010 Bitesize Learning is all the rage in the UK, mainly for teenagers studying for their exams. A topic is presented in small chunks, with bullet points and easy to remember sentences. This seems to be a good way to study, so I’m going to do a series on Bitesize Bible Study. The subject matter will be fairly easy going – if you want more in-depth study on the Bible take a look at The Bible Study and see what you can find.
What is the Bible?
- A collection of 66 books
- Written by many different people over a period of about 1200 years
- All books reflect the same message – God’s plan for the world through Jesus Christ
Where does the action take place?
- Initial action takes place in the Middle East, from Iran and Iraq, over to Israel, and down to Egypt
- Jesus lived in the land of Israel
- Paul the apostle spread the gospel throughout the Mediterranean region, as far as Italy
- Jerusalem is God’s chosen capital city
How is the Bible divided and why?
- The Old Testament is 39 books, and represents the time period from c.2000 BC up to 400 BC
- The Old Testament focuses on the people of Israel and their history, and the law of Moses
- Many Old Testament people receive promises from God about Jesus coming in the future
- The New Testament is 27 books, and covers the time period from 0 AD up to around c.90 AD
- The New Testament focuses on the work of Jesus, and the spread of the early Christian church
- Jesus often referred back to the Old Testament – he thought it was very important!
What’s in the Bible for us?
- In the Old Testament man fell away from God by sinning
- God promised to send his son Jesus Christ, so that we all have a way to be reunited with God
- In the New Testament God sent his son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins
- God has promised us eternal life in His kingdom, as his gift, if we believe in Him and Jesus, and ask for forgiveness of our sins
- The Bible is the inspired Word of God and it tells us how to live our lives in a way that is pleasing to Him
Next time: – Bitesize Book of Genesis
By Anushka, on 17th August 2010 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 6:23
This is a very well known Bible verse, and one that many of us will have known from childhood. I know that I personally was given this particular verse as a memory verse at Sunday School many times – and consequently tend to gabble it quickly without really thinking about what the words mean.
I suspect the same is true of many familiar Bible verses, so let’s stop and really think about what this one means afresh.
The wages of sin is death
Wages are what you earn for doing a job. If I do one hours work I am entitled to one hours pay, so in the context of our phrase, that implies that when we sin, we EARN death. We deserve it. Regardless of the many good things we may do in our life, every time we sin (and we all do!) we earn ourselves death.
Of course the problem with earning death is that it’s a one-off thing. Earning money is different – we can earn a few pounds or dollars one day, and a few more the next. But once you’ve earned death that’s it, you’ve had it! So why can’t we earn eternal life to negate it?
There are other religions out there that seem to work on that very basis. Religions with the concept of reincarnation appear to tot up all one’s bad deeds and weigh them against all one’s good deeds, and the net result determines what position you take within the hierarchy of life forms in your next life.
This is not how God presents life and death to us in the Bible though. He says that for us eternal life is going to be a gift, and that gift has been provided because He sent His Son to die for our sins. Because of Jesus, God will forget our sins if we ask him to, and give us eternal life, not because we’ve earned it, but because he WANTS to give it to us.
How thankful I am that I don’t have to earn my eternal life! I’m pretty sure my bad points would exceed my good points if anyone was counting.
We should never forget that we don’t deserve eternal life, and we don’t deserve the kingdom that’s coming, but that God in His mercy has seen fit to choose those of us that want to be there. Make no mistake – he wants us ALL to be there.
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. – 2 Peter 3:9
So let’s thank God for His gift, and try our hardest to be worthy of it, knowing that eternal life is freely given to us and is worth far more than anything we can ever earn.
By Anushka, on 1st August 2010 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever. – Psalm 23
The above Psalm is probably the most well known Psalm of David, and one of the most popular Bible passages. But what does it really mean, and how have so many people in different lands and times found inspiration from it?
My first thoughts on reading this Psalm were to think about what it means to have God as our shepherd. Shepherds provide for the flocks they look after; they give them food, water, shelter, safety, healing, and comfort.
This encompasses all the basic needs we have in this life, not our wants, just those things we need for survival. The shepherd treats his sheep like his little family, and to him, their needs are the most important part of his job.
This is all very well in practice but where I have a problem is that it’s not always true. I mentioned how many people throughout the ages have drawn comfort from these words – but what about people who live in times of famine? What about people who suffer in war, who lose their homes and belongings and struggle to survive? Whilst we know God looks after our everyday needs, and many of us are lucky enough to have our daily bread provided there is no doubt that some people who trust in God suffer great hardship.
So maybe my initial thoughts, whilst valid, are not the only interpretation of this passage. I think it is also helpful to view this Psalm in terms of the journey we take through life. If we follow God, he is always one step ahead of us leading the way, like a shepherd. Now for some flocks, the way will be easy. The shepherd will lead them on sunny days, through green meadows and past running water. But for other flocks on other days, the weather might be bad, there may be wild animals on the way, and the way itself might be hard going, stony, full of thorns, or with obstacles in the way.
However for all these flocks the end result is the same. The shepherd leads them safely into the fold – just as we know that our path will eventually lead us to the kingdom if we follow God faithfully. Regardless of how easy or difficult the way has been, we will all come safely into that haven and our shepherd will welcome us in.
The lessons we can take away from this Psalm are valuable. Those of us who are blessed with our everyday needs should thank God for his provisions, whilst not forgetting to pray for those who are not so well off as ourselves.
Most importantly, we can all look forward to that day when the shepherd will lead us into his fold with open arms, and say, “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord”.
By Anushka, on 29th July 2010 So you’re looking for God. You think you know where to find Him – and you’re doing what you can to look for Him. You try to pray, you try to read a bit from the Bible, and you’re trying to meet some friends who believe in God too.
But what do you want to get from your relationship with God? Why did you decide to look for Him in the first place? We all know that relationships have to go two ways – its not just about what we can get from God, its about what we can do for Him as well – but quite often the motivating factor for us human beings is what benefits we personally will gain from our actions.
Yes, it may sound selfish that we are looking for God because we want to know what he can give us, but this is not a material desire along the lines of looking for a new car. We have an inbuilt need for meaning, for hope, and for reassurance that there’s more to life than this. That’s why people start looking for God – to find out the truth.
Once again, let’s have a look at the Bible. After all, the Bible is God’s thoughts written down, so somewhere in there it’s bound to say what He can offer us:
I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10)
This is something that Jesus says, and we know that Jesus’ purpose was to do his Father’s work. The work of God involved sending his son to die for us, in order that we can have a chance of eternal life. Not only that, but the verse above implies to me that we will receive blessings in this life if we follow God and do what He asks.
Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. (Luke 12:32)
Jesus tells us that God is going to give us His kingdom! From other places in the Bible we learn that this kingdom is going to be set up on earth, following the second coming of Jesus and the resurrection, and that the world will be transformed into a beautiful place, where we can live and reign with Jesus for eternity.
So what can God give us? Blessings in this life, and eternal life in His kingdom – that makes it worthwhile putting the effort into looking for God with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength.
By Dave, on 11th April 2009 Tony Blair only recently converted to Catholicism and he’s already telling the Pope how to modernise the Roman Catholic faith!
What Blair doesn’t realise is that God’s word doesn’t change, and it’s foolish to think we can adapt the message of God to today’s society. It is as relevant now as it was 2000 years ago, but we find it hard to swallow some of it because we live in a world entrenched in human rights and discrimination laws. We don’t like to face up to the truths so we try to change them to be more to our liking and be more like the world around us – which is the exact opposite of what God intended.
It seems that Blair is intent on continuing to leave a path of destruction wherever he goes.
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