Saturday, January 31, 2015

Obey First, Then You Will Know How To Pray

Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you." (Genesis 28:20-22 ESV)

My son once said to me that he had tried to pray for healing for his skin problem, but God did not help.

Many people judged God by the way He answers our prayer. If He acts according to our wish, He is real. If not, He probably does not exist.

Firstly, we should obey God. When we obey Him, our faith in Him will increase and we will know Him better. We will be able to pray according to His will. If we do not know God very well, we may not even know if He had already answered our prayer. His answer could be "Yes", "No", "Yes, but wait", "No, I have something better". Other than a "Yes" answer, we may not even recognize the other three. We thought it is a "No" or "No answer".

Did God answer Jacob? Yes, but not in the way he expected. It was something better.

And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee: I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands. (Genesis 32:9-10 KJV)

Friday, January 30, 2015

Charles Spurgeon On Doctrine Of Predestination

He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:5-6 NASB)

QUOTE
John Newton used to tell a whimsical story, and laugh at it, too, of a good woman who said, in order to prove the doctrine of election, "Ah! sir, the Lord must have loved me before I was born, or else He would not have seen anything in me to love afterwards." I am sure it is true in my case; I believe the doctrine of election, because I am quite certain that, if God had not chosen me, I should never have chosen Him; and I am sure He chose me before I was born, or else He never would have chosen me afterwards; and He must have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find any reason in myself why He should have looked upon me with special love. So I am forced to accept that great Biblical doctrine.
UNQUOTE
Charles Spurgeon

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Natural Numbers Are Not Natural

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:3 ESV)

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. (Colossians 1:16 ESV)

All things, including abstract objects such as numbers and sets, abstract rules such as mathematics and logic, are created by God. 1 + 1 =2 is a law created by God, not something eternal and self-existence.

How do I know? It is from the unique nature of God as described in the Bible that hinted to me that the abstract concepts of mathematics and logic, which we held to be something always there, is created.

The Bible tells us that God is one, and He is three, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. However, the one and three cannot be the one and three we know of, because one is one and three is three and one cannot be three, as in the case of God. That God is one and three is a mystery that the Bible did not explain because it would be not comprehensible to us. But from the nature of God, we can be sure that natural numbers (1, 2, 3,  ...) do not exist intrinsically, but is created by God within the creation which also contain us. Thus natural numbers have difficulty to describe the nature of the true and living God and we have to invent concepts and analogy to help us comprehend how God can be one and three.

Even in your law it has been written that the testimony of two men is true. I am He who testifies about Myself, and the Father who sent Me testifies about Me. (John 8:17-18 NASB)

For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. (1 John 5:7 KJV)

If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. (1 John 5:9 ESV)