Facing the Future

 

When we pay attention to all that God does for us throughout our day, we find our soul overflowing with love and gratitude to Him. We rejoice in Him, His provision, His peace and His joy that He showers us with each moment of our day. He is our source of rejoicing.

 

The Trinity of God is available to us every moment of the day, because God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit abides within us. He provides everything for us exactly when we need it – in His perfect timing and will. 

 

Each day is a new surprise, as we put our trust in Him with every hurdle we come up against. Thanks to God’s Spirit, we have fathomless riches because of who He is and what He does for us each day. This is all possible only because of what Jesus, the Son, did for us on Calvary’s cross. 

 

Once we totally surrender to our Father’s love, our supply of His blessings is instant and eternal. Jesus is our Good Shepherd. Our Father God intimately knows us, because He knitted us together in our mother’s womb (Psalm 139). 

 

We recognize the Holy Spirit’s voice, He leads us, and we follow (John 10:4). God’s Trinity goes before us, to ward off any approaching enemy, and we feel protected and secure in His love (Psalm 27:1-3). He makes a way for us over every towering mountain pass, flooded creek, and even the darkest valley (Psalm 23). 

 

God makes the crooked places straight for us (Isaiah 45:2), He knows ahead of time all of the events of our tomorrows, and He keeps us close to Him (Proverbs 18:24). We even slumber and sleep in His eternal peace. He provides all of our needs.

 

Since God knows what lies ahead of us, we thrive in His mercy, truth, and grace through every circumstance that we face. He heals us in body and soul and spirit, reduces the pain of our trials, and uses us as a testimony of His grace and provision (Philippians 4:19).

 

Prayer:

Father God, it is a comfort to know that we are not a nameless entity who drifts around in this stress-filled life until the day that we die. We are not strangers in the throng of humanity surrounding us, but we are known by You, provided for by You, saved by Your grace, and we will spend eternity in Your service. In the center of Your love, even death is not our enemy, because Jesus overcame death and He abides within us (1 Corinthians 15:19-23).

 

Thank You for walking with us and in us, during every step of our life on this earth. You are our Helper, Hope and Expectation. We need You to care for us each moment of the day, and we thank You for all You have done for us, in us, and will do for us in our future. We have the confidence to face whatever the future holds for us, because You are working our Your purposes for our life. We look forward to worshipping You, with the angels around Your throne (Revelation 7:11), for all of eternity.

 

Thought for the Day:

We do not know what the future holds for us, but we do know who holds us in our future; He knows the number of hairs on our head, He rejoices over us with singing, and He allows us to come boldly to His throne in our every moment of need. 

-      Luke 12:7; Zephaniah 3:17; Hebrews 4:16

 

Errors in the Bible

Many Bible critics and God-Haters today insist that there are innumerable errors in the Bible. My husband even discovered a book with this title. It held 101 areas where the author was convinced that the Bible contained errors. When my husband researched each of the author’s claims, he determined that the writer either took a verse out of its context, did not understand the customs of the era written about in that verse, failed to read the words in their spiritual context or did not interpret the passage literally.

The miracle of the Bible is that about forty different authors, living over a period of thousands of years, and most having never met one another, consistently wrote similar, if not exact thoughts, facts and predictions, many of which had not yet occurred. Jesus fulfilled many of these prophecies with His birth, death, resurrection and ascension. We see many other verses coming to pass during our generation. There are also many, which are still awaiting fulfillment. Books such Kings and Chronicles describe identical events differently, yet they never contradict one another. Science, history and archeology are constantly proving the veracity of Biblical Truth.

For instance, the Bible stated that the shape of the earth was round years before Columbus ever disproved that the earth was flat by sailing to the new world. Scholars formerly insisted that Moses did not write the Pentateuch, because he lived before writing was used. Later study proved that writing existed thousands of years prior to Moses. Scholars also claimed that the Biblical Hittite nation was fictional, until a library in Turkey proved that this nation actually existed. What these cynics fail to admit is that they could be wrong about other so-called “errors” in the Bible too.

Supposedly educated men and women assume that the Bible is scattered with inaccuracies without ever giving themselves a chance to prove it is true. People such as Josh McDowell embarked on a journey to gain the fame of proving the Bible as false, only to end up proving it is true (www.josh.org). Jesus quoted parts of the Old Testament throughout His life on earth. He even claimed that every letter and stroke of the Bible would never pass away (Matthew 5:18). God’s Word is perfect and living (Psalm 19:7; Hebrews 4:12). It also brings conviction of sin, which causes people to hate its truth (John 3:20).

Some people claim the Bible has errors, because they fail to understand the complexity of Biblical principles. For instance, Salvation is comprised of Justification, Sanctification and Glorification. If a scholar does not understand this concept, they may see many supposed errors in the Bible. Another such controversy is the description by John in Revelation of end time events. He described them to the best of his ability, using his knowledge of the world in his day and time. Yet, people claim revelation is merely a fantasy and will never come to pass. Many people will be very surprised when it does!

Another aspect that causes skeptical scholars to strain at a gnat is when they assume that every word in the Bible is to be imitated and taken at face value. Every word is actually accurate and true. However, the Bible in many places records lies, incest, murder, false beliefs, etc. These words are inspired, but not to be taken as a license for immoral behavior. The Bible was written in the language and genre at the time in which its authors lived and were inspired. Although it is not in modern vernacular or identical to our standards of measurement, etc, it is still relevant for today.

Poetic license is often utilized throughout the Bible too. God never sleeps, but the Bible poetically refers to Him as awakening. Describing God as having wings under which we find refuge is an object lesson instead of an exact representation of God, because He is a Spirit and has no wings. Jesus is the bodily form of God. Even some numbers, such as ages and dates, may be incorrect in some copied manuscripts when compared to original manuscripts, but the message of the passage is the same.

When God gives directives to diverse Biblical people groups at differing time frames, the wording is not always verbatim, but the general messages are not contradictory. For instance, a blood sacrifice of an animal was used in the Old Testament era to pay for sins. Once Jesus came, this is no longer necessary. Another controversy is the demise of Judas. Matthew and Luke’s accounts are describing two separate aspects of his death. Paul told Timothy to use a little wine for his stomach issues, not because he condoned drinking, but because Timothy was not putting any wine in the local water to purify it.

Some Bible opponents dispute the fact that some Old Testament verses quoted in the New Testament are not word for word. However, the gist is the same in both scriptures. Another instance doubters quibble over is that Matthew and John disagree on how many angels were at the tomb of Christ. The fact is that Matthew speaking about one angel does not negate the fact that there may have been another angel there as well. The Bible was not written to be dissected and scrutinized according to our modern logic. The Bible was written so that we might be introduced to Jesus and to experience eternal life.

Prayer:

Father God, why does mankind insist upon filtering Your infinite Truth through finite minds. They act like you gave us the Bible to hurt us, when you actually provided it for our comfort and inspiration, as well as to guide us in a manner of living that will produce blessings for us and prevent us from reaping the negative fruit of carnal behavior. We put our trust in You and we believe in Your Truth.

Thought for the Day:

The Bible was given so that we would not be discouraged in this world full of tribulation, and we would have hope in this life as well as in the next.






Thank you, Peter DeHart, for the use of your photo.