Articles
Do You Really Believe God’s Word?

Do you believe John 3:16? What about Matthew 1:23? That says His name shall be called Emmanuel which means God with us. If you can believe it, this is saying according to Exodus 17:15, He is Yahweh Nissi, “God who is my banner.” And He is the God who heals us, Yahweh Raphah. He is also the God who is always present or Yahweh Shammah in Ezekiel 48:35 as well as the God who provides, Jehovah Jireh in Genesis 22:14 and El Roi who observes and cares in Genesis 16:13. Finally, He is the God who sanctifies and many other things which I have not listed. Do you believe He is part of the three in one of the Godhead and the firstborn of every creature which God declares the Christ to be in Colossians 1:15? He is the Savior, the Redeemer, and the one who performs all things for us according to Psalms 57:2 and the Son of God according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Some people tell new believers they should start reading the Bible in Matthew, or per chance in John which begins so wonderfully by telling us that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh. “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth,” according to John 1:14. Do you believe that He became flesh and dwelt among humanity? Do you believe He is full of grace and truth? The people who recommend these books have good reason for their suggestions to begin reading in the New Testament, however, I prefer that you start in Genesis 1:1 which says in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Allow me to tell you why.

I have learned from the book of Job but I cannot say I ever loved reading the story. In it God said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job?” The next thing you know Job not only discovered his ten children were killed, but also thousands of noble and trained animals and 7,000 sheep. I would give my eye-teeth for just one camel and he lost 3,000 of them! Then Job’s friends came by to harass him as he sat on the ground covered with boils and listening to his wife recommend suicide to him. Suddenly my life went from having a hedge around it, like Job previously had and seemed to turn into a life like Satan brought to Job. God said the devil could do anything to Job except kill him. I experienced blindness, blood poisoning and a stroke to mention only a few of my disasters. It also says that Job was a perfect man in Job 1:8. I have only been a perfect man in view of the fact that Christ is my righteousness. (1Corinthians 1:30)

When all these calamities happened to me, they happened to someone who had been hedged in until then and protected from every onslaught of the adversary. Suddenly I felt let down, betrayed, battered and forsaken. I knew God will never forsake true believers but that intellectual belief seemed in the far distant past and devastation occupied my thoughts, however, I never once developed a root of bitterness. (Hebrews 12:15) The word for “root of bitterness” means acrid poison. The scripture in Hebrews 12:15 says to watch out, “Lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled.” What pulled me out of this great depression and torture was not the transfer of wealth that pastors preach about or the Holy Spirit speaking to me in a vision about supernatural power. No, it was the grace by the revelation that came to me that the only God I could love was God the Creator of Heaven and Earth.

One preacher said something to the effect that every leaf and tree, every blade of grass and flower, every sunset, every rainbow, every star and every creature has God’s copyright on it. The preacher could have easily added God’s signature. 1Peter 4:19 says,” Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.” The one who created us is not only the first and best creative genius but He is also a faithful Creator! All these things from the tallest redwood to the tiniest mycelium was made by Him. This is the God I love and could never love another. As soon as I discerned that this was the case, my joy was restored.

I believe there is a reason that the Bible starts out, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” I am not saying that God is energy but I heard someone say that as you near God’s throne you are in the center of the source of all energy. Before I was saved I used to dream occasionally that I was approaching God’s throne and the closer I got to it the louder the noise of the energy surrounding God emanated from His presence. It was awesome and very much put me in remembrance of Star Trek the Motion Picture as the crew of the Enterprise neared the control room of Voyager. Christ is the creative being and source for us of all power in the universe. Jesus told His disciples, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” (Matthew 28:19) Ephesians 3:9 says, “And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.”

God is the artist who put the flowering cherry outside our office window and made the goldfinch and the red cardinal who dine at the bird feeder. He made the bamboo forest on the east side of our house and the fragrant arborvitae that separates our back yard from the apple trees behind it where the Queen of the Prairie grows.

I do not understand completely why God turned one of His children, Job, over to Satan. It may be like that old song, “Further Along We’ll Know All About It,” and I will have to wait until I get to Heaven to completely comprehend why God would sacrifice all these animals and human beings to prove Job’s perfection. I have none of my own righteousness and all that was imputed unto me through Christ is a gift. I wouldn’t want to think that even a caterpillar gave its life to prove that my heart belongs to God. He knows our heart, but do we? Do we even know that we believe His Word?

Now I started this article by asking you if you believe all of God’s Word. Do you believe that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world? 2Corinthians 5:15 says, “And that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again.” Do we believe that we must overcome the obstacles we face in many of the churches? (Revelation Chapters 2 and 3) Do you believe that most of the nations will be turned into chaff until there is nothing to be found of them? Do you believe that all the nations that forget God shall be turned into hell? (Psalms 9:17)

Do you believe that all the stars shall fall to earth from Heaven? This scripture found in Revelation 6:13 demonstrates a principle: many scriptures are difficult or impossible to believe or understand because we do not know what the words mean because we didn’t study to be approved. In this particular one, stars can also mean satellites. The ancients would probably never have understood the word satellites, how would they have? It is impossible for all of the stars to land on the earth because they would collectively be thousands of times larger than the earth. But count my words before the shaking is over there will be no satellites in the sky and the heavens will be cleansed. Do you actually believe the scripture that says, “But who may abide the day of His coming? And who shall stand when He appears? For He is like refiner’s fire and like fullers’ sope.” (Malachi 3:2)

If you are a Christian you are probably doing very well on these questions but now we get to the part that seems to be causing some believers difficulty.

Do you believe that God should destroy those that destroy the earth? (Revelation 11:18) Or have you been persuaded by those who do not believe all of God’s word and that man is not capable of destroying the earth with power boats, coal fired generators, lawn mowers, race cars, motorcycles, trucks, and on and on? One gasoline powered lawnmower can kill you by running in your garage. How many lawnmowers would it take to damage the atmosphere outdoors? In just a moment we will explore that after a few more questions and a test evaluation to see how you did.

Do you believe what Isaiah 11:6-7 says when he proclaims that, “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together and a little child shall lead them? And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.” Do you believe we are quickly moving into a time when all humans will be vegetarian or vegan and that men will be serving life sentences for killing their own sheep and cattle? (Isaiah 66:3)


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If you said you believe John 3:16 but don’t believe some of the scriptures we just quoted, you don’t really believe all of God’s word. I wouldn’t suggest that you stop considering yourself to be a Christian but I would strongly encourage you to embrace the whole counsel of God. (Acts 20:27) Psalms 119 focuses on the importance of the word of God. Jesus was so convinced of its import that He said to Satan numerous times, “It is written.” (Luke 4:8) The church suffers greatly as do its individual participants and the world because we don’t know or we don’t believe the entire word of God.

For example, the Book of Revelation portrays four creatures flying above the throne of God and sitting on it with the one like unto a jasper, emerald, and sardine stone. This is the Son of God! The Message Bible in Revelation 4:6 describes these four creatures as, “four animals: one like an eagle flying, another like a lion, another like an ox, and finally one with a face like a human. This was not Jesus because His face is that of a human. Notice the word “like” in the Strong’s Concordance says it means “similar to” not the same as. People who do not believe the whole word of God think it is blasphemy to believe that a monkey could be sitting on the throne just because they resemble people, but the ones who treat animals with such contempt don’t deserve to be called people themselves for they remain under the fall. To pass this exam all you need to do is believe the words in the book as they are written for it has all the answers!

Some facts about gas mowers: driving a car 350 miles is the same as mowing for one hour and contributes volatile organic compounds; one gas mower spews 87 lbs of greenhouse gas CO2 and 54 lbs of other pollutants into the air annually; more than 17 million gallons of gas are spilled annually refilling lawn mowers and other gardening equipment which is more oil than was spilled by the Exxon Valdez; and 54 million people in the US use 800 million gallons of gas annually producing tons of air pollutants.

You don’t believe tons of air pollutants and 800 million gallons of gas impact the atmosphere and the earth do you? I see you are getting smarter already, very good! Now let’s practice the same thing with the Word of God and He can say unto you, “Well done my good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:23)

 

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