“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life:
it goes on.”
― Robert Frost
Dutch version / Nederlandse versie > Doorgaand leven
Advertisements
Category Archives: Knowledge & Wisdom
Life that goes on
“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life:
it goes on.”
― Robert Frost
(Poem) Endless Time
Time for some or many may be their side, but for many it also may be against them. For many time can also slip through the shadows and get them frustrated and not knowing where and when to go.
Perhaps an old poet, but that does not mean one has become out of time. Today many companies wanting to get rid of the older persons, forgetting that they have the experience and knowledge. Though it looks like today their time is not any more accounted for. Therefore pleased to find some people not leaving themselves put aside but crawling into the pen and daring to let their voice be heard on the internet.
Today’s guestwriter remarks
We all grow up believing things we are told, to be correct, mostly. If we are told by our parents, teachers or Pastors that this or that is the truth most kids, if they have respect for these people tend to believe them. But you know, sometimes these people are simply incorrect. {Truth}
With the years , passing time, we come to see and experience different things and then time may give that we get more knowledge and insights, if we are willing to grow.
Today’s guest writer got to see that so many things told to him were not Biblical, so he dared to take the time to learn more about it by taking up the Book of books itself. He also writes on his blog
I did a somewhat quick read through the Bible just so I could say I had done it once. But, after I had finished reading through it I realized that these things my Mom had told me “the Bible says”, I didn’t remember seeing anywhere. So, I started rereading the scriptures more slowly and with pen and pad so that I could make notes. {Truth}
This is a good attitude which can bring man to think better about what he reads and about what he hears what should or could be written there – but is not. We always should remember that the others are not always telling lies but do not know the exact truth and have also been part of their time and their generation’s thougths.
After completing time two, I realized that these things Mom had told me weren’t correct, they just weren’t there. I know that Mom wasn’t lying to me, she was just wrong. We can grow old and comfortable with the stories of our youth’s no matter who they were told by, or we can use our own brains to think a little. Parents, teachers, priests, they all have stories they had been told in there youth’s, is it possible that on some items they were told wrong? {Truth}
The Final Testament of the Holy Bible (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
So they and we do have to take the time to come to know more and to correct those things we learned wrongly. By time we have to keep willing to learn and to adapt otherwise we shall become stain or a rock where the fast streaming water runs over and past, making us in a little grain of sand after some time.
We always should remember that time depends how we want to perceive it. When we are young all seems to take such a long time. When we are old all seems to go too fast. And when we look at the time of God
There are several places in scripture where we are told things like “My days are not your days”, and how a human life is like the twinkling (blink) of the eye to Gods time. Even in the New Testament the Apostle Peter told the people that one of Gods days are like unto a thousand of our years. In other words, our days and Gods days don’t match up. Think about it, even in our own orbits of the sun, the planets that are in this orbit with us have different amounts of time that make up their days. {Truth}
And in this world we so often are confronted by people who want to own our time. Often we look at time and wonder what we can do with it or what to do next, or how we missed doing things we wanted or should have done.
Facing the universe we can see that planets that surround us possess their own concept of time on a clock. And while they continue to circle around in the universe our own personal life’s hour-glass as the sand falling down.
Reading the Bible. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
+++
Related articles
Time as it is said, is on our side
But, when every side claims it to be their own
Yet the one who said such a thing is dead
For who’s “our” side does time claim
When one day is like unto a thousand years
Is then a thousand years as one of our days
Do we not that the planets that surround us
Possess their own concept of time on a clock
Is our own personal life’s hour-glass known
Partly full, or partly empty, do we even know
Is there any relevance in a grain of sand
Is not a lifetime but one twinkle among many
Time, do we hold it deer or have no care
Or, do we flitter it away like a heart beat
We assume we have yet to hear
Time, time to smile, time to laugh
Time to cry for mercy one last time
Time…
View original post 45 more words
The more ignorant a person is the more his disagreement increases
+++
Related articles
Shaykh Abu Qatada said:
“The more ignorant a person is the more his disagreement increases, the solution is knowledge = thus study and study and study, the more you study the more you are freed from following someone else, and when you are freed from following someone else that means you become independent, and independence means lack of partisanship”.
First special interview – Page 21.
Partisanship and being a follower to someone else and shutting down reason and abundant disagreement…they are many things but their origin and reason is only one thing which is: ignorance!
And with knowledge you finish off all of these symptoms together!
What makes you following Christ and Facebook Groups
When we look at the world around us we do find an incredible amount of people who are flying each other in the hairs about controversial versions about their religion and faith.
After the Nazarene master teacher had experienced all of his trials on earth, his impalement and resurrection, we find one of his close friends writing words from above – a final message from Jesus his Father’s side in Heaven to those who are to follow him. Somehow we come to see that the curses in Eden on the earth and mankind are reversed by the end of Revelation and that the dreams and visions in the book of Daniel are confirmed and expanded upon.
- Many of the signs and symbols in Revelation are in fact used in the rest of Scripture so you will find them de-mystified! This means that the message of the book becomes accessible and valuable to you as the Lord Jesus intended his servants to find it. {Revelation Steps}
Who Would Jesus Bomb? (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In recent times we have heard a lot about religious groups fighting against each other. All the news about bombings or terror acts, are not exactly a sign for us that there would be soon a condition of real peace. On several Facebook platforms one can find people calling each-other names and using a language which may belong to small frustrated kids and uneducated poor of mind adolescents, though seemingly it would be adults using such ordinary and awful words. Often those speaking at those many platforms or Groups do a lot of damage to the religious group they think they are defending. By their attitude they do so much damage to those groups because can come to believe that those Muslims and Christians are really such hate mongers.
It makes many wonder who might be those who follow the prophet Jesus and those who follow the prophet Muhammad. There are even guys who say the other have no right to claim Jesus, one part saying because he is a Christian and belongs to the Christians only, the other part saying he is a Muslim and belongs to the Muslims. Both groups seemingly to forget that the Nazarene Jesus his real name is Jeshua and was a devout Jew (belonging to the Essenes like his mother Miriam/Mary/Miryam/Maria) and not a Christian.
When those claiming that man from God use such abominable language one may wonder how they can call that man, who was s preacher of peace, as their example and their name bearer?
The Nazarene preacher also asked his followers to unite and to have peaceful fellowship, companionship, and a sense of belonging. One would think those claiming to be Christians to become part of a family, which works together, and looks after all members’ needs: spiritually, materially, and socially (1 Cor 12). When looking at what goes on on many Facebook Groups we do get the opposite impression. Instead of finding people who show their love for each-other and want to help each-other in building up their faith, we can find quarrelling (even nearly fighting) people who do not seem interested in forming a Christian family where it is a place of fun, friendship, and (as with all families) falling-out-and-making-up-again! It more often looks like one enters a battlefield.
Looking at those Groups we only can wonder what makes some of those people calling themselves Christian or Muslim. We also wonder what their real intention might be at such forums; If they think to converse others with the way they are speaking they are totally on the wrong site of the road, and do have no idea about preaching and trying to win people for their camp.
Hearing them speak it also seems to turn more around their own ego and we can not get the impression they ever would like to convince the other what the first and foremost benefit of following Jesus might be, because they concentrate most on blowing fire and showing their hate for the other. Perhaps they think it shall be of a personal benefit for them by threatening other thinkers and other believers!
Clearly lots of those on several Facebook Groups their life is not about surrender to a God-focused life, with all the sense of purpose that brings (1 Cor 10:31). But for outsiders and we should let insiders also know that, this allows Christians to recognise and, in a sense, embrace the futility of life (Ecc 2:11) but also how people behave, how they act and speak, should give others an impression how much they want to be a child of God and in how far they do succeed to become really under that Most High God His Wings.
Let us remember
Peace and forgiveness. Life can be troubling, and Jesus offers us safe harbour, forgiveness of sins, and certainty in an uncertain world (Psa 103:12, Isa 43:25, Col 1:13-14). {Weighing the costs and benefits of discipleship}
And let us know exactly where the boundaries of human decency are and how a person of God, be it a Jew, Christian or Muslim must stand and how to behave.
As human beings created in the image of God we should show to be a worthy image of That Most High Elohim. In case Christ would have still been in his grave he would probably would have turned around many times.
We should be aware how important it is to show others in which way we want to be under Christ and want to be under God. As human beings living in a mixed world, an amalgam of people of all sorts of races and ideas, we should know that there have to be certain rules and regulations to provide a sense of security and a way for living together in peace.
When Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive, offering a generous 7 times, Jesus’ response would have taken him aback I expect (490 times – Matt 18:22). Clearly, this wasn’t a quota of forgiveness – Jesus’ point is that our capacity to forgive should be without limit, just like God’s (Isa 43:25-26, 1 John 1:9). And to forgive so much there has to be a place for an open mind too, and today there are too many who show they are only willing to have a very limited mind with only place for their thought and no other visions.
When looking at several Christian Facebook Groups we can only question where where does all the teaching of that master teacher Jesus Christ leaves those so called Christians in living out their Christianity?
Are boundaries useful at all in terms of our fellowship, worship, and services? There is certainly some guidance in the Bible to suggest that boundaries can be useful in some of these areas – but where we choose to set them may be more a product of our cultural context than absolute ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. {Boundaryless God}
Worldreligion (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
+
Please read also:
- Weighing the costs and benefits of discipleship
- Boundaryless God
- “…and they shall dwell safely all of them” Ezekiel 38:8
- The Coming Peace in Israel
- Revelation Steps
- The essence of church
+
Preceding
Daring to speak in multicultural environment
++
Additional reading
- Are you looking for answers and Are you looking for God
- Notification and news feed for Facebook users
+++
Further reading
- Gods & religion
- Good Without God, or Elite Background
- Islamic State Answers Pope Francis: Ours Is a Religious War and We Hate You
- 10,000 church members leave the Church of Denmark in 3 months amid atheist
- ISIS wing claims responsibility for Minnesota mall attack in U.S.
- Assholes are Overrated
- Chechnya’s Jewish community is angry at Israel… but doesn’t seem to exist
- The Storms of Life
- no one can answer, but the Lord
- The Olympic Trials of Life…By Faith And Not By Sight by Ciera Rankin
- In All Things, Give Thanks
- After the Storm
- He Lifts Me
- Gladness in trials
- The list of wars
- Revelation: The Sixth Trumpet.
- Is a Religious War in Europe Imminent?
- Iraq: Suicide Bomber Strikes At Crowd at Prophet Mohammad’s Grandson Event (Arbaeen) — Islamic State Suspected
- Contention 62 (Eleventh Contentions)
- Honor Authority…
- The Whole Truth (Almost)
- Can we not be civil and simply disagree?
- Bias, and Disagreeing with Something
- How to respectfully talk about deep disagreements
- What, we agree? Compatible issues in a disagreeable world
- The more ignorant a person is the more his disagreement increases
- Reflections on ‘Why I am not an Atheist’
- How Should I View Others Who Serve the Lord Differently Than I Do? – CCC Discover
+++
Related articles
Filed under Knowledge & Wisdom, Lifestyle, Religious affairs, World affairs
To will being present in us but to do it not always evident
Looking at today’s reading we do find the apostle Paul who laments not understanding his own actions, even acknowledging that he even comes to do things he more than not likes.
Romans 7:15 (RNKJV)
15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
Apostle Paul in the apse (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
How often do we notice we have done something to some one else what we hate ourselves. When we loo at our actions we can even see that we sometimes do the very thing we hate, but that we also sometimes have the desire to do what is right but not the ability to carry it out.
Romans 7:18 (RNKJV)
18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
It can well be that the will to do good may be present with you and me, but how often we do not have to admit that in us there where more stronger elements that hindered us to do the right thing. We must admit that our flesh is weak.
Matthew 26:41 (RNKJV)
41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
We know we do have to do good. We do know that we have been given an example and that we should follow him, who gave his life for us. We do know that Nazarene asked his followers to go out into the world and to preach the coming Kingdom of God. But much too often we are too afraid to open our mouth and tell others that we are following Jesus and trust his judgement and look forward to his and his heavenly Father’s Kingdom.
That fear for what people might think lets many not dare to talk about God and His son.
We are confronted with our “will” and our “performance” and must confess they are not in line with each other and often not in balance to.
We must be aware that first of all we must recognise that we can either live according to the flesh setting our minds on the things of the flesh, or go for the things we might perhaps not see so clear and live according to the Spirit setting our minds on the things of the Spirit, believing what the Word of God brings to mankind black on white and not according human doctrines.
We should know that a lot of people prefer to hold on to human traditions, having the different feasts, not in accordance to God’s feasts. There are lots of people who prefer to hold on the ‘stories’ or ‘tales’ about parts of our body that might go to other places when we die. Lots of people love to have someone else to blame for the faults they do themselves. They like it to shift the guilt from themselves to a demon, they call Satan. They think by doing so they will be found less guilty. Others love to use that figure and places of torture to frighten others, so that they can keep power over them or can have them join their community, where fear preaching is the core business next to the entertainment they try to offer to please people, instead of spending more time to the Bible writings.
Lots of people want to find a church which can bring them worldly pleasures, nice songs and something exiting, like thriller stories, tales about places where people shall be tortured for ever, though they are the lucky ones that can escape because they are saved and should not worry. They love to hear that they do not have to do any work any more and that they can sleep on their two ears.
The majority of people prefer to set the mind on the flesh, not willing to know that it is death, whilst setting the mind on the Spirit shall be life and peace.
When we do know that even a called one of Christ knew the difficulty of what was going on in his body, we should have hope.
Romans 7:18 (RNKJV)
18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
We should know that we are better to leave the world for what it is and be not afraid to tell it how we go for the sent one from God and putting our trust in God. There is no “life and peace” until we develop a spiritual relationship with our Lord. Those who do this are no longer in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.
In case we do trust God and feel it more important to live according to His Will instead of living according to the will of the people around us that we shall find it easier to live without fear, with at a spirit of power and love and self-control.
2 Timothy 1:7 (RNKJV)
7 For יהוה hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
With that spirit Jehovah has given us we can move mountains. Setting our minds on the by Christ renewed relationship we are “set free” and experience the reality of the Proverb,
Proverbs 4:18 (RNKJV)
18 But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
When you find that we are living in dark days please do see the light provided by the Most High and try to take others with you too on the right path of the righteous, being prepared for the day when Jesus is going to return.
+
Preceding articles
How to Find the Meaning of Life and Reach a State of Peace
Facing our existence every day
Comments to James remarks, about Faith and works
++
Additional literature
- Coming to understanding from sayings written long ago
- Not or well Ashamed of the gospel and admitting to be a God loving person
- Today’s thought “Ability to see that God is not dead” (May 12)
- Today’s thought “Blessed people …” (July 27)
- Today’s thought “nonsense surrounding the many gods” (July 28)
+++
Related articles
Witnesses of Christ and of his gospel
At the beginning of this Summer we made a call to all our readers to open their ‘heart and soul’ to those they are going to meet on their holiday trips. Now having not to go to work lots of people have much more time to talk to their neighbours and to meet other people. When on holiday we can show others we are of the world or we can show them we are not from this capitalist materialist world but partakers of a world of loving people striving for a better world and spreading the hope for a peaceful world.
It can well be that several people – now having more time to relax – love to enjoy more the extravaganzas and want to look for receiving kicks by doing dangerous things or just by exaggerating the ‘moments of fun’ in entertainment parks. Several people also shall love to talk in a bad way about others, finding more time to gossip and to give negative critic on others. Lots shall not mind to show their ungodly attitudes . Perhaps not much has changed with previous times. Jeremiah also complained already that people “love to have it so” (Jeremiah 5:31). Many do not want to think that their world shall pass. Though we can be sure and must take it serious and can wonder “what will we and them do when the end comes?”
When we do have a personal knowledge of Christ, and continually love to feel that we are sincere partakers of the Body of Christ we do know we are coming closer to the end-times and that we should not find any excuse to withdraw from the task Jesus has given to not only his close disciples, but to all his followers.
Though many people around us may already know about Jesus, having heard about him, having different impressions about him, but not really knowing him and not believing in what he might mean for the world.
Therefore we should take up our task to let them know its getting time to really coming to know Christ. For us that also means
knowing Christ and not just knowing about Christ.
A passionate pastor, teacher, author and academic who believes in ‘Preaching‘ as the means of translating God’s timeless truth in scriptures across the globe, writes
You must know Christ in order to be his witness.
You must believe in Christ, that he is the Son of God, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, that he is the way, the truth and the life.
Not forgetting that
Knowing Christ, having a personal relationship with him to be his witness is very important because to witness for him is not by human knowledge or power.
When we go out in this world and feel the necessity to make Christ to be known, we too may count on the helper Jesus has asked his heavenly Father to send to this world. Also today the Power of God is available for those who want to receive that Power. The Holy Spirit is ready to enter each heart that is willing to open for It.
It was not only for the time of the prophets and of the apostles that
Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days (Joel 2:28-29).
In our days too we may find people being blessed with the power of God, having the Holy Spirit providing them with the necessary words to tell others about the Work of God and the Work of Christ.
As Christians, we need the enabling power of the Holy Spirit to live our Christian life, we need the Holy Spirit to empower us to be witnesses for Jesus Christ our Lord, we need the holy Spirit to empower us in making decisions; we need the Holy Spirit in all of our lives. We are like plants that needs to bear fruit, as plants can but only bear fruits if well supplied with water and minerals; we can also but only bear fruit when full of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit helps us produce this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! (Galatians 5:22-23 NLT). {Following Jesus’ example through Prayer – I}
The Holy Spirit empowers feeble men to bold men, he strengthens the tongue of the stammer to proclaim his good news. You don’t have to worry of what you will say or how you will witness, only avail yourself to be a witness and the Holy Spirit will empower you to witness in ways known to him. And you will be a
Witness for Christ everywhere and every time
There is no particular place and time to witness, witnessing for Christ should be everywhere and every time. Witnessing for Christ is by both word and deed. We must not reduce witnessing for Christ to either of the two, they are sides of the same coin. We must live like Christ, in this way, the world will know that we are his disciples and we shall make him known to the world. {Witnesses for Christ: everywhere and every time}
Read:
Earnest prayers yields miraculous results
Witnesses for Christ: everywhere and every time
+
Preceding articles
Go and make disciples of people of all the nations
Daring to speak in multicultural environment
Crisis man needed in this world
To proclaim the day of vengeance
Proclaiming: a task given to Christians
Scriptures and Thoughts about: Proclaim
Summer holiday time to knock and ask, and time to share
++
Additional reading
- Looking to the East and the West for Truth
- Positive Preaching Day 2015
- Germinating small seeds, pebble-stones, small and mega churches and faith
- Being in isolation #7 Mission work
+++
Related articles
A World Made of Sentences
We can talk and talk, and for that we use sentences. We order words and do hope the one opposite us, listening to us can understand us.
We try to bring our knowledge into the open, and try to convey others of thoughts. All of our knowledge about anything we try to construct in any language known to us and can only be found in sentences.
Without language there is no knowledge (at least of the common type) about anything. {A World Made of Sentences, Part I: Sentences and the Perception or Reality}
We have our feelings when we see things. Those feelings we like to express and therefore we use our body language and the spoken language. It is just not for nothing, but has often a serious meaning for us to be able to express ourselves.
We should realize
Language does not act like a mirror, reflecting to us a perfect depiction of reality, it acts like a filter, it makes us see reality in particular ways. The way language is constructed and the popular usage of language at any given time in history and in any given culture on earth will create a different perception of what is real. {A World Made of Sentences, Part I: Sentences and the Perception or Reality}
Jeff Carreira does not see reality as it is. He writes
I see reality as an American male at the beginning of the 21st century sees it. Some of what I am seeing may be objectively accurate, much of it may not be. And I think it is very, very important to know the difference. That is why the contemplation of the relationship between our perception of reality and language is so important. If knowing what is real is important to us then we have to deconstructed how our current perception is being shaped by the sentences in our heads. {A World Made of Sentences, Part I: Sentences and the Perception or Reality}
We are often confronted with the problem that we are not good enough in expressing ourselves with words, placing one letter after the other in a certain order.
many of us who have tried to share our mystical revelations with others have found the language we commonly use woefully inadequate for the job. Many, many people have ventured out into the further reaches of human experience only to find fewer and fewer people that they can share that experience with. The language we have is just not adequate to allow us to share the mystery that has grabbed a hold of our hearts. {The Language of We-Mysticism}
How often do we not find that the language we are used to is too specific, too rigid and to literal and when we try to express ourselves with it the listener sometimes may understand it differently than we wanted it to come over. We have grown up with one or an other language and got it rooted in our current level of thinking. Constantly it is being fed and continually words come and go, some even changing of meaning (by time).
So many of us would love that our feelings are expressed so clearly that nobody can misunderstand them.
Our goal is not to speak about our experience, but to give our experience a voice. We are not looking at our experience and describing it. We are allowing that experience to take us over and speak through us so that even we are amazed at what comes out of our mouths. When this direct communication happens in more than one person simultaneously a spontaneous process of divine discourse unfolds. The higher mind … now has control of the conversation. It is thinking out loud though the voices of the individuals. It is spiritual improvisation of the highest order. {The Language of We-Mysticism}
Please do come to find out how Jeff Carreira looks at language and thinks
Our language conditions our perception. It shapes the way we see things.
… Language chops reality into distinct pieces and creates distinctions. The distinctions that exist in any given language are those that are important for the people using that language. Our languages have evolved to organize and optimize human perception and human behavior. If circumstances change, or if you change your circumstances, the language you had before may no longer be optimal. In fact, your old language may have become a detriment. {A World Made of Sentences, Part I: Sentences and the Perception or Reality}
When we begin to suspect how much language might be influencing our perception of reality our fundamental conception of what is real and true starts to unravel. Have we been wrong to assume that language is an accurate reflection of reality? Is there even a ‘reality’ out there to be reflected back to us in the first place? In our journey toward deeper truth even these assumptions must be dragged into the illuminating light of inquiry.{A World of Sentences, Part 2: Language and the Reality of Reality}
Continue reading:
- The Language of We-Mysticism
- A World Made of Sentences, Part I: Sentences and the Perception or Reality
- A World of Sentences, Part 2: Language and the Reality of Reality
+++
Further reading
- Let’s talk about language (and this bird)
- Language, Learning and Logic
- Language Matters: Communication at The Heart of Successful Collaboration
- An emic exploration to language barriers
- Economy of language, Eros, meaning, the public, and its problems
- What’s your voice vibes?
- Turn to the Webster’s
- Some skepticism
- #36alive 194: 5 Reasons To Learn A New Language Today!
- Words
- What is disrationalia?
- Descriptivists vs. Prescriptivists
- English Grammar in Ruins
- British schools: kids, commas, and tests
- Queers, language and the nature of reality
- Japanese Notes – how to express a position in Japanese?
- Body language
- World Leaders May Lie, but Their Body Language Tells All
+++
Filed under Being and Feeling, Cultural affairs, Knowledge & Wisdom
Summer holiday time to knock and ask, and time to share
In the daily Bible readings our chapter in Matthew today unfolds to reveal powerful personal lessons – principles we must live by, though in the chapters of the first book of Samuel we also see that it was not always easy for the preferred one of God, David! He also was victim of human jealousy [v.8-12].
In these summer-months we do have time to examine ourselves and the situation we are living in at the moment. We can check if we kept to Jesus his sayings or if when we had certain needs or wanted to receive knowledge if we did ask like Jesus advices us. Often when we are at work we do not have time enough for God’s Word. It might not always be easy to have us every day to pick up the Bible and to read in it and to take time enough to let our thoughts wonder over the Biblical text. Now when the Summer holiday comes to us we have no excuse. Now we should have enough opportunity to read in the Bible but also to talk to others bout different things, including the Word of God.
Summer time often gives us opportunities to come at other places, where nobody might know us, where we do not have to fear talking about our faith and to show others how we love God.
We can ask God to help us to get insight ourself but also to give us strength and opportunities to give others insight in His infallible Word. We might be assured when we dare to ask Jehovah God will provide, when our heart is in the right place with Him.
7 “·Ask [Keep asking], and ·God will give [L it will be given; C the passive verb implies God as subject] to you. ·Search [Seek; Keep seeking], and you will find. ·Knock [Keep knocking], and the door will open for you. 8 ·Yes, [L For; Because] everyone who asks will receive. Everyone who ·searches [seeks] will find. And everyone who knocks will have the door opened.
9 “If your children ask for bread, which of you would give them a stone? 10 Or [L which of you] if your ·children ask [or son asks] for a fish, would you give them a snake? {Matthew 7:7-10 Expanded Bible (EXB)}
When we long to have knowledge in the Holy Scriptures God is not going to withhold it. He is not going to detain us and leave us without Biblical knowledge if we really want to have such knowledge. Though in such circumstance God wants us to open our mind and when we encounter matters which we have learned at school or in the past in our religious environment, but which are based on human doctrines, God wants us to choose for the Biblical doctrines and to put those human and false teachings aside. We have to show to God that we are willing to learn what He wants to say to us and what the Bible puts openly in front of us, words black on white and no misty myths of the world.
For many it may not be easy to put away all such false human teachings, but that is what God requires, not to be of the world but to belong to the world of God.
Knowledge will be given to you when you are prepared to seek honestly and with the will to learn Godly Truth. When you open your mind, ask God to help you, He will provide and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you.
Keep Pursuing What You Need From God. He Will Give You Good Things
7 “Be asking, and it will be given to you; be seeking, and you will find; be knocking, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone asking receives; and the one seeking finds; and to the one knocking, it will be opened. 9 Or what person is there from-among you whom his son will ask-for bread— he will not give him a stone[a], will he? 10 Or indeed he will ask-for a fish— he will not give him a snake[b], will he?
- Matthew 7:9That is, something useless.
- Matthew 7:10That is, something harmful. {Matthew 7:7-10Disciples’ Literal New Testament (DLNT)}
For everyone, also you, who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds. So you only have to be prepared to be willing to find and to ask God to help you find it. But you too should help others to find it. So what you have uncovered may not only be your secret. Even when we will realize our failure to see the Biblical truth because we wanted to hold fast so much to denominational teachings, noticing it so late in our life, we better accept it that it is better late in life than never, to come to the Biblical truth.
Out of compassion and love for the other, we should try to let others know the Word of God and show them what is really written in it. One of the tasks given by Jesus was to go out and preach. When we do understand what the Nazarene man Jesus has really done, we should tell others of this incredible act of self-renunciation. We should tell others about his self-sacrifice and how he is not the God we should worship but the Way to God, the Only One True God of gods Whom is the Only One to be worshipped and praised above all.
Jesus expects everyone who hears these words of him to do them!
24 Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and is doing them will be-like a wise[a] man who built his house upon the bed-rock.
- Matthew 7:24Or, prudent, sensible. {Matthew 7:24Disciples’ Literal New Testament (DLNT)}
Let us be wise in the Lord and show the world how we want to be partakers of the Body of Christ and follow the same God as Jesus had. In the knowledge that the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, we should be aware that though salvation is given to all the world also shall have to see that those who find that entrance to the Kingdom of God shall be just a few. We should know and let others know that wide is the gate and broad and easy to travel is the path that leads the way to destruction and eternal loss.
13 “Enter through the narrow gate. [L Because] The gate is wide and the road is ·wide [broad; spacious; or easy] that leads to ·hell [L destruction; ruin], and many people enter through that gate. 14 But the gate is small and the road is ·narrow [or difficult; hard] that leads to true life. ·Only a few people [And there are few who] find that road. {Matthew 7:13-14Expanded Bible (EXB)}
For those few we have to invest our free time and do what Jesus expects from us, making sure that we are not a foolish person in his eyes, because he shall watch us and in the end days shall judge over us. Let us listen to Jesus his words:
Matthew 7:25-29Disciples’ Literal New Testament (DLNT)
25 And the rain came down, and the rivers[a] came, and the winds blew— and they fell against that house. And it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the bed-rock. 26 And everyone hearing these words of Mine and not doing them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand. 27 And the rain came down, and the rivers came, and the winds blew— and they struck-against that house. And it fell, and the falling[b] of it was great”.
The Works of The King: Divine Power In Action28 And it came about that when Jesus finished these words, the crowds were astounded[c] at His teaching. 29 For He was teaching them as One having authority, and not as their scribes.
- Matthew 7:25 That is, rivers of flood waters.
- Matthew 7:27 Or, collapse, downfall.
- Matthew 7:28 Or, overwhelmed, amazed, astonished.
{Matthew 7:25-29Disciples’ Literal New Testament (DLNT)}
When having found Jesus his words and having gone deeper into them, finding the Words of his heavenly Father, we should build our own life on them and create the foundation for ways for others also to come closer to God.
There are many ways – travel in our world has never been more readily possible, but whether nearby or further afield, we must, as we read two days ago in Matthew 5,
16 In the same way let your light shine ·before others [for people to see], so that they will see ·the good things you do [L your good deeds/works] and will ·praise [glorify; give honor to] your Father in heaven. {Matthew 5:16 Expanded Bible (EXB)}
Take some time this holiday to have some work done for Jesus and his God that they and the world may see your good works and glorify your Father in the heavens.
Let us also make sure that we tell others what is in the Word of God and have us honestly trying to have our faith in God shine as a strong light before others, so that on that day when Jesus returns we do not have to be ashamed and do not have to say like many who will say to him
… Lord, did we not prophesy (preach) in your name…?”
Having Jesus to look at them and responding that they have to depart from him because he does not want to know of them.
22 On ·the last day [judgment day; L that day] many people will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, ·we spoke for you [L Did we not prophesy in your name…?], and ·through you we forced out demons [L cast out demons in your name…?] and did many ·miracles [L mighty works in your name…?].’ {Matthew 7:22 Expanded Bible (EXB)}
We do not have to show extra-ordinary things to others, not doing miracles. We only have to honestly tell them what we believe and show them what the Bible says.
These days when we might have more free time, let us make sure that we take some free time for God and to show our love for God to others.In the knowledge that “many are called, but few are chosen” let us belong to those “few” that will hear the words we read today in Isaiah 62,
Isaiah 62:11-12 Expanded Bible (EXB)
11 The Lord ·is speaking [announces]
to ·all the faraway lands [L the end of the earth]:
“·Tell the people of Jerusalem [L Say to the daughter of Zion; Zech. 9:9],
‘Look, your Savior is coming.
He is bringing ·your reward to you [L his reward with him];
·he is bringing his payment [his recompense/reward is] with him.’”
12 ·His people [L They] will be called the Holy People,
the ·Saved People [Redeemed] of the Lord,
and Jerusalem will be called ·the City God Wants [L Sought After],
the City ·God Has Not Rejected [or Not Abandoned; Deserted]. {Isaiah 62:11-12 Expanded Bible (EXB)}
If you knew how much God loves you, you would be happy to receive and share His love with others and would be pleased to have others also coming to know Him and His great Love.
+
Preceding articles
Facing our existence every day
High time to go out telling the world about Jesus
7 Ways To Become A Better Christian
Daring to speak in multicultural environment
Crisis man needed in this world
To proclaim the day of vengeance
Proclaiming: a task given to Christians
Scriptures and Thoughts about: Proclaim
++
Additional reading
- The first on the list of the concerns of the saint
- God let my compassionate affection be tolerant and kind
- Do You Expect God’s Answer
- Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #17 Sorts of prayers
- Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #18 Fulfilment
- Jehovah steep rock and fortress, source of insight
- We should use the Bible every day
- Bible in the first place #2/3
- Loving the Word
- Necessity of a revelation of creation 8 By no means unintelligible or mysterious to people
- Necessity of a revelation of creation 11 Believing and obeying the gospel of the Kingdom of God
- Atonement And Fellowship 6/8
- Not about personal salvation but about a bigger Plan
- Fragments from the Book of Job #3: chapters 21-26
- Be not afraid of going slowly; be afraid only of standing still
- Obtain favour from Yahweh
- The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking places
- Blogging in the world for Jesus and his Father
- Sharing thoughts and philosophical writings
- Going deep into cultures to reach lost people
- Engaging the culture without losing the gospel
- How do I know if I’m called to ministry?
- Priest, scribes and others with authority
- Learn how to go out into the world and proclaim the Good News of the coming Kingdom
- Oratory Style
- What Should I Preach ?
- When not seeing or not finding a biblically sound church
+++
Further reading
- Here for a cause, anointed with a message the world needs to hear
- Motives behind Criticism are often more Important to deal With then the Criticism itself.
- Special Sundays!~Matthew 7:7~
- Which Story Do You Want To Live?
- Share Jesus
- Are you judging people by what they look like?
- Do to others…
- There is a wolf nipping at your soul
- “Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need.” ~Jesus
- Matthew 9 – Stepping forth in courage
- Matthew 11 – Praise and trust
- Matthew 14 – Prayer, Faith & Action
- By His Grace
- The Journey of Love and Commitment
- Strengthen Yourself In Your God
- “Following Jesus” (Matthew 4:18-22 sermon)
- “What We Have Seen … We Proclaim”
- “Reaching, Teaching, Caring: Following the Footsteps of Jesus” (Matthew 4:23 sermon)
- A Day in the Park
- The Goodness of God
- Count Your Blessings
- The call to serve
- See you next time
- Christianity is a Learned Experience
- Biblical Application
- Biblical Revelation Knowledge On Spiritual Warfare
- The Gospel of The Kingdom
- Do We Really Know God?
- Bible Study: Insights on the Sermon on the Mount: The Contrasts
- Awaken
- 8. Doors and Destinations
- Meditation – Choices
- The Path of Love
- Life’s Narrow and Wide Gates
- Love, Entering the Narrow Gate.
- The Narrow Way
- Religious Theology – The wide gate!
- Shifting Sand
- Exodus 10, Job 28, Luke 13, 1 Corinthians 14
- How to choose between the wide and the narrow
- The Narrow Gate
- against the stream
- Taking responsibility – the narrow gate that leads to life
- How to choose between the wide and the narrow:part 3
- Difficult is the Way that Leads to Life
- Those Who Find It Are Few.
- Guard My Feet Lord ~
- Two Gates
- The Narrow Gate
- The Protestant – Catholic divide – The Narrow and the Wide Gates
- The Crumb That Turns Stale With Time
- Only dead fish swim with the stream
- The narrow gate and the postmillennial hope
- The Grand Reception
- Lord, will only few people be saved?
+++
Related articles
Do you still look out for your morning or evening paper
The Morning Paper (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Many years ago, for our archive several international newspapers came on our table to be read and to be cut, having all the newspaper clips to be glued and put in maps, classified, and registered on recording cards.
Also several magazines got read and articles with target words registered on the recording cards. Thousands of magazines and newspaper-cuttings making the floors to heavy, making it necessary to have the archive moved to special constructed buildings.
Ourselves having become a certain age, leaving most work to the newer generation now may look at previous history. But what about reading all those newspapers and magazines?
Paris Kiosk – Newsstand in Paris
From his base in Los Angeles, an American blogger Brad Nixon who considers the endless adventure of living in the American West: life, culture, history, architecture and travel in California, Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, even Alaska and likes to write about travel elsewhere in North America, Italy, Great Britain, France, China and anywhere else he goes. He considers himself a lifelong newspaper fan, like we are. He also still relish picking up the local newspaper in airports, bookstores, gas stations and restaurants.
There’s nothing more appealing than a well-stocked news stand.
he writes in his article “Morning Paper: Where Worlds Collide“.
A newsstand in New York City
Though when we look at the newspaper stands of today, we see that the meters provided for the papers has reduced with more than two thirds if it is not more. The choice is reduced a lot and there are no different editions any more for morning, noon, afternoon and/or evening papers. In Belgium you still may have “Le Soir” but it is not any more a real evening paper. Great-Britain can be proud to have still some very good evening papers, and excellent morning papers as well as Sunday papers. At the continent the Sunday papers are long gone.
Sample frontpage from the newspaper (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
When Brad Nixon is lucky enough to travel abroad, he makes a stab at reading the foreign languages in which Le Monde, Corriere della Sera and the Times of London are written.
He writes
I grew up reading syndicated columnists who appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer, although they wrote for newspapers in Chicago (Mike Royko), Washington (Art Buchwald) or Los Angeles (Jim Murray), not to mention Cincinnati’s own Bob Brumfield.
I no longer subscribe to a printed newspaper of any description: world, local or neighborhood coverage. The days of sitting at breakfast and leafing through one, checking the sports scores, reading the comics or doing the crossword are things of the past here at Rancho Retro.
Nothing more clearly demonstrates the impact of technology on the flow of information than the topic of print versus online news.
Still an avid news reader, I rarely fail to spend a measurable amount of time on the websites of the LA Times, New York Times, BBC and a few others, including the newspaper that covers my portion of Los Angeles, The Daily Breeze.
I’m not entirely satisfied with that situation. There are aspects of turning the pages of a well laid-out newspaper that can’t be replicated by even the best websites. Granted, there are no hyperlinks to related material, no streaming video and just as many advertisements in print as online, but there’s nothing like a newspaper for those serendipitous discoveries, those full-page spreads of news or features from every part of the world. Also missing from newspapers are the irritating full page pop-up ads that block the screen (I’m looking at YOU, latimes.com). {Morning Paper: Where Worlds Collide}
The nice thing about a newspaper is the space some writers may get to go deeper into things and to give an analysation of facts which can be looked at and enjoyed so many hears later. Those articles of human interest and critical viewing proof the value of a newspaper and their writers.
New York, New York. Newsroom of the New York Times newspaper. Reporters and rewrite men writing stories, and waiting to be sent out. Rewrite man in background gets the story on the phone from reporter outside. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Though today one can wonder how they are able to survive. For sure they too have to go the digital way. And to be honest we have fallen also for such electronic reading and digital classification. But to be honest to have a newspaper on your lap or on the table often gives an other feeling and ‘band’ or ‘bound’, allowing to have your mind going through an other world than the one we are sitting at that moment. It feels like it gives an other connection than the computer, laptop, i-pad or tablet. Those latter ones reducing the paper to some text fragments ‘expanded’ (Stripped of their writer’s wedding). Is it a nostalgic feeling touching our heart?
Brad Nixon also notices
I feel divided, because I know that, ultimately, only a fraction of the existing printed newspapers (already a paltry set of survivors from a few decades ago) will endure as more readers (including me), cancel their print subscriptions and read online. Rather, I suppose, many papers will persist, but only online, and there’ll be no more morning coffee with that page of box scores from yesterday’s baseball games open in front of me (or I could turn the page, study the entries for the day’s racing at Santa Anita Racetrack, and mark my choices with a pencil).
I particularly mourn the loss of those local newspapers — many of them weeklies — that have disappeared or certainly will, including the paper that served my Midwestern hometown for more than 150 years before it closed up shop. Journalism and journalists continue, but their old order is rapidly fading. {Morning Paper: Where Worlds Collide}
Since the 1950s the newspaper market has been in decline in Belgium. At that time 50 Belgian National papers and hundreds of local (village) papers could attract the eyes of their interested readers. for the National papers in 1965 30 could be found over the counter. going up for a few years up to 33 in 1980, 32 in 1995 to reduce up to 23 newspapers in 2000 of which many were very similar, only having a different name, but form the same editor or owner with only 10 owners on the market. With the big media groups Corelio, Concentra, De Persgroep, Roularta Media Group for the Flemish papers and Rossel for the Walloon papers, and Mediafin for the economical Walloon paper L’Echo, Grenz-Echo Verlag for the German Grenz-Echo and The Brussels Times for the English The Brussels Times (daily digital newspaper and print magazine). There is also Politico Europe, better known for its website but it also has a weekly paper edition, and further Europolitics and New Europe, newspaper focusing on EU affairs.
In the Netherlands in 2009 the number of Dutch newspapers was only 35. There and in Belgium the Telegraaf Media Groep has difficulties whilst the De Persgroep (Nederland) keeps the Dutch critics giving some paper to reach the public. NRC Media after a merger of the Amsterdam newspaper Algemeen Handelsblad since 2015 is ran strongly by the Belgian company Mediahuis. While considered one of the Dutch national quality newspapers next to de Volkskrant and the very conservative orthodox Protestant Trouw (De Persgroep), NRC Handelsblad sees itself as the most internationally oriented of those three, and has been labeled leftliberal. The largest group amongst readers switching to the Nederlands Dagblad comprises non-Christians looking for an alternative view from that of the mainstream Dutch press. Headquartered in Apeldoorn and associated with the Reformed Political Party the Reformatorisch Dagblad is one of only a handful daily national papers remaining in the Netherlands. The Amsterdam’s Parool may count street sales circulating approximately 20,000 and substantially more on weekends.
In Flanders De Standaard (Mediahuis, formerly Corelio and VUM) as Christian-Democratic and Flemish Party in opposition to the the Socialist Flemish daily De Morgen, are the best Belgian newspapers left over.
Lots of people in Holland and Belgium use their mobile phone to look at the headlines for the day. Also the social media is pilfering lots of ‘printed paper’ readers.
Wikipedia remarks:
Newspapers: a global industry in transition as an old paper-based technology confronts the age of the Internet and smart phones
The decline of newspapers has been widely debated, as the industry has faced dropping newsprint prices, slumping ad sales, the loss of much classified advertising and precipitous drops in circulation. In recent years the number of newspapers slated for closure, bankruptcy or severe cutbacks has risen, especially in the United States, where the industry has shed a fifth of its journalists since 2001.[1] Revenue has plunged while competition from Internet media has squeezed older print publishers. {decline of newspapers}
Nixon asks further
What’s your preference: print or online? Or both? What’s better about one or the other? Please add a comment. {Morning Paper: Where Worlds Collide}
Brad Nixon fascinated, even in a country where he can’t actually read any of the newspapers.
+++
Related articles
Know thy self, know thy enemy
Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories.
– Sun Tzu
The Art of War (Sabaton album) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
alsowritten
Belgian Biblestudents - Belgische Bijbelstudenten
Bijbelvorsers
Christadelphians
Guestspeaker
Immanuel Verbondskind
jeshuaist
Vragensteller - Inquirer
lizaborstlap
Marcus Ampe
Success Inspirers' World
Relating to God
