Monday, May 27, 2013

Come and Seek Me

  It's been a good weekend.  Other than the Saturday which I spent the entire day with an excruciating migraine.  The weather here in Calgary has varied from Rain, Wind, Clouds and Sunshine all in the space of one day.  No amount of drugs was going to kill this migraine.  Even hiding in the basement did little to improve it.

   Fortunately I was functional enough to spend the day with my little girl, as well as visit my wife at work.  I even got around to playing a little Bioshock.  Unfortunately my brain power was at such a minimum I was unable to do much reading.  So I'm going to have to put aside my writing on the Soul until I get a few more things nailed down as I study it.

   I know where I'm going with it, but I want to sketch out the roadmap, as it were, as well as I can.  I need to get the Bible verses together and the whole thing put in such a way that I can communicate these vital truths about the soul as effectively as I can for you.  I don't want to do this one off the cuff.

   If you're anxious to learn more however, I would encourage you to visit these websites;

martinzender.com - There's a huge wealth of information on so many subjects here.  I've learned a great deal from Martin Zender and continue to do so.

http://sheridanvoice.com/blog/the-dan-sheridan-show/ - I've also learned alot from Dan Sheridan's stuff here as well.  Particularly on the soul and death.

  And of course, I always refer to my Concordant bible frequently and love to discover more from it.  You can get one of your own from

www.concordant.org


The God Who Hides

  This weekend I had a nice visit with an old friend.  We got to talking about the Bible, my Blog and various other topics.  The main thing that stuck in my head after our visit is what she asked;

"Why does God not reveal himself?  Why does he take so many pains to make it difficult to understand him?"

  I don't think I explained it as well as I could have.  I'm afraid I'm better at writing words than vocalizing them.  But here is the best explanation I can come up with;

Proverbs 25:2 It is the glory of God to conceal a matter;
    to search out a matter is the glory of kings.
Hebrews 11:6
6 Now apart from faith it is impossible to be well pleasing, for he who is coming to God must believe that He is, and is becoming a Rewarder of those who are seeking Him out.

Acts 17:26-27
26 Besides, He makes out of one every nation of mankind, to be dwelling on all the surface of the earth, specifying the setting of the seasons and the bounds of their dwelling, for them to be seeking God, if, consequently,
27 they may surely grope for Him and may be finding Him, though to be sure, not far from each one of us is He inherent,


  God has hidden himself so that we would seek him.  And he rewards those of us who seek him.  It's as simple as that really.  When we desire a relationship with someone else, we seek them out, we learn about them, we do our best to uncover what we can.  That is called seduction, the chase, romance.  Etc.  God is doing no less for us.  He is drawing us in through the excitement of discovery.  

  If it were as simple as writing on the wall.  Then there is no pursuit and no relationship.  Yes, I know this will probably frustrate many of you.  Many people want the Drive Thru theology.  That's what church is for.

  But if you really want to know God, you're going to have to learn about words, and how to read the Bible.  Correctly understanding how things are written, their context, the audience it was written for, and so on.  This is called "Correctly cutting the word of truth" (2 Tim 2:15)

  God HAS revealed himself, he's given us the Bible.  It's up to us now, to pursue him.

  Sadly, the honest truth is - even the desire to pursue him.  The faith to believe him.  Everything involved in that pursuit is given from God.  Without that, no one would want to.  No one would care.

Psalms 14:2-3
The Lord looks down from heaven
    on all mankind
to see if there are any who understand,
    any who seek God.
All have turned away, all have become corrupt;
    there is no one who does good,
    not even one.


  So if you are pursuing him, believe in him, and long to understand him.  Give thanks to God, for he himself has put that desire in you!

  Best of all regardless of that pursuit.  Whether or not you do, he has saved all mankind!

1 Timothy 4:10
... Who is the savior of all mankind...

1 Corinthians 15:22
...In Christ shall all be vivified.

Praise God!

Travis Penner

PS. Let me add, it's not only God who's hiding himself, but also the translators.  The KJV for example has translated the word Soul from the greek and hebrew into 44 different words;

for example for soul it has: Any, Appetite, Beast, Body, Breath, Creature, Dead Body, Desire, Fish, Ghost, Heart, Hearty, Life, Lust. etc. etc.

Make SURE, if you really want to pursue God... you get a good translation.  The Concordant version is the one I highly recommend.  Every time the word soul is written... they translate it Soul.

Very scientific you see.

No comments:

Post a Comment