Bible Quiz: Each week this blog will begin with two questions. The answers are at the end of the blog. Have fun!!
According To the Bible 1. The Old Testament depicts the God of wrath while the New Testament depicts the God of love. 2. satan is ruler of Hell
Dear Prayer Warriors,
In this week’s devotional blog, I am continuing my meditations on thanksgiving from my prayer notebook. As we have reflected in earlier blogs on this subject, we are commanded by God the Holy Spirit through the holy, eternal, inerrant written Word of God in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 to “in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.” This, of course, is a baffling command to those who view the discipline of thanksgiving to be a purely responsive act, based upon the immediate emotional state of the recipient. If something is good, if it is pleasant, then we are thankful at that particular point in time. For us to remain thankful, then good and pleasant things must continue to occur. If they do not, then we do not feel the need for thanksgiving. “Thankful for what?!?” is often the selfish response of the believer when faced with prayers of thanksgiving in a time of personal turmoil, pain or poverty.
Like a spoiled child who shouts, “I wish you weren’t my parents!” when forced to do their homework instead of getting to watch TV or play on the computer, so the spoiled Christian not only questions what he can thank God for, but even the existence of God, when he receives the training of personal turmoil, pain and poverty (see Hebrews 12:9-11; Romans 5:3 – 5; I Peter 1:6 & 7; Philippians 1:29). In their struggle to reconcile the need to give thanks when things are not going their way, the narcissistic practice of the Pentecostal/Charismatic movements has crept in to evangelical prayers – that of giving thanks for the answer before God has given it. The heart of the petitioner is clearly revealed in this. “How can I give thanks when I do not have it? God wants me to be happy, I am not happy because I do not have what I am asking for, so it must mean to give thanks for it even though I do not have it. What else can it mean?”
I would like to take a moment to give you an alternative view of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving does not exist in the immediate present. Some things are so wondrous, so marvelous that, irrespective of immediate experience, the only response is continued thanksgiving. This means that, irrespective of your parents’ immediate behavior, the fact that they went through the trying years of nursing, burping, midnight feeding, wiping dirty bottoms, cleaning up throw up and more has earned a thankful response from you. Their devotion to you was so complete that they deserve respect, honor and regular words of thanks. For us in our relationship with our Heavenly Father, it means that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit – in light of the suffering necessary for our salvation and the loving patience necessary for our sanctification - are worthy of our lifelong thanksgiving, irrespective of our immediate circumstances. No matter how I feel at the moment, Jesus still lived and died for my sins. No matter how I feel at the moment, the Holy Spirit (regardless the grief my sins cause Him) resides in my body as His temple (I Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 4:30). In fact, God is worthy of thanksgiving for the incarnation of Christ every day, not just at Christmas. God is worthy of thanksgiving for the sacrifice of Christ every day, not just at Easter.
What follows, then, is from the Thanksgiving section of my prayer notebook. Every day I pause and meditate for the purpose of thanksgiving on each passage and thank God specifically for each bullet point on the list. I would encourage you to recreate this section in your own prayer notebook. You may find, like I have, that so much time is spent thanking God for what He has done for you that it leaves much less time for you to tell God what you think He should be doing for you, in order to earn your thanks.
God the Son - Jesus “For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself. . .” (Hebrews 12:3)
- "There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him." (John 1:9-11)
- "who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." (Philippians 2:6-8)
- "Just as many were astonished at you, My people, so His appearance was marred more than any man and His form more than the sons of men. Thus He will sprinkle many nations, Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him; for what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard they will understand. For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our grief’s He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth." (Isaiah 52:14 - 53:2-7)
a. Pre-existence b. The emptying of Himself c. Virgin birth d. Earthly life and ministry e. Humiliation f. Voluntarily giving Himself up as a sacrifice g. Bodily suffering h. Shed blood i. Substitutionary death on the cross j. Burial k. Resurrection l. Ascension m. Eternal reign n. Continuing ministry o. Imminent return
God the Holy Spirit - Ministry of the Holy Spirit a. Calling b. Comfort c. Filling d. Gifts e. Graces f. Indwelling g. Illumination h. Instruction i. Leadership j. Power k. Seal
God the Father - Lord God (I use the Worship section of my prayer notebook to praise God for over 60 divine attributes so this is just a sample of two characteristics.) a. Unity – Three yet One b. Sovereign yet Loving Father
Word of God - "Seven times a day I praise Thee, because of Thy righteous ordinances." (Psalm 119:164) a. Accomplishes its purposes b. Alive, active c. Authoritative d. Creative Power e. Dynamic f. Empowers g. Eternal h. Holy i. Inerrant j. Inspired k. Instructs l. Judges m. Perfect n. Powerful o. Pure p. Sanctifies q. Spiritual r. Spiritual food s. Spiritual light t. Sword of the Spirit u. Tests v. Unbroken w. Word of God x. Written
"O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day." (Psalm 119:97)
Prayer - "I love the LORD, because He hears My voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me. Therefore I shall call upon Him as long as I live." (Psalm 116:1-2) a. Boldly approach b. Without fear c. Listen d. Presence e. Act f. Power g. Miracle h. Refresh i. “Reason together” j. Empower k. Lead l. Comfort m. Calm n. Do not answer all prayers, so they do not need to be perfect
Ministry a. Teaching b. Preaching c. Witnessing d. Gifts e. Calling f. Missions g. Giving h. Sending i. Fruit
By His mercy, II Corinthians 4:1 Rev. John S. Mahon Director – Grace Community Int. Tyumen, Russia (deep in the heart of Siberia)
Answers to this week’s Bible Quiz… 1. False - The holy, eternal, inerrant, written Word of God clearly teaches that God is immutable (unchanging). This means the God of the Old Testament and New Testament are the same. The view that God, as depicted in the Old Testament, is One of wrath and, as depicted in the New Testament, is a God of love, is simply the result of teachers misrepresenting the divine revelation of God in the holy Scriptures, by presenting the Old Testament wrath verses at the expense of those which speak of God’s loving nature and, conversely, presenting verses which deal with God’s love in the New Testament while ignoring those which speak of His wrath. Examples: Old Testament reveals God as a God of love – simply do a word search of Old Testament for the word “lovingkindness” to find the scores of passages about God from Genesis on through the Old Testament (e.g. “Give thanks to the God of heaven, for His lovingkindness is everlasting.” (Psalms 136:26)). New Testament reveals God as a God of wrath - contrastingly, a word search of the word “wrath” reveals an equal number of verses in the New Testament (e.g. “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.” (Romans 1:18)). Other searches using synonyms would reveal even more passages. God is a God of wrath and a God of love. For Christians, this wrath is satisfied in Christ. This does not mean that God has changed but rather that He has accepted the sacrifice of His son as a substitute for the wrath justly deserved by all.
2. False – The description of Hell as ruled by satan and his devils is pure mythology born out of pagan religions. God the Holy Spirit clearly teaches in His holy, eternal, inerrant written Word that satan is not the ruler of Hell but is condemned to Hell to suffer alongside all who reject Christ as their savior. The devil is one of the fallen angels who will be cast into hell (see 2 Peter 2:4 "For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment"). Revelation 19:20 and 20:10 teach that the “beast,” the “false prophet” and “the devil” will all be consigned to the lake of fire where they will be tormented by God. They are not the instruments of God’s judgment in hell but the recipients of God’s judgment. The description of Hell is that of God’s judgment by the hand of God. God, not satan rules Hell and judges those in it (see Revelation 14:10-11 “…he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night…”).
Now ask yourself – what other things about the Bible do I believe which are, in reality, false? From now on, when something is taught about the Bible, your first questions will be – “Which Book, Chapter and Verse establish this?”
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