A STUDY ON EXPERIENCE OF A FRESH EXPLOSION OF FAITH
(By Beth Moore) "A Taste of Believing God"
This is Chapter II
God can do what He says He can do:
The past few years that I have been a Christian has really convinced me that God can do what He says He can do, and my faith in Him has blessed me because He has answer my prayers continuously, He has kept this nation from going under, because of the few faithful ones that are praying; He has allowed us to see Him move on our behalf. God can do what He says He can do, and that is a true fact; let's look at what Beth has to say about that on page eighteen.
In the first paragraph I like what she says, "Most biblical tiles for God inseparably connect who He is to what He can do. For instance: as Savior, He saves; as Deliverer, He delivers; as Redeemer, He redeems; as Master, He assumes authority; as Bread of life, He provides; and as Almighty, He exerts divine strength. In short, God can do what He says He can precisely because He is who He says He is. That blessed my heart!
I wanted to understand these words (cessationism and sensationalism). My computer didn't recognize the word cessationism. I looked it up and this is what it says, "In Christian theology, Cessationism is the view that the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as speaking in tongues, prophetic utterances and faith healing, ceased being practiced early in Christian Church history. Cessationists gene rally believe that the miraculous gifts were provided only for the foundation of the Christian Church during the time between the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, c. 33 AD, as described in the 2nd Chapter of Acts, and the fulfillment of God's purposes in history, usually identified as either the completion of the last book of the New Testament (Book of Revelation), or the death of John the Apostle, the last of the Twelve Apostles. The counterpart to Cessationaism is Continuationism which teaches that the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit have remained available for use by the church ever since Pentecost. Disputes over Cessationism versus Continuationism have since led to denominational schisms within the Church." Then I looked up the word sensationalism, and it says this "Sensationalism is a type of editorial bias in mass media in which events and topics in news stories and pieces are over-hyped to increase viewership or readership numbers. Sensationalism may include reporting about generally insignificant matters and events that don't influence overall society and biased presentations of newsworthy topics in a sensationalist, trivial or tabloid manner.
Some tactics include being deliberately obtuse, appealing to emotions being controversial, intentionally omitting facts and information being loud, self-centered and acting to obtain attention. Trivial information and events are sometimes misrepresented and exaggerated as important or significant, and often includes stories about the actions of individuals and small groups of people, the content of which is often insignificant and irrelevant relative to the macro-level day-to-day events that occur globally. Furthermore, the content and subject matter typically doesn't affect the lives of the masse and doesn't affect society, and instead is broadcast and printed to attract viewers and readers.
I am going to read more now; As I read more I saw where she said that, "Sensationalism suggests that everything possible is also probable, while cessationism accepts only the presently probable as the presently possible. Either extreme is wildly offensive to God!" I felt she would say that after reading this far. Ok, listen to this, "perhaps the most serious offense of sensationalism is its overwhelming tendency to be man-centered rather than God-centered, prioritizing what God can do over who He is." Well said, Beth!
This is a good little book! Beth gives us some scriptures in this chapter, and I want to explore them now. Let's look at them now. Start with………………..
Matthew 16:4: "Wicked and adulterous generation."
If the modern body of Christ is set on cessationism or sensationalism, our choice is whether we'd rather be an unbelieving and perverse generation or a wicked and adulterous one. Both options share a commonality; Experience over faith is their underlying problem. Sensationalism seeks an experience, and cessationism believes only what it personally sees and experience.
As said earlier, either extreme is wildly offensive to God. She also shared these scriptures too………
Hebrews 11:6: " But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."
Daniel 3:17: "If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king."
Mark 9:23: "Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth"
Luke 1:37: " For with God nothing shall be impossible."
James 4:2: "Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not."
Matthew 9:29: "Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you."
I really enjoyed what she said on page 21; Beloved, God is "Wonderful" (Isaiah 9:6). In fact remove the wonders from God, and you can no longer call Him wonderful, AMEN! The wonderful factor of God still exists! We must believe Him, not just believe in Him.
If I've missed sharing some good points, please feel free to share anything you get after you have read the scriptures, or the book. Thanks.
This was a good point for me on page 23 second paragraph, "Please don't misunderstand that believing God only involves believing Him for dramatic miracles. If we don't include believing Him for the miraculous, however, can you imagine the tragedy of all we could miss?" Read on page 25 through 27, which raps up chapter II for us. This is so important for us to remember, "We are surrounded by a dying and depraved world, mounting violence and the threat of mass destruction, disease, plague, enticing false religion, and a surging fury of satanic assault and seduction." Those really describe our world today! We are desperate for the wonders and miracles of God. We need Him to show His mighty arm and tell the world that He is alive, active, and very much with us. I love that statement! Then she ends it by saying this, "Believe that God can, Beloved. He is still in the miracle business." I don't know about you, but I have really enjoyed this little book! See you in chapter III
QUESTION:
1. How do you know God can do what He says He can?
2. What kind of Christian do you want to be?
3. Will you share a miracle with us today
1 comment:
1. How do you know God can do what He says He can?
I believe the Bible is the Word of God, and what it says God is and can do, I believe. Also, I have had problems and situations in my life that revealed to me that God is God, and that He is faithful to His Word. Sometimes my faith doesn’t line up with God’s Word, but I still trust Him and His Word.
2. What kind of Christian do you want to be?
I want so much to please God in my walk with Him, I desire to be a Christian that stand on and trust God’s Word, believe that miracles still happen even in today’s society, and in whatever happen. I believe that God is in control, and there is nothing that He doesn’t know, and He can’t handle. I want to continue to be a righteous devout Christian woman of God.
3. Will you share a miracle with us today?
I have experienced many miracles in my life. First of all, the miracle of receiving Christ Jesus as my Lord and Savior. That is a miracle! It was a miracle when I first believed in God. One day on a Sunday evening, my boys and I had nothing to do, we were bored. We sit up stirs in my bedroom entertaining ourselves. I was reading, and they were on the floor at the end of my bed playing with one another, or by themselves. Make a long story short, I looked down at one of my sons, and he was on his face struggling, and I asked, what are you doing? he didn’t answer, I asked again, no answer. So I got up and turned him over and he had the electric wire in his mouth, and it was shocking him. I was so afraid! I picked him up and call out for help, my brother and his girlfriend was there with me. They called the ambulance; I was crying and screaming so loud, because my son was going unconscious and I couldn’t do anything for him as I carried him down the stairs looking at his eyes go into the back of his head. I was taking him to wait for the ambulance; I got to the bottom of the stairs and he cried out. They arrived and examine him, and said these words, “Mrs., your son would have died if he had not heard your voice. To me, that was God causing me to scream loud as I did, so my sons could come back. He is alive and well today, even though he had to have many surgeries to get his mouth back straight. You can still see the mark of the hole that was there when I pulled that card out of his mouth. That was a miracle, and I still believe in miracles today.
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