What Do You REALLY Know About God ? Part ONE

I am reading a book about philosophy at the moment and the first chapter is about what reality is. The argument goes like this :

You use your senses and the data they give you to determine reality.
Your senses are interpreted by your brain.
Your brain interprets things as you will see them but not according to how they really are

Example :

You look at a table and your brain tells you it is square, brown and about 2 meters by 2 meters.

The thing is, if you are standing at the corner of the table it is technically not square. Form your point of view it is more diamond shaped. From the side it is oblong and so on. Unless you are suspended directly above the table it will not appear completely square. Yet your mind interprets the image of the table and tells you it is square.

Same is true of the colour. Colour is merely wavelengths of light reflecting off a surface. The quality of the air between the surface and your eyes will affect the colour you see and so on.

It is all vaguely interesting but what happens when you apply this to God ?

What do YOU REALLY KNOW ABOUT GOD ?

Is God a trinity ?

Unless all three persons of the trinity have appeared to you, you cannot know that. You can believe it, it may be true but you do not KNOW it in the deepest sense of the word. Test the other parts of your Christian beliefs and what you will find is that a lot of what you ‘know’ about God comes from theology and sermons and other people’s revelations.

I am not going to argue the value of theology, obviously it is essential. The things you truly know of God come through revelation, rhema, first hand experience.

When I consider my own Christian life, the first experience I go back to is my salvation. From my salvation I know that God loves me, personally. I remember the vision of Jesus Christ and the feeling of being embraced in His arms. I recall the feeling of belonging. It is hard to explain bt I would compare it to a soldier lost behind enemy lines, fighting and battling and being wound tight, all his senses primed, filled with fear and despair. Then he finds himself back in safety, surrounded by those that love him and will protect him. His body physically drains itself of all that fear and tension. He is overwhelmed by the fact that he is safe and wants nothing more than to rest in that place, that knowledge.

To Be Continued……..

God is God

God is God, He deals with every single person on the planet. He knows what is best for us all and what must happen to accomplish His plans. All people experience God even if they don’t acknowledge His existence. God is loving and patient and forgives people for their ignorance BUT he is also a jealous God and wants all people to love and honor Him.

For every human being, there will come a time when they will stand in the presence of Almighty God and He will judge them. People who do Yoga, Tai Chi, believe in Buddhism, Islam, anyone who searches for God, may experience Him BUT at that time when we are in His presence, our only response can be ‘Almighty God, I am not worthy of your love, I am not strong enough to stand in Your Mighty presence, I am sinful Lord God, please have mercy on me’

At that point, I KNOW that God will say to me “ Gef, I have known you every day of your life. I have seen every thought you have had and I KNOW that you believe. I know that you have accepted the gift of grace that comes in the form of Jesus Christ, my son. Welcome my beloved child. “

No one can stand in the presence of God without Jesus. You cannot do enough good deeds or have a peaceful enough heart. Everyone needs Jesus. He is the way the truth and the life. The sooner you accept Him, the sooner you can live a productive life bringing the lost back to His loving care. It is never too late !!

God loves you and has a plan for your life. All you need to do is believe. There is nothing you can do to make him love you less, just believe and turn back to God. He has been waiting for you your whole life. That hole in your heart that you have tried to fill but have never satiated is the place where God’s love should flow. The key is accepting Jesus, He wants to give you the ‘water of life, the Holy Spirit’.

If this is the time for you to accept Jesus, pray this prayer :

Lord Jesus I acknowledge you as my Lord and savior. I thank you for dying on the cross for my sins and I want to live a life of purpose. Please Lord, help and guide me so I may bring glory and honor to Your name in all I do. Amen.

Take your time. This is not magic. Your life will not be free of problems. You won’t be able to shoot lightening out of your palms. You have now been born again, congratulations. But you are a spiritual baby. You must grow. Seek Him and you will find. Read the bible from beginning to end and you will be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Buy some praise and worship music and practice opening yourself to God by praising Him with song (no matter how uncomfortable that may be for you ) search for a community of believers to fellowship with.

God Bless You

Please feel free to e-mail me or leave a comment if you have something to say, question or add. Geoffcollins1@yahoo.com.au

An Important Post

About a week ago I was invited to a meeting to discuss the problems in education in Surabaya. If you are not familiar with Indonesia you can’t understand the magnitude of social problems this country has. I’ll try and give you a quick synopsis.

Indonesia was controlled by the Dutch for 350 years. During that time, the ‘Indonesian people’ were suppressed and given very few rights. What education was available to them was created to ensure that they would fill their role as servants and farmers.

Indonesia became Independent from the Dutch a bit over 60 years ago. One of the things the first President of Indonesia did was to create a ‘business climate’. There were already quite a few Chinese people in Indonesia but Pak Soeharto encouraged more to come and fill the gap at the top of the business sector that the Dutch had left. The business climate was very much run through mutual back scratching and kick backs.

Until today, business and finances in Indonesia are monopolized by a small percent of the population ( 3-5%) and the vast majority of the population live in poverty and ignorance. He reason my meeting about education was so significant is that God has given me a passion for the country of Indonesia and I fully believe this country can be transformed through education. Amen

The statistics and stories about education I Indonesia are hard to comprehend for someone who hasn’t experienced a 3rd world country. Around 50% of children go no higher than a 6th grade education. Immense numbers of children get no education at all. Teachers are extremely poorly paid ( at the meeting we heard of teachers earning $5,$10,$20 a month) Schools are extremely poorly funded and maintained to the point where they often literally fall to bits.

During yesterday’s meeting, I was blessed to sit with people from organizations like Pondok Kasih, Full Gospel Businessmen, Sejaterah Kota and others who have been working very hard for a long time to bring about change in all areas of life for the Glory of God.

What I see is that the body of Christ MUST function as God intended it. We must work together and support each other better than any other organization on the planet to monopolize life as it is known by the human race. Once we control every aspect of government, education, health etc. we can implement systems that lead to peace and joy among all mankind.

For the short term, churches, schools and Christian organizations need to band together. In Surabaya I see many wonderful works BUT together we are stronger. We need to be streamlined, united and efficient with a view to solving the problems of today and offsetting the problems of the future through sound planning and the wisdom that can only come from God.

I live in a country where Christian churches spend thousands of dollars on ‘birthday and Christmas celebrations’ while other Christian churches struggle to survive because their congregation is poor. All the while children are dying of malnutrition because their parents lack the knowledge that eating a varied diet is more important than trying to get the most filling meal you can for your meager money.

We will win the world for Jesus one act of random kindness at a time BUT if we unite and organize better than those who wish to come against us I pray we can win the world faster, before too many have to suffer because of greed and corruption. Please take a moment to pray for countries like Indonesia, the people here know little more than this reality but they haven’t been given a chance to open their eyes for 400 years. I pray that the Holy Spirit will sweep through this country and set the people free through the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of all knowledge. Stand with me in this prayer. Amen

GBU