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Joshua 3:5
⁵ Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.”

Leviticus 20:7-8
⁷ “‘Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the Lord your God. ⁸ Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the Lord, who makes you holy.

There is a clear call to be Holy. Joshua tells the people to consecrete themselves, just before they are about to enter the promised land. And we can also see a call to be holy, in Leviticus 20:7-8. There are many other references, with a similar call.

But do we find the call to be holy, a bit tiresome, at times?
It is a call that appears to go on endlessly, until we reach our final destination. It’s a call of continuous improvement. One of the technical words for this is “Sanctification”.

If we are honest with ourselves, in our moments of weakness, can we all suffer with feeling a bit tired of this process?

Galatians 6:7-9
⁷ Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. ⁸ Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. ⁹ Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

From the above verses, we can see a warning to not become weary in doing good. Could this in part be because God knows that we can get tired, whilst trying to do, what we should be doing?

From reading the above verse, another question has come to my mind (in a roundabout way). Whose strength are you relying on for doing the good that you are trying to do?

Human strength (the flesh), or a greater strength (the spirit)?

If we are becoming weary, then is it because we are running out of our own strength?
Are we able to call on a source of strength that has no limits?
Our Lord God’s strength?
Will we seek Him and His strength, so that we can then go beyond our own limits?

Our Lord God, is the source of all good things!
He has unlimited strength, to help those who will look to Him, for their help.

Psalm 121:1-3
¹ I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
    where does my help come from?
² My help comes from the Lord,
    the Maker of heaven and earth.

³ He will not let your foot slip—
    he who watches over you will not slumber

It is indeed good to follow a call to holiness, if it is from Our Lord God. But, I do think that a word of warning also needs to be spoken (or written) here.
What if the call is not coming from a Our Lord God, but a different source? An enemy, even?

1 Peter 5:8
⁸ Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Could the enemy try to bring a call to holiness, that is too much for us, with the intention of causing us to crumble under the pressure?

The source of a call matters. Is the call we are hearing, a word of rebuke or a word of condemnation?
A word of condemnation has the purpose to pull down and destroy. But a word of rebuke, if followed, leads to holiness.
If a word of condemnation comes our way, then do we need to dismiss it? Or could we even turn it around, so that it is used as a word of rebuke?
That which the enemy brought for bad, can be turned to good. (If Our Lord God says to consider it.)

Will we hear Our Lord God’s call to Holiness, and will we then follow it?

This is a thought that keeps coming back to me, time and time again.

There are times when it is easy to take the next step, but then there are times when it’s not so easy.

The times when it’s not so easy can be when I would like to know what the next 3 or 4 … or even 10 steps are going to be, but all I have in front of me is the next step.
The next step that leads to ?????

I may well have an idea, or direction of where the next step will take me, so I’m not necessarily talking about taking a blind step (although sometimes we might even have to do just that). But I’m mostly talking about taking the next step, even though we haven’t worked it all out.

Sometimes things can just go a certain way. Things can just pop up in front of you on your path that could lead you in a particular way, if you are open to following them.
I’m not talking about following the wrong path. There can be many wrong paths along our way that we know we should avoid, no matter how tempting they may be.
But I’m talking about the paths that we have an inkling that could be good or fun to travel down, if we are just willing to just take the next step?

Sometimes the choice can be as simple as, take the next step….. or go nowhere. Just stand still and remain exactly where you are.

Staying still can sometimes be the right choice, but other times it can just simply be me refusing to move, anywhere.

Now if it is in fact The Lord my God who is asking me to take the next step (and I know that it its Him who is doing the prompting), then will I be willing to follow His leading?
It can be easy to answer yes to that question when there is no next step in front of you. But can we say yes to Him with our actions?
By doing what He is asking us to do?

John 10:27-28
²⁷ My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.

Matthew 21:28-31
The Parable of the Two Sons

²⁸ “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’

²⁹ “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.

³⁰ “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.

³¹ “Which of the two did what his father wanted?”

“The first,” they answered.

Who wouldn’t want to avoid mistakes if they could?
But unfortunately, mistakes are a part of life. Even Samuel in the Bible made his mistakes. One of them can be seen in…

1 Samuel 8:1-5
¹ When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as Israel’s leaders. ² The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second was Abijah, and they served at Beersheba. ³ But his sons did not follow his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice. ⁴ So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. ⁵ They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”

Now Samuel was a man who God approved of, there are two books in the Bible named after him.
But in the instance above, I believe, Samuel made a mistake. He appointed his sons to take over his ministry, even though they didn’t follow his ways.
The result of this action, ultimately, is that Saul was appointed king over Israel.
Although there have been good kings, there have also been some not so good kings (that caused a problem or two.)
Could these problems have been avoided if Israel didn’t have a king? If Israel didn’t have a King, then would Elijah and Elisha have been Israel’s leaders in their time, instead of prophets, that the King may, or may not listen to???

It’s easy to understand why Samuel did what he did.
He was getting old and was looking for a successor. The natural choice was his sons.
But they were not like him, which made it not such a good choice.
Was there some part in Samuel that knew this, but he did it all the same?

Can we sometimes make the mistake that Samuel made by taking the natural choice without consulting God?

What would God’s thought on succession be?

In Judges 8:22-23 we can see Gideon’s response when he is asked to rule over Israel.

Judges 8:22-23
²² The Israelites said to Gideon, “Rule over us—you, your son and your grandson—because you have saved us from the hand of Midian.”

²³ But Gideon told them, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The Lord will rule over you.”

Is this something of the heart of God?
It should be God we look to first instead of man.
A previous post of, When we go to church are we looking for Saul or Father? looks into this thought further.

So, can we learn from Samuel’s mistake?

If the natural choice has a niggle with us, will we still go ahead and do it, or can we look for a better fit?
Can we hear what our Father in Heaven’s choice would be, instead of the obvious choice?
Can we see and hear His choice, before we go and make a mistake?

Father,
Please help us to keep looking to You, for Your help and guidance.
If something is niggling at us then help us to come You, Our Lord God who knows what is best.
Help us to always hear and follow Your words to us.
Amen.

A bit of a strange question to find on a blog site called, “Wannabe Christian Doorman”, but there it is. 🙂

Just to be sure, that you do know my position, on the question, ……
I KNOW, that God IS REAL!!!

So why would I ask such a question?
Short answer, I’d like to offer some thoughts, to try and show, that God is real.

One of the objections that I hear towards God is, “If God is so big, powerful and loving, then how can he allow …… to happen?”

The “……” can be anything, from personal circumstances, to world wide troubles. The list can be endless.

So, the question is put forward, “If God is so big, powerful and loving, then how can he allow …… to happen?”

Whenever I hear this kind of question, I always think that this is actually two questions rolled into one.
The first part of the question is, “Is God real?
The second part of the question is, “How can God then allow …… to happen?”
Which can then lead to a third question of, “Do I want to know him, when he allows …… to happen?”

I do think that all of the questions are valid, but that they should be looked into, as separate questions.

The main reason for this is, if the answer to the first question is “no”, then the second and third question’s, do not even need to be answered.
How can you ask a make believe God, why anything has happened?
Why would you want to know a make believe god?
Why would you want to even consider knowing a make believe god?
I’m hoping that you can see why answering the first question, just kind of makes sense?

So, back to the title of this post, “Is God Real???”

For so many people, the answer to this question is, it’s a personal belief. “You can believe what you want to believe, and I can believe the exact opposite, and we’ll all be perfectly OK where we are!”
That statement can appear to be a good position, viewpoint in the here and now. But if we take a longer viewpoint, then will it even appear to be a true and correct statement to make?
I would love to answer/validate why I think this. But I also think that, to do so would be a distraction from the main question.

I have often found that, when trying to answer the main question, I can be bombarded with, other questions of… “And what about this, and what about that, and what about this, and what about …..”

This is why I will try to keep my distractions to a minimum, and try to offer some evidence, as to why I believe that, God, is in fact, very much so Real.

My first piece of evidence that I would like to bring is, “Mankind, has a creative spark, that is not seen anywhere else in the animal kingdom.”

In my mind, this is just an undeniable fact. Mankind can do so much more than any other kind of animal.
I know that animals can do great things, but it is, to my thinking, that they have been given these abilities, in order to live in the environment that they live in. (Please, understand that this only the short version of the argument.)
Mankind, just does that much more than any other animal.
There are very few places where mankind is unable to go. Places where we shouldn’t even be able to live. We have been to the depths of the ocean, to the top of the world. We have even set foot on the moon! A place so baron and devoid of life, that without the technology we have created, it would kill us in an instant. Mankind is different.
The device you are reading this on (unless you have a printed copy) is an item that mankind has created from materials dug out of the earth.
The electricity that mankind has harnessed to power the said device.
The computing power that runs the device you are using.
The achievements of mankind are just staggering, if you just stop, and take a look at them.
How is it that mankind can be so creative, and do all that it has done?

My answer to this is, we are made in the image of God.

Genesis 1:27
²⁷ So God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

God is the Ultimate Creator (yes I know, some will say this is just my belief).
As we are created in God’s image, we also have a creative spark in us.
This to my mind, is why we are able to do all that we can do. This is why mankind is so different to the rest of the animal kingdom.

There is so much more I could write about this one alone, but I’ll try to stop there, and just ask, “Why is it, that mankind is so different to the rest of the animal kingdom?”
Do you have a different thought as to why why man is so different, that holds up better than, “It’s because we are made in the image of God”?

The second piece of evidence that I would like to present is, the world, and all creation itself. (You may have heard this one before.)
There is a balance at work in the world, that is just amazing. One entity’s waste product, is another entity’s life force.
We, as part of the animal kingdom, breath out carbon dioxide, which plants then take, and through photosynthesis then give back as oxygen. Which we, the animal kingdom need, to live.
Ones waste product is another’s life force!
This happens time and time again, when you just look into the natural world. To me, this just screams out that a creator, has made it this way, so that there is a balance, so that life itself, can exist.

Romans 1:19-20
¹⁹ since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

The third piece of evidence that I’m going to present today is, “Jesus Christ, The Lord God Almighty, incarnate as a man, who was killed on a cross, and then raised to life, three days later.”
I know, some would say that this should be the first piece of evidence, but I’m going with save the best for last.

If Jesus could be discredited, then it would have happened by now. Many people have tried, and failed to do so.
Lee Strobel is one such man. Lee Strobel was a devout atheist who became very unhappy when his wife became a Christian. (To put it mildly.) As an investigative journalist, he then set out to disprove Christianity, by disproving the resurrection.
Short version, he became a Christian. His testimony can be read in the book, “The Case For Christ”. If you don’t like reading, then you can watch it, it’s been made into a film.
To me, it’s one of those really good films based on real life. The evidence for Jesus being killed on the cross, and then being raised to life, three days later, is just staggering. If you will just look at it.

So there we have it, three pieces of evidence that, in my mind, declare that God, is in fact, very much so real.
There are many more proofs, also declaring that this is so.

But the question remains, “Will you acknowledge whether God is real, or not?”
I’m not asking you to ask God into your life at this point (but it’s going to follow on, very soon).

The question of “Is God real?”, is a question that, I feel, should be answered with an informed view, rather than the, “I don’t know” or “I don’t care” answers.

I do strangely think that an answer of “No, because …..” is a better answer than an answer of, “I don’t know” or “I don’t care.”
I will disagree with your answer of “No”, if that is your answer, but I will respect the fact, that you have a definitive answer, whilst debating the issue. (If I have the opportunity and permission to do so. 🙂 )
But I do understand and appreciate that you can disagree with my point of view, (beliefs). It’s called freedom of will, which we all have.

I’m starting to think that this could be one of those posts that I could try to write an entire book on, but I do think that now would be a good time to try and wrap things up. 🙂

I will try to finish by stating what I started with.
I Do believe that God is Very much so Real!
The evidence for this is just so overwhelming, that I can’t see there being any other possible option.

And now is the bit, that I told you was coming.
God is real. And He would Love to get to know you!
All you need to do, is to ask Him into your life.
The starting point could be to just ask, “If you really are real. God, then help me to see this. Help me to let You in.”
If you ask for His help, then He will be able lead and guide you on your journey.

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Posts with an Outreach feel
(For anyone, who would like to look further into the subject of, Is God Real?)