Tag: religion

Abundant Life

Teaching: Tools for Basic Bible Study – Part Two

Karen

Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.

If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.

Let’s get started:

From the Bible Study Guide

Where should we begin to read the Bible?

There are many strategies that one can take to read and understand the Bible. One successful strategy is to read the New Testament first, starting with one or more of the Four Gospels, then reading sequentially through Acts and the books referred to as the “Church Epistles” (Romans through Thessalonians). After that, read the rest of the New Testament. Another strategy is to read a Gospel such as Matthew and read the parallel records in the other Gospels at the same time (the references directing us to parallel sections are in good study Bibles), then read the Gospel of John, then read Acts, then the Church Epistles. It is a good idea when reading the Bible to keep a piece of paper handy, and write questions down that can be answered at a later time.

When it comes to reading the Old Testament, new readers often get stuck in the more difficult sections, so they never get to the easier and fun parts and really enjoy it. Begin reading the Old Testament knowing that each time you read it you will gain greater understanding. It is also good for the beginner to read the parts that are actual historical accounts. Genealogies, laws, and lists slow the reader down and break the story line. They will be necessary later, but are not helpful to the beginner. A proven way to start understanding the Bible is by reading Genesis; Exodus 1-20, 24, 32-34 and 40; Numbers 11-25 and 32; Deuteronomy 32:44-52 and 34; Joshua 1-12, 13:1 and 22-24; Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles 10 and following (but skip the lists of names) 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther.

Read the Old Testament this way a few times and you will begin to get a basic historical understanding of it. It is also helpful to read records in Samuel and Kings along with their parallel records in Chronicles to get the best understanding of both books. Many Bibles have cross references that make it easy to know where to read in Chronicles if you are reading Samuel or Kings, or vice versa.

Vodpod videos no longer available.


(If this video will not play for you, you can find the original file on this page).

If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about God’s wonderful message, please visit the Truth or Tradition website. You can also keep track of the ministry through their Facebook page.

Next week, part three. Thank you for visiting and God bless.

Abundant Life

Teaching: Tools for Basic Bible Study, Part One

Karen

Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.

If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.

Let’s get started:

From the Bible Study Guide

Where should we begin to read the Bible?

The Bible is a large book, and it may take years of reading it for a person to feel he has a grasp on it. The student of the Bible should be not be defeated by this, but rather make sure that he regularly takes time to read it. A large amount of the Bible is easy to read and understand, and anyone who reads it faithfully will know a lot in a short amount of time.

Furthermore, if the Bible is read in the same way as any other large book, perhaps an hour a day or a few days a week, which is a lot less than the TV most people watch, it should only take a few months at most to get all the way through it. By the time a person has read the Bible several times many things that were confusing at first will be much easier to understand. Most people do not dedicate much time to reading it, however, and many become discouraged by things they do not understand.

Reading a good Study Bible can make reading easier because some of the questions that beginning readers always seem to have are answered right in the notes on the page, and any accompanying maps and illustrations make it much easier to keep up with biblical record.

Some key points from the video:

Loving God with all your mind. God gave us a mind, we’re supposed to understand the Bible. The Bible says that we are supposed to meditate on it and get to know it.

We should take time out of our daily schedules to study the Bible. The Bible requires study just as any subject does.

If people do not learn the keys to the Bible, they are relegated to going to someone and asking them what they think it means.

One Key: natural curiosity or desire to learn. We want to read and develop a natural curiosity about it.

Vodpod videos no longer available.


(If this video will not play for you, you can find the original file on this page).

If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about God’s wonderful message, please visit the Truth or Tradition website. You can also keep track of the ministry through their Facebook page.

Next week, part two. Thank you for visiting and God bless.

Abundant Life

Teaching: How to Study the Bible

Karen

Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.

If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.

Let’s get started:

Last week, I posted a video and a link to an article about WHY we should study the bible. Here’s an excerpt from the Truth or Tradition “Bible Study Guide” about why we should study the Bible (this is a large PDF file and may take a few minutes to download, but please be patient, it’s WORTH it):

It is important to have the proper perspective about the Bible, and understand why we study it. In these modern times, individualism is highly esteemed, and it has become fashionable for people to read the Bible and ask, “What does this mean to me?” While that question is important, there is one much more important: “What is God saying?”

To answer the first question, “What does this mean to me” does not require any study of the Bible, for any passage of Scripture can mean any number of things to the person reading it. After all, it is simply his opinion. He could be either right or wrong about what the verse is actually saying, but of course it will mean something to him.

God did not author the Bible to be merely a tool for personal reflection and devotion, something we ponder over and are satisfied with what it means to us. No, God gave us His word for many reasons, including, to foster the personal relationship between Himself and us; so we could obey Him and thus have the best possible lives here on earth; so we could know how to build and maintain godly marriages, families, and societies; and so we could know the way of salvation and be assured of everlasting life. We can have these things in part or in whole if we know what God says in His Word and follow His commands. No one, including God, likes to be misunderstood. When we write a letter to someone, we want him to know what we meant, not just what he thought we meant. The Bible is God’s letter to mankind, and it is important we discover and understand what He means.

Finding out what God says and means requires study. Many Christians agree that the Word of God is “the Truth,” yet from one Bible come many differing interpretations of what “the Truth” is. It was never God’s intention that people read the same text and come away with different ideas about what it is saying. In Matthew 22:29, Jesus said to the Sadducees, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.” He did not say, “You Sadducees have your opinion, and I have mine, and both opinions are okay with God.” His reference to error implies that there is both a correct and an errant understanding of each verse of Scripture. Consider the following verse:

2 Timothy 2:15
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

“Correctly handles” is translated from the Greek compound verb, orthotomeo, which is built from the Greek root-words, ortho (straight) and temno (to cut). The idea is that there is a “straight cutting,” correctly handling (NIV) or right dividing (KJV), of the Word of God. There is a way to rightly divide God’s Word so that we get out of it what He intends, and not just our opinion. Also, just as there is a way to rightly divide the Word of God and handle it accurately, there is a way to incorrectly handle the Word and misunderstand or misinterpret it.

In order to rightly divide the Word, we must learn how to study it. And to learn how to study it, we must have tools with which to work with.

For the next eight weeks, I’ll be posting videos that talk about these tools. So, if you’ve ever had the desire to study the Bible but wasn’t sure where to start or how to go about it, stick around, this will be an informative eight weeks that I sincerely hope help and bless you.

For now, let’s begin with an overview of How to Study the Bible:

Vodpod videos no longer available.
(If this video will not play for you, you can find the original file on this page).

By the way, in case you’re curious, I use the NIV version – in fact, I LOVE the NIV version because it just clicks for me. And I also make notes in my Bible so when I go back and read those particular verses, my notes remind me what it’s really saying. Remember, the Bible is something that God has provided you to learn from and USE in your day-to-day life. Don’t be afraid of it, write in it, study it and enjoy it for it provides GREAT peace. 🙂

If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about God’s wonderful message, please visit the Truth or Tradition website. You can also keep track of the ministry through their Facebook page.

Thank you for visiting and God bless.

Abundant Life

Teaching: Why Study the Bible?

Karen

Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.

If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.

Let’s get started:

Over the past several weeks, I’ve posted various reasons why we can trust the bible and what is says; I’ve even posted an entry providing scientific evidence that the bible is true.

Really, what more proof do you want?

Now that we know we can trust the bible, that it is indeed a tool that God has provided us to live a more abundant life, we next have to ask the question, WHY study the bible? How exactly does it benefit you? How will it help you find peace and happiness?

Vodpod videos no longer available.
(If this video will not play for you, you can find the original file on this page).

In addition, I’d like to set the stage for upcoming teachings. Even though many Christian faiths study and use the Bible in their teachings, WHAT is taught is not always accurate or a true representation of what the Bible is REALLY teaching us. It truly is up to us, the individual Christian, to research and understand what the Bible is saying as opposed to just taking someone’s word for it – no matter how well educated or well intentioned the person might be, mistakes are made, misunderstandings happen and the Christian is left more confused than ever.

Here’s an excerpt from a wonderful, and in-depth article that lists “22 Principles of Biblical Interpretation: How to Eliminate Apparent Bible Contradictions.”

Many Christians agree that the Word of God is “the Truth.” Yet from one Bible come thousands of differing interpretations about exactly what “the Truth” is. It was never God’s intention that people read the same document and come away with different ideas about what it is saying. God wants us all to be likeminded about His Word.

1 Corinthians 1:10
I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.

One of the major reasons why people have different ideas concerning what the Bible says is that they use different rules or standards for interpreting it. We believe that the following principles, called “canons of interpretation” are essential to understand and apply if there is to be any hope of Christians getting to the truth when they read the Bible.

In order to understand future Teaching posts here on WFK, I hope you’ll consider reading the rest of the article. As it’s necessary to understand the rules of English before learning the language, it’s necessary to understand the correct way to approach the Bible before you can learn, and live, it.

If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about God’s wonderful message, please visit the Truth or Tradition website. You can also keep track of the ministry through their Facebook page.

Thank you for visiting and God bless.

Abundant Life

Teaching: Scientific Evidence That the Bible is True

Karen

Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.

If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.

Let’s get started:

If you don’t believe what the bible says, then how can you build a foundation for your faith or live the abundant life God wishes for you? Last week I posted about what the bible says about itself -it’s God-breathed and recorded by men.

This week, I’m posting a video about how there is scientific evidence that not only is the bible God-breathed and authored by God, but that God talks about things that have been scientifically proven in recent (hundreds of) years. For example, God describes to Job (which, incidentally is the oldest book in the bible!), about the Hydrologic cycle. Now of course, any grade-school student can tell you about the cycle of water, but 4,000 years ago they wouldn’t have POSSIBLY known about what the cycle was or how it worked.

God also reveals that clouds are heavy. It wasn’t until very recently that scientists discovered that clouds do indeed weigh tons and yet, they float. How then could men, mere mortals, know about these things loooooong before it was widely known or even proven?

The Bible is not a science textbook. Nevertheless, it is accurate when it mentions facts within the realm of science. Furthermore, the Bible contains physical knowledge about the world that was not generally known when the writers recorded the words of God. God created the heavens and the earth, and He intimately knows all about His creation. He simply told His prophets about the nature of earth and the universe, and they wrote down the scientific information He gave them.

Although the Bible is not a science textbook, it has some startling scientific information in it—startling primarily because at the time it was written, the information was not known to human beings.

The hydrologic cycle
The fact that water is drawn up from the earth into the air and later comes down as rain was not known in ancient times. Yet God made it clear in His written Word.

Job 36:27 and 28
(27) He draws up the drops of water, which distill as rain to the streams;
(28 ) the clouds pour down their moisture and abundant showers fall on mankind.
Ecclesiastes 1:7
All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.

How could writers who lived hundreds of years before Christ know scientific information that we have learned about only in the last centuries? God, who created the heavens and the earth, told them.

The water in clouds
It was not generally known by ancient man that clouds are full of water. The association between clouds and rain was known because it rains only when it is cloudy, but it was definitely not known that even in good weather the fleecy clouds hold literally tons of water, something Job alluded to when he spoke of the “weight” of the clouds.

Job 26:8
He wraps up the waters in his clouds, yet the clouds do not burst under their weight.

Job 37:11
He loads the clouds with moisture; he scatters his lightning through them.

Because water is heavier than air, clouds have to be “balanced” in the sky. This is not readily apparent to those of us on the ground. It is generally assumed that clouds float because they are lighter than the air, but actually there is a lot of complex physics behind the clouds floating in the air. God spoke of this “balance” to Job some 4,000 years ago:

Job 37:16
Do you know how the clouds hang poised, those wonders of him who is perfect in knowledge?

Job 37:16 (Amplified Version)
Do you know how the clouds are balanced…?

You can read the rest of this article here.

And these are just a few examples of God’s wonderful proof that His word is true and can be trusted. Watch the video below for more physical and scientific proof that the bible can be trusted.

Vodpod videos no longer available.
(If this video will not play for you, you can find the original file on this page).

If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about God’s wonderful message, please visit the Truth or Tradition website. You can also keep track of the ministry through their Facebook page.

Thank you for visiting and God bless.

Abundant Life

Teaching: What the Bible Says About Itself

Karen

Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.

If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.

Let’s get started:

If you don’t believe what the bible says, then how can you build a foundation for your faith or live the abundant life God wishes for you? Two weeks ago, I posted a link about how you can trust the written word. The video showed you “the tree” and how the bible was copied and passed through the generations, and translated into Greek, Arabic, and Latin and that even though there were mistakes in copying these manuscripts, we have used our technology of today to compare all of these manuscripts (24,000 in just the Greek translations alone!), find and compare the discrepancies of all of these manuscripts and whittle the word back down to it’s original text. In fact, through the scholars’ work, the text we study today is 99% pure – it’s 99% of the original manuscripts. So to say the bible we study today has been distorted and is no longer right or true, is simply not a logical presumption.

There are some out there that claim the bible wasn’t written by God but was written by men. This week, I’d like to post a video about what the bible says about itself – it’s God-Breathed and recorded by men, the scriptures didn’t come from men, they were recorded by men. Knowing this, understanding this, will enable you to trust the bible and therefore WANT to live your life by the bible, thereby pleasing God.

The Bible is the best selling book of all time.

It has been a source of strength and hope for countless numbers of people through the ages. While there have always been critics of the Bible, since the mid-1800s it has come under increasing attack, especially from scholars.

The situation today is that many seminaries do not teach that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, but instead teach that it is at best the writing of great men. This sentiment has grown in Christian circles to the point that even many churches do not teach the Bible, and many church people no longer consider the Bible their standard for faith and practice.

The men who wrote down Scripture said they got their information directly from God. Thus, the Bible claims to be the very words of God. It claims to be true and right. The records in the Bible are presented as actual occurrences, not fables or fairytales.

Often skeptics try to lessen the weight of their criticisms about the Bible by saying, Even though it is not the words of God, it is still a good book with lots of valuable lessons. Make no mistake; if the Bible is not what it says it is, it is not a good book at all-it is a pack of lies and the men who wrote it were colossal liars.

The best way for you to decide whether you can believe the Bible is to weigh the evidence for yourself. I trust that when all of it has been loaded onto the scales, you will find that the Bible is reliable, trustworthy, and 100% believable.

You can find this teaching here, or subscribe to the Truth or Tradition podcast here.

What the Word says about itself.

Vodpod videos no longer available.
(If this video will not play for you, you can find the original file on this page).

If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about God’s wonderful message, please visit the Truth or Tradition website. You can also keep track of the ministry through their Facebook page.

Thank you for visiting and God bless.

Abundant Life

Teaching: Trust the Written Word

Karen

Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.

If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.

Let’s get started:

Last week, I posted a video about faith. This week, I’ll like to expound on that by providing a link to an audio teaching about trust and a video about how we can trust the written word.

Faith is a vital topic in Christian circles, and is apparently something almost everyone wishes he had more of. Faith is basically “trust,” and this teaching breaks down the subject of trust by providing a practical exploration of its four components: character, competency, consistency, and cohesion. Starting with the first relationship He had with mankind, God has woven trust into the very fabric of all relationship, and we must understand its role in order to develop healthy and godly relationships.

This teaching will prompt you to examine yourself and consider the following questions: Are you generally a trusting or a distrusting person? Have you ever trusted when you shouldn’t have or not trusted when you should have? Do you have relationships that you would like to see improve but are not sure where the problem is? Do you want to increase your trust in God, or have you ever considered whether God should trust you? Trust us, this teaching by Dan Gallagher will bless you.

You can download this audio teaching here, or subscribe to the Truth or Tradition podcast here.

Did you know you can trust the bible?

Vodpod videos no longer available.
(If this video will not play for you, you can find the original file on this page).

If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about God’s wonderful message, please visit the Truth or Tradition website. You can also keep track of the ministry through their Facebook page.

Thank you for visiting and God bless.

____________________________

Blog-a-thon '08 at writefromkaren.com