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Voice Note: Trying to unfreeze my mind after the COVID pandemic, and talking about what I’ve studied about the Second Coming of Christ
There are 2 parts to today’s voice note.
Voice Note Part 1:
Voice Note Part 2:
Transcript:
Hi. I’m still having this flare-up of eosinophilic esophagitis and I’ve lost my voice. So today I was going to talk a little bit about that. And I was also going to talk about, I’ve posted on here, how um. What was going on at the time that I started reading the Bible was when I heard about Jesus’ return. So, about His second coming, so I was going to talk a little bit about that. As
Again, I’m having this really bad flare-up of eosinophilic esophagitis. I’m having trouble concentrating, so I’m hoping that by starting to do these voice notes, maybe I can kind of talk through some things here and get my brain working again.
Because I’m realizing I really haven’t updated since the time of COVID a few years ago. I’m trying to unfreeze from the stress of that. because of what was happening to people, and I had an autoimmune condition, so I was very concerned about it. So trying to get those gears turning in your mind again after the pandemic. I think it’s just wondering how many other people are having trouble kind of waking your mind up after that.
Things are back to normal here. You can go places again. It has been that way for a long time. Just uh my brain hasn’t updated from that yet. And so What I was going to be talking about today as you have a, if you’re familiar at all with the polyvagal theory about fight, flight, and freeze. The polyv..It’s hard to say. The Polyvagal Theory is by Stephen Porges. There’s books about that. But these fight-flight-freeze responses are there to warn you of danger it’s defensive systems. And It’s about resolving threats. If there’s a threat, You either fight or flee, and if you can’t do that, then you freeze. You’re trying to wait for the threat to pass. So I’ve gotten stuck in freeze. And. There are…Well, what I’m trying to…uh connect together here is thinking about that feeling that I had when the COVID pandemic was happening, that panic that you have because you don’t know how bad things are going to get. You don’t know if you’re going to get it or what’s going to happen. It reminded me of that terror feeling I had in the 90s when there was talk of the world ending in 2000. And that’s why I was going to try and talk about some of that today. Try and sort through it.
I had posted on here that I’ve studied a lot about the second coming of Jesus. That was why I started studying the Bible and we don’t know when that will happen. And so, let me just try and start here. Well, what I’m saying, we’re preparing to meet God, whether that’s um when we die and we meet him at that point or whether his return happens in our lifetime and so we can’t know when that will happen. It could be another thousand years from now. Or it could be today, and that’s why we’re supposed to be preparing for that. So That’s where I’m going with it, just to let you know that. And then I was going to try and talk through…
Again, what I’m experiencing is if I’m trying to update my mind from COVID, There’s still that feeling there now. I think everybody’s still sensing that this world is passing away. We’re getting closer to the end of it and there’s still that. I still experience that feeling of terror with it. We’re not supposed to have that feeling with it. Sometimes by talking about it just acknowledging that you still are feeling those things that you can work through them
[05:00] so let me try to get my thoughts together. Again I was born in 1982, so in the mid-90s was when I was in middle school, so that was around the 4th or 5th grade time well it was around the 4th or 5th grade when I was getting confused and was. I had tried praying and there were things that were happening that I wasn’t understanding. And that’s when God had started leading me towards studying the Bible, and then it was when I got into the sixth grade. which would have been like 1994, 1995, was when the talk of the world ending had started.
And I think I had heard that Jesus was returning before that had started happening, but I had not heard anything about it being terrifying or something to be afraid of then you started seeing all these sensationalized things. You’d see videos in Youth Group or, you know, where about like the rapture where people were taken away, and some people were taken away and some people were left. And it was very disturbing and then you know how it happens when Then people would be saying different things. I think I heard someone say that they thought that Jesus was going to return during a thunderstorm. So, I remember there was one night I had written about this in an earlier post on here, and there was a thunderstorm. And I was having a panic attack you feel that uh it was a feeling of terror and I didn’t think that Jesus was returning right then. What was happening was I was hearing things that I didn’t know whether they were true or not. and I didn’t know what to do, so then I had asked my mom about it. She was saying that yes, she had heard that Jesus was returning. But That she hadn’t heard it talked about in the way that it was starting to be talked about. She was surprised by what was happening with how…How scary and disturbing some of those things were in the way that it was being talked about.
That was when I was realizing, okay, so I need to study more about this. This is what I’m going to do. So the first thing I was learning was, okay, Jesus is returning. And then again, it was at that time where I remember the feeling I had when people were saying things that they were saying were in the Bible and it didn’t sound right to me, but I didn’t know. I remember that feeling of not knowing what was in the Bible when what really was in there. How am I going to know what’s right if I haven’t read it? How will I know if something is in there or not if I haven’t read it myself? That was part of what God was leading me to of you need to read it.
And so, one day after school, I asked my mom to take me to the bookstore. I went over to the section with religious books in it. There was a section about Revelation, so I thought that was okay. Then I got a book. It was titled something about Revelation. So I thought, you know, I’ve got a book. I’m going to go home and then I’ll study. And that was I realized that you cannot just do that. You can’t go get one that says that it’s about Revelation. So I had taken my book out there with me onto the deck. I took my Border Collie Chloe out there with me. I realized I don’t know that the book was going to be helpful. But the Bible that I was using was the NIV Zondervan Study Bible. So I thought, okay, well, I’ll start just reading through Revelation, and I’ll read through these study notes. And it was really helpful.
[10:00] And again, I knew when I was reading it that I was not understanding everything that I was reading. But I got a sense of comfort from it, that God was in control of whatever was going to happen. I was able to see that certain things I was hearing that I’m not mentioning on here because they were not accurate. I was hearing all kinds of different stuff. I’m not going to say those things because they weren’t accurate, but I was able to see that those things were not in there. And I remember feeling comforted, but I remember when I was reading it that it was saying that there was going to be A lot of things that were going to be happening that were painful.
So I got a mixture of comfort and then seeing the seriousness of what was being written about there. And… I’m not a Bible scholar or a pastor, so in terms of like interpreting the prophecies I would point you to the pastors and theologians that I’ve been reading. So I read, you know, Matthew Henry, and Calvin, Spurgeon and people like that that can go through the verses and talk about those things.
And what I can talk about now. Let me look at my notes here. So again What I’m trying to work through here and talk through here is you’re trying to get these warning signals, the amplification of those warning signals to be turned down in my mind and trying to wake up your mind from the pandemic the fight, flight, or freeze. Those things get set off if there’s a danger or a life threat. And so we’re trying to Wake up from COVID and then…the the return of Jesus and also it registers it can register with that part of your mind too as a life threat even though you know because we’re talking about the end of the world and everything, and if we can talk through it and sort through it, then we can turn down those warning signals about it. And again, I’m not a scholar or a theologian, so I would point you to the people I’m studying to go through the prophecies in Revelation. But again, it’s helped to learn a lot about just what is and what are we waiting for, what will happen there and there are places that you can, or other things you can study about in the Bible that can help you get an idea of that such as, Jesus uses a phrase that’s something like, talks about a day of renewal. So if Jesus is your king, if you’ve submitted to him as your Lord and your God, Then we’re longing for his appearance, and I do long for that, so I have that happening. We’re longing for that. Then we also have this fear that goes with it. A lot of that can be, again, just hearing these things talked about that sound disturbing. And you can be comforted by going to the scriptures. So if we take a step back from it and just think, okay, so what is it that’s happening and why? So remember that God created the world perfect. There was no sin, no death. Then Adam and Eve sinned. And they were cast out of the Garden of Eden so that they would not eat of the Tree of Life and live forever in that condition. And God provided a Redeemer, Jesus, to save us from our sins, cleanse us of our sins, and give us that righteousness to make us He’s making us acceptable in God’s sight. God was reconciling us to himself through Jesus.
And then we’re being taken into that what I’m still learning about why it’s a more exalted state of friendship that John Gill talks about that we’re being taken into a more exalted state of friendship with God through our union with Jesus and we get to…our reward is we get to live forever in heaven with Jesus and we’ll see God face to face.
[15:00] That’s one thing that has really helped me to learn more about. It was in a Spurgeon sermon. I can’t remember the title of it, but it was one that he was talking about that something clicked with my mind in realizing really being able to form a concept of in my mind we’re going to be fully alive in heaven. And we’re going to have a life there, I think that these are things that I just hadn’t really sat down and thought about. And when you’re not doing that, you may not realize what image your mind has of it when you think of heaven like. Maybe you just had an image of like a sunset where you’re just at peace.
But I knew I would be reunited with loved ones there, so we know we’re going to be able to talk and everything there. But if you…Again, something clicked in that sermon of seeing that we really are going to be fully alive there. We’re reunited with our loved ones. We’re going to meet all of the saints in heaven. And that will be when we get there it’s like the beginning of eternity if that’s the way to say it like you’re You’re going into eternity. It’s forever. You’ll be there forever. It’s like hundreds of millions of endless years there. We’re going to have a life there. We’re going be walking and talking and having new experiences, and it really helped me to think of that.
And the reason that we still have a mediator now is that we’re still in a sinful condition. We have to be transformed, cleansed of our sin nature, transformed and made fit to be living in heaven. We wouldn’t have. God didn’t want Adam and Eve to live forever in that condition they were in after they had sinned and He doesn’t want us to live forever like that. We’re going to be transformed.
So there’s that’s one passage you can study to be learning about that can bring you comfort and help you get An idea in your mind of what we’re waiting for is 1 Corinthians 15. And that helped me learn about what the last day is. It’s actually Resurrection Day. It’s Judgment Day, you might have heard of it that way, but also it’s Resurrection Day. which I’m realizing I’ve already been talking for a while and I’m going to try and summarize it quickly here. So there was one phrase that I was reading in the older commentaries. It said the intermediate state of the soul. Well, what does that mean? And it went along with this chapter, 1 Corinthians 15, if you read through it, what you’re learning about is that…Remember, as human beings, what are we? We’re a spirit that has a body. So, or a soul with the body. And then at death, the body and soul are separated. So the body returns to dust. But the soul is preserved it’s not harmed at all and the soul will live eternally in heaven. So, if someone’s a Christian, at the time of death, their soul separates from their body and is taken to heaven, and that’s the intermediate state of the soul, where the soul and the body are separated.
There’s different interpretations of different passages about what actually happens in the intermediate state of the soul, some people think that they’re asleep in Christ, not aware of what’s going on. There are other passages that would that I tend to agree with that they’re in a state where they’re aware of what’s going on. Some pastors wonder if they’ve gone into all of heaven yet or if they’re in like a waiting area there and the After the last day when all of the saints are there in heaven,
[20:00] then we all go into heaven together. I can’t remember where I read that but someone was saying that. So there’s different ideas about what it is.
So everyone who passes away before the last day, their soul is separated from their body. And the last day It’s Resurrection Day, where the body will be resurrected. And rejoined to the soul. We’re transformed. So again, there’s too many things to be trying to explain quickly. But they’ll be…their body will be made fit for the heavenly realms. We’re supposed to be meditating and wondering what that will be like and what it will feel like to have a transformed body and to be fit for living in heaven. And the so Everyone will be raised to life and then the judgment will take place. There’s a lot of chapters and things to be talking about here, but that’s the…you can read through there and start it comforts me to get an idea of like what we’re waiting for so that’s one thing to study about is the intermediate state of the soul and Resurrection Day. And then, again, remembering why this earth is passing away and it’s because that force of sin entered into it and it causes death and decay in people and in the creation. So God had created it perfect. Adam and Eve sinned and were cast out of the Garden of Eden, but they were provided with a Redeemer. And from that point until the last day, people are being given a chance to accept that free pardon and be adopted as children of God, and to get to go to that heavenly kingdom. And many people will have passed away and their souls will already be in heaven before that last day. So…When Jesus returns, that’s the last day, and there will still be Christians alive on the last day. And there are passages that explain that they will be taken up into the air. And then, that’s when the earth John Gill you’ve heard of the great conflagration. So it’s interesting when you’re reading about it there are eminent pastors like John Owen that talk about that the elements of the earth they think will be just melted down and then the earth will be reformed perfect.
So again, the process is taking place, or it’s God’s cleansing it from sin. So he’s cleansing people from sin that have believed in him, and accepted that free pardon they’ll be cleansed from it and the earth is being cleansed…possibly melted down and reformed, then you have the new heavens and the new earth, that renewal of everything, and we’ll be living forever in perfect peace and rest, with transformed bodies that are not going to get tired, or they’re not going to get sick, they’re not going to grow old. And we’ll be in the new heavens and the new earth totally cleansed from all effects of sin.
And we’ll be fully alive, living, having new experiences, getting to see God face to face, hearing him when he talks. And we’ll get to see what heaven’s like and what life’s going to be like there. And that’s supposed to be the, like, the thing we’re focusing our mind on. When we’re meditating, we’re supposed to spend a lot of time. We’re supposed to spend a lot of time wondering about that, wondering what it’s going to be like.
But the reason why the world is ending is in order to get to that everything has to be cleansed of the effects of the fall so we’re remembering that whatever is specifically going to happen with it God’s sovereign over it. And He loves us and Remember the verse is, well, we’re not having to convince an angry God to love us. He loved us so much that he sent Jesus to us as a redeemer to make that way for us to be reconciled to him. The verse that you’re at John 3:16 that you’ve probably heard, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” So, again, it brings you comfort to think about what the process is that’s going on. God had created it perfect. Then there was this sin that entered and was corrupting everything, decaying everything, and brought about death, and he’s…working to correct that. I was trying to remember. I was thinking about something else while I was talking that there’s a verse The last enemy to be conquered is death and you conquer death by we’re going to be eternally alive. So “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” So these are all things that you can be learning about to find comfort in. And then there are passages in Revelation that I could talk about that. of what’s going to happen after that. So you have the last day here, the last day of Earth. But remember, that’s the…
then we will be in eternity and something that um helps to learn about is the Marriage Supper of the Lamb so we’ll all be there for that’s I’m running out of time to be trying to summarize all of these things, but those are things you can learn about. what all is going to be happening in heaven that has been revealed to us in the scriptures. So again, it’s the process of preserving a people for himself, everybody that’s believing in Jesus and that We get to go to that heavenly kingdom, the new heavens and the new earth, where Everything will be perfect. There will be no effects of sin there. It will be a perfect peace and rest forever.
[00:00] So I needed to start a new recording here because the app that I use to make transcripts, it’ll do it for a 30 minute recording.
So, I was…talking I didn’t realize I had been talking that long but again I’m trying to sort through my thoughts here and I hope you’re seeing what I’m saying about there are things we can study about that can bring us comfort. And, um, There were a few more things in my notes here that I was going to mention where I was reading Matthew Henry’s commentary and I was starting out with that. I was starting in Genesis. And I was reading in Genesis 1, I think it was there, that he had these notes about this. He was writing about the creation, how God created the world. It was either there nor in Genesis when, with Noah and the flood. So, what’s going to happen when he talks about is…
As the old world was destroyed by water, this world will be destroyed by fire. So the flood that happened the last time is a sign of what’s going to happen at the end. And what happened in the flood with water will happen with fire at the end.
And Matthew Henry was writing about that flood in Noah’s time. the flood happened where the waters below and waters above so the floodwaters on the earth and then rain from above and he said something that kind of just stunned me or stopped my mind when he was saying that he has noticed that everything may be in place already for the destruction of the world at the end. I shouldn’t say destruction, but the end of the world. Because there’s fire below is lava. Like that you see come out. You’ve seen that for a volcano, there’s lava in the earth and lightning from above. And so that may be how it happens. He was saying that might be what happens, that maybe lava flows up and there’s lightning from above. But he also said something that was comforting. I’m saying that he’s saying that as the old world was destroyed by water, this world will be destroyed by fire. And you need to be found in Christ, the ark. So again, when you start studying the Bible, you’ll see that everything is There’s so much imagery where a sign uh it’s something that happens is a sign of something to come. So, you can look to that picture of Noah and his family in the ark. They were safe from the flood.
So there is safety from what’s going to be happening on the last day. So that’s Christ. He’s our Ark of Refuge. So you can go to Him your He’s your Savior, your God, and you will be kept safe from any destruction that’s going to be happening. So, God has his arms outstretched to humankind. He’s offering them that free pardon by grace. And then, if you accept that, you get to go into Christ as your ark of safety, and as that ark protected Noah and his family from the floodwaters, we’ll be protected from the fire that’s going to happen at the end.
And again, we can’t know whether that will happen in our lifetime or not. So hopefully It’s been helpful to talk through these things. I know it’s helping me clear my thoughts.
Because again, if one thing that I’m experiencing, if I’m getting my mind to update from the COVID pandemic and see that, okay, I’m still here. You’re waking up and you still have that sense that we’re getting closer to the end. There’s well like for example, with the COVID pandemic that happened. I think we all just have that sense that it’s moving in that direction because we know, literally we know that it is. We’re one day closer to that. But we can’t know when it will happen.
but we’re supposed to be preparing for it. One way to prepare for it is to study what has been revealed about it. You will find a lot of comfort in that. Um. And again, we’re preparing to meet God, whether His return happens in our lifetime or not. We know that we’re going to be there standing before God one day.
We’re longing for that. We’re getting ready for that. We’re learning about what it means to go through the sanctification process and be made fit. And be made fit for heaven.
So, thank you for listening. I think I’ll stop there for today. And I really hope you can hear me. I hope these voice notes and I hope the transcripts are helpful. And I’ll post again sometime soon. Thanks.
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“Master, Use Me” by Elisha A. Hoffman
Hymnal Page Scan: Harp of Zion: for the Sunday-school and church page 108 | Hymnary.org
Audio Recording:
1 Send me forth, O blessed Master!
where are souls in sorrow bow’d,
Send me forth to homes of want and homes of care.
And with joy I will obey the call, and in Thy blessed name
I will take the blessed light of the gospel there.Refrain:
Call me forth to active service.
And my prompt response shall be,
“Here am I! send me;”
I am ready to report for orders, Master, summon me,
And I’ll go on any errand of love for Thee.2 There are lives that may be brighten’d by a word of hope and cheer,
There are souls with whom life’s blessings I should share;
There are hearts that may be lightened of the burdens which they bear;
Let me take the blessed hope of the gospel there. [Refrain]3 There is work within the vineyard, there is service to be done,
There’s a message of salvation to declare;
Send me forth to tell the story to the homes of sinful men;
Let me take the blessed Christ of the gospel there. [Refrain]4 Oh, I would not be an idler in the vineyard of the Lord;
With the Christ the vineyard-labor I would share;
Into hearts that know not Jesus I would speak the saving word;
Let me take the blessed joy of the gospel there. [Refrain] -
“From Every Stormy Wind” by Hugh Stowell
Hymnal Page Scan: Our Great Redeemer’s Praise page 526 | Hymnary.org
Audio Recording:
1 From ev’ry stormy wind that blows,
from ev’ry swelling tide of woes,
there is a calm, a sure retreat,
’tis found beneath the mercy seat.2 There is a place where Jesus sheds
the oil of gladness on our heads,
a place than all besides more sweet;
it is the blood-bought mercy seat.3 There is a scene where spirits blend,
where friend holds fellowship with friend,
though sunder’d far, by faith they meet
around one common mercy seat.4 Ah! whither could we flee for aid,
when tempted, desolate, dismayed?
How would the hosts of hell defeat,
had suff’ring saints no mercy seat!5 There, there, on eagle wings we soar,
and sin and sense seem all no more,
and heav’n comes down, our souls to greet,
While glory crowns the mercy seat! -
Voice Note: “The Life of God in the Soul of Man” by Henry Scougal Part 1
I accidentally pushed stop when I was recording. So there are 2 parts to today’s voice note.
Voice Note Part 1:
Voice Note Part 2:
Links: Henry Scougal: Life of God in the Soul of Man – Christian Classics Ethereal Library
“Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise” by Walter C. Smith – Learning to Live by Faith
“I Shall Be Like Him” by William A. Spencer – Learning to Live by Faith
Transcript:
[00:00] Hi Thank you for listening. I hope that you can hear me.
I was planning to talk today about a sermon by George Whitefield. It’s called Walking with God. And we’ve been working with that imagery of seeing ourselves as sheep with a shepherd.
walking on that pathway with God. There’s a lot of really helpful information in that sermon. When I went to look it up, I was looking up about George Whitefield, and I remembered that he said, it’s said about him that, It was by reading this letter called The Life of God in the Soul of Man. That he was converted. That was part of his conversion when he read that letter. It reminded me of that letter. So then I went to look that up. And it has some things in there that I think I’ll talk about that today first.
So this is what I’ll do. It’s like…I had posted those chapter reviews earlier on the website. I’ll go through the chapter. We’re only going to go through a little bit of it today. So again, this is called The Life of God in the Soul of Man by Henry Scougal. I think that’s how you pronounce his last name. It’s S-C-O-U-G-A-L. I’ll post a link of it on here. It has three parts to it. Part one is called On Religion, The Natural and Divine Life.
and the exemplification of divine love in our blessed Savior.
And As I’m trying to get my thoughts together to explain why I was going to want to talk about this today. I was talking in earlier posts about we’re trying to get a real clear image in our head of what we’re doing. who we are, who God is, who we are. what we’re waiting for here. So we’re humans. We’re part of the fallen human race. We’re here. In this life, we’re offered that free pardon, free grace from God to be forgiven of all of our sins. We’re adopted as His children, brought into His kingdom, and our reward is we get to go to heaven and live forever with God in heaven. So, right now. So we’re here on Earth. As a result of the fall of Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden of Eden, for humankind, our spiritual understandings were darkened. And so it’s the Holy Spirit that convinces us of our own sin and our need of God. and then at regeneration, this new principle of divine life is implanted in you. And that’s where you get your desire for spiritual things. I think George Whitefield talks about this in his sermon Walking With God, that’s why I was going to talk about that sermon today.
But then I remembered this letter. I think it might be important first. to again just work on forming that concept in your mind that right now we’re on earth And the spiritual world is invisible to us. So… God is…God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God the Son, Jesus, is our mediator, mediating in between us and God. And so. there’s that verse that says, “now we know in part, then we will know in full, even as we are fully known.” So, sometimes it helps to think of things in human terms and you can apply it to God. So…If there was this invisible person that was living in a house, and you went to that invisible person’s house, Let me say first, like, the concept that I’m still learning about is we’re supposed to be seeking God. We’re supposed to be wanting to learn about Him and know Him. So he’s not, I remember how I said I thought of him as a help-line, and he is, but, so he is someone to contact in times of distress, but we’re also supposed to have this relationship to Him. The benefits of our salvation are that we’re brought into this covenant with God.
[05:00] Where he’s a father to us and we’re sons and daughters to him. And while we’re not in heaven yet, we don’t have our full reward. We can start here. living that life of having the communion that we can have with him while we’re on earth. That’s what we’re supposed to be seeking. So again, if you think of it in human terms, if there was an invisible person living in the house and you went to go visit them, You would be wanting to get to know them, you would ask questions about them. You would be wanting to talk to them. You want to know, who is this? And it’s the same thing. That you’ll hear about in the older commentaries. Like, I would think to do that with a person, but for some reason it doesn’t click with your mind that you’re supposed to be doing that about God. So sometimes when you think of it that way, then you can say, ah yes, that is what we’re supposed to be doing. We’re supposed to be inquiring about him, wanting to know who he is. You know, if you meet a new person, you want to know, okay, what do they like? What are their interests? What is important to them? And God tells us all of that in the Bible. And you can be hearing from him when you’re praying to him. He does still speak to us. He answers us. You can get a sense in your heart of a response from him. So, that’s one thing to remember that…
And remember, one of his attributes is that God is love. So, we have this loving Father that we’re supposed to be building communion with. rather than like an angry God that we’re trying to appease with what we’re doing. So I think we’re aware of our sinfulness. And we expect God to be angry with us, but remember it’s free grace by free grace that we’re saved, and he wants us to be in that relationship with him.
So I’ll read to you the sentence that stood out to me in this writing of the Life of God in the Soul of Man. It’s a letter where he’s going to be writing about what true religion is. And he was saying that, and he starts out by talking about that few people understand what it really means, what true religion really means. If they’re giving an account of their religion, they often list out duties or performances of religion. or what they so he’s saying that these things which have any resemblance of piety at the best are but means of obtaining it, or particular exercises of it, frequently mistaken for the whole of religion.
So as I’m having trouble getting my thoughts together here but this is again what I’m trying to work on to get my brain working again uh he was saying that people were listing out external duties of religion. Like If you’re frequently praying or going to church or giving offerings, those are means like ways of obtaining piety or exercises of religion frequently mistaken for the whole of religion. What we’re trying to do is we’re trying to know God. And there’s one phrase that they use in the older commentaries that You’re supposed to operate and everything you’re supposed to be doing is out of love for God. And If you’re like me, then when I heard that phrase, I thought, what do you mean? It’s not that I didn’t love God, it’s just that I knew they were talking about something more than what I was familiar with or another way of thinking of it or a more expanded way of thinking of it. And what he’s saying is that you don’t want to be following the law the law of God just because there is a law. You’re supposed to Be admiring the law and love it because of its holy and righteous and good. And you want to follow God because you love him. You’re praising him for his righteousness and all of his attributes, and you’re joyfully following him out of love to him, and everything you’re doing is out of love to him.
[00:00] So I think that the point that I’m trying to make is that we’re remembering that Jesus has already offered the atoning sacrifice for our sins. So everything that we’re doing in religion, it’s not to redeem ourselves or to make up for anything that we’ve done. or to appease God like that. Jesus has already made that sacrifice for us, what we are doing is we’re trying to know God, we’re following Him, we’re following our loving Father, and we’re trying to get to know Him. We’re wanting to commune with Him. And There’s a lot of verses in the Bible about meditating on God’s law day and night, and in the Psalms you read about it says, …I love the law of the Lord, it’s righteous and good. And it’s supposed to be joyful to us to be following after him.
And this goes along with the next chapter, if you’ve been able to read the chapter summaries from the book by Hannah Whittal Smith, the God of all comfort, that the next chapter in there she’s going to be talking about God as a Father. So it’s this concept that we’re working on getting in our minds of instead of an angry God that has requirements of us. You have this loving Father that wants to spend time with you. but he already knows you. That’s one thing to think about when you’re meditating on God on his throne. You’re meditating on the Almighty God on His throne. And remember that He knows your name. Like he knows your name. He’s watched over you your entire life. And he’s a loving father to you.
And that’s what they’re talking about in terms of everything that you’re doing throughout your life. Every day is motivated by…Love to God and love…your thankfulness for what he’s done for you, your wanting to follow him.
So one thing Matthew Henry talks about it, I think, and they all talk about it. When you’re praying, are you experiencing God? Because everything that he’s laid out for us to do like as we’re going through the sanctification process like scripture reading prayer when you’re spending time with God it’s so that’s we’ll be blessed by it. we’re transformed by it. It’s there for our benefit. So that’s one thing that helped me to be learning about them, because you know where I started out when I was in, you know, fourth or fifth grade. leading up to studying and then I’m still learning about it through life you’re wondering about uh It’s that thing if something in your life wasn’t prevented or if you have things that you’re going through If you have chronic illnesses you’re struggling with your health, there’s a sense that I know God loves me and it’s that you’ve got to really feel that. And
There’s a verse where Jesus says, “Abide in my love.” And I’m learning how to do that. Really knowing and feeling that God loves us. and living our lives out of, you know, our love to him. Everything’s motivated by that.
So it took me a while to get my thoughts going on that one, but I think I was able to explain what I was hoping to talk about.
And why that sentence stood out to me, let me find it here, was that he was saying that the… the…
Duties of religion are, he says again, thus are these things which have any resemblance of piety. And at the best are but means of obtaining it, or particular exercises of religion, frequently mistaken for the whole of religion. So That’s that thing, is again, for some reason when I’m reading the sentence, I’m forgetting what I’m trying to say. But It’s saying that if you spend. So.
This is what I found when I started studying the Bible on my own and really spending time with it. Saying that…
Have you experienced God in those exercises? Are you praying, getting to know him when you’re reading the Bible?
[05:00] Are you reading it? waiting to feel a leading of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes you have to wait, and spend a little more time with it, and then make sure. Have you experienced God in what you are doing? That’s what you’re going for, and once you have a moment of that, you’ll know what it is, and then…uh you can keep seeking after that. Because when I started reading the Bible, I was only in about the sixth grade, I think it was the sixth grade. And I knew when I read through it the first time that I was not understanding everything. But I was communing with God, and the Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit. So you’re hearing his voice. You’re getting familiar with the voice of God. You’re spending time with him. And he speaks to you through his word. He’ll show you things in there. And that was happening. One thing, the first time I read through the Bible, that stood out to me especially when you get to the books of the prophets. They’re there at the end of the Old Testament, uh I was recognizing that this is the same voice of God that’s there in the New Testament so they, there’s harmony, they go together, and if you get to those books when you’re reading through them. The prophets were giving a message from God, so those books are filled with “Thus saith the Lord” that happens throughout the Old Testament. God would speak and so you’re getting familiar with his voice. And again, it’s where he reveals He reveals his character to us throughout the scriptures. You’re getting familiar with that as you read through his word and you’re spending time with him. And you’re interacting with him, you’re feeling that movement of the Holy Spirit. That’s when you can be growing in confidence and assurance that God loves you, and that He’s there, and just in spending that time with Him. So that’s what I would encourage you if you’re just starting out reading the Bible or if you’re just starting out with reading it all the way through. is that you’ll be experiencing God, and remember that that’s what we’re trying to do when we approach the Bible. Everything is we’re trying to have that communion with Him. And get to know Him. And He’ll bless you when you spend time with Him.
And as you keep studying over time, it is, you know, it’s also important, you know, to be spending time with these commentaries. But again, why? Why are we wanting to know more? It’s not just about memorizing things or anything. Remember what…What’s God’s goal in giving us, or His desire for us in giving us the scriptures is for us to know Him. And so…
you can just start out by, you know, just trying to spend that time with him, see what he shows you through the scriptures. And then over time, as you’re reading it more, um It’s so interesting to learn more about it because you’re learning more about him and you’re growing in your communion with him. So, there was one more quote from this. He’s going to be explaining in this letter what true religion is. He’s saying they know by experience that true religion is a union of the soul with God, a real participation of the divine nature, the very image of God drawn upon the soul, or, in the Apostles’ phrase, it is Christ formed within us.
So that’s something to talk about more over time. So it’s Christ formed within you and there’s this process going on. We were mankind, Adam and Eve, were created in the image of God. Then there was the fall of man with Adam and Eve’s sin. There was the entrance of sin which corrupted human nature, so we’re born with this sin nature. and then at regeneration, you have this new principle of life implanted in you, and it’s this What he’s saying here is a real participation of the divine nature, the very image of God drawn upon the soul, or in the Apostles’ phrase, it is Christ formed within us.
[10:00] And we’re made more and more like Christ as we go throughout life if we’re going through that sanctification process, we’re made perfect in heaven. There’s a Bible verse that says about heaven. “It is not yet known what we shall be, but we shall be like him.”
So there’s even more that we’re waiting for to see. You know Right now we get to live in communion with God. In heaven, we don’t know yet what we’re going to be like, but we’re going to be like him. Not equal to him, but I think I posted a hymn on here. The title of it is something like, I shall be like him. and that would be a good one to listen to. So, remembering. That was one thing I had to change my mindset about. We’re not trying to appease an angry God. Jesus has already offered that sacrifice for us. We’re reconciled to God through Him. We’re taken into covenant with God. He’s our loving Father. We’re sons and daughters to Him and everything we’re doing.is operating out of love to him. and with that desire to know him more and more. And then that great reward that we’re waiting for, the full reward will be that we’re going to be living in heaven with God. We’ll be able to see him face to face. I think it was Matthew Henry that said, What makes heaven heaven? Well, it’s Jesus. It’s his presence there. We’re going to be living with him without any…um you know, darkened understanding. He won’t be invisible. He’ll be visible to us there. That’s our reward that we get to live in heaven with God. So again, it took me a while there to get my…thoughts going on that to try and think of what the point was that I was trying to make, but hopefully I was able to explain that.
And you can work with that imagery. And I recorded a hymn today that you might have heard. It’s called Immortal Invisible. And if you…Reading this letter today made me think of that and think of what we’re talking about. Let me look at the first verse of it here. The first verse says, Immortal, invisible, God only wise in light inaccessible hid from our eyes, most blessed, most glorious, the ancient of days, Almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise. So in your meditation time today, as you’re working with forming this imagery, You can think of that. He’s the invisible God. And. He’s in light and inaccessible. Hid from our eyes. So. He’s there. We can’t see him right now, but we know that he’s there.
So, I also recorded a few other hymns that I might post. There’s a lot of imagery with that. So I’m going to be posting those on here, and I hope you find them helpful. And again, thank you for listening, and I’ll post again sometime soon. Thanks.
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“Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise” by Walter C. Smith
Hymnal Page Scan: Our Great Redeemer’s Praise page 7 | Hymnary.org
Audio Recording:
1 Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
in light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise.2 Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,
nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might;
thy justice like mountains high soaring above
thy clouds, which are fountains of goodness and love.3 To all life thou givest, to both great and small;
in all life thou livest, the true life of all;
we blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree,
and wither and perish but naught changeth thee.4 Great Father of glory, pure Father of light,
thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight;
all praise we would render, O help us to see
’tis only the splendor of light hideth thee. -
Voice Note: Definition of sin, Learning about our sinful condition, and the hope of heaven
Transcript: Okay, thank you for listening. Today I wanted to talk about something that happens when you’re studying the older commentaries, you’ll find that they take time to
really give a good definition of terms so it’s words that I’m familiar with them. I’ve heard throughout my life. I thought I knew what they meant, but they really take time to break it down into like building blocks. So you’re like, ah.
it gets you that foundation might be a word for it but it’s like you get it where um They give you these definitions that really make sense and you can remember off the top of your head.
You can take time meditating on the concepts of them form the
imagery with the concept in your mind. And again, it just expands that framework that you’re thinking in, the framework in your mind.
So, one word I was going to talk about today that there’s a definition for is sin. So again sothat’s a word that we’ll remember with and you can think of that in terms of if you You think of sin as doing something wrong or bad. I think it’s in John Gill’s book that he was explaining what sin is. He used the word trespass. So, you might have prayed the Lord’s Prayer in the version of the Bible that says, Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. So, when you hear the word trespass, I think the first thing I think of is a sign that says, do not trespass. So what does that mean? It’s that sign saying, don’t step over the line onto my property. so it’s a trespass if you walk onto somebody’s property without their permission and the definition of sin from the Bible as a trespass, it’s Instead of like walking onto somebody’s property, God has this pathway laid out for you. And a trespass is if you step over the bounds of that pathway, if you step off of the pathway. And it really helped me to learn the definition of it the way John Gill was talking about because It goes along with all the imagery you’ve heard of sheep. So, as Christians, we’re sheep with a shepherd. Jesus is our shepherd. And if you’ve ever been to a sheep farm and watched sheep…Then you’ll see how they move and they’ll be there together in a group in the field. And then a few of them will take off in one direction. And the rest of the sheep follow them. So that’s why they always have to have people with them and sheep herding dogs that are trying to bring them back in again and keep them from wandering off. And so, A lot of the pictures that I’ve posted on here with hymns that I’ve posted, it’s images of that pathway. So there’s this pathway through the world that, and it’s God’s pathway. You stay, you’re walking with Him, and you’re safe. There’s safety on that pathway.
And if you see off the pathway, then there’s danger. And.
We are like sheep. And, we need a shepherd, we need a guide. So, even after you’re saved, even if you’re really trying to follow God. You’re still going to be wandering, so you’re always going to be, like throughout every day, you’re going to be wandering.
You’re both trying to follow him and then you’re still going to be taking steps off the pathway and so…This is a really good image to use like when you’re meditating. It’s what you’re going to have to be doing. Throughout your life, when you see yourself taking those steps away from God, He gently brings you back to Him. Again, it’s practicing with that feeling of looking to him for guidance, listening to him as he’s calling out to you. Like, letting you know that you’re walking away from him. Lovingly being brought back next to him to walk on that pathway.
So you’ve got the image of that pathway, and then the next question would be, how do we know What’s right and wrong or what is a sin? And I’ve written posts on here about the importance of seeing God as God. He’s God the King. He’s lovingly ruling over us. As the king, he’s the great law giver. So, you see, the Ten Commandments were given. And the first table was about our responsibilities towards God. The second table is our responsibilities towards our fellow man. And Jesus summarized that in the New Testament when someone asked him what was the greatest commandment. And he said, “The greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second is like it, to love your neighbor as yourself.” So if you see that pathway, it’s God’s commands. You’re trying to stay in the pathway of his commands. And you’ll hear, when you read through the New Testament, you’ll hear Jesus saying, If you love me, you’ll keep my commands. So out of love to God, your father, your king, you’re trying to keep his commandments. You’re trusting that he’s trying to keep you safe. And if you work with that imagery, where you see the pathway is safe and everything outside of the pathway is dangerous. It helps you if you think of it that way. It helps you not walk off of the pathway as much. If that makes sense. If we see it as dangerous to walk away from God then that, would make us hesitate to do that as frequently.
So I was saying it’s important to work with that imagery of the pathway because that’s what you’re going to be doing in your daily life, throughout your life. And why is that? It’s because even after you’re saved, there’s still the remains of your sin nature in there. So, I’ve been talking about the importance of learning about God and I’m also going to be talking about the importance of learning about who we are as humans. It helps us to learn like where we started out in the Garden of Eden, what we fell from, and what we lost in the fall. I’m still learning about that. Then, where we are now, on earth as we are waiting. We are waiting to meet God. Whether that happens, you know, at death or if he were to return in our lifetime or waiting to meet him. And so, we’re learning where we started out as humans, what we fell from, where we are now, and what we’re waiting to be restored to in heaven.
Let me look at my notes here. Okay, so if we think about where the human race started out, Adam and Eve were created by God and placed in the Garden of Eden. Remember, the world was created perfect. And we’ve never seen it like that. We’ve never seen it without any of the effects of sin. So, the world was created perfect. Adam and Eve were without sin. And then, sin entered the world at the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden when they ate the fruit that God had told them not to eat.
And this is something that we can talk about over time. Again, I’m trying to summarize a lot of things in a few minutes.
I think it was John Gill that was talking about what we have to understand. Again, go back and read through that account.
And we need to understand the seriousness of our rebellion.
He’s saying that Adam and Eve had the ability to obey, and then they chose not to. So then, that was the entrance of sin.
And, then we’re part of the fallen human race. So we’re born in a sinful condition and we’re not able to obey the law perfectly.
We’re able to obey in general, but we’re not able to obey perfectly, so Adam and Eve had that ability to obey God’s command perfectly, and then they chose not to. And we’re born as part of the fallen human race. And that’s what I was writing about in the post one of the early posts on this website it’s something that I learned studying John Calvin’s writings.
saying that we’re supposed to rejoice in God’s mercy to us.
That he saw us being born in a sinful condition where we were totally unable to save ourselves. We were not able to meet the requirements of the law. We were not able to make atonement for our sinful condition, and … by our own righteousness.
So out of love to us, God provided us with a redeemer, and he promised that redeemer right there in Genesis to Adam and Eve.
But, and this is one of the really important things to talk about that it really helped me to learn about what it means. When you’re saying you’re trusting in Christ’s righteousness, we’re rejoicing in that gift of his righteousness to us. It’s saying that, it makes me think of, there’s a, one of the verses, there’s a hymn called, A debtor to mercy alone, and I think it’s in the first verse.
that it says the terrors of law and of God with me can have nothing to do For Jesus’ obedience and blood hide all my transgressions from view.
And you’re thinking ok obedience and blood. So I knew about Jesus’ death on the cross. So that’s talking about his blood and it says his obedience also. And I knew that he was perfect and without sin, and it really helps to learn more about what that means. He was obeying the law in our place so he worked out a righteousness for us um that then he gives to us, so he takes away the guilt of our sins. What was the matter of offense between us and God. And He gives us what’s pleasing in God’s sight, so He gives that righteousness.
It’s really important to understand that. And again, I’m trying to summarize it really quickly. You’re hearing that throughout the New Testament. That we’re saved by faith (I meant to say grace), not by works. So we’re born in a condition where we’re not able to save ourselves from it. That’s why we rejoice in being given the Savior. And I think I’ll try and stop there because we’ll be talking about this over time.
So, let me, one verse I was going to read to you that’s really interesting. It’s Genesis 5, 1 through 3.
So, you know, Adam and Eve were created in the image of God, and then they fell, and that corrupted human nature.
So then we are born as part of the fallen race. So Genesis 5, verses 1 through 3 says, “This is the written account of Adam’s family line. When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them, and he named them ‘mankind’ when they were created.
When Adam had lived one hundred thirty years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image, and he named him Seth.”
So you see that it’s really interesting when it says he had a son in his own likeness in his own image. We’re still made in the image of God, but we also have inherited that corruption. Um.
That’s going to be something to talk about over time, is that we’re rejoicing that God sent us a Savior. And We’re rejoicing in the righteousness of Christ that he worked out for us by obeying the law perfectly.
And one thing, too, on the topic of sin is to remember that we’ve never experienced what it is like to be totally free from sin. Charles Spurgeon talks about this in a sermon called Saved in Hope. If you have time to listen to it or read it. what I do In Microsoft Edge, there’s a read aloud voice in the browser. So
They have recordings of Spurgeon sermons, and for the ones they don’t have recordings of, I just use that read aloud voice so you can listen to it. That’s what I do. If you want to try that. He talks about it in there in Saving Hope. That was where I was learning about it. He talks about we’ve never been totally free from the effects of sin. So…Again, another theme that’s there in all of these older writings. And it’s The older writings study the Bible, so the themes are there in the Bible. And they are explaining them to you on these other writings is that we don’t have our full reward yet. Our souls are saved, so we’re totally saved. We have our salvation. We don’t have the full reward yet, because the reward is we get to go to heaven. And we’re not there yet. So we’re waiting on this life in heaven. We already have eternal life. Our souls are eternally alive. We are regenerated. We are eternally alive. But we’re not in heaven yet. But we get to start walking with God here.
you know, we’re eagerly awaiting getting to be there in heaven with Him and So, I think it’s Matthew Henry that says this life is a preparation for the next. So there’s a process we’re supposed to be participating in of being fitted for heaven, prepared for heaven. And, if you read, I think it’s the last verse of Away in a Manger, it actually uses that phrase. Seeing that, it says, and fit us for heaven to live with you there. And that’s the sanctification process that we’re going through, where you’re made more and more like Christ. And then But you’re not going to be made perfect here. At death you’re made perfect. So, but we’re supposed to be going through that process of becoming more and more like him. And then we’re supposed to be meditating on and wondering what it’s going to be like to be transformed and to be living in the heavenly realms.
So, what are the effects of sin? Sin brought in death decay uh corruption you know before the fall like in the creation things didn’t die so like trees didn’t die flowers didn’t die That’s what I was saying, that we’ve never seen it that way. Everything we see, we’re used to things growing old and then dying. And so that’s the effect on creation. It has that effect on people that we go through an aging process
So. That’s decay, like you’re getting older. Matthew Henry was saying it, and he wasn’t saying it being pessimistic. or anything, you can say that just literally to be born is to begin to die. So in the fallen world, you’re born to be born is to begin to die. your
body starts going through that process at first you’re just like growing up from a child into an adult But you’re still going through that. Then it ends up where you’re going to be getting older and then your body starts wearing down and shutting down. And the person passes away in old age. Talking about the effects of sin, it reminded me, I meant to say one of the things That’s really important to learn about is what we lost in the fall. So that would be, what was the effect of that first sin? and I’m still learning about this, but it darkened their spiritual understanding. That’s one of the important things to know is that we are born in that condition. We’re born separated from God. And then it’s the work of the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin, convince us of our own sin and our need for a Savior.
And That process, like the imagery that goes with that, you’re illuminated or just…He’s opening your eyes. There’s a hymn in the hymnal that I’m trying to think of the words and I’m having trouble with my memory trying to get my thoughts going.
You’ll see that I struggle to remember what verse it is or exactly what hymn I’m thinking of, but it’s talking about The chorus says open my eyes, illumine me, Spirit divine.
So, we’re longing to know him. We’re in that state of having that darkened understanding. The world itself is in darkness. Remember when Jesus was being born, he was…
During his incarnation here, he was the light shining into the darkness. And, this life in this world is compared to, you know, nighttime, midnight, and then the…sun’s rising. That’s heaven. Heaven is eternal day. This world is like nighttime. Going through that pathway. God’s leading you through.
So,I was summarizing a lot of things quickly. But these are all things that are so important to be learning about. It would take, I’m hoping to do posts where we just go through the books.
And talk about like one chapter. There’s so much in every chapter. and hopefully you’re seeing what happens when you start studying these things and seeing why the answer is to be spiritually minded because once you start like interacting with this information you’re reading about, it just lights up your mind. The gears start turning differently. It occupies your thoughts and it focuses your mind on God. And again, it just expands your awareness. It has this healing energy flowing through your mind and body. So that’s the effect that it has. These things are so interesting. Once you get started reading on it, then again, it changes you and can really help. So, I’ll probably stop there for today. As again, I was summarizing a lot of different things there but I think the main point is that we’re It’s really helpful to have that definition of sin and seeing that pathway. Keep working with that imagery of Jesus as the Good Shepherd.
He’s your guide through this life. He’ll guide you on that pathway. He’s trying to keep you on that pathway to keep you safe. to keep you out of harm. You know, things that would draw you away from him. And then we’re going to be learning more about God and who He is. And then it also helps to learn about who we are as humans and the condition that we’re in in this world. So we learned about where we started out in the Garden of Eden. what they fell from, what were the effects of that fall, and then the condition that we were born in, in a fallen condition. We’re saved from that. And then what we’re going to be restored to in heaven. And I’m still learning about this, but John Gill says that we’re actually, mankind is taken into…
Well, you look at the friendship that they had with God in the Garden of Eden, and then there was the rebellion and the fall, and then God provided a redeemer, and mankind is actually going to be taken into a more exalted state of friendship with God in heaven because of our union with Jesus, than they were in the Garden of Eden.
Again, these things are really interesting and it gets your mind working differently. Because, again, I was searching for answers about, okay, what’s the key here? So, okay, be spiritually minded.
Okay, well, how is that going to work? but then when you start doing it, you start reading it, you see…why that’s the answer, so I hope that you’re seeing that. And I’ll probably stop there for today, so thank you for listening. And I’ll post again soon.
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Voice Note: Jesus – Prophet, Priest, and King
Transcript: Alright. Thank you for listening. I’m hoping that making these voice notes is working. I’ve talked about in previous posts on here that when I was studying the Bible and studying commentaries to try and find out what’s the answer for when you’re struggling. You’re having a difficult time. What’s the key? The thing that they always point you to as the key is being spiritually minded. So There’s a Bible verse about set your mind on the things above. And so that involves…spending time studying the scriptures and learning more about God, and I had explained that when I was little. I believed in God. I knew that he was there. I could feel that he loved me. But I had some ideas of God that were not all the way accurate. It’s not like they were wrong, but it just wasn’t. I didn’t know enough about it.
So, I talked about in a previous post There was a time that I was at church, and there was somebody that was dressed like Jesus, and I didn’t realize that it wasn’t Jesus. It really confused me when he walked past me without saying anything, because I thought Jesus was walking past me. And I felt a lot of relief when I realized that wasn’t really Jesus. I think I was telling that story in the last post. And so… God kept bringing that to mind.
Because this was at the time I was in middle school, in the mid-90s, and that was when the talk had started that the world was going to possibly end in 2000. You were afraid of being left behind, and I thought Jesus had walked past me. And God would bring that to mind again. Later, and like, um,remember that wasn’t me. And he was telling me that when I was struggling, like feeling he wasn’t hearing me or just what was going on. He would say, Remember, it’s just that you don’t know enough about me. And he was calling me to his word, to study his word, to learn more about him.
So I think… well, I’ve explained before that I think I had the idea in my mind, and I think most people probably have that idea of God as kind of being like an helpline that you call in crisis. And so if you’ve called that helpline and you’ve Things didn’t change. You feel like he didn’t answer your call. What’s wrong? What’s going on? Does God not love me? Does he not care what’s happening to me? What’s going on? And, again, the answers are there. That um God hears you. I was thinking about this one hymn that I haven’t posted on here yet. It’s one of my hymns, but the words are. It’s that I was writing out a prayer like that, feeling like that God wasn’t hearing me. And his answer to me was, he said, I heard every prayer. And I felt your every tear, like he felt me crying, he felt my pain, but then he explains And it talks about, it’s talking about what happened at the time that I was studying was that He has these purposes that he’s working out. We’ve got to know more about what to expect of life in the fallen world. And then we won’t experience as much confusion. if something painful is happening or if you’re going through an illness or something like that.
So As I was talking about when I was little, I thought of God as that helpline, or when I was really little. I probably would have described Jesus as being the nice man in the white robe that’s so nice to people. and that’s accurate. It’s just that he’s more than that. And I had heard it said, these are things that I’m trying to get my thoughts together here because … so I hope I’m making sense while I’m talking. One of the things about learning about Christian meditation when you’re doing that, it’s taking time to stop and really think about things. and you’re forming the imagery in your mind so that you know it off the top of your head and then And I think just in life I really haven’t taken time to sit down and do that. So like I had heard of Jesus being talked about as king. I knew he was God. But I wasn’t taking the time to really form that image of him in my mind. And it really helps when you do that.
So, Jesus is the nice man in the white robe. It’s important to remember that he was the God-man. So, he was God made flesh. And…I’m trying to summarize like a lot of different things that I’m hoping to get to talk to you about. It’s hard to summarize it briefly um but these are things that like what I’m hoping to be able to do is like um I’ll talk to you about what I’m studying on the day I was studying it, because I’m summarizing, like, I’ve already read the John Gill book so…
I’m trying to summarize the entire book in a few minutes and so I’m having trouble trying to figure out how to do that.
So, I think the main thing is Before I started studying the Bible on my own and then studying the older commentaries with it, I knew about Jesus’ life I knew that he had died on the cross.
I knew he was the Son of God. It’s important to know all of those things. What’s helped me to learn about is everything that’s still going on now. everything that he’s doing for us now, and where we are in the timeline of history. So, for all of us, we’re living in the time after Jesus’ death and resurrection and ascension and before his return. And Jesus is still our mediator. So, after he ascended, he sat down at the right hand of God.
All authority is given to him on heaven and earth. He’s ruling over a mediatorial kingdom Until the last day. So, what you’ll learn about in the John Gill, which, he’s studying the Bible, so you’ll learn about it in the Bible These pastors explain the scriptures to you, give you insights into the scripture. So
Jesus has three offices of prophet, priest and king. And
He’s our great high priest, so every time we’re praying, he offers our prayers to God for us. Which is why it’s really important to learn the Old Testament and to learn about the priesthood and the sacrificial system that they had. It was all symbolic. It all pointed to Jesus. And then he’s our great high priest now. So he’s always interceding for us with the Father. He’s watching over us. He’s the good shepherd. So. Again, I’m trying to summarize a lot of things in just a few minutes.
So the main point I’m trying to make in this post is that if you can start really visualizing, meditating on Jesus as King. See, him there on his throne. It can help you move out of that feeling of wondering if he’s there, wondering if he’s hearing you, wondering if he sees what’s happening to you. to seeing that He’s there on His throne in heaven. He has a plan for the world and he’s working out his purposes. And you’re seeing how you fit into his kingdom like what what your calling is, what your place is in the body of Christ, rather than what I talked about The mindset that I’m still trying to get out of that I learned when I was little was that If I set my mind towards something, I could make it happen. That I think I can, I think I can, I think I can energy. And it was really only by trying that so many times and having it not work. You get to the point where you stop saying I think I can and you start saying I can’t. I know I can’t or you know just this isn’t working. This Something is off here. There’s got to be another explanation of what you’re supposed to be doing. So, it’s about…You learn about God. You learn about His will. You learn about how to walk with Him and to live in communion with Him and you’re Seeking his will for your life. Trying to find out what is the calling that he has for me. And
So it’s really helped me through a lot of things.
one thing too about the nice man in the white robe remembering that he was God made flesh And he dwelt among us. So, I know we just had Christmas recently. There’s so much that could be talked about there. you’re remembering like one thing that I didn’t know when I was little or didn’t register with me things to remember about that, that we’re supposed to be in awe that the Almighty God took on human nature and was born in a humble state and then he went through life here.
to save us. So there’s some hymns that talk about that. There’s one that I’ve posted on here. It’s called He Wore a Crown of Thorns. And the first verse says, “‘Twas God’s own Son who came to earth, who chose to know a lowly birth.’” But though a king of matchless worth, he wore a crown of thorns.
He wore a crown of thorns, that I might wear a crown of glory.
he laid his heavenly splendor by to tell me love’s sweet story in poverty he walked life’s way In Olive’s garden, bowed to pray, he wore a crown of thorns that I might wear a crown of glory.
So. That’s what we’re supposed to be in awe of, that the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Almighty God, laid aside his glory, came to earth, and he wore that crown of thorns. So that we could go to heaven with him and we’ll have a crown of glory.
And there’s another one that’s called, that I have not posted a recording of yet. But it’s called Left Outside by Ada Habershon.
H-A-B-E-R-S-H-O-N It says, A manger a cross a grave. were all that the earth could give to him who had come to save, who suffered that we might live. No room for him. No room for him. In the crowded inn. In the world of sin. No room for the Lord of all. Let me try and read through these other verses real quick.
The world had been made by him, yet offered him nothing beside. No room could they find for him. The Savior was left outside. He came to his own dear land, yet was by his own despised. But they who received him knew their king who was thus disguised.
I think when she says there, him who was thus disguised, saying that, remember, he had laid his glory aside. they had been thinking that the Messiah would be an earthly king that would restore an earthly kingdom in Israel and then when the Messiah was born You know, there was no room for him in the inn. He was placed, he was wrapped in swaddling clothes. Excuse me, swaddling clothes. And laid in the manger a feeding trough for animals and But they recognized him. many recognized him. So… Um, that’s one thing that I talk about at Christmas time, seeing when you’re driving by and you’re seeing the baby in the manger. There were… Jesus at times would ask his disciples, Who do you say that I am? Who do you say the Son of Man is? And as Christians we answer that by saying, He’s God.
See, my Lord and my God, we recognize that that’s God’s Son, who took on human flesh, and came here. to save us from our sins.
So I’m looking at my notes here. I tried to write down an outline of some things to try and talk about. It’s that thing that when you see When you really spend that time meditating, even if you just spend five or ten minutes thinking about it, as Jesus as king on his throne. you can just start changing the way that your mind works. It’s those terms. It’s just an expanded framework. It expands your mind. And you can feel comforted to see him there that he’s working his purposes out.
Seeing that God is working His purposes out.. And you’re seeing where you fit into His kingdom.
So there’s another hymn. I was going to mention another hymn when I was talking about it helps to know all that Jesus is doing for you now. Ah. Well, that actually, I’ll wait to talk about that another time because I’m trying to finish up here for today, but it’s that, um, so.
We’re trying to get a fuller picture of Jesus than the nice man in the white robe because there’s just so much more there. There’s so much more that he can do for you. And the answers again are being spiritually minded and it’s learning about communion with God. That’s the key there is you get to spend time with Him. That’s what can help you out of a depression or out of anxiety or doubts or struggles, really spending time with him. That’s what He wants you to do. He’s calling you to have communion with Him. and the way to really be able to do that is we need to know more about more about Him, know more about who we’re putting our faith in, who we’re trusting. And
I think it’s in the John Gill book. He was explaining that in ancient times. This was before anybody had devices where you could send someone a picture to show them what you look like. We could…you know everybody has profile pictures now so you can know what people look like but at that time if there was um you know, a distant kingdom, and they were hearing about another king. they would want to know who they were talking to or who they were hearing about so someone would paint a portrait of that king and they would send it to the distant kingdom So that they would know who that king was. I think it was John Gill that was explaining That’s what the Bible is for us. It’s a portrait of who Jesus is. And when he was saying that, it made me think of that. We had this picture. It was a painting of Jesus that we would have in our kitchen. And I was a little kid when that was first up there, and I didn’t realize that that wasn’t literally a painting of Jesus. It was someone’s idea of what he looked like. We don’t actually have a record of what Jesus looked like I think it was Matthew Henry that was saying if we needed to know then we would know like there would have been like a a drawing or something but we don’t know exactly what he looked like that’s an idea of what that artist was thinking of as Jesus. And it’s not that it’s all the way wrong. You’re just trying to get a more expansive view of it when you expand out and focus on the portrait that Jesus himself painted in the scriptures the Holy Spirit gave us. then that’s where the answers are. It’s too limited of a view if you’re just seeing that’s the nice man in the white robe. When you expand out and are thinking of him as prophet, priest, and king, and we study through all that he’s told us about himself, all that he’s taught us about what to expect in this life, That’s where you get those answers that can quiet your soul if you’re struggling with, you know, what’s happening in your life. As I was saying, like, when I was little, I knew God was there. and so I just, um…I was confused as to what was happening, and that it was in this process of finding those answers. So I’ll probably try and stop there for today.
As these again are things that we can talk about over time on here, I hope it’s working to have the voice notes. Thank you for listening. I’ll post again sometime soon. Thanks.
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Voice Note: Meditation Imagery – Jesus our Captain
Transcript: The imagery that I’m going to be talking about in this post that you can use during a meditation time is the imagery of Jesus as the captain of a boat.
So, one important themes around the Bible is something that A.W. Tozer talks about in the beginning of his book. I think it’s called Pillar of Cloud, Pillar of Fire. He talks about the importance as Christians of knowing that we need a guide.
to lead us through this life. We can’t go on our own. We need the Angel of the Lord, is what he’s talking about. We need Jesus to guide us through. So that works with imagery of Jesus being a shepherd. If you can see in some of the pictures that I posted with the hymns that I posted on here, there’s a lot of images of pathways. So our journey through this life, you can see it as being on a pathway through with the shepherd is guiding you.
What I was going to talk about in this post is another type of guide. It’s like if Jesus is the captain of your ship. He’s guiding you on a journey. So. I think that I read about this image in a writing by John Owen. It might have been in his book about spiritual mindedness. So you’re uh when you believe in Jesus, you trust in him for your salvation. It’s like he becomes the captain of your ship. So you’re On the shore. And you look out. And you see the ocean. And you’re trusting Jesus. Because you’re getting into the boat with him to go on this voyage.
You’re going on a voyage over the treacherous seas, and you don’t know the way.
Remember, faith is trusting that Jesus Christ is who he says he is, and that he’s going to do what he said he’s going to do.
So you’re Placing all of your trust, you’re trusting your all to him. You’re trusting the safety of your soul to him. Salvation, you’re trusting him for the salvation of your soul. You get in the boat with him. And, again, we don’t know where we’re going. We don’t know the way. He leads us through it, and we’re trusting that he’s guiding us to heaven. So when you’re meditating on that in your You know, you’re doing the calming breathing and you’re focusing your mind on one object. You also think through, like, what you feel.
And if you’re on that ship and you see that a storm’s coming up ahead, you’re learning to look to your captain. So if you practice what that would feel like, practice thinking about that. Even if you spend just like 5 or 10 minutes doing that. Or 15 if you can.
you’ll find that you’re training your mind to look to Jesus in all things. And during your day, if you experience a stressor, you’ll start looking to him faster and remembering to stop and pray. So agin with this imagery. It would be, you’re in that ship.
Being out in the middle of the ocean, you can’t see anything on the horizon, any way that you look, you’re out there.
The sea can be stormy at times. And you don’t know the way. So just, you can connect with that feeling and then that feeling of reassurance that, you know, Jesus knows the way. You’re there with your captain. He’s going to guide you through. Your destination is heaven. That’s the destination of that voyage, you trust that he’s going to get you to the port of heaven. There’s a lot of hymns that talk about the port of heaven.
So I think I’ve posted some hymns on here that have that imagery of Jesus as the Captain, and there’s a lot of hymns that talk about it. And it’s something that, again,If you just spend five or ten minutes just thinking through that image and thinking through what you feel and training yourself to listen to Him. It can make a difference the next time you experience the stressor. Remembering to stop and look to Him to guide you through. So, I hope this And again, there are several hymns on here that you can listen to and think through that imagery of Jesus as the captain of your soul.
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Voice Note: A little bit about me and how I work with hymns
Transcript:
Okay, so I wanted to do a post where I tell you a little bit about myself.
My name’s Lisa Weidley. I’m 43 years old, and I live in Chattanooga, Tennessee. and I’m a hymnwriter and I thought maybe by talking some of this through It’ll help me, you know, with getting out of this flare-up that I’m having of eosinophilic esophagitis. So,I started having chronic health problems when I was 16 years old. Before that, I had always been a quiet child. They always thought of me as like shy or nervous.
And I always had really bad stage fright so it was really difficult for me to play in front of people. I didn’t play very much in front of people. So I play the flute and piano, and then by the time I was in middle school and high school, I’d start playing in more things at school on the flute. I was going to more competitions and things like that, and I really enjoyed playing, but it was really stressful…getting out there on stage, and then in my sophomore year of high school, I started getting sick and It took a long time to get a diagnosis, so that was 1999 when I started getting sick. and it was 2010 when I got the diagnosis of EOE, Eosinophilic Esophagitis and Gastroparesis And in 2012, I got the diagnosis of mind body syndrome.
So EOE is a rare disease and it wasn’t really being diagnosed at the time that I got sick. So. I got lost in the system. I think a lot of people have had the same experience where They were diagnosed with having anxiety or generalized anxiety disorder.
got lost in those years of just trying different anxiety medications or medications to try and help with that. But there was something else going on. So.
So, like I had said, people thought that I was a shy or nervous child, and it was really more than that. I process the world differently, so mind-body syndrome is a central nervous system processing disorder. And EOE is an allergic immune condition. It’s where you have white blood cells in your esophagus.
And it’s that they attack the tissue there, and they’re not really supposed to be doing that. So you’ll have trouble with food. You’ll have allergic reactions to food. So, again, at the time I started getting sick, I didn’t know about um
Thankfully people are more familiar with now. Like about being a highly sensitive person. There’s that book by Elaine Aaron and um All of these holistic treatments, I didn’t know about any of that. It took you know it was through those years of being sick that thankfully I did find them and they really helped. But um…
I’ve lost my train of thought, but I didn’t know about them then, but I found them during that time, and what I’ve learned is that, um,My mind-body processes things differently that shows up with that Allergic immune condition. I processed foods differently. There were foods that other people could eat that I couldn’t eat Without having a reaction and I take in information differently. there’s a lot of benefits to that, you know, that’s, you know, I’m musical and so It can be a good thing and then it’s something that…um…part of it for me is a disorder where I have trouble. It takes me a lot of times to process things, really think things through. So…Music was always healing for me. I started playing the piano when I was about three years old. That was when my mom bought a piano.
We had it here at the house and I started playing it. So…
Even though I didn’t have the diagnosis or didn’t know as much about it, I knew that it helped me when I played music. So when I would go to school, I would get home and then I would play on the piano for about 30 minutes not every day but It was therapeutic, so I played music therapeutically to process my feelings. It was always helpful.
That’s the main way that I have played, because I struggle to play in front of people I’m trying to work through that stage right now.
But like I said, people are much more familiar with these things now and more accommodating of it if you’ve got a processing problem. So I’m not a practitioner of any of the holistic techniques. They’ve been really helpful to me. But what I can talk to people about is It was in 2012 when I started seeing a counselor that used the holistic techniques, and she taught me how to meditate. And it was when I was doing the meditation or any of the other techniques that God was showing me that you could put imagery from the Bible in with your meditation and Have it be as part of your quiet time. So that’s what I can talk about. And so that was 2012 when I started with those techniques and meditating and using imagery. And
Then, it was in March of 2014 that I started writing hymns. So
I’m trying to get my thoughts together here. Some of what I learned with those healing techniques was how to get a new pathway and how to get a new thought pathway a new neural pathway.
It’s a new path for your thoughts to take, and it would take too long for me to talk about it right now, but that brings a lot of healing. And I’m trying to think of a way to talk about it briefly, but you might be familiar with some of the terms cause Thankfully, people know so much more about it now. There are terms like If you’re retuning your nervous system, it’s talking about building capacity and resilience. And, Again, I’m not a practitioner of the techniques. What I can talk about is how you can use music to do that. And how you can…That is actually what you’re doing when you’re studying the Bible.
You’re building capacity. You’re expanding that framework in your mind. because a lot of what is involved in processing your environment, the things that Don’t go through the things that you get stuck on, the things that are traumas are when, you know, It’s not resolved. You’re stuck on that question of why, and you’re trying to…write…find a way to write the story of that event in a way that it’ll process through. And In my other voice notes, I’ve talked a little bit about the struggles that you’re looking for answers and I found those answers by studying the Bible and then when you can apply those if you’re trying to resolve something or trying to work through a symptom that you’re having.
you can use this biblical imagery and the, you know, the biblical principles. The answers to my questions were there.
And so I was learning the language of the body. That’s one thing that you learn how to do. Your body is communicating to you through symptoms. There’s a message you’re supposed to get through that. And so I learned those techniques and learned how to process those messages. I experienced really great healing and I did really well for about 12 years and then I’ve been having this flare up. And I’m really hoping to get out of it soon. So I was you’re learning about your unconscious mind and things that are stored there and you’re trying to process through and resolve things I was making a lot of progress with that and I started writing hymns in 2014 and it was really healing for me and then I was the way that I worked was I would be feeling a really intense stressor.
Well, I guess I should just talk a little bit about myself was that.
when I was I started getting sick around the time I was 16 and part of the reason I, uh, they thought I was just stressed was because my parents were getting a divorce. And
that was stressful, but that still got lost in that system. And then, 2012,It was during that time I was I had gotten a diagnosis and then I was getting a divorce. So I was trying to heal from that. Anybody who’s been through that knows that if you have a divorce, it just has a certain type of energy with it that you’re trying to work through. A certain type of anger or…
bitterness you know something that you’re you’re trying not to be overwhelmed by it and so um if I was feeling, I would feel the stress energy and I would pray and ask God for a melody. I would pray for words to them. He would give me that. It was like…doing a puzzle in a certain sense of it you’d get the words put together and then I would when I would feel the same stressor, I would start singing that hymn. So I would stop the old thought patterns. I would sing through the hymn. It had very healing energy to it. and was able to develop new thought pathways that way. So what happens with that is it’s like brain training and you get to the point where When you’re feeling that certain stressor, you actually start hearing the music in your head instead of having the old thoughts.
That’s how you can move forward and start, you know, keep going on your healing process. That works with the new hymns that I’ve written. It also works with all of these hymns out of the older hymns. And the hymns out of the hymnals, they all have so much imagery in them, such healing imagery. One thing that I found in studying the Bible and studying the older commentaries is that the answer that you find of how to feel better or how to heal is to be spiritually minded. John Owen, who was a pastor in the 1600s, wrote a book about being spiritually minded. It’s really, really helpful. I hope to talk about it sometime. But that’s the key. So as Christians, the key for our healing is you’re setting your mind on the things above, on the things of God.
The way you do that is by studying his word, learning about him, and using that imagery from the Bible, really intentionally focusing your mind on that. And one way that you can really, that’s really very healing to do that is to use the hymns and imagery that’s there.
So, again, I experienced a really tremendous healing in 2012, and I did well for about 12 years after that, then I’ve been stuck in this flare-up. And what I’m trying to work through with that right now…Some of it is for the hymns that I’ve written. I haven’t played them in front of people yet. I’ve only played them for a few people…and…Because I still have the stage fright, I’m still trying to work through that.
And so I had stage fright before when I was playing hymns and music that I had not written. And so what I’m finding now, as I’m trying to…get comfortable playing the hymns. There’s an added element there that I’m playing words that I had written that are about, like…my personal emotions and I haven’t done that before so I don’t know if that’s somewhat connected to this flare up because The reason I always loved music was You can communicate things through music that you can’t necessarily put into words. It’s a language of itself. You connect to the feeling of the music. and you’re able to express your emotions through the way that you’re playing, just the…
Because I’m an instrumentalist, not a singer, so I learned how to communicate just through the sound of music. And I think a lot of that was because I didn’t know how to put words with what I was feeling. We didn’t know as much about that when I was growing up, so it wasn’t until I got sick and was looking for answers, like trying to find a diagnosis, I learned to start processing through things. And so it was really big progress to be able to put words with my feelings when I started writing hymns. But It’s kind of how it’s ended up is I’ve written songs about things that I can’t really talk about. Just…It’s still a process for me of learning how to talk about my feelings or things like that. I don’t know if that’s…and all, like, what’s happening here with losing my voice. All this unconscious stuff is manifesting here. So…That’s why I’m hoping that just by talking about it and trying to put the music out there and Find people that connect with it. It can help me get out of this.
If you’re familiar with the polyvagal theory of fight flight and freeze, what’s going on for me is I’m stuck in a deep freeze.
and I’m trying to get out of that.
So, again, I posted one of my hymns on here. It’s called Only You. and so I hope I made sense in what I was saying part of what I’m having trouble with is just getting my thoughts going. So I get frozen And I really think that people can find the music and connect with it.
Hopefully I’ll experience healing here again and be able to get out of this deep freeze. I was going to talk about an example of imagery that can be used. I might do that as a separate post, just so that you can find it. easily if you wanted to listen to it again so I really hope it’s working to post these voice notes I hope you can hear me I can hear it when I listen to it on my computer, but I hope that you can hear it. and Thank you for listening and I’ll post that imagery in a separate post, and I hope that you find it helpful.
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Voice Note: What is faith? The eye of the soul
The audio cuts out sometimes in this voice note, but hopefully it works. Here is the transcript:
Hi, I’m Lisa. Thank you for listening. I’ve started posting voice voice notes on here.
I really hope that you can hear them. I’m having a flare-up of eosinophilic esophagitis and I’ve lost my voice. I’m going to be posting a transcript also with this voice recording so hopefully you can hear me.
It’s a lot easier to talk than to try and write out a post. So I wanted to go ahead and start doing these voice recordings
hopefully soon, I’ll have my voice again, and then I’ll be able to post that. So yesterday, I was posting about the name of the website. It’s Learning to Live by Faith.
And I was talking about what faith means. So I was going to talk some more about that today. Yesterday I was saying that.
Charles Spurgeon defines faith as believing that Jesus Christ is who he says he is, and that he’s going to do what he says he’s going to do.
And there are many definitions of faith, many ways to look at it. You may have heard Hebrews 11:1 that says, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” And
I was going to be talking about that today. Spurgeon talks about faith as being the eye of the soul. So, There’s the realm that we live in, the visible realm, the world we see around us with our physical eyes.
And then there’s that invisible spiritual realm that we see with an eye of faith.
So With our physical eye, we can look around. We see creation. We see trees. We see houses. We see people. We can hear other people talking.
The world that’s invisible to us now is the spirit world.
We can’t see God or we can’t hear Him talking to us.
There were times in the Bible where people hear the voice of God outside of their head, like they heard him talking to them.
we can’t see God and we hear God if we hear god talking to us it’s usually talking in our hearts he’ll give us a sense of what he’s saying So we can’t see God and we can’t see the angels or demons. We can’t see the spiritual realm. so
And we can’t see heaven. That’s another thing. The New Jerusalem, the heavenly city, we can’t see it.
But As I was talking about yesterday, the Spurgeon says the three elements of faith are knowledge, belief, and trust. So we’ve…You have to hear about something to have knowledge of it. So we’ve heard of the things of God. We’ve heard of heaven. And…Christians believe that to be true, so we take that next step of believing that it’s true, and then the next step of putting our trust in it. So We’re believing that it’s there.
So we have the hope that we’re going to get to go to heaven by grace, by saving faith in Jesus. And we believe that heaven’s there, that we just can’t see it with our physical eyes.
It’s not visible to us right now, but it exists. It’s there. And so we see it with an eye of faith. So that’s…
That verse Hebrews about how faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Uh in one.
sermon, one Spurgeon sermon. I can’t remember exactly what sermon it was, and that’s part of why I want to go ahead and start posting voice notes about what I’m studying that day because then I can be sure to be able to find where I read it and be able to reference it.
But I think it was a Spurgeon sermon. He was giving an example about how With faith, we’re connecting to things that are there. We just can’t see them. so he used the example of, like, if you were in a dark room, and there was a chair in the room, but the lights are off, you can’t see the chair but it’s there, it exists. Like, if you shine a flashlight on it, you see it. But it was there the whole time. You just couldn’t see it until that light was shined on That’s what it is with heaven. That it’s there. It’s real. God’s real. The angels are real. The spiritual realm is real. We just can’t see it…Until we’re there.
After death, when you go to heaven, then you’ll be able to see everything. We’ll see God face to face. We’ll see everybody that’s there in heaven. And we’ll…
be able to see and hear them, talk to them. Right now, it’s invisible to us.
So it’s important to think of it that way…that, you know…as in…
I’m going to be talking on here about meditating and when you’re meditating You’re supposed to hold an image in your mind. You focus on that image while you’re meditating. And as Christians we can use imagery from the Bible.
And it’s important to know that you’re not using your imagination. You’re not…creating something in your mind you’re connecting to what’s there you’re seeing it with an eye of faith um Now, at the same time, we can only, we can’t comprehend what it looks like.
So in that sense, I mean, it’s beyond our imagination. We can’t really even imagine what it looks like. You’re just…knowing that something is there that you can’t see…and you’re waiting to see what it looks like. You’re trying to connect to a sense of it.
And that’s important. That can get your mind working the right way if you know it’s there. There’s just a veil in between us and heaven right now.
It’s a different veil than what’s talked about when the veil was torn in the temple. It just veils it from our sight.
So, it’s important to think of it that way. You’re connecting to what’s real. It’s there. We’re waiting for it.
so faith is believing that Jesus is who he said he is and that he’s going to do what he said he was going to do. So what is it that we’re putting our faith in? we’re putting our faith in the promises of God. that we’re going to be saved and we get to go to heaven.
And that’s one thing to remember that our reward, we…don’t have it fully yet we’re not in heaven yet we’re waiting so we’re here one imagery that’s really helpful I can’t remember exactly which commentary I read it in, but it was saying that.
Earth is our temporary home. Heaven’s our permanent home. So, when we’re on Earth, It’s like being in a waiting room or in the lobby for heaven. The main event is that we get to go to heaven.
God’s kingdom is not of this world. So it makes me think of if like you’re in the lobby of a theater or something, you know, you’re waiting for the [the audio cuts out here] scenery and everything curtain, and you’re waiting for the curtain to be pulled away and then you see what’s there. [the audio cut out a little bit here] what I’m looking for. … We’re waiting.to see what our reward looks like, and it’s beyond our comprehension, but we can spend time thinking about it.
So faith is the eye of the soul. It’s assurance about what we do not see. But how do we know what we’re trying to connect to…what we’re trying to see? So That gets into talking about two types of revelation. You have general revelation and special revelation.
So general revelation is creation when you look around.
If your verse, Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”
So we look around at the world around us. God’s attributes are displayed in his creation. When Christians look around, we see A world that God lovingly created for us as an habitation for man to be in communion with him.
And then special revelation is God’s word. It’s the Bible. And in that, he tells us who he is. That’s how we know his name. we learn about His plan of salvation. And with the Bible, we’re going to God. And we’re seeing who he’s told us he is. What we have to be careful about is making him without realizing it, making up ideas of God. That’s what I did when I was little. That’s what I was talking about some yesterday.
that without realizing it, I had made up ideas of God that were not the full revelation of him that you could get from the scriptures. So that’s why I was getting confused and That’s why if you’re looking for answers, then you can go to the scriptures and learn about who God’s told us that he is.
So, as I’ve been talking about on here when I was growing up, I hadn’t really read the Bible much. I had a children’s Bible. I had read that. I had read through The book of Proverbs. I had gotten that. Someone had given me a book of the Proverbs. I had read through that. And I grew up going to church.
but I had had that experience of I thought I was doing things right I believed that God would answer me that he could help me and then things didn’t change. A lot of stuff was going on. I knew that God loved me, but you were I was confused about how everything was going. And God was leading me to start studying the Bible.
So again, without realizing it, and it might be, you know, You might have had, you know, I think a lot of people have this idea about God that he’s someone to call on in a time of help.
So I had thought of him as like a helpline. And that’s not all the way wrong, it’s just not the most accurate way to see him.
He’s more than that. Where you call on him and help. Call on him in a time of need for help.
There have been times where there have been things going on. I hadn’t gotten an answer.
I think I had the idea that, you know, if you went to church and you were praying, following God then he would answer you and certain things wouldn’t happen you know and I think we all kind of get stuck in that thought that you can see like This would be another thing to talk about. But in the book of Job, Job’s friends were thinking good things happen to good people, bad things happen to bad people. And…So, if you had things going on, um, And these are things I continue to struggle with even after studying the Bible and after I’ve gotten sick and going through an illness and everything. But we think that…
So that’s where I was. I knew that God loved me and I knew he would have the answers, but that’s where the confusion was.
And so there was one time that I was calling out to God about some things. And didn’t you hear what I said was happening? And it was like God answered, well, did you hear what I said? So I was asking him, did you hear what I said was going on here? And he said, didn’t you hear what I said to expect out of this life? And I was thinking, well, no. And A.W. Tozer talks about this a lot in his Sermons and Books and Martin Lloyd-Jones. They both preached in the 20th century in the 1900s. And Christians are not taught to have the right expectations of this life, that we’re living in a fallen world. so…we get the wrong expectations and then that’s where you can have you can really be struggling so that’s something that we’ll talk about over time. It’s that they talk about in the older commentaries too, that we live in a fallen world. So things don’t always happen as they should in terms of right and wrong.
There are right things that happen and there are wrong things that happen. So remember the world was created perfect.
There was no sin and then once sin entered into the world, it brought destruction and death with.
There’s going to be injustices. Things are not always going to go as they should.
Until the end. And then at the end, there’s the day of renewal. Everything will be set right. And forever in heaven we’ll be at
be a perfect peace and rest. So in the Christian life, you suffer in this world. And then you never suffer again in heaven. So…
When I started studying the Bible, which is the special revelation, that’s where God teaches you.
And I’ve written about it some on here. He teaches you that he works through afflictions. there’s a verse that says, it is through much tribulation that you enter the kingdom of heaven.
And then, again, then you’re at perfect peace and rest. There’s a lot of hymns that talk about it. Be still, my soul is one. At the end of the…I can’t remember which verse it is, but it says, through thorny ways leads to a joyous end.
So there’s thorns on this life, there’s thorns on the pathway, and then it opens up into eternal day. Where there’s no suffering. You’ll never suffer again. There’s nothing painful. And.
Jesus is the good shepherd. He leads you on that pathway home. So, while we’re in a fallen world and things don’t always happen as they should in terms of right and wrong, but God’s sovereign over everything that happens. He has a loving plan for your life. He’s watching over you. Nothing’s ever outside of God’s control. There’s always a purpose in the things that are happening, and we can seek Him about that.
One thing to know too is that a lot of God’s purposes are hidden. There’s a verse that says, now we know in part.
In this life, now we know in part, then we will know fully even as we are fully known. There’s a lot that’s not revealed to us yet.
But both in the general revelation and in the special revelation, in his relationship with us, God reveals enough of who he is to us. So that we know that we can trust him. We know that he’s good. He’s shown us that he’s good. So we put our faith in him. We have a saving faith in him.
We believe that He’s there, and the saving faith is when you repent and believe, and you submit to Him as your Lord, God, Heavenly Father. And you live in obedience to him.
So there’s a story that I think would be helpful to tell about how God was working with me. again, he said it lovingly when he said, when I was saying, did you hear what I said? He was lovingly saying like, Well, we didn’t hear what he had said. Like, the answers were there. And he wanted me to know that the answer was knowing him more.
So this was happening around when I was in fourth or fifth grade. It was sixth grade when I started studying the Bible, I had that one-year Bible that I started reading. And so this happened when I was in about the fifth grade.
We were, this was around the time that the talk had started about that the world might end in the year 2000. And there was a lot of, you know, the things I was hearing were sensationalized and could be very scary. When you were hearing them, not to be left behind, or, you know, didn’t know. You wanted to make sure you were saved. And so there was one Sunday morning, I was at church I had not looked at the bulletin yet. It was just a regular Sunday. It wasn’t a holiday or anything. I had gone to Sunday School on the first floor and then gone up the steps to the second floor and it was one of those times where for some reason You turn the corner and there’s like nobody around. It’s just me. And I heard someone walking up the steps.
that I had just walked up. I looked to see who it was, so they’re walking up from the first floor. It’s a dark hallway. a kind of narrow staircase, and I looked, and it looked like it was Jesus walking up the steps. He was taking a few more steps. I was like, that really looks like Jesus. And I…
uh had that i felt very scared i thought what’s happening the first thing you think when you think you see Jesus standing there is that you’re getting ready to die. So he kept walking towards me, and I thought, okay, what am I going to say, what’s he going to say?He got to the top of the stairs And he just walked down the hallway without saying anything and had this really, you know,bad feeling when that happened. I thought, oh no, he just walked right past me. And at the same time, I had that feeling of like, this can’t be right.
And I watched him, he kept walking down the hall, and somebody in one of the classrooms called out and said, oh, oh, hi, Gary. Oh, are you playing Jesus today? I didn’t realize that. And I was like, oh, okay, so see, it wasn’t Jesus. I didn’t realize we had only been going to that church for a little while, and I didn’t realize they had somebody that really, really…
it looks like Jesus when he puts on the robe and he was walking around by himself. Um, so I thought, oh, I guess that wasn’t him. Well,And I felt such a feeling of relief. I knew that couldn’t be right. Because…I knew Jesus loved me. I knew I had believed in him. But it was that was what was going on at that time. I was afraid you were going to be left behind.
So God kept bringing that to my mind over the years, like when leading up to studying the Bible there, when I would be struggling with a question.
He would say, remember, you know, how you thought that was me and then it wasn’t me.
And that’s how he was working with me, that, like, I had these ideas of God that weren’t all the way accurate, and that that was the problem. If you draw closer to him.
you’ll see who he really is. And that’s what’s happened over the years, and that’s what I’m going to be talking about on here
And I’ll stop today with one more thing to say today is that
When you’re thinking about what faith is, it’s believing in what you can’t see now.
But faith is only necessary in this life because, again, when we’re in heaven, we’ll be able to see everything.
That’s what it means that faith becomes sight. So there’s a verse, it’s 1 Corinthians 13:13
That says, “And now these three remain, faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.” And if you look at the commentaries on that verse, it might have been Matthew Henry that was saying, why is it said that the greatest is love? It might be because love will be there forever. Love remains forever. Um, Faith and hope are only necessary in this life, in your earthly life, because once you get to heaven, your faith becomes sight and your hope is realized.
So that’s an interesting thing to remember that it helps you remember what faith is. It’s Your sight for the invisible world now. It’s the way you see what you can’t see now. Let me try and say that again. Faith is the eye of the soul. It’s the way that you see the unseen. Now, we see what we’re waiting for with an eye of faith. And then once we get there, our faith will become sight. So that’s one way to help remember.
What is it? What are we doing? We’re trying to connect to that unseen world, which is our reward, and that’s where we’re getting to go.
So thank you for listening. I really hope that you can hear what I’m saying. And I’ll post a transcript with it too. and
Hopefully this works and I’ll keep posting on here about what I’ve been studying. Thanks
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Learning to Live by Faith 