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Water
In a message dated 7/1/2003 11:20:30 AM Eastern Standard Time,
bushchoked@xxxxxxxxx writes:
> I read the bible cover to cover years ago, and there are glaring
> contradictions and double standards.
I know of utterly *brilliant* men that have counted their brilliance as
garbage after seeing what it is that God has given to us in this unique book.
If one reads the bible with an open attitude and a seeking heart one will
understand the seeming contradictions and know that God has just one standard.
His. What seems as contradictions on the surface are merely facets of the same
diamond. God knows how to hide the truth from the passing curious. He is not
common.
Many have read the bible hundreds and even thousands of times and have not
yet begun to scratch the surface of it's depths. There is no other book in the
world that can compare. There is a common theme in all 66 books of this book
that was written by at least 39 different writers over a period of 1600 years.
Just one verse from the bible says more than all of the poets and writers in
history ever could. No book could bring so much comfort, life, light, and
reality as this book. This book is a book of life and this life is a living
Person.
Who could write something like the first 4 verses of John? Certainly not an
uneducated fisherman from the bad side of town like John was. God wrote it from
within Him. God chose to give us this book to reveal who He is, what His
purpose is, and to regulate our wild imaginations. He did it His way and has
preserved it to this day.
Paul was a highly educated brilliant Jew that hated Jesus' followers to the
point of murdering them. He got knocked to the ground, blinded and led around
by a little guy named Ananias until he understood that his knowledge and
intelligence was crap compared to what God was to reveal. He saw the exact same
thing that John saw. And Peter. And David. And Moses. And Isaiah.and so on.
Before this he thought he was superior. After this he wrote: But what things
(his intelligence, knowledge, culture, stature, position and beloved Jewish
religion) were gains to me, these I have counted loss on account of Christ. But
moreover I also count all things loss on account of the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of
all things and count them as dung that I may gain Christ." When and only when
his eyes were opened, he saw how low his expectations were. Paul saw the high
peak of the divine revelation and threw his previous things in the trash!
God revealed to Paul that *God became a man in order that man might become the
same as God in both life and nature*. This is much better than some knowledge!
It is far higher than anything he previously understood!
God grants revelation only to those that are open to it. Our mind alone will
never and can never understand God's revelation. It is not a school textbook
and one doesn't need to be of a certain caliber to understand it. This book
makes us all truly equal before God. A person with no intelligence can eat.
The bible is the food that brings God into our being to give us the divine life.
"Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the
mouth of God." We are what we eat.
God's standard is *far* higher than ours. He is available to every single
human being on the planet, not just to those of "superior" intellect.
The bible reveals that our God is not a respecter of persons.
"For my people have committed two evils:
They have forsaken Me, The Fountain of living waters,
to hew out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns
which hold no water." Jeremiah 2:13
We need Water!
Jon in Mi.