The Biblical Path of Life

Tag: Created

  • Through Faith Understand

    “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”
    Hebrews 11:3

    “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). This verse has appeared in prominent places on many plaques or posters. However, have you ever considered what these words actually mean? To what faith is this verse referring?

    Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen means “that persuasion is not the outcome of imagination, but it is based on fact; such as the reality of the resurrection of Christ, and as such it becomes the basis of realistic hope.” Many people who lived in Old Testament times believed that Jesus would come (because God had made that promise). Although they did not live to see the fulfillment of that promise, they lived lives declaring they believed that promise: a life of faith. Consider what Jesus said when He was speaking to the religious leaders in the book of John. “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad” (John 8:56). Jesus, Himself, recognized Abraham as one who looked forward to His coming. This kind of faith led to the comment in the next verse: “For by it the elders obtained a good report” (Hebrews 11:2). Not only do we understand these people lived believing the promises God made, by faith, today we know that Jesus came – just as God promised.

     However, the following verse is often overlooked: “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Hebrews 11:3). The fact that God created the heaven and the earth from nothing in six days and rested on the seventh is challenged in our world today. Other theories are taught, yet none of them has been proven. God, Himself, declared that He created all. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). This is the first thing that He declared to us. This is the first step of faith. If one does not believe that God created the heaven and the earth, how will one ever believe the rest of the Bible? It is interesting to note that this fact is reiterated right here in Scripture, helping us understand the importance of believing all of the Word of God. This first step of faith will allow one to begin to understand that God loved His creation (man) so much, that He willingly sent His Son, Jesus, to restore the relationship broken by man’s sin. 

    Those people recorded in the eleventh chapter of the book of Hebrews, believed, by faith, that God created the world. This was the first step of faith. They were then able to believe God’s promises by faith. “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). We find a great list of people who diligently sought God and lived by faith. Many names listed should be quite familiar: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and many others. While reading that listing of faithful men and women from the Old Testament, there are interjections by the writer, helping understand the importance of faith. Remember that the people of faith from the Old Testament believed the promise that God would send One, Jesus, who would bring reconciliation between man and God.

    Each of the people on that list diligently sought God, trusting that God would reward them for their faithfulness to Him, for they looked forward to Jesus’ coming. “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13).

    • Persuaded means “to be convinced; to believe.” 
    • Embraced means “to welcome; to receive gladly – referring to the promises.”

    These people lived by faith. Read how we are to understand this active participation of faith in one’s life by the following verses: “6. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: 7. Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving” (Colossians 2:6-7).

    • faith means “a knowledge of, assent to, and confidence in certain divine truths, especially those of the Gospel, as produces good works.”
    • stablished means “to turn resolutely in a certain direction; strengthen.”

    One must actively become “stablished” in that faith.

    Chapter eleven of Hebrews is often called the “Hall of Faith” because of the many Old Testament men and women who were commended for this faith. They believed God and His Word. These men and women can help one understand the importance of trusting in Christ, who came as God promised, to restore the life that had been lost because of sin. Not only that, but because of their faith, Christians can look back to their perseverance, lending strength in unsure times.

    Have you taken the first step of faith, believing that God created the heaven and earth, enabling you to trust in God’s Son, Jesus?

    Do you remember those who were commended for their faith, allowing them to encourage you in your Christian life?

    http://biblicalpath.com/index.php/how-to-be-saved/

  • God Made Me

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    “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”   John 1:3

    Have you ever stopped to think about God’s creation? Have you ever thought, “What is the greatest thing God created?” There are so many wonderful and beautiful things that God made. Picture the mountains, beautiful sunsets, the ocean, a full moon as it rises, and so many other amazing things in God’s creation. But have you ever considered that the greatest thing God created was you? There are a few things we can find in God’s Word that brings us to this conclusion. 

    Remember first that God created the world in six days. At the end of the first five days, God declared that it was good. Even on the sixth day after God created all of the animals and everything that creeps on the earth, God declared that it was good. But on that sixth day there was a special creation. “26. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Genesis 1:26-27). God made man in His image; a man and a woman. After this, we find that God declared that his creation was “very good.”

    God created man perfect, without sin. He made man with the intent that they would be “holy and without blame” (see Ephesians 1:4). But more than that, God created man to have fellowship with Him. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). He wanted to walk with us.

    As we read Genesis chapter three, we find that Adam and Eve disobeyed God when Eve was beguiled by Satan, bringing sin into the word which caused separation from God for all of mankind. This meant that man could no longer fellowship with God as before because of this separation (remembering that before this they had walked and talked with God in the garden). Even though man failed greatly, God promised One would come to bridge the gap between sinful man and God (see the first promise of this in Genesis 3:15) which would restore that fellowship. Although Adam and Eve did not know who that One was, they believed God’s Word.

    Throughout the Old Testament, there were many who watched for that One promised by God to come. Jesus, God’s only Son, came into the world for me (and you). He came so that I could have the opportunity to fellowship with God again – if only I would believe. “Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:14). When Jesus came, He came to destroy the work of Satan. “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).

    God made each and every one of us. If one would take time to read Psalm 139:1-18, they could understand that even King David understood just how special each person created by God is. One of the most important things that each person should understand is that God created me. He made me a unique individual. And God created me to have fellowship with Him. God has a plan for me. But because of sin that separated man from God, each person must trust Jesus to reconcile them, restoring that relationship.

    Sadly, there are few people in the world today that truly understand their worth in God’s eyes. By remembering the importance of each person, and the great love God has for them in the sending of His only Son, Jesus, to bring them back to Him, we can once again understand the importance on our part to receive the great gift God has made available to us.

    What have you done with this realization?

    Originally posted at: http://lighthouse.pub/blog/2020/04/06/god-made-me/?src=n

  • Have You Been a Faithful Witness?

    “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him”
    Colossians 1:16

    In Colossians 1:16 we read that God created everything, and it was created for Him. It is important to understand that God created us for a purpose. God created man to have a relationship with Him. After He created Adam and Eve, God walked with them in the garden until they disobeyed His Word, and sin entered into the world.

    After understanding that God created us to have a relationship with Him, we look at the Bible from beginning to end. Firstly, we will take a bird’s eye view over all of history to see that God dealt with man in different ways through the ages. The Bible is laid out in certain timeframes, also called “dispensations.” A dispensation is basically a means by which God deals with mankind throughout the ages because of sin and employing God’s divine government. Each of the dispensations may be regarded as a new test of the natural man, and each ends in judgment, marking man’s utter failure in every dispensation. God dealt with His creation in different ways at different times. God created the world as perfect, but when man sinned, he brought the judgment of death into the world. Throughout the ages, God gave individuals many opportunities to have a relationship with Him, but each time they failed. They had to understand that the only way this relationship could ever be restored would be by the atoning death of His Son, Jesus. It is with this understanding that we look at the scriptures as a whole.

    The seven dispensations allow us to see how God worked among the people throughout the years. What began as a face-to-face relationship with God (remember Adam and Eve in the garden) quickly turned to a sinful people unable to approach God. But God, through His grace and mercy, promised to make available to man the opportunity to once again have a relationship with Him. We learn how man fell and was punished, and then how all of mankind was only evil continually, so that God destroyed all but one family. God then gave the governing responsibilities to mankind, and they blew it again, causing God to confuse their language. When God selected a family, they ended up in bondage and needed God to deliver them from Pharaoh. Yet when God laid the Promised Land out in front of them, they were afraid to go. Once they entered the land, they forsook God and needed judges to deliver them from the judgment God sent.

    They then believed they needed a king “like the nations around” to rule them, once again rejecting God and His plan. This kingdom ended with the people in captivity because they did not heed the prophets God sent to warn them. When God allowed them to return to their land, there was great sadness, for they were not the great nation God had intended for them to be. When God sent His Son, Jesus, the fulfillment of the promise was given, if only one would believe. Jesus did many works to reveal God to the people and then laid down His life for our sins. He restored that broken relationship that nothing else through the centuries could do. When Jesus rose from the grave, He sent His disciples to tell the world, allowing His apostles to do mighty works to help establish the church.

    Although the time of the mighty works has passed, today God still uses His people to witness to a lost and dying world. A faithful witness will tell them that the only way to have a relationship with God is through the redemptive work of His Son, Jesus.  

    Have you been a faithful witness?

    First published at: http://lighthouse.pub/blog/2020/03/06/have-you-been-a-faithful-witness/?src=n

  • Saved by Grace, Through Faith

    “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10)

    Excerpt from “The Biblical Path of Life, Year Three Quarter Three” Lesson 8:

    “Paul again reminded them of the life Jesus gave, comparing it to the life they had before Christ. “1. And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2. Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3. Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others” (Ephesians 2:1-3). Remember that Paul was writing to the saints which means “the sanctified ones who were called out into the service of the Lord and were morally pure.”  But it was important to remember from whence they came. Why? How does the old saying go: “Those who do not remember their history are doomed to repeat it.”  Christians were, and still are, to remember the old life from which Jesus saved them, one of death and promised destruction. By remembering, one would never take for granted the life given by God, Himself. “4. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5. Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)” (Ephesians 2:4-5). In this verse, Quickened us together means “to make alive as being raised from death to life with Christ.” 

    And one must remember that salvation did not come from anything one could do, for it was a free gift. “8. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9. Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8-10). Workmanship means “the result, what is produced, in contrast to the act of making – the doing itself and not that which is made.” Created means “renewal; regeneration; to create and form in a spiritual sense.” God did what man cannot do – produce a regenerated, spiritual, creature, created by God, Himself. After that, God provided a path that He expects these saints to walk in. In this verse, before ordained means “God’s foreordaining for good, as in good works.” 

    God has a plan for each and every Christian’s life.”

  • Lesson 1 of The Biblical Path of Life Volume 1

    For each lesson, I will post ideas or suggestions of activities we have tried to help in the teaching or reinforcing each lesson.  Each idea will begin with a summary of that lesson.

    In this first lesson, we will begin by understanding that that we were created by God for a purpose.  While God dealt with man in different ways through the ages, He created us to have a relationship with Him.  As we begin this study of the Bible from beginning to end, we will first take time to see how it is laid out in certain timeframes – dispensations.  Dispensation basically means God’s method of dealing with mankind in respect of sin and man’s responsibility. Each of the dispensations may be regarded as a new test of the natural man, and each ends in judgment, marking his utter failure in every dispensation.  It is with that thought that we will look at the scriptures as a whole.

    God created the world perfect, but man sinned, bringing the judgment of death into the world.  Throughout the ages, God gave man many opportunities to have a relationship with Him, but each time man failed.  Man had to understand that the only way that relationship could ever be restored would be by the atoning death of His Son, Jesus.  We will try to see how God dealt with man throughout the ages, and how God was working, revealing the way to bring man back to Himself – through Jesus.

    Key Verse

    “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:”    Colossians 1:16

    Ideas for activities or crafts for children:

    There is a memory verse worksheet that can be downloaded.

    My very talented sister drew pictures of a timeline in five different coloring sheets for children to color, making their own timeline.  It includes a line that begins after man sinned in the garden and when God gave the promise of Jesus.  Our class colored this line red to follow the promise of Jesus to the fulfillment of that promise. We then glued them to a roll of brown paper cut down to fit so we could post them on our classroom wall.  I have posted these coloring sheets of that timeline. You may download them to make a timeline for each student.  A simple way would be to copy the coloring sheets (on legal sized paper) and have them color them throughout the first few lessons.  They could be glued to a roll of brown craft paper cut to size as they are completed.  Our classes made them and added to them weekly, leaving them hung on the wall for viewing as we learned some of the Bible lessons that were pictured on them.

    To open the links below, right click and choose “open link in new tab”.

    Lesson 1 Volume 1 Children’s Worksheet