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Many people are tempted to doubt that the Bible is God's Word because they do not understand and cannot explain parts of the BGible. This is often true of those who have been Christians for only a short tie. Satan tries to shake their faith in the bible as God's message to us. These people ask, "How shall I know the right way? If the Bible is truly the Word of God, how can I become free of doubt?"

God always gives us facts and reasons before He asks us to believe. We know He lives because He is the Creator. He shows us His character by what He does for us. We know His Word is true because things have happened the way He said they would

God has given us His Word so that we can KNOW that He is faithful. We can read how He has treated others and we can KNOW that He will treat us the same.

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Yet God does not make it impossible for us to doubt. Our faith must rest on good reasons, not on absolute proof. Those who wish to doubt may do so. But people who really desire to know the truth will find good reasons to believe. They can rest their faith on the Word of God.

True love is based on trust. A child learns first to trust the parents, and that trust becomes love. We first learn to trust our God, and that trust becomes love.

Learning to trust can at times be a bit scary. Imagine a child whose parent says, "Just stay there. I am going outside for a moment, but I will be back." Firstly the child is fearful, but soon learns that when the parent says they will be back -- it happens. Our heavenly Parent allows us to be placed in situations that seem scary and that test His promise to be with us always. We learn through those experiences.

God always leaves room for us to decide whether or not He is trustworthy. After all, if everything in this world was on "automatic", with no training in trust, we would not be much better than robots -- plenty of action, but no brain!!

God bless,

Beryl

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It is impossible for our minds to understand fully the character or the works of God. Even the brightest, best educated people cannot fully understand such a Holy Being. He will always be a mystery. Job said, "Can you discover the limits and bounds of the greatness and power of God? The sky is no limit for God, but it lies beyond your reach. God knows the world of the dead, but you do not know it." (Job 11:7,8).

Put very simply -- GOD KNOWS EVERYTHING!! He is the source of all knowledge. When you really stop to think of it -- how wonderful it is that He calls US His sons and daughters! We sometimes have difficulty calling another member our brother or sister in Christ!

Paul refers to this closeness that Jesus has with the human family. "But we see Jesus, Who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honour because He suffered death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone... So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.

Being the only girl growing up in a family with 4 brothers, I know the advantages (and occasional disadvantages!) of brothers! I am also looking forward to the great resurrection day, and to see the joy on my parents' faces as an angel places in my mother's arms her firstborn -- a girl who only lived for 1 hour.

Family!! What a privilege! And there we will all be one great family of God. I want to see you there! Just think, an eternity with a wonderful Brother Who so loved us that He gave His life to save us! Now, THAT is a Brother worth having!

God bless,

Beryl

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The apostle Paul wrote, "How great are God's riches! How deep are His wisdom and knowledge! Who can explain His decisions? Who can understand His ways? As the Scripture says, "Who inows the end of the Lord? Who is able to give Him advice?" (Romans 11:33). Even though "clouds and darkness surround Him; He rules with righteousness and justice." (Psalm 97:2).

As we see how God deals with us and try to understand why He has led us the way He has, we can know that He is a God of love, mercy, and power. We can understand only as much of why He does some things as is good for us to know. We must trust His loving hands to lead us the rest of the way. His heart of love will do what is best for us.

We praise God for His wisdom and knowledge -- then, when something does not work out the way we think that it ought to work out -- we complain!! We feel that God has left us. We wonder if we had dome soething wrong. We lack the faith to accept that God is working for us ALL the time!

King David was a man who loved the Lord. David wrote so many Psalms of praise to God. But David, too, felt the times when somehow God was absent, but he learned to trust God in the darkness as well as the light. We need to learn that sae lesson.

God bless,

Beryl

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The Word of God, like the One Who gave it, can never be fully understood. We cannot fully explain the sad story of how sin came into the world. We are not able to understand how the Son of God became a man. Nor can we understand just how we are made righteous and how we will be raised from the dead. But we must not doubt God's Word because we cannot understand some things it tells us about.

In the natural world are many things we cannot explain. the wisest people cannot fully understand the smallest forms of life. Everywhere are wonders we do not understand.. Should we then be surprised to find things in the spiritual world that we cannot explain? Our minds are too weak and narrow to reach these higher thoughts. God has given us enough reasons to believe that the Scriptures are inspired.

How often, when faced with adversity, we ask "Why? why? why?" We just can't understand why God would lead us in this path. But, this is where our faith is tested! "We must trust His loving hands to lead us the rest of the way."

A child in a loving environment learns to trust a parent. Dad places the young child on a table and tells him to jump. Will the child take the risk? It looks a long way down, and the child senses danger. Then he looks at his dad. He knows that his dad loves him. His dad has proved that to him so many times. Would his dad let him down now? Suddenly he flings wide his arms and jumps -- straight into his dad's waiting arms!! That was faith! And his faith was rewarded.

God allows us to go through testing times -- not to see if we can "handle it" -- but, you might call it a "practice run".

Job was a man who believed in God and worshipped Him. God allowed Satan (within bounds) to test Job. Did God need to know whether Job would still love Him? No, God knew His man -- but Job didn't really know himself! It took heavy trials for Job to get to know more about the God he had loved and trusted. When God at last spoke, Job realised that, although he had trusted God, there was so much more about God that He didn't know. He confessed to God "Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know...my ears had heard of You, but now my eyes have seen You. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes."

God was pleased with Job -- and God repaid His faithful servant with twice as much as he had before the trial. God doesn't always repay with goods and money -- but He sure is a generous giver! He will repay faithfulness with more than we can ever imagine.

That will be a wonderful, glorious day. I'll meet you There!

God bless,

Beryl

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Do you understand what Shakespeare wrote? Really? Shakespeare wrote in language that was fully understood in his day, but for us in our day, it must be interpreted into the language of the day. Even the time of writing makes a difference -- customs change, understanding changes, and it is the same with Bible times.

There are some things that never change -- God's unfailing love for fallen mankind, and the attempts of the devil to drag or allure us away from God. God has promised us His Holy Spirit to guide us in our study, and He will do just that if we will let Him.

Make the study of Scriptures a part of your every day.

God bless,

Beryl

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The Bible brings us truth that satisfies the needs and desires of every heart. This truth is given in such a simple and interesting way that it surprises and pleases the best minds. Yet it makes clear even to humble and uneducated people how they can be saved. These simply stated truths also touch on subjects that are too hard for us to understand. We accept them only because God spoke them.

Have you ever noticed how often it is that, when reading one of the familiar passages, suddenly you see something that you had not noticed before?

It seems to me that God does not immediately open to our minds the whole Scripture the first time that we read it. Instead He allows just some of the truths to enter our thinking, and as we allow those first thoughts to enter our minds and impact on our lives, God reveals to us just a little more of His great truth. In this way we are gradually brought into closer relationship with Him, and a greater understanding of His truth.

Do we ever come to fully understand the whole truth? I don't believe that we do! I believe that we continue to have a growing relationship with God and His Word, and we continue to learn, and God judges us, not on the entire truth, but what we have done about the truth that the Holy Spirit has revealed to us, individually.

God bless,

Beryl

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God's plan by which we are saved -- the plan of redemption -- is opened up to us in the Bible. We all may see the steps we must take in repentance toward God. We are shown the faith that we must have in our Lord Jesus Christ if we want to be saved.

Yet beneath these truths that are easily understood are mysteries that need much study. We must search the Scriptures to find answers. When we sincerely search for truth, we are rewarded with faith and love for God. The more we search the Bible, the more sure we are that it is the Word of the living God. We bow before the One who has shown us these truths.

God meets us where we are! Whatever stage in your Christian experience you are presently at, there is much in the Bible that you can understand, and much that just seems to pass by without us fully understanding the depth of truth contained therein.

When we continually make time for just reading the Bible, God will also take the time, through His Holy Spirit, to give to us the guidance that we need.

God bless,

Beryl

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We know that we do not fully understand all the truths of the Bible. Our minds cannot take hold of all the things understood by God's mind. Our weak, human minds cannot always understand the way God works.

Some people doubt God's Word because the meanings are not always clear to them. This is a real danger even to people who say they believe the Bible. The apostle says, "My friends, be careful that none of you have a heart so evil and unbelieving that you will turn away from the living God." (Hebrews 3:12)

I have just been reading through the Book of Ezekiel. Talk about a stubborn lot of people!! God was asking an obedient Ezekiel to act out the punishment that was about to befall the people if they did not repent and change their ways. God was just so-o-o-o-o-o patient with them, giving them opportunity after opportunity to do away with the idols and the dreadful practices of idolatary, but they refused to change. Fancy placing your firstborn child in the red-hot arms of a metal idol to "appease the god". Imagine the grief of the mother! I just cannot imagine it! She would have carried that child for 9 months knowing what was going to happen to it. She would not have been able to plan for all the things a "first-time mother" plans for her darling child. And yet -- the people chose to continue this abominal worship rather than turn to a God of love!!

This all happened because they doubted God's Word. How important it is that we establish our lives and our thinking on God's Word! Our God is a God of love.

Beryl

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It is right to study closely the teachings of the Bible. It is good to search "even the hidden depths of God's purposes" (1 Corinthians 2:10) as given in the Scriptures. "There are some things that the Lord our God has kept secret; but He has revealed His Law." (Deuteronomy 29:29).

Satan tries to get us to use our minds in the wrong way. When some people study the Bible, they feel they must be able to explain everything it says. They are proud, and they feel unhappy when they come to parts that are not clear to them. It humbles them to say that they do not understand all of God's Word. They are not willing to wait until God is ready to show the truth to them. They feel that their own understanding should be enough. When they cannot understand some parts, they say the Scriptures are not from God.

God does not us to be proud of our knowledge of the Bible, but to be humble about the little that we know. We are encouraged to study and increase our knowledge, because the more we do that, the more God can work on our hearts and prepare us for eternity. We sometimes think, "Won't it be wonderful to understand all of this when we get to Heaven," but I have a feeling that we will begin eternity with the knowledge that we have acquired here. There we will have clear minds, and the ability to absorb and retain what we learn, and we will all learn from one another, from the angelic hosts, and from Jesus Himself.

Will we ever reach the place where we have all knowledge? I don't believe that we will. The angelic hosts have done a lot of learning over the past 6000 years!! They now see Jesus in a different light to what they did at the time of Creation. Our learning here is just the beginning.

By the way, I don't know about you, but I am looking forward to having a brain that REMEMBERS WHAT I HAVE LEARNED!!!


God bless,

Beryl