The Word of God
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Many people believe that the Bible (Holy Word of God) is just a boring book full of rules and regulations to prevent you from having "Fun" in your life. Nothing could be further than the truth. Yes, there are rules and guidelines in which to live a Godly, successful life; a life that will end with an Angelic escort to eternal life, instead of a one way ticket to the Lake of Fire... but there are many interesting and exciting stories in the Bible and you will read a preview of several of them as you work your way down this page.
First, if you learn nothing else from the Bible, just know that Jesus Christ is the son of God, and was sent here to die on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins. Bloodshed is the only thing that can pay for sin, and no human is or was good enough, so a perfect man (God himself as part of the Trinity) was the only one worthy of covering the sins of us all. If you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, you will be saved from eternity in Hell.
You may think that God can do "anything" because after all, he is God. WRONG! You must know that there are a few things God cannot do... First, when God created this world he created with it certain absolutes, and one thing he cannot do is make a round square. Though many have tried, he also cannot make a married bachelor. Finally and most important, GOD CANNOT SEE YOUR SIN THROUGH THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST!
Biblical Advice
First, if you are looking for short bits of worldly wisdom, you should read through the book of Proverbs. It's almost exactly in the middle of your Bible and it has great excerpts on how to avoid some of the potholes in the road of life.
Have money problems? There are several hundred scripture verses on Jesus talking about faith, grace, serving other, etc. However there are over 2000 verses in the Bible where Jesus tells you how to best manage your money. You cannot serve both God and money, and the borrower is servant to the lender. Think about those 2 pieces of advice before you get your credit card balance too high. The best places to find advice on money in the Bible are the Gospels. These are the first 4 books in the New Testament portion of the Bible and they are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Also, Malachi, the last book of the old testament has the most important excerpt about handling money and how to overcome it in this life. (Hint: it's in the 3rd chapter).
What does God say about working, and welfare? 1st & 2nd Thessalonians in the New Testament discuss work, and they are very short books. So if you fear reading, these are two good books to start with.
Have you ever been depressed? Do you feel like life is meaningless, or you can never seem to get the biggest thrill out of life? Remember, Jesus Christ is the reason we are here. The purpose of this life is to make Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior so you can spend eternity in Heaven and avoid the Burning Lake of Fire where there is "weeping and gnashing of teeth". Nothing else matters, but if you are feeling depressed about life, check out Ecclesiastes. The author found everything in life to be meaningless and talks about his struggles with finding satisfaction in life. You may be going through the same struggle and this book should help you through it as you can relate to the authors experiences.
If you feel like the world is against you, and the only breaks you get are bad breaks, read Job. If you don't know who Job is, he is a great man of faith and probably the most loyal person ever to live (other than Jesus). To give you a preview of this book, God made a deal with the Devil. He told Satan that he could do anything he wanted to Job as long as he didn't kill him, because Job was such a great man of faith he would never turn against God. This book is a whopping 42 chapters of the horrible things Satan did to Job, and though sometimes he would be angry or confused, he never turned against God and was rewarded greatly in the end for his faith and loyalty
Cool Stories You've Probably Never Heard Before
As you read earlier, the Bible not only has the 10 Commandments and other guidelines for life, but there are a lot of really exciting stories in the Bible too. Sure most people have heard of Noah's Ark and the flood, or David and Goliath. Aside from the many miracles of Jesus, the Disciples, and Prophets, and people being raised from the dead, there are some things you probably would never expect to find in the Bible if you never took the time to flip through it. Below are some of the lesser known stories of the Bible that will blow your mind!
In Judges, a man named Ehud gets a double-edged sword past the guards and enters the upper room of the kings summer palace because he's LEFT HANDED. What? Since most people are right handed, they carry their sword on the left side. The guards didn't check his right side. Anyways... The king was so incredibly fat, that when Ehud stabbed him, the sword was "swallowed up" by the kings stomach fat. Bet you never guessed something that funny (and gross) would be in the Bible.
In Genesis 38 there is a story of a man who practiced a form of "risky contraception" that has been unchanged even to this day. The common term for this contraception is "pulling out". WHAT? Yes we did just use the term "pulling out" because there is a man in Genesis who did this, and his consequence was much worse news than an unplanned pregnancy. This is proof that the first Soap Opera came from the Bible! Check out the scripture to get the full details.
You have probably heard of Elijah, and this man probably had the most exhausting day in the history of human existence. He called out the idolaters of an entire nation, climbed a mountain and built an alter of soaking wet wood. Then he prayed until fire came down and consumed the saturated alter. After that he climbed down the mountain and put 450 false prophets to death. He then climbed back up the mountain and prayed 7 times for rain which came down ending a 2 and a half year drought, and finished off his day by running 20 miles in front of a man in a chariot! If that's not an exhausting day, what is? If you want to hear a more animated version of this story, listen to James McDonald of "Walk in the Word"
If you want to know THE FUNNIEST VERSE IN THE ENTIRE BIBLE, it is Deuteronomy 25:11-12. If you don't have a Bible, you can look this up at www.biblegateway.com. I would print this for you, but one of the main goals of this site is to get people reading the Bible. It will be much more satisfying to look it up yourself anyways :-)
Bible Predicts Scientific Discoveries
Since the 1960's, NASA has been making noise about a "missing day". What exactly is this? There are astronomy calendars that date back to the earliest of civilizations, however when NASA went back several thousand years, they found that there was a day missing in the pattern and could not figure it out until a Holy Roller showed them Joshua 10 and when the sun stood still. Joshua says the sun delayed going down for about a day and there has never been a day like that before or since, because God did it at man's request.
If you are really into researching the accuracy of information, you will find that the astrological patterns are only off by 23 hours and 20 minutes on that day. There was one other incident in the Bible, referenced in 2 Kings 20 and Isaiah 38 where time was adjusted. This is different from the earlier referenced time adjustment because God said he would give a sign and that would be "turning back the sun 10 steps". An astrological step is a degree. There are 360 degrees in a circle. If you divide 360 degrees by 24 hours you get 15 degrees. 10 degrees is 2/3rds of and hour, or 40 minutes. This accounts for the remained of the 24 missing hours that NASA discovered in the 1960's, and these were recorded THOUSANDS of years before we even discovered the evidence of the missing day! Who ever thought the Bible was boring? This is pretty exciting stuff!
One more discovery that the Bible told of before science found it were the Jet Streams. In Revelations 7, the scripture says "I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth..." Revelations is the last book of the Bible and was completed around 90 A.D. Jet streams were discovered in the 1930's, and one thing we know about Jet Streams is there are 4 of them. Two of them are Polar Jet Streams, and the other two weaker Streams are Subtropical.
What's that? You still don't believe some of this? 2 suggestions... 1. Open your Bible and read it. 2. Google it! You'll find something relevant and it will amaze you!