Category: Faith Quest

Let’s start by talking a bit about what Scripture tells us what marriage actually means.

Ephesians 5:31–33
“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”  This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

God’s Word tells us first that when a man and a woman marry each other they become one flesh. The implications of this are significant. We longer live for our selves but for the other person. We walk through life with this person in humility and with a heart that puts their needs before ours, we do this mutually.

Marriage is nothing short of a profound mystery because of what it actually means. Marriage is a picture of Jesus Christ’s love for his bride…the church. This might sound a bit strange that Jesus has a bride, and it may sound even stranger to find out it’s called the church.

The church is simply the people of God, whom Jesus has died for and saved, and who have committed their lives to him. Listen to the first part of that last sentence carefully…Jesus died for the church. Now that is ultimate humility and sacrifice.

As the church, we gladly love and serve our Lord Jesus because of his willing sacrifice for us that joins us back to the Father who created us to glorify him in all that we do. So that’s the picture we have. The groom, Jesus sacrificing for his bride, the church. A beautiful picture of sacrifice and loving submission.

Ephesians 5:25–28
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

Now to your answer. How do you know who to marry? With all this background let me ask you a question. Is this man someone who will lovingly, sacrificially, humbly, walk with you for the rest of your life, putting your needs before his? Because Scripture tells us he is to love you as Jesus loves the church.

I’m not saying he has to be perfect, because that’s not possible. But when he fails, and he will, does he exhibit the humility to ask for your forgiveness and forgiveness of God? This kind of man, Susan, is a man you can love and grow old with.

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FaithQuest is a safe place for you to ask any question you have about God, Faith & Life in general.

As much as there is to say on this matter I think the article below helps us to think through cultural issues and law. At the root of this questions lies the question What makes me acceptable to GOD? Let me say this. At the foundation of christian belief is this truth; the only thing that makes us acceptable to GOD is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Faith in Him is the only thing that makes us acceptable to GOD. If you have not explored the christian faith I encourage you to read the gospel of JOHN. It will be a beautiful gift for you I promise! With that said enjoy the article!

TATOOS & SCRIPTURE by Joe Thorn

Tattoos have an overly simplistic stereotype as well. People out of touch with what is happening today might still think that only sailors, bikers, and convicts get ink, but the reality is very different. This art form has gone mainstream and is now found on soccer moms, CEO’s, honor roll students, officers, and well… just about every kind of person out there. But the popularity of a cultural trend does not mean it is good. We need to be biblical, wise, and careful in all things.

Some people have done a quick search in the bible for “tattoo,” found Lev 19, and determined that tattoos are off-limits. But I always point people to two passages of Scripture that can help us start to think through the issue.

Lev 19 and Idolatrous Tattoos
You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the LORD.(Leviticus 19:28 ESV)

This prohibition falls in with several others given to Israel to separate them from the Canaanite pagan practices around them. The cutting of the body was related to the religious mourning process when relatives died. Tattoos may have been made in the same vein, also associated with specific idols and false religions. God calls Israel, as his Nation, to look different from the pagans around them, and many of these commands had more to do with associated pagan beliefs than the actual practice (cutting the sides of the beard, verse 27 for example).

Isaiah 49 and Divine Tattoos

Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me. (Isaiah 49:16 ESV)

In Isaiah 49:16 God is assuring his people that he will not forget them. He cannot forget them. Just as a nursing mother cannot forget her child, neither can God forget his children. And he then uses an illustration that surprises some. He figurative spreads out his hands and says, “Look, I have written your name on my hands.” This is most likely a reference to a kind of tattoo, a mark made with indelible ink. Of course God does not have actual arms, and therefore he does not have any real ink. But the point is clear enough. He uses a picture his people will understand. “How can I forget you when I have tattooed your name on my hand. I cannot even put my hand to work in anything without being reminded of you and the promises I have made to you.”

Some scholars even suggest that Jews began tattooing their hands to remind themselves of the temple and the Lord. (see Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., & Brown, D. Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; and note Is. 44:5)

We need to look at more Scripture, and we need to work through a few issues, but as we start it looks like God doesn’t condemn tattoos in and of themselves. Such marks, when connected to pagan theology and worship, were forbidden. But, God appears to have found them to be a fitting picture of how he remembers us.

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FaithQuest is a safe place for you to ask any question you have about God, Faith & Life in general.

God is Spirit and permeates the entire universe, except hell, with His presence. Yes his a above and beyond the created universe.

In the past God communicated with us through the words of His prophets, but now he has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ you can encounter the fullness of the Godhead. He who has a relationship with Jesus Christ has a relationship with the living, personal, moral and infinite triune God.

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FaithQuest is a safe place for you to ask any question you have about God, Faith & Life in general.

Q: I was told that I can just confess my sins and Jesus will forgive me. Then why not sin my whole life and confess just before death?

The way to have a relationship with God is by coming to Jesus who died for us and by rising from the dead now lives forevermore. But, when we come to Jesus we realise the folly of a life lived in seeking pleasure from the temporal things of the world. Broadly speaking, the pleasures of this world are of two kinds: legitimate and self-destructive.

We recognise that legitimate pleasures are genuine but yet are short-lived. They seem to point us to something higher and beyond – a pleasure that is permanent and unabated. Conversely, other kinds of pleasure destroy us either instantly or, as is more often the case, gradually. These are accompanied by guilt and other psychological impairments and very often physical scarring.

If the choice is between slow death through destructive pleasures or the lasting joy of a living relationship between God and me, I’m not sure why anyone would choose the former? It may have to do with a inadequate understanding of the good news. The Bible calls us to a relationship with Jesus not to kill joy, but for ‘pleasures at His right-hand for evermore’.

So when we are in a relationship with Jesus we find greater joy in the legitimate pleasures of this world, yet knowing that we have unimaginable greater joy awaiting us.

Finally, we may think that we can repent at the 11th hour. But, we cannot predict the end of this life. As a popular saying goes: Those who say they will repent at the 11th hour die at 10:59! God is not to be mocked!

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FaithQuest is a safe place for you to ask any question you have about God, Faith & Life in general.

Q: There are many criminals and politicians who do so much of wrong yet they enjoy a comfortable life and people like me who work hard have a difficult life. Why?

The Bible tells us that God not only created a good universe, but also made humans in his image with the ability to love one another and make choices. When humans disobeyed God, the good life that God had planned for them was lost. Something fundamental changed within them – there came in greed, insecurity, lust, jealousy, selfishness and many other such negative qualities.

Thus soon after the beginning of time we as individuals, depending on how we have allowed these negative qualities to govern us, have started exploiting nature and fellow-humans. Criminals and many Politicians have been able to leverage their positions of power (either by force, coercion or manipulation) to satisfy their base desires of greed and selfishness. This has enabled them to create for themselves zones of personal comfort.

But, the deeper question is, whether they have contentment? Almost all who have attained to power or wealth by unfair or exploitative means have physical comforts but have no contentment. An unknown author put it this way:

• Money can buy you a bed but not sleep.
• Money can buy you a clock but not time.
• Money can buy you a book but not knowledge.
• Money can buy you a position but not respect.
• Money can buy you medicine but not health.
• Money can buy you blood but not life &
• Money can buy you sex – but not love.

On the other hand, people who live a difficult life can live a life of contentment with the promise of eternal life.

Jesus died on the cross to give those who trust in him a new life from within. The externals may not seem to change but deep within us we start loving others and seeking their well being. This will lead to contentment that is beyond understanding. We may/may-not have money but we will be blessed with eternity, wisdom and a love that has no boundaries.

So, even if your life is difficult instead of seeking comfort, it is wiser to seek joy everlasting and contentment here on earth – which no wealth can buy for us. We have that as a free gift from God to us in Christ Jesus.

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FaithQuest is a safe place for you to ask any question you have about God, Faith & Life in general.

The Bible tells us that God not only created a good universe, but also made humans in his image with the ability to love one another and make choices. When humans disobeyed God, the good life that God planned for them was lost. Something fundamental changed within them – there came in greed, insecurity, lust, jealousy, selfishness and many other such negative qualities.

Thus soon after the beginning of time we as individuals, depending on how we have allowed these negative qualities to govern us, have started exploiting nature and fellow-humans. Selfishness, greed and insecurity have largely made for a world with many tensions and struggles. Human preying on humans has been the greatest cause of unpleasantness in human society. We have exploited nature and wrecked the balance of the created order – so, natural calamities have also contributed to our distress.

Our relationship with fellow-humans and nature can only change by allowing God to change us from within. Human effort has failed. History shows us that Laws, no matter how many, have failed to reign in our self-centredness. We are still able to manipulate and exploit loopholes to serve our selfish purposes.

Jesus died on the cross to give those who trust in him a new life from within. The externals may not seem to change but deep within us we start loving others and seeking their well being.

So, we will find our purpose in restoring our relationship with God, fellow-humans and nature. The specific for each individual may be different based on genetic make-up, gifting and talents.

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FaithQuest is a safe place for you to ask any question you have about God, Faith & Life in general.

The human soul is ‘me’ – the one who lives on even after my body is no more.

If I have been perfectly good my soul would go on to eternal joy. If I have any wickedness or shortcoming it would be headed for eternal punishment.

The Bible says that ‘all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God’. In other words, there is no one who has been perfectly good enough to earn heaven.

Some common views suggest that one could go to heaven, if my good deeds outweigh my bad deeds. But one bad deed (even in my thought life) makes me a law-breaker. Let’s consider a case when you have broken a traffic signal. The police officer calls you aside and tells you that you going to be fined for it. Suppose you argue with the officer that you’ve always kept the law – you’ve been wearing you seat-belt, your pollution under control documentation is intact, your number plate has followed the required lettering system etc. Can you demand that he let you off? No! In the eyes of the law. You are a law breaker and have to pay the penalty.

In like manner the Bible says that the ‘wages’ of sin is ‘death’. In other words, separation from eternal joy. So, as law-breakers in the eyes of God, we have been sentenced to punishment. Yes, everyone of us.

But don’t dismay. The good news is that Jesus Christ who became man lived among us as the ‘only good one’ without any sin, either in deed or in thought. He faced an unjust trial and died on the cross where he paid for our disobedience, rebellion, and sin. Those who put their trust in him can exchange their ‘bad deeds’ for His ‘eternal life’.

You can do the same too and have the certainty that you will have eternal life of joy in the presence of God Himself.

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FaithQuest is a safe place for you to ask any question you have about God, Faith & Life in general.

There are two meanings of the will of God.

1) God’s will of decree, also known as his sovereign will, and
2) his will of command.

God’s sovereign will is his control over all things that come to happen in the universe. This will cannot be changed or altered. God’s will of command is what he commands us to do. This is the will of God we can disobey.

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FaithQuest is a safe place for you to ask any question you have about God, Faith & Life in general.

1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 (ESV)
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you

I’d say praying is pretty important if we’re to pray all the time! Not possible you say? Well, one thing we must understand about how God communicates to us through his Word, is that he often speaks in these big bold statements that seem crazy and impossible.

But what he’s getting at when he says things like “pray without ceasing” is that if we truly love him and if Jesus is truly our Savior, then the posture of our hearts will be one of constant awareness and humility before God.

One of my favorite authors on spiritual disciplines, Don Whitney, says, “When our awareness of the greatness of God and the gospel is dim, our prayer lives will be small”. That’s it! We serve a big God. Every day we go outside and experience the vastness of the world around us whether it be the sun, moon, stars or simply the variety of people we know, that speaks to the power of God.

We read in Luke 5.16 that “Jesus often withdrew to lonely places to pray”. If Jesus needed to pray, how much more do we need to pray. We need prayer because it conforms our hearts to God and makes us more like Jesus.

What about fasting?

Matthew 6:16–18 (ESV)
“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

Notice Jesus says “when you fast” not “If you fast”. He assumes we will fast, it’s expected. Sadly fasting is one of the most neglected spiritual disciplines in Christian living. God created hunger. We must have food in order to live a long healthy life. When we feel hunger, rather than running to the refrigerator, we should think of God and how he wonderfully created us to need food.

But how often do we think of it that way? Fasting puts us in an intentional position to do without food, or if not food whatever we are fasting from, and to feel a distinct void. This void should then heighten our attention to prayer and devotion to the one who has created us. Fasting and praying are important because they connect us to the heart of God.

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FaithQuest is a safe place for you to ask any question you have about God, Faith & Life in general.

This is a great question Susan because it highlights one very important aspect about the wisdom of GOD. We are completely and utterly dependent on the HOLY SPIRIT to reveal truth to us. Let’s look at a passage of scripture…

1 Corinthians 2
None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

So the first part of your question is answered by saying only the HOLY SPIRIT can reveal truth. It is impossible to obtain, understand, see, live out the truth of GOD with out the SPIRIT of GOD dwelling in us. All truth is spiritually discerned.

The second part of your question is does the HOLY SPIRIT reveal truth from scripture that is not written in it? I would say this: The scripture is the final authority on all matters for a believer (Psalm 19:7-11; 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20-21). Meaning if it cannot be supported by scripture it cannot be embraced as truth. I would say that there are things that are not clearly seen in scripture and the HOLY SPIRIT brings clarity to what has already been revealed. The Bible is pretty clear about the fact that there is no new revelation. And we ought to reject anybody who comes to us with a revelation about GOD and His redemptive plan on the earth that is not found in His word.

Now in saying that I do believe that the HOLY SPIRIT is constantly at work bringing about clarity of scripture and He helps us to rightly apply it to our living. Every decision we make is not going to be found in scripture but the scripture will be the wisdom we use to make GOD honoring decisions in our life.

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FaithQuest is a safe place for you to ask any question you have about God, Faith & Life in general.