The goals of this are:

• To encourage believers in the Faith
• As a watchman on the wall - Sounding the Alarm
• Sharing knowledge of the faith
• Sharing finds on Christing resources around the Net
• Sharing the Faith with those that do not know the God of the Bible

Note: There will be a flood of posts over the next few days as an older blog is moved over to here.  Really not that fast of writer

About a month ago, I had my eyes opened to this passage in Mark, where the man brought his child who was demon possessed to be delivered, but the disciples could not seem to cast the devil out.  The man asked Jesus to help and when asked if he believed, he said:

Mark 9:24  And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.

Originally, that sounded like a contradiction, he said he had faith but asked for help with his lack of faith.  My eyes were opened to the truth behind this when was listening to another translation that said something like:

... Lord, I believe but help my doubts.

At this point I realized that you can believe and still have doubts, it is not only one-way, since you can believe but still have some doubts.

Well, today, I was browsing around and came across Andrew Wommack's site where he has a some MP3's on healing and faith.  The one I listed to today was "Why Isn't Everyone Healed" expecting to hear about faith and not excuses (and was not let down):

http://www.awmi.net/extra/audio/1036

I already TiVo all of Wommack's shows when they come on, but this was the first time I visited his site.

He opened my eyes to two other points in this area.  This same story I was referring to above also made me wonder why the disciples could not cast the demon out.  I had chalked that up to possibly different strengths of demons due to the passage:

Mark 9:28-29  And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out? And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.

The two points are, what stopped the disciples from casting out the demon and what does prayer and fasting have to do with it?  I contributed semi-correctly, the prayer and fasting as a closer faith walk with God and figured the the disciples just did not believe enough.

It was the words "this kind" that threw me off.  In Matthew it says:

Mat 17:19-21 Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.

It seems clear that it was their unbelief that was the problem.  It was not that they did not believe as they had cast out demons before, but with this one they had too many doubts.  Wommack, points out a possible scenario where the demon might have manifested before the disciples as it did before the Christ and that may have give them enough reason to doubt.

Now, since we no longer look at different demons being stronger or of different types, just different in how they manifest or not, what does the "only through prayer and fasting mean"?  I like Wommack's take on this, that it is to give us a strong faith by casting down our doubts.  If the disciples would have had less doubts their belief would have pulled them through and that doubts only go away with time with God's Word and taking the power of our flesh away.

Mustard Seed Faith

One other point to this that I learned over the last two months is the "grain of mustard seed" remark.  I have head it taught that this means we have a "type of faith" that even though it is small in the beginning, we must grow our faith such as a mustard seed that grows from a small seed to a mighty bush.  There are a few problems with this view however, the first being that in Romans 12:3 it says we have all been given the measure of faith.   One passage I heard to support the view was:

Luk 17:6  And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.

They would say that you had to have that "type" of faith that would grow.  Once fully grown you could move mountains and as in this passage, move the tree by your mighty faith.  That may sound good, but it only works if you take this passage out of context.  In Luke 17:6, the disciples asked Jesus to "increase their faith" which makes 17:6 appear more of slam against them saying if they had even the smallest amount of faith, the tree would obey them.

Another passage is:

1Co 13:2  And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 

Some say that we need "all faith" to be able to move mountains.  Wow, who will ever have "all faith"?  Sounds a lot harder that Jesus said in Mark 11:22-24 and Mat 21:21-22.  But is that "all faith" or is it just "faith and doubt not"?  Yep, the passage is stating that we have faith without doubts.

James also supports having "faith without doubts" in:

Jas 1:6-8  But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

We do not need "more" faith, we just need to remove our doubts!

If you happen to be a 'er, there is a touching story that you can watch online which is only 13 minutes long.  It is called "In The Arms of Angels" and is true story from pioneer account of a 8-year old girl and her brother who were almost killed.

Very much worth the time to watch!

While browsing around today, I ran into this article and thought I would share:

http://www.rbc.org/bible-study/been-thinking-about/2004/02/01/column.aspx

When was the last time you read the story of Jonah?  We see that he ran from the work God gave him to do because he was afraid.  Then the storm came and caused all on the ship to fear, to the point they finally threw Jonah over into the sea.  Then came God's provision!

The big fish that God had prepared for this job, swallowed Jonah and he stayed in it's belly for three days.  What must have gone through his mind for three entire days?  While we never will know, it is amazing the revelation that hit him on the third day.

The prayer of chapter 2 is amazing.  Some might ask "what is so amazing?"  Three days prior he was running from God, thinking he could hide from him.  Now after spending three days in that belly, he realized why he was there and then declares the Lord will hear his prayer and he will sacrifice unto the God with a voice of thanksgiving, that he will do as God as asked and his Salvation was of God.

After the prayer, Jonah was ready and God talked to the fish and it vomited him up onto dry land.  But did Jonah learn everything he was to learn?  No, Jonah still had issues.  He traveled to Nineveh and proclaimed the message and then expected to see their destruction.  The people heard the message and repented then God forgave and had mercy on them. 

Jonah was not happy, he thought God was going to destroy them, he did not understand God was warning them to turn from their evil, God did not want to destroy them.  Even after being in that fish for three days and understanding God's mercy on him, he could not see the mercy of God on others.

It is interesting to see how Jonah used faith to get him out of the fish.  For three days he was in that fish and finally on the third day he proclaimed that God would deliver him, even though he could not see any hope in the natural.  When Jonah came to the revelation that God would forgive and deliver him and spoke from his heart knowing he had a job to do, God did just that and delivered him from the fish.

Compassion for others should be a major focus of our lives!

I received an comment on one of the posts by a person who said "if God were to reveal Himself I'd follow but .." and "God on the other hand blesses who He blesses and curses who he curses - I fall into the latter group"..  It is sad to be in such a situation, but often when a person feels like this they are just a step or two away from truly finding God.  The person is at the point of denying God, but more than likely only because he feels condemned and does not see a solution out of it.

Oh, that all the people would know the Good News, that God is not made at them, that He has provided a solution to remove their burdens and to bring them into piece with God, and that it is free for the asking.  God waits for us to turn to Him to receive forgiveness, washing away ALL sin, regardless of what we have done and will then place a new heart within us so that we desire to follow after Him and to walk in ways that are pleasing in His sight.

There is the other point too, that if God would "reveal Himself", then the person would follow.  He already has revealed Himself in the evidence of Jesus and beyond that, in creation which God says means no one has an excuse for unbelief.  When people do not want to live (what we think as a sinner is a good life) or perhaps have sins we feel are so large that God would not forgive, people tend to deny God even exists and makes up their own methods to comfort themselves.  The sad part is that they will never receive any lasting comfort until they are right with God.

There is an article on how we can clearly see logically that God does exist and some of His attributes:

http://www.theawakening.com/articles/I_AM_An_Explanation_of_Existence.aspx

People often have no clue that everyone is a sinner in God's eyes and that there is not one of us righteous to God, except through the blood sacrifice of Jesus.  They do not have to life this life with the pain of their sins now face God with those sins if they just accept God's gift to them.  Some just do not understand what God said in:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.   For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

One of the most important things a person who has not made a commitment to God or wants to deny God, it does not matter who or what they perceive to be God, there is still one God, who they will bow their knee to and admit He is God.  When that time comes it is too late to change your mind and they will have to place themselves in the hands of a God of justice and every single sin they have every committed, they will be judged for and then placed into everlasting punishment.

We can clearly see there is a God and that means we need to take the time to search for that God and find out what He wants out of us in this life before it is too late.

Just a few days ago, my wife and I were watching a documentary about Noah and I was checking on the timeline around the flood.  I noticed something I had not seen before, Methuselah died in the year of the flood, possibly "in" the flood.  I wondered if perhaps I was missing something else so I built out a table giving the life span and dates of the generations from Adam to Abram. 

After I built the chart below, I found a a few other interesting facts:

• Adam died just 126 years before the birth of Noah
• There are only nine generations from Adam unto Noah
• Noah's father Lamech who lived 777 years died just five years before the flood
• Abraham was born only approximately 252 years after the flood
• Noah died approximately when Abraham was 58 years old
• Noah and Shem lived through he tower of Babel where God scattered the people over the earth.
• All of Abraham's grand fathers from Noah unto Terah, Abraham's father, was alive when Abraham was born
• Noah's son Shem, Salah and Eber outlived Abraham, would be something to have your great, great, great, great, great, great, great grand Father outlive you!

Some people think that right after the flood, people started living short lives of just a hundred years or so, but that did not really happen until after Abraham's time.  Some prior to him lived several hundred years.

While the dates below might not be perfectly accurate as each generation can vary up to a year depending on the time of the year they are born and we do not know for sure the exact date that the sons of Noah nor Abram was born since it only says that in a given year he begat his sons but some take that to mean that in that given year they started to have their sons.  Even with those exceptions  you are only taking a 100 years or so difference in the dates from the time of creation until now.  Not a lot to worry about ;)

It really puts a different view on things when you see how Adam lived almost unto the flood and Noah was around when Abraham was being called of God.  Imagine being Abraham and possibly talking with Noah all about the flood...

* Flood Dates in bold print