Church WithOut Walls International-Europe
  • Home
    • Privacy Verklaring
  • DE
    • Weekly Thoughts (D) Wöchentliche Gedanken >
      • Weekly Thoughts (D) Wöchentliche Gedanken - PDF
  • EN
    • Weekly Thoughts >
      • WEEKLY THOUGHTS >
        • John's Monthly Newsletter
      • Weekly Thoughts serie in PDF format
    • About John Fenn
    • About Wil & Ank Kleinmeulman
    • Books written by Ank Kleinmeulman >
      • About Ank - author
    • Online Bibleschool
  • F
    • Pensées Hebdomadaires
    • PDF à lire et/ou imprimer
    • A propos de John Fenn
    • A propos de Wil & Ank Kleinmeulman
    • Vidéo en anglais
    • Nous contacter
  • FI
    • Viikottaisia ajatuksia >
      • WEEKLY THOUGHTS / Viikottaisia ajatuksia
      • Weekly Thoughts / Viikottaisia ajatuksia - PDF
    • John Fennistä
    • TV7
    • Kontaktihenkilö Suomessa
  • LT
    • Weekly Thoughts (LT) Savaitės Mintys >
      • E-Book
    • Straipsniai >
      • Kaip mes suprantame, koks turi būti surinkimas
      • Krikštai
      • Kaip veikia 5 tarnavimo dovanos namų surinkimuose?
      • Grįžimas prie paprasto tikėjimo
      • Garbinimas
      • Namų surinkimai Naujajame Testamente
      • Išgelbėjimas
      • Tikėjimo išpažinimas
      • Kaip prasidėjo CWOWI?
      • Dažnai pasitaikantys klausimai
    • Video LT
  • LV
  • NL
    • Weekly Thoughts - nederlands >
      • WEEKLY THOUGHTS (NL) Wekelijkse Gedachten >
        • Weekly Thoughts NL pdf
    • Over / bio van John Fenn
    • Over / bio Wil & Ank
    • Wat wij geloven
    • Onderwijs - Online Bijbelschool
    • Onderwijs - MP3
    • Boeken van Ank Kleinmeulman
    • Doneren / gift overmaken?
    • Conferentie
    • Artikelen >
      • Hoe “Church Without Walls International” is ontstaan
      • Hoe een samenkomst van een CWOW huisgemeente eruit ziet
      • Waarom samenkomen in een huis?
      • Wat is een huiskerk en een huiskerk netwerk?
      • HuisKerken: Waarom – Wat – en Hoe?
      • Ank deelt over Wat & Hoe van Huiskerken (VIDEO'S)
    • Lokaties van Huiskerken (in NL)
  • PL
  • RO
    • Gânduri săptămânale >
      • Gânduri săptămânale - PDF
  • RU
    • Джон Фенн
    • Сид Рот «Это сверхъестественно»
  • Locations
  • Donate
  • Events
  • TV
  • Contact

What god is like our God? 1 of 3, Abraham changed everything

9/11/2020

0 Comments

 
Hi all,
I was the Director of a Bible school when a twenty-something year old student made an appointment to talk to me. She sat down in the office and with a very sincere and yet very scared look on her face she asked: "Is any of this real?" When I asked what she meant, she replied; "This. Christianity. Jesus. Is it real or is it just something man made up like a philosophy or business or way to control people?"
 
She believed in Jesus and she admitted He had saved her from what would have been a disastrous life. But once in the Lord she looked around at all the religions and philosophies and wanted to be sure she was going the right way; She didn't want to get tricked into following one way or the other if it was error. Essentially, she was looking at all the gods and goddesses and wondering if our God was THE God. 
 
Our world is just as full of gods and goddesses as the ancient world's gods and goddesses, though in different forms. Pop culture, sports, movie and tv stars and their cultures and ways of thinking have made its way into everything from religion to sports to politics. Their celebrities are elevated to god status as are their way of thinking and reasoning. Anything placed in importance between man and God is idolatry, and it is all around us. 
 
As people were dispersed across the face of the earth after the Tower of Babel they gradually lost knowledge of the one true God. They developed religious systems involving the worship of gods, represented by idols and barbaric rituals that ranged from cutting oneself in blood letting to human sacrifice, and so much more. 
 
Ancient gods of the Middle East
Some of the gods of the ancient east included Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Canaanites associated with fertility. She was often described as a mistress of Baal, the Canaanite supreme god associated with fertility, the sun, and rain and lightning. Baal worship involved having sex with the Baal priests and priestesses, and sometimes human sacrifice. Solomon worshipped Ashtoreth after gathering wives of the Canaanites. 
 
There was Chemosh the one who subdues all, the god of the Moabites and Ammonites, and was said to be a very cruel god, demanding human sacrifice. Solomon set an altar to Chemosh outside of Jerusalem on what is known as 'the hill of corruption', referenced in II Kings 23:13. 
 
Dagon of the Philistines was the god of water and grain, with a human body but head of a fish. Samson died bringing down the temple of Dagon. 
 
Marduk of the Babylonians had 50 names, including Bel, and was worshipped in Babylon, Assyria, and Persia. 
 
What makes Abraham different? 
Abraham came from this culture of many gods and goddesses to know the one true God. The first thing to know about Judaism is that it was the first monotheistic religion. In other words, it was the first time someone had said without a doubt there is but 1 God and the rest are imposters. 
 
Abraham also was the first to introduce the idea that God was God for everyone, everywhere. Up to that time the Canaanites had their gods, the Moabites theirs, the Egyptians theirs, and so on. God came out of eternity to appear to Abraham, asserting and proving He is the one true God, and He is the God for everyone everywhere. 
 
Abraham
Consider what God and Abraham brought to mankind:
 
1) God is the true God, there are no others, the rest are imposters.
2) God is God for everyone, everywhere on the earth. 
3) God is sovereign; He cannot be manipulated by ritual, impressed by sacrifice, indeed in the blood of bulls and goats He has no pleasure (Hebrews 10: 5-8)
4) God created earth, the natural forces and created man in His image and likeness. 
5) God is so meek, lowly, humble and therefore approachable, that He offers to become a friend to any who want Him.
6) God is so eager to help mankind that He entered into a covenant with Abraham to bring a promised restoration to the whole earth.
7) He gave humans free will to choose good or evil, every person responsible for their own actions. 
 
Up until Abraham none of these thoughts, none of these concepts, none of this knowledge was found in any religion with any god. 
 
Consider your own walk with the Lord - rituals? Formula?
Every religion around Abraham was based on man making some ritual to reach or move or impress their god. 
Every other religion reached their gods through a man-made framework of ceremony, statues, pictures, and other elements of physical worship. That was the culture then, that is the culture today among man-made efforts to reach God. Many well-meaning Christians have fallen from grace into works as well. 
 
When God appeared to Abraham and became his friend, Abraham realized there could be no mechanism he could put in place by which to reach or appease Him. They were friends. There was no statue he could pray to because he knew God personally. There was no ritual, speech, prayer, building or liturgy he could devise to approach God because he already knew God personally. All of those mechanisms were now obsolete. 
 
And to those of us who walk with God today in such freedom, we realize that too - buildings, liturgy, ritual, statues and icons - obsolete. We know God personally. Christ is in us. We have the mind of Christ. We've been sealed by the Father God's Spirit who is holy. Nothing we could do on this earth can improve upon having Christ in us by our spirits being born anew of the Father God's Spirit. 
 
What person has a friend and then builds a framework of ritual and sacrifice and declarations by which he may access his friend? That's silly. He just talks to him. There is nothing between them but that they know each other. That is what Abraham introduced into the world - the ability to know God personally without religious ritual. 
 
What god is so considerate that he tells followers to cancel debt, take a day off, take vacations, and love everyone? We'll pick it up there next week, until then, blessings,
 
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

      John Fenn

      If you want to subscribe

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012

    RSS Feed

Church WithOut Walls International.eu (C) 2023
to donate
Photo used under Creative Commons from widakso