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	<title>Pray for a Glorious Land &#187; Jesus</title>
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	<description>Home Education: Talk about Christian. Jesus words. Believed. Love. All about Growing in Christ!</description>
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		<title>Jesus Never Made a Mistake!</title>
		<link>http://www.prayforagloriousland.com/jesus-never-made-a-mistake/</link>
		<comments>http://www.prayforagloriousland.com/jesus-never-made-a-mistake/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 30 Jun 2010 08:54:59 +0000</pubDate>
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				<category><![CDATA[Pray for a Glorious Land]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[God]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jesus]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.prayforagloriousland.com/?p=43</guid>
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Someone is making people believe Jesus made a mistake by not writing His own accounts Himself and the four gospels which gave the account of Jesus were contradictory. Even went far by asking if Jesus Christ could read or write? Get some answers if you care!

First and foremost, if you do not even believe in [...]]]></description>
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<p>Someone is making people believe Jesus made a mistake by not writing His own accounts Himself and the four gospels which gave the account of Jesus were contradictory. Even went far by asking if Jesus Christ could read or write? Get some answers if you care!</p>
<p><span id="more-43"></span></p>
<p>First and foremost, if you do not even believe in His divinity as God, how then can you believe that He could read or write? <strong>John1:1-3</strong> states that &#8220;In the beginning was the word, the word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him and without Him nothing was made that was made. He was the word made flesh and hence has no need to write. His life is the word which was told to us by his witnesses.</p>
<p>Now on a more simpler and secular terms, Jesus Christ had a specific Job to do and that is to do His father&#8217;s business <strong>(Luke2:49)</strong> which is to come and redeem Mankind and not to begin some Autobiography. The writing and the preaching has been left to those who witnessed Him and subsequently to those who believe <strong>(Matthew28:19-20)</strong>. And the first people to do this were of course His closest followers, His disciples. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, making the Gospel of the Bible. If you discover any controversy between these gospels, bring it out. But also, why must you believe these books should be exactly the same? There would be no need having them all in the Bible, but rather one would be selected to represent the others. Consider this scenario, If there was a car accident, and Mr. A saw it in the perspective that the driver hit his head on the glass while the woman in front with him (the driver) flew out of the car, whereas Mr. B who had a rear view, testified that there was a boy who hit the roof of the car as the driver hit the glass but said nothing about the woman, because He did not see her; does that mean both stories are wrong, even if they are actually true? No! But when you combine these two stories together, you get a broader view of what really happened during the accident.</p>
<p><strong>2nd Timothy3:16b</strong> says &#8220;All scriptures is inspired by God&#8221; Doesn&#8217;t mean God single-handedly &#8216;hand-write&#8217; the Bible. He inspired Men to do so and you will not expect Him to twist their personal experiences just to make the Bible the same. If it was a revelation or a prophesy, then it is a different ball game all together, because God is using His chosen ones to say or write what is yet to happen. But so far as the disciples of Jesus are writing on account of their experiences with Him (Jesus), God Inspired them within the limits of what they actually experienced, know and saw. It is now left for us to combine these inspired driven experiences to get a broader view and greater inspiration from the word of God.</p>
<p>Whether Jesus Christ was able to read or not, the most important thing is that He saved us and irrespective of whether we can read or write too, He will save us if we accept Him. After all, regardless of this, the Bible was still written and the Gospel is well accessible to all Man kind. This is another proof that He was indeed the word made flesh.</p>
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		<title>See the Real Jesus</title>
		<link>http://www.prayforagloriousland.com/see-the-real-jesus/</link>
		<comments>http://www.prayforagloriousland.com/see-the-real-jesus/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 30 Jun 2010 08:54:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Pray for a Glorious Land]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[God]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Holy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jesus]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.prayforagloriousland.com/?p=44</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
I witnessed a sermon recently where a preacher made it very clear that how he saw Jesus was 180 degrees different from how I see him now, having studied &#8220;A Course In Miracles&#8221;.

The pinnacle of the sermon was when the pastor waved a sword while also reading from the Bible in the book of Matthew [...]]]></description>
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<p>I witnessed a sermon recently where a preacher made it very clear that how he saw Jesus was 180 degrees different from how I see him now, having studied &#8220;A Course In Miracles&#8221;.</p>
<p><span id="more-44"></span></p>
<p>The pinnacle of the sermon was when the pastor waved a sword while also reading from the Bible in the book of Matthew 10:34 where Jesus was quoted as saying &#8220;Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.&#8221;.</p>
<p>Additional information that could be used to create this warrior image of Jesus could be taken from biblical reports where he ransacked the temple, knocked the soldiers to the ground in the garden of Gethsemane, scolded his disciples, and his prophesied return as a lion that will slay the billions who don&#8217;t know him. Overall, the gist of the sermon was that Jesus was neither peaceful nor passive, so if you chose to be passive, it would be a sin, and Jesus would reject you.</p>
<p>If I go back 20 years or more, I was one of those people who was so sure that every single word in the Bible hinged upon what God required me to know was true. So when God endorsed the mass killings that occurred almost regularly in the Old Testament, it all fit in with what was believed to be an omnipresent being that had the right to do with us as he pleased because we are subservient to him and had no rights of our own.</p>
<p>It was quite a journey from where I believed every single word in the Bible was inspired and and organized by God to how I see it today. I&#8217;ve come to understand that although God may have inspired many of the authors of the Bible, their narrow perception of God prevented them from hearing what he was saying and so they wrote what they believed he would say.</p>
<p>It was a very fearful thing for me to even begin to imagine that the Bible might not be correct. It was believed that if any portion of the Bible were proven to be mistaken, then the whole book and all its teachings were simply wrong.</p>
<p>This is where A Course In Miracles refers to a 180 degree change in perception that is necessary to see God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit as they really are. This shift in perception is totally necessary to allow your mind to open to hear from God so that he can heal how you see the world around you, because as long as this world around you is solid and unchangeable, so is your perception of an ancient and fearful God.</p>
<p>To get you through this simply remind yourself that God loves you, He&#8217;ll do nothing to hurt you, He&#8217;s never upset at the choices you make while working your way back to Him, and that He has placed in your path all the tools and help necessary for you to find your way home to Him.</p>
<p>Once you become open to receiving a new image of God and his teachings, this information will be presented to you without having to pursue it.</p>
<p>In my case, I was invited to a healing meeting, which I had no idea what that meant, and I was introduced to &#8216;A Course In Miracles&#8217;. By doing the lessons and focusing my day around practicing the concepts within the lesson, my perception changed dramatically because now I was no longer just reading but I was practicing and I was being.</p>
<p>It took some time for me to see Jesus as he truly is. There were so many things I was taught about how he came, why he came, his purpose here, and his purpose yet to come. The teachings from A Course In Miracles basically undid all this and made it very clear about who Jesus is.</p>
<p>Here is how I now see Jesus, my brother, my guide, the one who helped open our minds for God to speak to us&#8230; It was unlikely that Jesus&#8217; birth was the result of an immaculate conception. Since anything physical does not really matter, securing particular bloodlines or insuring that the father&#8217;s blood was not part of the child&#8217;s blood, had nothing to do with the spirit that was Jesus.</p>
<p>Jesus entered this world with his mind open to hear God. Jesus was a man no different than you or I, other than having a very open and willing mind. He was not a perfect being. He was a human with an open mind and a true desire to learn and understand the truth about himself and his Creator.</p>
<p>After spending many years of his young adult life seeking the truth about God and spending much time in meditation, Jesus then introduced himself to the world, knowing that he saw something that no one else was seeing.</p>
<p>He talked about being forgiving just for the sake of being forgiving. He talked about giving with no strings attached. He talked about becoming aware that your thoughts are more important than your actions because your thoughts are what really matter. He talked about having an eternal existence and he talked about being loving and kind to all those around you because you are one with all and anything you do to anyone you are also doing to yourself.</p>
<p>His death was the result of a terrible fear that the very religious experienced in that his teachings suggested their beliefs were mistaken and that their path back to God had nothing to do with all the rituals and rules they had established. For those that had hoped to make Jesus their king, they could not even begin to imagine that a peaceful and passive existence had anything to do with them being a people ruled by God.</p>
<p>The crucifixion of Jesus was not a sacrifice required to appease God. Quite the contrary, the crucifixion was an opportunity for Jesus to tear through the final veil that obscured his perception of seeing himself and God as they truly were. The moment Jesus cried out that he believed God had abandoned him, he became fully aware that God had not abandoned him. At that moment, any final lingering thought that even hinted he was disconnected from God in any way, ceased to exist.</p>
<p>What was later written as his resurrection was based upon a confusion of this physical illusion since nothing physical that happens here really matters. No matter what happens to the body, you are not a body, and it has no lasting effect other than what we believe to be true. Likewise, in A Course In Miracles, Jesus says, &#8220;Teach not that I died in vain. Teach rather THAT I DID NOT DIE by demonstrating that I LIVE IN YOU.&#8221;</p>
<p>Jesus performed a miracle on the cross when he overcame a major obstacle that had made it difficult for him or any of us to clearly hear the voice of God. In that one instant on the cross where he thought he was abandoned, his mind was healed and he became fully open to hear the voice of God. This voice of God we call the Holy Spirit. Since we are all one spirit, all our minds were healed, and now we can all more easily hear that voice.</p>
<p>The only major difference between us and Jesus at this time is that he is a forerunner in a journey that we are all making back to God. Since he is in the lead, there are so many things he has experienced and now understands which makes him a wonderful advocate and guide to help us more easily follow the path back to God as compared to just trying to do this on our own.</p>
<p>Jesus doesn&#8217;t want our worship, nor does he want our sacrifice or obedience. All he wants is for you to recognize the authority in what he teaches because he&#8217;s at the head of this journey that we are all making.</p>
<p>Jesus has already returned. Jesus&#8217; second coming is a spiritual awakening within the minds of everyone. As we choose to see him more clearly and as we choose to join with him on the journey home, our path back to God will become more direct and will occur more quickly.</p>
<p>So I leave you with this&#8230; If this is at odds with what you currently believe, you are not expected to just take my word for it, but I will suggest you take a moment, close your eyes, and simply say, &#8220;I am open and willing to see the truth. No matter what I currently believe, it is the truth that I really want. I open my mind for the Holy Spirit and Jesus to heal how I see them, and how I see this world.&#8221;</p>
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		<title>Lead Us Not Into Temptation &#8211; What Does it Mean?</title>
		<link>http://www.prayforagloriousland.com/lead-us-not-into-temptation-what-does-it-mean/</link>
		<comments>http://www.prayforagloriousland.com/lead-us-not-into-temptation-what-does-it-mean/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 30 Jun 2010 08:50:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.prayforagloriousland.com/?p=35</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
The phrase &#8220;lead us not into temptation&#8221; is familiar to most Christians. It is from the Lord&#8217;s Prayer, a prayer given to us by Jesus (Matthew 6:13). But it causes a lot of problems for people trying to understand it. Does God lead us into temptation, and, if He does, who are we to tell [...]]]></description>
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<p>The phrase &#8220;lead us not into temptation&#8221; is familiar to most Christians. It is from the Lord&#8217;s Prayer, a prayer given to us by Jesus (Matthew 6:13). But it causes a lot of problems for people trying to understand it. Does God lead us into temptation, and, if He does, who are we to tell Him what to do?</p>
<p><span id="more-35"></span></p>
<p>The most popular opinion is that the Greek (which has three, rather than two, degrees of active/passive voice) suffered from a misinterpretation of the Aramaic, and that what Christ said actually meant &#8220;do not let us be led into temptation&#8221;.</p>
<p>There are direct Biblical contradictions in the idea that God might lead us to temptation. For example, St. James wrote: &#8220;When tempted, no one should say, &#8216;God is tempting me.&#8217; For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone&#8221; (James 1:13). St. Augustine himself re-translated the passage, &#8220;Suffer [permit] us not to be brought into temptation&#8221;. If this interpretation makes sense to you or helps you in your prayer, by all means adopt it.</p>
<p>So the most popular interpretation is that the English version of the line is an incorrect translation of what Christ actually said. If that satisfies you, think of the meaning, &#8220;Help me not be led into temptation&#8221;, when you say it.</p>
<p>There is a second dispute over the passage which is a bit more arcane. Many people over the centuries have written that temptation is not necessarily bad for us. They argue that we must be tempted and overcome the temptation to build our character and strengthen our dedication to living well. It was the Holy Spirit, after all, who led Christ into the desert to be tempted by Satan. Again quoting St. James, &#8221; Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything&#8221; (James 1:3-5).</p>
<p>People who think that we should welcome temptation make a distinction between two meanings of &#8220;temptation&#8221;: Being tempted, in the sense of having temptation before you, is different from being delivered to temptation. In other words, they do not avoid temptation, but do want to avoid giving in to it.</p>
<p>For example, picture a married man whose wife is out of town, when an attractive woman at work begins to flirt with him. He would face temptation; however, if he walked away, he would not be &#8220;delivered&#8221; to it. On the other hand, picture the same man going into a motel room with the woman. He has not yet committed adultery, although he might be &#8220;lusting in his heart&#8221; (perhaps we should use a former US President from the State of Georgia for our analogy). Yet, he would have delivered himself to temptation. He would have taken a step toward fulfilling his lustful desire.</p>
<p>But these theological questions, despite the enormous debate and trouble they cause, can themselves become a barrier to faith. I try not to get hung up on such small questions. I would rather not be tempted and I have no problem asking God not to tempt me or not to let me be tempted. He knows how stupid I am and He knows that I am trying to pray in the way Christ taught us to pray.</p>
<p>My own interpretation, when I pray this line, is that God not answer any of my prayers that will result in increased temptation to sin. For example, I might pray (directly or indirectly) for some worldly item, or to be cured of some physical ailment. But it might be that getting what I ask for would be bad for my soul and tempt me to sin. There is an old saying, &#8220;Be careful; you might get what you wish for.&#8221;</p>
<p>But the important point is this: Do not let theological questions come between you and God. When you say the line &#8220;lead us not into temptation&#8221;, God understands that you are praying not to sin and that you are worried that you might give in to temptation. You don&#8217;t have to have a Ph.D. in theology to be a good Christian.</p>
<p>I am sure that when you pray the lines &#8220;Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil&#8221;, if you are sincere, it doesn&#8217;t matter what your interpretation is. You are praying for God to help you resist evil, and that is what is important.</p>
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