Does God Help Those Who Help Themselves? (Christian Welfare)

God Helps Those That Help Themselves

 

Books of The Bible Reading Order

 Ezra Discipleship Group practices Spiritual Disciplines.

The primary discipline is of Bible Intake.  That discipline can take the form of Reading and Listening.

A great way of effective Bible intake is by reading or listening to the Books of the Bible.

Below is the reading or listening order contained within that published work:

Discussing Christianity with People Hostile to it

 A Beautiful Apologetic by Frank Turek

Discussing Christianity with People Hostile to it

When the word 'Jesus' splits your family. What then?

Frank Turek responds:

Scenario:  Somebody says something negative about Christians: 

“It's obvious when they say something like that it's not an intellectual or academic issue it's an emotional issue.  Somebody's hurting over something.  There may have been somebody in their past who was a Christian and wronged them or abused them and so they don't want to have anything to do with it. 

They're associating Christianity with that person or that traumatic event so you can understand it.”

Get them into a comfortable place to talk and ask them:

"Do you mind if I ask you a question about that?  It seems that’s a sore spot for you, do you mind if I ask you why that is?”

I mean don't try and give them evidence that it's true, just say, "I'm trying to understand why you're pushing it away because - What if it's really true?

Why wouldn't you want it to be true? 

Wouldn't you want the God of the universe to take your punishment on himself?  Who wouldn't want that?

Know why?  Because they're associating Christianity with cultural Christianity

They're associating Christianity with things they may not agree with or like, but at the end of the day Christianity is Jesus and the fact that he came and died for us and took our sins from us is something that should be front and center.

Act 3: CALLING ISRAEL TO A MISSION

 

Act 3: CALLING ISRAEL TO A MISSION

We see the direction of God’s redemptive plan when he calls Abraham, promising to make him into a great nation. God narrows his focus and concentrates on one group of people. But the ultimate goal remains the same: to bless all the peoples on earth and remove the curse from creation.

When Abraham’s descendants are enslaved in Egypt, a central pattern in the story is set: God hears their cries for help and comes to set them free. God makes a covenant with this new nation of Israel at Mt. Sinai. Israel is called by God to be a light to the nations, showing the world what it means to follow God’s ways for living. If they will do this, he will bless them in their new land and will come to live with them.

However, God also warns them that if they are not faithful to the covenant, he will send them away, just as he did with Adam and Eve. In spite of God’s repeated warnings through his prophets, Israel seems determined to break the covenant. So God abandons the holy temple—the sign of his presence with his people—and it is smashed by pagan invaders. Israel’s capital city Jerusalem is sacked and burned.

Abraham’s descendants, chosen to reverse the failure of Adam, have now apparently also failed. The problem this poses in the biblical story is profound. Israel, sent as the divine answer to Adam’s fall, cannot escape Adam’s sin. God, however, remains committed to his people and his plan, so he sows the seed of a different outcome. He promises to send a new king, a descendant of Israel’s great King David, who will lead the nation back to its destiny. The very prophets who warned Israel of the dire consequences of its wrongdoing also pledge that the good news of God’s victory will be heard in Israel once again.

Act 3 ends tragically, with God apparently absent and the pagan nations ruling over Israel. But the hope of a promise remains. There is one true God. He has chosen Israel. He will return to his people to live with them again. He will bring justice, peace and healing to Israel, and then to the world. He will do this in a final and climactic way. God will send his anointed one—the Messiah. He has given his word on this.

Zondervan. NIV, Books of the Bible