Randy's Blog

After Jesus died, was buried, rose from the dead, and went to heaven to sit at the right hand of God, he promised his disciples that he would send the Holy Spirit as a helper, to enable believers supernaturally.  The Holy Spirit is a helper that the unfaithful will not receive.  The Holy Spirit is a helper that only the believer will receive to guide his physical and spiritual existence.   Jesus said,  "I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. But, when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you." -John 14:25-26 Jesus said, "If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you ...

Translation misinterpretations are often caused by idioms, especially when translating ancient languages. Idioms are phrases that really don't say what they mean, but native speakers clearly understand them. This is an especially important consideration when making a valid translation from ancient languages to modern-day English. For example, an idiom in English would be: "A chip off the old block," meaning an individual that acts or looks like his/her parents. chip off the old block Meaning:  the term is used to describe people who look like their parents. Source:  www.theidioms.com Acts 20:21 and Romans 10:13  says  "all who call in the name of the Lord will be saved,"  and there are many other passages that convey this idea. Matthew 7:21  says  "not all who call upon Him will be saved."  Acts 2:29 , says  "only those the Lord chooses will be saved." Romans 10:13-17 says  "Everyone who calls on  the name of the LORD  will be ...

There are many scriptures in the Bible where we are told by Jesus, and by the prophets down through the ages, that if we call upon the name of the Lord, we will be saved. Jesus said, "...He that believeth and is baptized , shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be damned" (Mark 16:15-16).  Passages of the Bible are sometimes misinterpreted by the average reader of the scriptures because they think of “Baptism” as immersion into a pool of water, or a sprinkling of water.  These sacraments are meant to be a public demonstrations of a sincere commitment to God and Jesus Christ. These Sacraments are good, because they publicly demonstrate the commitment of the individual, even though these sacraments aren't what's solely required to received the gift of God, which is everlasting life.  A believer's personal decision to be publicly baptized by water is important with respect to publicly demonstrating an individual's commitment, demonstrating their faith i...

God promised to hear the faithful's prayer requests, and to decide whether to grant prayer requests one way or the other. God's answers to our prayer requests is God's will. But, that doesn't mean he will consult us, inform us of his decisions, or communicate with us as to his acts that either grant or deny prayer requests.  Sometimes our prayers are in God's will, and the answers we receive to our prayers may be exactly what we have asked for, or His decisions may be the exact opposite of what we have asked for, because what we have asked for isn't in the will of God. We aren't necessarily going to receive a quick and definitively recognizable verbal or metaphysically direct response from God, but that doesn't mean He isn't hearing and answering prayer.  In the flesh, our connection to God was severed thousands of years ago, originally by Adam and Eve the first in the human family. When Adam and Eve sinned, God said that a severing of a connection t...

As our life progresses, it seems that we are incrementally losing everything that's most important to us. We come into this physical world with nothing, and we will leave it with nothing. We lose our health, our loved ones, our friends, all of our possessions, sometimes perhaps due to health issues and/or a lapse in mental capacity while still physically alive.  We are all destined to lose all we have worked for and all we have built-up in life when we physically die, and possibly to some degree while we're still living, especially if health issues or advanced age causes us to succumb to our infirmities, and we can no longer enjoy the physical or mental activities we used to take for granted.   But, it's all for one very important purpose according to God's will. It's God's way of illustrating how much we need him. Once we recognize this as we mature in our Christian faith, our losses during our physical life will not be as tragic as we might otherwise think, es...

We often wonder why bad things seem to happen to good people, and how God, being a loving God, can permit such tragedies to occur. Well, if we study the Bible, which is the base line for our faith, without our believing in it first, we have no basis for having faith in God. If we are believers, we know  that sin is the source of our experiencing terrible things happening to us. It is mankind's fault, the "wages of sin," and not Gods fault that we suffer tragedy, poor health, calamity, strife, fighting, envy, covetousness, physical death, etc...and, spiritual death as well if we are not believers in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and recognize him as our redeemer from sin. Sometimes, things we see as tragedy is God's way of drawing believers closer to him. Sometimes, tragedy is a judgement against us, a punishment intended to cause us to repent, or to draw unbelievers to repent and seek Him. But, if we are truly committed believers, we should know that we will benefit...