Informed to Transformed

Chapter One ----- What Makes You, You? a. Our Presuppositions b. The Value of Education c. Transformative Learning d. Sauls Disorienting Dilemma e. Applying the Practice to God Part II – Made In The Image of God f. It’s All About You g. In the Image of God h. The Danger of Isolated Ideologies i. The Faculties of the Human Study Questions for Chapter One Chapter Two ----- Encountering God’s Pure Word a. Why Does Faith Need to Be Incorporated? b. Was Scripture Written by Man? c. The Definition of Scripture d. Prayer Related to Scripture e. What Makes Scripture Authoritative? f. The Difference Between Logos and Rhēma g. How Your Faith is Increased Study Questions for Chapter Two This book consists of two chapters taken from the book entitled, The Narration of Creation, God’s Beautiful Story of Your Beginning – chapters three and four, by this author. These chapters will help you break out of the modern, western thinking patterns and into an ancient near-eastern mindset. With practices that are extremely important to understand in order to grow in the knowledge of God (Col.1:10; 2 Pet.3:18), and thereby, increase our faith. … … Much of the confusion around the creation account is directly related to what this chapter addresses – presuppositions. We must give an effort to position ourselves to see Scripture through the proper lens. Not my lens, not your lens, not academia’s lens, not a denominational lens, not anyone’s lens but God’s. Finding God and His lens to His story is what makes this approach to Scripture revolutionary! ... … Within this fallen world, there are tons of interpretation lenses or filters if you will, in which we interpret. We all interpret Scripture and life, and hold a worldview, through a particular lens. No one escapes this. When approaching the creation message, we find tons of different lenses and ways to interpret the message. If you are not aware of the lens through which you interpret life, and are not aware of other lenses, you cannot claim to know truth or have a balanced view. Yet, we are not without hope! There are key principles we can exercise to help see spiritual matters more clearly. On the surface, what makes you, you, is that we are all products of our environment. Let’s discuss how this affects us before getting to the real you. … God messages us, through His Word, to be His called-out ones within the culture you find yourself in. As the life of Jesus Christ shows us, to be His called-out ones is to be counterculture within your culture – not anti-culture, but from the platform of your culture, to imitate Christ within your culture, respecting your culture and bringing the light of God’s Spirit to your culture. ... … For God to use Saul as the great apostle to the Gentiles, Saul needed to experience a transformation process, through an experience that does not fit with his expectation of how things should be according to his frame of reference. This will produce what Mezirow calls a disorienting dilemma. Mezirow reveals that transformation of our frames of reference will not occur as long as what we learn fits comfortably in our existing frames of reference. We need an encounter with truth. Saul, on the road to Damascus had that encounter with truth. Saul experienced right then and there a disorienting dilemma that he had to reflect on and consider his ways and views. … … The theistic framework is the only one that has a harmony of coherence of all these questions. The Judeo-Christian worldview has a right perception of origin, and translates that into meaning, which at the same time defines morality, and unveils what destiny truly is – both personally and for all creation. You are special in God’s sight! Being made in God’s image declares that you have intrinsic value. This means that your foundational worth comes from being made by a holy and righteous God, in His likeness, that’s where you came from and that’s who you are to be. You’ll never find true fulfillment and contentment until you see how God created you and come into harmony with that. Your worth does not come from what you do or don’t do in life. Place your identity in the concrete testament of Scripture of your beginning and the fact that God delights in you. Live your life for the audience of ONE! Your worth does not come from how many likes you get on Instagram or the cheering of the crowds. If you do, you set yourself up for failure, being vulnerable to jealousy and envy (the twin killers). Being made in God’s image is an inescapable fact of our existence; of which we will give an account for. … The word rhēma however, has a different meaning. It is a spoken word by a living voice. It is a now word, a spoken word that makes alive; it literally gives life. A rhēma is a word that enlightens with revelation because it comes from an “Intelligent, Living Voice,” as Heb. 4:12a reveals. Unlike a book, a word spoken can only be experienced in the now, or the present. We must catch it, hear it when it is said, or we miss it – and there is no going back to that moment in time – except by remembrance. Just as Holy Spirit reveals Jesus, Rhēma reveals Logos; these two concepts are one and the same. … … Faith grows by hearing, and you do need to read and meditate in order to hear. The mystery/faith aspect must be utilized; this cannot be stressed enough. Faith comes by hearing a rhēma revealing the logos. God has already given each of us a measure of faith (Rom. 12:3), and this faith must be found. Like diamond underneath dirt and rock, we must mine it out, uncover it, and polish it with the washing of God’s Word (Eph. 5:26). That one, tiny, mustard seed-size measure of faith is powerful enough to move mountain ranges! All we have to do is purify it, washing off all doubt and dirty unbelief that smothers it. Then, wear it like a massive diamond on our hand, using it and implementing it to our Scripture reading and lifestyle. So, by willingness and effort on our part, being enabled by His grace, we deploy this faith which turns our Scripture reading into an interactive time with God. We read so that we can hear, and thereby experience a heart change which transforms us. Our faith becomes purified more and more, rhēma by rhēma. It is not so much that we need more faith, but rather a purified faith. Faith is our most valuable possession, unlocking the greatest power in and over the universe. ... Developing an ear to hear God’s voice is a growing and maturing process that develops by a holistic combination of faith and obedience. There are a multitude of ways to hear from God. The first and most basic, and most important way to hear God’s voice is from His written revelation speaking to us – in faith, read, believe, and obey. Generally, one cannot graduate to hear special revelations of God (various gifts of the Holy Spirit, specific words, dreams, visions, words of knowledge, of wisdom, etc.), without first reading and obeying the general revelation of God (Scripture). Developing a hearing ear starts with simple obedience to Scripture! We also hear God through His leaders in the Body as they teach, preach, give counsel, and model Christlike living. We can hear God through certain circumstances, signs, dreams, visions, and from others. We can hear God through our worship, through our giving, through our work, as we do all unto Him. There are even times we can hear His literal, audible voice in our spirit. With His voice comes the faith and grace to obey. You want to learn how to hear God’s voice? The more you are given to obedience to God’s Word, the more you will hear and know God’s voice. It starts with His Word! Summarizing how your faith can be increased; it’s by a holistic combination of disciplines. The main ones being: ...