Hi my wife is trying to get me to bed, so I can't really focus on getting you a long winded explanation of why I believe in the bible. But What I have done is include true stories from my life of where God has used the ... well just read it and you will see what I mean.
One morning I got up and walked into the hall and I heard a voice that I believed was God say "How would you like to be stabbed in the Valley". The Valley was known as the rough end of town, and the voice scared me a little, I wondered if I had done something to offend God. I had planned to go down to the Valley to ask people out to church as was my habit at the time. In the end I went anyway regardless of the fear. I walked up to the first person I met and asked him if he would like to go out to church. He said to me "I am an atheist, I don't believe in God". I just said "fine", but hoped to change his mind. He then proceeded to unbutton his shirt and showed me scar marks up and down his chest and stomach. He said to me, "I was attacked by a knife wielding man in the Valley some time ago and spent months recovering in hospital, How could God allow that to happen to me". Then I knew why God had said in the morning "How would I like to be stabbed?". God understood this man, but had a good plan for him. Some weeks latter this man came out to church and became a Christian.
Some time after the second Gulf War an Australian man Douglas Wood was captured by terrorists in Iraq, who made demands for a ransom or he would be executed. I set about fasting and praying for his release, I said to God "You know where he is....tell me". Three words entered my mind ABC, Bizaar and "A-meal". I thought "I am going crazy what has all that got to do with him. Bizaar I though "this is Bizarre". I thought maybe "A-meal" is a town so I searched a map of Iraq for a town of that name, but found nothing that really matched. Some time latter Douglas Wood was freed by US troops who came across his captors. It was not until latter that I actually discovered what the three words meant. I was on a forum libertyunites.us and came across a post by a user called ABC in the post she appealed to the captors to release Douglas Wood because he had gone to a/or the Bazaar and bought food for homeless people and had provided them with "A-meal". I believe God saw this action too and blessed Douglas Wood with an escape from his captors.
One time I thought about suing some one but felt bad about it because I did not want to give a bad impression about what a Christian is like. So I prayed and asked God to show me clearly what to do. Latter that day I opened my bible at random, selecting a random verse and it opened to 1Co 6:7 "Nay, already it is altogether a defect in you, that ye have lawsuits one with another. Why not rather take wrong? why not rather be defrauded?" So I knew what God was thinking, no lawsuit. From this I do not believe God was saying the legal system is wrong just this particular action.
At one point in my life I was praying for scientific cures for illnesses like cancer. Because I was on a science kick I thought would it not be fun to create a real life dinosaur. I wanted Jesus just for fun to show me how to create a Real Live Dinosaur, he can show us anything you know if he wants, but when I asked him how to start recreating a Dinosaur. Jesus spoke into my head the sentence "bood", a term I had never heard before. I decided to look it up on the Internet and I found out the following: You see, the children of Semai are taught from an early age, the concept of "bood." If a parent asks a child to do something and the child replies " bood," it means in other words, "I don't feel like doing that," and the matter is closed. Bood means gently No.
One day I was witnessing to a Muslim and he asked me why we ate pork. I used the verse out of the bible which says "It is not what enters the mouth that defiles a man but what comes out of the mouth". After some general discussion I finished for the night. I asked God to give me a verse from the bible to encourage me. I opened the bible at random and selected a random verse. It opened to the exact same verse that I had used with the Muslim. The one about food not defiling. So I knew that God was approving of what I had been talking about.
Wisdom, like an inheritance, is a good thing and benefits those who see the sun. - Ecc 7:11 I have always considered it wise to seek God for every thing in life. By this I do not mean "God, what should I eat" or "what should I wear". Not small insignificant things but things that matter. God cares about the things that we see as significant, things that are important to us. There was a point in my life where I was single, unmarried and constantly bombarded by the worlds system of doing things, a system to which I was diametrically opposed. I wanted to find a partner, but was not really sure how to go about it. By trade I am a computer programmer so the Internet was very familiar to me. So I tried internet dating. I remember getting to a point of meeting quite a few people but not really fully clicking with any of them. So I prayed and said out of all the thousands of people that are online in the world there must be some one who could make a good partner for me. So I deliberately listened for God’s voice, and prayed once. The word “Grace” entered my mind. So I typed “Grace” into the search box (that was used to search for profiles). The first profile to come up was of Ru Chen. I had been contacted by Ru Chen once, but we were unable to send messages to one another over the site for some unknown reason. So I tried to contact her again, but again with no success. Some time latter Ru was able to contact me using an email I had sent to her when she had first contacted me, after chatting online for some weeks we decided to meet. We went out together to the movies and just eating out, and seeing each other for some time. Eventually we decided to marry. We went out and bought a ring. Some months latter we got married.
This is a story of God working between me an my wife to get his point accross. One night I was laying on my bed and the verse of scripture came into my mind "With patience possess your souls". Latter that week my wife called me into the bedroom where she was reading the bible not knowing anyting about what I had heard said to me "this is a verse you will like", a thing she never has done before. It was Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near.Jas 5:7-8 It was not that I was not being patient, for I was, when talking to my mother about it we both felt it ment, the coming of the LORD is near means his intervention in our lives is near. When we are patient we reap a harvest of his blessing given time. So by faith I believe some time, sooner or latter God will do something if we just wait patiently and obediently for him to act, even if it is his final salvation on his return.
I was praying for all Muslum countries on the 27 of Febuary 2011, and specifically for the president of Iran, which I do whenever I pray for them. That God might bring them to salvation that can only be found in the Love and mercy of Jesus Christ. Like the bible says there is no other name given under heaven or earth by which man can be saved. I went into the kitchen, and asked the LORD for a verse of scripture for him, I opened the bible up to a verse, It was quite condemning, so I said LORD you must be able to have more mercy than that. So I opend up the bible again and it opened to "Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is." - Amo 5:14. I was not sure if either of the verses were for him, so I did not send anything. The next day I was having a break from work and thought of him again. So I prayed LORD do you have anything that I can send to bless him with. This time I was on the computer so I used my electronic bible, a different one to the night before. I randomly selected a verse, not looking at where I was choosing and it rested on the exact same verse I had received the night before. "Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is." - Amo 5:14 So I knew God had chosen that verse for him. So I sent him the verse of scripture and an encouragement to seek Jesus. Then on the 6th of March a Sunday I set about praying and fasting, and prayed for the president and all the members of his parliment, again I said LORD give me a verse for them, bless them and bring them to you, even if they have resisted you, just bless them with salvation. I opened the bible and again, and my finger rested on "Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is." - Amo 5:14 I have to admit I am not sure what God's plans are for them, but I know they are good because God loves them. I feel these verses sum up the attitude it is wise to have, "The highway of the upright avoids evil; he who guards his way guards his life. Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud. Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers, and blessed is he who trusts in the LORD". Pro 16:17-20.
Hope that all helped you understand why I trust in the bible. God preserves his word through the daily miracles in our lives. To finish let me state that God loves you dearly, he is quite normal, trustable, a good friend, he won't take your life from you and make you miserable.
