Marques
Thanks for bringing up this thread. I will try to give my reply to my children when they are in for Christmas so they can see a little more of why I go to the conferences of the "Ray Smith guy."
I believe God is the sovereign Father of our Lord and creator Jesus Christ.
God gave us the scriptures, God's written word, to tell us what we need to know at this time. Bibles are translations of these scriptures, sometimes mistranslations occur and therefore misrepresent scripture. The original scriptures are inerrant.
Genesis 1:27 sums up the ultimate purpose for the creation of this entire universe and everything in it. Most bible translations get it wrong, but when correctly translated and understood this verse says :
'So God is creating man in His own image,
in the image of God He creates him;
male and female he creates them.'
God is making us God.
The entire process of our lives, the highs and the lows, the succeses and the failures, tears of hurt and tears of joy and of love, all that is, is for this ultimate goal. We are on a journey and the destination is beyond our wildest imaginations. Even when we get there it keeps getting better!!!!!-' because of the incease of his kingdom there shall be NO end!' Ever been madly in love?
Think of that rare time of being consumed with the euphoria and positive power of that super sweet world-stand-still emotion of being completely in heartpounding love-now you are lucky enough to have a glimpse of God, because GOD is LOVE!!! Eyes have not seen and hearts have not imagined what God has in store for us. The HIGH is so high that nothing else matters, compared to our ultimate destiny everything else is miniscule.
God tells us these things, God reveals these truths a little at a time as we can handle them, to us. He tells us as much as we need to know, when we need to know it. All our struggles are for our own benefit. God tailors each life to that purpose of creating man into God. Each little truth discovered is a victory,an excitement, a ten pound trout, a game winning shot, a revelation, another step in this truly important thing we call LIFE.
GOD is sovereign, that is all knowing all powerful all spirit all love all truth ALL and he made us for a reason WE ARE BECOMING THE PINNACLE OF CREATION...
This is what i believe because God has shown it to me through inspired scripture and of the indwelling spirit of love and truth and understanding of God.
Askseeknock and exult in the joy of His creation
Charles O