Jay Forrest

"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God" (Matt 3: 4). Many people act as if after the Bible was completed, God stopped speaking. This is because a lot of people misunderstand the Bible's true purpose. And this, in turn, has led many people to lose faith in the Bible. The Bible was never meant to be a substitute for a personal relationship with God. The Bible is to point you to a relationship with God. But most evangelicals have a relationship with the Bible and know nothing of God. The Bible is not God's word to you. God can speak through the Bible, but the Bible is not God's word to you. Yes, it's for you, but not to you. God is not telling you to sacrifice your son Isaac. Be careful about applying specific directions to your own life, not everyone should quote, go and sell all you have and give to the poor. The Bible is not a message from God, it's a message about God. It records people's experi

“And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he hears us: And if we know that he hear us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him” ( 1 John 5:14-15). Prayer is usually thought of as a petition addressed to God asking for his help and intervention. Oxford English Dictionary defines a petition as “an appeal or request, especially a solemn or humble one to a deity or a superior.” Yet, how many Christians will tell you that they pray and pray and yet nothing happens. Why is that? In the above passage, we see that the key to answered prayer is to ask according to God’s will. Usually our problem is not knowing God’s will in the matter. In that case, our first step is for wisdom into God’s will (James 1:5). And even when we receive that answers to our prayers, they usually don’t get answered they way we expected. Pray for patience, and you will quickly learn what I mean. But prayer is not just asking G

"Avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called" (1 Tim 6:20). Carl Sagan once claimed that "The Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be." This is not a statement of fact but a statement of faith First, he never tried to prove the statement. Which makes it a mere assertion. And just because a scientist says it doesn't make it true. It is asserted without evidence, and it can be ignored without evidence. Second, how did he know that "the Cosmos is all that is?" You would first have to know "all that is" before you could know that the Cosmos is it. The fact that physicists populated a multiverse means that many cosmos'. Third, if Carl didn't exist from the beginning of time, how could he know that the "Cosmos is all that... was." This is very unscientific. He has no evidence to support it, no experiments to prove it, and no testimony to verify it. It is a mere assertion. Fourth, unle

“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). A claim is a statement that is either true or false. If the statement is neither true nor false, it is not a claim. Truth is the description of the quality of a claim. A claim is true when the statement being made matches the way things actually are. Truth refers to a claim or group of claims in which the statements of the claim correspond to reality. In other words, the statement really does express the reality of the matter. If someone makes the claim that I am a man, and I really am a man, then the claim is true. It is true because it matches or corresponds to the way things really are. Truth is the name of a claim that matches reality. Truth is the correspondence between a claim and reality. All other attempted definitions must assume this one. All other definitions claim that their definition corresponds to reality, and therefore is true. Which means that all other definitions are false. You can’t a

"The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom." (Prov. 4:7 NIV). In order to get wisdom, you need to first know what wisdom is. Unfortunately, this is harder than you might think. There is no agreement on what wisdom is. Wisdom is not knowledge. Knowledge is the acquisition of facts and information. Wisdom is not experience. Wisdom is not the right use of knowledge, that's prudence. Rather, wisdom is the proper perspective of reality. Experience is the practical application of knowledge in real-world situations. Wisdom is not understanding. Understanding is the ability to comprehend and interpret information. And wisdom is not prudence. Prudence is the right use of knowledge. Wisdom is the proper perspective of Reality. It is the result of the skillful integration of knowledge, experience, and understanding. A proper perspective is God's perspective. The closer we get to his perspective, the wiser we are. Worldly wisdom is a distorted perspective of Reality. It is

"Conversion is conversion from a self-centered person to a God-centered person." - E. Stanley Jones Conversion is not optional. Jesus was clear, “Truly I say to you, Except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 18:3). The Apostle Peter said the same thing, “Repent you therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out” (Acts 3:19). Conversion means to turn around. We can illustrate it by imagining a person heading in one direction and then turning around and heading in a completely different direction. That is conversion. Repentance is changing your mind, conversion is changing your direction in life. And this is what E. Stanley Jones is pointing to. Before conversion, everyone is self-centered. They are living their life on their own terms, they are doing what they want when they want. They are lord of their lives. Conversion is turning from selfishness and surrendering to God. Now you are livin

For this reason,      I bow my knees to you Father of my Lord Jesus Christ,      from whom the whole family      in Heaven and Earth is named, that you would grant me,      according to the riches of your glory, to be strengthened with might      through your Spirit in the inner being, that Christ may dwell in my heart      through faith; that I, being rooted and grounded in love,      may be able to comprehend with all the saints      what is the width and length and depth and height - to know the love of Christ      which passes knowledge;      that I may be filled with all of your fullness. In Jesus' name, amen. (Eph 3:14-19)

Dear heavenly Father, I pray that you,       the God of my Lord Jesus Christ,       the Father of glory, may give to me the spirit of wisdom and revelation       in the knowledge of you, that  the eyes of my understanding      may be  enlightened; that I may know       what is the hope of your calling,      what are the riches of the glory            of your inheritance in the saints, and      what is the exceeding greatness of your power            towards us who believe, according to the working of your mighty power       which you worked in Christ           when you raised him from the dead           and seated him at your right hand in the heavenly places. In Jesus' name, amen.   (Eph 1:16-20)