Why don't we hear God?

Once when I was teaching 3rd grade Sunday School, the lesson was about Jeremiah. I mentioned that God told Jeremiah to write down his message and give it to the king. One of the boys in the class asked me, "You mean God really talked to Jeremiah?" "Yes," I answered. "God doesn't talk to me," he replied. I responded, "When was the last time you talked to God?"

We may not hear God talking to us because we don't spend any time talking to him. Or if we do, it's just to ask him for something. If the only time you hear from your friend is when he is begging you for something, would you want to talk to him?

I can personally testify to many times when I was sure God was talking to me. Once was when he told me where to go to college. Another was when he told me to be a high school teacher.

A main reason we don't hear God is because we are not listening. If I don't care about what someone is saying, I won't listen as well. Then I can't tell you what he said. Often we don't remember God talking because we don't care or want to hear what he's saying. Or we may be distracted by something else while he's talking.

In order to hear God, we must be paying attention and be ready to hear what he has to say. It helps if we are in the habit of talking to him, too.

Reliability of Genesis

While researching the genealogies in the book of Genesis for my next book, I noticed something interesting. People claim the first eleven chapters aren't trustworthy because they happened so long ago. They don't have too many problems with everything from Abraham onwards. However, if you look at the genealogies. Noah lived until Abraham was about 50 years old. That means Abraham would have learned of the flood from someone who was actually there. This makes the account of the flood much more ...trustworthy. Abraham was not hearing a many generational exaggerated account. He heard the real thing from the real Noah. Also, Noah was alive at the same time as Adam's son Seth. Adam himself had only died a few years before Noah was born. So Noah heard the creation account from the son of the one who was there. So Abraham's creation beliefs couldn't have been very corrupted, probably not at all. Abraham lived to see his grandson Jacob, and Moses was only a few generations later. So when Moses compiled Genesis, he had written first or at most secondhand accounts of the events all the way back to creation. The book of Genesis is way more trustworthy than most give it credit. Your American history textbook probably doesn't use too many first or secondhand accounts as sources for anything more than about 100 years old, it uses other history books. Moses used autobiographies.

New FREE e-book

I just uploaded a new e-book. This one is FREE. It's called "Three Bible Difficulties." It answers three objections to the Bible's truthfulness regarding antiquated science and math. It is only a few pages long which is why I didn't feel like charging for it. Here is the link.
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/535895
If you like it, check out my other books on the same site.

Three Bible Difficulties, an Ebook by Brian Vermeer

A short treatise answering three common arguments to the truthfulness of the Bible. Does the Bible really teach antiquated science? Is the Bible mathematically incorrect? Find the answers here about the Bible teaching a flat earth, a geocentric universe and the wrong value of pi.

smashwords.com

Why Can't I Find God?

If God is omnipresent (everywhere at once), then why do we fail to see him so many times? Unfortunately, the answer is not God's fault, it's ours.

1. We don't know what to look for.

Skeptics who look for God expect to see a big Red Sea type of miracle, or they expect to hear a thundering voice from Heaven. God could speak that way, but most often, he doesn't. He spoke to Elijah in a still small voice.

2. We don't really want to find him.

Romans 1 tells us that one way God reveals himself to us is through nature. (General Revelation) Every one of us, at onetime or another, has looked at the supposed beauty of nature and wondered about God. (Nature isn't really that beautiful. Remember we live in a cursed world. Imagine what nature looked like before the fall.) But Romans also tells us that we tend to worship the created, rather than the creator. We try to find natural explanations for everything around us instead of looking for God in it.

3. We do see him but we call it something else.

Most every one of us knows of someone who was amazingly healed of a serious condition. Or we know someone who received a sum of money just when they needed it. Or any number of other things that "just happened" at the right time for good. We call them coincidences instead of God.

God really is everywhere. We don't see usually because we choose not to see. We want to help ourselves instead of asking God for help. God is really there waiting for us to call on him.

Moses and Thanksgiving

Just saw a preview for the new "Exodus" movie. Just like all of the others, they neglect the fact that Moses was 80 years old when the exodus occurred. Just like Daniel was 80 years old when he was put into the lions' den. I expect this movie to be like the recent "Noah" movie, long on action but short on accurate Biblical content.


I mentioned this before on my old site. As you watch the Thanksgiving episodes of your favorite TV shows, I want you to notice something. There will probably be a scene where everyone is gathered around the table. In turn, they will state what they are thankful for. Notice, though, they will most likely not mention who they are thankful to. As you celebrate Thanksgiving, remember James 1:17. If good things happen to you, it's only because God allows it. The world is evil. People are evil. If left to themselves, men will do evil. This Thanksgiving, remember the one who gives you the blessings you are thankful for.

Listen to me talk

I found the link to the talk I gave on the six days of creation several years ago. Here it is.






Thanks to archive.org for hosting it.

Some Old Notes Part 1

I keep a notebook with my Bible and, whenever I feel inspired, I write some thing that occurs to me. Basically, these are things that I've been meaning to post for a log time but have never gotten around to; mostly because they are just snippets of things I jotted down.


I came across this the other day. It is a question regarding the age of the earth. As you probably know, since it's most likely what you were taught in school, most scientists teach that the earth is around 4.5 billion years old and man did not appear until only around one million years ago. Now this is certainly at contradiction with the Bible because, if you add up the genealogies in the Bible back to Adam, we find that Adam was created only around 6000 years ago. Many well meaning Christians try to believe in Adam but also accept the old earth theory.


The question I jotted in my notebook is this "If the purpose of the universe is for God to have fellowship with man, why did he wait billions of years before he created him? What would be the point of an earth with many plants and animals existing for at least millions of years and even going extinct before man was created? The only reason for there being an old earth is because it would have taken millions of years for the species we currently see, including man, to evolve. If you believe in your heart that man evolved from a lower form, then there's no reason to believe in God because evolution could have occurred without him.


This is one reason why I believe in a literal six day creation approximately 6000 years ago. God created the entire universe just for man. He created man on the sixth day while all of the plants and animals he originally created were still alive. Remember, death is the result of sin, so nothing could have died until Adam sinned. The main reason I believe is because that's what the Bible says, unless you try to shove modern scientific ideas into it.


By the way, If you are coming to my Sunday School Class tomorrow, please read Genesis 41. We will be discussing "Overcoming Hard Times" by looking at how Joseph prepared Egypt for the great famine.


If I don't post again before Tuesday, Happy Veterans' Day to all of my fellow former servicemen.