The Injeel Way

2007-12-25T19:32:00.000-08:00

The Injeel Way

Outline of the Plan

God has a Plan, Part 1a
God has a Plan, Part 1b
God has a Plan, Part 2a
God has a Plan, Part 2b
God has a Plan, Part 3a
God has a Plan, Part 3b
God has a Plan, Part 4
God has a Plan, Part 5
God has a Plan, Part 6

God has a Plan-Part 6

2007-11-25T19:26:00.000-08:00

If you need to go to the beginning, Click Here.

Making Him Ours

After we realize the wonder and the power of God’s gift of Himself to us, our minds are boggled. We respond by asking ourselves, “what then should we do? How can this salvation from God become truly ours?” The answer is found in Principle 6: We must invite Isa the Christ and our substitute, to live in our hearts and be the master of our lives.

Here are passages which explain this concept.

Towrah Jeremiah 24:7—“I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.”

Zabur 13:5—I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.

Injeel Revelation 3:20—“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”

Qur’an Thunder 13:27-29—“He (God) guides to Him all who are penitent.” Those who believe, their hearts being at rest in God’s remembrance (that is, when you think of God, trust Him and surrender to Him)—in God’s remembrance are at rest the hearts of those who believe and do righteous deeds, theirs is blessedness and a fair resort (a good end).

What good news!!! God will guide the repentant. Imagine that—repenting and believing will lead our hearts to be at rest. We should obey God and receive by faith the Person—Isa the Christ—whom He has appointed as Savior, Redeemer, and Mediator, both in this world and in the world to come.

Ask those to seek Him. You can pray to Him, repenting of your sin and asking Him to forgive you.

A man wanted to climb to a high mountain peak. He brought all the necessary equipment and hired a seasoned guide to show him the way. As they started, conditions were perfect. They stopped for a light lunch, then stated off again. The small path that they were following soon disappeared. Rugged cliffs loomed everywhere.

Suddenly they came to a deep gorge. The guide approached the edge and examined it. He found a sturdy rock and, after testing it, jumped from it to the other side. The other man wanted to follow him, but every time he got ready, his fear of falling to his death kept him from jumping.

So, the guide tied himself to a rock, planted his feet firmly I the ground, and stretched his arm out toward the man. He told him to hold on to his hand tightly and then jump. The man still hesitated in fear. The guide looked him right in the eye and said, “Sir, this hand has helped many climbers across this very passage, and it hasn’t failed a single one. Trust in it and jump over!”

That climber jumped. All at once, there he was on the other side, safe and full of joy that he was on his way again to the top of the mountain.

We, also, are on the path to a very high summit, leading us to the peace of God and His eternal life. We have to reckon with the question of whether we are refusing or hesitating to trust ourselves to His divine hand to help us. We need to trust in that hand, wounded for us on the Cross, letting Him save us. Ask your friend who the guide represents. The following verses in the Bible and Qur’an speak of our desperate need to risk reaching out for the steady, reliable hand of God, which is already reaching out to us.

Ezekiel 18:31-32—“Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die?...For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!”

Zabur 119:145, 149—I call with all my heart, answer me, O LORD….Hear my voice in accordance with your love; preserve my life, O LORD, according to your laws.

Zabur 28:7—The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy.

Injeel Romans 10:10—It is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

Hebrews 10:22-23—Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience….Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

Qur’an Disputer 58:22—He (God) has written faith upon their hearts, and He has confirmed them with a Spirit from Himself.

God is the only one who gives faith. If He doesn’t, we will never have it. The Qur’an does not even mention good works here. When a man receives Christ in faith, God puts the Holy Spirit in him. That is the meaning of “He has confirmed them with a Spirit from Himself.”

Mutual Fraud 64:11—Whosoever believes in God, He will guide his heart. And God has knowledge of everything. In other words, God will guide whoever believes in Him.

Women 4:110—Whosoever does evil, or wrongs himself, and then prays God’s forgiveness, he shall find God is All-forgiving, All-compassionate.

It is obvious in this verse that God will not cast anyone outside who comes to Him in repentance.

If you have a question or comment, you may get me at jpound777 (at) yahoo.com.

God has a Plan, Part 5

2007-11-25T19:20:00.000-08:00

If you need to go to the beginning, Click Here.

God’s Provision is a Person

Principle 5: The solution is not just the Cross but a divine person, Isa, who was anointed by the Holy Spirit and called the Word of God.

Exactly who was—and is—Isa – Jesus Christ? I understand what Muhammad was trying to counter in his day. But based on the best research available today, the Jewish/Christian concepts of God in Saudi Arabia in Muhammad’s day differed greatly from what is presented in the Towrah and Injeel. Realize that there was not a translation of either Towrah or Injeel in Arabic at the time of Muhammad (MHRIP). (Allah, Allat and Ba’al (Lord) or son—separate vid)

Let’s look at what is revealed in the Bible and the Qur’an about Isa. Both say Isa is the Word of God, who is anointed and aided by the Holy Spirit.

It’s interesting—and very logical –that God’s provision is not a philosophical or a religious idea, not a list of rules to follow or a way of life. It’s a person.

Towrah

Isaiah 61:1—The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor…to proclaim freedom for the captives.

Here the prophet Isaiah talks about the coming Christ, or Messiah. Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would come to proclaim freedom to the captives.

Zabur

Psalm107:20—He sent forth his word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave.

God sent Christ—the Word—to the world to heal us from sin and so deliver us from sin’s destruction.

Injeel

John 1:1, 14—In the beginning was the Word, and the Ward was with God, and the Word was God…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only...full of grace and truth.

God’s Word was with Him for all eternity. After all, He was always able to speak. He sent this Word to us as a flesh-and-blood person to save us from our sins.

Qur’an

House of Imran 3:45—When the angels said, “Mary, God gives thee good tidings of a Word from Him whose name is Messiah, Isa, son of Mary; high honored shall he be in this world and the next, near stationed to God.”

Christ is the Word of God. He was highly honored when He was in this world and that now He is in the closest possible position with God, or, as the Injeel puts it, “at the right hand of God” (Hebrews 10:12).

Gabriel came to the Virgin Mary to tell her she would bear God’s Word, Christ. What other prophet has ever been born of a virgin? Pause. Chits is holy, He was placed on this earth in a holy fashion. It was foretold by God in the Towrah (Genesis 3:15) immediately after Adam and Eve’s disobedience. God said the seed of the woman—not the seed of the man—shall crush Satan’s head.

When a word is uttered by God, it has not been severed from God. In this case we are talking about the Word of God. There is something extremely unique about Christ. As a “word,” He is an embodiment of what God wants to communicate to us. As an eternal person, He is now right next to God, never apart from God, and thus a part of God.

A man once asked his friend, “Which came first: God or His Word?” “God obviously came first,” said his friend. “Oh, was God dumb at the beginning and unable to speak?” “No, He could speak,” the friend insisted.

“Of course, because God is perfect. So at no time was He unable to speak and be without His Word. So Christ, the Word of God, has always been with God.”

(I know it is difficult for you to believe that Christ, who came in the flesh to our world, is the same God as the one God. This is because theologians who were commentators of the Qur’an legitimately hated the idols that were worshiped along with God (Allah) many centuries ago. As a result, they fell in the trap of building their theology on the doctrine that God is a monolith who cannot be explained or defined because nothing is like Him. In this way they present God as unfree, unable to do what He wants or to appear to His creatures in the form He chooses.)

Let’s continue by plowing through some verses that speak to who Christ is.

Towrah Micah 3:8—AS for me (the Messiah), I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, to Israel his sin.

Zabur Psalm 139:7—Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?

Injeel Revelation 19:13—He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.

Acts 20:28—“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God which he bought with his own blood.”

Here we see that God purchased believers with His own blood. Can God bleed? That shows the oneness of God, His Word, and His Spirit.

Qur’an Cow 2:87—We (God) gave Isa son of Mary the clear sings (miracles and God’s words), and confirmed (sustained) him with the Holy Spirit.

In other words, God gave Jesus His words and sustained Him always with His Holy Spirit.

If you have questions or you want to comment you can get me at jpound777@yahoo.com

Video: God Has a Plan for You -- Part 5

God has a Plan, Part 4

2007-09-08T14:32:00.000-07:00

If you need to go to the beginning, Click Here.

The Cross is the Bridge to Life

Though we find ourselves in the seemingly impossible situation of being doomed in a cesspool of sin & death, there is still hope. This is where we come to see the vital importance of Principle 4 – God has provided a solution to our dilemma.

Realize that your destiny does not rest in you abilities but solely on what God has done for you. Our only hope when we’re in an impossible situation is to turn to the only One who can do the impossible. The following explains what God has done for all of us.

One of the reasons why God created the universe was that He wanted to commune with creature who were like Himself, who bear His very image. God cared so much about us that even after Adam and Eve ushered us into the darkness of sin, He worked out His own plan to save us since we couldn’t save ourselves. There are many passages in both the Bible and the Qur’an that emphasize the fact that God did for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves: He solved our sin problem—but at great cost to Himself.

Towrah Isaiah 19:20—When they cry out to the LORD because of their oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and he will rescue (Deliver) them.

Zabur Psalm 49:7-8—No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him—the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough.

Isn’t it interesting that it is impossible for a person to do enough to ransom oneself from the just punishment for his sins? It’s too big a job. (see also Romans 3:20)

Injeel Ephesians 2:8-9—It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast.

Qur’an Rangers 37:107—We (God) ransomed him (Abraham’s son) with a mighty sacrifice.

The term “mighty” is Arabic also means priceless without any limit. Since God is the only one able to provide for man’s ransom, man must look to God in order to be saved. Can you think of a way in history that God has provided this ransom for us? When I survey history from the Far East to the West I don’t find but one example of how this ransom might have been accomplished.

Listen to this story. A man was brought to court for stealing money from his company. As the judge asked him the usual questions, he discovered that this man had been his childhood friend. That put the judge in a predicament. The tender spot in his heart for his friend made him want to not condemn the man to the imprisonment he deserved. But to free him would be unfair to his employer, who had been wronged.

After much thought, the judge himself repaid the company all the money the man had stolen. The representatives of the company were satisfied. The man himself was freed, and was grateful to the judge for the rest of his life.

In the same way, although we stand rightly condemned for our sins, God, in His love for us, took our punishment by giving Himself as a mighty sacrifice for us at the cross.

It is vitally important to recognize the significance of the Cross. The underlying concept is one of paying a ransom for another person. A ransom is the necessary price to pay for the release of a captive. We are all captives of our own sins. We need to be set free but that is only accomplished by having the ransom paid for our sins and as Rangers 37 stated the ransom MUST BE a “mighty” / priceless sacrifice.

The following verses from the Bible and the Qur’an further document that God should be trusted to provide man’s ransom from his sin.

Towrah Genesis 22:13 – Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he was a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.

Exodus 12:13—“The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.”

Notice in these verses that just as God designated that the blood of a pure lamb (Without defect) would be a sign to protect the Jews in Egypt from being destroyed by a plague of death, so trusting in the pure blood of God’s mighty sacrifice at the cross protects us from being destroyed in hell because of our sins.

Leviticus 17:11—“It is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.”

Pure blood is necessary for our sins to be sufficiently paid for in God’s sight—life for life. Pure blood covered the sin of Adam and Even when God killed an animal and used its skin to cover their nakedness (see Genesis 3:21).

Isaiah 63:8—(God) said, “Surely they are my people, sons who will not be false to me;” and so he became their Savior.

The point here is that God Himself is the savior of His people.

Zabur Psalm 34:22—The LORD redeems his servants; no one will be condemned who takes refuge in him.

Psalm 31:5—Into your hands I commit my spirit; redeem me, O LORD, the God of truth.

Psalm 56:13—You have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.

We see in psalm 34 that taking refuge in God will save you from condemnation. In other words, God alone can redeem and deliver us, which we see clearly in Psalm 31 and 56. We can’t redeem ourselves by trying to make our good deeds outweigh our bad ones. Since God Himself is singled out as the One who redeems and delivers, obviously He recognizes that we need that for our lives—being delivered from the power of sin, from having to continue sinning.

Psalm 107:6-7—Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way.

Many Muslims ask God to lead them in a straight path at least five times a day. Psalm 107 shows that the bible agrees with this prayer, and that indeed we have to look to God alone for our salvation and not trust in ourselves.

Injeel Matthew 26:28—“This is my blood (Isa’s blood) of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

Romans 3:23-25—All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished.

In Matthew 26:28, Isa Himself explains that pure blood is necessary for forgiveness (That concept is fully explained in Hebrews 9.)

Romans 3:23-25 goes on to emphasize that we are all fallen sinners who need the redemption that is available in Jesus not in our own efforts. The necessity of Pure blood is mentioned again. This shows how amazing God’s plan for us really is, for because of His might sacrifice of Himself through Christ, He cancels out our past sins so that we do not have to pay for them. Why? Because Isa (Jesus) had already done so. (See also I Peter 1:18-19)

Qur’an Story 28:16—He (Moses) said, “My Lord, I have wronged myself. Forgive me!” So God forgave him, for He is the All-forgiving, the All-compassionate.

Some people say that prophets (like Moses) do not sin. But this verse shows that even a prophet needs to be rescued from sin.

Cow 2:38—“There shall come to you (Adam and Eve) guidance from Me (God), and whosoever follows My guidance, no fear shall be on them, neither shall they sorrow.”

There was guidance even for Adam and Eve when they sinned—if they looked to the Lord for it. ‘That is, the Lord Himself was their salvation. They couldn’t depend on their own works.

Women 4:110—Whosoever does evil, or wrongs himself, and then prays God’s forgiveness, he shall find God is All-forgiving, All-compassionate.

People often believe that their good deeds must outweigh their bad deeds to win God’s favor and to go to heaven. This verse says they must repent and ask for God’s forgiveness of their bad deeds.

Here’s a story that can bring this point home. To get rid of her anger every time her son hurt her, a widow pounded a nail in the back of her kitchen door. One day the son opened the door and saw all the nails. “What is the meaning of these?” he asked her. Reluctantly, she told him. Amazed that he had hurt her so much, he asked her to forgive him. And he removed all the nails.

But the holes remained, reminding him that he had hurt her so much. The nail prints served as a sign to keep him from hurting her again.

We have to come to God ourselves for forgiveness, according to Cattle 6:69. Even when He forgives us, we still have the memory of what we have done to be a deterrent to repeating the same sins.

I know that some of the verses may seem to be repetitive to you and that is for a purpose. They are all to drive home the point that God’s plan for mankind is revealed through the Bible and the Qur’an. That we must submit to God’s plan for us to have salvation and to be delivered from our sin.

What do you think this means? Please comment by clicking the comment link below. Or, email me at jpound777 (at) yahoo.com if you want to comment or have a question.

video: God Has a Plan for You -- Part 4

God has a Plan, Part 3b

2007-09-08T12:50:00.000-07:00

If you want to go to the beginning, Click Here.

Our problem is that our bad deeds and thoughts always outweigh good deeds and thoughts—because the best deeds of a sinner are unacceptable. And so, because man is unable to please God, he must trust in Him and in what He says. It’s a matter of a major step of humility and commitment before God. Take a look at what the Bible and the Qur’an have to say about this solution to sin:

Towrah

Genesis 15:6—Abram (Abraham) believe the Lord, and he (God) credited it to him as righteousness.

II Chronicles 20:20—“Have faith in the Lord your God and you will be upheld; have faith in his prophets and you will be successful.”

Habakkuk 2:4—“The righteous (Person) will live by his faith.”

Zabur

Pslam 13:5—I trust in your unfailing and steadfast love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.

Psalm 32:1—Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

Psalm 85:7-9—Show us your unfailing love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation…Surely (God’s) salvation is near (at hand for) those who fear him.

Injeel

Romans 14:23—Everything that does not come from faith is sin.

Ephesians 2:8-9—It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.

Hebrews 11:6—Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Qur’an

Believers 23:109 (Dawood)—“Among My servants there were those who said: ‘Lord, we believe in You. Forgive us and have mercy on us: You are the best of those that show mercy (the most merciful One).’”

Believers 23:109 says in essence that there are people who understand they must throw themselves on the mercy of God because their own deeds are not enough. This is why the Qur’an also says, “Your Lord has prescribed for Himself mercy. Whosoever of you does evil in ignorance, and thereafter repents and makes amends, He is All-forgiving, All-Compassionate” (Cattle 6:54).

From these passages we see that believing in and relying upon God and asking Him for mercy and grace brings forgiveness.

Muhammad 47:19—Ask forgiveness for thy (Muhammad’s) sin, and for the believers, men and women. God knows your going to and fro, and your lodging.

From this verse it is clear that no one can escape the need for forgiveness. Even Muhammad had the sin problem based on this verse.

Cow 2:256-257—No compulsion is there in religion…Whoever disbelieves in idols and believes in God, has laid hold of the most firm handle, unbreaking; God is All-hearing, All-knowing. God is the Protector of the believers; He brings them forth from the shadows into the light.

In other words, you cannot force people to accept a a teaching, a philosophy they do not like. Men and women choose to leave idols and believe in God, to lay hold of Him with a sense of commitment—“the most firm handle.” God Himself is your protector, not your good deeds or works. God along is your Savior. He takes people out of darkness (the shadows) into His wonderful light.

House of Imran 3:193—“Our Lord, we have heard a caller (a person calling others to hear, believe, and repent), calling us to belief, saying, ‘Believe you in your Lord!’ And we believe. Our Lord, forgive us our sins and acquit us of our evil deeds, and take us to Thee with the pious (the righteous).”

This verse is plain. In effect it says, “believe and receive forgiveness for past, present and even our future sins.”

I want to pause right here and ask: “How many times have you tried unsuccessfully to change your sinful life, or to conquer a bad habit?” I have tried to and own my own strength, I cannot.

We are all sinners—me, you and everyone else—whether they admit that or not. There are many other sinful people who have succeeded at trusting God to take away their sin and give them a new life. Do you want to be a person who has God’s favor and who trusts in Him alone to forgive your sins? He is the only one who Can. Please consider doing that today. And consider reading the next post here because the 4^th principle contains the second half, the need half of God’s answer to our sin problem.

What do you think this means? Please comment by clicking the comment link below. Or, email me at jpound777 (at) yahoo.com if you want to comment that way or have a question.

God has a Plan, Part 3a

2007-09-08T12:48:00.000-07:00

If you want to start at the beginning, Click Here.

We Can’t Save Ourselves

When it comes to what we can actually do about our sin problem we find that human efforts won’t work. We must ultimately look to God for His solution.

Did you know that He has a solution to our sin problem? Do you believe that He has a solution? He does. One-half of the solution is principle 3: We are helpless to save ourselves from this dilemma of sin and death.

Please don’t give up here. There is good news coming but we must endure this principle and understand it before we move on to the real answer from God.

We must acknowledge to God that we are sinners and that we know we can do nothing before Him to make ourselves right or righteous in His sight. He is Holy—the most Holy!!

Some people believe that good deeds or works can earn them points or merit before God. However, there are passages in both the Bible and the Qur’an that contradict this concept of merit through goods works.

Towrah

Proverbs 14:12—There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.

That is a scary verse to me. If you do not have verified truth to cling to, you could follow a teaching all your life that leads only to death. Death here is existence apart from God.

Zabur

Psalm 125:5—Those who turn to crooked ways the Lord will banish with the evildoers.

Injeel

Titus 3:4-5—God our Saviour…saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

Qur’an

Cattle 6:70—Remind hereby, lest a soul should be given up to destruction for what it (the soul, your soul) has earned (or deserved); apart from God, it (the soul) has no protector and no intercessor; though it offer any equivalent, it shall not be taken from it (the soul).

What Cattle 6:70 is saying, in other words, is “Beware lest you receive the destruction your sinful soul deserves because of what you have done. Outside of God, you have no hope of being saved—no protector and no one to intercede for you. Though your soul tries to offer something ‘big,’ nothing is equivalent to what is necessary to save you. Nothing can save you but God.”

Men plan to remove their sins by being good--pileing up good deeds on one hand to outweigh bad deeds. They attempt religious works, actions that benefit mankind and political activity. But men forget that the only righteousness he can produce comes out of an unclean life, since he is a sinner. So, self-produced righteousness is also unclean. As the Towrah says in Isaiah 64:6, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.”

Wearied and miserable due to sinful living, a man decided to take the long walk to ask advice of a godly friend. When he arrived, he immediately explained that guilt, frustration, and fear were tormenting him day and night. He asked his friend, “What works can I do to relieve these feelings, and find peace of mind and happiness?”

Before answering, the friend ordered his servant to bring a cold drink for this exhausted visitor. The servant soon returned with the drink. But before offering it to his friend, the host added a large drop of ink, blackening the drink. The guest asked, “What are you doing?”

“Just answering your question,” he replied, “You won’t accept this drink because I spoiled it with a drop of ink. Yet you want a pure and holy God to accept your good deeds when you have defiled them with the filthy sins of your heart and mind!!!”

The man understood the lesson. Right then and there he asked God for His pardon and cleansing. Understanding the bad news of sin led him to seek out the good news of God that effectively deals with that sin.

What do you think this means? Please comment by clicking the comment link below. Or, email me at jpound777 (at) yahoo.com if you want to comment that way or have a question.

Video: God Has a Plan for You -- Part 3

God has a Plan, Part 2b

2007-09-08T12:43:00.000-07:00

These messages appear in reverse order. To start at the beginning Click Here.

Qur’an

Rome 30:10—The end of those that did evil was evil.

Cow 2:30—When thy Lord said to the angels, “I am setting in the earth a viceroy.” They said, “What, wilt Thou set therein one who will do corruption there, and shed blood?”

Here God is telling the angels before the Garden of Eden creation that He is going to put someone on earth to represent Him, namely man. “What?” the angels say. “But man will ruin the earth with his sin.”

Cow 2:36—Then Satan caused them (Adam and Eve) to slip there from (from the Garden of Eden) and brought them out of that they were in.

Battlements 7:22-23—Their Lord (the Lord of Adam and Eve ) called to them, “Did not I prohibit you from this tree, and say to you, ‘Verily Satan is for you a manifest foe’?” They said, “Lord, we have wronged ourselves, and if Thou does not forgive us, and have mercy upon us, we shall surely be among the lost.”

There is nothing in these preceding passages about good deeds saving us from our sin. They say that we are sinners and that if God does not Forgive and save us, we are lost. Teachers of Muslim theology do not typically mention original sin, but here it is in the Qur’an. Some say the Christian church invented sin in order to have Chrsit as a Savior. But Muhammad serves as a witness against this interpretation. Decide whether to leave in here…..

Ta Ha 20:121—Adam disobeyed his Lord, and so he erred.

Abraham 14:34—Surely man is sinful, unthankful!

Confederates 33:72—Surely he (man) is sinful, very foolish.

Same as Romans 3:23.

House of Imran3:11—God seized them because of their sins; God is terrible in retribution.

Creator 35:10—Those who devise evil deeds—theirs shall be a terrible chastisement, and their devising shall come to naught.

Bee16:34—So the evil things that they wrought (or made) smote them, and they were encompassed by that they mocked at.

Sin reaps more sin.

Crouching 45:7-8—“Woe to every guilty impostor who hears the sings (miracles and or message of God) of God being recited to him, then perseveres in wxing proud (goes on sinning), as if he has not heard them.”

Cow 2:276—God loves not any guilty ingrate.

Talk about defilement here. Person must get the point that they are a sinner and be wiing to admit it now.

Talk about my sin. Admit that I am a sinner. Ask the person where they stand before God right now? If they died, would they go to heaven for sure?

You may be Hindu, Sikh, Muslim, agnostic, or other, and have a need for forgiveness from sin. Truly, this is our greatest need.

I am reminded of the story of Dr. Paul Gupta, born is a very high caste in India and carried the name of a Hindu god. Though he had from his family inheritance everything he could want in life, he was over and over again from childhood made keenly aware of his sin. Though he searched, he could not find freedom from His person sins. Early life in his life he sought ways to relieve the pain and guilt of sin. Those included swamas and Hindu teaching about how to deal with the problem of sin. Thus, many people are well aware of their personal sins, and even burdened down with those sins.

What do you think this means? Please comment by clicking the comment link below. Or, email me at jpound777 (at) yahoo.com if you want to comment that way or have a question.

Jump to the end with this short presentation:

God has a Plan, Part 2a

2007-09-08T12:38:00.000-07:00

Start on message #1. They are in reverse order. Click Here.

The greatest of all our problems is that although God is our primary need, we are faced with this seemingly impossible dilemma which is stated in the second principle. Sin separates us from the pleasure of God’s company and all the resulting benefits. The results of sin can be seen everywhere. I worked in a hospital at one point. I saw health problems that resulted from sin. Gun shot victims in the Emergency Room. Murder, rape, selfishness and many other things are all around us to point to the fact that man is sinful.

So, even though we want to enjoy God’s light, we have this problem that blocks us from that goal. The problem is sin. That is the bad news. There are many scriptures in the Bible and the Qur’an that deal with this sin problem.

From the Towrah:

Isaiah 59:2--Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

Zabur

Psalm 66:18—If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

Injeel

I John 1:10—If we claim we have not sinned, we make him (God) out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

Qur’an

Cow 2:81—“Whoso earns evil, and is encompassed by his transgression—those are the inhabitants of the fire; there they shall dwell forever.”

Cow 2:81 is very similar to a passage in the Injeel, Romans 6:23, The wages of sin is death. By sinning, we earn or get paid out just “wages” of evil consequences. Cow2:81 says a sinner is surrounded and overcome by his sin. So he goes to hell forever. Man was created to enjoy a continuous, close relationship with God. But he stubbornly abandoned Him to go his own, independent way. The Bible calls such rebellion or passive indifference toward God by several names, including sin, disobedience, and breaking God’s law.

What is the difference between active rebellion and passive indifference toward God? Why do you think, passive indifference is also counted as sin? Which in your opinion is more common: active rebellion or passive indifference toward God?

Sin is not only bad news—it is the worst possible news. Why? Because it separates us from God forever!!! As a result of that separation, we have feelings of fear, frustration, emptiness, guilt, lack of purpose, lack of peace, and unhappiness. If we actively pursue sin, it shows that we are addicted to it and leads to self-destruction. But even if we simply passively ignore God, we set ourselves up as our own gods, that is, as the ultimate judges of what is right and wrong.

Zabur

Psalm 51:5—Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

Psalm 130:3—If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?

Psalm 143:2—Do not bring your servant into judgment for no one living is righteous before You (God).

Injeel

Romans 3:10—“There is no one righteous, not even one.”

Romans 3:23—All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Galatians 6:7—Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.

I John 1:8—If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

Qur’an

Winds 51:59-60—The evildoers shall have their portion, like the portion of their fellows; so let them not hasten Me (God) ! So woe to the unbelievers, for that day of theirs that they are promised.

Spider 29:40—Each (person) We (God) seized for his sin; and of them against some We loosed a squall of pebbles and some were seized by the Cry (plague), and some We made the earth to swallow, and some We drowned; God would never wrong them, but they wronged themselves.

The Winds and the Spider Qur’anic passages have much to say about the progression from sin to judgment. Winds 51: indicates that those who are evil and do evil will get their punishment. But Don’t rush God to punish them, because it will be a terrible day for them when God starts giving them their punishment. In Spider 29 we see that God catches each person for all the sins that person commits. Some of the people referred to in this verse were stoned and others were seized by a plague. Some were swallowed up by the earth, and some were drowned. The point here is that God deals with sin. Everyone is dead in his sins. God does not wrong them when He punishes them, but they wrong themselves by sinning, which inevitably bears the fruit of the punishment.

Some people say there is no sense of sin in the Qur’an. But these Quran verses clearly show differently. They stress the consequences of sin.

SIN DEFINED

When we think of sin many times we think only of robbery, murder, adultery, etc. The Bible tells us that sin is anything that doesn't please God or is a transgression of his law. Anything we do that we shouldn't, like losing our temper or stealing - these are sins of commission. Anything we should do but don't, like failing to pray or read the Bible or to truly love our neighbor - these are sins of omission. There are not only sins in deed, but also sins in word and thought like lying, cursing, lust, pride, and hatred. The Bible says these are all sins.

THREE SINS A DAY

Suppose I sinned only ten times a day, or even five, or even just three. Why, I would be practically a walking angel. Imagine if no more than three times a day did I think unkind thoughts, or lose my temper, or fail to do what I ought towards God and man - I would be a pretty fine person, would I not?

Even if I were this good, I would still have over 1,000 transgressions a year! If I lived to be the age of 70, I would have 70,000 violations of the law of God on my record. .Think what would happen to an habitual offender in a criminal court with 70,000 transgressions on his record.

This illustrates that not only am I a sinner, but also that my sin is a very serious issue.

What do you think this means? Please comment by clicking the comment link below. Or, email me at jpound777 (at) yahoo.com if you want to comment that way or have a question.

Video God has a Plan for you -- Part 2

God has a Plan, Part 1b

2007-07-28T18:28:00.000-07:00

Start on message #1. They are in reverse order. Click Here.

We are continuing with a look at the Qur’an, Towrah, Zabur, and Injeel into what is God’s plan for us and for this world. Lets look at the Genesis account of the Fall in Genesis 3:1 - 24

The Fall

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.

He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" 2 And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" 4 But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." 6So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

8And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?" 10 And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself." 11He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" 12The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate." 13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

14 The LORD God said to the serpent,

"Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock
and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.

15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head, (emphasize)
and you shall bruise his heel."

16 To the woman he said,

"I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be for your husband,
and he shall rule over you."

17 And to Adam he said,
"Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
'You shall not eat of it,'
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return."

20 The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. 21 And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

22 Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—" 23 therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

What do you think this means? Please comment by clicking the comment link below. Or, email me at jpound777@yahoo.com if you want to comment that way or have a question.

Additional Readings:

Towrah Deuteronomy 7:9—Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his cocvenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.

Zabur Psalm 5:12—For surely, O LORD, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield.

Injeel Luke 1:50—“He (God’s) mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.”

Qur’an Battlements 7:96—Hand the people of the cities (around Mecca) believed and been godfearing, We (God) would have opened upon them blessings from heaven and earth.

All the above passages state in essence that God cares about the people He has created. Through the prophets and apostles, He has revealed His concern for us and His desire to give us inner peace, security, joy, purpose, strength, and guidance. All these come from a close relationship with God (a communion with Him and His wonderful attributes).

A lifeless electric light bulb is immediately changed as soon as you put it in contact (communion) with electrical power. It becomes full of life and brightness. It becomes beautiful, attractive, and beneficial to others, showing them the way to a life of usefulness and help too others. This is a picture of our lives before we know God and after we know Him and enter into full communion with Him. Here are some references to this kind of intimate communion with God from both the Bible and Qur’an.

Towrah Isaiah 60:20—“The LORD will be your everlasting light.”

Zabur Psalm 16:11—You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Psalm 27:1—The LORD is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?

Injeel I Peter 2:9—You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Qur’an Light 24:35—God is the Light of the heavens and the earth; the likeness of His Light is as a niche wherein is a lamp (the lamp in a glass, the glass as it were a glittering star) kindled from a Blessed Tree, an olive that is neither of the East nor of the West whose oil wellnigh would shine, even if no fire touched it; Light upon Light; (God guides to His Light whom He will).

This is a beautiful description of God’s light might have been inspired by the chandeliers that Muhammad saw in a large church during one of his trading trips to the fertile Crescent countries. These lovely chandeliers were hung in the ceiling of the churches. They held lamps of glass full of pure olive oil from a blessed olive tree that belonged neigher to the East nor to the West but to the whole world. On that oil floated lighted wicks that filled the church and the believers in it with their light. Similarly, God wants to attract whoever seeks Him to His light.

What do you think this means? Please comment by clicking the comment link below. Or, email me at jpound777 (at) yahoo.com if you want to comment that way or have a question.

God has a Plan. Part 1

2007-07-28T17:44:00.000-07:00

I want to introduce what we plan to do here over a series of blogs entitled “God has a Plan. "

In studying the Qur’an I find key concepts which point to what I believe are the core of God’s message. I will extract those gems and tie them to the same concepts in the Towrah, Zabur and Injeel. I want to look at: God’s plan for us, 2. What separates us from Him, 3. Can we save ourselves in this world? 4. The bridge to life with God and a few more key principles. This will take several blogs to get through all our findings, but should prove exciting and provide concepts for dialogue. I hope you will find this enlightening and review each concept carefully from your own understanding. Much is to be gained if God truly is speaking to us.

I am a submitter and I want to submit to the one true God even more as I learn more. For Muslims, I am not presenting anything that should turn you away from the one true God, rather to fulfill you as God wants you to be fulfilled.

There are at least seven principles or concepts that need to be explored to get the full meaning of what God is saying to mankind.

I know that you desire meaning and purpose in your life and the good news it that God desires that for you as well. He has a plan for your life. What do you think is God's purpose in creating Us? (Pause)

God is love. He love us and desires the we love Him and respond to His love. Though He created plants and animals, they cannot love Him. God wants people, whom he gave the capacity, to respond to His love in a way that is meaningful to Him.

God created man in His image and gave him everything he needed.

From the Qur'an the story of the Fall in Cow 2:30-39 and Battlements 7:18-25 show us what happened to man in the beginning—right after creation.

Cow 2:30 - 39

2:30 And when your Lord said to the angels, I am going to place in the earth a khalif, they said: What! wilt Thou place in it such as shall make mischief in it and shed blood, and we celebrate Thy praise and extol Thy holiness? He said: Surely I know what you do not know.
2:31 And He taught Adam all the names, then presented them to the angels; then He said: Tell me the names of those if you are right.
2:32 They said: Glory be to Thee! we have no knowledge but that which Thou hast taught us; surely Thou art the Knowing, the Wise.
2:33 He said: O Adam! inform them of their names. Then when he had informed them of their names, He said: Did I not say to you that I surely know what is ghaib in the heavens and the earth and (that) I know what you manifest and what you hide?
2:34 And when We said to the angels: Make obeisance to Adam they did obeisance, but Iblis (did it not). He refused and he was proud, and he was one of the unbelievers.
2:35 And We said: O Adam! Dwell you and your wife in the garden and eat from it a plenteous (food) wherever you wish and do not approach this tree, for then you will be of the unjust.
2:36 But the Shaitan made them both fall from it, and caused them to depart from that (state) in which they were; and We said: Get forth, some of you being the enemies of others, and there is for you in the earth an abode and a provision for a time.
2:37 Then Adam received (some) words from his Lord, so He turned to him mercifully; surely He is Oft-returning (to mercy), the Merciful.
2:38 We said: Go forth from this (state) all; so surely there will come to you a guidance from Me, then whoever follows My guidance, no fear shall come upon them, nor shall they grieve.
2:39 And (as to) those who disbelieve in and reject My communications, they are the inmates of the fire, in it they shall abide.
Shakir Translation

Battlements 7:18
18 He said: Go forth from hence, degraded, banished. As for such of them as follow thee, surely I will fill hell with all of you.
7:19 And (unto man): O Adam! Dwell thou and thy wife in the Garden and eat from whence ye will, but come not nigh this tree lest ye become wrong-doers.
7:20 Then Satan whispered to them that he might manifest unto them that which was hidden from them of their shame, and he said: Your Lord forbade you from this tree only lest ye should become angels or become of the immortals.
7:21 And he swore unto them (saying): Lo! I am a sincere adviser unto you.
7:22 Thus did he lead them on with guile. And when they tasted of the tree their shame was manifest to them and they began to hide (by heaping) on themselves some of the leaves of the Garden. And their Lord called them, (saying): Did I not forbid you from that tree and tell you: Lo! Satan is an open enemy to you ?
7:23 They said: Our Lord! We have wronged ourselves. If thou forgive us not and have not mercy on us, surely we are of the lost!
7:24 He said: Go down (from hence), one of you a foe unto the other. There will be for you on earth a habitation and provision for a while.
7:25 He said: There shall ye live, and there shall ye die, and thence shall ye be brought forth.
Pickthal Translation

From the Towrah, Genesis 1: 26 – 27, 28 - 31
26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." 29 And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
The Qur’an calls man that God created His “khalifah”, meaning representative. The Bible describes his as created “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:26-27).

What do these things mean to you?

“Surely I know what you do not know” implies that God has a great plan than we are aware. I believe we were created in God’s image and once we submit to God we are then enabled by him to be his representative. He has had the greater messengers in the earth, the prophets and apostles who also are His representatives.

Also see Genesis 3:1 - 24

To be continued.

Introduction to the God Has a Plan for You video series

Video God has a Plan for you -- Part 1

The Injeel Way

2007-07-28T17:19:00.000-07:00

I have been reading and studying the Qur'an and actually to my surprise there is much in the Qur'an about God and His view of man. This has lead me back to the Injeel and the Towrah for confirming scriptures. I want to share my findings here and to get reader's perspectives on the scriptural findings. If you want to discuss or have a comment, just click the comment link below each log.

So, off we go!!!

God has a Plan, Part 1a
God has a Plan, Part 1b
God has a Plan, Part 2a
God has a Plan, Part 2b
God has a Plan, Part 3a
God has a Plan, Part 3b
God has a Plan, Part 4
God has a Plan, Part 5
God has a Plan, Part 6