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SermonAudio Transcription
SermonAudio Transcription

... the first illustration comes from an Old Testament character which the psalms are oriented around. The psalms have their expression and meaning in the life of this character. When you think of the psalms, who do you think of? David. If you don’t know you Word, you probably wouldn’t know the answer t ...
Well these days, we`re studying this little book in the Old Testament
Well these days, we`re studying this little book in the Old Testament

... You see, in the midst of those storms that can so deeply rattle our lives, you need to consider how God just might be working… - even while still in the sea… even after being swallowed by a great fish. - In verse 6 Jonah says, “I sank down to the very roots of the mountains.” Again, the game was ove ...
Aaron L Pratt - Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy
Aaron L Pratt - Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy

... hand, if he is like God, then he and those like him (a further relation), can be considered good. The latter of these two options has potentially beneficial effects upon action: if one assumes that other humans are good, well-meaning and altruistic, he or she will foster relationships with them, rat ...
Word doc - john114.org
Word doc - john114.org

... for our growth which are as many as the sins we have committed and are as great as the evils with which we were bound and as the goods which we deserved to lose. This meditation should appear obvious from what has preceded. We must pay attention not only to this but also consider how great are the e ...
Manuscript
Manuscript

... God is going to do in the future – all of our lives, in the coming ages, now and continuously all in the coming ages is coming immeasurable riches of his grace, he's just going to pour and give to us, progressively more . There’s correlation in the next chapter, so we are going to use the next chapt ...
Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?
Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

... Of course it is always possible that God would like to do better but that He is hampered by His limitations in power. As a matter of fact, says Kushner, “There are some things God does not control…” (p. 45). Thus the world is out of whack because it is out of control. For Kushner this news is not ne ...
File - Kilgore Bible Church
File - Kilgore Bible Church

... sailors—is depicted powerless up against a chaotic and raging sea. Each of them is just trying to hang on for dear life. Isn’t that the best we can sometimes do when storms come our way? The man at the bottom center of the picture putting one hand to his hat and the other to the rigging is said to h ...
The Spirit of glory and of God - Community Bible Church, Placerville
The Spirit of glory and of God - Community Bible Church, Placerville

... as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. For your testing: Gold only gets better when put in a fire. It’s true worth is revealed and I can say from experience that it is more beautiful in its molten state than it ever is at room temperature. The light seems to come from with ...
doc - Philologos
doc - Philologos

... bounds of Judea, there were two classes clearly distinguished from each other. The one was composed of Gentile converts and the more enlightened of their Jewish brethren, who (rightly) viewed the institutions of the Mosaic law as annulled by the new and better covenant. The other class comprised the ...
The Word - The PowerPoint Apologist
The Word - The PowerPoint Apologist

... Obviously, there can be no Word of God unless God exists. With respect to existence, metaphysics (beyond the physical) concerns itself with the study of being or reality. Christianity believes in Theism, which says one God created all of reality as we know it and that this God transcends everything. ...
Psalm_23
Psalm_23

... wrote a book titled: “Bumps Are What You Climb On.” Though the path may be rough and steep, remember that Jesus, our Shepherd, walks beside us to “brighten the journey and lightens every heavy load.” “It’s not an easy road we are traveling to heaven, For many are the thorns on the way; It’s not an e ...
A Word to the "Little Flock" - Eglise du reste de Jesus Christ
A Word to the "Little Flock" - Eglise du reste de Jesus Christ

... and if we do not watch, Jesus will come on us "as a thief," and we shall "not know what hour" he will come upon us. So, that none but those who truly watch, and "hold fast," will know the true time. Rev. 3:2,3. Here I will introduce a quotation from "The True Midnight Cry," of Aug. 22, 1844. "Conce ...
Document - Theaterchurch
Document - Theaterchurch

... is reality. The truth is – it is about how we see. Your outlook on life is going to determine the outcome of your life. It is how we frame it, and that’s why this series is so important. ...
worship ppt
worship ppt

... ‘Cause life is hard, and it might not get easier But don’t be afraid to know who you are Don’t be afraid to show it If you believe in God, if you say you need Jesus He’ll be where you are, and He never will leave you Sing to me now words that are true So all in this place can know it We believe in G ...
Scripturalism vs Judaism II Faith and Scripturalism
Scripturalism vs Judaism II Faith and Scripturalism

... Certainly His teachings parallel more closely those of the Pharisees than any other Jewish group of His day. What he’s not telling you is the historical revisionism that the Jews did in the 2nd Century A.D., which was called the counter evangelistic movement of the Jews, to try and get Jews back out ...
wORlDly saINTs: The PURITaNs as They Really weRe1 Leland Ryken
wORlDly saINTs: The PURITaNs as They Really weRe1 Leland Ryken

... the one who calls people to tasks. If everyone has a calling, how can people know what they have been called to do? The Puritans evolved a methodology for determining their calling; they did not mysticize the process. Richard Steele, in fact, claimed that God rarely calls people directly “in the l ...
Sample - WTS Books
Sample - WTS Books

... Bible stories as God intended them to be used. He gave them to us for the same reason He gave us all of Scripture—that we might know what He, the only true God, is like, and that we might understand the salvation He has provided for His people through His Son. Bible stories illustrate Bible doctrine ...
Offended - Liberty Haven Baptist Church
Offended - Liberty Haven Baptist Church

... off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. 9 And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than ha ...
God makes rules to help and protect us.
God makes rules to help and protect us.

... Say: Today our Bible story is about the Ten Commandments, or ten rules, that God gave to his people. The story comes from the book of Exodus. Show children the story in Exodus 20:1-17. Every time you hear me say the word ten, count from 1 to 10 as fast as you can. Ready? Let’s try it. Ten. Pause for ...
Babylonian Number System (Part 1)
Babylonian Number System (Part 1)

... which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; ...
homily on gluttony and drunkenness - St. Peter`s Anglican Orthodox
homily on gluttony and drunkenness - St. Peter`s Anglican Orthodox

... men forgetfull of their duty towards GOD, when they giue themselues to all kindes of pleasures, not considering nor regarding the workes of the Lord, who hath created meates and drinkes, as S. Paul sayth, to bee receiued thankefully of them that beleeue and know the trueth. So that the very beholdin ...
1ParashahMishpatimComments2014
1ParashahMishpatimComments2014

... compassion, your selflessness. God will get along fine without your money. But you will get along so much better if you put forth the effort to make a financial commitment and give it 100%. The greatest blessings come from the greatest sacrifices. When we give of ourselves, we are coming closer to G ...
PDF - Gospel Revolution Church
PDF - Gospel Revolution Church

... If we think we are made complete in another person everytime we don't feel whole we will inevitably & effortlessly look to our spouse as if they are the problem. If we try to be made whole or complete through our spouses the moment we feel as if we are lacking. Or we feel the void we will attribute ...
www.teachingcreation.org
www.teachingcreation.org

... the Evolution Theory with the Bible? Many verses point to a literal 6 day creation. Here we will focus on just a few. Read Genesis 1, Exodus 20:11. See also Mark 10:6 where Jesus says, ‘But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female’  In Genesis 1, the word day really means a ...
[3] To Nagel`s credit, he is not merely refusing to believe in theism
[3] To Nagel`s credit, he is not merely refusing to believe in theism

... The sin of those redeemed died with Christ. Three days after his death, Christ resurrected to life, conquering death, and thus destroying the consequence of sin for those redeemed. It is in this that we have hope in our depravity. Evil brought upon us with suffering, such as wars, disease, and pover ...
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God in Sikhism

The concept of ""God"" in Sikhism is uncompromisingly monotheistic, as symbolized by ""Ik Onkar""(one all pervading spirit), a central tenet of Sikh philosophy. However Sikhs believe that God also prevails in everything. The fundamental belief of Sikhism is that God exists, indescribable yet knowable and perceivable to anyone who is prepared to dedicate the time and energy to become perceptive to their persona.The Sikh gurus have described God in numerous ways in their hymns included in the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy scripture of Sikhism, but the oneness of the deity is consistently emphasized throughout. God is described in the Mool Mantar, the first passage in the Guru Granth Sahib, and the basic formula of the faith is: ੴ ਸਤਿ ਨਾਮੁ ਕਰਤਾ ਪੁਰਖੁ ਨਿਰਭਉ ਨਿਰਵੈਰੁ ਅਕਾਲ ਮੂਰਤਿ ਅਜੂਨੀ ਸੈਭੰ ਗੁਰ ਪ੍ਰਸਾਦਿ ॥ ikk ōankār sat(i)-nām(u) karatā purakh(u) nirabha'u niravair(u) akāla mūrat(i) ajūnī saibhan(g) gur(a) prasād(i). There is but one all pervading spirit, and it is called the truth, It exists in all creation, and it has no fear, It does not hate and, it is timeless, universal and self-existent!, You will come to know it through seeking knowledge and learning.Knowledge of the ultimate Reality is not a matter for reason; it comes by revelation of the ultimate reality through nadar (grace) and by anubhava (mystical experience). Says Guru Nanak, budhi pathi na paiai bahu chaturaiai bhai milai mani bhane which translates to ""He is not accessible through intellect, or through mere scholarship or cleverness at argument; He is met, when He pleases, through devotion"" (SGGS, 436).The Guru Granth consistently refers to God as ""He"" and ""Father"". However, this is simply because the Granth is written in north Indian Indo-Aryan languages (mixture of Punjabi and dialects of Hindi) which have no neutral gender. Since the Granth says that the God is indescribable, the God has no gender according to Sikhism.Guru Nanak prefixed the numeral one (ik) to it, making it Ik Oankar or Ekankar to stress God's oneness. God is named and known only through his Own immanent nature. The only name which can be said to truly fit God's transcendent state is Sat (Sanskrit Satnam, Truth), the changeless and timeless Reality. God is transcendent and all-pervasive at the same time. Transcendence and immanence are two aspects of the same single Supreme Reality. The Reality is immanent in the entire creation, but the creation as a whole fails to contain God fully. As says Guru Tegh Bahadur, Nanak IX, ""He has himself spread out His Own “maya” (worldly illusion) which He oversees; many different forms He assumes in many colours, yet He stays independent of all"" (SGGS, 537).God is Karta Purakh, the Creator-Being. He created the spatial-temporal universe not from some pre-existing physical element, but from His own Self. Universe is His own emanation. It is not maya (illusion), but is real (sat) because, as say Guru Arjan, “True is He and true is His creation [because] all has emanated from God Himself” (SGGS 294).But God is not identical with the universe. The latter exists and is contained in Him and not vice versa. God is immanent in the created world, but is not limited by it. “Many times He expands Himself into such worlds but He ever remains the same One Ekankar"" (SGGS, 276). Even at one time ""there are hundreds of thousands of skies and nether regions"" (SGGS, 5). Included in Sach Khand (Realm of Truth), the figurative abode of God, there are countless regions and universes"" (SGGS, 8). Creation is ""His play which He witnesses, and when He rolls up the play, He is His sole Self again"" (SGGS, 292). He is the Creator, Sustainer and the Destroyer.What is the Creator's purpose in creating the universe? It is not for man to inquire or judge the purpose of His Creator. To quote Guru Arjan again, ""The created cannot have a measure of the Creator; what He wills, O Nanak, happens"" (SGGS, 285). For the Sikhs, the Creation is His pleasure and play ""When the showman beat His drum, the whole creation came out to witness the show; and when He puts aside his disguise, He rejoices in His original solitude"" (SGGS, 174, 291, 655, 736).Purakh added to Karta in the Mool Mantar is the Punjabi form of Sanskrit purusa, which literally means, besides man, male or person, ""the primeval man as the soul and original source of the universe; the personal and animating principle; the supreme Being or Soul of the universe."" Purakh in Mool Mantar is, therefore, none other than God the Creator. The term has nothing to do with the purusa of the Sankhya school of Indian philosophy where it is the spirit as a passive spectator of prakriti or creative force.That God is nirbhau (without fear) and nirvair (without rancour or enemy) is obvious enough as He has no sarik (rival). But the terms have other connotations, too. Nirbhau not only indicates fearlessness but also the absence of fearfulness. It also implies sovereignty and unquestioned exercise of Will. Similarly, nirvair implies, besides absence of enmity, the positive attributes of compassion and impartiality. Together the two terms mean that God loves His handiwork and is the Dispenser of impartial justice, dharam-niau. Guru Ram Das, Nanak IV, says: ""Why should we be afraid, with the True One being the judge. True is the True One's justice"" (SGGS, 84).God is Akal Murat, the Eternal Being. The timelessness involved in the negative epithet akal has made it popular in Sikh tradition as one of the names of God, the Timeless One, as in Akal Purakh or in the slogan Sat Sri Akal (Satya Sri Akal). One of the most sacred shrines of the Sikhs is the Akal Takhat, the Eternal Throne, at Amritsar. Murat here does not mean form, figure, image or idol. Sikhism expressly forbids idolatry or image-worship in any form. God is called Nirankar, the Formless One, although it is true that all forms are the manifestations of Nirankar. Bhai Gurdas, the earliest expounder and the copyist of the original recension of Guru Granth Sahib, says: ""Nirankar akaru hari joti sarup anup dikhaia (The Formless One having created form manifested His wondrous refulgence)"" (Varan, XII. 17). Murat in the Mool Mantra, therefore, signifies verity or manifestation of the Timeless and Formless One.God is Ajuni, un-incarnated, and saibhan (Sanskrit svayambhu), Self-existent. The Primal Creator Himself had no creator. He simply is, has ever been and shall ever be by Himself. Ajuni also affirms the Sikh rejection of the theory of divine incarnation. Guru Arjan says: ""Man misdirected by false belief indulges in falsehood; God is free from birth and death. . . May that mouth be scorched which says that God is incarnated"" (SGGS, 1136). Nevertheless, there are verses in the Guru Granth Sahib that seem to support the teaching that God incarnated, on which the some Sanatan Sikhs call on, like:ਜਗ ਅਉਰੁ ਨ ਯਾਹਿ ਮਹਾ ਤਮ ਮੈ ਅਵਤਾਰੁ ਉਜਾਗਰੁ ਆਨਿ ਕੀਅਉ ॥jag aour n yaahi mehaa tham mai avathaar oujaagar aan keeao ||In the great darkness of this world, the Lord revealed Himself, incarnated as Guru Arjun.ਤਤੁ ਬਿਚਾਰੁ ਯਹੈ ਮਥੁਰਾ ਜਗ ਤਾਰਨ ਕਉ ਅਵਤਾਰੁ ਬਨਾਯਉ ॥thath bichaar yehai mathhuraa jag thaaran ko avathaar banaayo ||O Mat'huraa, consider this essential truth: to save the world, the Lord incarnated Himself.(SGGS 1409)The Mool Mantar ends with gurprasadi, meaning thereby that realization of God comes through Guru's grace. In Sikh theology Guru appears in three different but allied connotations, viz. God, the ten Sikh Gurus, and the gur-shabad or Guru's utterances as preserved in the Guru Granth Sahib. Of God's grace, Gurus' instruction and guidance and the scriptural Shabad (Sanskrit sabda, literally 'Word'), the first is the most important, because, as nothing happens without God's will or pleasure, His grace is essential to making a person inclined towards a desire and search for union with Him.God is thus depicted in three distinct aspects, viz. God in Himself, God in relation to creation, and God in relation to man. God by himself is the one Ultimate, Transcendent Reality, Nirguna (without attributes), Timeless, Boundless, Formless, Ever-existent, Immutable, Ineffable, All-by Himself and even Unknowable in His entirety. During a discourse with Hindu recluses, Guru Nanak in reply to a question as to where the Transcendent God was before the stage of creation replies, ""To think of the Transcendent Lord in that state is to enter the realm of wonder. Even at that stage of sunn, he permeated all that Void"" (SGGS, 940). This is the state of God's sunn samadhi, self-absorbed trance.When it pleases God, He becomes sarguna (Sanskrit saguna, with attributes) and manifests Himself in creation. He becomes immanent in His created universe, which is His own emanation, an aspect of Himself. As says Guru Amar Das, Nanak III, ""This (so-called) poison, the world, that you see is God's picture; it is God's outline that we see"" (SGGS, 922). Most names of God are His attributive, action-related signifiers, kirtam nam (SGGS, 1083) or karam nam (Dasam Granth, Jaap Sahib). God in the Sikh Scripture has been referred to by several names, picked from Indian and Semitic traditions. He is called in terms of human relations as father, mother, brother, relation, friend, lover, beloved, husband. Other names, expressive of His supremacy, are thakur, prabhu, svami, sah, patsah, sahib, sain (Lord, Master). Some traditional names are ram, narayan, govind, gopal, Allah, khuda. Even the negative terms such as nirankar, niranjan et al. are as much related to attributes as are the positive terms like data, datar, karta, kartar, dayal, kripal, qadir, karim, etc. Some terms peculiar to Sikhism are naam (literally name), sabad (literally word) and Vahiguru (literally Wondrous Master). While nam and sabad are mystical terms standing for the Divine manifestation and are used as substitute terms for the Supreme Being, Vahiguru is a phrase expressing awe, wonder and ecstatic joy of the worshipper as he comprehends the immenseness and grandeur of the Lord and His Creation.Immanence or All-pervasiveness of God, however, does not limit or in any way affect His transcendence. He is Transcendent and Immanent at the same time. The Creation is His lila or cosmic play. He enjoys it, pervades it, yet Himself remains unattached. Guru Arjan describes Him in several hymns as ""Unattached and Unentangled in the midst of all"" (SGGS, 102, 294, 296); and ""Amidst all, yet outside of all, free from love and hate"" (SGGS, 784-85). Creation is His manifestation, but, being conditioned by space and time, it provides only a partial and imperfect glimpse of the Timeless and Boundless Supreme Being.That God is both Transcendent and Immanent does not mean that these are two phases of God one following the other. God is One, and He is both nirguna and sarguna. ""Nirguna sargunu hari hari mera (God, my God is both with and without attributes),"" sang Guru Arjan (SGGS, 98). Guru Amar Das also had said, ""Nirguna sarguna ape soi (He Himself is with as well as without attributes)"" (SGGS, 128). Transcendence and Immanence are two aspects of the same Supreme Reality.The Creator also sustains His Creation compassionately and benevolently. ""My Lord is ever Fresh and ever Bountiful"" (SGGS, 660); ""He is the eradicator of the pain and sorrow of the humble"" (SGGS, 263-64). The universe is created, sustained and moved according to His hukam or Divine Will, and Divine purpose. ""The inscrutable hukam is the source of all forms, all creatures. . . All are within the ambit of hukam; there is nothing outside of it."" (SGGS, p. 1). Another principle that regulates the created beings is karma (actions, deeds). Simply stated, it is the law of cause and effect. The popular dictum 'As one sows so shall one reap' is stressed again and again in the Guru Granth Sahib (SGGS, 134,176, 309, 316, 366, 706, 730).The created world, though real, is not eternal. Whenever God desires, it merges back into His Timeless and Formless Self. Guru Gobind Singh calls this process of creation and dissolution udkarkh (Sanskrit utkarsana) and akarkh (Sanskrit akarsana), respectively: ""Whenever you, O Creator, cause udkarkh (increase, expansion), the creation assumes the boundless body; whenever you effect akarkh (attraction, contraction), all corporeal existence merges in you"" (Benati Chaupai). This process of creation and dissolution has been repeated God alone knows for how many times. A passage in the Sukhmani by Guru Arjan visualizes the infinite field of creation thus:Millions are the mines of life; millions the spheres;Millions are the regions above; millions the regions below;Millions are the species taking birth.By diverse means does He spread Himself.Again and again did He expand Himself thus,But He ever remains the One Ekankar.Countless creatures of various kindsCome out of Him and are absorbed back.None can know the limit of His Being;He, the Lord, O Nanak! is all in all Himself.Man, although an infinitesimal part of God's creation, yet stands apart from it insofar as it is the only species blessed with reflection, moral sense and potentiality for understanding matters metaphysical. Human birth is both a special privilege for the soul and a rare chance for the realization of union with God. Man is lord of earth, as Guru Arjan says, ""Of all the eight million and four hundred thousand species, God conferred superiority on man"" (SGGS, 1075), and ""All other species are your (man's) water-bearers; you have hegemony over this earth"" (SGGS, 374). But Guru also reminds that ""now that you (the soul) have got a human body, this is your turn to unite with God"" (SGGS, 12, 378). Guru Nanak had warned, ""Listen, listen to my advice, O my mind! only good deed shall endure, and there may not be another chance"" (SGGS, 154). So, realization of God and a reunion of atma (soul) with paramatma (Supreme Soul, God) are the ultimate goals of human life. The achievement ultimately rests on nadar (God's grace), but man has to strive in order to deserve His grace. As a first step, he should have faith in and craving for the Lord. He should believe that God is near him, rather within his self, and not far away. He is to seek Him in his self.Guru Nanak says: ""Your beloved is close to you, O foolish bride! What are you searching outside?"" (SGGS, 722), and Guru Amar Das reassures: ""Recognize yourself, O mind! You are the light manifest. Rejoice in Guru's instruction that God is always with (in) you. If you recognize your Self, you shall know the Lord and shall get the knowledge of life and death"" (SGGS, 441). The knowledge of the infinitesimal nature of his self when compared to the immenseness of God and His creation would instil humility in man and would rid him of his ego (a sense of I, my and mine) which is ""the greatest malady man suffers from"" (SGGS, 466, 589, 1258) and the arch-enemy of nam or path to God-Realization (SGGS, 560). Having surrendered his ego and having an intense desire to reach his goal (the realization of Reality), the seeker under Guru's instruction (gurmati) becomes a gurmukh or person looking guruward. He meditates upon nam or sabda, the Divine Word, while yet leading life as a householder, earning through honest labour, sharing his victuals with the needy, and performing self-abnegating deeds of service. Sikhism condemns ritualism. Worship of God consists of reciting gurbani or holy texts and meditation on nam, solitary or in sangat or congregation, kirtan or singing of scriptural hymns in praise of God, and ardas or prayer in supplication.
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