Dan’s Corner
*Random Write Ups #1*
#1.) How can we know that God loves us??
If you're willing, please let me share a message I believe our Heavenly Father taught me last year through His Word and by the guidance of His Holy Spirit it has become my #1 heart cry for every brother and sister I have in Christ ever since!! How to know God loves me!!
There's a recurring dream I often had back then where I'm visiting someone else’s church and suddenly a person from the church approaches me and asks me to step in and now preach at the last minute when I wasn't planning to anything of the sort and then they hurriedly also ask me to provide them with 2, maybe even 3 or 4 Scriptures I'd like for them to display that I would then proceed to preach/teach from and my answer has now been the same every time, without any hesitation, and so up I go to speak the Truth of the Love God has for us in the mighty name of our Lord!!
The first thing that I’m led to share is that we can NEVER determine God's love for us by ANYTHING we can see or experience in our daily lives!! God rains on the just and the unjust, and the righteous die early and the wicked live for what might seem forever. King Solomon, the Preacher, describes this perfectly in the 9th chapter of his book Ecclesiastes:
For I considered all this in my heart, so that I could declare it all: that the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God. PEOPLE KNOW NEITHER LOVE NOR HATRED BY ANYTHING THEY SEE BEFORE THEM.
ALL THINGS COME ALIKE TO ALL: One event happens to the righteous and the wicked; To the good, the clean, and the unclean; To him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner; He who takes an oath as he who fears an oath.
Ecclesiastes 9:1-2 NKJV
So then we're left with the question: IF we can’t see Gods love for me by the things that happen in my life then how can we EVER truly know that God loves us in the first place?? The beloved Apostle John reveals the answer to this question in his 1st epistle:
In this THE LOVE OF GOD WAS MANIFESTED TOWARD US, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that WE MIGHT LIVE THROUGH HIM. In this is love, not that we loved God, but THAT HE LOVED US AND SENT HIS SON TO BE THE PROPITIATION FOR OUR SINS.
I John 4:9-10 NKJV
And when did He do this?? We turn to the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Rome for that answer:
For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ DIED FOR THE UNGODLY. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God DEMONSTRATES HIS OWN LOVE TOWARD US, in that WHILE WE WERE STILL SINNERS, Christ DIED FOR US.
Romans 5:6-8 NKJV
So therefore because of these Truths I now have ZERO wiggle room to even try and doubt God's love for me!! He took that option COMPLETELY OFF THE TABLE because He manifested HIS LOVE TOWARD ME before I was even born!! And NOT ONLY THAT BUT He did it while you and I were still AND CAN still be His enemy!!
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. BECAUSE THE CARNAL MIND IS ENMITY AGAINST GOD; for it is not subject to the law of God, NOR INDEED CAN BE. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Romans 8:5-8 NKJV
I might believe that I don't like what He did for me and I can claim I never asked for it but it doesn't matter anymore after this Truth is revealed to me, it's already too late, He's ALREADY done it AND HE'S ALREADY applied it to my account (on His end) and the ONLY option(s) I have left is to either reject Him and His Word and His love or humbly submit and receive it (as well as the ABUNDANT LIFE that comes with it) and give Him thanks as I delight in Him and He delights in me from now until eternity!!
Now imagine His Church walking in this knowledge and understanding!! It doesn't matter what we see or experience because that has NOTHING to do with Gods love for us, that was already settled b4 we ever got a chance to do a single thing!!
Imagine every member of the flock God's led to you to be steward over waking up every single morning with this knowledge already being secure in both their minds AND their hearts!! Imagine how strong the Body of Christ would be in this world, set and secure in the knowledge of our Heavenly Father's love for us already being eternally settled!!
And NOW with that TRUTH exposed, I'd ask for all of us to go to Romans 8 and read these verses as if for the first time ever seeing them...taking into account everything we just learned!!
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
(And now we know it can NEVER be an 'if' again because He's already proven that He is! Indeed for us!!)
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
(What is more precious to a Father than His Son?? And now that we KNOW He's already offered Him for us how could we ever even begin to doubt that He would withhold anything else that we might need in this life??)
Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns?
(THE ONLY reason we are not currently suffering eternal torment is because of the work Christ did at Calvary according to His Father's will!! Since He's already paid such a steep price for our salvation HOW could He be the source to condemn us once again??)
It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
(And if it's not the Father Whom condemns us, what of His Son?? The One Who's ALREADY LAID DOWN HIS LIFE FOR OUR SALVATION?? Is He our source of condemnation?? God forbid!! After dying for us He next was resurrected for our justification (our right to live life just as if we had never sinned in the first place) AND then He also ascended to the right hand of the Father to INTERCEDE FOR US CONTINOUSLY AS OUR HIGH PRIEST until ALL His brethren are redeemed and conformed!!)
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” YET IN ALL THESE THINGS WE ARE MORE THAN CONQUERORS THROUGH HIM WHO LOVED US.
(Notice past tense of those verses…not will love but already has proven He does love!!)
Romans 8:31-37 NKJV
Now tell me that right there won't preach!! Wow!! Our Heavenly Father is absolutely amazing!!
And as for OT verses that also reveal His love for us:
For we will surely die and become like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. Yet God DOES NOT TAKE AWAY A LIFE; but HE DEVISES MEANS, SO THAT HIS BANISHED ONES ARE NOT EXPELLED FROM HIM.
(We were His banished ones when He sent out Adam and Eve after the fall in Eden and He devised the means for us to be redeemed and returned to Him through His Son and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!!)
II Samuel 14:14 NKJV
Theres also these verses describing God’s view of the wicked:
DO I HAVE ANY PLEASURE AT ALL THAT THE WICKED SHOULD DIE?” says the Lord God, “and not that he should turn from his ways and live? FOR I HAVE NO PLEASURE IN THE DEATH OF ONE WHO DIES,” says the Lord God. “Therefore turn and live!”
Ezekiel 18:23, 32 NKJV
Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I HAVE NO PLEASURE IN THE DEATH OF THE WICKED, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’
Ezekiel 33:11 NKJV
#2.) How exactly IS one to be washed clean by His Word??
“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow. “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land; But if you refuse and rebel, You shall be devoured by the sword”; For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Isaiah 1:16-20 NKJV
As I was leading our small group through John 15 we read where Jesus tells His disciples for the 2nd time in John’s Gospel that they're already clean (as He 1st did in John 13:10) the question was asked of me: "What exactly does that mean, to be washed clean with the pure water of the Word??" (From Ephesians 5:26)
And so starting with James 1:18-22 I was led to show them that just as the bronze laver in the tabernacle was made up of mirrors that had been taken from the Egyptian women (Ex 30:18;38:8), the Bible is also a mirror that reflects who we are and where we’re at as in comparison to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (James 1:22-25) AND when we read it with unveiled faces/hearts (2 Cor and as we apply the Word of Righteousness (Hebrews 5:13-14) we are then transformed (Romans 12:2) from glory to glory (2 Cor 3:18) and are becoming conformed to His Image (Rom 8:29), and as we continue in this process we begin to mature from a child of God into a man of God (1 John 2:12-14) and therefore we put away the childish things (1 Cor 13:11-12) and start to speak and act as mature, perfect/spiritual (Philippians 3:15) believers (Gal 4:1-7) who have also received His Spirit of Adoption!!
I'd never worked it out quite like that but it was really well received (as it very well should have been considering it was absolutely inspired by His Holy Spirit and in no way a product of my own doing!!)
I was also led to share the command from Col 2:6 where we're told to “walk out every day as our day of salvation” and from Rom 10:9-10,17 and James 1:18 showed them what that process actually consists of: 1) we hear the Word 2) we chose to receive the Word 3) we understand and believe the Word 4) we confess the Word 5) we persevere through the enemy's attacks on the Word 6) we have our mind renewed by the Word and 7) we become transformed by the Word!!
This is to be our daily pattern to being washed clean by the pure Word of God, which is our Sanctification. The very same process that Jesus prayed the Father for us to experience in John 17:17: "Sanctify them by the Truth. Your Word is the Truth."
They ended up leaving that day exactly how i heard someone once say we ALL should all leave after hearing God’s message preached…with an absolute conviction of what actions we need to go out and now do ;)!!
#3.) What is "Cognitive Dissonance" and how does it look Biblically??
Last part 1st, what does it look like Biblically??
I start by presenting this question to the group: Which of the 2 brothers do we come from, Cain or Abel??
Answer: Neither!! Adam’s line was continued through his third son Seth!! Why is this important?? Because although Adam WAS created in the image of God, Seth was created in the image of fallen Adam and yet this has NOT been the majority of teaching in the churches over the ages!! We take the statement that “man was made in the image of God” and then automatically apply that to mean EVERY MAN when in fact only the 1st man was
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Genesis 1:26-27 NKJV
And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.
Genesis 5:3 NKJV
The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.
I Corinthians 15:47-49 NKJV
So how does this new Truth sit with you?? Do you humbly submit to His Word and allow it to become your new reality or did it upset you and now you are furiously searching for any and all Scriptures you can remember that you are positive refutes what was just presented?? IF you fall into this second category welcome to the experience of what has been coined “cognitive dissonance!!”
Cognitive Dissonance is the ability to have control over our emotions when we hear conflicting views to things that we've long believed to be true.
This ability is really important to learn how to control as we seek to become more mature in our walk with Christ because little by little He will present us with His Truths to replace the "traditions" we've always been taught AND believed and when He does we'll be brought to a crossroads of who are we going to submit to...God and His Word or our own personal religion and beliefs??
A major characteristic to look out for when we find ourselves in these situations is are we feeling emotions of anger and/or defensiveness as we listen to someone attempting to teach us something that we've never heard before or goes against what we've always been taught??
If so that’s a great "warning light" that it's very possible what we're hearing is true but because of unhealed hurts in us or just a lack of maturity we're not quite ready to accept their teaching and allow it to correct us!! This is what Jesus ran into constantly, leading Him to end many of His teachings with these words:
“HE WHO HAS EARS TO HEAR, LET HIM HEAR!”
Matthew 13
We MUST pray for ears to hear and then when He gives them to us we MUST volitionally (through a conscious act of our will) actually use them!! Let us strive to never find ourselves on the wrong end of these prophecies brothers!!
Therefore I speak to them in parables, because SEEING THEY DO NOT SEE, AND HEARING THEY DO NOT HEAR, NOR DO THEY UNDERSTAND. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘HEARING YOU WILL HEAR AND SHALL NOT UNDERSTAND, AND SEEING YOU WILL SEE AND NOT PERCEIVE; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. THEIR EARS ARE HARD OF HEARING, And THEIR EYES THEY HAVE CLOSED, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.’
Matthew 13:13-15 NKJV
*Remember, IF our intention is NOT to obey what we hear then God will NOT grant us understanding and that leaves us vulnerable to Satan who comes along and snatches the word out of our hearts according to the Parable of the Sower (Mark 4:15 NKJV)!!
#4.) How did Noah (and his family) deal with and especially feed animals like a lion on the Ark??
The Bible itself answers this question: What did the Lion eat on the Ark??
And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. Of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. And YOU SHALL TAKE FOR YOURSELF OF ALL FOOD THAT IS EATEN, AND YOU SHALL GATHER IT TO YOURSELF; AND IT SHALL BE FOOD FOR YOU AND FOR THEM.” Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.
Genesis 6:19-22 NKJV
And we need to remember at this time (Pre-Flood) the WHOLE world was vegetarians!!
And God said, “See, I HAVE GIVEN YOU EVERY HERB that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, AND EVERY TREE whose fruit yields seed; TO YOU IT SHALL BE FOR FOOD. ALSO, TO EVERY BEAST OF THE EARTH, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I HAVE GIVEN EVERY GREEN HERB FOR FOOD ”; AND IT WAS SO.
Genesis 1:29-30 NKJV
It wasn't until AFTER THE FLOOD that God then gave flesh to man (and presumably animal as well) as a new source for food!!
And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. THEY ARE GIVEN INTO YOUR HAND. Every MOVING THING THAT LIVES SHALL BE FOOD FOR YOU. I HAVE GIVEN YOU ALL THINGS, EVEN AS THE GREEN HERBS.
Genesis 9:2-3 NKJV
Noah dealt with the animals by God giving him dominion over them through Adam (as decreed in Genesis 1:26 and confirmed in Genesis 2:19 when He gave Adam the authority to name them) as well as He Himself commanding them to enter the Ark and shutting them in. We also can read in the book of Jasher (a non-inspired historical book mentioned twice in the Bible [Joshua 10:13 and 2 Samuel 1:18]) that the animals were infants, and specifically it was 2 lion cubs that entered the ark (after attacking and chasing away an adult female lion actually)!! This theory [that the animals were in their infant stages] is also what’s taught at the Ark Encounter in Kentucky by Ken Ham.
#5.) So you're trying to say that Lions weren't maneaters??
I'm not saying that brother, its God's Word that tells ALL OF US THAT which is why I went through the effort to share my last answer in such a way as to make sure it came across as what God said AND not ever dare for one to be able to make such a claim as “while according to what Dan says……!!” After that it's now between YOU and Him if you chose to believe what His Word says or not to believe it!! I've clearly and truthfully delivered His Word and therefore my duty is considered to be complete.
I will share what's helped me mature in my spiritual walk whenever I would hear something that didn't align with what my original understanding/teaching of Scripture was is I would steal a page directly out of the Bereans’ handbook and I’d wait until the opportune time and then I would go and grab my OWN, personal, physical Bible and I’d look the Scriptures up for myself so that His Holy Spirit could directly teach me by either confirming the new Truth or showing me why I needed to reject it.
What I try NEVER to do is just simply outright reject something solely on the basis that it doesn't agree with what I've always thought or had previously heard...if I made a habit out of doing that it would start to harden the soil of my heart and eventually make it so that I would no longer be able to learn anything new anymore and therefore prevent me from being able to be transformed by the renewing of my mind as instructed by the Apostle in Romans 12:2!!
So then besides all the previous verses shared describing the preflood conditions of animals on the earth we also can read what the prophet Isaiah was inspired to reveal in his writings which is that all the earth will be redeemed back into its original condition in which He created it during Christ's millennial reign in the future:
“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, The LEOPARD SHALL LIE DOWN WITH THE YOUNG GOAT, The CALF AND THE YOUNG LION AND THE FALLING TOGETHER; And a little child shall lead them. The COW AND THE BEAR SHALL GRAZE; Their young ones shall lie down together; And THE LION SHALL EAT STRAW LIKE THE OX. The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole, And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den. They SHALL NOT HURT NOR DESTROY IN ALL My HOLY MOUNTAIN, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord As the waters cover the sea. “And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall be glorious.”
Isaiah 11:6-10 NKJV
And finally, although the flood took place well after the fall of man recorded in Genesis 3, we would do well to remember that before sin entered the world there were no wages due for it and therefore death never even existed and so we can know for certain that there were no predators existing then either!!
Bonus Question(s)
#1.) Will we see our pets in Heaven??
Whether or not our specific pets go to Heaven for sure I don’t believe that Bible clearly tells us BUT what we do know is that God definitely cares about animals because of the Isaiah verse we just read, also we read that after the flood He makes a covenant with them being named directly and specifically and He point blank tells Jonah they're part of the reason He wanted him to preach His message of repentance to the Assyrians!!
But even back up for a second and consider His directions to Noah about the Ark (a Type of Christ): God cared about the animals so much that He literally CALLED THEM into Christ for their salvation while the rest of the world perished!! If He did it to preserve them then there's no reason to assume the God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever will not ALSO do it for them again!!
But the Lord said, “You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. And SHOULD I NOT PITY NINEVEH, THAT GREAT CITY, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—AND MUCH LIVESTOCK?”
Jonah 4:10-11 NKJV
Then God remembered Noah, and EVERY LIVING THING, and ALL THE ANIMALS THAT WERE WITH HIM IN THE ARK. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided. 17. “Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you: birds and cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 19. Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird and whatever creeps on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark.
Genesis 8:1, 17, 19
“And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you, and WITH EVERY LIVING CREATURE THAT IS WITH YOU: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. And God said: “This is the sign of THE COVENANT WHICH I MAKE BETWEEN ME AND you, and EVERY LIVING CREATURE THAT IS WITH YOU, for perpetual generations: and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you AND EVERY LIVING CREATURE OF ALL FLESH; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and EVERY LIVING CREATURE OF ALL FLESH THAT IS ON THE EARTH.”
Genesis 9:9-10, 12, 15-16 NKJV
#2.) Is it true that God had Noah make sure that there was 2 of every animal enter the Ark??
So actually this is going to potentially be another one of those “Cognitive Dissonance” type of answers because NO, according to Scripture it is not true that God had 2 of every type of animal enter the Ark!! Of the Unclean animals yes it was limited to 2 each but of those considered “clean” He actually commanded there to be 7 pairs of each, or 14 animals total!!
2. You shall take with you SEVEN each of every clean animal, a male and his female; TWO each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female; 3. Also SEVEN each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth.
Genesis 7:2-3 NKJV
And good thing He’s God and thought ahead for us because after Noah exited the Ark the first thing he did was build an altar and started sacrificing the clean animals to God!!
20. Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
Genesis 8:20
