Dr Paul Allen

First, you have to make sure you're seeking to obey what God has already revealed in Scripture. This includes things like obeying your parents. That's a clear instruction from God. It doesn't really work to ignore God's revealed will but yet expect God to answer specific questions like where you should go to college. As you study God's Word and spend time in prayer, your relationship with God grows and you begin to understand God's character. You will then be in the right place to hear God's instruction for other areas of your life. In addition to Bible study and prayer, be willing to seek godly counsel from a mentor, pastor, or your parents. If we're serious about following God's will , we have to recognize that it's not about getting what we want, but doing what God asks. We must trust that he is faithful and good, and that his will is what's best for us. Related articles Youthwalk (slideshare.net) Clinging to God's Promises...

We may excuse the spiritual poverty of our preaching in many ways, but the true secret will be found in the lack of urgent prayer for God’s presence in the power of the Holy Spirit . There are preachers innumerable who can deliver masterful sermons after their order; but the effects are short-lived and do not enter as a factor at all into the regions of the spirit where the fearful war between God and Satan , heaven and hell, is being waged because they are not made powerfully militant and spiritually victorious by prayer. The preachers who gain mighty results for God are the men who have prevailed in their pleadings with God ere venturing to plead with men. The preachers who are the mightiest in their closets with God are the mightiest in their pulpits with men. Related articles SBC President Ronnie Floyd Releases Motivational eBook for Prayer and Revival (blackchristiannews.com) Persuasive Preaching (defendingcontending.com) Book Review : Persuasive Preaching (stevenru...

Miniature ofrom Folio 8r of the Syriac Bible of Paris shows Moses before Pharaoh. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) 2 Kings 22:8–13 Logically, if God’s spoken word has authority, and if the Bible contains God’s written word, then the Bible must carry the same authority as God’s spoken word. King Josiah realized this, which is why he had such an intense reaction when he heard what was written in the “ Book of the Law ” (2 Kings 22:8). Although the Bible has been passed down for generations, scholars have concluded that the accuracy of its text has been remarkably preserved through the centuries by scribes who believed passionately in the importance of their work. The level of accuracy they maintained gives us confidence that the same meaning intended by the original authors, such as Moses , is what God’s Word still communicates today. The Bible is intended to bring us to faith in God and help us to live our lives to the fullest (see Matthew 4:4 ; John 20:31...

That’s the way so many live, avoiding the things we collectively determine are wrong while affirming the things we determine are right and good. By consequence, our morals are in constant flux, constant transition, as they respond and adapt to the spirit of the age. This is true outside of the church and, sadly, true even within Christian culture . In  The Discipline of Grace  Jerry Bridges challenges us that “if we are going to make progress in the pursuit of holiness , we must aim to live according to the precepts of Scripture —not according to the culture, even the Christian culture, around us.” But we can’t do this if we don’t know what those precepts are and we can’t know what those precepts are unless we are immersed in the Word of God . Says Bridges, To pursue holiness, one of the disciplines we must become skilled in is the development of Bible -based convictions. A conviction is a determinative belief: something you believe so strongly that it aff...

The Revised Version of the New Testament translators, 1881. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The real question here is, Is everything that is set forth in Scripture to be applied to all people of all time and of all cultures ? I don’t know any biblical scholar who would argue that everything set forth in Scripture applies to all people at all times. Since Jesus sent out the seventy and he told them not to wear shoes, does that mean that evangelists today would be disobedient unless they preached in their bare feet? Obviously that is an example of something practiced in the first-century culture that has no real application in our culture today. When we come to the matter of understanding and applying Scripture, we have two problems. First, there is understanding the historical context in which the Scripture was first given. That means we have to go back and try to get into the skins and into the minds and languages of the first-century people who wrote down the Scriptures. We have...

Anglo-Catalan Psalter or The Great Canterbury Psalter, folio 1 recto: Genesis (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Adam, Eve, and the (female) serpent at the entrance to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The first of two box sets, the well-received Genesis Archive 1967–75. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The story of the Eden Garden. The temptation of Adam & Eve by the devil. Pedestal of the statue of Madonna with Child, western portal (of the Virgin), of Notre-Dame de Paris, France Français : L'histoire du Jardin d'Eden. Au premier plan la tentation d'Adam & Eve par le Diable. Base de la statue de la Vierge à l'Enfant, trumeau du portail de la Vierge, Façade ouest de Notre-Dame de Paris. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The Serpent Beguiled Me; as in Genesis 3:13; illustration from the Sunrays quarterly (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) God made humans to reflect his image and advance the display of his glory over the created world ( Genesis 1:26–28). But Adam f...