My Understanding of The True God - Cathrine Thomas (robert munsch read aloud TXT) 📗

My Understanding of the True God, The One and Only God

      Introduction                                                              

      Chapter 1                                The One and Only God                          

      Chapter 2                                Is Jesus the Messiah/God’s Servant?               

      Chapter 3                                Who Could Be the Messiah/God’s Servant?          

      My Conclusion                                                                     

All quotations from the Old Testament are from the English translation of the Hebrew Torah.

Introduction

Let me tell you some of the experiences I have had and why I started to read the Bible.

When we are young, I guess we have to listen to our parents, and we are expected to believe what they have taught us.

Then we grow up, and some of us start thinking, “If this is all so right, why don’t I feel so good about the things I have been taught? I go to the church in which I was raised, and yet I do it because I had to.”

Some of us walk away and say this is rubbish. Well, I was one of them, until, one day, I wanted to know the truth.

So I said to God, “You know I need to know the truth about you: do you really exist?”

One day I was walking in the mountains: I was walking alone, and I heard my name, my real name, which not many people know, but I did not take too much notice: I did look around to see if anyone was looking for me.

Then, one night, I had a dream about my late mother and me in a train: the train station was made of glass, and a bright light was shining on the glass, and a voice said, “Daniel”. Because I was hard of hearing, I thought the name was “Danielle”, but the voice said again, “Daniel”.

On waking up the next morning, I went to a friend and asked her, “Is there a book of Daniel in the Bible?”, and she said, “Yes.”

I started to read the book of Daniel.

We all know how things go: we just carry on with our day-to-day lives and forget why we have these dreams or these thoughts.

To go a little further back, the night before my mother died, I went to the hospital and, on leaving, I said to my mother, “I am going to the pub to have a drink and I will have one for you.” Not that my mother drank at all, but, somehow, I knew this was the last time I would see her.

After leaving the hospital, I went to the pub, ordered two shooters with whisky, one for my mother and one for me, and along came a friend and asked me what I was doing. This person was always over-protective towards me, and I said, “Just leave me for a few minutes, and, when I am finished, I’ll come to you.” Well, that evening she didn’t argue with me and she left me.

On finishing the two whisky shooters, I then ordered a whisky and water and took my drink with me as I started to walk to my friends.

A well-dressed man stopped me halfway, and I remember he had a beer in his hand.

He asked me, “If I were God, what is your wish?”

I looked at him and said, “What are you talking about? I have never liked anyone talking about God with a drink in the hand.”

He then said, “I am talking about your mother.”

I answered, “I wish that God would take my mother.”

He then put out his hand and said to me, “Take your wish.” On taking my wish, he said to me, “If anything should happen to your mother, don’t blame God.”

My mother died in the early hours of the next morning.

About three months later, these people who were at the pub asked me who the man was. I said to them I thought they knew him, but none of us knew who the man was.

About three to four years ago, I hired a cottage in a little town called Fouriesburg, close to the Lesotho border post. It has easy access to Lesotho, which has the most amazing mountains. In winter it snowed on the mountains, and I could see the snow at a distance. Almost every morning and every evening I would sit outside, in the morning watch the sun rise and in the evening watch the sun set and wait for the stars to come out. At the age of 53 it was the first time in my life that I had ever experienced the change of seasons, that I had ever seen a leaf on a tree form a flower and the fruit start to grow.
Just before Christmas time one year, my one Sister said to me that she did not believe in giving Christmas presents and in celebrating the Christmas story. I thought about this: Why do so many people in our world celebrate it? What is so wrong about Christmas? I went into the shops in October, and there in all the shops they were playing Christmas carols, selling Christmas gifts that were way overpriced, with food prices sky rocketed. And now Christmas starts in October. In December we can buy Easter goodies. We are looking at a four-month difference in celebration. Who is getting the benefit of this? Is this not all in vain for what you are meant to believe in? I saw my sister’s point.
That December I was meant to go to Botswana to visit some friends there, so I packed my clothes in Fouriesburg and waited to leave, but to date I am still waiting for these friends to advise when I should come there.
But sometimes things happen for good reasons.
While I was waiting at home for news about my visit to Botswana, I decided to read the Bible. I first read from Isaiah, but I found that Isaiah was not easy to read.
Every time I opened the Bible to read, it opened at the Old Testament. For days on end it was about idols, so I spoke to my sister, and she said that I should get rude of all the idols in my home and that she would pray for me. So I started a major clean-up: I threw away anything that looked not so nice to me, even records; I took down all crosses and rosaries; I decided to take the Catholic book to my Aunt, and she said she wanted everything I was going to get rid of. I thought she should know better, and, as I was getting all these things out of my home, I had such horrible feelings, but nevertheless I prayed so hard to God the Creator, and I do not have those feelings anymore.
One day when I came home and was standing in the kitchen, it felt like someone was at the door: it was not a scary feeling, so I looked at the door and said, “God, please come in.” It could have been the next day I opened the Bible and started to read:
Isaiah 45:4: For Jacob My servant’s sake, and Israel My elect, I have even called you by your name; I have named you; though you have not known Me.
So I am asking everyone to go and read the Old Testament: get wisdom and mostly get understanding;, read the Old Testament through your own eyes; stop listening to other points of view, and ask the God of Creation for the truth: it will set you free. I don't want to argue about others’ religion, because, as we all know, there is only One GOD. I should like it if you can give me your point of view, and we can discuss it. I want this to be about how we all can return back to God the Creator. I am sure that's what he is waiting for: let God be happy, and perhaps God might change his mind about all the disaster that will happen if we do not.
On reading Isaiah further, I started to wonder: are we really believing in God the correct way?
Isaiah 45:5: I am the LORD, and there is no other; there is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me.
Isaiah 45:21: Tell and bring forth your case; yes, let them take counsel together. Who has declared this from ancient time? Who has told it from that time? Have not I? The LORD? And there is no other God besides Me, a just God and a Saviour; there is none besides Me.
Isaiah 46:9: Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me.
This was when I remembered my dream about Daniel and thought: “Read Daniel again: get wisdom and understand why you were told about Daniel.”
This is when everything started to change.

Chapter 1: The One and Only God

There is only one God, the God of Creation.

Let us read some verses from Isaiah, and we shall realise that there is only One God.
Isaiah 45:5: I am the LORD, and there is no other; there is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me.
     Isaiah 45:21: Tell and bring forth your case; yes, let them take counsel together. Who has declared this from ancient time? Who has told it from that time? Have not I? The LORD? And there is no other God besides Me, a just God and a Saviour; there is none besides Me.
Isaiah 46:9: Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me.
Isaiah 42:8: I am the LORD, that is My name; and My glory will I not give to another, neither My praise to graven images.

     Isaiah 43:10: Ye are My witnesses, saith the LORD, and My servant whom I have chosen; that ye may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He; before Me there was no God formed, neither shall any be after Me.

Isaiah 44
1. Yet hear now, O Jacob My servant, and Israel whom I have chosen.
2. Thus says the Lord who made you and formed you from the womb, who will help you: “Fear not, O Jacob my servant; and you Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.
3. For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants.
4. They shall spring up among the grass like willows by the water courses.”
5. One will say, “I am the LORD's”; another will call himself by the name of Jacob; another will write with his hand, “The LORD's”; and name himself by the name of Israel.
6. Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: “I am the First and I am the Last; and besides me there is no