Gold Nuggets From God's Word

~ Pastor Betty Steward ~

The Soul

The Reality of God

Faith 

Faithfulness

Healing

Wisdom

Mercy

Customs and Manners

God's Word

Sitting Down With God

Pictures of Himself

Searching Out Heaven's Ways

Freedom

Be a Pioneer!

Think About Eternity

Jewish Roots

What is "Jewish Roots" about, anyway?

Sitting Down With God

It's our greatest privilege to be a part of God's Word. to be able to read it, to be directed by it, that God would even speak to us. What a privilege. What an honor that He would call me, "friend". That He would share with me what He is going to do in the future. And He does. He tells me in His Word what He is going to do in the future. All I have to do is sit down and fellowship with Him, and He starts revealing to me the secrets and the mysteries of the universe.

This book is God's cry to the world, and to the people of God. It is meant to pierce man's armor, because every single person out there has armor around him. It's around his heart. You know how you can cause friction on something, like a heel or an elbow or something and you get calluses on them? Well, when man is in the world he gets beat up. He gets friction on him from the things that he goes through. He doesn't trust anybody. He doesn't love very many people. He turns people away. That causes calluses on the heart. And this Bible is able to pierce that, to go beyond that and cut the calluses away to where you find a heart that loves God and worships God.

What are we seeking for in life? What are we after? I was thinking about this. I think about this a lot. What are people really after? They're after for their lives to be comfortable, for their lives to have prosperity in them. For their lives to be good. But what about loving God? What about just loving God for who He is? Not for what He gives you but just for who He is, that He's God.

There is a task in this Word, in this written word, in this teaching, in this Torah. It gives us direction for our life. What is our direction for our life? First of all, that we love the LORD our God with all of our heart and all of our soul. And we will be tested for that. We will come up against something that is going to try to lead us to break it. To go against His Word. And that will show God whether we love Him more than the temptation that comes. God is testing our love for Him. We are to do what God requires of us. Micah 6:8 says to do justly towards people and God: to love mercy - to be merciful to one another and to everyone around us, and to walk in obedience with your God. It means keeping the commandments. We are human, but we are holy - set apart for His use.

When we are in a state of despair, where do we turn? Do we turn to the world? No! Go to God's people, go to the Word of God and you will not fail. When we look at the Word of God we will find our answers. There are no words on earth that are more knowing than God's words. There is insight in God's Word. There is wisdom in God's Word. It can be stern, show grace, heal the heart. He's always with us. When you sit down with His Word the presence of God comes. If you are angry, if you're upset, if you're disturbed, you sit down with God's Word. Comfort comes to you. The anger leaves. The disturbance leaves and God's presence is there. He is alive in His Word.

Pictures of Himself

So there is a written word to tell you who He is - how He is going when He comes toward you. And you will know Him when you see that happen. You’ll know that’s God. So somebody else comes along and tries to lead you away from what this Word says, he’s trying to lead you away from God. It’s the only way you’ll ever know God--through His Word. You say, "well, I know Him by the Spirit" sure you do because these words are filled with Spirit, and the Spirit is right there to teach them to you. But He does not teach apart from His Word. He teaches through His Word. By the insight given in His words to man, man lives by God’s faithfulness to him. It is a standard to our lives--a measurement to our lives. He said, "Be ye holy..." That’s a measurement. What does that mean? Set apart unto God. Not for any other kind of use. That doesn’t mean you can’t be a nurse or a doctor, but still the heart is dedicated to God. So the spirit follows after God. And the body does what the spirit tells it what to do. Your physical flesh only does what the heart tells it what to do. That’s why we have a new covenant written in our heart. And so, our flesh, if we are loving God in our heart, does what our heart tells it to do. But if we don’t love God with all of our heart, our flesh does what this heart, who doesn’t love God, it will do what it says, because it follows the heart. Whatever a person is doing out there is what is in the heart. Really believe that one. You think, "this person can’t help themselves"--that isn’t what God’s word said. God’s word says that that person can change. And that person does not need a lot of outside sources. He doesn’t need a psychiatrist, he needs God. When he comes to God, God’s word will change him. I might send you to a counselor, but it’s going to be a Christian counselor--one that is going to know God and know His Word and can direct a person with the word of God. Most people would accept the Bible (and religion) if they could be sure that God’s presence was in it (or in the church) but they don’t believe that. They don’t want to try it. Most people have to have tragedy happen to them in the first place to even find God. They have to be unhappy. They have to come to a place in their life where they are not satisfied with their life at the point where they are at. Then they begin to search in another place for God. (And oh, yes, I heard that that black book might have something to say about God.) so they begin to look in it. Or they’ve met a Christian or they’ve heard something somewhere, so they go and try to find a book. Or they go try find somebody who does know the Lord. Sometimes they go to people who only halfway know God. But that person may know God enough so they can direct them to God. They can direct them to the church, and I’m telling you, people, when people start turning you against the church, there is something wrong with them. They are backslid. People outside the church that are not a part of the church, they are backslid. They have a callused heart. And the first thing they tell you is, "I was so hurt in that church." All you have to do is start investigating backwards to the church they came from and you’ll find out that person has really just walked away from the Lord. But you know we love to blame other people for our sins. What did Adam do?

Jesus said that he could do no works in Nazareth because no one would believe upon him. He didn’t manifest to them. If you don’t believe in God’s presence in this church, or if you don’t believe in something God can do, He won’t manifest to you that way. You must believe in him. What he does is, if you believe in him, he will uncover himself. He comes out of hiding. He’s hidden to people who don’t believe in him. He’s right there. He’s looking at that person. But that person doesn’t even know He’s within ten miles of him. But the minute that person believes. . . .

I firmly believe that (the apostle) Paul believed in the LORD. He believed in God. But he didn’t think God was going to manifest through a man, Jesus, like He did. And that’s what he didn’t believe. But he still believed in God; and I believe that God manifested to Paul because God knew his heart. God knew he was killing those people, or he was trying to kill those people, just to do a justice to God. He thought he was doing right. So what God did was to just let him see a little bit more of Himself. Sure did turn Paul around, didn’t it?

Searching Out Heaven's Ways

When you begin to sense the Holy is when you start believing. You will sense the Holy. You will sense the presence of God in His words. And I tell you, when I wrote this sermon out, I thought, "You know, I’m a pioneer". You say, "there were people before you who knew the word of God," Sure there were. I didn’t know what they knew. And they could tell me what they knew, but I didn’t know that. It’s just like when Columbus came across and discovered America. Someone told him that there was some kind of land out there. And you know what? If he would have never investigated as a pioneer, he would have never found America. And it’s the same way about God. You can talk about God and you can hear about God, but unless you become a pioneer, and start searching out what you don’t know, you’ll never find Him. But the minute you start off in that covered wagon to go over to the West coast, which you have never seen. . . . You’re going to have trials. You may die on your way. But you may make it. And when you get over on that West coast, you’re going to find the most beautiful country with the most beautiful big redwoods. Big mountains. But it’s only something you’d heard about. You’ve never experienced it. That’s what God’s word is like. And unless you become a pioneer in it, and start searching out the land for yourself, you will never find it. It’ll always just be somebody else telling you what they’ve experienced. "I’ve been to the West coast!" "I’ve seen the Statue of Liberty!" If you’ve never seen the Statue of Liberty you’ll never know what she’s like--not that she has any power in her but she sure stands for something. Freedom. To all the nations of the world. Freedom. You see? Now that’s a funny thing, because you know I’ve never seen the Statue of Liberty. I’ve only read about that statue in the history books and that France gave her to us. And I heard that she was bronze. And I heard that they’d restored her. But I’d never really looked at it. And it was a funny thing when I went and saw the Statue of Liberty. I had a funny feeling inside. "That’s the Statue of Liberty." I heard about the Eastern Wall--the Eastern Gate--all my life, since I’ve been a Christian. We drove into Jerusalem at night so I really didn’t know where I was. And we were in this Hotel and we sat down to dinner and no one said, "Over there is the Eastern Gate!" No one told me that. No one was excited about it. Even our guide wasn’t excited about it. Because he’d been there too many times. It was just old hat to him. And all of a sudden I turned. And I looked out the window. And I saw the Eastern Gate. You know? I thought, "I’ve heard about this all my life, and here it is." Nobody got excited. Nobody got excited that we were at the Temple Mount, and we were looking right at it. These people had paid three thousand dollars to go there. Nobody told us, "Here’s the the Temple!" Nobody said a word. Because the leader had been there a lot. It didn’t mean to him what it meant to me. And the Word of God is identical to a trip to Israel. Except this is a trip to Heaven. This is a trip through eternity. And when you get into that Word, you’re going to visit some Eastern Gates. You’re going to visit the Temple Mount. You’re going to walk around Heaven’s ways, and you’re going to be a pioneer yourself because you’ve never been through that way before. And you’re going to find things in this word that nobody’s told you, but all of a sudden you’re going to be sitting there looking through that window of words, and you’re going to see the Lord. You’re going to see Him, because He is in these words. They are pictures drawn of Him. And just as I sat there looking through that window--and there was light all around the Temple wall - Jesus was crucified not too many feet from there. Jesus walked those streets. Jesus was there. His precious feet walked those stones. And if you don’t think that isn’t a privilege - to walk those places that Jesus walked. . . you’d have to be dead. Or not realize what it is you’re looking at.

Freedom

As we walk through these pages God is going to give us the faith of the prophets. All of a sudden faith is going to start rising up inside of you. You know, Columbus must have been a courageous man. They believed the world was flat. He had no knowledge other than the Bible that it could be any other way. If it was flat he would’ve went over the edge, but the world was round. And he knew there was another country out there. He had the courage and he had the faith to go. And to me, in order to walk God’s way you’ve got to have courage. You’re going to have all Hell hit you. You’re going to have not one occurrence of Hell, but you’re going to have Hell all down through your life and it’s going to come in different forms to try to turn you away from God. And also God allows it because it’s testing your love. Do you love Him? Are you going to serve Him? Or are you going to go back to what you came out of? It takes courageous people. It took courageous people to leave the Old World and come over here. It took courageous people; they left their homes, their families--everybody they knew and came over here to be free in their religious beliefs.

And you are not free in your religious belief unless you know the Word of God.

Until you know the Word of God you are confined in your belief to what you know. So you are not free until you know the truth, and it’s not one sentence of the Word of God that’s true, it’s the whole concept of the Bible that’s true. Until you learn that you will not be free in your religion. I don’t belong to any organization. I belong to God. And I belong to people. That’s a pioneer. That’s a person who’s willing to fight the damned Devil and get the victory and you’ve got to fight him and you’ve got to win. The Bible says we win, but we’ve got to keep a hold of Him to do that.

Be A Pioneer!

Personally, I could never be a person who just sat and never looked. If somebody were to tell me there was a new world to be discovered, I’d be the first one on that space ship. If they’d let me on. Do you hear what I’m saying? God’s Word is like that. You’ll go to different worlds. Spiritual worlds. It is a spiritual world that unlocks its mysteries when you begin to see God, how He acts towards man. You’ll see Him in so many ways - so much deeper than you’ve ever seen Him before. There is no way that a person, when he begins to explore the Bible, could ever turn back away from God. And I believe that the people who do turn back have never truly known Him. They may have accepted Him as their savior, but they didn’t know Him. How could you turn back? How could you not go on? If you found one world that was so beautiful, what’s beyond? What’s beyond the galaxies, the galaxies in the Bible? There are galaxies in the Bible. You’re exploring. You’re a pioneer. You’re going ahead on that covered wagon and you’re traveling through this world. That’s what’s in this book. And it’s all about God, and all about His people and how He acts toward them. And you think, "well I’ve learned it all". No you won’t. Not until the end of your lifetime will you know it all. Because this book is eternity. How can you explore out eternity in a lifetime? How can you do that? You can’t.

I’ll tell you what, I’m on a ship and I’m going to keep sailing. I’m not on a boat. A boat can be lifted up out of the water by another boat. That’s not a ship. But a ship is something that cannot be lifted and carried around by ropes. A ship--that’s what I am, and I’m sailing through life, and I’m sailing right through that Word of God. That Word of God is my ocean. That’s my discovery, and I’m going to find out Who God is, and what He does, and where He’s taking me. And if we think we know it all we just don’t know anything. We’ve just begun on our journey.

Think about eternity

Think about eternity. I have known God around forty years. Think about eternity in comparison to forty years. And we think we know it all? Some people at fifteen, sixteen years of age think they pretty well know God. Really? Let’s look at eternity and see what God has to teach us.

You’re coming to know God, and you do know God. On the East coast. Have you ever been to the West coast? You ever been to the moon? You ever been out into the "black hole"? Have you ever been any place like that? Then all you know is your home town. Wow, you know a lot. See what I’m saying?

That’s the way God’s word is.

And the more you look, the more you find. And the more you find, the more you experience. And the more you experience, the more you want to experience, and the more you want to explore God.

God has to become your life. He has to become the most burning desire of your heart.