The Shema is the Jewish confession of faith composed of three scriptural texts (Deuteronomy 6:4–9, 11:13–21; Numbers 15:37–41). Chapter six of Deuteronomy is SO crucial that Jesus quoted parts of it twice in his temptation defense against Satan. The most important declaration in the Old Testament, if not the Bible, is in verse four. "Hear, oh Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is One." With this sentence in view, Jews today will not believe in the Trinity nor Jesus as their Messiah. So, how do we Christians support the doctrine of the Trinity? We recognize that the above statement is true. However, we also understand, through various other scriptures, the other members of the Trinity are mentioned. In the beginning, we see God present and the Holy Spirit hovering over the creation. We then go to the New Testament and see several texts that show that Jesus was there in the beginning and was the Creator (John 1:3; 1Cor 8:6; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2). Because of these references and others, we understand that the three persons of the Trinity were involved. The God of the Jews is our God. He manifested himself as Jesus Christ in the New Testament in John 14:8-14. So, Hear oh Christian, the LORD our God is one Lord!
Well I went and done it! That's bad grammar I know. But I done it anyway. We've been having a Bible study with Esmano and Genesie and their two kids Jennifer and Jadson, for about seven weeks now. This week Jennifer threw out a challenge. "Let's memorize a verse!" I thought that was a great idea. I told them that if they did memorize the verse that I would give them each an American coin. Esmano, their dad usually sits in on the study but he hasn't really been a part of it. When I mentioned the coin idea his eyes lit up a little. I then reached into my wallet and said, "If YOU memorize that verse I'll give you $20 bucks! His eyes really lit up then! Was it a good idea? I doubt it. No one has ever offered me money for memorizing verses. However, this will be the first verse that this man has ever memorized. If he does it. It is not a conventional way of doing memory work and it could cost me a bill for nothing. But if God uses this simple chall...
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