What is a Puzzle

A puzzle is a problem or enigma that tests the ingenuity of the solver. In a basic puzzle, one is intended to put together pieces in a logical way in order to come up with the desired solution. Puzzles are often contrived as a form of entertainment, but they can also stem from serious mathematical or logistical problems — in such cases, their successful resolution can be a significant contribution to mathematical research.

Solutions to puzzles may require recognizing patterns and creating a particular order. People with a high inductive reasoning aptitude may be better at solving these puzzles than others. Puzzles based on the process of inquiry and discovery to complete may be solved faster by those with good deduction skills.

Who really reads the Bible?

Rasmussen poll:

According to the poll, 25 percent of Evangelical Protestants read the Bible daily, as do 20 percent of other Protestants, while daily Bible-reading is done by only 7 percent of Catholics.

The poll result also showed that 44 percent of Catholics "rarely or never" read the Bible, while this is true of only 7 percent of Evangelicals and 13 percent of non-Evangelical Protestants. The level of religious vitality must be very low in a Christian church in which 44 percent of the membership almost never bothers to read the Bible.

Gallup poll:

According to a recent Gallup poll, about six in ten Americans (59%) say they read the Bible at least on occasion, with the most likely readers being women, non-whites, older people, Republicans, and political conservatives.

Readership of the Bible has declined from the 1980s overall, from 73% to 59% today. The percentage of frequent readers, that is, those who read the Bible at least once a week, has decreased slightly over the last decade, from 40% in 1990 to 37% today.

About one American in seven reports an involvement that goes beyond reading the Bible. Fourteen percent currently belong to a Bible study group. In terms of frequency of readership, 16% of Americans say that they read the Bible every day, 21% say they read it weekly, 12% say they read the Bible monthly, 10% say less than monthly and 41% say that they rarely or never read the Bible.

The Barna Group:

Recent studies by The Barna Group and the Gallup Organization conclude that any reasonable understanding of biblical facts and truths is seriously lacking among Americans. Today, basic Christian truths are virtually unknown to a majority in this nation.

The lack of biblical literacy in America is at epidemic levels, says Ron Rhodes, President of Reasoning from the Scriptures Ministries. And when he talks about the lack of Bible reading among Americans, he is not talking about the population in general - he is talking about people who call themselves born-again Christians.

In an interview with Assist News Service Rhodes quotes a recent poll, which indicates that 35% of born-again Christians do not read the Bible at all. In addition, Rhodes indicates that among those who say they read the Bible, the vast majority only read it during the one hour they attend church each Sunday morning. Rhodes says such statistics make it more than obvious why many Christians are easy prey for spiritual deception. The level of biblical illiteracy among Christians may be one reason why many believers hesitate to stand for Godly values on the public scene.

"American Christians are biblically illiterate. Although most of them contend that the Bible contains truth and is worth knowing, and most of them argue that they know all of the relevant truths and principles, our research shows otherwise. And the trend line is frightening: the younger a person is, the less they understand about the Christian faith." —Barna

The Christian Post:

Researchers found between 69-94 percent of Christian youths forsake their faith after leaving high school. The Barna Group reported 64 percent loss after college graduation. The Assemblies of God conducted a 10-year study and found 75 percent loss of their students within one year of high school graduation, while the Southern Baptists found that number to be even higher at 88 percent loss. And Josh McDowell Ministries reports 94 percent fallout within two years of high school graduation.

USA Today:

Newly released data show Seventh-day Adventism growing by 2.5% in North America, a rapid clip for this part of the world, where Southern Baptists and mainline denominations, as well as other church groups are declining. Adventists are even growing 75% faster than Mormons (1.4 percent), who prioritize numeric growth.
For observers outside the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the growth rate in North America is perplexing.
"You've got a denomination that is basically going back to basics ... saying, 'What did God mean by all these rules and regulations and how can we fit in to be what God wants us to be?'," said Daniel Shaw, an expert on Christian missionary outreach at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif. "That's just totally contrary to anything that's happening in American culture. So I'm saying, 'Whoa! That's very interesting.' And I can't answer it.

Putting the Pieces Together

There is a LOT of confusion out there and it is bombarding the Christian world. This is one of the best ways for Satan to keep people as part of the lost. If there are a hundred pieces to the puzzle, we can put it together quite easily. But mix those pieces with a million pieces of deception, the average person will never even find the pieces, let alone put them together for The Whole Message to be revealed to them.

That's why we are Reading More, Studying More, and Praying More, and that's where the ABC'c come together with the Godly Wisdom and Knowledge to show us The Whole Message.

I am going to jump-start with the first pieces of the puzzle, and the main cornerstones. For without the main foundation we will be led astray. Have you ever noticed that when Most people come to Christ, He has to break them down? God is chipping off all the pieces that shouldn't be there, and then He put us back together with the pieces that He needs us to have. So the first answers to the puzzle is to have the proper foundation, and below are the first three building blocks.

To Have The Proper Foundation

1) Keep My Commandments

John 14:15 "If you love Me, keep My commandments.

It doesn't get much simpler than that! I could get into all the blessings you receive from keeping all of God's commandments, or I could tell you about all the death coming your way if you don't keep God's commandments, but I will save those for some in-depth studies. For today, simple enough, Keep God's Commandments!! Now the interesting part of this is that God gave us the Ten Commandments not once, but twice and anytime you see a scripture of God repeated in the Bible, you know it's important. Not only does God give us The Ten Commandments twice, he mentions dozens of times about the importance of keeping God's Commandments.

God not only has The Ten Commandments, He will often give us other Commandments both thru the writings of the Bible and thru many other ways like the way he speaks to us in our prayer.

There is one key factor that I will be touching on often in later studies, and that is; that we need to realize that we are keeping God's Commandments because we love Him. Some people don't understand the love of Christ in the beginning, and that's OK. God will help you realize how much He loves you along the way. For today, understand that we are not keeping His commandments as a guarantee to receive salvation, we are not earning our way into heaven. It is the opposite mentality as to why we are keeping His commandments. Christ loves us so much that He died on the cross, taking the punishment for our sins, so that we could be saved, and that act, from our Savior Christ Jesus is a good starting point as to why we want to obey His Commandments.

I often don't even think of them as Commandments. The English word itself just doesn't do the reasoning behind the word justice. The Commandments were given to us to protect us, to help us in our walk thru this maze of sin that Satan has clouded upon us. It is actually a gift of commandments that we have received, and not a punishment like the devil wants you to think they are. So take the Commandments with joy and thanks to God for the guidance to direct us how to be closer to Him. Here are The 10 Commandments, always worth reading and re-reading.

And God spoke all these words, saying:
"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
1 "You shall have no other gods before Me.
2 "You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
3 "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
4 " Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
5 " Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.
6 "You shall not murder.
7 "You shall not commit adultery.
8 "You shall not steal.
9 "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's."

There are other commandments too, as we will see throughout the Bible, and there are also commandments that God will place in each one of our hearts. When we get more in tune with The Holy Spirit, we will see many of these understandings more clearly, and certainly be more thankful to God for giving them to us.

So for now, do everything you can to Keep God's Commandments. In times of temptations, run to Him, and if you waiver, run to Him for forgiveness, learn to lean on Him, and continue on the path that God is developing just for you. He really does have great plans for you, we just need to take it one step at a time. Keep you focus on Him!

2) Trust No Man

And this includes pastors and priests, co-workers, friends at your church, family members and even me! Trust NO man. We need to make absolutely sure that the devil and all his crafty deceptions are not involved in anything. And Satan will use every possible avenue he can to keep you away from The Truth. Listening to others counsel is great, but do not trust what they say as Biblical Truth. Even the best Biblical knowledge people make mistakes, just look at all the spealling errores in these writings that I do. I really don't mind them and some day I will have them all corrected. But to me right now, it is just a critical thing to get these writings up for you to read. And so often, I am writing so fast, because the Holy Spirit is just zooming in me that I just can't keep up on the Words. So my point is that I might accidently write from when I meant to write form. So this should help keep you on your toes. Trust No Man! The nice part is that as you become more knowledgeable with God's Word, you will pick up on all the errors of people's beliefs and teachings. I see fault in the understandings and teachings of major mainstream Christian leaders all the time. That's OK too, people make mistakes. It's just another validation to take everything to the Bible.

Psalms 146:3-4

Do not put your trust in princes,
Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help.
His spirit departs, he returns to his earth;
In that very day his plans perish.

Jeremiah 17:5

Thus says the LORD:
" Cursed is the man who trusts in man
And makes flesh his strength,
Whose heart departs from the LORD.

Back EVERYTHING up with the Bible, It really is that plain and simple for this piece of the puzzle. And the bottom line is that if you don't know what the Bible says, you will really have a lot of difficulty finding a deep connection with God. That can only be achieved by knowing The Whole Message. Read More, Study More, Pray More.

3) Learn God's Word

That's because The Word of the Bible IS God. If you want to get to know somebody, it's a pretty good idea to learn who they really are. And God has once again made it so easy for us. He has given us Himself in the form of the Bible. The Bible IS God, The Whole Message of His Word IS God.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God.

James 1:21 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

it is the Word of the Bible, which is the Word of God, which is literally able to save your souls. There is no other thing that you could ever do that would do more for your life than to Learn God's Word. That is why Satan works so hard to keep us away from it.