Geoffrey's Notebook

 This is not a message, it is more of a discussion that I’ve been having with several people by phone call or email or chat or in person. This only includes some notes on it but I wanted to share a more comprehensive view all at once.

I had a question from a brother who was about to counsel someone for baptism in May 2021. What follows are some notes I sent. Recently, another asked me about this, so I thought it best to post this as a reference. It's a little raw, like an email, but hopefully helpful to the baptism counselor. See the links at the end of this post for more teaching or preaching on baptism.  Question Asked:  Hi Geoffrey. Someone here has asked to be baptized and requested that I do it. I'm willing but have never baptized anyone before. Can you give me a crash course as this may happen as soon as next week. Also, shouldn't there be some sort of counseling prior? A couple others have expressed interest as well. Quick Response: Awesome to hear! I'll write more later, but I can share a little now.  Counseling  should be simple enough for the thousands saved at Pentecost to get baptized on the same day with only 120 counselors :) If you are counseling, you want to check for two things ba...

"Daddy, what was the first thing invented by humans?" I can't remember which kid asked this, but I had an old note with this question on it from years ago.  Answer: Fig-leaf clothes.  They didn't work well. They didn't cover their shame. Was it due to the cool breeze on those leaves as God walking in the Garden? No, only blood could really cover their shame of sin. So God made them clothes by the first sacrificed animal. The blood covered their sins, and the skin of the animal covered their nakedness.   But the first inventors  specifically mentioned for their inventions were children of Lemech, the 7th from Adam on Cain's side. These would be the evil pillars of society at the time right before the flood.  Genesis 4:19-24: And Lemech took two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the second, Zillah. And Adah bore   Jabal: he was the father of those who dwell in tents, and [breed] cattle  And his brother's name was  Jubal...

Prayer seems good for me, but why pray if God will do His will anyway? Note: Someone recently asked another person this question via text. They asked me for some help in answering it. But my answer needed to be brief for a text response. This question deserves a lot more fellowship. the mystery of prayer Prayer is a mystery. God can do anything He wants, but He has chosen to limit himself so we can join Him on earth by prayer to accomplish what He wills in heaven. This is why He taught us to pray "Thy will be done as in heaven so upon the earth." Though God knows what will happen, that does not mean He has taken away our choice. His will is going to be accomplished, but we have the option to delay it or to pray for it. He especially loves to answer big prayers when we pray together (see Matthew 18:18-20).   Watchman Nee's book Powerful According to God has a nice small chapter on this question . You can read that chapter ( here ) on the free sample for the eBook. 

 Recently after sharing on 1st John a question came up to do with one of the more difficult Scriptures.  Here's the 1 John series , this question has to do with #6 - Practicing Righteousness. Here's the dialogue:  Q:  Thank God and our brother for this very timely message on practical righteousness, that is so essential if we are to be in readiness for the "presence " of the Lord. However, I was left with some questions regarding the interpretation of 1 John 3:19-20. When I read verse 19, it seems to me to be a warning not to unconditionally follow the heart: In other words,other if we have a definite word from the Lord, then it takes priority over the condemnation of the heart;'likewise if our heart does approve, then we should follow the witness of the Spirit, life and peace.Perhaps our brother would offer some clarification. Again the message was a real blessing. A:  Amen, this is so essential to be ready for the Lord's return. :)  Those two verses in 1 ...

While going over this question in preparation for a local youth meeting, my son already had his own answer:   It is actually that simple. Creation has to stop at some point. If everything has to have a beginning, then there must be something before the beginning in order to begin everything else. Otherwise, once we find out who created God we have to ask who created that one? And at some point, we run into the real God who has always existed. Before there was a beginning of heavens and earth being created (Gen. 1:1) there was God. And He began all of creation:  John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things received being through him, and without him not one thing received being which has received being.  Hebrews 11:3 By faith we apprehend that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that that which is seen should not take its origin from things which appear. 

10 Useful Witnesses Verses (*Note: question received via text - thought I'd post more details here.) For sharing the good news you should find some various sections to either explain or work with someone where they are. They may be dealing with the vanity of the world and you could use most of Ecclesiastes, or they may simply have the question, What is the good news? and you could use Romans 1:1-4 or 1 Cor 15:1-6. Wherever the person is, and with whatever materials you can remember, the Holy Spirit will lead with some appropriate passages and concepts to work from.  However, it's helpful to have some specific verses memorized for when it comes time to lead someone through the threshold of salvation. Those would be the first ones I'd memorize so that way you could at least help someone who asks the question, What must I do to be saved? Here are 10 of those that I'd begin with. They cover a variety of actions that help with believing for salvation: 1. Romans 10:9 Confess ...

What happens to the soul of the unbeliever versus the soul of the believer in Christ—when they die? (Note: This question was received from an inmate in prison after I had sent him a few good books. He mentioned Ecclesiastes 3:21 and 12:7 along with the question and had some extra confusion based off of those two Scriptures.)   You mentioned Ecclesiastes 3:21 and 12:7 along with your question. The book of Ecclesiastes does have a lot of help for us as the word of God but is purposefully limited to all things “under the Sun.” So in the depression of the realization of everything being “vanity” we’re not going to get any clear picture of how things work in the unseen universe especially. He even says “Who knows if …?” So we’re not receiving much teaching on Hades from Ecclesiastes. It will add confusion to the issue, and it is supposed to. You are supposed to realize that everything "under the Sun" is vanity when you read Ecclesiastes. The end realization and point is found at...

Is wisdom a male or female? How can Christ be our Wisdom when Wisdom is a "she" in Proverbs 1-9? (*Note: This question was asked after someone gave out the book Proverbs by Stephen Kaung to a friend. The friend started to read it and couldn't continue after reading that Christ was Wisdom personified. He was bothered since "wisdom" is described as a female in Proverbs 1-9.)  In Proverbs, wisdom  is personified as a female but is not considered a real person or being. Solomon writes to "my son" as a wise father, "My son, attend unto my wisdom." In talking with a male son about receiving wisdom, he personifies wisdom as a female. If a wise mother were talking with her daughter, it might be different, and the "strange woman" would be replaced. Wisdom is in contrast with the "strange woman" (harlot) that may be received instead (see especially their calls to the simple in 9:4,16). For the sake of comparison with this foolish wa...

Question: Stephen Kaung said that Jesus will come back for the rapture when the overcomers of the church will be ready. I do not understand too much. When I see the church today I only see its depravity, its lack of love for Him and only love for themselves. Even if it's true that some believers (like me) are better, still in general, the church is far off the focus of Jesus.  Then too, the church in Laodicea is the last church, not the church in Philadelphia. However, this church in Philadelphia is better. But Jesus will come back later. I don't understand why Jesus is waiting until his wife is ready. Can you show it to me in the Scripture, please? *This question was emailed from a brother in France. Geoffrey's Notes:  You had asked about how Jesus is waiting for the bride to be made ready. Here are a couple of Scriptures to quickly see this: 1. Revelation 12:1-11 - The manchild is raptured suddenly once born. This is the portion of the bride — the overcomers,...

Then a harmful spirit from the Lord came upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand. And David was playing the lyre (1 Samuel 19:9 ESV). What? A harmful spirit....from the Lord? Yes ... well ... It just doesn't seem right, eh? In this setting, the harmful spirit was allowed by the Lord. When it says "from the Lord," it does not mean that the Lord purposely created something harmful to get Saul to be evil. These things are often happening or trying to. When it reaches into the life of someone who "love[s] God and [is] called according to [His] purpose," God will permit it if it will accomplish His purpose of conforming that one into the image of His beloved Son (Romans 8:28). David was hunted by Saul as this jealousy continued on, but in his exile, he trained up mighty men from the outcasts of Israel. He learned to be the humble servant-king that he was anointed to be. This harmful spirit was "from the Lord," allowed by the L...

A good question from the bible.com app. Jesus gave a warning parable for disciples and ended with: For many are called ones, but few chosen ones (Matthew 22:14). The calling to the disciples was to follow Jesus. And many are called. Then the Lord chose the Twelve for a specific purpose. He did know that one of the Twelve was going to betray Him, so that is a different case than the others. With the other eleven, He chose them with a hint of foreknowledge (Romans 8:29) knowing that they would also choose Him. Though He had some counsel with the Father and knew who to choose, it was still a delight to Him when the actual choice was made. As all are turning away and the response of these disciples was to instead choose Him back, His heart was refreshed: "Did I not choose you?" Who is doing the choosing here? It is the disciples. But who already did the choosing? The Lord. He chose them having some foreknown sense of their future choice. Foreknowledge does not mean that th...

I was reading through a bible plan with a group and this question came up: And Balaam said to the Angel of Jehovah, I have sinned; for I knew not that thou stoodest in the way against me; and now, if it be evil in thine eyes, I will get me back again (Numbers 22:34). At first, he asked God what to do and God told him not to go and he obeyed. Then they came again asking him to go ... he said not for all the silver and gold. Then God told him to go? He was just obeying right? I was thinking it may have to do with the bigger picture, that God wanted him to go and bless the people instead of cursing, but Jude calls Balaam a fool (but that could be for something that happened later too it seems?). Is it because he had asked God to curse them in the first place? It seems like he was just inquiring of the Lord about it ... but it talks about it in Joshua as though Balaam was asking God to do it (Joshua 24:9-10) ... any thoughts? Geoffrey's notes: It does seem like Balaam is just a h...

Question:  What does it mean in Proverbs when it talks about winning souls? How were souls won in that day?  *sent via email  Geoffrey's Notes: We use this term soul-winning now to talk about evangelism, and we've borrowed it from Proverbs 11:30: The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and the wise winneth souls. For example, C.H. Spurgeon has an excellent book called The Soul Winner  ( free on Kindle ), which grabs the title from this Scripture. Though it's a borrowed phrase, it is a good use of it. In our time, when we say soul-winning, we mean to help someone believe on the Lord Jesus and be saved. They are won  or gained for the kingdom or at least for eternity. Those souls,  people, are saved. In the time before the cross, what did this mean? "... the wise winneth souls" or "he that is wise wins souls." Today someone may be won for eternity with full assurance of heaven. But at that time, if you helped someone through the wisd...

I've been saving questions received for the last 10+ years from various conferences, bible studies, emails, chats, youth times and one on one fellowship. I've often used a physical question box for Q & A sessions and most of the time I've kept the little scraps of paper with the questions on them. Some were answered in the past, others missed due to time. Some are unique, others seem to be on most people's hearts. Look for more questions to be posted soon as I begin to go  through these old notes again and feel free to add new ones to this "question box", and I'll seek the Lord for something to share. I hope these notes are helpful in finding the Lord as the real answer to our deepest question.