The Way to Heaven
The way to heaven is I believe simple and open to anyone, and I mean anyone to follow.
It come down to who you think Jesus is and what his purpose on this earth was for.
For me the following is what I believe is the way to heaven. I do not wish to force my beliefs on anyone, I simply put them here for you to decide.
First of all it is an act of faith. Faith defined by the writer of Hebrews as,
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
Hebrews 11:1
The writer going on to say,
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him”
Hebrews 11:6
The Apostle Paul make it clear salvation and the eternal life it brings is not something we can work for. Paul writing to the Ephesians stating,
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Ephesians 2:8,9
Salvation come from God to man. It is God in love reaching down to mankind. The apostle John writing,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
John 3:16,17.
When asked the way to heaven,
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6
The apostle Paul writing to the Romans said,
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
Romans 3:23,24.
Sinning is falling short of what God wants for you life. Sin separates us from God.
Isaiah telling us,
“All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”
Isaiah 64:6
The Apostle John noting,
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.”
1 John 1:9,10.
Simply put salvation and eternal life with God comes through accepting Jesus as God’s one and only Son. Believing that he came to die for our sins. Confessing in prayer our sins directly to God. Accepting that forgiveness. And letting Christ into our hearts and mind.
Please think about it.
Saturday, 28 February 2015
To those thinking of
To those thinking of
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30
I look at the news and see young people especially heading off to join radical Islamic groups such as ISIS and I ask myself why.
The answer seems to me strait forward. The Western democracies appear to offer them nothing.
While the latest electronic gadget, fine automobile, jewellery, brand name clothing may appeal to the majority of people in the west. It does not to the minority that are slipping away to join the radical groups.
Our western society with all its rights and freedoms while to my mind the best possible way of life is not for those who have become radicalized.
Back in the 1958 John B. Harrington published a book entitled "Essentials in Christian Faith" it could have been written yesterday.
It opens with this quote from Paul Gallico in Esquire Magazine in 1948:
"A writer in a popular magazine has written the following words; 'We are all, if you will pardon the expression, Headed for Hell in a handbarrow. If, ever the people of the world stood in need of a spiritual revival, it is now. We are beginning to poison the face of the earth with our miserable presence. The brakes are off. The cart of the world is sliding down the way greased with hatred, ambition, lies, self-seeking and avarice toward the pit.’"
Harrington notes that Gallico makes no pretense of being "a religious man" noting that "...for him it is precisely religion in its organized forms which has in part caused the situation he deplores. He is careful to state that it is not "religion" for which he is looking. For in his opinion, religion throughout the history of our culture has advanced its control over human beings by the investment of bigotry and persecution.
Yet, out of despair over the current human situation he says; ‘The voice for which my heavy spirit is yearning must reach us all... For if it is not heard, we are lost. Something beyond our material enrichment and lust for power and position, some rewards founded on good will, selflessness, and the innate dignity of the human spirit...honour, humility, decency courage."
Another Paul writing to a member of the first century church wrote the following,
"But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God"
2 Timothy 3:1-4
If Paul Gallico is right and I believe he is, mankind is considerably nearer the bottom of that slope than he was in 1948. Moreover at the bottom of that slope is a very deep lake filled with brimstone.
I think those who are becoming radicalized agree, be it subconsciously or consciously with Paul Gallico. Our very materialistic western society despite all it’s rights and freedoms is lacking in many ways.
Man is more than a physical being. Man has a soul, that materialism as much as it may try cannot fill.
There is nothing wrong with the latest gadget, the nice car, brand name clothing but unfortunately they have become demigods in our society. A society that is turning away from the one true God.
For me as a Christian I feel our society has failed and all the best secular programs as good as they may be will not succeed in reaching those who are truly looking for meaning in life.
It has been my experience that such people are looking for a spiritual answer to the aching in their soul.
The radicals of this world try to offer that fulfilment but ultimately fail just as miserably as our secular society.
I truly believe there is but one solution to stopping the radicalization, particularly of youth and that is by offering them peace for their souls.
Jesus said,
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30
I believe the message of Love for God, one’s neighbour, and even one’s enemy. The message Jesus gave to the world is as relevant to, the individual today as it was when Jesus walked on the earth.
I also believe it is truly the only answer that can stop the radicalization of people today.
Think about it.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30
I look at the news and see young people especially heading off to join radical Islamic groups such as ISIS and I ask myself why.
The answer seems to me strait forward. The Western democracies appear to offer them nothing.
While the latest electronic gadget, fine automobile, jewellery, brand name clothing may appeal to the majority of people in the west. It does not to the minority that are slipping away to join the radical groups.
Our western society with all its rights and freedoms while to my mind the best possible way of life is not for those who have become radicalized.
Back in the 1958 John B. Harrington published a book entitled "Essentials in Christian Faith" it could have been written yesterday.
It opens with this quote from Paul Gallico in Esquire Magazine in 1948:
"A writer in a popular magazine has written the following words; 'We are all, if you will pardon the expression, Headed for Hell in a handbarrow. If, ever the people of the world stood in need of a spiritual revival, it is now. We are beginning to poison the face of the earth with our miserable presence. The brakes are off. The cart of the world is sliding down the way greased with hatred, ambition, lies, self-seeking and avarice toward the pit.’"
Harrington notes that Gallico makes no pretense of being "a religious man" noting that "...for him it is precisely religion in its organized forms which has in part caused the situation he deplores. He is careful to state that it is not "religion" for which he is looking. For in his opinion, religion throughout the history of our culture has advanced its control over human beings by the investment of bigotry and persecution.
Yet, out of despair over the current human situation he says; ‘The voice for which my heavy spirit is yearning must reach us all... For if it is not heard, we are lost. Something beyond our material enrichment and lust for power and position, some rewards founded on good will, selflessness, and the innate dignity of the human spirit...honour, humility, decency courage."
Another Paul writing to a member of the first century church wrote the following,
"But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God"
2 Timothy 3:1-4
If Paul Gallico is right and I believe he is, mankind is considerably nearer the bottom of that slope than he was in 1948. Moreover at the bottom of that slope is a very deep lake filled with brimstone.
I think those who are becoming radicalized agree, be it subconsciously or consciously with Paul Gallico. Our very materialistic western society despite all it’s rights and freedoms is lacking in many ways.
Man is more than a physical being. Man has a soul, that materialism as much as it may try cannot fill.
There is nothing wrong with the latest gadget, the nice car, brand name clothing but unfortunately they have become demigods in our society. A society that is turning away from the one true God.
For me as a Christian I feel our society has failed and all the best secular programs as good as they may be will not succeed in reaching those who are truly looking for meaning in life.
It has been my experience that such people are looking for a spiritual answer to the aching in their soul.
The radicals of this world try to offer that fulfilment but ultimately fail just as miserably as our secular society.
I truly believe there is but one solution to stopping the radicalization, particularly of youth and that is by offering them peace for their souls.
Jesus said,
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30
I believe the message of Love for God, one’s neighbour, and even one’s enemy. The message Jesus gave to the world is as relevant to, the individual today as it was when Jesus walked on the earth.
I also believe it is truly the only answer that can stop the radicalization of people today.
Think about it.
Thursday, 26 February 2015
The seeker
The Seeker
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
Matthew 7:7,8.
I believe that I will never be able, no matter how many words I write, or how persuasive my arguments are convince an atheist who’s mind is made up that there is a God. That being said I believe such people are small in number. Further more I believe even the most ardent Atheist is not beyond God’s ability to show him that He exists.
The above scripture is the words of Jesus. He is speaking to those who are truly seeking for meaning in life. His call to them is to continue to seek God with all their heart and he will show himself to them.
The psalmist writes,
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”
Psalm 19:1.
Nature does indeed show the evidence of a creator God.
If we look at nature it is mathematically prefect. We may not know all the formulas or simply the formula that run the universe yet, but they are there to find.
For me if there is no God and a life after this, life is meaningless. All our good deeds our great creative works, are simply a waste.
The writer of Ecclesiastes wrote,
“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun”
Ecclesiastes 1:9
“I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”
Ecclesiastes 1:14
His ultimate conclusion,
“Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.”
Ecclesiastes12:13,14
There is a God I’m convinced of that,
The Psalmist says.
“The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
Psalm 14:1.
The apostle Paul writes,
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
1 Corinthians 1:18
I believe a true seeker of truth will prove the words of the psalmist and of Paul. I believe the true seeker will find God and come into a personal relationship with God.
Are you that seeker?
Are you looking for meaning to life?
Please take time to pray and ask God to show yourself to you. Take time read the Bible. Read the New Testament first and I am convinced God will show himself to you.
Please think about it.
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
Matthew 7:7,8.
I believe that I will never be able, no matter how many words I write, or how persuasive my arguments are convince an atheist who’s mind is made up that there is a God. That being said I believe such people are small in number. Further more I believe even the most ardent Atheist is not beyond God’s ability to show him that He exists.
The above scripture is the words of Jesus. He is speaking to those who are truly seeking for meaning in life. His call to them is to continue to seek God with all their heart and he will show himself to them.
The psalmist writes,
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”
Psalm 19:1.
Nature does indeed show the evidence of a creator God.
If we look at nature it is mathematically prefect. We may not know all the formulas or simply the formula that run the universe yet, but they are there to find.
For me if there is no God and a life after this, life is meaningless. All our good deeds our great creative works, are simply a waste.
The writer of Ecclesiastes wrote,
“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun”
Ecclesiastes 1:9
“I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”
Ecclesiastes 1:14
His ultimate conclusion,
“Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.”
Ecclesiastes12:13,14
There is a God I’m convinced of that,
The Psalmist says.
“The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
Psalm 14:1.
The apostle Paul writes,
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
1 Corinthians 1:18
I believe a true seeker of truth will prove the words of the psalmist and of Paul. I believe the true seeker will find God and come into a personal relationship with God.
Are you that seeker?
Are you looking for meaning to life?
Please take time to pray and ask God to show yourself to you. Take time read the Bible. Read the New Testament first and I am convinced God will show himself to you.
Please think about it.
Wednesday, 25 February 2015
Faith
Faith
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
Hebrews 11:1
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
Hebrews 11:6.
Having faith in God is perhaps the hardest thing anyone can do.
While the Psalmist writes,
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”
Psalm 19:1
It is easy for people to dismiss the mathematical perfection of the universe to the big bang and not see God.
Those who would dismiss God as not being there can’t conceive that He could have created the big bang to usher the universe into existence.
C.S. Lewis an Oxford scholar studied the life of Jesus and the Bible at the time he studied it he was not a believer as such but he was looking for truth. He came to the conclusion,
“A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.”
C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
With regards to Jesus he wrote,
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.
As a Christian I believe there is a God and that Jesus is his one and only Son. That Jesus is indeed God incarnate.
As a Christian I see it as my duty before God to present Jesus to anyone who will listen to me.
I cannot impose my beliefs on anyone. I can only present them. What I believe is summed up by the Apostle Paul when he was speaking to the Philosophers in Athens.
The book of acts records,
“So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.
A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.
Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?
You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean.”
(All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.
For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.
And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.
From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.
God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man’s design and skill.
In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”
When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.”
At that, Paul left the Council.
A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.
Acts 17:17-34
I leave the above for you the reader to believe it nor not.
Please think about it.
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
Hebrews 11:1
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
Hebrews 11:6.
Having faith in God is perhaps the hardest thing anyone can do.
While the Psalmist writes,
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”
Psalm 19:1
It is easy for people to dismiss the mathematical perfection of the universe to the big bang and not see God.
Those who would dismiss God as not being there can’t conceive that He could have created the big bang to usher the universe into existence.
C.S. Lewis an Oxford scholar studied the life of Jesus and the Bible at the time he studied it he was not a believer as such but he was looking for truth. He came to the conclusion,
“A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.”
C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
With regards to Jesus he wrote,
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.
As a Christian I believe there is a God and that Jesus is his one and only Son. That Jesus is indeed God incarnate.
As a Christian I see it as my duty before God to present Jesus to anyone who will listen to me.
I cannot impose my beliefs on anyone. I can only present them. What I believe is summed up by the Apostle Paul when he was speaking to the Philosophers in Athens.
The book of acts records,
“So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.
A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.
Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?
You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean.”
(All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.
For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.
And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.
From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.
God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man’s design and skill.
In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”
When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.”
At that, Paul left the Council.
A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.
Acts 17:17-34
I leave the above for you the reader to believe it nor not.
Please think about it.
Tuesday, 24 February 2015
Consider
Consider
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Carl Sagan wrote of the above picture,
“Consider that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, every human being who ever was lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religious, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there- on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam....
To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”
From Carl Sagan,(1934-1996) Pale Blue Dot A Vision of the Human Future in Space.
Mr. Sagan couldn’t be more right.
We are, if you think about it from a purely human prospective, are space dust and this world is all we have.
I believe however we are more than that.
Albert Einstein wrote,
“Human beings vegetables or cosmic dust. We all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible player.”
Albert Einstein.
I believe the mysterious tune is life, the invisible player I believe is God.
I believe John when he wrote,
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
In him was life, and that life was the light of men
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John 1:1-4,14.
I believe the words of Jesus who said,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
John 3:16,17
I believe that God took a small part of His infiniteness and entered into our world. I believe he did this so that no man can stand before Him and say you don’t understand.
When we stand before God, before Jesus. We cannot say to Him “You were never human, you don’t understand” because he does.
Jesus lived on this earth. Thus He understands everything that is human. Everything from the mundane things such as the sun and rain against one’s face, to the joy of friends. The love of devoted parents. Everything that we as people go through.
He also understands what it is to be mistreated, lied about, beaten and put to death in a most hideous way for a crime he didn’t commit.
And he experienced it all so that we may have eternal life with him. All we must do is acknowledge him.
Our life in this world, is but a mist in the aeons of time. We are however eternal beings meant to live on through eternity.
While we may vanish from this life we live on through eternity. It is I believe however in this life where we decide where we will spend eternity.
Jesus said,
“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6.
He also said
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30
Jesus offers life everlasting with God to all who believe in Him. The choice ultimately is yours. It is an act of faith.
The writer of Hebrews saying,
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
Hebrews 11:6.
C. S. Lewis put things this way,
“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”
C. S. Lewis.
Ultimately you the reader must make a decision about God, Jesus and where you will spend eternity.
The Bible and particularly the New Testament offers the true seeker, looking for meaning in life answers and rest for one’s soul.
Please take time to read and study the life and words of Jesus and his apostles with an open mind.
Please think about it.
“Consider that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, every human being who ever was lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religious, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there- on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam....
To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”
From Carl Sagan,(1934-1996) Pale Blue Dot A Vision of the Human Future in Space.
Mr. Sagan couldn’t be more right.
We are, if you think about it from a purely human prospective, are space dust and this world is all we have.
I believe however we are more than that.
Albert Einstein wrote,
“Human beings vegetables or cosmic dust. We all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible player.”
Albert Einstein.
I believe the mysterious tune is life, the invisible player I believe is God.
I believe John when he wrote,
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
In him was life, and that life was the light of men
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John 1:1-4,14.
I believe the words of Jesus who said,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
John 3:16,17
I believe that God took a small part of His infiniteness and entered into our world. I believe he did this so that no man can stand before Him and say you don’t understand.
When we stand before God, before Jesus. We cannot say to Him “You were never human, you don’t understand” because he does.
Jesus lived on this earth. Thus He understands everything that is human. Everything from the mundane things such as the sun and rain against one’s face, to the joy of friends. The love of devoted parents. Everything that we as people go through.
He also understands what it is to be mistreated, lied about, beaten and put to death in a most hideous way for a crime he didn’t commit.
And he experienced it all so that we may have eternal life with him. All we must do is acknowledge him.
Our life in this world, is but a mist in the aeons of time. We are however eternal beings meant to live on through eternity.
While we may vanish from this life we live on through eternity. It is I believe however in this life where we decide where we will spend eternity.
Jesus said,
“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6.
He also said
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30
Jesus offers life everlasting with God to all who believe in Him. The choice ultimately is yours. It is an act of faith.
The writer of Hebrews saying,
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
Hebrews 11:6.
C. S. Lewis put things this way,
“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”
C. S. Lewis.
Ultimately you the reader must make a decision about God, Jesus and where you will spend eternity.
The Bible and particularly the New Testament offers the true seeker, looking for meaning in life answers and rest for one’s soul.
Please take time to read and study the life and words of Jesus and his apostles with an open mind.
Please think about it.
Monday, 23 February 2015
A woman and a parents faith
A woman and a parents faith
The following two stories for me help prove the truth of the Bible. I believe this simply because the story was written within living memory of the event and if not true would be counter productive to the fledgling Christian movement.
Luke records,
“Then a man named Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, came and fell at Jesus’ feet, pleading with him to come to his house because his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, was dying. As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him.
And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her.
She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.
“Who touched me?” Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.”
But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.”
Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed.
Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”
While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. “Your daughter is dead,” he said. “Don’t bother the teacher any more.”
Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.”
When he arrived at the house of Jairus, he did not let anyone go in with him except Peter, John and James, and the child’s father and mother.
Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. “Stop wailing,” Jesus said. “She is not dead but asleep.”
They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead.
But he took her by the hand and said, “My child, get up!”
Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat.
Her parents were astonished, but he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened.
Luke 8:41-56
Here we see two acts of faith that if not true would not be conducive as I said to the fledgling Christian movement.
The fact is this incident and all those recorded in the Bible are true. Jesus is who he said he is, the one and only Son of God.
The authors of the New Testament good and honest documenters of the events in the life of Jesus. Bruce M. Metzger even saying of Luke,
“Luke is a consummate historian, to be ranked in his own right with the great writers of the Greeks.”
Bruce M. Metzger.
H. G. Wells, (British writer, 1866-1946) When asked which person left the most permanent impression on history, he replied that judging a person’s greatness by historical standards:
“By this test, Jesus stands first.”
“I am a historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very centre of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history"
Kenneth Scott Latourette, former President of American Historic Society
In A History of Christianity wrote,
“It is evidence of His importance, of the effect that He has had upon history and presumably, of the baffling mystery of His being that no other life ever lived on this planet has evoked so huge a volume of literature among so many people and languages, and that, far from ebbing, the flood continues to mount.”
“As the centuries pass by, the evidence is accumulating that measured by its effect on history, Jesus is the most influential life ever lived on this planet. The influence appears to be mounting.”
“No other life lived on this planet has so widely and deeply affected mankind.”
C.S. Lewis said,
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.
The young girl, the parents of the young girl and the woman mentioned in Luke 8:41-56 believed Jesus was who he said he was.
The question is do you believe Jesus is who he said he was the One and only Son of God. The saviour of mankind.
Think about it.
The following two stories for me help prove the truth of the Bible. I believe this simply because the story was written within living memory of the event and if not true would be counter productive to the fledgling Christian movement.
Luke records,
“Then a man named Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, came and fell at Jesus’ feet, pleading with him to come to his house because his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, was dying. As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him.
And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her.
She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.
“Who touched me?” Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.”
But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.”
Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed.
Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”
While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. “Your daughter is dead,” he said. “Don’t bother the teacher any more.”
Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.”
When he arrived at the house of Jairus, he did not let anyone go in with him except Peter, John and James, and the child’s father and mother.
Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. “Stop wailing,” Jesus said. “She is not dead but asleep.”
They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead.
But he took her by the hand and said, “My child, get up!”
Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat.
Her parents were astonished, but he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened.
Luke 8:41-56
Here we see two acts of faith that if not true would not be conducive as I said to the fledgling Christian movement.
The fact is this incident and all those recorded in the Bible are true. Jesus is who he said he is, the one and only Son of God.
The authors of the New Testament good and honest documenters of the events in the life of Jesus. Bruce M. Metzger even saying of Luke,
“Luke is a consummate historian, to be ranked in his own right with the great writers of the Greeks.”
Bruce M. Metzger.
H. G. Wells, (British writer, 1866-1946) When asked which person left the most permanent impression on history, he replied that judging a person’s greatness by historical standards:
“By this test, Jesus stands first.”
“I am a historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very centre of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history"
Kenneth Scott Latourette, former President of American Historic Society
In A History of Christianity wrote,
“It is evidence of His importance, of the effect that He has had upon history and presumably, of the baffling mystery of His being that no other life ever lived on this planet has evoked so huge a volume of literature among so many people and languages, and that, far from ebbing, the flood continues to mount.”
“As the centuries pass by, the evidence is accumulating that measured by its effect on history, Jesus is the most influential life ever lived on this planet. The influence appears to be mounting.”
“No other life lived on this planet has so widely and deeply affected mankind.”
C.S. Lewis said,
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.
The young girl, the parents of the young girl and the woman mentioned in Luke 8:41-56 believed Jesus was who he said he was.
The question is do you believe Jesus is who he said he was the One and only Son of God. The saviour of mankind.
Think about it.
Sunday, 22 February 2015
Something Important
Something Important
“What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.”
Matthew 16:26,27.
There is only one reason a true Christian presents the gospel to the world and that is because we believe that we have the single most important message all mankind needs to know.
There are many out there that deny there is a God. There are many that say there are many roads to heaven. If these views are true then the Christian has little to fear because he or she is most certainly on one of those roads.
However if the words of Jesus are true when he said,
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6.
Then there are a lot of people who need to rethink what they believe.
I know people who want all the toys this life has to offer and there is nothing wrong with that, if it’s in proper perspective.
Things, our toys, our possessions and even our desire to excel in life shouldn’t take us away from the important things in life, our family, friends and above all God.
I truly believe that one day all men will stand before God and see He is real. I believe that we all will be held to account for our lives.
That God will reward us according to our works, and what we believe.
I believe the words of Jesus who said,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
John 3:16-18
Ultimately however it comes down to an act of faith. Do you believe who Jesus is or not.
C. S. Lewis pointed out,
“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”
C. S. Lewis
Think about it.
“What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.”
Matthew 16:26,27.
There is only one reason a true Christian presents the gospel to the world and that is because we believe that we have the single most important message all mankind needs to know.
There are many out there that deny there is a God. There are many that say there are many roads to heaven. If these views are true then the Christian has little to fear because he or she is most certainly on one of those roads.
However if the words of Jesus are true when he said,
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6.
Then there are a lot of people who need to rethink what they believe.
I know people who want all the toys this life has to offer and there is nothing wrong with that, if it’s in proper perspective.
Things, our toys, our possessions and even our desire to excel in life shouldn’t take us away from the important things in life, our family, friends and above all God.
I truly believe that one day all men will stand before God and see He is real. I believe that we all will be held to account for our lives.
That God will reward us according to our works, and what we believe.
I believe the words of Jesus who said,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
John 3:16-18
Ultimately however it comes down to an act of faith. Do you believe who Jesus is or not.
C. S. Lewis pointed out,
“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”
C. S. Lewis
Think about it.
Saturday, 21 February 2015
The greatest LIfe
The greatest Life ever Lived
“When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord
(as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord” ), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.”
Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.
Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required,
Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:
“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace.
For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”
Luke 2:22-32
Jesus is the most influential person in all of history.
William Durant, popular American modern historian and philosopher (1885-1981) When asked what he felt the apex of history was he replied, “the three years that Jesus of Nazareth walked the earth.”
Napoleon Bonaparte, said of Jesus,
"You speak of Caesar, of Alexander, of their conquests and of the enthusiasm which they enkindled in the hearts of their soldiers; but can you conceive of a dead man making conquests, with an army faithful and entirely devoted to his memory? My armies have forgotten me even while living, as the Carthaginian army forgot Hannibal. Such is our power.
I know men and I tell you, Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force.
Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and at this hour, millions would die for him.
I search in vain history to find similar to Jesus Christ, or anything which can approach the gospel.”
Napoleon Bonapart
What these men say of Jesus is true.
Simeon the prophet said it best on the day Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to him, he said,
“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace.
For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”
Jesus is all he said he is. He is the one and only Son of God. The Saviour of mankind.
Jesus is God reaching down to mankind and saying I love you. Come unto me and I will give you rest.
The Apostle John states,
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
In him was life, and that life was the light of men....
He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
John 1:1-4,10-13.
C. S. Lewis wrote,
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
The choice is yours what do you think of Jesus?
Think about it.
“When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord
(as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord” ), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.”
Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.
Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required,
Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:
“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace.
For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”
Luke 2:22-32
Jesus is the most influential person in all of history.
William Durant, popular American modern historian and philosopher (1885-1981) When asked what he felt the apex of history was he replied, “the three years that Jesus of Nazareth walked the earth.”
Napoleon Bonaparte, said of Jesus,
"You speak of Caesar, of Alexander, of their conquests and of the enthusiasm which they enkindled in the hearts of their soldiers; but can you conceive of a dead man making conquests, with an army faithful and entirely devoted to his memory? My armies have forgotten me even while living, as the Carthaginian army forgot Hannibal. Such is our power.
I know men and I tell you, Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force.
Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and at this hour, millions would die for him.
I search in vain history to find similar to Jesus Christ, or anything which can approach the gospel.”
Napoleon Bonapart
What these men say of Jesus is true.
Simeon the prophet said it best on the day Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to him, he said,
“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace.
For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”
Jesus is all he said he is. He is the one and only Son of God. The Saviour of mankind.
Jesus is God reaching down to mankind and saying I love you. Come unto me and I will give you rest.
The Apostle John states,
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
In him was life, and that life was the light of men....
He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
John 1:1-4,10-13.
C. S. Lewis wrote,
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
The choice is yours what do you think of Jesus?
Think about it.
Friday, 20 February 2015
Ask, Seek, Knock
Ask, Seek, Knock
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”
Matthew 7:7,8.
I believe those words of Jesus quoted above. I believe that anyone who is truly looking for God will find Him.
I believe that provided we believe there is a God, that if we search enough we will find him.
Ben Zion Bokser wrote,
“I have not seen the robin but I know he is there because I heard him singing through my window from the tree-top outside.
I have not seen God. But I have looked at my child’s eyes, and have been overwhelmed by the miracle of unfolding life.
I have watched the trees bedeck themselves with new garbs of green in the spring, and have been stirred by the miracle of continual rebirth.
I have looked at the stars, and have been overcome by the miracle of the grandeur and majesty of the universe.
I know that God exists, because I have heard the song of His presence from all the tree-tops of creation.”
For me it is inconceivable that the universe we live in was not made by God.
Albert Einstein said,
“Human beings vegetables or cosmic dust. We all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible player.”
Einstein whether he knew it or not, I believe got it right. The mysterious tune is life the invisible player is God.
The Psalmist said,
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”
Psalm 19:1.
I am no scientist. I am simply a well educated layman that throughout my life have put a premium on learning. I believe there is more to life than what we can see, hear, and touch.
I believe there is life after this and a God that wants to have a personal relationship with all mankind.
Jesus said,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
John 3:16,17.
I believe Jesus is the Son of God. That he came to this earth to point mankind to that personal relationship with God.
Think about it.
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”
Matthew 7:7,8.
I believe those words of Jesus quoted above. I believe that anyone who is truly looking for God will find Him.
I believe that provided we believe there is a God, that if we search enough we will find him.
Ben Zion Bokser wrote,
“I have not seen the robin but I know he is there because I heard him singing through my window from the tree-top outside.
I have not seen God. But I have looked at my child’s eyes, and have been overwhelmed by the miracle of unfolding life.
I have watched the trees bedeck themselves with new garbs of green in the spring, and have been stirred by the miracle of continual rebirth.
I have looked at the stars, and have been overcome by the miracle of the grandeur and majesty of the universe.
I know that God exists, because I have heard the song of His presence from all the tree-tops of creation.”
For me it is inconceivable that the universe we live in was not made by God.
Albert Einstein said,
“Human beings vegetables or cosmic dust. We all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible player.”
Einstein whether he knew it or not, I believe got it right. The mysterious tune is life the invisible player is God.
The Psalmist said,
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”
Psalm 19:1.
I am no scientist. I am simply a well educated layman that throughout my life have put a premium on learning. I believe there is more to life than what we can see, hear, and touch.
I believe there is life after this and a God that wants to have a personal relationship with all mankind.
Jesus said,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
John 3:16,17.
I believe Jesus is the Son of God. That he came to this earth to point mankind to that personal relationship with God.
Think about it.
Thursday, 19 February 2015
Think about this
Think about this.
This message is written to believers by the Apostle John but it is the message Christians want the world to know,
“This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”
1 John 1:5-2:2
Jesus did in deed pay the price for our sins. Paul writes,
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:8.
Jesus offers us eternal life. It is a free gift to all who would believe. We do not have to work for it.
Paul states,
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Ephesians 2:8,9.
“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”
John 1:12-13.
We Christians believe that you can indeed become Children of God. By simply believing that Jesus is indeed the Son of God and by confessing our sins to Him.
It’s that simple. Yet sadly many people can’t accept this.
Can you.
Think about it.
This message is written to believers by the Apostle John but it is the message Christians want the world to know,
“This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”
1 John 1:5-2:2
Jesus did in deed pay the price for our sins. Paul writes,
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:8.
Jesus offers us eternal life. It is a free gift to all who would believe. We do not have to work for it.
Paul states,
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Ephesians 2:8,9.
“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”
John 1:12-13.
We Christians believe that you can indeed become Children of God. By simply believing that Jesus is indeed the Son of God and by confessing our sins to Him.
It’s that simple. Yet sadly many people can’t accept this.
Can you.
Think about it.
Wednesday, 18 February 2015
Does Jesus Exist?
Does Jesus Exist?
Does Jesus exist? Yes he does. There is no doubt in my mind that Jesus exists, but then I’m a Christian.
I know there are Atheist that claim he didn’t. There are people out there that dismiss out of hand all the historical evidence of Jesus both inside the Bible and outside.
That being said from all that I’ve read from credible historians the majority of Christian and Atheist historians both believe Jesus existed.
Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (37—100 AD), aka Joseph ben Mattathias, is one of the most important writers of antiquity. He survived Rome crushing the Jewish revolt in 66 AD. His book Jewish Antiquities has a passage most scholars accept as authentic,
“Around this time lived Jesus, a wise man. For he was a worker of amazing deeds and was a teacher of people who gladly accept the truth. He won over both many Jews and many Greeks. Pilate, when he heard him accused by the leading men among us, condemned him to the cross, [but] those who had first loved him did not cease [doing so]. To this day the tribe of Christians named after him has not disappeared.”
Pliny the Younger
Pliny the Younger (61-112 AD) was a powerful Roman lawyer, senator and intellectual famed for his letters which were turned into ten popular books. In his tenth book is a letter written, #96, to Emperor Trajan asking for help with trials of accused Christians. Three times he mentions the Christians of Christ. This letter is not suspected of being a forgery by most historians. Pliny writes, in part,
“They had met regularly before dawn on a determined day, and sung antiphonally a hymn to Christ as if to a god (carmenque Christo quasi deo dicere secum invicem). They also took an oath not for any crime, but to keep from theft, robbery and adultery, not to break any promise, and not to withhold a deposit when reclaimed."
It, I believe is easy to say Jesus didn’t exist and say that the historical evidence is flawed. It’s much harder to believe he existed because once you admit he existed then you have to admit that what the bible says about him has to have some merit.”
I believe Jesus existed not only because of the evidence inside the Bible but outside also. Two of which I quoted above.
I also believe the fastest way to turn people away from something is to make outrageous claims that if not true would turn people away and thus become counter productive to the movement one is starting.
Jesus made what to man’s way of thinking could be considered outrageous.
John in his gospel records this incident,
“The Jews gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.
I and the Father are one.”
Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”
John 10:24-32
Notice Jesus says “I and the Father are one”
That’s quite a statement considering in Jewish culture of the time making oneself equivalent to God was considered a heresy and punishable by death. As seen by the fact the Jews were going to stone him.
John also record an other incident this time with the apostle Philip,
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.
John 14:8-11
C.S. Lewis wrote of Jesus,
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.
In the end the choice to believe Jesus is all he said his or to reject him comes down to an act of informed faith.
You can read the evidence that Jesus existed from sources outside the bible and from that evidence can see some of the basic beliefs of Christians.
You can read the Bible, and I believe God will, if you have an open mind, and are truly seeking the truth, will show you the truth about Jesus.
Think about it.
Does Jesus exist? Yes he does. There is no doubt in my mind that Jesus exists, but then I’m a Christian.
I know there are Atheist that claim he didn’t. There are people out there that dismiss out of hand all the historical evidence of Jesus both inside the Bible and outside.
That being said from all that I’ve read from credible historians the majority of Christian and Atheist historians both believe Jesus existed.
Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (37—100 AD), aka Joseph ben Mattathias, is one of the most important writers of antiquity. He survived Rome crushing the Jewish revolt in 66 AD. His book Jewish Antiquities has a passage most scholars accept as authentic,
“Around this time lived Jesus, a wise man. For he was a worker of amazing deeds and was a teacher of people who gladly accept the truth. He won over both many Jews and many Greeks. Pilate, when he heard him accused by the leading men among us, condemned him to the cross, [but] those who had first loved him did not cease [doing so]. To this day the tribe of Christians named after him has not disappeared.”
Pliny the Younger
Pliny the Younger (61-112 AD) was a powerful Roman lawyer, senator and intellectual famed for his letters which were turned into ten popular books. In his tenth book is a letter written, #96, to Emperor Trajan asking for help with trials of accused Christians. Three times he mentions the Christians of Christ. This letter is not suspected of being a forgery by most historians. Pliny writes, in part,
“They had met regularly before dawn on a determined day, and sung antiphonally a hymn to Christ as if to a god (carmenque Christo quasi deo dicere secum invicem). They also took an oath not for any crime, but to keep from theft, robbery and adultery, not to break any promise, and not to withhold a deposit when reclaimed."
It, I believe is easy to say Jesus didn’t exist and say that the historical evidence is flawed. It’s much harder to believe he existed because once you admit he existed then you have to admit that what the bible says about him has to have some merit.”
I believe Jesus existed not only because of the evidence inside the Bible but outside also. Two of which I quoted above.
I also believe the fastest way to turn people away from something is to make outrageous claims that if not true would turn people away and thus become counter productive to the movement one is starting.
Jesus made what to man’s way of thinking could be considered outrageous.
John in his gospel records this incident,
“The Jews gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.
I and the Father are one.”
Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”
John 10:24-32
Notice Jesus says “I and the Father are one”
That’s quite a statement considering in Jewish culture of the time making oneself equivalent to God was considered a heresy and punishable by death. As seen by the fact the Jews were going to stone him.
John also record an other incident this time with the apostle Philip,
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.
John 14:8-11
C.S. Lewis wrote of Jesus,
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.
In the end the choice to believe Jesus is all he said his or to reject him comes down to an act of informed faith.
You can read the evidence that Jesus existed from sources outside the bible and from that evidence can see some of the basic beliefs of Christians.
You can read the Bible, and I believe God will, if you have an open mind, and are truly seeking the truth, will show you the truth about Jesus.
Think about it.
Tuesday, 17 February 2015
Words from some wise men
Words from some wise men
I believe there is a God. I cannot conceive of a universe without a loving God. Billions of people throughout the ages have believed in an after life and God. Today there are an estimated 2.2 billion Christians alone. I cannot believe what they believe is wrong. That is my belief take it or leave it.
C. S. Lewis wrote,
“A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.”
C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
Abba Hillel Silver wrote,
“Faith in God is the strongest bulwark of a free society. Human freedom began when men became conscious that over and above society and nature there is a God who created them...who fashioned them in His likeness, and that they are, therefore, possessed of intrinsic and independent significance and are endowed, as individuals, with original and irrevocable rights and authority.”
Abba Hillel Silver
C.S. Lewis said of Jesus,
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Lewis also said,
“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”
C. S. Lewis
The Apostle John wrote,
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.”
Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John 1:1-4, 12-14
This is what I personally believe. All I ask is that you think about it.
I believe there is a God. I cannot conceive of a universe without a loving God. Billions of people throughout the ages have believed in an after life and God. Today there are an estimated 2.2 billion Christians alone. I cannot believe what they believe is wrong. That is my belief take it or leave it.
C. S. Lewis wrote,
“A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.”
C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
Abba Hillel Silver wrote,
“Faith in God is the strongest bulwark of a free society. Human freedom began when men became conscious that over and above society and nature there is a God who created them...who fashioned them in His likeness, and that they are, therefore, possessed of intrinsic and independent significance and are endowed, as individuals, with original and irrevocable rights and authority.”
Abba Hillel Silver
C.S. Lewis said of Jesus,
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Lewis also said,
“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”
C. S. Lewis
The Apostle John wrote,
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.”
Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John 1:1-4, 12-14
This is what I personally believe. All I ask is that you think about it.
Monday, 16 February 2015
Foolishness
Foolishness
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.”
1 Corinthians 1:18-25.
How true these words are. I as believer in God make the leap of faith and say there is a God because ultimately one must accept God by faith.
That being said there is plenty of evidence for God in the world.
I once met an astronomer. A brilliant man. He could calculate the exact moment some comet would appear in he sky.
Using mathematical formulas he could tell me exactly where the planets were. Exactly how far away the galaxies were. He could tell me their make up. It was incredible what he could tell me.
Yet in all of this he failed to see just how much in perfect order the universe is. He believed it all derived by pure chance during the big bang.
He couldn’t envision that God created the big bang.
He couldn’t accept that behind it all was the hand of God. A God of order.
The Psalmist wrote,
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”
Psalm 19:1.
Christianities message I believe is truly foolishness to many in the world.
After all why would God come down to man? Why would Jesus go to the cross when he could have called angels to help him?
God chose to come down I believe to not only save man but that he could more fully understand what it was like to be a man. In doing so he could more justly judge mankind on that final day.
He came down to call all men to walk by faith to him.
Yes he didn’t do it in what by mans logic would have been the right way.
Instead Jesus experienced what it was like to be among the average people of this world. The ninety nine percent of people who make a living by the sweat of their brow.
He in entering the world experienced the good in people and experienced the hate of people.
He taught love and respect for the individual. Showing that God loves each and every person no matter who they are. What their lifestyle is or where they come from.
God’s call to every man, and woman of this world is a call to a peace in one’s soul that passes all understanding.
Jesus said,
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30.
True it takes a leap of faith to believe in God. The Bible admits that. The writer of Hebrews saying,
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
Hebrews 11:1
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
Hebrews 11:6.
But scientist quite often work in faith. They present a theory that seems to be right then in faith do their best to prove that theory.
For those who would sincerely believe in God it is the same thing. They accept Christ by faith then through prayer, the Bible, and as they continue to follow God, personal experience, they prove there is truly a God.
But as I say in order to believe in God one needs to take a step of faith. Would you consider doing so?
Think about it.
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.”
1 Corinthians 1:18-25.
How true these words are. I as believer in God make the leap of faith and say there is a God because ultimately one must accept God by faith.
That being said there is plenty of evidence for God in the world.
I once met an astronomer. A brilliant man. He could calculate the exact moment some comet would appear in he sky.
Using mathematical formulas he could tell me exactly where the planets were. Exactly how far away the galaxies were. He could tell me their make up. It was incredible what he could tell me.
Yet in all of this he failed to see just how much in perfect order the universe is. He believed it all derived by pure chance during the big bang.
He couldn’t envision that God created the big bang.
He couldn’t accept that behind it all was the hand of God. A God of order.
The Psalmist wrote,
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”
Psalm 19:1.
Christianities message I believe is truly foolishness to many in the world.
After all why would God come down to man? Why would Jesus go to the cross when he could have called angels to help him?
God chose to come down I believe to not only save man but that he could more fully understand what it was like to be a man. In doing so he could more justly judge mankind on that final day.
He came down to call all men to walk by faith to him.
Yes he didn’t do it in what by mans logic would have been the right way.
Instead Jesus experienced what it was like to be among the average people of this world. The ninety nine percent of people who make a living by the sweat of their brow.
He in entering the world experienced the good in people and experienced the hate of people.
He taught love and respect for the individual. Showing that God loves each and every person no matter who they are. What their lifestyle is or where they come from.
God’s call to every man, and woman of this world is a call to a peace in one’s soul that passes all understanding.
Jesus said,
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30.
True it takes a leap of faith to believe in God. The Bible admits that. The writer of Hebrews saying,
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
Hebrews 11:1
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
Hebrews 11:6.
But scientist quite often work in faith. They present a theory that seems to be right then in faith do their best to prove that theory.
For those who would sincerely believe in God it is the same thing. They accept Christ by faith then through prayer, the Bible, and as they continue to follow God, personal experience, they prove there is truly a God.
But as I say in order to believe in God one needs to take a step of faith. Would you consider doing so?
Think about it.
Sunday, 15 February 2015
Of Jesus
Of Jesus
Napoleon Bonaparte said of Jesus
"You speak of Caesar, of Alexander, of their conquests and of the enthusiasm which they enkindled in the hearts of their soldiers; but can you conceive of a dead man making conquests, with an army faithful and entirely devoted to his memory? My armies have forgotten me even while living, as the Carthaginian army forgot Hannibal. Such is our power.”
“I know men and I tell you, Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and at this hour, millions would die for him.”
“I search in vain history to find similar to Jesus Christ, or anything which can approach the gospel. Neither history nor humanity, nor ages, nor nature, offer me anything with which I am able to compare it or to explain it. Here everything is extraordinary.”
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon I believe got it right when he said,
“I know men and I tell you, Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison.”
Ernest Renan, French historian, religious scholar and linguist wrote,
“All history is incomprehensible without Christ.”
C. S. Lewis wrote,
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.
The book of Acts recalls the Apostle Paul speaking in Athens and saying,
“Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.
For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.
And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.
From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.
God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man’s design and skill.
In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”
Acts 17:22-31
The writer of Acts going on to say,
“When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.”
At that, Paul left the Council.
A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.”
Acts 17:32-34.
If you were in Athens that day what would you do?
Think about it.
Napoleon Bonaparte said of Jesus
"You speak of Caesar, of Alexander, of their conquests and of the enthusiasm which they enkindled in the hearts of their soldiers; but can you conceive of a dead man making conquests, with an army faithful and entirely devoted to his memory? My armies have forgotten me even while living, as the Carthaginian army forgot Hannibal. Such is our power.”
“I know men and I tell you, Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and at this hour, millions would die for him.”
“I search in vain history to find similar to Jesus Christ, or anything which can approach the gospel. Neither history nor humanity, nor ages, nor nature, offer me anything with which I am able to compare it or to explain it. Here everything is extraordinary.”
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon I believe got it right when he said,
“I know men and I tell you, Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison.”
Ernest Renan, French historian, religious scholar and linguist wrote,
“All history is incomprehensible without Christ.”
C. S. Lewis wrote,
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.
The book of Acts recalls the Apostle Paul speaking in Athens and saying,
“Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.
For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.
And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.
From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.
God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man’s design and skill.
In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”
Acts 17:22-31
The writer of Acts going on to say,
“When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.”
At that, Paul left the Council.
A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.”
Acts 17:32-34.
If you were in Athens that day what would you do?
Think about it.
Saturday, 14 February 2015
True Love
True Love
What is true Love?
Some say it is a feeling. Some believe it is a physical act. Some say it’s both. But love is more than that. You see feelings end as does the physical act.
In Shakespear’s play Romeo and Juliet, Friar Lawrence, warns Romeo and Juliet’s about physical love. He doesn’t question their love for one another but he warns about the ‘violent delights’ the emotion based dangers of physical love saying,
“These violent delights have violent ends And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss, consume. The sweetest honey is loathsome in his own deliciousness and in the taste confounds the appetite.
Therefore love moderately. Long love doth so. Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.”
All too often what we perceive as a love relationship starts with a strong emotional feeling and leads quickly to physical act. Which might feel good at the beginning of a relationship but ultimately will fade to some degree.
If all one is basing their love for another person on is a feeling and a physical act one will ultimately learn that it is hollow love.
We are all human and strong positive feelings for someone does feel nice as does the sexual act. But love is more.
The apostle Paul writes,
Love continues on through the trials of life. It continues when the physical act is not possible. It continues through those dark days when the positive feelings are absent, or masked for whatever reason.
Love, true is...
What is true Love?
Some say it is a feeling. Some believe it is a physical act. Some say it’s both. But love is more than that. You see feelings end as does the physical act.
In Shakespear’s play Romeo and Juliet, Friar Lawrence, warns Romeo and Juliet’s about physical love. He doesn’t question their love for one another but he warns about the ‘violent delights’ the emotion based dangers of physical love saying,
“These violent delights have violent ends And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss, consume. The sweetest honey is loathsome in his own deliciousness and in the taste confounds the appetite.
Therefore love moderately. Long love doth so. Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.”
All too often what we perceive as a love relationship starts with a strong emotional feeling and leads quickly to physical act. Which might feel good at the beginning of a relationship but ultimately will fade to some degree.
If all one is basing their love for another person on is a feeling and a physical act one will ultimately learn that it is hollow love.
We are all human and strong positive feelings for someone does feel nice as does the sexual act. But love is more.
The apostle Paul writes,
“Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered, it
keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil
but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts,
always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails....
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.
But the greatest of these is love.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a,13Love continues on through the trials of life. It continues when the physical act is not possible. It continues through those dark days when the positive feelings are absent, or masked for whatever reason.
Love, true is...
“... is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered, it
keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil
but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts,
always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails....
Think about it.
Friday, 13 February 2015
Commandments Ten
Commandments Ten
The ten commandments are there to show instruct mankind how to live with both God and ones fellow man.
At a time in history when life was cheap God gave Moses a set of laws that call on mankind to have but one God. The Lord God almighty.
The laws also provide a day of rest, stating,
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.”
Exodus 20:8.
Man was never meant to work 24/7. People need at least one day a week to rest from their labours.
Not only that there is a call to respect your parents, to honour them.
Then there are the laws without which our society would fall into anarchy,
The ancient Israelites recognized there was a God and acknowledged Him. The result was to make society better.
Abba Hillel Silver wrote,
“Faith in God is the strongest bulwark of a free society. Human freedom began when men became conscious that over and above society and nature there is a God who created them...who fashioned them in His likeness, and that they are, therefore, possessed of intrinsic and independent significance and are endowed, as individuals, with original and irrevocable rights and authority.”
Abba Hillel Silver
God gives us freedom.
It is when man starts to turn away from God and his moral principles that our society starts to slip into lawlessness and chaos.
Think about it.
You shall have no other gods before Me.
You shall not make idols.
You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Honour your father and your mother.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
You shall not covet. Above is the short form version of the most important code of conduct ever written. It appears in Exodus 20:2-17.The ten commandments are there to show instruct mankind how to live with both God and ones fellow man.
At a time in history when life was cheap God gave Moses a set of laws that call on mankind to have but one God. The Lord God almighty.
The laws also provide a day of rest, stating,
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.”
Exodus 20:8.
Man was never meant to work 24/7. People need at least one day a week to rest from their labours.
Not only that there is a call to respect your parents, to honour them.
Then there are the laws without which our society would fall into anarchy,
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
You shall not covet.
All of these were I believe written on the hearts and in the mind of everyone who has ever lived. God simply chose to give them in a written form to Moses so that no one could say I didn’t know.The ancient Israelites recognized there was a God and acknowledged Him. The result was to make society better.
Abba Hillel Silver wrote,
“Faith in God is the strongest bulwark of a free society. Human freedom began when men became conscious that over and above society and nature there is a God who created them...who fashioned them in His likeness, and that they are, therefore, possessed of intrinsic and independent significance and are endowed, as individuals, with original and irrevocable rights and authority.”
Abba Hillel Silver
God gives us freedom.
It is when man starts to turn away from God and his moral principles that our society starts to slip into lawlessness and chaos.
Think about it.
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