Showing posts with label "Incomprehensible". Show all posts
Showing posts with label "Incomprehensible". Show all posts

Saturday, 3 November 2018

Do you believe in God?

Do you believe in God?
Blaise Pascal wrote
“It is incomprehensible that God should exist,
 and it is incomprehensible that he should not exist.” 
                                                                         Blaise Pascal
The Psalmist wrote,
“The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” 
                                                              Psalm 14:1.
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
The Apostle Paul wrote,
“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.
Put simply God does things His way. Not the way man thinks he should do things. God asks all people everywhere to have faith in Him. 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.
Not believing in God, being an Atheist is also an act of faith. To be an atheist you have to have postulated that for whatever reason there is no God. Even if you simply say I can’t see God therefore He doesn’t exist is an act of faith.
It is if you will what the writer of Hebrews said, “... being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
You are hoping there is no God and in your own mind are certain of it.
To my mind it’s like going out on a cloudy night looking up into the sky and saying, “I can’t see the stars. Therefor they don’t exist.
Just because we can’t see something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
Ben Zion Boskser 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.”
         Ben Zion Bokser.
As for me I believe the Psalmist when he wrote,
“The heavens declare the glory of God; 
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” 
                                                         Psalm 19:1
For me the fact that we exist. That all of creation exists in the orderly way it does, proves there is a God. The choice however is up to you. Do you believe in God?
Please think about it

Monday, 19 September 2016

Incomprehensible without Jesus,

Incomprehensible without Jesus,
Ernest Renan, French historian, religious scholar and linguist said,
“All history is incomprehensible without Christ.”
 More things have been written about Jesus Christ than perhaps any other person in history. Today his followers number close to three billion people and that number is growing. Yet Jesus never ruled a nation on this earth. He never raised a sword in anger. Quite the opposite he called his followers to Love God, their neighbour and even their enemy.
Johns Gospel records,
“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.
Jesus here equates himself to God, a crime punishable by death in his day. Yet it was a claim he never backed away from.
Jesus speaking to Martha said,
“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;  and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
“Yes Lord” she told Him, “I believe you are the Christ the Son of God, who was to come into the world,” John 11:25,26,27. 
Martha answered a question we all must answer, Who do you believe Jesus is,
C. S. Lewis points out,
“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.
Thus the question you dear reader must answer is “Who do you believe Jesus is?”
Before you answer that question directly, at least take some time to read the New Testament and see what His followers believe him to be.
Let the word of those who believe Jesus is the Son of God, the Saviour of Mankind speak to you. Then decide for yourself who Jesus is.
Please think about it.