A Truth

A Truth

Last eve I passed beside a blacksmith’s door,

And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime;

Then, looking in, I saw upon the floor

Old hammers, worn with beating years of time.

“How many anvils have you had,” said I,

“To wear and bater all these hammers so?”

“Just one,” said he, and then, with twinkling eye,

The anvil wears the hammers out, you know.”

And so, thought I, the anvil of God’s Word,

For ages skeptic blows have beat upon;

Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,

The anvil is unharmed - and hammers gone.

                                                                                               Anonymous
For me the poem rings true. Many people have throughout the centuries from ancient Roman emperors, to modern dictators, to communism and Atheist have come against the Bible and the teachings of God.
Some have predicted that Christianity would pass away. The thing is just the opposite has happened it’s opponents have passed on.
Today in the twenty-first century there are many who would deny God exists. They in my opinion are wrong.
Peter John Kreeft said,
“Atheism treats people cheaply. Also, it robs death of meaning, and if death has no meaning, how can life ultimately have meaning? Atheism cheapens everything it touches, look at the results of communism, the most powerful form of atheism on earth.
And in the end, when the atheist dies and encounters God instead of nothingness he had predicted he’ll recognize that atheism was a cheap answer because it refused the only thing that’s not cheap the God of infinite value”
                     Peter John Kreeft ph.d 
For me the evidence that there is a God who created everything is all around me, the universe from the largest galaxies to the smallest subatomic particles are in perfect harmony. The world we live in is in is positioned perfectly in space to allow life as we know it to exist. I cannot believe this is by chance.
Further more all men recognise there are moral absolutes a civilized society must live by in order to survive.
This is something that could not have simply happened randomly. It had to have been there from the beginning in man’s hart. If this were not so, those who did not share the common morals, especially if they were violent, would dominate and potentially have driven mankind to extinction before now.
All of this points to there being a God.
Ultimately however belief in God and Christ 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
Faith defined as,
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” 
                                                                                                                             Hebrews 11:1.
If I am wrong in my thinking I have lost nothing. I have simply lived a good life that for me has had purpose and meaning.
If I am right as I know I am, then those who would deny God and the truths in the Bible have a great deal to consider. For what they believe will determine their eternal resting place.
Please think about it.

A message for the world

A message for the world

I have over several years done my best to express my faith. To express what I believe. Perhaps however the best sermon ever spoken by a Christian is recorded in the book of Acts to a gathering of Greek philosophers by the apostle Paul.
I present it here as recorded in the book of acts for you to think about.
“So he [Paul] 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.
Do you believe what Paul said?