Do you believe in God?

  Do you believe in God

The Prophet Isaiah writes,

"A voice says, "Cry out." And I said, "What shall I cry?" 

"All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. 

The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. 

Surely the people are grass. 

The grass withers and the flowers fall,

 but the word of our God stands forever." 

                                                                   Isaiah 40:6-8.

I over my nearly sixty plus years on this earth that some believe God is dead. That the Bible is irrelevant. Nothing could be further from the truth. 

Many years ago I read a poem that read,

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.

God has given each and every person on this earth the freedom to choose to believe and do as they wish. That includes believing whether or not God exists.

Thus the question becomes; Do you believe in God?

        Do you believe Jesus is the one and only Son of God, who  died for your sins?

Please think about it.

Eternity and you

Eternity and you
In the book of Ecclesiastes we read,
“I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. 
Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 2:10,11.
If there is no God then the above statement is true.”everything is meaningless, a chasing after the wind;...”
Some atheist say when we die we will live on in the memories of others. A statement that is not completely true. Perhaps if we have made a great discovery we may be remembered in some history book. But most of us will be forgotten within a generation or so.
Ask yourself, where was your great, great, great grandmother or father born? What was the colour of their eyes? What was their favourite piece of music? Where is their grave? What was their greatest achievement? Few people can answer these questions.
So my question to anyone who does not believe in God is where is the purpose in life if we are forgotten within a few generations? If all we are on this earth to do is procreate.  If all our achievements are only remembered in some dusty history book.
The way I see it without God life is meaningless. God’s existence makes life worthwhile. God gives us something to look forward to when this life is over. Eternal life with Him.
The writer of Ecclesiastes after a close examination of life states,
“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.” Ecclesiastes 12:13,14. 
Jesus speaking of himself 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.
Ultimately the choice is yours. You can choose to believe there is no God, or you can choose to believe in God.
Think carefully about it for the choice you make, I believe, has eternal consequences.
Please think about it.

Thoughts on God

Thoughts on God
The writer of Hebrews states,
“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 writer defining faith as,

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope  for 

and 

certain of what we do not see.”  

                                       Hebrews 11:1

Voltaire said,

“To believe in God is impossible 

not to believe in Him is absurd.” 

                                             Voltaire.

Blaise Pascal said,

“In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe

 and enough shadows to blind those who don't. 

                                                         Blaise Pascal.

C. S. Lewis states,
“He shows much more of Himself to some people than to others-not because He has favourites, but because it is impossible for Him to show Himself to a man whose whole mind and character are in the wrong condition.”  C. S. Lewis.
You have to truly be looking for God in order to find Him.
In my life I have found when it comes to faith in God there are extremes. At on end of the spectrum there are those who truly believe in God, no matter what the situation. While at the other end there are those who no matter what you say to them, or show them, they do not believe God exists.
Thomas Aquinas put it this way,
“To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.” Thomas Aquinas.
As a believer in Christ Jesus I believe God exists and nothing can convince me otherwise.
     At the same time I support the right of those who do not believe God exists to have their opinion. For I firmly believe God has given everyone a freewill to believe and do as they wish. That includes not believing God exists.
What I would ask of those who do not believe in God is, are you absolutely sure you are correct?
I as a believer in God, as a believer in Christ Jesus, have nothing to fear if God does not exist.
On the other hand if you do not believe in God and He does exist there is at the very least something to think about, if not fear.
The writer of Ecclesiastes states,
“I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. 
Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 2:10,11.
Having said that and more the writer comes to this 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.” Ecclesiastes 12:13,14.
Please think about it.

Points to Ponder

Points to Ponder
Sometimes you can read volumes of material and not get the point of what is being said. Other times a person just needs to see a few short points to get the message. To that end I hope these few points will inspire you to look for God.
      C. S. Lewis said

“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.

Question

Do you believe in God?

The Psalmist states,

“The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”

 Psalm 14:1

“The heavens declare the glory of God;

 the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” 

Psalm 19:1.

      Note,
      Look around the perfection of the Universe shows the hand of God.

The writer of Hebrews states,

“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.

Question,

How strong is your faith in what you believe?

Are you willing to risk your eternal destiny on what you believe?

The book of Ecclesiastes notes,

“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

Question,

When you stand before God what will you say?

What will God say to you?

     Please think about it.

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.