Will you be happy
“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 40:6b
Today as part of a photographic art project I’m doing I went to take pictures in a cemetery. It’s big, holding as many residents as the city where I live. Some grave stones go back to the early eighteen hundreds.
When I was young I lived in England near an Abby. At one time the richest in England. The grave stones in its cemetery went back to the year 1200.
Cemeteries are places we put our loved ones. It’s the place our loved ones will place us one day. While cremation is an option for many. We still can’t avoid the ultimate statistic 100% of people die.
Our friends and relatives will say some nice words over us and at the very least weep.
The American evangelist Tony Campolo made an interesting statement about death, he said,
“When you were born, you cried and everybody else was happy. The only question that matters is this - when you die, will you be happy when everybody else is crying?”
Tony Campolo
Which begs the question dear reader do you know God?
Do you know where you will spend eternity?
For me this is how you know you will enter heaven.
Jesus said,
1/ “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.
2 “....I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6
3/ 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.
4/ 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
5/ 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.
6/ Paul make it clear salvation 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
7/ Ultimately salvation is an act of faith, Hebrews stating,
“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 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
What do you believe?
Think about it.
Wednesday, 1 April 2015
Tuesday, 31 March 2015
Love of Money
Love of money
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
1 Timothy 6:10
Let me make a clear statement here. There is nothing wrong with having a lot of money and being rich. It’s when you love money so much it consumes you. It draws you away from other more important things such as family and friends. As someone has said no one on his death bed asks about his bank balance.
I think the principle of someone loving money so much it causes grief for themselves and others is one Christian principle all people can grasp.
Over the years we’ve heard of so called white collar criminals using various schemes to rip of unsuspecting people of their life savings and more.
Then there are those who trying to make a fast buck gamble their money away. Others simply go out and steal.
This I am convinced will continue to happen as long as materialism and consumerism continues in our society.
Getting all the latest toys and gadgets may feel good for a time, ultimately however it leaves the person waiting for their next fix. The next greatest latest toy.
As I look around I see many young people disillusioned with our society. I would imagine that many of those young people who are going off to join terrorist organisations are looking for more to life than the latest gadget.
Sometime ago Harry Golden made this statement,
“I would recommend that we straighten out a few things before we contemplate any interplanetary transportation system. Suppose a man from Mars should suddenly appear on Earth? I think it would be terribly embarrassing if he learned that a second-rate singer in a night club makes four thousand dollars a week, and a high-school teacher makes three thousand eight hundred and ninety dollars a year. This and many other things should be straightened out first if we intend to maintain our dignity when planet folks start visiting us."
Harry Golden
As a society our priorities are wrong we need to turn back to God. To his principles of Love and caring for our fellow man.
The apostle James writing to Christians wrote,
“What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?
Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.
If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?
In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.
You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?”
James 2:14-20.
I know he was writing to Christians but the principle of loving and caring for ones fellow man is just the right thing to do whether you are a Christian or not.
Why should millions if not billions live in poverty going without adequate food, housing and health care while others have more money than they can spend in ten life times?
Think about it.
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
1 Timothy 6:10
Let me make a clear statement here. There is nothing wrong with having a lot of money and being rich. It’s when you love money so much it consumes you. It draws you away from other more important things such as family and friends. As someone has said no one on his death bed asks about his bank balance.
I think the principle of someone loving money so much it causes grief for themselves and others is one Christian principle all people can grasp.
Over the years we’ve heard of so called white collar criminals using various schemes to rip of unsuspecting people of their life savings and more.
Then there are those who trying to make a fast buck gamble their money away. Others simply go out and steal.
This I am convinced will continue to happen as long as materialism and consumerism continues in our society.
Getting all the latest toys and gadgets may feel good for a time, ultimately however it leaves the person waiting for their next fix. The next greatest latest toy.
As I look around I see many young people disillusioned with our society. I would imagine that many of those young people who are going off to join terrorist organisations are looking for more to life than the latest gadget.
Sometime ago Harry Golden made this statement,
“I would recommend that we straighten out a few things before we contemplate any interplanetary transportation system. Suppose a man from Mars should suddenly appear on Earth? I think it would be terribly embarrassing if he learned that a second-rate singer in a night club makes four thousand dollars a week, and a high-school teacher makes three thousand eight hundred and ninety dollars a year. This and many other things should be straightened out first if we intend to maintain our dignity when planet folks start visiting us."
Harry Golden
As a society our priorities are wrong we need to turn back to God. To his principles of Love and caring for our fellow man.
The apostle James writing to Christians wrote,
“What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?
Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.
If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?
In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.
You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?”
James 2:14-20.
I know he was writing to Christians but the principle of loving and caring for ones fellow man is just the right thing to do whether you are a Christian or not.
Why should millions if not billions live in poverty going without adequate food, housing and health care while others have more money than they can spend in ten life times?
Think about it.
Monday, 30 March 2015
Of Christians
Of Christians
Mahatma Gandhi said,
“Jesus is ideal and wonderful, but you Christians - you are not like him.”
Mahatma Gandhi
You know from my prospective as a Christian I can see the truth in Gandhi’s statement. There are many people out there claiming to be Christians that are not. These people may go to church. They may perform the rituals many churches have. Still they are not Christian. They have not accepted Jesus into their hearts and lives.
Jesus made it clear,
“Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’
Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”
Matthew 7:22,23.
From where I sit here in Canada I see and know many hard working pastors and evangelist who are doing the work of God. Sadly they are all to often overshadowed by preachers and evangelist in the media that do not live up to the ideals of Christ. Who’s message is not the message of Christ.
Jesus when on this earth never spoke against the civil secular authority of Rome. He a Jew did speak against the religious leaders of his day, but being a Jew he had that right.
Jesus healed the sick and preached reconciliation to God and he taught his disciples to do the same. He told his followers to love God, their neighbour, and even their enemy.
Tony Campolo the American evangelist said,
“We (Christians) ought to get out of the judging business. We should leave it up to God to determine who belongs in one arena or another when it comes to eternity. What we are obligated to do is to tell people about Jesus, and that's what I do.”
Tony Campolo
He also said,
“These issues are biblical issues: to care for the sick, to feed the hungry, to stand up for the oppressed. I contend that if the evangelical community became more biblical, everything would change.”
Tony Campolo
Jesus and true Christians are interested in the individual, not the individuals pocket book, life style, or sins.
True Christians know we have the most important message the world needs to know. The message expressed by Jesus when he 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.
This is the message true Christians want the world to know. It is the offer of the free gift of salvation. It is an offer of rest for your soul. Jesus saying,
“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.
Please think about it.
Mahatma Gandhi said,
“Jesus is ideal and wonderful, but you Christians - you are not like him.”
Mahatma Gandhi
You know from my prospective as a Christian I can see the truth in Gandhi’s statement. There are many people out there claiming to be Christians that are not. These people may go to church. They may perform the rituals many churches have. Still they are not Christian. They have not accepted Jesus into their hearts and lives.
Jesus made it clear,
“Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’
Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”
Matthew 7:22,23.
From where I sit here in Canada I see and know many hard working pastors and evangelist who are doing the work of God. Sadly they are all to often overshadowed by preachers and evangelist in the media that do not live up to the ideals of Christ. Who’s message is not the message of Christ.
Jesus when on this earth never spoke against the civil secular authority of Rome. He a Jew did speak against the religious leaders of his day, but being a Jew he had that right.
Jesus healed the sick and preached reconciliation to God and he taught his disciples to do the same. He told his followers to love God, their neighbour, and even their enemy.
Tony Campolo the American evangelist said,
“We (Christians) ought to get out of the judging business. We should leave it up to God to determine who belongs in one arena or another when it comes to eternity. What we are obligated to do is to tell people about Jesus, and that's what I do.”
Tony Campolo
He also said,
“These issues are biblical issues: to care for the sick, to feed the hungry, to stand up for the oppressed. I contend that if the evangelical community became more biblical, everything would change.”
Tony Campolo
Jesus and true Christians are interested in the individual, not the individuals pocket book, life style, or sins.
True Christians know we have the most important message the world needs to know. The message expressed by Jesus when he 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.
This is the message true Christians want the world to know. It is the offer of the free gift of salvation. It is an offer of rest for your soul. Jesus saying,
“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.
Please think about it.
Saturday, 28 March 2015
Meaning
Meaning
“Not until the creation and maintenance of decent conditions of life for all men are recognized and accepted as a common obligation of all men and all countries—not until then shall we, with a certain degree of justification, be able to speak of mankind as civilized.”
Albert Einstein.
I firmly believe that mankind cannot provide a decent condition of life for all men. Even in the richest countries of the world there are those who are extremely poor. There are those who don’t have access to good food, housing, health care and other essentials of life.
There are those even in the western nations who are prejudice and refuse to respect the rights of others. Crime is also a very big concern.
All of this is magnified a hundred or a thousand fold in so called third world countries.
On top of that over the past few years terrorist groups have been on the rise. Men and women who have a perverted idea of what civilized society and true faith in God is all about.
These groups are further sending our global society into an abyss. This however is not a new thing.
One dusty book I found in my wife’s library "Essentials in Christian Faith" by John B. Harrington, published in 1958, 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 fire and brimstone.
And I truly believe the only way to get off that slippery slope is to turn to God in spirit and in truth.
For me at least, as I’ve looked at the world in my sixty plus years on this earth. I have seen western society turn further and further away from God. As this has happened and we have slipped more and more into a secular society our society has it seems got worse.
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
What we need today is for people to look at the truths Jesus spoke. Truths that are universal it was Jesus who when asked,
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:37-40
He also said,
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous...”
Matthew5: 43-45.
The apostle Paul even giving us the true definition of Love, writing,
“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....”
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a
This is what our society as a whole needs to be proclaiming. Unfortunately our society here in the west has wandered far from God into materialism, and materialism has little meaning to those young people who are going to join terrorist groups. Young men and women who are looking for meaning in life in all the wrong places.
Think about it.
“Not until the creation and maintenance of decent conditions of life for all men are recognized and accepted as a common obligation of all men and all countries—not until then shall we, with a certain degree of justification, be able to speak of mankind as civilized.”
Albert Einstein.
I firmly believe that mankind cannot provide a decent condition of life for all men. Even in the richest countries of the world there are those who are extremely poor. There are those who don’t have access to good food, housing, health care and other essentials of life.
There are those even in the western nations who are prejudice and refuse to respect the rights of others. Crime is also a very big concern.
All of this is magnified a hundred or a thousand fold in so called third world countries.
On top of that over the past few years terrorist groups have been on the rise. Men and women who have a perverted idea of what civilized society and true faith in God is all about.
These groups are further sending our global society into an abyss. This however is not a new thing.
One dusty book I found in my wife’s library "Essentials in Christian Faith" by John B. Harrington, published in 1958, 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 fire and brimstone.
And I truly believe the only way to get off that slippery slope is to turn to God in spirit and in truth.
For me at least, as I’ve looked at the world in my sixty plus years on this earth. I have seen western society turn further and further away from God. As this has happened and we have slipped more and more into a secular society our society has it seems got worse.
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
What we need today is for people to look at the truths Jesus spoke. Truths that are universal it was Jesus who when asked,
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:37-40
He also said,
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous...”
Matthew5: 43-45.
The apostle Paul even giving us the true definition of Love, writing,
“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....”
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a
This is what our society as a whole needs to be proclaiming. Unfortunately our society here in the west has wandered far from God into materialism, and materialism has little meaning to those young people who are going to join terrorist groups. Young men and women who are looking for meaning in life in all the wrong places.
Think about it.
Friday, 27 March 2015
There is a God
There is a God
“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.
I have a great respect for Atheist. They believe this life is all there is. For me this takes more faith than I have.
Still if they are right I have nothing to fear as being a Christian means I have lived an honest and moral life.
But if I as a Christian am right as I truly believe I am, those who don’t believe in God have a great deal to fear.
C.S. Lewis put it 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.
It ultimately come down to an act of faith.
I once quoted Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” to a very well educated man.
I pointed out that the universe from the smallest part of an atom or cell to the biggest galaxy in the heavens is in perfect mathematical harmony. We may not have the parts of the formula yet, but the universe is mathematically perfect.
His answer to me was. “It just seems that way to us.”
I know I may not be able to convince the most ardent Atheist there is a God. Likewise they couldn’t convince me there is no God.
But what I ask is anyone reading this, at least read the New Testament. Read the words of Jesus. Visit a Church.
I recommend a Baptist church in most places in the word, or Assemblies of God in the United States and the Pentecostal Assemblies of God in Canada.
I urge people to ask questions of the pastors in these churches. They’ll give you strait answers. If they don’t have nothing to do with them and go some place else.
There are a lot of churches especially here in North America that will welcome anyone who is truly seeking God and a meaning to life.
Please think about it.
“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.
I have a great respect for Atheist. They believe this life is all there is. For me this takes more faith than I have.
Still if they are right I have nothing to fear as being a Christian means I have lived an honest and moral life.
But if I as a Christian am right as I truly believe I am, those who don’t believe in God have a great deal to fear.
C.S. Lewis put it 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.
It ultimately come down to an act of faith.
I once quoted Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” to a very well educated man.
I pointed out that the universe from the smallest part of an atom or cell to the biggest galaxy in the heavens is in perfect mathematical harmony. We may not have the parts of the formula yet, but the universe is mathematically perfect.
His answer to me was. “It just seems that way to us.”
I know I may not be able to convince the most ardent Atheist there is a God. Likewise they couldn’t convince me there is no God.
But what I ask is anyone reading this, at least read the New Testament. Read the words of Jesus. Visit a Church.
I recommend a Baptist church in most places in the word, or Assemblies of God in the United States and the Pentecostal Assemblies of God in Canada.
I urge people to ask questions of the pastors in these churches. They’ll give you strait answers. If they don’t have nothing to do with them and go some place else.
There are a lot of churches especially here in North America that will welcome anyone who is truly seeking God and a meaning to life.
Please think about it.
Thursday, 26 March 2015
Courage in a Despots Cell
Courage in a Despots Cell
“Dear God:
Protect my Sunday School children from this evil that has overcome me.
Let me show love toward them that beat me.”
In Jesus’ name
Amen.
Her
Prayer
finished,
Quietly she
Passes into Eternity.
According to human watch groups a Christian is killed every eleven minutes for their faith.
In December 2013 MP Jim Shannon said “that although the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, there are many countries in which these rights are not given.
Shannon alleged that 200 million Christians will be persecuted for their faith this year,(2013) while he said 500 million live in dangerous neighbourhoods.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that “Christianity is "the most persecuted religion in the world."
According to a report in Reuters news the top ten countries in which Christianity is persecuted in are, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Maldives, Mali, Iran, Yemen and Eritrea.
The question I always ask especially from to those who say there is no God, atheistic countries such as North Korea, is why do they fear Christianity?
To countries who’s majority religious groups are not Christians why do they persecute a faith that espouses love for God, Love for one’s neighbour and even love of one’s enemy.
C.S. Lewis made an interesting observation. He wrote,
“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.
For me as a Christian I can only think that because so many people want to persecute Christians, Christianity must be of infinite importance.
The jailer’s push slams her
against the wall.
For a long moment,
she clings to its cool,
smooth surface.
Then in slow motion, slumps to the floor.
Her head dripping blood, her arms and body bruised and aching from the beating she took.
For a moment, her jailer pauses, watching, as she lays motionless, assessing the enfeebled
figure for signs of life. Then seeing her stir, he closes the door, causing it to make a cold, empty sound.
She is now alone.
Her face and legs swollen,
every inch of her being in agony.
Too exhausted to move,
she lays where she fell
and softly weeps.
Though her tears she prays:“Dear God:
Protect my Sunday School children from this evil that has overcome me.
Let me show love toward them that beat me.”
In Jesus’ name
Amen.
Her
Prayer
finished,
Quietly she
Passes into Eternity.
According to human watch groups a Christian is killed every eleven minutes for their faith.
In December 2013 MP Jim Shannon said “that although the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, there are many countries in which these rights are not given.
Shannon alleged that 200 million Christians will be persecuted for their faith this year,(2013) while he said 500 million live in dangerous neighbourhoods.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that “Christianity is "the most persecuted religion in the world."
According to a report in Reuters news the top ten countries in which Christianity is persecuted in are, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Maldives, Mali, Iran, Yemen and Eritrea.
The question I always ask especially from to those who say there is no God, atheistic countries such as North Korea, is why do they fear Christianity?
To countries who’s majority religious groups are not Christians why do they persecute a faith that espouses love for God, Love for one’s neighbour and even love of one’s enemy.
C.S. Lewis made an interesting observation. He wrote,
“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.
For me as a Christian I can only think that because so many people want to persecute Christians, Christianity must be of infinite importance.
Wednesday, 25 March 2015
Not a Comfortable Faith
Not a comfortable faith
“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find 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 16:24-27
C.S. Lewis wrote,
“I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend" Christianity.”
C.S. Lewis
Some people have told me my faith in Christ is a crutch. They are wrong. I came to the realization that Christ was real and that I needed him in my life when I was nineteen.
When I became a Christian I wanted all my friends to know. The majority rejected me. I was essentially left with those I’d met in church. Actually it didn’t really bother me.
If my old friends couldn’t accept my new way of life that was fine by me.
My experience in becoming a Christian is nothing compared to those in may parts of the world. They can face jail and or torture or even death without trial,
Kelly James Clark writing in the World Post said,
“In early November, German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that Christianity is "the most persecuted religion in the world." Although met with predictable criticism, Rupert Short's recent research report for Civitas UK confirms Merkel's claim -- we may not want to hear it, but Christianity is in peril, like no other religion. While this is a contest no one wants to win, Short shows that "Christians are targeted more than any other body of believers." Short is the author of the recently published Christianophobia: A Faith Under Attack. He is concerned that "200 million Christians (10 percent of the global total) are socially disadvantaged, harassed or actively oppressed for their beliefs....”
So in light of what Kelly James Clark writes why would I or anyone else become a Christian? Because we firmly believe Jesus is the Son of God. God incarnate and as Jesus himself put it,
“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 14:6
C.S. Lewis 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
But if it is false why do governments and other groups persecute Christians so.
Think about it.
“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find 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 16:24-27
C.S. Lewis wrote,
“I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend" Christianity.”
C.S. Lewis
Some people have told me my faith in Christ is a crutch. They are wrong. I came to the realization that Christ was real and that I needed him in my life when I was nineteen.
When I became a Christian I wanted all my friends to know. The majority rejected me. I was essentially left with those I’d met in church. Actually it didn’t really bother me.
If my old friends couldn’t accept my new way of life that was fine by me.
My experience in becoming a Christian is nothing compared to those in may parts of the world. They can face jail and or torture or even death without trial,
Kelly James Clark writing in the World Post said,
“In early November, German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that Christianity is "the most persecuted religion in the world." Although met with predictable criticism, Rupert Short's recent research report for Civitas UK confirms Merkel's claim -- we may not want to hear it, but Christianity is in peril, like no other religion. While this is a contest no one wants to win, Short shows that "Christians are targeted more than any other body of believers." Short is the author of the recently published Christianophobia: A Faith Under Attack. He is concerned that "200 million Christians (10 percent of the global total) are socially disadvantaged, harassed or actively oppressed for their beliefs....”
So in light of what Kelly James Clark writes why would I or anyone else become a Christian? Because we firmly believe Jesus is the Son of God. God incarnate and as Jesus himself put it,
“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 14:6
C.S. Lewis 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
But if it is false why do governments and other groups persecute Christians so.
Think about it.
Tuesday, 24 March 2015
Faith
Faith
Paul says to Christians,
“We live by faith, not by sight.”
2 Corinthians 5:7.
Faith is one of the most difficult things for anyone to have. 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.
It is very easy to believe in what you can see, hear, and touch. It is much harder to believe in something or someone unseen as God is. Yet it is possible to know God exists.
I live with Bi-polar disorder. At this writing there is no test to determine if you have it or not. Unlike diabetes where you can take a simple blood test to know if you have it or not. There is no such test for Bi-polar. What they do is carefully examine the person and see if their actions and behaviour lines up with what is known about the actions and behaviour of those who have the illness.
It’s the same when it comes to recognizing God.
The psalmist states
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”
Psalm 19:1.
All we have to do is look around us in nature and we can see that it is perfectly made. That everything is in balance from the stars and galaxies above to the smallest part of an atom or single celled creature.
Everything in the universe is set in such away that we can exist on this world. Everything points to a divine creator.
It doesn’t matter whether you think it took billions of years for the world to come into existence or six days. The fact is the universe is in perfect order and that to my mind points to divine creation.
Still it does take faith to believe there is a God, and that is a very hard thing for some people. It takes I believe even grater faith to believe that God entered this world in the form of His one and only Son Jesus Christ. To reconcile mankind to himself.
For me as a Christian I believe all of what I have said above. I know that I may not be able to convince you the reader to believe. But I believe it is my duty to present what I believe for you to at least consider.
Please take a few minutes to think about what I have written.
Thank you
Paul says to Christians,
“We live by faith, not by sight.”
2 Corinthians 5:7.
Faith is one of the most difficult things for anyone to have. 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.
It is very easy to believe in what you can see, hear, and touch. It is much harder to believe in something or someone unseen as God is. Yet it is possible to know God exists.
I live with Bi-polar disorder. At this writing there is no test to determine if you have it or not. Unlike diabetes where you can take a simple blood test to know if you have it or not. There is no such test for Bi-polar. What they do is carefully examine the person and see if their actions and behaviour lines up with what is known about the actions and behaviour of those who have the illness.
It’s the same when it comes to recognizing God.
The psalmist states
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”
Psalm 19:1.
All we have to do is look around us in nature and we can see that it is perfectly made. That everything is in balance from the stars and galaxies above to the smallest part of an atom or single celled creature.
Everything in the universe is set in such away that we can exist on this world. Everything points to a divine creator.
It doesn’t matter whether you think it took billions of years for the world to come into existence or six days. The fact is the universe is in perfect order and that to my mind points to divine creation.
Still it does take faith to believe there is a God, and that is a very hard thing for some people. It takes I believe even grater faith to believe that God entered this world in the form of His one and only Son Jesus Christ. To reconcile mankind to himself.
For me as a Christian I believe all of what I have said above. I know that I may not be able to convince you the reader to believe. But I believe it is my duty to present what I believe for you to at least consider.
Please take a few minutes to think about what I have written.
Thank you
Monday, 23 March 2015
The Way
The Way
“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6
“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.
The above quotes by Jesus from the gospel of John make it clear what Jesus said about himself and what all Christians believe.
In his day and in his culture such statements were considered blasphemous and punishable by death. Yet Jesus made them. Claiming to be the only way to haven.
C.S. Lewis said about 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.
So the question becomes, what do you think of Christ?
“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6
“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.
The above quotes by Jesus from the gospel of John make it clear what Jesus said about himself and what all Christians believe.
In his day and in his culture such statements were considered blasphemous and punishable by death. Yet Jesus made them. Claiming to be the only way to haven.
C.S. Lewis said about 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.
So the question becomes, what do you think of Christ?
Saturday, 21 March 2015
Man needs Absolutes
Man needs absolutes
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
Genesis 1:1
The Bible makes no assumptions about God. It does not leave the subject of God’s existence up for debate. From the very first verse it states, “in the beginning God created...”
That one line says it all.
1/ There is a God above all things.
2/ A God that created all things.
In the new testament the gospel of John essentially reiterates the statement of Genesis 1:1 when it 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.”
John 1:1-3.
The gospel of John however goes one step further stating that “He (Jesus) was with God in the beginning.”
John makes it clear “Through Him(Jesus) all things were made.”
Jesus is God incarnate. He came to show man how much he loved him. He demonstrated in very real terms His love for his created.
Man needs God. He may not realize it but he does.
The Greeks like every other civilization that has ever existed recognized there was more to life than just the physical. They worshipped many god’s, even erecting a temple “to an unknown god”. It was this temple to an unknown god that the apostle Paul picked up on while speaking to the Stoics and Epicureans at the Areopagus.
Paul said,
“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.
Acts 17:24-27
A favourite quote of mine is from Abba Hillel Silver who 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.”
Man needs absolutes in his life. Without absolute values in life our society will slip rapidly into anarchy. There is no such thing as one set of moral values for one person and a completely different set of values for someone else.
God has given men an absolute value system it starts with love. Deuteronomy states,
“Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Deuteronomy 6:5
Jesus states,
“ ...‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:37-40
Ultimately if we put God first in our lives and love as he loved the world would be a far better place.
All morality ultimately comes down to love. God himself showed that love to us. He gave us a moral code that distilled to it’s simplest form is the ten commandments.
Within the Decalogue we are told by God how He expects us to live with respect to Himself and our fellow man.
God however did not stop there to quote Paul,
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”
Romans 5:8
Jesus was sent by God to demonstrate His love.
God realized that mankind was and still is slipping away from the absolute value system He has given us.
Simply put we are sinning and sin separates us from God.
In sending Jesus, God is pointing out to anyone who will listen the way back to fellowship with Him.
Someone has said “we, all mankind, are sailing on a ship to eternity. What we do on board that ship will decide where we spend that eternity.”
The decision is ours. God has given us a free will and a choice. Either accept Him and the salvation Jesus Christ offers or reject Him.
It’s that cut and dry. The decision dear reader is up to you.
Where will you spend eternity?
Think about it?
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
Genesis 1:1
The Bible makes no assumptions about God. It does not leave the subject of God’s existence up for debate. From the very first verse it states, “in the beginning God created...”
That one line says it all.
1/ There is a God above all things.
2/ A God that created all things.
In the new testament the gospel of John essentially reiterates the statement of Genesis 1:1 when it 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.”
John 1:1-3.
The gospel of John however goes one step further stating that “He (Jesus) was with God in the beginning.”
John makes it clear “Through Him(Jesus) all things were made.”
Jesus is God incarnate. He came to show man how much he loved him. He demonstrated in very real terms His love for his created.
Man needs God. He may not realize it but he does.
The Greeks like every other civilization that has ever existed recognized there was more to life than just the physical. They worshipped many god’s, even erecting a temple “to an unknown god”. It was this temple to an unknown god that the apostle Paul picked up on while speaking to the Stoics and Epicureans at the Areopagus.
Paul said,
“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.
Acts 17:24-27
A favourite quote of mine is from Abba Hillel Silver who 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.”
Man needs absolutes in his life. Without absolute values in life our society will slip rapidly into anarchy. There is no such thing as one set of moral values for one person and a completely different set of values for someone else.
God has given men an absolute value system it starts with love. Deuteronomy states,
“Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Deuteronomy 6:5
Jesus states,
“ ...‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:37-40
Ultimately if we put God first in our lives and love as he loved the world would be a far better place.
All morality ultimately comes down to love. God himself showed that love to us. He gave us a moral code that distilled to it’s simplest form is the ten commandments.
Within the Decalogue we are told by God how He expects us to live with respect to Himself and our fellow man.
God however did not stop there to quote Paul,
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”
Romans 5:8
Jesus was sent by God to demonstrate His love.
God realized that mankind was and still is slipping away from the absolute value system He has given us.
Simply put we are sinning and sin separates us from God.
In sending Jesus, God is pointing out to anyone who will listen the way back to fellowship with Him.
Someone has said “we, all mankind, are sailing on a ship to eternity. What we do on board that ship will decide where we spend that eternity.”
The decision is ours. God has given us a free will and a choice. Either accept Him and the salvation Jesus Christ offers or reject Him.
It’s that cut and dry. The decision dear reader is up to you.
Where will you spend eternity?
Think about it?
Friday, 20 March 2015
About Jesus, God, Heaven and Hell
About Jesus, God, Heaven and Hell
Some one challenged me to put down in less than three hundred words what I believe with respect to God, heaven, hell and Jesus. Here are those words.
According to a Gallup Poll, 70% of Americans believe in hell. Belief in hell is highest among regular churchgoers: 92%.
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. 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
Jesus made it clear who he was,
“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 wrote,
“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
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
I leave the above here for you to think about.
Some one challenged me to put down in less than three hundred words what I believe with respect to God, heaven, hell and Jesus. Here are those words.
According to a Gallup Poll, 70% of Americans believe in hell. Belief in hell is highest among regular churchgoers: 92%.
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. 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
Jesus made it clear who he was,
“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 wrote,
“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
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
I leave the above here for you to think about.
Thursday, 19 March 2015
About God
About God
“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.
Can I prove God? Of course I can one just has to look around at the ordered universe. The Psalmist states,
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”
Psalm 19:1.
The world and the universe in general is in perfect order to sustain life here on earth.
I believe that eventually through good science we will prove that there is one mathematical formula that links the universe together, proving it is created.
Atheism says there is no God I cannot buy into such a concept. If there is no God and a life after this one this life has no meaning.
The writer of Ecclesiastes after examining life makes the following statements
“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
If there is no God then the previous statements are true. However the writer after much contemplation writes,
“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
For me to simply be born to procreate live a handful of years and die, seems senseless and a waste of that spark that makes us human, the human soul.
I have over the years examined Atheism among other things and find Atheism to be an empty abyss.
I also find the concept of atheism doesn’t hold up to logical thinking. Perhaps one of the best arguments I’ve read about Atheism was written by Wayne Jackson. Writing in the Christian courier he says this of Atheism,
“Atheism adamantly argues that there is no God. No atheist, though, can consistently affirm emphatically that there is no God, unless he asserts both his omniscience and his omnipresence. Once he concedes that he does not know everything, he opens the door for the possibility that what he does not know may be the evidence for God’s existence. And if the atheist is not everywhere present, it logically must follow that where he is not might be the very place where proof of Deity is to be found! Thus, it is not reasonable to declare: “I know that God does not exist.” Atheism is merely a crude, irrational faith-system. There is — from the principle of cause and effect, universe design, the awareness of morality, the Scriptures, etc. — more than adequate evidence, for the thinking person, that God exists.”
Wayne Jackson
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.”
1 Corinthians 1:18.
Can I prove God? Of course I can one just has to look around at the ordered universe. The Psalmist states,
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”
Psalm 19:1.
The world and the universe in general is in perfect order to sustain life here on earth.
I believe that eventually through good science we will prove that there is one mathematical formula that links the universe together, proving it is created.
Atheism says there is no God I cannot buy into such a concept. If there is no God and a life after this one this life has no meaning.
The writer of Ecclesiastes after examining life makes the following statements
“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
If there is no God then the previous statements are true. However the writer after much contemplation writes,
“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
For me to simply be born to procreate live a handful of years and die, seems senseless and a waste of that spark that makes us human, the human soul.
I have over the years examined Atheism among other things and find Atheism to be an empty abyss.
I also find the concept of atheism doesn’t hold up to logical thinking. Perhaps one of the best arguments I’ve read about Atheism was written by Wayne Jackson. Writing in the Christian courier he says this of Atheism,
“Atheism adamantly argues that there is no God. No atheist, though, can consistently affirm emphatically that there is no God, unless he asserts both his omniscience and his omnipresence. Once he concedes that he does not know everything, he opens the door for the possibility that what he does not know may be the evidence for God’s existence. And if the atheist is not everywhere present, it logically must follow that where he is not might be the very place where proof of Deity is to be found! Thus, it is not reasonable to declare: “I know that God does not exist.” Atheism is merely a crude, irrational faith-system. There is — from the principle of cause and effect, universe design, the awareness of morality, the Scriptures, etc. — more than adequate evidence, for the thinking person, that God exists.”
Wayne Jackson
Think about it.
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