The Love of Money
“People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.
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 6:9,10.
Here is something that is a universal truth for both Christians and non-Christians.
Let me underscore here that being wealthy is not a sin. It’s “the love of money that is the root of all kinds of evil.” It’s when we but the acquisition of money above all things that we can fall into folly.
Think of how many people over the years have fallen for get rich quick schemes. People who have been conned out of their life savings.
The people who are taking advantage of others by running the get rich quick schemes are themselves looking to get rich quick, by stealing the money of others.
Most get caught and end up in jail. Still there is always someone out their willing to help someone wanting to make a quick buck part with their money.
Lets face it being rich comes with prestige attached to it.
It supposedly give you time to enjoy life. But does it?
There are lots of stories of people who have won millions in lotteries only to blow through it in a few years leaving them worst off than they were before the win.
The apostle Paul notes,
“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.”
I’ve known lots of people over the years who almost live at work. They work and they work to get the money to get the good things in life, yet they can’t enjoy it. They have no time.
Conversely I know several people who are church mouse poor yet enjoy life to the fullest.
I’m reminded today of my sister-in-law Shirley who passed away not long ago.
She was indeed church mouse poor. She struggled with alcohol addiction but managed to remain sober for the last fifteen years of her life.
Still she never had a lot of money but she managed.
She was the kind of person that would give you the shirt of her back. She helped everyone.
She volunteered her time at church and with organization that helped the poor and those fighting alcohol addiction.
Shirley was one of the happiest people I have ever met. Yet most times she didn’t have a dime to her name.
People still come up to my wife and I saying how much they miss her and telling us of how she helped them.
Proof you don’t need to be rich to bring a little joy and happiness into someone’s life.
Jesus said,
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Matthew 6:19,20.
Think about it.
Thursday, 9 April 2015
Wednesday, 8 April 2015
God is Real
God is real
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”
Genesis 1:1,2
“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 things I have written in this blog and others are Christian truths that can be used by Christian and non-Christian alike.
They speak of the teachings of Jesus what he claimed to be and what he called Christians to do.
I believe much of this proves God exists. Still I know the sceptic will say God does not exist.
M. E Anders in his book 30 days to understanding the Christian life 1994 published by T. Nelson states,
"The Bible offers itself as the source of truth. The Bible presents itself as the great, cosmic “instrument panel.” It tells us where we came from, where we are, and where we are going. It is up to us to decide whether we accept the “readings” we get from it.
The Bible does not defend itself. It was written to people who accepted its message and therefore spends little time convincing its readers of its authenticity. Charles Spurgeon once said, “The Bible does not need to be defended any more than a caged lion needs to be defended. All we need to do is let it out of its cage, and it will defend itself.”
The fundamental assertion that the Bible makes concerning itself is that, in spite of the human collaboration in the writing of it, the Bible is a revelation of God to man, it was written without error, and it can be trusted to reveal truth to us regarding God, man, life, and death....
God is not to be found in the laboratory. He cannot be proved. But then, love is not to be found in the laboratory. Neither is courage, nor longing, nor hope.
God is to be found in the courtroom. While data cannot be garnered to prove His existence, evidence can be amassed to demonstrate the probability of His existence. There is a gap between the probable and the proved. But then, few things can be proved to the unbelieving mind. Unbelief never has enough proof.”
M. E Anders
Dear reader do you believe in God. Ultimately it comes down to looking at the evidence as one would in a court. There may be no hard forensic evidence.
There is however a very strong circumstantial case.
Ultimately however it comes down to an act of faith
“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
Please think about it.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”
Genesis 1:1,2
“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 things I have written in this blog and others are Christian truths that can be used by Christian and non-Christian alike.
They speak of the teachings of Jesus what he claimed to be and what he called Christians to do.
I believe much of this proves God exists. Still I know the sceptic will say God does not exist.
M. E Anders in his book 30 days to understanding the Christian life 1994 published by T. Nelson states,
"The Bible offers itself as the source of truth. The Bible presents itself as the great, cosmic “instrument panel.” It tells us where we came from, where we are, and where we are going. It is up to us to decide whether we accept the “readings” we get from it.
The Bible does not defend itself. It was written to people who accepted its message and therefore spends little time convincing its readers of its authenticity. Charles Spurgeon once said, “The Bible does not need to be defended any more than a caged lion needs to be defended. All we need to do is let it out of its cage, and it will defend itself.”
The fundamental assertion that the Bible makes concerning itself is that, in spite of the human collaboration in the writing of it, the Bible is a revelation of God to man, it was written without error, and it can be trusted to reveal truth to us regarding God, man, life, and death....
God is not to be found in the laboratory. He cannot be proved. But then, love is not to be found in the laboratory. Neither is courage, nor longing, nor hope.
God is to be found in the courtroom. While data cannot be garnered to prove His existence, evidence can be amassed to demonstrate the probability of His existence. There is a gap between the probable and the proved. But then, few things can be proved to the unbelieving mind. Unbelief never has enough proof.”
M. E Anders
Dear reader do you believe in God. Ultimately it comes down to looking at the evidence as one would in a court. There may be no hard forensic evidence.
There is however a very strong circumstantial case.
Ultimately however it comes down to an act of faith
“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
Please think about it.
Tuesday, 7 April 2015
Jesus is God
Jesus is God
The Apostle Paul wrote,
“Beware lest anyone cheats you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the traditions of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily.”
Colossians 2:8,9.
While this was written to Christians it makes clear who we Christians believe Jesus is. He is God.
Many people do not believe that Jesus is God. They believe that he is only a good moral teacher. While he taught high moral values. Jesus is not just a man.
It is a foundational belief in Christianity that Jesus is God. Second person of the Trinity a concept that is difficult to understand and I must admit takes faith.
C. S. Lewis writing in his book Mere Christianity put it this way,
“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things that Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on the level of a 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
Jesus in his day was looked upon by the teachers of the law not only as a rival to their authority but they called him a blasphemer claiming to be God.
His claim to be God is not hidden in the scriptures. It is out front for all who reads them to see.
What it comes down to is do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God the second person of the Trinity equal in every way to God or not.
If he is not the Son of God, the Saviour of mankind then Christians have nothing to fear for in following his teachings we are living good moral lives.
If however Jesus is all He said He is and all Christians believe him to be, then those who do not believe he is the Son of God have a lot to worry about.
Jesus made things very clear 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
The decision as to who Jesus is, is entirely up to you the reader.
Please think about it.
The Apostle Paul wrote,
“Beware lest anyone cheats you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the traditions of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily.”
Colossians 2:8,9.
While this was written to Christians it makes clear who we Christians believe Jesus is. He is God.
Many people do not believe that Jesus is God. They believe that he is only a good moral teacher. While he taught high moral values. Jesus is not just a man.
It is a foundational belief in Christianity that Jesus is God. Second person of the Trinity a concept that is difficult to understand and I must admit takes faith.
C. S. Lewis writing in his book Mere Christianity put it this way,
“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things that Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on the level of a 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
Jesus in his day was looked upon by the teachers of the law not only as a rival to their authority but they called him a blasphemer claiming to be God.
His claim to be God is not hidden in the scriptures. It is out front for all who reads them to see.
What it comes down to is do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God the second person of the Trinity equal in every way to God or not.
If he is not the Son of God, the Saviour of mankind then Christians have nothing to fear for in following his teachings we are living good moral lives.
If however Jesus is all He said He is and all Christians believe him to be, then those who do not believe he is the Son of God have a lot to worry about.
Jesus made things very clear 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
The decision as to who Jesus is, is entirely up to you the reader.
Please think about it.
Monday, 6 April 2015
The Way to Heaven
The Way to Heaven
Over the past weekend we have just come through Easter celebrations. From Good Friday to Easter Sunday. The most Holy days on the Christian Calender.
It is at Easter when we Christians believe Christ died for our sins that we through His shed blood may enter the Kingdom of Heaven and inherit eternal life.
The following is what I as a Christian believe we need to do in brief, to inherit eternal life.
I’d like you the reader to at least think about it.
The way to heaven is I believe simple and open to anyone, and I mean anyone to follow.
It come down to who you think Jesus is and what his purpose on this earth was for.
First of all it is an act of faith. Faith defined by the writer of Hebrews as,
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
Hebrews 11:1
The writer going on to say,
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him”
Hebrews 11:6
The Apostle Paul make it clear salvation and the eternal life it brings is not something we can work for. Paul writing to the Ephesians stating,
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Ephesians 2:8,9
Salvation come from God to man. It is God in love reaching down to mankind. The apostle John writing,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
John 3:16,17.
When asked the way to heaven,
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6
The apostle Paul writing to the Romans said,
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:23,24.
Sinning is falling short of what God wants for your life. Sin separates us from God.
Isaiah telling us,
“All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”
Isaiah 64:6
The Apostle John noting,
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.”
1 John 1:9,10.
Simply put salvation and eternal life with God comes through accepting Jesus as God’s one and only Son. Believing that he came to die for our sins. Confessing in prayer our sins directly to God accepting that forgiveness. And letting Christ into our hearts and mind.
The prayer for forgiveness is as simple as talking to God as though he were standing in front of you. You can simply say,
Dear Heavenly Father.
I recognize that I am a sinner and fall short of what you would have for my life. I accept that Jesus Christ is your one and only Son. That he died for my sins. Please forgive me.
Dear Jesus
I accept you this day as my Lord and Saviour. Please come into my life and this day and direct me in the paths of rightiousness. Help me to live each day for you.
Amen.
If you truly accepted Jesus into your life then I would suggest you start reading the Bible. Start in the new Testament praying and asking God to show you the truths there in.
The next thing I would advise is to find a bible believing Church. But be careful when it comes to Churches there are some that do not follow the bible correctly.
What I advise is again pray and ask God to direct you to a Church. I recommend Baptist Churches most places in the world. They have their roots deep in the Bible. In North America where I live I also recommend the Assemblies of God in the United States, and The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada in Canada. These are good solid Bible believing churches.
Also remember that each church congregation has its own personality. So if the one you go to initially is not to your liking try others until you feel comfortable.
Remember also that it fine to be nervous when entering a church for the first time but most good churches will have someone to greet you and say a few kind words.
It is also permissible to ask questions of the pastor if you don’t understand things. In larger churches you may have to arrange an appointment but in most smaller churches the pastors will usually take time to speak with you.
If they don’t have time for you even after making an appointment or they don’t answer your questions perhaps that is not the place for you. You may need to find another church.
Either way I would ask that you have patients and look around until you’ve found one that is to your liking.
Think about it.
Over the past weekend we have just come through Easter celebrations. From Good Friday to Easter Sunday. The most Holy days on the Christian Calender.
It is at Easter when we Christians believe Christ died for our sins that we through His shed blood may enter the Kingdom of Heaven and inherit eternal life.
The following is what I as a Christian believe we need to do in brief, to inherit eternal life.
I’d like you the reader to at least think about it.
The way to heaven is I believe simple and open to anyone, and I mean anyone to follow.
It come down to who you think Jesus is and what his purpose on this earth was for.
First of all it is an act of faith. Faith defined by the writer of Hebrews as,
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
Hebrews 11:1
The writer going on to say,
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him”
Hebrews 11:6
The Apostle Paul make it clear salvation and the eternal life it brings is not something we can work for. Paul writing to the Ephesians stating,
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Ephesians 2:8,9
Salvation come from God to man. It is God in love reaching down to mankind. The apostle John writing,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
John 3:16,17.
When asked the way to heaven,
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6
The apostle Paul writing to the Romans said,
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:23,24.
Sinning is falling short of what God wants for your life. Sin separates us from God.
Isaiah telling us,
“All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”
Isaiah 64:6
The Apostle John noting,
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.”
1 John 1:9,10.
Simply put salvation and eternal life with God comes through accepting Jesus as God’s one and only Son. Believing that he came to die for our sins. Confessing in prayer our sins directly to God accepting that forgiveness. And letting Christ into our hearts and mind.
The prayer for forgiveness is as simple as talking to God as though he were standing in front of you. You can simply say,
Dear Heavenly Father.
I recognize that I am a sinner and fall short of what you would have for my life. I accept that Jesus Christ is your one and only Son. That he died for my sins. Please forgive me.
Dear Jesus
I accept you this day as my Lord and Saviour. Please come into my life and this day and direct me in the paths of rightiousness. Help me to live each day for you.
Amen.
If you truly accepted Jesus into your life then I would suggest you start reading the Bible. Start in the new Testament praying and asking God to show you the truths there in.
The next thing I would advise is to find a bible believing Church. But be careful when it comes to Churches there are some that do not follow the bible correctly.
What I advise is again pray and ask God to direct you to a Church. I recommend Baptist Churches most places in the world. They have their roots deep in the Bible. In North America where I live I also recommend the Assemblies of God in the United States, and The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada in Canada. These are good solid Bible believing churches.
Also remember that each church congregation has its own personality. So if the one you go to initially is not to your liking try others until you feel comfortable.
Remember also that it fine to be nervous when entering a church for the first time but most good churches will have someone to greet you and say a few kind words.
It is also permissible to ask questions of the pastor if you don’t understand things. In larger churches you may have to arrange an appointment but in most smaller churches the pastors will usually take time to speak with you.
If they don’t have time for you even after making an appointment or they don’t answer your questions perhaps that is not the place for you. You may need to find another church.
Either way I would ask that you have patients and look around until you’ve found one that is to your liking.
Think about it.
Sunday, 5 April 2015
Easter Sunday
The Resurrection
“On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.
They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.
In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?
He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee:
‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ”
Then they remembered his words.
When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others.
It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles.
But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.
Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.”
Luke 24:1-12.
The resurrection of Jesus was an incredible moment in history. No other religious leader has ever risen corporally.
This was hard for the disciples of Jesus to believe when the women told them and they had spent three years under his teaching.
Jesus did indeed rise from the dead later on in Luke records in chapter 24:13-25, that Jesus appeared to two believers on the road to Emmaus who reported back to the Eleven disciples.
Later Luke records the following,
“While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost.
He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds?
Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet.
And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?”
They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence.
He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.
He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things.
I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
Luke 24:36-49.
The Disciples seen and talked to Jesus, he ate some fish and he proved to them he was flesh and blood. That he had indeed risen from the dead.
To this point the disciples and others perhaps thought Jesus was a conquering Messiah that would lead them to victory over Roman oppression but Jesus was not a conquering Messiah. He was a suffering Messiah as he himself said,
“He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things.”
This is the message true Christians are preaching throughout the world today. That Jesus died for the sins of each and every person.
C.S. Lewis wrote,
“He died not for men, but for each man. If each man had been the only man made, He would have done no less.”
C.S. Lewis.
This is the message of Easter. That Christ died for the sins of each man and woman.
The call of Christ is the call of each man and woman to believe that Jesus is the one and only Son of God that by confessing our sins directly to him He will forgive them. That by accepting him into our hearts and lives we will receive eternal life.
To quote C.S. Lewis again,
“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 choice comes down to you the reader. Do you believe Jesus is the Son of God the Saviour of the world or not?
Please think about it carefully.
“On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.
They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.
In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?
He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee:
‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ”
Then they remembered his words.
When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others.
It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles.
But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.
Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.”
Luke 24:1-12.
The resurrection of Jesus was an incredible moment in history. No other religious leader has ever risen corporally.
This was hard for the disciples of Jesus to believe when the women told them and they had spent three years under his teaching.
Jesus did indeed rise from the dead later on in Luke records in chapter 24:13-25, that Jesus appeared to two believers on the road to Emmaus who reported back to the Eleven disciples.
Later Luke records the following,
“While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost.
He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds?
Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet.
And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?”
They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence.
He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.
He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things.
I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
Luke 24:36-49.
The Disciples seen and talked to Jesus, he ate some fish and he proved to them he was flesh and blood. That he had indeed risen from the dead.
To this point the disciples and others perhaps thought Jesus was a conquering Messiah that would lead them to victory over Roman oppression but Jesus was not a conquering Messiah. He was a suffering Messiah as he himself said,
“He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things.”
This is the message true Christians are preaching throughout the world today. That Jesus died for the sins of each and every person.
C.S. Lewis wrote,
“He died not for men, but for each man. If each man had been the only man made, He would have done no less.”
C.S. Lewis.
This is the message of Easter. That Christ died for the sins of each man and woman.
The call of Christ is the call of each man and woman to believe that Jesus is the one and only Son of God that by confessing our sins directly to him He will forgive them. That by accepting him into our hearts and lives we will receive eternal life.
To quote C.S. Lewis again,
“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 choice comes down to you the reader. Do you believe Jesus is the Son of God the Saviour of the world or not?
Please think about it carefully.
Saturday, 4 April 2015
The Death and Burial of Jesus
The Death and Burial
“It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour,
for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.
Jesus called out with a loud voice,“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.
The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.”
When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away.
But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.
Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea and he was waiting for the kingdom of God.
Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body.
Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid.
It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.
The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it.
Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.”
Luke 23:44-56.
The death and burial of Jesus. Here we have those who loved Jesus watching him die and what the other people around were doing.
The sky went black for three hours. Jesus gives his own spirit up. The Roman soldier stating “Surely this was a righteous man.”
Joseph of Arimathea a member of the council who was not at the council when it voted to have Jesus put to death asked Pilate for the body of Jesus and place him in a new unused tomb. While the women prepared the spices and perfumes to embalm the body. They could not however embalm it because of the Sabbath on which they rested in obedience to the commandments.
This was the lowest point I think in the life of Christ’s followers. Jesus was in the grave. He was dead.
Death has come to every leader of every faith throughout history.
Jesus however would stand out, in that death did not hold him. For on the Sunday morning he arose from the grave to walk the earth for a short while before ascending into heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father.
This is what makes Christianity and Christians different from all other faiths. We serve a risen Lord that during the three years he ministered on this earth claimed to be the One and only Son of God. He made the statement,
“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6
A potentially dangerous statement in the time of Jesus.
C. S. Lewis wrote of Jesus,
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Please think about it.
“It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour,
for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.
Jesus called out with a loud voice,“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.
The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.”
When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away.
But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.
Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea and he was waiting for the kingdom of God.
Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body.
Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid.
It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.
The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it.
Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.”
Luke 23:44-56.
The death and burial of Jesus. Here we have those who loved Jesus watching him die and what the other people around were doing.
The sky went black for three hours. Jesus gives his own spirit up. The Roman soldier stating “Surely this was a righteous man.”
Joseph of Arimathea a member of the council who was not at the council when it voted to have Jesus put to death asked Pilate for the body of Jesus and place him in a new unused tomb. While the women prepared the spices and perfumes to embalm the body. They could not however embalm it because of the Sabbath on which they rested in obedience to the commandments.
This was the lowest point I think in the life of Christ’s followers. Jesus was in the grave. He was dead.
Death has come to every leader of every faith throughout history.
Jesus however would stand out, in that death did not hold him. For on the Sunday morning he arose from the grave to walk the earth for a short while before ascending into heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father.
This is what makes Christianity and Christians different from all other faiths. We serve a risen Lord that during the three years he ministered on this earth claimed to be the One and only Son of God. He made the statement,
“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6
A potentially dangerous statement in the time of Jesus.
C. S. Lewis wrote of Jesus,
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Please think about it.
Friday, 3 April 2015
Good Friday
Good Friday
Jesus in Prospective
The apostle Luke records,
“As they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.
A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him....
Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed.
When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left.
Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.”
The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”
There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”
But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence?
We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’”
Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”“
Luke 23:26,27,32-43.
Here we have the Jesus in prospective. It is the day Christians call good Friday. At the time it happened it was a time of great mourning for the friends, family and disciple of Jesus.
Despite all he had taught them in his three years of ministry they didn’t truly understand who he was.
Those who gathered to watch the spectacle of the crucifixion that day definitely had no concept on who Jesus was.
The Roman soldiers mocked him. While the Jews who we learn from Luke’s account had heard what he had to say about himself wanted proof of who he was by him getting down from the cross and saving himself.
That however was not God’s plan.
As we look at the events of the day we see the same ideas about Jesus that exist today. There are those who would mock Christ. Those who are at the very least sceptical as to who he is. As well as those who do not even think he existed.
The two criminals crucified with Jesus show us the choice we today must make. Luke recording,
One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”
But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence?
We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’”
Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”“
Luke 23:39-43.
One asked for proof. That proof being Jesus saving himself.
The other criminal showed genuine repentance and belief in Jesus. He noted that he and the other criminal were being punished justly for their crimes.
He showed faith in Jesus by asking him to remember him when he came into his kingdom. To which Jesus replies “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Here in brief is the road I and all Christians believe is the road to heaven.
The apostle Paul writes,
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”
Romans 3:23.
The apostle John states,
“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.
The apostle Paul making clear salvation is an act of faith writing,
“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.
And the writer of Hebrews noting,
“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.
This is the story of Good Friday.
A dark day for the followers of Jesus but O what a wonderful occurrence would await them three days later.
The Glory of the resurrection and more.
Jesus in Prospective
The apostle Luke records,
“As they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.
A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him....
Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed.
When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left.
Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.”
The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”
There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”
But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence?
We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’”
Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”“
Luke 23:26,27,32-43.
Here we have the Jesus in prospective. It is the day Christians call good Friday. At the time it happened it was a time of great mourning for the friends, family and disciple of Jesus.
Despite all he had taught them in his three years of ministry they didn’t truly understand who he was.
Those who gathered to watch the spectacle of the crucifixion that day definitely had no concept on who Jesus was.
The Roman soldiers mocked him. While the Jews who we learn from Luke’s account had heard what he had to say about himself wanted proof of who he was by him getting down from the cross and saving himself.
That however was not God’s plan.
As we look at the events of the day we see the same ideas about Jesus that exist today. There are those who would mock Christ. Those who are at the very least sceptical as to who he is. As well as those who do not even think he existed.
The two criminals crucified with Jesus show us the choice we today must make. Luke recording,
One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”
But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence?
We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’”
Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”“
Luke 23:39-43.
One asked for proof. That proof being Jesus saving himself.
The other criminal showed genuine repentance and belief in Jesus. He noted that he and the other criminal were being punished justly for their crimes.
He showed faith in Jesus by asking him to remember him when he came into his kingdom. To which Jesus replies “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Here in brief is the road I and all Christians believe is the road to heaven.
The apostle Paul writes,
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”
Romans 3:23.
The apostle John states,
“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.
The apostle Paul making clear salvation is an act of faith writing,
“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.
And the writer of Hebrews noting,
“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.
This is the story of Good Friday.
A dark day for the followers of Jesus but O what a wonderful occurrence would await them three days later.
The Glory of the resurrection and more.
Thursday, 2 April 2015
A Libertine
A Libertine
“Thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondsman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee.” Deuteronomy 15:15.
I believe it’s at St. Mary Woolnoth an Anglican church in the City of London, that there is a plaque with the words,
“John Newton, clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy.”
To quote R. J. Morgan from the book 365 scriptures that changed the world (copy right Thomas Nelson Publishers 1998.)
“As a young man, Newton had been a seaman and slave trader whose mouth was a cesspool of profanity, and who liberally helped himself to the female slaves he transported.
But he also became a deserter, flogged by the British Navy, who was reduced to being the slave of a sadistic woman, herself a slave, in Africa.
Out of all this he was saved. And he became one of England’s greatest preachers, the author of the beloved hymn Amazing Grace.”
Over his study desk he had this verse from Deuteronomy
“Thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondsman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee.” Deuteronomy 15:15.
He reportedly told a friend later in life “My memory is nearly gone; but I remember two things, that I am a great sinner and that Christ is a Great Saviour.”
John Newton’s conversion was dramatic. He went from being a man without principles. A man without a conscience to a man of great principles.
He spoke out against the slave trade and would go on to write hundreds of hymns 280 of which he combined with 68 hymns of William Cowper to form the Olney Hymnal.
We today can look on Newton and see how bad he was and say thank God I am nowhere near as bad as him. He needed a conversion experience. I am far better than him.
Many non Christians I believe today also look at people who go to church. People who claim to be Christians and say, “I know them. I know what they do outside of Church and it isn’t very Christian. Why should I become a Christian because I am better all around than they are.”
That may be so but not everyone who goes to church is a Christian. Not everyone who say’s they are Christian are.
Many people as well as Preachers and evangelist will one day stand before God and find they are not accepted into heaven. Jesus saying,
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
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 7:21-23.
When it comes to knowing Jesus as one’s Lord and Saviour it is up to the individual to decide.
We should not look on those who are going to church or who claim to be Christians. Simply because many who claim to be Christians are not.
Each individual needs to look within themselves and ask themselves am “I truly good enough to go to heaven?”
I believe if we are honest with ourselves the answer will be no.
No one is good enough to stand before a holy God.
C.S. Lewis said,
“The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.”
C.S. Lewis
Isaiah the prophet said,
“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.
That is why Jesus came.
Another self admitted sinner the apostle Paul wrote these words,
“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.
‘But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.”
1 Timothy 1:15,16
I firmly believe that we as individuals must search our heart of hearts and in all humility admit that there is sin in our life.
Then we must turn to Jesus, recognize that he is the One and only Son of God, who died for our sins and ask him to forgive our sins and come into our hearts and lives.
For it is only through Christ that we can truly have our sins forgiven and have our lives changed.
It happened to John Newton. It happened to the Apostle Paul and it can happen to you.
Think about it.
“Thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondsman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee.” Deuteronomy 15:15.
I believe it’s at St. Mary Woolnoth an Anglican church in the City of London, that there is a plaque with the words,
“John Newton, clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy.”
To quote R. J. Morgan from the book 365 scriptures that changed the world (copy right Thomas Nelson Publishers 1998.)
“As a young man, Newton had been a seaman and slave trader whose mouth was a cesspool of profanity, and who liberally helped himself to the female slaves he transported.
But he also became a deserter, flogged by the British Navy, who was reduced to being the slave of a sadistic woman, herself a slave, in Africa.
Out of all this he was saved. And he became one of England’s greatest preachers, the author of the beloved hymn Amazing Grace.”
Over his study desk he had this verse from Deuteronomy
“Thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondsman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee.” Deuteronomy 15:15.
He reportedly told a friend later in life “My memory is nearly gone; but I remember two things, that I am a great sinner and that Christ is a Great Saviour.”
John Newton’s conversion was dramatic. He went from being a man without principles. A man without a conscience to a man of great principles.
He spoke out against the slave trade and would go on to write hundreds of hymns 280 of which he combined with 68 hymns of William Cowper to form the Olney Hymnal.
We today can look on Newton and see how bad he was and say thank God I am nowhere near as bad as him. He needed a conversion experience. I am far better than him.
Many non Christians I believe today also look at people who go to church. People who claim to be Christians and say, “I know them. I know what they do outside of Church and it isn’t very Christian. Why should I become a Christian because I am better all around than they are.”
That may be so but not everyone who goes to church is a Christian. Not everyone who say’s they are Christian are.
Many people as well as Preachers and evangelist will one day stand before God and find they are not accepted into heaven. Jesus saying,
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
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 7:21-23.
When it comes to knowing Jesus as one’s Lord and Saviour it is up to the individual to decide.
We should not look on those who are going to church or who claim to be Christians. Simply because many who claim to be Christians are not.
Each individual needs to look within themselves and ask themselves am “I truly good enough to go to heaven?”
I believe if we are honest with ourselves the answer will be no.
No one is good enough to stand before a holy God.
C.S. Lewis said,
“The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.”
C.S. Lewis
Isaiah the prophet said,
“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.
That is why Jesus came.
Another self admitted sinner the apostle Paul wrote these words,
“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.
‘But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.”
1 Timothy 1:15,16
I firmly believe that we as individuals must search our heart of hearts and in all humility admit that there is sin in our life.
Then we must turn to Jesus, recognize that he is the One and only Son of God, who died for our sins and ask him to forgive our sins and come into our hearts and lives.
For it is only through Christ that we can truly have our sins forgiven and have our lives changed.
It happened to John Newton. It happened to the Apostle Paul and it can happen to you.
Think about it.
Wednesday, 1 April 2015
Will you be happy?
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.
“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.
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.
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