God exists
“I have not seen the robin but I know he is there because I heard him singing through my window from the tree-top outside.
I have not seen God. But I have looked at my child’s eyes, and have been overwhelmed by the miracle of unfolding life.
I have watched the trees bedeck themselves with new garbs of green in the spring, and have been stirred by the miracle of continual rebirth.
I have looked at the stars, and have been overcome by the miracle of the grandeur and majesty of the universe.
I know that God exists, because I have heard the song of His presence from all the tree-tops of creation.”
Ben Zion Bokser
I am a believer in God. For me knowing there is a God who loves me is simply comforting. Knowing there is a life with God after this life ends is what makes life worthwhile.
Atheism to my way of thinking takes away all meaning to life.
Peter John Kreeft states,
“Atheism is cheap on people through because it snobbishly says nine out of ten people through history have been wrong about God and have had a lie at the core of their hearts.”
Peter John Kreeft ph.d
From as far back as we can see in history to the present day mankind has believed in a God and an afterlife. It just seems to be in man’s psyche.
People may deny there is a God and an afterlife but that does not make it so. C. S. Lewis wrote,
“A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.”
C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain.
Even if man evolved as some believe it doesn’t explain how man came up with his moral code.
One key pillar of our moral code, do not kill, had to have arisen simultaneously across every tribe on the face of the earth. Otherwise it would be a case that those who did not believe in the do not kill code of conduct would kill those who do. It would be survival of the fittest. The most violent society would survive. Yet that is not the case.
Every culture that we know of has had a similar moral code. Such a code has to have come from God.
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
I do not buy into the theory that there is no God. That this life is all there is. For me my faith in God enriches my life and offers me the hope of eternal life and peace with God.
I know I will never be able to persuade the ardent atheist. I know there will always be men and women in the world that no matter the evidence will not believe. That is their choice.
I would however ask respectfully that they at least read the New Testament with an open mind and see what God has to offer them.
Friday, 12 June 2015
Thursday, 11 June 2015
Of God
Of God
A couple of Jesus’ disciples shortly after his death who had been warned by the religious leadership not to preach about Jesus were caught doing so. They were brought before the leaders and the book of acts records what happened,
“We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”
Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than men!
The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead—whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree.
God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel.
We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”
When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death.
But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while.
Then he addressed them: “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men.
Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing.
After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered.
Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail.
But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”
Acts 5:28-39
I believe Gamaliel got it right. The message of Salvation through Jesus Christ has been around now for over two thousand years. It’s message of love for God, one’s fellow man and one’s enemies is still going strong.
It’s message that there is salvation in no one other than Jesus Christ is still as strong as ever.
An anonymous poet wrote,
Isaiah the prophet wrote,
“A voice says, “Cry out.” And I said, “What shall I cry?”
“All men are like grass ,and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.
The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.”
Isaiah 40:6-8.
I believe the words of Jesus who 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
God gave man a choice. Do you believe Jesus is the Son of God, the Saviour of the World or not. The choice is yours.
Please think about it.
A couple of Jesus’ disciples shortly after his death who had been warned by the religious leadership not to preach about Jesus were caught doing so. They were brought before the leaders and the book of acts records what happened,
“We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”
Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than men!
The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead—whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree.
God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel.
We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”
When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death.
But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while.
Then he addressed them: “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men.
Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing.
After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered.
Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail.
But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”
Acts 5:28-39
I believe Gamaliel got it right. The message of Salvation through Jesus Christ has been around now for over two thousand years. It’s message of love for God, one’s fellow man and one’s enemies is still going strong.
It’s message that there is salvation in no one other than Jesus Christ is still as strong as ever.
An anonymous poet wrote,
Last eve I passed beside a blacksmith’s door,
And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime;
Then, looking in, I saw upon the floor
Old hammers, worn with beating years of time.
“How many anvils have you had,” said I,
“To wear and batter all these hammers so?”
“Just one,” said he, and then, with twinkling eye,
The anvil wears the hammers out, you know.”
And so, thought I, the anvil of God’s Word,
For ages skeptic blows have beat upon;
Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,
The anvil is unharmed - and hammers gone.
AnonymousIsaiah the prophet wrote,
“A voice says, “Cry out.” And I said, “What shall I cry?”
“All men are like grass ,and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.
The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.”
Isaiah 40:6-8.
I believe the words of Jesus who 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
God gave man a choice. Do you believe Jesus is the Son of God, the Saviour of the World or not. The choice is yours.
Please think about it.
Wednesday, 10 June 2015
On Jesus
On Jesus
Albert Einstein stated,
“No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life.… No man can deny the fact that Jesus existed, nor that his sayings are beautiful.”
Albert Einstein.
The words of Jesus are far more than beautiful they are words that lead to eternal life.
The Gospel of Matthew records this,
“When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.”
Matthew 16:13-17.
C. S. Lewis wrote,
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.
The Apostle Paul speaking about Jesus to the Athenians 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.
‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man’s design and skill.
In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”
When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.”
At that, Paul left the Council.
A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others”
Acts 17: 24-34
Jesus from the day of his birth has been controversial. Some have called him simply a good man, others a heretic deserving of death. His disciples and followers call him the Christ. The One and Only Son of God.
As to who Jesus is, it is a decision everyone must make for themselves.
Is Jesus all he said he is the Christ, the Son of the Living God or not? The decision is yours.
Please think about it.
Albert Einstein stated,
“No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life.… No man can deny the fact that Jesus existed, nor that his sayings are beautiful.”
Albert Einstein.
The words of Jesus are far more than beautiful they are words that lead to eternal life.
The Gospel of Matthew records this,
“When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.”
Matthew 16:13-17.
C. S. Lewis wrote,
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.
The Apostle Paul speaking about Jesus to the Athenians 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.
‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man’s design and skill.
In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”
When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.”
At that, Paul left the Council.
A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others”
Acts 17: 24-34
Jesus from the day of his birth has been controversial. Some have called him simply a good man, others a heretic deserving of death. His disciples and followers call him the Christ. The One and Only Son of God.
As to who Jesus is, it is a decision everyone must make for themselves.
Is Jesus all he said he is the Christ, the Son of the Living God or not? The decision is yours.
Please think about it.
Tuesday, 9 June 2015
Christian Belief
Christian Belief
Hans Urs von Balthasar wrote,
“It is to the Cross that the Christian is challenged to follow his Master: no path of redemption can make a detour around it.”
Hans Urs von Balthasar.
The Apostle Paul wrote,
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
C.S. Lewis wrote,
“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.
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.
Christians do not believe we can work our way to heaven. Salvation and eternity with God is a free gift from God. It is God reaching down to mankind and saying I love you.
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 when he said,
“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6
It is a choice everyone who is reading this must make for themselves. You either believe what Jesus and the writers of the New Testament said about him or you do not. God will not force you to believe anything you do not want to believe.
So please consider what I have said carefully.
Hans Urs von Balthasar wrote,
“It is to the Cross that the Christian is challenged to follow his Master: no path of redemption can make a detour around it.”
Hans Urs von Balthasar.
The Apostle Paul wrote,
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
C.S. Lewis wrote,
“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.
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.
Christians do not believe we can work our way to heaven. Salvation and eternity with God is a free gift from God. It is God reaching down to mankind and saying I love you.
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 when he said,
“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6
It is a choice everyone who is reading this must make for themselves. You either believe what Jesus and the writers of the New Testament said about him or you do not. God will not force you to believe anything you do not want to believe.
So please consider what I have said carefully.
Monday, 8 June 2015
About Jesus
About Jesus
“The Jews gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.
I and the Father are one.”
Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”
John 10:24-32.
These who wrote the New Testament told everything. They recorded that there were those who didn’t believe Jesus was who he claimed to be. Those who wanted to kill Jesus as a heretic. They also told of the miracles Jesus performed. They knew that they really happened.
They recorded Jesus on numerous occasions saying he was the Son of God or as John records in the above quot, Jesus saying “I and my Father are one.” something that could have got Jesus stoned to death.
The New Testament authors layed it all out there and in essence said this is what we witnessed. This is what we believe is the most important message for every man and woman in the world, believe it or not.
Matthews gospel records
“When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Matthew 16:13-16.
This is the question every man and woman on this earth must answer. That answer in my opinion will determine their eternal resting place.
Please think carefully about it.
“The Jews gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.
I and the Father are one.”
Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”
John 10:24-32.
These who wrote the New Testament told everything. They recorded that there were those who didn’t believe Jesus was who he claimed to be. Those who wanted to kill Jesus as a heretic. They also told of the miracles Jesus performed. They knew that they really happened.
They recorded Jesus on numerous occasions saying he was the Son of God or as John records in the above quot, Jesus saying “I and my Father are one.” something that could have got Jesus stoned to death.
The New Testament authors layed it all out there and in essence said this is what we witnessed. This is what we believe is the most important message for every man and woman in the world, believe it or not.
Matthews gospel records
“When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Matthew 16:13-16.
This is the question every man and woman on this earth must answer. That answer in my opinion will determine their eternal resting place.
Please think carefully about it.
Sunday, 7 June 2015
Where will you
Where will you
“A voice says, “Cry out.” And I said, “What shall I cry?”
“All men are like grass,and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.
The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them.
Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.”
Isaiah 40:6-8
Where will you spend eternity.
Will you spend eternity with God?
Jesus said,
... “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6
He also said,
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”
Revelations 3:20.
Jesus is waiting for you to ask him into your life. Will you consider it today.
Think about it.
Where are the people?
Where?
Are they but shadows in the mall?
Are they?
Are they shadows in time,
Shadows wandering looking for the latest trinkets, bobbles or beads.
What is life?
What?
Is life but a wisp of smoke carried in the air?
A wisp in the eternal aether ?
Are people wisps of smoke?
What of man’s....
or woman’s! accomplishments?
What of them?
Is the sum total of all ones life simply a pile of shinny tin, brass, and wood?
Is that life?
Is life simply a cacophony of sounds travelling through endless time?
Are we simply the corporeal high end of the evolutionary scale?
Or
Is a life.
Yours, mine more?
Is it a divine opera?
An opera played out on a high mesa
A stage suspended between heaven and hell.
Are we as Shakespear said simply actors?
I think
Life is an opera played out before God.
On a high mesa between heaven and hell.
We Are but actors in a play?
Actors awaiting the final curtain call sending us to eternity?
Are you ready for that final curtain call?
Are you?
What is the sum total of your life?
What?
What will “they” say about you as you pass on?
What will God say to you?
The Prophet Isaiah said,“A voice says, “Cry out.” And I said, “What shall I cry?”
“All men are like grass,and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.
The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them.
Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.”
Isaiah 40:6-8
Where will you spend eternity.
Will you spend eternity with God?
Jesus said,
... “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6
He also said,
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”
Revelations 3:20.
Jesus is waiting for you to ask him into your life. Will you consider it today.
Think about it.
Friday, 5 June 2015
An Obligation
Helping the poor
The Talmud tells these two stories
“When a man appears before the Throne of Judgment, the first question he is asked is not, “Have you believed in God?” Or “Have you prayed and observed the ritual? “He is asked: “have you dealt honourably and faithfully in all your dealings with your fellow men?”
The Talmud.
“Rabbi Akiba was asked by a Roman general, “Why does your God who loves the needy not provide for their support Himself?” He answered, “God the Father of both the rich and poor, wants the one to help the other so as to make the world a household of love.”
The Talmud.
We here in the western nations live in societies that have great wealth. At the same time there is a lot of poverty and need.
Question: what have you done lately to help the less fortunate around you?
Everyone can do something even if it’s just a simple act.
The Judaism has a concept called Tzedakah. It is a concept that I believe all people can understand and practice be they Jewish, Christians or of any other faith.
The following is as good an explanation of Tzedakah. It comes from a Jewish website,
“Tzedakah is the Hebrew word for acts that we call charity in English: giving assistance and money to the poor and needy or to other worthy causes. However the nature of tzedakah is very different from the idea of charity. The word “charity suggests benevolence and generosity, a magnanimous act by the wealthy and the powerful for the benefit of he poor and needy.
The word “tzedakah” is derived form the Hebrew root Tzadei-dalet-Qof, meaning righteousness, justice or fairness. In Judaism giving to the poor is not viewed as a generous, magnanimous act, it is simply and act of righteousness, performance of a duty giving the poor their due.
The Obligation of Tzedakah
Giving to the poor is an obligation in Judaism, a duty that cannot be forsaken even by those who are themselves in need. Some sages have said that tzedakah is the highest of all commandments, equal to all of them combined, and that a person who does not perform tzedakah is equivalent to an idol worshipper. This is probably hyperbole, but it illustrates the importance of tzedakah in Jewish thought. Tzedakah is one of the three acts that gain us forgiveness from our sins. The High Holiday liturgy repeated states that G-d has inscribed a judgement against all who have sinned, but teshuvah (repentance) tefila (prayer) and tzedakah can alleviate the decree.
According to Jewish law, we are requiered to give one-tenth of our income to the poor. This generally interpreted as one-tenth of our net income after payment of taxes. Taxes themselves do not fulfil our obligation to give tzedakah even though a significant proportion of tax revenues in America and many other countries are used to provide for the poor and needy. Those who are dependent on public assistance or living on the edge of subsistence my give less but must still give to the extent they are able; however, no person should give so much that he would become a public burden.
The obligation to perform tzedakah can be fulfilled by giving money to the poor, to health care institutions, to Synagogues or educational institutions. It can also be fulfilled by supporting your children beyond the age when you are legally required to, or supporting your parents in their old age. The obligation includes giving both to Jews and gentiles; contrary to popular belief, Jew do not just care for our own. Quite the contrary a study of reported in the Jewish journal indicated that Jewish ‘mega-donors’ (who give more than $10 million a year to charity found that only 6% if their mega-dollars went to specifically Jewish causes.
Judaism acknowledges that many people who ask for charity have no genuine need. In fact, the Talmud suggest that this is a good thing: if all people who asked for charity have no were in genuine Need we would be subjected to punishment for G-d for refusing anyone who asked. The existence of frauds diminishes our liability for failing to give to all who ask. Because we have some legitimate basis for doubting a beggar’s sincerity. It is permissible to investigate the legitimacy of charity before donating to it.
We have an obligation to avoid becoming in need of Tzedakah. A person should take any work available, even if he thinks it is beneath his dignity to avoid become a public charge.
However, if a person is truly in need and has no way of obtaining money on his own he should not feel embarrassed to accept tzedakah. No person should feel to proud to take money from others. In fact it is considered a transgression to refuse tzedakah. One source says that to make yourself suffer by refusing to accept tzedakah is equivalent to shedding your own blood.
Levels of Tzedakah
Certain kinds of tzedakah are considered more meritorious than others. The Talmud describes these different levels of tzedakah, and Rambam organized them into a list. The levels of charity from the least meritorious to the most meritorious, are:
As Christians the above is something I know I can understand it lines up perfectly with Christian thought.
But even from a strictly human stand point tzedakah makes sense and I believe is something we should all be practising.
Please think about it.
The Talmud tells these two stories
“When a man appears before the Throne of Judgment, the first question he is asked is not, “Have you believed in God?” Or “Have you prayed and observed the ritual? “He is asked: “have you dealt honourably and faithfully in all your dealings with your fellow men?”
The Talmud.
“Rabbi Akiba was asked by a Roman general, “Why does your God who loves the needy not provide for their support Himself?” He answered, “God the Father of both the rich and poor, wants the one to help the other so as to make the world a household of love.”
The Talmud.
We here in the western nations live in societies that have great wealth. At the same time there is a lot of poverty and need.
Question: what have you done lately to help the less fortunate around you?
Everyone can do something even if it’s just a simple act.
The Judaism has a concept called Tzedakah. It is a concept that I believe all people can understand and practice be they Jewish, Christians or of any other faith.
The following is as good an explanation of Tzedakah. It comes from a Jewish website,
“Tzedakah is the Hebrew word for acts that we call charity in English: giving assistance and money to the poor and needy or to other worthy causes. However the nature of tzedakah is very different from the idea of charity. The word “charity suggests benevolence and generosity, a magnanimous act by the wealthy and the powerful for the benefit of he poor and needy.
The word “tzedakah” is derived form the Hebrew root Tzadei-dalet-Qof, meaning righteousness, justice or fairness. In Judaism giving to the poor is not viewed as a generous, magnanimous act, it is simply and act of righteousness, performance of a duty giving the poor their due.
The Obligation of Tzedakah
Giving to the poor is an obligation in Judaism, a duty that cannot be forsaken even by those who are themselves in need. Some sages have said that tzedakah is the highest of all commandments, equal to all of them combined, and that a person who does not perform tzedakah is equivalent to an idol worshipper. This is probably hyperbole, but it illustrates the importance of tzedakah in Jewish thought. Tzedakah is one of the three acts that gain us forgiveness from our sins. The High Holiday liturgy repeated states that G-d has inscribed a judgement against all who have sinned, but teshuvah (repentance) tefila (prayer) and tzedakah can alleviate the decree.
According to Jewish law, we are requiered to give one-tenth of our income to the poor. This generally interpreted as one-tenth of our net income after payment of taxes. Taxes themselves do not fulfil our obligation to give tzedakah even though a significant proportion of tax revenues in America and many other countries are used to provide for the poor and needy. Those who are dependent on public assistance or living on the edge of subsistence my give less but must still give to the extent they are able; however, no person should give so much that he would become a public burden.
The obligation to perform tzedakah can be fulfilled by giving money to the poor, to health care institutions, to Synagogues or educational institutions. It can also be fulfilled by supporting your children beyond the age when you are legally required to, or supporting your parents in their old age. The obligation includes giving both to Jews and gentiles; contrary to popular belief, Jew do not just care for our own. Quite the contrary a study of reported in the Jewish journal indicated that Jewish ‘mega-donors’ (who give more than $10 million a year to charity found that only 6% if their mega-dollars went to specifically Jewish causes.
Judaism acknowledges that many people who ask for charity have no genuine need. In fact, the Talmud suggest that this is a good thing: if all people who asked for charity have no were in genuine Need we would be subjected to punishment for G-d for refusing anyone who asked. The existence of frauds diminishes our liability for failing to give to all who ask. Because we have some legitimate basis for doubting a beggar’s sincerity. It is permissible to investigate the legitimacy of charity before donating to it.
We have an obligation to avoid becoming in need of Tzedakah. A person should take any work available, even if he thinks it is beneath his dignity to avoid become a public charge.
However, if a person is truly in need and has no way of obtaining money on his own he should not feel embarrassed to accept tzedakah. No person should feel to proud to take money from others. In fact it is considered a transgression to refuse tzedakah. One source says that to make yourself suffer by refusing to accept tzedakah is equivalent to shedding your own blood.
Levels of Tzedakah
Certain kinds of tzedakah are considered more meritorious than others. The Talmud describes these different levels of tzedakah, and Rambam organized them into a list. The levels of charity from the least meritorious to the most meritorious, are:
Giving begrudgingly
Giving less than you should, bu giving cheerfully,
Giving after being asked
Giving before being asked
Giving when you do not know the recipient’s identity, but the recipient knows yours
Giving when you know and the recipient’s identity, but the recipient doesn’t know yours.
Giving when neither party knows the other’s identity.
Enabling the recipient to become self-reliant.
As Christians the above is something I know I can understand it lines up perfectly with Christian thought.
But even from a strictly human stand point tzedakah makes sense and I believe is something we should all be practising.
Please think about it.
About Jesus
About Jesus
Historian William Durant said of Jesus,
“Nations have used his words as the bedrock of their governments....The triumph of Christ was the beginning of democracy.”
“His Sermon on the Mount established a new paradigm in ethics and morals.”
William Durant
Yale historian Jaroslav Pelikan writes of him,
“Regardless of what anyone may personally think or believe about him, Jesus of Nazareth has been the dominant figure in the history of Western culture for almost twenty centuries… It is from his birth that most of the human race dates its calendars, it is by his name that millions curse and in his name that millions pray.”
Jaroslav Pelikan
Jesus is indeed a controversial person. He has been since the time he walked the earth.
The religious leaders of his day denounced him as a heretic while his followers called him the Christ, the Messiah.
C. S. Lewis said of him,
“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
The apostle Paul wrote of Jesus,
“And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:5-8.
Paul also wrote,
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.”
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
If Christians are foolish in what we believe then we have lost nothing for in following the teachings of Christ we have lived good honest and moral lives.
If however we are right in our beliefs then the rest of the world has a lot to think about.
What do you think?
Historian William Durant said of Jesus,
“Nations have used his words as the bedrock of their governments....The triumph of Christ was the beginning of democracy.”
“His Sermon on the Mount established a new paradigm in ethics and morals.”
William Durant
Yale historian Jaroslav Pelikan writes of him,
“Regardless of what anyone may personally think or believe about him, Jesus of Nazareth has been the dominant figure in the history of Western culture for almost twenty centuries… It is from his birth that most of the human race dates its calendars, it is by his name that millions curse and in his name that millions pray.”
Jaroslav Pelikan
Jesus is indeed a controversial person. He has been since the time he walked the earth.
The religious leaders of his day denounced him as a heretic while his followers called him the Christ, the Messiah.
C. S. Lewis said of him,
“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
The apostle Paul wrote of Jesus,
“And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:5-8.
Paul also wrote,
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.”
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
If Christians are foolish in what we believe then we have lost nothing for in following the teachings of Christ we have lived good honest and moral lives.
If however we are right in our beliefs then the rest of the world has a lot to think about.
What do you think?
Thursday, 4 June 2015
It's about Jesus
It’s about Jesus
“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,(Jesus) and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour.
But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation”
Colossians 1:19-22
It is all about Jesus and the cross.
In order to become a Christian you must answer in your own mind one important question.
Who is Jesus.
Matthew records this conversation between Jesus and his disciples,
“When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.”
Matthew 16:13-17.
Jesus himself said,
“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6
He also 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.
Every man and woman on this planet has to decide for themselves who Jesus is. If he is not who he claims to be then there is nothing to fear. If he is all he claimed to be there is a lot to consider.
The choice is yours. Like C. S. Lewis states,
“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.
Please think carefully about it
“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,(Jesus) and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour.
But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation”
Colossians 1:19-22
It is all about Jesus and the cross.
In order to become a Christian you must answer in your own mind one important question.
Who is Jesus.
Matthew records this conversation between Jesus and his disciples,
“When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.”
Matthew 16:13-17.
Jesus himself said,
“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6
He also 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.
Every man and woman on this planet has to decide for themselves who Jesus is. If he is not who he claims to be then there is nothing to fear. If he is all he claimed to be there is a lot to consider.
The choice is yours. Like C. S. Lewis states,
“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.
Please think carefully about it
Wednesday, 3 June 2015
Love not Hate
Love not Hate
“There is one other fundamental difference between love and hate. Love is always a refuge. Hate is never a refuge. Only a mentally sick person can find refuge in his hates. But love is the enduring sanctuary of life. Life may rob you of many things. It often does. But it can never bereave us of love itself. That remains.”
-Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, rabbinic leader, from a December 22, 1940, sermon, quoted in Therefore Choose Life: Selected Sermons, Addresses and Writings of Abba Hillel Silver, Volume One, edited by Herbert Wiesner (1997)
Rabbi Silver was right on with what he said. Love is the key to all meaningful human relationships. Hate can never be a refuge. All those who have ever tried to rule the world by hate have eventually fallen.
Rabbi Silver wrote the words above when world war two was at it height. When millions of Jews and others were being murdered by the Nazis, men full of hate.
Today we have terrorist groups around the world who are trying to use hate and force to conquer lands in the middle east. They are doomed to failure because of the hate they sow.
The one true God is not a God of hate. He is a God of Love.
Napoleon Bonaparte a man who knew more than a little about trying to conquer the world said,
"You speak of Caesar, of Alexander, of their conquests and of the enthusiasm which they enkindled in the hearts of their soldiers; but can you conceive of a dead man making conquests, with an army faithful and entirely devoted to his memory? My armies have forgotten me even while living, as the Carthaginian army forgot Hannibal. Such is our power.”
“I know men and I tell you, Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and at this hour, millions would die for him.”
“I search in vain history to find similar to Jesus Christ, or anything which can approach the gospel. Neither history nor humanity, nor ages, nor nature, offer me anything with which I am able to compare it or to explain it. Here everything is extraordinary.”
Napoleon Bonaparte.
Jesus set the standard for conquering the world. Today 2.2 billion people worship Jesus. His word of the love of God has reached every corner of the world.
Jesus has more people believing in him and his ways than all the terrorist groups in the world today could ever hope to have following them and Jesus did it with love.
The apostle Paul wrote,
“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....
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a,13.
As people of the world be we Christians, or of other faiths we need to be showing more love to those around us.
Love in it’s simplest form is giving of one’s self.
Anne Frank a young Jewish girl who hid most of world war two from the Nazis and later died in a concentration camp wrote,
“Give of yourself, give as much as you can? And you can always, always give something, even if it is only kindness! If everyone were to do this and not be as mean with a kindly word, then there would be much more justice and love in the world. Give and you shall receive, much more than you would have ever thought possible. Give, give again and again, don’t lose courage, keep it up and go on giving! No one has ever become poor from giving!” Anne Frank
This is what we all should be doing be we Christians or not.
Please think about it.
“There is one other fundamental difference between love and hate. Love is always a refuge. Hate is never a refuge. Only a mentally sick person can find refuge in his hates. But love is the enduring sanctuary of life. Life may rob you of many things. It often does. But it can never bereave us of love itself. That remains.”
-Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, rabbinic leader, from a December 22, 1940, sermon, quoted in Therefore Choose Life: Selected Sermons, Addresses and Writings of Abba Hillel Silver, Volume One, edited by Herbert Wiesner (1997)
Rabbi Silver was right on with what he said. Love is the key to all meaningful human relationships. Hate can never be a refuge. All those who have ever tried to rule the world by hate have eventually fallen.
Rabbi Silver wrote the words above when world war two was at it height. When millions of Jews and others were being murdered by the Nazis, men full of hate.
Today we have terrorist groups around the world who are trying to use hate and force to conquer lands in the middle east. They are doomed to failure because of the hate they sow.
The one true God is not a God of hate. He is a God of Love.
Napoleon Bonaparte a man who knew more than a little about trying to conquer the world said,
"You speak of Caesar, of Alexander, of their conquests and of the enthusiasm which they enkindled in the hearts of their soldiers; but can you conceive of a dead man making conquests, with an army faithful and entirely devoted to his memory? My armies have forgotten me even while living, as the Carthaginian army forgot Hannibal. Such is our power.”
“I know men and I tell you, Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and at this hour, millions would die for him.”
“I search in vain history to find similar to Jesus Christ, or anything which can approach the gospel. Neither history nor humanity, nor ages, nor nature, offer me anything with which I am able to compare it or to explain it. Here everything is extraordinary.”
Napoleon Bonaparte.
Jesus set the standard for conquering the world. Today 2.2 billion people worship Jesus. His word of the love of God has reached every corner of the world.
Jesus has more people believing in him and his ways than all the terrorist groups in the world today could ever hope to have following them and Jesus did it with love.
The apostle Paul wrote,
“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....
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a,13.
As people of the world be we Christians, or of other faiths we need to be showing more love to those around us.
Love in it’s simplest form is giving of one’s self.
Anne Frank a young Jewish girl who hid most of world war two from the Nazis and later died in a concentration camp wrote,
“Give of yourself, give as much as you can? And you can always, always give something, even if it is only kindness! If everyone were to do this and not be as mean with a kindly word, then there would be much more justice and love in the world. Give and you shall receive, much more than you would have ever thought possible. Give, give again and again, don’t lose courage, keep it up and go on giving! No one has ever become poor from giving!” Anne Frank
This is what we all should be doing be we Christians or not.
Please think about it.
Tuesday, 2 June 2015
It's about Life
It’s about life
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
John 10:10
“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
John 11:25,26
I’ve heard a lot of people over the years say they live far better lives than some Christians they know. That may be true because Christians like everyone else in this world are far from perfect. As someone has said “Christians are not perfect they are with God’s help, simply progressing.”
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.
When we accept Christ as our Saviour God begins a work in our lives. He if we let Him works to make us better each day.
That however is only half the story. By accepting Christ into our life we receive Eternal Life with God.
I as all Christians do, and the majority of people in the world today, I believe, life does not end with the grave.
If I am right which I believe I am, then the question becomes where will you spend eternity.
I have heard many people say “well if my good out weighs my bad then I’ll get to heaven.”
Christians don’t see it that way. We believe the words of Jesus, who said,
“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6
We believe the words of Paul to the Ephesians who said,
“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, eternal life with God is a free gift to all who will receive it.
Christians believe that God reached down to mankind by sending his one and only son Jesus Christ to this world to show how much he loved us.
The apostle Paul writing to the Romans said,
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:8.
I know it sounds odd, even foolish that God would sent His one and only son to die for us but it is what we Christians believe.
Again to quote the apostle Paul writing to the Corinthian church. Paul writes,
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.”
1 Corinthians 1:18-25.
God does not always work in ways man would consider logical. God does things his way and asks man to have faith in Him.
That’s why I think some believe that Christians preaching Christ crucified dying and ascending to sit at the right hand of God is foolishness.
For the Christian this however is the pillar of our faith and God wants us to walk by faith.
The writer of Hebrews states,
‘And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
Hebrews 11:6
Defining faith as,
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
Hebrews 11:1.
Eternal life with God is as simple as believing in Jesus. Believing that He is God’s One and Only Son. That He came into this world to die for your sins. Then asking Him into your heart and life.
A prayer as simple as this,
Dear Heavenly Father,
I believe in you. I believe that Jesus is your One and Only Son. That He came to earth to die for my sins.
Please forgive my sins and come into my heart and life today.
In Jesus name I pray.
Amen
Please think about it.
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
John 10:10
“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
John 11:25,26
I’ve heard a lot of people over the years say they live far better lives than some Christians they know. That may be true because Christians like everyone else in this world are far from perfect. As someone has said “Christians are not perfect they are with God’s help, simply progressing.”
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.
When we accept Christ as our Saviour God begins a work in our lives. He if we let Him works to make us better each day.
That however is only half the story. By accepting Christ into our life we receive Eternal Life with God.
I as all Christians do, and the majority of people in the world today, I believe, life does not end with the grave.
If I am right which I believe I am, then the question becomes where will you spend eternity.
I have heard many people say “well if my good out weighs my bad then I’ll get to heaven.”
Christians don’t see it that way. We believe the words of Jesus, who said,
“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6
We believe the words of Paul to the Ephesians who said,
“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, eternal life with God is a free gift to all who will receive it.
Christians believe that God reached down to mankind by sending his one and only son Jesus Christ to this world to show how much he loved us.
The apostle Paul writing to the Romans said,
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:8.
I know it sounds odd, even foolish that God would sent His one and only son to die for us but it is what we Christians believe.
Again to quote the apostle Paul writing to the Corinthian church. Paul writes,
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.”
1 Corinthians 1:18-25.
God does not always work in ways man would consider logical. God does things his way and asks man to have faith in Him.
That’s why I think some believe that Christians preaching Christ crucified dying and ascending to sit at the right hand of God is foolishness.
For the Christian this however is the pillar of our faith and God wants us to walk by faith.
The writer of Hebrews states,
‘And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
Hebrews 11:6
Defining faith as,
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
Hebrews 11:1.
Eternal life with God is as simple as believing in Jesus. Believing that He is God’s One and Only Son. That He came into this world to die for your sins. Then asking Him into your heart and life.
A prayer as simple as this,
Dear Heavenly Father,
I believe in you. I believe that Jesus is your One and Only Son. That He came to earth to die for my sins.
Please forgive my sins and come into my heart and life today.
In Jesus name I pray.
Amen
Please think about it.
Monday, 1 June 2015
No Life
No life
“Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.”
Buddha.
Buddha got it right man cannot live a full life without a spiritual life. I have met many men and women who have been successful in their fields of endeavour only to find their life still very empty.
Many people especially it seems in the entertainment industry that have reached the height of their profession only to turn to drugs and alcohol because they are empty in side.
The writer of Ecclesiastes wrote
“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
“I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labour.
Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.”
Ecclesiastes 2:10,11
What the writer is saying here is the material things of this earth are ultimately meaningless.
While there is nothing wrong with being rich and successful all our riches and success is ultimately meaningless in the light of eternity.
The writer of Ecclesiastes after examining all things finally said,
“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 judgement, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.”
Ecclesiastes 12:13,14
The gospel of Matthew records a man asking Jesus this question,
“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 neighbour as yourself.’
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:37-40.
Speaking personally I have gone through it all in my sixty plus years on this earth. I have experienced extreme happiness and deep sorrow.
I have had some bleak dark days that have led me down paths I never wanted to go. Yet through it all, God through his Son Jesus Christ, has been with me holding my hand giving me hope.
Jesus can do it for you also.
Please consider accepting Jesus into your life today.
“Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.”
Buddha.
Buddha got it right man cannot live a full life without a spiritual life. I have met many men and women who have been successful in their fields of endeavour only to find their life still very empty.
Many people especially it seems in the entertainment industry that have reached the height of their profession only to turn to drugs and alcohol because they are empty in side.
The writer of Ecclesiastes wrote
“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
“I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labour.
Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.”
Ecclesiastes 2:10,11
What the writer is saying here is the material things of this earth are ultimately meaningless.
While there is nothing wrong with being rich and successful all our riches and success is ultimately meaningless in the light of eternity.
The writer of Ecclesiastes after examining all things finally said,
“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 judgement, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.”
Ecclesiastes 12:13,14
The gospel of Matthew records a man asking Jesus this question,
“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 neighbour as yourself.’
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:37-40.
Speaking personally I have gone through it all in my sixty plus years on this earth. I have experienced extreme happiness and deep sorrow.
I have had some bleak dark days that have led me down paths I never wanted to go. Yet through it all, God through his Son Jesus Christ, has been with me holding my hand giving me hope.
Jesus can do it for you also.
Please consider accepting Jesus into your life today.
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