The Existence of God

The existence of the universe is such a powerful proof of the existence of God that only a fool could and would deny that fact. Most people capable of reading and discerning are well aware of the multiple levels of “proof” for the existence of God.

The Bible presupposes the existence of God. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1.

While the First Cause does not automatically point to the God of the Bible, with a little thought it quickly becomes apparent that it can be no other. For example, there can be only one Greatest Conceivable Being. This fact eliminates all religions that are not monotheistic.

The Bible teaches that God can be known through faith, the result of which is a revelation from God to us about Himself. Even those fools who purport to live by reason alone soon succumb to the need for faith to support their own arguments. This is a result of the fall in which sin limits our ability to rationally understand anything. 

Friday's Thoughts on Marriage

This is number 14 in a weekly series I began on December 21^st/13 with a post called, “Married Forever?

Christian marriage is not lacking a supernatural element. As Paul highlights and John 17 expands, a Biblical marriage is to pattern itself after the union of the Trinity; a relationship between God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit who live in perpetual love and sacrifice. Jesus on the Cross, speaking words “not My own,” was an example of this loving and sacrificial relationship.

We are created in God's image. 

We were not created to live in our own glory. 

We were not created to worship ourselves. 

“Love the Lord you God with all your strength, heart, soul and mind, AND love your neighbour as yourself.”

It we fail to serve God by loving others, by serving others, we fail live out the nature with which we were created. Violating our nature leads to misery and the breakdown of relationships.

“Who ever wants to save his life must lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” If you seek life as this world understands life, seeking self-protection above all else, you will find misery. If you seek Jesus and put Him first in your life, in your relationships, in your marriage you will have a full and abundant life.

More on this next Friday

God is Just

While followers of Jesus do good, not to gain salvation but because we have been saved, we can know that our good deeds will be rewarded.

God does not give to those whom He has saved, what they justly deserve - eternity in hell.

He does give punishment to those who persist in evil because He is Just.

He does give good for evil, because He is good.

He does give good for good because His grace and mercy endure forever.

He will never give punishment for good because He is not unjust.

He will give punishment for evil and He will give grace for evil to those of His own pleasing. 

The Human Will

Are we at the mercy of our chemicals exchanges? Are we driven by a Selfish Gene? Do we have free will or are we robots?

According to Jesus, neither the elect nor those destined for hell have had their free wills removed. Rather the will of humans is either left in its rebellious state or it is changed to a will that is predisposed to accept the reality of Creator God. And whether we accept or reject the evidence for Creator God, our will is then assisted  toward one destination or the other.

It is God who converts bad wills into good ones. Both types of people, within the context of who they are, choose this over that, this one and not the other, evil or good depending on who God has made them. Those who reject God truly believe they are somehow free because, well, they are not under the spell of God. Wrong. Read Romans 9:22-23. Whether we are part of God’s family or part of those upon whom God’s wrath remains, it is the doing of our Creator and it is within that frameworks that our free will operates. The guilty cannot complain because they are in fact, guilty and the forgiven cannot brag because it is God who has chosen to forgive.

Nothing Else Like It

“I am poured out like water, and all My bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within Me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and My tongue sticks to the roof of My mouth; you lay Me in the dust of death. Dogs have surround Me; a band of evil men has encircled Me; they have pierced My hands and My feet. I can count all My bones; people stare and gloat over Me.”

Jesus, the Son of God placed Himself into the hands of men and we did our absolute worst to Him. As the song says, “How can it be; that you my King would die for me?” God, nailed to a Roman cross by the humans He came to save from sin. The King of kings, Lord of lords, Creator of the Universe gave His life for ours. Such was the love of God for His creation, a creation that of its own free will turned against the greatest love in the universe.

And in that process, Jesus, by the same power that brought us into existence, defeated the great enemy of human-kind, death itself.

On the road to Emmaus, after His resurrection, Jesus spoke with two of His disciples. “And beginning with Moses and the prophets Jesus explained all that had been written about Him.”

Jesus came in weakness to save those who admit they are weak; to those who admit they need forgiveness. He laid down His life of His own freewill, for us. 

Once you know the ending of the story, it is impossible to read the Old Testament without seeing Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus; there's nothing else like it! 

Friday's Thoughts on Marriage

This is number 13 in a weekly series I began on December 21^st/13 with a post called, “Married Forever?

The title of this post could be called, “Squandered Love.” It is not uncommon in marriage to see one or both partners disregard one of the main tenets of, or one of the main definitions of “love,”

Real love does not keep a record of wrongs.

I remember working with a woman who was livid because her husband didn't pray with her. Never mind that he wasn't even a Christian. In her mind, a husband is the spiritual leader of the home and a spiritual leader should pray with his wife for the family. As time passed, she was able to nag him until he did pray with her from time to time. She was happy for one week; until she realized that he didn't pray with her all the time. Real love for another person simply does not keep track of offence, whether the offence is intended or otherwise. There is no need to keep track because real love is simply doing good to another person; nothing more, nothing less.

In many marriages I hear things like, “Yes he left me a nice card that said nice things, but they're just words.” When I ask for further explanation, the person relates that at some point in the past, the “offender” had criticized or said unkind things. Therefore, in this person's mind, any good that is now done is discounted as being worthless.

What a tragedy!

We, all of us have good days and bad. Some days we're able to act in love, and other days we're self-obsessed. Some days we say mean things and mean them, but other times we say kind things and mean those as well. It is such a waste of opportunity, such a squandering of the potential to be loved to push it away, to reject it, to lose the chance to absorb love because of a desire to cling to the past. This type of thinking is usually tied to depressive thinking; the all or nothing thinking.

. If something went wrong this morning, the whole day is ruined.

. If I failed at this, I'm a failure.

. If she was angry at me for not taking out the garbage, she hates me.

And it's the same with God. God, our Creator clearly dislikes those thoughts and behaviours that are destructive to ourselves and others. He hates sin. Some people read our Creator's views on the sin in our lives and completely ignore the fact that “All good things and every perfect gift is from God.” They completely ignore the fact that “If God did not withhold even God the Son, Jesus, from dying to pay the penalty of our sins, there is not the slightest chance that He will withhold anything good from us.”

Don't squander the offerings of love in your life. Grab them. Hold them. Cherish them, and then freely give to others what you have freely received.

More on this next Friday.

Why No Unity?

Many a fool has pointed to disagreements in Church denominations and made some claims as to disagreements equalling irrelevance or worse. First of all, unity does not mean uniformity. Right from the beginning there were different forms of worship. The unity that Jesus demands is in worshipping Him as Creator and Saviour of the universe, regardless of the form that worship takes.

And regardless of what people think, those who have been born again into faith in Christ via the leading of God and the transforming power of the Holy Spirit are one in Christ. In my opinion, the many different denominations simply reflect the diverse nature of humans and the dynamic power of Christianity. Jesus relates to all people in all times in all cultures. The Bible appeals to different people in different ways, and Jesus says that in heaven there will be people from every language, race and tribe.

On the other hand, our fallen nature dictates that we see ourselves as right and others less so. This is wrong, and atheists are correct to criticize this fault in human nature, theirs included.

Paul understood that peace and unity cannot exist apart from the truth of the Gospel. To compromise the Gospel of truth would be to lose what creates our unity and peace. When a decision must be made between unity and truth, unity must yield to truth; for it is better to be divided by truth than united by error. We test the church by truth, not truth by the church. 

Whatever Is, Is Okay

Yesterday I asked one of our 13-year-olds (who functions at about a 5-year-old level), "Why does God love you?"

He thought for a bit and then said with a tone of wonder, "I don't know. He just does. And that makes me happy."

That attitude is a sign that you have truly come to understand God's love and working in your life. 

For myself, after 32 years of learning about and revelling in my relationship with Jesus, I've come to know beyond a shadow of doubt that because of God's love for me, whatever is, is okay, i.e. whatever circumstance I face, it's going to be okay. 

A sure sign that one does not know God is when h/her life is not going as s/he wants, there is not just sorrow or worry, but a deep anger and bitterness.

Rod Bell and satan

The more famous “Red Letter Christians” making the Christian News seem to have one thing in common. And it's not good. I'll use Rob Bell as my example but they all share a similar outlook – with satan -

satan speaks three times:

. Did God really say?

. You will not surely die

. You will be like God

Rob Bell et al. speak three times:

. Did God really say?

. You will not surely die

. You will be with God 

What's He Trying to Prove?

Jesus was forever telling people, “The Kingdom of God is near.” Okay, but what did He mean? What exactly was He trying to prove when He said that?

Well, He actually didn't stop there. What He really meant was, The Kingdom of God is near AND here is what it will be like.

The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.

Matthew 11:5-6

While the miracles that Jesus presented proved that He is who He said He is, they also showed in part, what the Kingdom of God will entail, in full, when He returns to judge the living and the dead.

In the Kingdom of God, there will not be any sickness, no more death, no more injustice, no more tears, no more suffering, grief and unbearable loss. In God's Kingdom peace will reign. There will be no more storms or dangerous waters. There will be more than enough food for everyone. In the Kingdom of God, people will know how to love one another.

When Jesus told people, “The Kingdom of God is near,” He was showing in striking detail the difference between life as we have chosen it to be on earth, and life as God will give to us if we will only humble ourselves before Him and admit that we cannot fix ourselves.

For people like atheists, that is simply too much to ask.

“All You Need Is Love!”

So sang the heroin addicted, wife abusing John Lennon. That's the member of the music group, The Beatles who actually thought that he could bring peace to the world by staying in bed.

On the other hand, all we do need is love; not Lennon's kind of love, but love nevertheless. That's because unlike the world's love (which actually means attracted to), the love that Jesus brings to His followers is patient and kind. It doesn't envy or boast and it's not proud. Jesus' love does not get angry easily and it doesn't keep a record of the wrong that other people do. It isn't rude or self-seeking. It doesn't delight in evil (either doing evil or watching evil), rather it rejoices in Truth of all kinds. Jesus' kind of love always protects, always trusts, always hopes and it always perseveres. Unlike worldly attraction, Jesus' love never fails.

We can show God's love in dozens of practical ways: feeding the hungry, adopting the homeless, visiting the elderly, fighting against the killing of the most vulnerable, sharing our wealth. That's what is meant when we read, “Let your light shine among others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

Those are all good, but how is it of any benefit to anyone if they gain the whole world but lose their soul? To not tell people of the greatest love in the universe, to not let people know that there is forgiveness for real guilt, to not let people know that freedom from the power of sin is available is to not love others at all. As Jesus tells us, “You can give away everything you have, but if you don't have love you are just a useless noise that the world can do without.” 1^st Corinthians 13:3.

“God loved the people of the world so much, that He sent Jesus, God the Son, so that whoever believes in Him will not be separated from God for eternity but have eternal life in paradise.” John 3:16. 

How Then Should I Live?

I saw a documentary about some convict who said, “I decided to follow Islam because Christianity is too easy. All you have to do in Christianity is go to Church and read your Bible and you’re in.”

(((Sigh))) It's like he thinks that as a Christian I indulge my insouciant ways with an ice-tea, lying in a hammock while letting my Creator do the heavy lifting. See whether you think being a follower of Jesus is easy –

. Admitting one’s need for forgiveness and admitting that there is nothing that I can do to warrant salvation is the single most difficult thing that a human being can do.

“The road is narrow and the gate is small and only a few will ever find it.” 

Jesus

. Finding and following the Will of God, loving what God loves and hating what God hates bends the intellect almost beyond the breaking point.

. Agreeing with God that what the world has to offer is useless for real life and real living takes constant reminding.

. Having a relationship with one’s Creator whereby we mean it when we say, “That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 

2^nd Corinthians 2:10, is not for the faint of heart.

. Romans 8:29 is God’s goal of each and every Christian, but oh my what a goal it is. “For God knew His people in advance, and He chose them to become like His Son, so that His Son would be the first-born among many brothers and sisters.”

Hated without cause, mocked, lied to and lied about. Jesus, our example and character goal, came to earth knowing in advance that He would be abused, misunderstood, mistreated, rejected, insulted, betrayed and ultimately have humanity do our absolute worst to Him. Yet He entered into a covenant relationship with us anyway because He loves us. And then Jesus said, “Pick up your cross and follow Me (be like Me, do what I did, act like I did, relate to others like I did), and be ready to die (both literally and figuratively) for Me.

. “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”

Col. 3:12,13

Try Jesus and tell me how easy it is.

. Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Pray for those who persecute you.

. Simply “Doing no harm,” as fools advocate, is not good enough for the path of Christ. The way of Jesus is proactive and encourages doing good to all. Lessening the needs of others whenever and wherever one can is a spiritual fallout of a Christ filled heart.

. “If you think you stand, be careful lest you fall.” A follower of Jesus will never overestimate h/her ability to withstand the power of temptation. Flirting with evil is anathema to those who love Jesus.

. A follower of Jesus does good, and not just when officers of the world are watching. Rather, a follower of Jesus does good to please Him who is always present. “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

. Christian love sees others as worthy of preferential treatment.

“If you have encouragement from being united with Christ, If you have comfort from His love, If you have any fellowship with the Spirit, If you have any tenderness and compassion then in humility consider others better than yourselves. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.   

Philippians 2:3,4,10

Romans 12:10 - “Honour one another above yourselves.”

Gal. 5:13 - “Serve one another in love.”

Eph. 5:21 - “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

1Pt. 5:5 - “All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another because the Lord opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

Islam is the end result of a spiritual quest that passes through atheism / humanism on the road to self-salvation. It is the easiest and default path of all who deny their Creator as Lord of their lives. 

To The Persecuted Church

I remember reading about the 100th anniversary of Christian Missionaries in the Congo. One of the speakers said he was about 12 years old, almost a man, when the missionaries first came. And he said that for years and years and years, in an attempt to drive the missionaries from their country, they poisoned the missionaries and their families. The children were especially susceptible to the poison, he said, and that is what led so many people from the Congo to Jesus. "We did not accept Jesus into our lives by watching how you lived, but by watching how you suffered and died. You always had hope. You never gave up on Jesus and you never gave up on showing His love to us."

"People are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly, in hard times, tough times, bad times, when we're beaten up, jailed, and mobbed; working hard, working late, working without eating; with pure heart, clear head, steady hand; in gentleness, holiness, and honest love; when we're telling the truth, and when God's showing His power; when we're doing our best setting things right; when we're praised, and when we're blamed; slandered, and honoured, true to our word, though distrusted; ignored by the world, but recognized by God; terrifically alive, though rumoured to be dead; beaten within an inch of our lives, but refusing to die; immersed in tears, yet always filled with deep joy; living on handouts, yet enriching many; having nothing, yet having it all. Dear followers of Jesus, I can't tell you how much I long for you to enter the wide-open spacious life. We didn't fence you in. Any smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren't small, but you're living them in a small way. I'm speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!”

From Paul's letter to the believers in Corinth, 6:10-13

To those of you who are experiencing extreme and ultimate persecution, please, for the love of Jesus, at all cost avoid violence, revenge and retribution under the guise of self-protection. It's God who protects. It's God who will bring you safely home when your work on earth is done. 

Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time there was a group of people who took stock of all that the earth possessed. They said to one another, “We're going to need some of all of this stuff, right? But there are other people on this planet who also want what we want. If we're going to ensure that we always have enough, we need to see to it that we have more than enough.”

So, even though they didn't actually need all the materials and minerals and information that they already had, they began to store 10, 50, a 100 times more of everything than they needed. And they used it. They used a lot of it. In fact much of what they used was simply squandered and wasted.

But there were those other people in the world who didn't have enough of what they needed. “Won't you share your knowledge of how to use these resources so that we too can have enough?” they asked the hoarders.

This scared the hoarders very much. 'What if our situation becomes like those who don't have enough?' they thought to themselves. 'We need to grab and keep even more of the world's resources for ourselves.”

“But we're dying!” pleaded the rest of the world. “Our children need what you have. Please don't abandon us!”

“We're not abandoning you,” shouted the hoarders. “We're taking care of our own. God helps those who help themselves to whatever they see.”

This made the dying very angry, both at the hoarders and at the religion the hoarders tried to teach those who were dying. So, in fear that those who were dying would demand that the hoarders share their wealth, the grossly wealthy began to build walls to keep out the needy, and they bought guns and more guns. And then they built missiles and warships to ensure the safety of their wealth.

Just as Jesus had warned, all this wealth and all these guns did nothing to provide for a feeling of safety and security. In fact, the hoarders grew depressed and anxious. They became fearful not just of the needy “over there.” They became fearful of their neighbours. Instead of enjoying comfort and contentment, their moods fluctuated wildly between grandiose thinking driven by a level of energy that seemed like madness, to depths of depression and hopelessness. They looked for people to blame and found no shortage of suspects; from those of a different skin colour, to those who spoke a different language, to those who voted differently and even to those who had sex in a different manner or who worshipped differently - and in the case of atheists, they grew fearful of those who worshipped at all. 

The hoarders tried everything they could think of to distract themselves from the mess they'd created. There arose such a demand for mood altering drugs that the laws were changed to legalize them. So too with every form of sexual distraction that could be imagined. Family breakdown was celebrated as something good, as were beauty and fame and violence. In fact, as entertainment the people watched lot's and lot's of violence and it made them feel powerful and aggressive - which was seen as a good thing.

Sadly the hoarders rejected the one source of advice that commanded them to share what they had. They tried everything but loving their neighbours. 

Friday's Thoughts on Marriage

This is number 8 in a weekly series begun on December 21^st/13 with a post called, “Married Forever?”

So which is it? Is the purpose of marriage to promote the good of family and society? Or is it to enhance the well-being of self? It might surprise you to know that Jesus didn't set marriage up as a choice between one or the other. I know, that's how the world views Biblical marriage - oppression of self-fulfillment. However, like most other things that have to do with Jesus and His teaching, the world is wrong. In reality, God brought marriage into being with the intent of showing that mutual fulfilment could only come through mutual sacrifice for one another.

To set an example for us, Jesus gave up His rights and He died to self to bring us into a healed relationship with Himself and then He said, “Follow Me, be like Me, do in your relationships what I did in My relationships. Submitting to Jesus by submitting to one another in our marriages brings personal fulfilment. A marriage where two people engage in loving surrender to each other drives away fear of abandonment, ends loneliness, and grows us into Christ-likeness. And that is the point of life (Romans 8:29). That is the “good” that God works for in all things for believers; to make us more and more like Jesus. The more you live out the Gospel of Grace toward each other, the closer you become toward each other and to Jesus. That's the secret, or the mystery of which Paul speaks.

Biblical marriage will change your heart and soul.

I heard a comedian once, who said, “No matter how smart you think you are, you're not that smart.” That's true, but so is the Bible which explains, “No matter how good you think you are, you're not that good.” We need to be changed. Society and the world at large needs us to be changed. A Biblical marriage will bring about that inner change unlike anything else. That is because Biblical marriage teaches us what it means to love.

Through expressing the enormous love that Jesus washes over us, we are truly transformed. However, this awareness of who we really are must be brought forth in an atmosphere of love. Without a loving environment, we simply will not hear the truth. In the absence of the certainty of love, men hear criticism as rejection and women hear it as a lack of love. With the certainty of love we not only hear the truth about our sin with which our partner must live, we long to repent of our sin and be changed. God's mercy and grace, freely received can then be freely given.

More on this next Friday

The Good Atheist

I haven't read any atheist blogs for a long time. However, when I left that part of the internet, there was a HUGE push for atheists to start being good people, demonstrably good, publicly good. After thousands of years of mocking and jeering those who attempt to follow God, derisively calling them do-gooders, modern atheists have declared, “For the survival and growth of atheism we have to start acting more like Christians. We have to do more for others.” The old atheist tendency, found in the comment of one atheist blogger, “Can't I just fuck around and watch tv if I want to?” is no longer acceptable to organized atheism. There are now rules to follow.

That's why atheists do good for non kin relationships. But the question then arises, what about Christians? Why are they such – well – such do-gooders?

I think the reason is, it's not the Christian who's doing it. When you see true Holiness taking place it's because of the presence of the Holy Spirit. In fact, where there is no Holiness, there is no Holy Spirit.

For those in a healed and forgiven relationship with Jesus, it is His Spirit who directs and guides them toward the things that interest Him. To put it crudely, 

Christians are possessed. 

And as long as they obey Jesus' command to, “Abide in Me,” Christians will do what the Holy Spirit leads, directs and guides them to do. Jesus said, “Where I Am, there My servants will be also.” And where is Jesus? He's with the poor, the sick and the down-trodden and with those on the fringes of society. Jesus is serving and by extension, so are His servants. 

Why Me?

I remember watching a scene in a movie where a mother was feeling helpless in view of her young son's terminal illness. She was angry and she was taking this anger out on a young Pastor who had come to visit. The mother wanted to know why, why was her son sick when all over the neighbourhood young boys were laughing and playing and running around without the slightest thought of someday not being able to play because of illness. The mother said to the Pastor, “When young Bradly was well, I never asked why we deserved such good fortune. Now however, you're damn right I want to know. Why would God do this to us? I want to know!”

And so too, I ask, “Why me? Why do I have so much? Why have I always had so much. Why was I destined to be born in this country at this time in history when I have so much more of everything than I need to survive.

It’s weird how we never demand an answer from God as to why He gave us hands that work perfectly, picking up, turning things off and on, fixing, adjusting, caressing, creating and exploring with exquisite dexterity. It’s mind-boggling to watch how we don’t demand an answer from God as to why He gave us mouths with the ability to sound out words, taste foods, sense temperature and texture with extraordinary sensitivity; mouths and vocal cords that can moan, cry and sing. We never seem to consider the contradiction in how we don’t demand an answer from God as to why He gave us eyes that can communicate emotion and explore the majestic beauty of Creation, yet curse Him and demand all reference to Him be removed from the public sphere. 

We use the word creation without ever considering the Creator. 

We never seem to wonder why it is that we don’t demand an answer from God as to why He has allowed us to be born in an unimaginably huge and hostile universe on this little jewel of a planet. We don’t ever consider why we don’t demand an answer from God as to why He continues to allow us to take for granted the fact that we have more food than we can eat; as much money as we need, and a health care system that the majority of humanity cannot even conceive of. 

We don’t ever seem to wonder what kind of a person would take all of these gifts and still curse the God who gave it all to us.

Atheists especially don’t ever seem to think it odd that they don’t demand an answer from God as to why He is so good to them even when they hate Him, ignore Him, reject Him and hate those who love Him. Of course if a conversation goes in this direction, atheists will immediately yell "There is no God," since it doesn’t work so well to let God exist only when you want to blame Him for something.

Where Is Your Heart?

Jesus is quoted by Matthew, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

To put it another way, 'Show me where you spend your discretionary money and time, and I'll tell you what you consider most valuable.' Is it the distraction of sports? Clothes? Vehicles and recreational vehicles? How about mood altering chemicals? Vacations? Tools? Investments? 

The context of what Jesus was talking about is our human desire for more wealth than we need. “You cannot serve both God and money.” He could have added, 'Though most of you will spend your life trying.' When we are young, most of our money goes to acquiring “things.” As people age they start storing up money for when they retire. This, even though Jesus said, “How can it be of any benefit for anyone if s/he gains the whole world, yet loses h/her soul?” 

Well, there is no benefit to accumulating wealth, but that doesn't keep people from trying.

“The world’s 85 richest individuals now own as much as the poorest half of the 7 billion global population (that's 3.5 billion people), according to a report released by Oxfam on Monday. One per cent of the world's families now own 46% of the world's wealth.”

I doubt that any of those people would stumble across this blog, but we regular people are no different. Any person within reach of a key-board is richer than most people in the world. And we want more! As Buddha is reported to have said, “No matter how much you have, a time will come when you will say, “this is not enough.”

Herbert Marcuse has said, “People have been seduced into a comfortable, attractive, tasteful, fully enjoyable, form of slavery. This is the worst kind of slavery.”

We are slaves to ease of living. We work feverishly to pay for things we don't need. We honestly believe that security can be found in storing up “treasures” for ourselves here on earth, where they inevitably deteriorate into junk. And by we, I am now talking about Christians. Or at least those of us who call ourselves Christians. So far is the behaviour of Christians from the teaching of Jesus the Christ that Pope Francis said today, "I ask you to ensure humanity is served by wealth, and not ruled by it." 

It can't go on. It won't go on.

Jesus came to bring a Kingdom of generosity, and fairness, and decency among humans. He expects us, as His followers, to end discrimination and present to the world a mighty river of mercy. We are to care for the poor, not blame them for their fate. We are to care for orphans, not kill them before, or in some cases (see atheist Peter Singer) even after they're are born. “Any foetus is less human than an adult pig.” atheist Richard Dawkins

We are so terribly far from where we need to be, and God promises that there is going to be hell to pay because of our negligence and greed and our pure unadulterated self-love.

And for what? What exactly does an accumulation of wealth bring us? Not what we expect it to bring; that's for sure.

“Most people pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry right past it.” Kierkegaard 

Are You a Good Person?

If heaven existed, do you think that you should be allowed entrance based upon how good you are? Most atheists for example are adamant that they are good people. They have to believe that because their mantra is, "I don't need God to be a good person." But don't we have to ask, according to what standard should we measure ourselves to make our evaluation accurate? For example:

. How many lies have you told in your life? The average person tells at least five lies per day. What do you call someone who has told countless lies?

. Have you ever stolen something in your life? Have you taken something that doesn't belong to you? What do you call someone who steals?

. Have you ever used God's name in vain, or without respect? That's called blasphemy. What do you call someone who uses God's name lightly or in cursing?

. Jesus said, if you look at another person with lust in your heart, imagining having sex with that person, you are guilty of committing adultery. What do you call people who commits adultery?

Our Creator says that He is the standard by which we measure our level of goodness. Not Gandhi, no Hitler, not your neighbour and not yourself.

By your own admission you're a lying, thieving, blaspheming, adulterous person in your own heart, and that's only reviewing four of the ten commandments. How then can you consider yourself to be a good person, good enough to be allowed into the presence of a perfectly Holy Creator God?

A good Judge must see that justice is done, that wrong is punished and that those on the side of wrong are removed from those who long and choose to do right. Because the price for your sins were paid for by Jesus (God the Son), God the Father who is perfectly Just can legally dismiss your penalty.

Jesus said, “The price of sin, the wages of sin, the consequences of sin is eternal separation from God and everything and anything that is good. We call that separation “Hell.”

Because that reality is so horrific God put in place a plan, whereby the penalty of sin would be paid at His own expense. Jesus paid the price for you sins and He said that if you would seek His forgiveness and obey Him out of gratitude for His enormous love, you can avoid hell and spend eternity in heaven with Him.

What kind of a person would ignore and/or reject that kind of offer?

Friday's Thoughts on Marriage

The 5th in a series -

Have you ever wondered what is the impact on marriage when the reality of God is denied? Think about it! If we used to turn to God for our source of meaning and purpose, love and redemption; those things that humans need in order to be emotionally and spiritually healthy, what do we do when the only true source of those things is ignored? Naturally we turn to another human to supply our deepest needs.

Have you ever wondered what happens to marriages when that kind of pressure is placed on one or both marriage partners? Yep. They disintegrate under the impossible load. Those who contend that traditional (Biblical) marriage is suffocating, in turn reject the only possible way to allow freedom in marriage (each person living for God) and place a truly oppressive expectation on the marriage partners. And then, after the marriage ends, they say, “Life long, monogamous, committed marriage is impossible to create.”

The fact is, society needs people who are able to sustain long-term, monogamous committed marriage. Without our ability to commit to the good of at least one other human being, we will see humanity fragment into billions of pieces. Both the children that inevitably come from sexual unions and the adults around the world desperately need this ability on the part of humans.

Sadly there is only one way to achieve these kind of relationships and those who have rejected God and His guidelines are simply not able to get the job done. I'm not talking about the longevity of marriage. The celebration of the 50^th anniversary make strike a cord within, but longevity is no guarantee of quality. As was heard by a son from his dad after burying a wife of 53 years, “I never loved that woman.” For various reasons, lots of people just stick it out. That's not the kind of marriage I'm advocating.

Ironically, people long to be married; especially those who lack the skills to maintain a quality relationship. And ironically it is those who downplay the effects of sin and who ignore the divine origin of marriage who think they'll do the best at having a good marriage. And when the inevitable crash comes, it is not the people within the marriage who are blamed but the institution of marriage itself.

I maintain that without knowing the secret of marriage, that Paul describes for us in the New Testament, no marriage can reach the level of personal satisfaction and glorification of Jesus that it was intended to attain.

More on this next Friday