Thinking about God, Jesus and The Big Questions

The expectations of society, of the local community, can be a very powerful force. People who do something different to the usual customs in the local area may experience prejudice, criticism and negativity from others around them.  In the case of a new Christian in areas where Christianity is not readily accepted, these new Christians are exposed to a very challenging set of circumstances. Some may have family members who no longer wish to have a relationship with them. Others may experience discrimination in the workplace, socially or in other parts of their lives. As extremely difficult as this is, it can be encouraging to remind ourselves that surely Noah (who was a Jew, the same as everyone else back then) had even more societal pressure. Why? He heard God's call for him to build an ark. His friends and neighbors must have thought he was crazy. And his ark was a very public thing. Even if he had desired to hide it from strangers and just let a few trusted people know about t...

Many people want others to think that any positive attributes they have are things they developed on their own. It's true that they might have worked hard at something. But likely, God helped them too. Why not acknowledge God for that during prayer time? Let's look at an analogy. Suppose you were gifted a nice accessory item by a celebrity, and you wear this accessory every day. If someone compliments you on it, surely you would be proud to say "so-and-so gave this to me!"  In that case then, why not apply that same mindset to things given to us by God? We can be thankful to God in our prayer time for these things. Look, the ruler of the universe blessed you with a particular positive attribute!  It's perfectly OK (and very human) to want to work hard at something, for example to compose a musical as well as it could possibly be composed, or to paint an amazing painting. And it is perfectly OK to be happy with the result and to take some joy in that. That is not g...

Previously, I have talked about how we can catch a glimpse of God through the lenses of nature, music, knowledge, friendship, and more . I talked about how it's a little bit like in the Harry Potter books when Hermione seeks the basilisk through indirect means such as a mirror, so as not to stare at it face to face. Jesus, however, is not one of those other lenses. Jesus is instead a direct representation of God. This is made abundantly clear in this verse from the Bible where Philip asks Jesus to show him God the father. Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father ...

The Bible is strongly supportive of charitable giving. The effective altruism movement, or EA, is focused on charitable giving. But that is where their similarities end. EA is not in line with how the Bible says we should donate our money or time.  I am not saying that EA is intrinsically unethical - I'm simply saying that its aims are in conflict with what the Bible says we should do. So it's therefore a very secular approach to giving - which may not be a problem for you if you're an unbeliever. But for believers, it simply doesn't line up with the Bible.  Here we will take a look at what the Bible says we should do with regards to donating time or money. Then we will look briefly at EA. Disclaimer : Although I have done some research on EA for the purposes of this blog post, I am by  no means an expert on it. It's entirely possible I have missed some of its nuances. Nonetheless, even with those caveats, I still don't see how EA is compatible with Christianit...

It's hard to exactly put a definition of faith. I am not a theologian. Ultimately, what faith means to me (which is not necessarily a theologically correct definition of faith) is this: Knowing that God is still there, is still with us, and that His plan is still going to work. Even at times when earthly happenings make it seem like this is not the case. A biblical definition of faith is given in this Bible passage from Hebrews: Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible. Hebrews 11: 1-3 As we saw from this Bible reading, faith is about the things unseen (to humans). Likewise, my own definition also comes down to things that we can't see ourselves. Just because we can't see something, it doesn't mean it's not there. I have covered this concept ...

There is much written in the Bible about false prophets. These are people who claim to be prophets but they are not getting their information from God - instead they are spreading things that they made up. Today, we also have false prophets in Christianity. These people spread misinformation. Often this misinformation is poorly interpreted Bible readings, but sometimes it can spread outside the sphere of the spiritual and into political things.  This is why it's very important that each person, whether a Christian or questioning, should read the Bible for themselves and compare it to what is being said by someone else. As a concrete example, some false prophets will claim to be Christian but they say racist things. Racism is not compatible with Christianity (I have written more about that here ). It is made abundantly clear in the Bible that salvation is made available for all people who choose to take this free gift of Jesus's sacrifice - not just certain people or certain ra...

After Jesus died on the cross and before He rose again, what might it have felt like to the women such as Mary his mother, and his disciples? This year at Easter I pondered this question.  The women went to the tomb early in the morning with the intent of preparing the body for burial. As they went, was there any doubt creeping into their heads about Jesus? If I was one of them, I would have surely been tempted to wonder if He was really the son of God. If He was killed, what was the point of this?  Of course, his mother Mary had the advantage of knowing the entire time that Jesus truly was the son of God - an angel had come to her to tell her when she was pregnant. An angel had visited her husband Joseph too, to give him the same information. But even knowing that Jesus was the son of God, did Mary wonder at any point whether God's plan had gone awry somewhere at the end? Or was she confident about the way things happened? And how about the disciples? The disciples had seen m...