Thinking about God, Jesus and The Big Questions

As the son of God, there were many things Jesus could have been doing at any one time. Yet he kept His focus on the ministry He was there to do. The temptation to get sidetracked would have been incredible, since He was around other people all the time who asked Him to do things.  He did always find time to help people on the way to what He was doing. But he never lost his focus of the main thing. Here is an example in the book of Mark: In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also, for that is what I came out to do.” And he went throughout all Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons. Mark 1: 35-39 As you can see, His priority was to first pray, in solitude. He needed th...

Each year, I read the Bible all the way through. Each year, I always find it almost surprising how much of the Bible is the Old Testament. In fact, the New Testament is only about a quarter of the Bible.  This means if we want to learn as much as we can about Jesus, it will still be a fraction of what is written in the Bible. But it makes sense, if we think about it. There are many signposts in the Old Testament pointing to Jesus. We can't just ignore the signposts and focus purely on Jesus, even if we kind of want to. The signpost are part of the journey. We can't just say "let's skip ahead to the good stuff" - because all of it hangs together. It's a history - that points to Jesus. Indeed, right now, we are living a part of time where the Bible has shown that in the future are signposts to the end of the days. It is fairly specific about some of these. For example, take a look at these 2 very specific events which are in our future . Just as the Old Testamen...

I was reading the passage of Mary and Martha again. While I have talked before about it , an additional angle on it was revealed during the most recent reading. This is the Bible passage where Jesus visits Mary and Martha: Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’ But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.’ Luke 10: 38-42 It is clear from the message that if we have a choice between ministering to Jesus or hearing what he has to say, we should pick hearing what he has to say (which I covered in...

It's easy to get caught up in the busy day to day things that we need to do and forget what is literally the most valuable thing in the universe. It's the Kingdom of Heaven. Its value is spelled out clearly in the Bible, and we will take a look at this passage below.  The Kingdom of Heaven not just a nice-to-have; it's a must-have. It's to the point that we should be willing to trade anything else for it. As a reminder, if God exists and is the ruler of the Universe, and if He guided the writing of the Bible, then the writings of the Bible should be more significant than any other writing in this world. Let's take a look at what Jesus himself told people about the value of Heaven: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. ‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls;  on finding one pearl of great value, he went and so...

It is clear from the Bible that Jesus came to save all people. In Revelation it says there will be people from all nations, tongues and tribes in heaven.  Far right ideology is not compatible with the Bible and with Christianity. Here I'm talking about the far right ideology of white supremacy where its adherents believe that white people are superior to other races. This belief is clearly shown to be wrong in the Bible. After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. Revelation 7:9 We can see from the verse above that people from all nations, tribes and languages will know God.  Furthermore, if there was to be one race that is deemed special in God's eyes, it would be the Jewish people. They are God's chosen people. Jesus still came for all people - first for the Jews, then for the ...

In Isaiah 19, there is a reference to the "language of Canaan" being spoken in Egypt in the future. From what Bible scholars say, the language of Canaan is a type of Hebrew language (see reference 1). It's the language that the Hebrews spoke in the land of Canaan. Let's take a look at what is actually said in Isaiah. In it, there is a clear prophecy of a time in the future where the Nile is dried up: The waters of the Nile will be dried up, and the river will be parched and dry; its canals will become foul, and the branches of Egypt’s Nile will diminish and dry up; reeds and rushes will rot away. There will be bare places by the Nile, on the brink of the Nile; and all that is sown by the Nile will dry up, be driven away, and be no more. Those who fish will mourn; all who cast hooks in the Nile will lament, and those who spread nets on the water will languish. The workers in flax will be in despair, and the carders and those at the loom ...

It's clear when Solomon asked God for wisdom, that this was pleasing to God.  The book of Proverbs covers a lot about the importance of wisdom. Solomon was the wisest man in the world. Because the wisest man in the world was clear about the importance of wisdom, it should be even more important to us (who are in more need of it than Solomon). All wisdom comes from God. Therefore, praying for more wisdom will always be a good prayer and is in keeping with what God wants for us anyway. Then it occurred to me - why not ask for the same for our bodies? We should not automatically assume that our bodies have to only go in one direction: downhill, as we age. Even though this happens a lot, we shouldn't just assume it's inevitable.  Of course, we needn't be foolhardy either and refuse to make useful changes as we age! If sometime in the future I get to the point that I'm struggling to mow the lawns, I'm hoping that I'll realize it's time to either hire a lawn ...