Thinking about God, Jesus and The Big Questions

This is the long-promised post on this topic.  One of the things I noticed is that after reading the Bible without pre-conceived ideas, it became much clearer to me why bad things still happen when God exists and is good.  It all comes down to free will.  God created everything, all the angels, including Satan.  God also created us.  He wanted his creations to have free will and not be automatons.  This means he wants us to follow him, but he will not force us to do so.  Therefore, if everyone has free will then they can take actions which might be harmful to others.  So for instance, someone could steal from someone else.  Obviously, this is not what God wants us to do.  He could stop it from happening every time, but if he did, he would be taking away our free will.  So God gave us free willl, but some people will use it to do bad things.  So this is why bad things happen. As a little girl, I sometimes wished that Go...

Apparently, the Mayan calendar only goes up to December 21, 2012. So a few people believe that this will mark the end of the world. When we think about it, this is a ridiculous conclusion. After all, a calendar has to have a finite endpoint. Sure, the end of the world is one possible interpretation, but so is the notion of some ancient Mayans saying "OK, let's stop at 2012, that should give us plenty of time before we need to lengthen the calendar". Furthermore, imagine an alien civilization examining Earth's technology just prior to the turn of the millenium: "Wow, these Earthlings didn't really bother considering dates past Dec 1999 in their computers. Clearly they believed their world would end at the year 2000!" We don't know the details behind why the Mayans stopped their calendar for 2012, but this does not mean the end of the world will occur then. (Read here for a balanced article from USA Today ). Let's look at what the Bible says abo...

One of the things I find the hardest is to put in practice God and Jesus's teachings in the busy 'real world'. In fact one of the biggest struggles I have is listening to a religious leader (whose full-time job is in ministry) exhort us to do various ministry works, when the rest of us are so busy already with demands of a secular job and/or caring for children or other dependents. It is easy to feel that the religious leader is simply 'out of touch' with the demands on our time, yet I know that they are simply conveying the message that is there in the Bible. So, as a (currently) stay-at-home mother, why did I feel a drive within me to find some volunteer work I could do? After all, wasn't I already justifiably busy with the unpredictable and full-time demands of a baby? (To clarify ahead of time, I certainly didn't feel I was guilted into volunteering by religious leaders). So why did I feel to need to help minister to others? (For those who are curious ...

I've noticed a disturbing trend lately where there has been a rejection of the Bible/Christianity for the reason that it does not mesh with what that person heard in Sunday School many years ago. The Sunday School version is not incorrect, but we need to be aware that it is a simplified version of the 'real God' for a younger audience. If someone then reads the Bible later on, they (like me) will find that there is a lot more to the Bible than what one learns in Sunday School. The God of the Bible may even seem 'different' compared with what one learns in Sunday School. This is because we are more mature and are learning more of the Bible, not because religion is incorrect or inconsistent. The God that we learn of in the Bible, is, in turn, only a shadow of what we will see when we meet Him face-to-face. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see bu...

It was only recently that I had heard an acronym for the Bible: Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth. It made me reflect that indeed, we are all in need of this basic instruction before we leave Earth. For indeed, we all at some point will leave Earth. The death rate is still one per person. I just felt compelled to blog this. -Ver If you found this post interesting, you might also like these related posts on this blog: Confusion Between Sunday School and the Bible Are We Saved by Works or by Faith? The Myth of the Mayan Calendar Predicting End of World in 2012 "I'm just too busy right now!" vs God as a Boss The First Thing I Found Out... We Have Free Will

I have read the fiction book "The Shack" by William Paul Young (check out its website at http://www.theshackbook.com/ ). I actually read it as part of a study at church, so it was not something I would have thought of reading otherwise, but I was very glad I did. As a bottom line, I would strongly recommend this book to anyone, but especially those who: have had or are having bad experiences with the church or organized religion, are wondering why bad things happen if God is good, are unable to acknowledge God in the middle of a personal tragedy, are struggling with forgiveness. I admit I had some reservations initially, it has been a controversial book. I am reviewing here only the book and not its background, but for those who are interested in more, click here for a balanced review from USA Today giving some of the book's history and author's background, as well as comments from some Christian church leaders. The reservations I had were dispelled by the t...

The word 'Christmas' has often been replaced with the generic 'holidays'. I'm not saying everyone should convert to saying 'Christmas' (after all, there are a lot of atheists, Jews and so on who don't believe in Christmas or have their own holidays of different nomenclature). However, I realized I personally had got to the stage where I was almost afraid to say 'Christmas' for fear of offending someone. I needed to address this in a way that was (hopefully) non-offensive to others, but where I am clearly standing up for my beliefs. Here started my Christmas experiment, which was to wear a T-shirt saying 'Merry Christmas! Happy birthday Jesus' during my Christmas travel (two flights each way). I was curious. Would anyone say anything to me at all about this? Would anyone take open offense? The result? No-one said anything to me either way. My belief in fellow man's tolerance for freedom of speech and of religion was largely regained ...