Thinking about God, Jesus and The Big Questions

Jesus' suffering on the cross was surely in part physical.  The tortures to which his body was subjected must have felt indescribably painful, to say the least.  The son of God being tortured by us humans, all of us sinners who were 'not good enough even to carry his sandals' [from  Matthew 3:11] and 'a people of unclean lips' [from Isaiah 6:5] must also have been a horrifying concept mentally. However, this is not the sum total of the incalculable sacrifice that was made when Jesus died for us. Instead, by far biggest suffering must have been the spiritual pain experienced when his Father had seemed to desert him in his final moments on the cross:   At three o'clock Jesus cried out with a loud shout, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why did you abandon me?" Mark 15:34 Jesus had clearly had more than an inkling of how horrible this would be, because he had previously prayed in the Garden of Gesthemane to have ...

Imagine if Noah hadn't bothered to listen to what God wanted.  Instead of building an ark (which admittedly would have sounded like a crazy idea to most people at that time - or even today!), suppose Noah had decided to do 'something good'.  For example, started a soup kitchen for the poor.  Or countless other possibilities, all of which were very helpful at that moment but wouldn't be of any use to anyone once the flood came.  Noah clearly listened to God's wishes and spent his time on that project, even if this meant that he would be ridiculed by his neighbors.  So it's equally important that we a) determine what it is that God is asking of us and b) listen to him and follow through on that task, even if we don't understand or see the eventual outcome of the work. With so many 'generically helpful' things out there to do, it is important to ensure that we are doing is part of God's appointed task for us.  I'm not suggesting we give up o...

Who is God? This is one of the biggest questions anyone can ask.  So many people have preconceived notions of what God 'should' be like (and some get very confused when they find out that the Bible isn't in agreement with their personal prejudices!)  If you want to find out who God is, this is where I would really recommend trying the experiment of reading the Bible without any preconceived ideas.  God is our creator , as is made clear in Genesis.  He made not only us, but our world and our Universe. (Here people tend to get bogged down about evolution vs creationism - they are not mutually exclusive!) God is good (here people get bogged down about why bad things happen if God is good; read more here ).  God is all-knowing and all-powerful (yet again, people get bogged down about whether we actually have Free Will - yes we do; read about Free Will here ).  God hates sin , yet all of us humans are sinners.  Sin is just the most horrible thing ...

No, it is not possible to simultaneously be a Christian while following a different religion.  Why? Because Christians believe that Jesus is the son of God.  Other religions, even the Abrahamic faiths (Muslim and Jewish) who recognize Jesus existed as a person, do not believe he is the Son of God.  Since this is one of the tenets on which Christianity depends, it is impossible to reconcile these viewpoints.  If someone claims to believe another religion at the same time as Christianity, he or she cannot have truly examined the beliefs of Christianity.  However, we can still be respectful of other religions without believing in them.  So for example, a Christian may quite well respect their Hindu friends' beliefs, but that is not the same thing as believing in Hinduism. If we say we are Christian, we should make sure our beliefs match this.  For example, no-one who claims to be of the Christian religion should ever say 'Jesus was just a good p...

With all the bad things happening in the world, plenty of people find themselves drawn to ask why God created a Universe that can become so chaotic (for example, where volcanos or tsunamis can happen). The answer to that is due to the consequences of Adam and Eve disobeying God and losing the Garden of Eden: To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” Genesis 3:17-19 Thus, some of the difficulties of nature that we have to deal with (such as thorns, thistles, weeds) are a direct result of Adam and Eve disobeying God and therefore having...