Thinking about God, Jesus and The Big Questions

Note: This may be a controversial topic for some. I am not telling everyone else how they should do anything - we are each responsible for our own parenting decisions. I am merely explaining my own thoughts on the matter. Regardless, if this topic does seem a contentious issue, we should keep it in perspective that this should not be a big deal so long as each person follows their own beliefs. If this does seem like a big deal, bear in mind this is a "first world problem". Why this Christmas I'm finally not worried about spoiling it for other kids if my 5 and 7-year olds accidentally blurt out the truth about Santa: I chose to tell the truth to my kids right away about Santa, from when they were really little. I never let them think that Santa was real. I was brought up that same way too, and I can assure you I never felt that I missed out. I definitely find the story of Santa to be fun, for sure! But it is just that: a story, a fairytale. So I tell my kids the st...

In my second time of reading the Bible, I was struck by the readiness of Jesus' first disciples to follow him.   As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.   “Come, follow me,”  Jesus said,  “and I will send you out to fish for people.”   At once they left their nets and followed him. When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets.   Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him. Mark 1:16-20 Fishing was the livelihood of these men. They were obviously already actively working for the day when Jesus approached them. How did these men have the discernment to realize that what Jesus was offering was more important than what they were currently doing?  I translated the situation into modern terms and mentally put myself ...

I realized that it is easy to be straying from God without even being aware of it, which is why I have called this post "Straying blindly." This is what happened to me for a while. I think in a way, this is a lot more insidious that when we knowingly stray. When we knowingly stray, we might not be going to church for awhile, and/or not be praying or reading the Bible daily - not making the time to have a relationship with God. Or perhaps we might be involved in unethical activities. Either way, when these situations happen, we often feel guilty and are aware this is happening. Sometimes we even feel trapped. In any case, in these situations, we know we're straying. However, it can also happen that we are straying without really being aware of it. Like the sheep who thinks the flock is nearby, we might wander off a little further each time, never really realizing that we are away from the Shepherd. In a sense, that is more dangerous because we don't know we have st...

The scripture about binding and loosing is something which I had always struggled to understand.  I had typically not worried about it too much in the past. But now, on my second time through reading the Bible, I decided that this was something I needed to understand, or at least attempt to understand. I figured this verse was a very important verse, for two reasons: Jesus uttered it himself He actually spoke these words twice, once in each of two different chapters of Matthew in the Bible. I figured that for it to be said twice, it must be very important.  The one which I noticed the most was the second time it was stated, in Matthew 18: “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Matthew 18: 18 So I decided it was time to understand these scriptures. What did I do? Well, first I prayed. I knew I would not get anywhere with this without prayer. Secondly I stu...

I am a worrier. I suspect I am not alone in worrying about things which don't need to be worried about. For the longest time, I used to grapple with this problem. From a spiritual standpoint, we should not worry about things that are not significant in the big picture. Worrying can indicate a lack of faith or too much preoccupation with the things of this world. In theory, Christians should not worry, because the important thing is that Jesus died on the cross to pay the price of our sins so we could have everlasting life with God and Jesus in heaven. Everything else should pale in comparison. But what happens when the things of this world do not pale in comparison to Jesus's sacrifice? I know that this is a big problem for me. For a long time I would try to use the verse in Matthew which exhorts us not to worry.  This is indeed an extremely helpful verse (see below), but I could not seem to let myself put it to use. After reading and re-reading this verse, I would berate...

I've noticed that it's deceptively easy to get so busy at fighting against other things, that we can fail to recognize and fight the real enemy. The real enemy, obviously, is Satan. Yet, we often spend a lot of our energy fighting all kinds of other (more secular) things, such as taxes, political leaders, and so on, that we don't ever bother fighting Satan.  Indeed, this is playing into Satan's hands.  There is nothing he would like more than for you to be distracted into thinking that someone else is the bad guy. It's not that we shouldn't care at all about what's going on in the world, and things like social injustice. We should care, and caring translates into action. Going off on a rant or yelling at people is not really going to help. If caring about an issue translates into constructive action, fine.  But I feel it's all too easy for me to do something totally non-constructive such as complain about something that's going on in the world, w...

If we want to send a message in its most virtual form, then email (or text message, etc etc) is the mode of communication we would choose. Moving up one level into the 'real world' setting, we would write a notecard or talk to the person face to face. Moving up one more level into the even more concrete realm, we would pray. These three modes of communication are shown from most virtual to most real.  Before reading the Bible, I would have put the prayer as being the most virtual.  Now, I really do know that prayer is the most real of these three methods of communication.  Why? Because it lets us touch heaven .  Remember, the spiritual world is not ephemeral. It is actually more concrete than the physical world .  We ourselves are not able to detect it so easily and directly as we can the physical world, but that does not mean the spiritual world is less concrete. Besides being more real and more concrete, the spiritual universe surrounds our uni...

Have you ever tried to do some good work (e.g. volunteer work) that seemed really hard to you, and that you didn't really like? I've done that a lot.  I have also done some volunteer work that seemed surprisingly easy and fun, and was a joy to do, not a burden. What is the difference? Well, some of the difference is the work itself, for sure.  If you have a natural interest in the work then it will obviously seem easier and more fun to you. But the bigger reason is God.  God makes the impossible become possible.  He makes difficult work become easy.  When this happens (you find yourself doing something which you really enjoy while you're doing it) then you know this is God acting in your life. If you do not have the skill for something, yet feel called to do it, God will give you what is needed.  In fact, I believe that even if God were not willing for my own sake to equip me with what I need (and I think actually he would do this for our own sake) bu...

On Good Friday this year, I decided that, in keeping with this somber day, I should deny myself some things on this particular day.  These are very small sacrifices, but they were something I felt I wanted to do. My sacrifices were: No coffee and no drinks other than water No snacks Simple meals at breakfast, lunch and dinner, little to no meat. Do not  check email or go on the computer or other device whenever I feel like it.  Limit device-checking to certain intervals during the day, with at least a few hours between times. Actually, of these, only the first 3 actually felt like sacrifices of any sort.  The fourth one gave me abundantly more useful time in my day! It turned out to be a benefit, not a sacrifice.  I'll be implementing this rule most days from now on! The other thing I did that made Good Friday special for me (but was not a sacrifice to me) was to participate in the church's Easter Vigil.  This involved spending an hour ...

For the longest time, I used to feel jealous of Jesus' apostles or disciples, such as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  I felt that they were given a rather "unfair advantage" by actually meeting Jesus in real life, compared to those such as us who live in the current day and age. I used to think "If only I was the fisherman Mark, I could have met Jesus first-hand! Instead I have to deal with the lack of Jesus here on the planet.  This is such an unfair disadvantage!" Today, I found out that actually, we do are not disadvantaged at all nowadays, compared to those who had met Jesus.  My thinking before that was so wrong on so many different levels, as I found out today. 1. If I lived in that day and age, I probably would have been blind enough not to recognize Jesus for who he was anyway.  Honestly, I probably would have thought similarly to the Pharisees, as much as I'd like to think I wouldn't.  Thankfully, I am spared that mistake now that we have t...

It is only relatively recently that I have glimpsed that prayer is powerful, and seen why prayer is powerful. Here I'll share what I have learned. Before this, for the longest time, I used to believe that the quickest and most effective way to bring about positive change to a situation, was to use direct physical action, without necessarily involving any prayer.  Part of this was probably a lack of faith.  Although I believed in God, I felt a need to be useful via direct practical action.  I didn't really question whether my desire to be useful was in order to help the situation/person affected, or whether it was out of a desire of self-worth, or out of a desire to honor and help God (e.g. by doing good works).  I really don't know, and couldn't tell you.  The book of James has always stuck sharply in my head, too, which has tended to make me lean heavily toward works - probably as a way of showing my faith and my love. But I didn't have the balance of p...