Thinking about God, Jesus and The Big Questions

There are many references in the Bible showing that Jesus will come to Earth again. But this is not a second chance for us. He is not here to teach us and to conquer sin - he already completed that the first time around.  Even though those alive today were not here at the time he came to teach, we have all his teachings available to us! These are written in the Bible. So we have access to all of that. Do not make the mistake of thinking that when he comes again, it will be for another chance. That already happened the first time he came. When he comes next, it will be to gather those who are waiting for him. so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. Hebrews 9:28 This is why the end of days has not already happened - God is delaying in order to give us time to decide if we will follow Jesus. Indeed, Jesus himself told his disciples that the end of days would come...

Faith and the environmental crisis do indeed intersect, or at least should intersect. Sadly, comparatively few faith leaders seek to address environmental issues, despite humans clearly being tasked by God as being caretakers of the planet. I recently watched the Hook Lecture for 2021 by Dr. Carmody Grey, which addressed the intersection of faith and climate. It's fairly long, but worth the watch, even if you have to watch it in bits. This lecture made me really think. Dr. Grey posed the question "What is it that we want to sustain?" which is a fundamental question that all too often gets ignored.  It's true that if no-one actually talks about what it is we are sustaining, we won't all be rowing the boat in the same direction. Her answer to this question was humanity itself, which made sense to me. Yet I can see how some people would not have given this answer. Some people are wishing to sustain the status quo above everything else, while others are seeking to ...