Thinking about God, Jesus and The Big Questions

I was considering what was the biggest problem that was getting in the way of people accepting being saved by Jesus. At first, I thought it was selfishness, but then realized that it couldn't be just that, because it's in our own self-interest to be saved!  Certainly there is an element of selfishly wanting to live life on our own terms which might not involve reading the Bible or praying. But still, there must be something other than selfishness - because even with selfishness alone, people would still realize that being saved is in their interests. Eventually, I realized the biggest problem getting in the way of being saved is actually hubris, which means pride. People who don't accept being saved by Jesus may have various reasons or motivations for that. Some might not believe Jesus existed and/or that He was not capable of saving people. Other people might believe they don't need to be saved because they think they're a "good person" - but the pitfall ...

Having emotions is central to being human. Jesus was the only perfect person to ever live on this planet. He had emotions and was not a robot. We should not be quick to ignore our emotions; they are what makes us human. Jesus is a wonderful example of what it is to be in a human body, yet be free of the imperfections that all of us have. Jesus displayed many emotions during his time on Earth.  One example is when He was angry that the moneylenders were doing business in the temple. He overturned their tables. He was not robotic about it. He was human, yet he had perfect discernment to know that this was the correct thing to do.  Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold doves. He said to them, ‘It is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer”; but you are making it a den of robbers.’ Matthew 21: 12 One big difference between Him an...

Many people want others to think that any positive attributes they have are things they developed on their own. It's true that they might have worked hard at something. But likely, God helped them too. Why not acknowledge God for that during prayer time? Let's look at an analogy. Suppose you were gifted a nice accessory item by a celebrity, and you wear this accessory every day. If someone compliments you on it, surely you would be proud to say "so-and-so gave this to me!"  In that case then, why not apply that same mindset to things given to us by God? We can be thankful to God in our prayer time for these things. Look, the ruler of the universe blessed you with a particular positive attribute!  It's perfectly OK (and very human) to want to work hard at something, for example to compose a musical as well as it could possibly be composed, or to paint an amazing painting. And it is perfectly OK to be happy with the result and to take some joy in that. That is not g...

There is much written in the Bible about false prophets. These are people who claim to be prophets but they are not getting their information from God - instead they are spreading things that they made up. Today, we also have false prophets in Christianity. These people spread misinformation. Often this misinformation is poorly interpreted Bible readings, but sometimes it can spread outside the sphere of the spiritual and into political things.  This is why it's very important that each person, whether a Christian or questioning, should read the Bible for themselves and compare it to what is being said by someone else. As a concrete example, some false prophets will claim to be Christian but they say racist things. Racism is not compatible with Christianity (I have written more about that here ). It is made abundantly clear in the Bible that salvation is made available for all people who choose to take this free gift of Jesus's sacrifice - not just certain people or certain ra...

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...

The Bible makes many consistent prophecies about the end of the world. It will not end peacefully with a reverse Adam and Eve, no matter how much I want it to.  By "reverse Adam and Eve", I mean a gradual decline in population until only 1 man and 1 woman are left, both of which do not procreate. I used to wish for this type of ending of the human race because it seemed peaceful. But this wouldn't even be a peaceful ending anyway, because a constant long-term aging population results in all kinds of demographic problems - they're just different problems than a young population would have. So, no matter how good it sounds to have the human race dwindle away until no-one is left, it a) is clear from the Bible this isn't the way the human race ends on Earth, and b) it wouldn't really be a peaceful way for the human race to go anyway because there would be a lot of social problems with such a top-heavy demographic composition. How does the human race on Earth end ...

What are the end time prophesies in the Bible which I most want people to know about? There are 2 very specific prophesies in the Bible whose events can't easily get mistaken for anything else. The first prophecy is that Greece and Iran will go to war, and Greece will win. The second prophecy is that people will need to get a mark on their forehead or right hand in order to buy or sell anything. It's extremely important not to get that mark, since the prophecy in the Bible tells us that it's the mark of the enemy. The mark could be an implantable chip, a bar code tattoo, or some as yet unknown technology. You can read in more detail about the first prophecy, the one from the book of Daniel about Greece and Iran going to war . You can also learn in more detail about the second prophecy, the one from the book of Revelation about the Mark of the Beast . These prophecies are both quite specific and are unlikely to get confused for anything else.  For example, war in general cou...

This past autumn, I was cutting down annual plants which had finished producing and placing them on top of the soil to eventually decompose.  I was rejoicing that this decomposition process would improve the soil. I thought to myself "Decomposition into existing soil improves it so that it is much better than soil that has never been used."  This struck a memory for me of a quote from C.S. Lewis: "For God is not merely mending, not simply restoring a status quo. Redeemed humanity is to be something more glorious than unfallen humanity would have been..." - C.S. Lewis, Miracles 1947, in Chapter 14 "The Grand Miracle". In other words, C.S. Lewis believed that man who is redeemed through the death of Jesus is somehow intrinsically better than unfallen man. I found it a bit easier to see this viewpoint using the gardening analogy. It's not a great analogy, but it was concrete enough to help me. Soil that has never been used is never going to be as good ...

In Biblical times, it was considered by society to be a very negative thing to not have children. Back then, a couple who did not have children was most likely due to infertility than out of a choice not to have children. In those days it made a lot of practical sense to have kids since children could help with some of the tasks of the family business.  So there was a societal stigma to not having children. Even in modern times today, some people view not having kids as a negative thing, although it's seen as less of an issue now than back in Biblical times. Certainly it is more emotionally difficult for the couple who want to have kids but have not yet been able to have them, than for a couple who is childless by choice. I realize this is an emotionally charged topic. The good news is that you do not need to have kids to be a fully functional human being according to God . Your ability to be with God is independent of whether or not you have children. There is a verse in the Bible...

Sometimes it is tempting to fall into the trap of thinking everything was simpler in Biblical times. It was not! There was as much corruption, political backbiting, and greed as there is today. Of course, it is sad that things have not improved in that regard over the past 2,000+ years. In the book of Micah, we can see an example which resonates strongly with today's world, even though this was written before the birth of Christ: The faithful have disappeared from the land, and there is no one left who is upright; they all lie in wait for blood, and they hunt each other with nets. Their hands are skilled to do evil; the official and the judge ask for a bribe, and the powerful dictate what they desire; thus they pervert justice. The best of them is like a brier, the most upright of them a thorn hedge. The day of their sentinels, of their punishment, has come; now their confusion is at hand. Micah 7: 2-4 You can see that this passage speaks of widespread corruption and greed, b...

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...

The people of Israel were asking for a king. God gave them the type of leader they wanted, which was King Saul. God warned the people about asking for such a king. The prophet Samuel was communicating to the people and to God: Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, “You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways; appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to govern us.” Samuel prayed to the Lord, and the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. Just as they have done to me, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so also they are doing to you.  Samuel 8: 4-8 God warned the Israelites through Samuel that they would soon be in despair under the rule of this kin...

When reading parts of the Bible, it feels like on some occasions God spoke very clearly. Sometimes we can feel discouraged that we don't hear Him so clearly today. As an aside, a huge part of this is that we are not listening, even if we think we are. To listen, we have to take the time to get to know God and to hear His voice, and how many of us do that?  But getting back to the title of this post, there are times in history where the Lord's word was rare and visions were not widely known, as shown in the Bible verse below. Does this resonate with you about the situation we see today? Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread. 1 Samuel 3: 1 You may like to read the full verse in the Bible - this is where Samuel receives instruction from God. Yet at first neither he nor the priest Eli realize the voice is from God, because it was rare to hear from God in those days. We don't know precis...

I was reading the book of Exodus, and as always, was amazed at the logistics of how that many people were all traveling together. The number of Israelites were 603,550. This number came from a census that was taken while traveling in the desert: So the whole number of the Israelites, by their ancestral houses, from twenty years old and upward, everyone able to go to war in Israel— their whole number was six hundred three thousand five hundred fifty. Numbers 1: 45-46 Imagine over half a million people all traveling together. There are many passages in Exodus where logistical details are mentioned, for example that they would make camp when it was time to rest somewhere, and break camp when it was time to set off again. Nonetheless, I wondered how it worked for food, bathroom breaks, and so on. Having so many people go through an area would surely make it hard to get food, even when in areas where fruit and grain were growing naturally. Indeed, the Israelites started grumbling about the ...

The End of Days has been covered in quite a lot of detail in the Bible. It is clear that there will be economic suffering in addition to oppressive leadership . There will also be a lot of physical suffering . I heard what sounded like a voice coming from among the four living creatures, which said, "A kilo of wheat for a day's wages, and three kilos of barley for a day's wages.  But do not damage the olive trees and the vineyards!" Revelation 6:6 The Bible verse above indicates an extremely expensive price for food. Could this occur via a route of climate change and/or ecological disaster? The answer is yes it's possible, but alternative routes are also possible. The Bible spells out the results of the end of days, but not the exact route it will happen. So we cannot know for sure the exact path it will take. As I have mentioned before, the Bible tells us THAT something will happen, but not HOW or WHEN . An illustration of a prophecy coming to pass is durin...

Doomsday bunkers will not protect anyone at the End of Days. Between now and the End of Days, there will be natural disasters, war, and other horrible things. Although doomsday bunkers will exist, they certainly won't protect anyone from the End of Days. Two prophets in the Bible have clearly prophesied about people hiding underground at the End of Days. Let's take a look at these two different readings from the Bible. One is from the prophet Isaiah, before the birth of Jesus, and the other is from the prophet John of Patmos, in the book of Revelation, the final chapter of the Bible. These different prophets from distinctly different time periods both have the same message for us: Enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground, from the terror of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth. On that day people will throw away to the moles and to the bats their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they made for th...

 I was reading Deuteronomy and was struck by the following verse: The Lord will scatter you among the peoples; only a few of you will be left among the nations where the Lord will lead you. There you will serve other gods made by human hands, objects of wood and stone that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. From there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him if you search after him with all your heart and soul. Deuteronomy 4: 27 - 29 This says that those living in secular societies, or in societies who worship other gods, still will find the one true God if they search for him with all their heart and soul. Note that it does NOT say that they just have to sit back and do nothing and then God will come to them. It says they will find him if they search after him with all their heart and soul . This means that God will not just ignore someone truly seeking him. He will not simply leave them to their own devices.  On the other hand, if someone isn't truly se...

God still wanted to be with us, even though we are sinners. Let's take a look at when Moses led the people out of Egypt. As they trekked through the desert, God gave instructions to Moses: And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. Exodus 25: 8 I was struck by how amazing that was. God didn't say "well, I'll keep a good distance away from these crazy sinners of humans." Instead he told Moses to make him a sanctuary so that God might dwell among us. Among us?! That's amazing that He would want to do that! He is perfect and we are not, yet he still desires to be with us. This is why He made a path for us to be with him in heaven through Jesus. That way, we can be with Him. Yet He wanted people to choose this path freely. God did not force us to accept the sacrifice Jesus made. This is why it is so important to make our own choice about this. Don't wait until it's too late! If you found this post interesting, you may also like thes...

One thing that has helped me a bit is to remind myself that I should not descend into worrying about other people's relationships with others. I'm not saying we shouldn't care. Certainly, if the opportunity is given to us to help a relationship between others we should do so. However, the relationships of others to others is ultimately between themselves and God. If I find myself getting a little too concerned about the relationship between two other people (neither of whom is myself), there is a simple reminder I give myself. It's this: "I'm not so perfect that I should worry about this person's relationship with that person." I add "Instead I need to focus on my relationship with God, and my relationships with others." This is a very good and very timely reminder. We each have our own relationship with God, and our own relationships with others to focus on. The time spent on those is infinitely more useful than any time spent worrying...

Every election year, I notice that many people get very vocal for or against a particular candidate. But   we should never put all of our trust in human leaders . Even the best human leader is flawed and imperfect. Even the best candidate of the century pales in comparison to Jesus. It's good to carry out our civic responsibilities: carefully considering the candidates and their policies, and picking which one we feel is best for the country at the time.  It is wonderful to live in a democracy where we have choices. At the same time, I find it hard to get passionately behind any candidate, because I have yet to find one that isn't flawed. I'm flawed too, an imperfect being, a sinner. We all are. It's part of being human. But just as I would not find myself worthy of leading a country, I find it hard to find anyone worthy of leading the country. In the second coming of Christ, we can look forward to a new Heaven and a new Earth, with God and Jesus as our leaders. Now...