Thinking about God, Jesus and The Big Questions

I was thinking about light and darkness, and realized that darkness cannot extinguish light. Yet light can pierce darkness. In a way, this is an analogy for good and evil.  The light of God's word - the good news of Jesus - cannot be extinguished by darkness (i.e. by Satan or by anyone else). Sure, evil can oppress people, but it does not change the fact that once you have heard the good news, you've heard it. Once you accept the gift of eternal salvation, this light cannot be extinguished by darkness . By contrast, light can pierce darkness. A small amount of light is visible in pitch-black surroundings relatively easily. In the same way, the good news can still be spread even in oppressive times and places.  It's actually quite reassuring to realize that a light in the darkness cannot be put out by the fact of the darkness. In other words, light can change darkness but darkness cannot change light.   If you found this post interesting, you might also like these rel...

There are many examples in the Bible of God punishing people when they did not listen to Him. So it can be easy to fall into the trap of thinking God is always looking for reasons to punish us.  The more I have been reading the Bible and praying, the more I see that in fact, it's exactly the other way around - God by default wants to bless us. We are His children. He wants us to have good things for us spiritually. Again, this is different to giving us the equivalent of a bunch of candy, which I have written about before .  Even in the book of Job, where Job suffered an incredible series of calamities, none of these came from God. They all came from Satan. This is not to say that God didn't punish people - there are plenty of examples of that in the Bible too. The message I'm trying to get across here is that God by default wants to bless us. Again, blessings are things which are good for us. Often these may take the form of spiritual gifts, such as wisdom, but can take the...

Most people are familiar with at least some of the content of the end time prophecies in the books of Daniel, Revelation, and some of the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John).  Yet Isaiah also had a very specific prophecy about Egypt: 1 An oracle concerning Egypt. See, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud      and comes to Egypt; the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence,      and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them. 2  I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians,      and they will fight, one against the other,      neighbour against neighbour,      city against city, kingdom against kingdom; 3  the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out,      and I will confound their plans; they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead      and the ghosts and the familiar spirits; 4  I will delive...

In the Bible verses about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, God made provision for Lot and his family's safety. This was because God was happy with Lot: he was the only good man in the city. When God decided to destroy these cities, he sent 2 angels to do this. They appeared as normal men, and Lot invited them to stay in his house with him. The angels explained of the destruction that was about to happen, and that Lot's family was to be spared. Here is the Bible passage: With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.” When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swep...

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...

I was reading Isaiah recently and was struck by a particular section. In it, King Hezekiah of the Jews prays to God to spare his nation from being invaded by Assyria, at the time a strong and mighty nation: Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, and have hurled their gods into the fire, though they were no gods, but the work of human hands—wood and stone—and so they were destroyed. So now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord.’ Isaiah 37: 18-20 The part that struck me as so important is the part where the Assyrian kings " have hurled their gods into the fire, though they were no gods, but the work of human hands—wood and stone—and so they were destroyed ." King Hezekiah recognized clearly that the things that the Assyrian kings destroyed were not significant - those things were never gods at all, but simply the work of human hands. In other words, it wa...

This question came up from my son, after we had prayed to God for a sick family member in hospital to be healed and she was healed. I was rejoicing that God answered the prayer, when my son asked me the very good question "How do we know that God answered our prayer and that it wasn't just coincidence or the doctors doing a good job?" It's true that we may never absolutely know beyond a shadow of a doubt. Yet I believe that if our prayer is in line with God's wishes (whose wishes we know more and more by getting to know God more), and if the prayer was answered, then it was God doing the action.  I still noted that my son's question was a very good one, and my answer went like this: "Not everything in life we will know for certain. But we are always most likely to be correct when we credit God for all of the good things and blame Satan for all of the bad things." In any one particular situation we may not necessarily know for 100% sure beyond a shado...

When so many bad things happen in the world, or to ourselves, it seems like these are cancelling out all the good things we are doing. Yet, this is not the right way to look at it - the good news is that we have a lot more hope and joy than it first seems. Even if you literally do something good, and someone literally goes and destroys it before anyone gets to see the good thing you did, your hard work is not wasted. Because God sees it, and ultimately you are answerable to God, not to the people who never got to see your work because it was destroyed.  The good and bad things do not cancel each other out; instead (here on Earth), they coexist. This is actually good news and offers some hope. No-one can take away your good work from you even if they physically destroy it, because God has already seen it, and He is the most important entity in the universe. There is strong Biblical evidence supporting this attitude. Let's take a look at the parable of the weeds among the wheat (Jesu...

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...

Keeping the main thing, the main thing is a challenge. It is all too easy to look backward and forget to keep our eyes on what is important. The writer of Philippians makes this very clear for us: that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 3: 11-14 I particularly love what he wrote "But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead"... This is a vision we should all have. Our goal should be always to go forward toward God. In fact, often we don't feel like we can or should go forward to God because our sins are too great. But this t...

Despite all of the bad things that are happening in the word, we do have the power to choose our own thoughts.  Yes, it's true that it's really hard to choose positive thoughts when we are busy, or have a lot of responsibilities, or deal with a lot of stress daily. But choosing positive thoughts is a habit we need to start if we haven't already.  If we instead decided to wait until the "perfect day" for those thoughts, when we are on vacation with no responsibilities.... hold on, that sort of thing doesn't exist! Exactly. We are responsible for choosing positive thoughts even in situations when it's easier not to . The Holy Spirit dwells within us, and wouldn't it be wonderful to let the Holy Spirit reside in a place that is beautiful on the inside?  If it's a mess of worry (and yes, I've been there, and sometimes keep going there!) then won't it be a little hard for us to hear the Holy Spirit? And wouldn't it be hard for the Holy Spiri...

I've written before about why we should still enjoy today even when we know there is a difficult time coming up . Here is another way of looking at the same thing. Suppose someone nice gave you a glass of delicious lemonade every day. Then you learned that a mean person was going to take away one of those lemonades next week and leave you a glass of horrible-tasting kale juice that day instead. Suppose that you were so worried about the kale juice that you just couldn't enjoy today's lemonade, or tomorrow's either. In fact, you weren't planning on enjoying any of the lemonade until after the kale juice day had been and gone. Isn't that a little bit ridiculous? The lemonade is still being given to you by someone who loves you, so why not enjoy it on the days that it is there? On the kale juice day, sure, you don't need to be excited about the kale juice. But don't let the actions of a mean person stop you from enjoying the gift a good person has given to ...

I was recently reading the book of Kings, and noticed the kingdoms of Israel and Judah frequently and repeatedly disobeyed God. Even though they had the information they needed of what was pleasing to God and what was not, they repeatedly went against God's wishes. This disobedience involved things that were against the ten commandments, like worshipping other gods. At first, I wondered why His people would do this, period. Then I wondered why they would do it, after all that He had done for them, and after all the covenants he had made with them. Reading these passages of the Bible, I felt like an audience member watching a play and saying "no, don't do that! Don't do it! That's a really bad idea! God even said not to do it." But yet, I should not be surprised, when I'm disobedient myself! I'm not any better than them. I could equally well say to myself "No, you know that's not a good idea!" Knowing the theory and putting into pr...

Whenever there are times that I don't have the best attitude about life (e.g Monday mornings), I remind myself of the following. Any that have links refer to an experience that you can explore in more detail: I'm alive! I'm on the planet! I'm human, which means I'm one of God's chosen people . Jesus paid the price for my sins already. It's already been paid up. My chains are broken, and I've been set free . Evil has no long-term power over me unless I choose to let it. My chains are broken! I have nothing to lose (except for earthly things which are anyway ephemeral) and I have everything to gain. I need to live accordingly! By the time I've gotten through this checklist of reminders, WOW, I feel like a whole new person all over again. If you found this post interesting, you might also like these related posts on this blog: Straying Blindly Does Reading the Bible and Praying Have Results? Are We Today Those to Whom Much Has Been Given...

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...

A lot of people have no problem accepting the credit themselves for good things happening (or just attributing it to 'good luck'), but the minute something bad happens, they blame God.  This is a bit like having your cake and eating it too.  In fact, some atheists use it as a (flawed) argument for why they don't believe God exists! According to the Bible, Satan also exists.  Wouldn't it be smarter and more accurate to blame Satan for the bad things and credit God for the good things?  Our own free will is also a big part of the equation.  I have free will, therefore I could go out tomorrow and punch someone.  From the point of view of the person being punched, this would be a bad thing.  I would hope that this person would blame me and my choices for doing the punching, instead of God.  A lot of the question of bad things happening comes down to free will.  Yes, God could have created us to be machines incapable of making choices ...

Yes, Satan is very real.  A heavenly creature who rebelled against God, there are many references to Satan throughout the Bible.  In view of this, it is interesting how many people refuse to acknowledge that Satan exists.  It is even more interesting that many people get mad at God when bad things happen , but refuse to consider that a) our own free will or b) Satan may be responsible for those things instead! Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, who fought back with his angels; but the dragon was defeated, and he and his angels were not allowed to stay in heaven any longer. The huge dragon was thrown out - that ancient serpent, named the Devil, or Satan, that deceived the whole world. He was thrown down to earth, and all his angels with him. Revelation 12: 7-9 The good news is that Satan is not omnisicent, nor is he omnipotent, nor is he omnipresent.  While we shouldn't underestimate him (or any enemy for that matter),...

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...

With plenty of bad thing happening in the world, it is tempting to think that this might signal the end of days.  Are we really living at the end of days described in the Bible chapter of Revelation?  The answer is no, as of the time this post was published, in January 2011.  Right now we may very well be in the preceding stage that Jesus described in the gospel of Matthew: You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. Matthew 24:6-8 Out of interest, as grim as this may sound to us now, living in this stage would have seemed a lot grimmer to those living at the start of World War II, during which (having not so long ago finished with World War I) no-one knew how long WWII would last or whether it was going to be ...