Thinking about God, Jesus and The Big Questions

The Bible is strongly supportive of charitable giving. The effective altruism movement, or EA, is focused on charitable giving. But that is where their similarities end. EA is not in line with how the Bible says we should donate our money or time.  I am not saying that EA is intrinsically unethical - I'm simply saying that its aims are in conflict with what the Bible says we should do. So it's therefore a very secular approach to giving - which may not be a problem for you if you're an unbeliever. But for believers, it simply doesn't line up with the Bible.  Here we will take a look at what the Bible says we should do with regards to donating time or money. Then we will look briefly at EA. Disclaimer : Although I have done some research on EA for the purposes of this blog post, I am by  no means an expert on it. It's entirely possible I have missed some of its nuances. Nonetheless, even with those caveats, I still don't see how EA is compatible with Christianit...

This is about the difference between knowing something intellectually and knowing it in your heart. I have written before about how Heaven is not an ephemeral airy-fairy thing. It is more real and more solid than this world . We just do not detect it easily. A bit like atoms - atoms are the very real building blocks of this world - but for millennia we simply weren't able to detect them because we didn't have the tools for them. For several years, I knew intellectually that Heaven was more solid and real than our physical Universe (the Earth, the planets, etc). However, I realized recently that I finally know this in my heart too. It happened when I was praying. In my prayer, I was saying "Of course, in real life...", meaning it as a reference to Heaven. It was at that moment that I realized that I now knew in my heart what I had previously only known intellectually.  Heaven is "real life".  If you found this post interesting, you might also like these rela...

This is a review of the book " God on Mute " by Pete Greig. It is a non-fiction Christian about what happens when God meets your prayers with silence. What do you do? This book is of interest not only to Christians, but also to atheists struggling with the question of "If God is good, why do bad things happen?" (I have some information about that question here ). Interspersing theological research with his own personal experience with unanswered prayers for healing for his wife suffering a serious medical condition, Pete Greig does an amazing job answering one of the toughest questions of Christianity. Everyone can relate to this book and these difficult questions.  One thing I particularly loved about this book is that Pete Greig is not trying to assign blame to the situation. He explains first that some prayers God will not answer for reasons which might become clear upon inspection (e.g. 2 people are praying for opposite things - one for rain, the other for sunsh...

For the past many months, I had been neglecting my prayer life. I was reading the Bible daily late at night before falling asleep. I would try to pray after that, but I was often so tired it would be a tiny prayer of less than a minute. This was not good for me.  Notice, it's not good FOR ME. I'm not saying this is bad for God - it's bad for me. As has been mentioned previously, it is we who are improved by praying and knowing God. God is not improved by knowing us! In the morning, I would be immediately swept up into a busy day, so I didn't feel I would be able to regularly make a significant chunk of time to read the Bible and pray at that time of day (which together could take a while). During the time I recognized this as a problem but wasn't sure how to solve it, I was invited to join a friend's weekend prayer event where I signed up for a one-off prayer slot for 1 hour. I signed up for 5am, that way I could ensure it would be done before I was needed by my...

We are well equipped for detecting things in our 3 dimensions of space and 1 of time, but poorly equipped for detecting things in the spiritual dimension, even though the spiritual dimension is more real and solid than the physical one .  In other words, our God detection sensors are bad. In the book of Hebrews, the meaning of faith is clearly described for us: Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible. Hebrews 11: 1-3 In particular, the last part of it is what we need to remember: what is seen was made from things that are not visible. This means that what we so easily detect with our eyes (the physical dimension) is made from things which are not visible (the spiritual dimension). The spiritual dimension clearly exists, and came first before the physical di...

It's clear when Solomon asked God for wisdom, that this was pleasing to God.  The book of Proverbs covers a lot about the importance of wisdom. Solomon was the wisest man in the world. Because the wisest man in the world was clear about the importance of wisdom, it should be even more important to us (who are in more need of it than Solomon). All wisdom comes from God. Therefore, praying for more wisdom will always be a good prayer and is in keeping with what God wants for us anyway. Then it occurred to me - why not ask for the same for our bodies? We should not automatically assume that our bodies have to only go in one direction: downhill, as we age. Even though this happens a lot, we shouldn't just assume it's inevitable.  Of course, we needn't be foolhardy either and refuse to make useful changes as we age! If sometime in the future I get to the point that I'm struggling to mow the lawns, I'm hoping that I'll realize it's time to either hire a lawn ...

 This quote has been attributed to Christian writer Max Lucado: What if you woke up tomorrow and had only the things you thanked God for today? This is an amazing question! All too often we take for granted the everyday miracles - for example, our eyesight (however imperfect it is), our hearing, our loved ones, the food that we are eating, no matter how ordinary it is. There are countless things we take for granted that we really ought to thank God for because He is the one who put them there. What would you have if you woke up tomorrow with only the things you thanked God for today? You might be wondering at this point, what about all the bad things that might have happened to you? What about sickness and evil deeds? I have written before that when in doubt, I find it's safest at attribute the good things to God and the bad things to Satan or to bad choices made by myself or by others. So yes, it's completely OK to thank God whole-heartedly about all the things we're gra...

I have written before about the power of prayer and how it's in your interests to read the Bible and pray . This is because you get to know God better, and He is a marvelous counselor. You get better discernment in what to do in various life situations, big and small. In the past, I used to think that if I read the Bible and prayed, it would please God. It does please him, but you should be aware that it is YOU who receives the benefits of your Bible reading and your praying, not God. In other words, God is not improved by knowing you, but you are improved by knowing God. So even if you were being purely selfish, you'd still want to pray and read the Bible, because YOU get to reap the benefits of it (not God). If you found this post interesting, you might also like these related posts on this blog: If Jesus needed to pray, we have an even greater need to do it The power of prayer What happens to your prayers?

One of my favorite verses of the Bible relates to what happens to your prayers. This was about the devout centurion named Cornelius. In this Bible passage, it tells us exactly what happened to the prayers of Cornelius: In Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian Cohort, as it was called. He was a devout man who feared God with all his household; he gave alms generously to the people and prayed constantly to God. One afternoon at about three o’clock he had a vision in which he clearly saw an angel of God coming in and saying to him, ‘Cornelius.’ He stared at him in terror and said, ‘What is it, Lord?’ He answered, ‘Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. Now send men to Joppa for a certain Simon who is called Peter; he is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside.’ Acts 10: 1-6 In the above passage we can see that his prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God. Wow!  That is not only exciting but ...

Psalm 23 is a well-known psalm that is often quoted for giving comfort to those who are dying. Here it is: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long. Psalm 23 This psalm was written by King David at the time when he was beset by many enemies. He did not write this to comfort him in case he died. Instead he wrote this psalm as a prayer for guidance during difficult military campaigns. In other words, this psalm is very much for the living, not the dying. It...

It may seem a bit odd to draw parallels between the programming language Lisp and effective prayer, but this was a revelation that struck me recently. No prior knowledge of Lisp, or of prayer, is necessary to understand this post. A brief look at Lisp - specification and implementation First let's take a very quick look at Lisp. Lisp is a programming language that has a specification , meaning that each command (or function, to use Lisp terminology) is defined to produce a certain result. As a concrete example, the + function must take in as many numbers as desired and must provide the result of adding those numbers. For example (+ 4 5 10) should result in 19.  Exactly HOW the nuts and bolts work for producing the result (i.e. the steps of adding up all the numbers in the + function) is up to the implementation of Lisp.   The programmer doesn't need to know or care how the implementation works , the programmer just needs to know that if they call the + function, they will get...

In my prayer life, I realize I had been very limiting in what I prayed for. I was praying only for things that could happen in my lifetime. It simply never occurred to me to pray for things beyond that. That is incredibly short-sighted.  When reading the Bible, there are many examples of people's prayers being answered - but this happened after the person passed away, so they never got to see it themselves. Does that mean the prayer wasn't answered? No! The prayer was answered. The answer had nothing to do with whether the person praying was there to observe it or not.  Let's take a look at an example. This occurred in the Old Testament when Abimelech tried to establish a monarchy over Shechem. To do so, he killed all his brothers (who could otherwise challenge his rule) except for one, Jotham, who hid from him. The people of Shechem declared him their ruler, but his brother Jotham spoke out bravely to the crowd. He asks if the crowd if they have honored his father Jerubbaa...

Do not underestimate prayer. Often, someone prays for something, sees no obvious result, and assumes nothing happened. This is far from the reality. Most often this is due to the person not being able to detect what had happened as a result of the prayer .  There are some other reasons nothing could happen, of course. Some of those other reasons are:  This was not the right time for the prayer to be answered - the prayer was in God's will but the timing is later, or The prayer was not consistent with what God wanted But assuming that none of these issues above are the case, often the problem is simply that the person cannot detect that the prayer has been answered .  This is because prayer creates direct movement (or action, or an effect - any of these is a decent approximation) in the spiritual dimension. But remember, the spiritual dimension is a dimension that we cannot detect easily. It is there and it is more real than our physical dimensions , but we have the misfor...

This is a topic I have been thinking about over the past year or so. The richest or most powerful men in the world have less power than you might think. In this situation I am thinking mainly about tech leaders, but it could equally apply to a head of state, or anyone else.  In the Bible, we see an example of where an archangel moves an incredibly heavy stone, the one that was closing the tomb where Jesus was buried. After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. Matthew 28: 1-3 The stone covering the entrance was huge. Yet an angel was able to move it without help. Do the angels possess super strength? Yes, but it's a side-effect of a particular reason. It's because the angels belong to the spiritual world...

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...

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...

A common misconception is that God has a massively long list of boxes we must tick. He does not. He would much rather we seek him and get to know him personally, through prayer and reading the Bible.  He does not want us to merely go through the motions of attending church, and so on, just to tick the boxes.  This is evident in several parts of the Bible. You can see this from the prophet Hosea, and later, from Jesus himself.  In the book of Hosea, God says: For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. Hosea 6: 6 It is clear from the above that God does not just want us to go through the motions, but rather he wants us to seek him and know him personally. Yet the ten commandments exist, and of course if we truly believe in God, then we truly believe in the ten commandments. So do these commandments then become a set of boxes that we need to tick? The answer is that all of the commandments stem from a love of God, as you...

In this present day, unfortunately we all hear of a lot of misinformation. I'm not going to even attempt to say which things are incorrect. Instead, I'm going to point out the importance of recognizing wisdom and discernment. This is something that only God can help us with. Do not assume that just because someone is successful in one area, that they are wise. They may have a lot of knowledge or success by societal standards, but that does not automatically mean they have discernment . Discernment is knowing what to do in a particular situation, and being able to recognize truth from lies, among other things. I see wisdom and discernment as more or less the same thing. Knowledge is book-learning, which is also important, but it is possible that someone can have knowledge without necessarily having wisdom.  Having discernment can definitely make your life a lot easier. It makes it a lot easier to see a Godly path through difficult situations. I wish I had more discernment than I...

The question of knowing whether something unusual is God's plan, or is foolhardiness, is not always easy. For those to whom God or an angel spoke directly, it was probably pretty clear. One example of being spoken to by God or an angel is Mary, the mother of Jesus. Another is Moses when he was told to lead the people out of Egypt. But in our lives, it's not always easy to know when we're solidly in God's plan, or if the unusual thing we might be doing is foolhardiness. Even when we have prayed about it, it's not always easy to be 100% certain about it. Did we misunderstand? Did we hear wrongly? Did we only think we heard something a certain way but really it wasn't that? It's not always as easy as hearing a loud voice that we identify clearly as the Lord's. It sure would be great if we could be certain 100% of the time! Of course, many people have heard God's voice incredibly clearly and with certainty - not just in Biblical days, but today too. One...

At church a few weeks ago, we studied how Jesus often went away to pray, even though many people were requesting his attention. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone Matthew 14: 23 and Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God.  Luke 6: 12 There were many, many occasions where Jesus was talking with God the father. Jesus made it a huge priority, even at times when others were looking for him. In other words, prayer was not just important to Jesus, but necessary. The pastor remarked that if one so strong as Jesus needed to pray, how much more we so weak need it. That comment stayed with me. If we think we don't have time to pray, we are wrong. No matter how busy we are - and Jesus himself was busy - we must make time for prayer every day. Because if one so strong needs it, then by definition we must need it even more. If you...