Thinking about God, Jesus and The Big Questions

In the book of 2 Corinthians, the apostle Paul is writing. He says:  So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison  2 Corinthians 4: 16-17 He is pointing out the eternal significance of the spiritual dimension and how much more valuable that is than any discomfort in the temporary physical dimension. When he uses the word "affliction", he is talking about feelings of discouragement that many new believers felt then. It could equally well be used to describe more severe problems in the physical world such as social ostracism or even persecution faced by new believers in some areas of the world today. Continuing on, Paul keeps his focus on the eternal and makes it clear that the eternal spiritual dimension is more valuable than the current physical dimension: because we look not to the things that are seen but...

I know I've covered a bit about forgiveness before; what it is and isn't. But here, I also want to cover more about why and even more importantly, how we should forgive. I have mentioned before that forgiveness forgives someone for a past hurt. It does not require you to have that person in your life again . The person does not necessarily even need to know you have forgiven him or her; that's between you and God. It also does not require you to put any future trust in that person. Here I'd like to cover the motivation for forgiveness. It's simple: we should forgive because God forgave us first. Consider all the sins I've done against heaven; there are countless of those. Because these sins are forgiven via Christ's death on the cross, then surely likewise I should forgive those who have sinned against me. Indeed, the Lord's Prayer says ..."forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us." The word "as" is key here....

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...

We complain about the fast pace of life today.  I understand.  When I was working 50 hours a week regularly (and I realize this isn't all that much compared to the 60+ hours a week worked by some), it seemed I never had time to take care of even the basics. Things like laundry, groceries, washing dishes, cooking food, cleaning, and so on seemed to use up what little time I had left over in the day.  How, then, could anyone expect to have any time to think about any of the big questions, like whether God exists? Even for Christians (believers), how can any of us make time to study God's word? It seemed like the business of just living took up all my time! Yes, I made time to attend church and Sunday School each week.  I did volunteer activities.  Somehow, I fitted this in.  Yet, with or without these, I still felt sorry for myself and for our generation. I felt we didn't have enough time to think about God and study His word. But when I stopped to real...

If I choose not to believe in God, would that make Him any less real? What if we asked the same about gravity? The important thing is to seek the truth.  All too many people say they are busy seeking the truth, yet are blind to what is under their very eyes.  You won't necessarily find God merely by investigating the physical laws of the universe: this tells you a lot about the universe, but very little about whether there is a Creator.  You could, however, seek God by asking Him if He is there - and then listening.  Surprisingly, many unbelievers have never actually tried the asking, and even fewer of those try the listening. If you are really truly a seeker of the truth, why not try talking to God?  If there is no God then truly you have nothing to lose (except a few minutes in the privacy of your own home or other area).  If there is a God, then you have everything to gain - everything.  You will not lose a thing if there is no God....

One thing about which Christians can rejoice is that no-one can strip you of your religion.  Although this fact sounds obvious, there are many people who try to act as though they can forcibly remove religion from people.  The truth of the matter is that they are absolutely powerless to do so.  Unlike for example a jacket or a pair of shoes, no-one can take your beliefs away from you.  Even if a law were to be passed abolishing all religion, you are still free to have your own beliefs.  (You may be persecuted for them, but you can still have those beliefs - no-one can physically locate and grab your beliefs and take them away against your will.)  As an example, suppose a dictator didn't like the notion of, say, gravity, and said that believing in gravity was illegal, as was talking about it to others.  Well, whether or not you talk about it to others, odds are that you will continue to believe in gravity. If someone thinks your religion is a l...

Christians believe that this earth (and outer space) are created by God.  In addition to this universe we have managed to detect using physical measurements, there is another Universe, which contains basically everything else that isn't here, such as angels and Heaven.  Our universe is nested within the other Universe. We are a universe within a Universe.  This is not a surprise to Christians, but some atheists find it hard to believe. The difference between the universes: Our universe is enemy-occupied territory (Satan has considerable, but still limited, power on Earth).  Our universe is ephemeral and will not last forever (a really long time, but not forever).  In contrast, the outer Universe is permanent and out there somewhere in it there is a big battle between various heavenly beings over each of our souls (yes, a battle is being fought over us, strange as it may seem).   Some secular themed examples of the concept: This concept of a univ...

The more I read the Bible, the more I am aware that we need to choose our spiritual words with care. This is because there is a vast spiritual world out there which is bigger, vaster and more real than than our physical world.  The spiritual world is eternal, i.e. it goes on forever.  In contrast, our physical world exists for only a short time.  A body can die or be killed, but this will not affect how long the soul lasts: Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Matthew 10:28  Our words and actions can have spiritual impact on others - whether positive or negative: “If anyone causes one of these little ones - those who believe in me - to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea.  If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed ...

I'll preface this post by saying that this is not something I discovered during my Bible reading, rather it is an idea that I first saw put forward by C.S. Lewis.  In his book 'Miracles', C.S. Lewis says that one problem we can run into when reading the Bible is the preconceived notion that because we can't physically grasp or touch spirituality, that all things spiritual can seem ghost-like to us .  This is a grave error for us to make, because there is nothing in the Bible that would indicate God is ghost-like.  It is hard for us to remember that it is in fact our physical bodies which are tenuous, shadowy and ghost-like .  We are here for such a short time relative to the timeframe of the universe.  Our physical bodies of today are made of ashes and dust (atoms) and will return to the ground (atoms again) when we die.  Of course, those who know Christ will get to have union with God after we die - but it's made clear in the Bible that this won't...