Thinking about God, Jesus and The Big Questions

I had never noticed this before, but on my yearly read through of the Bible, I noticed that the word "Understanding" comes up a lot in the book of Proverbs. This indicates that it is something important. Here are just a few examples: My child, if you accept my words  and treasure up my commandments within you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; if you indeed cry out for insight, and raise your voice for understanding; if you seek it like silver, and search for it as for hidden treasures - then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom;  from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; Proverbs 2: 1-6 Happy are those who find wisdom, and those who get understanding, for her income is better than silver, and her revenue better than gold. Proverbs 3: 13-14 Wisdom is at home in the mind of one who has understanding, but it is not known in the heart of fools. Proverbs 14: 33 How...

I was reading the passage of Mary and Martha again. While I have talked before about it , an additional angle on it was revealed during the most recent reading. This is the Bible passage where Jesus visits Mary and Martha: Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’ But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.’ Luke 10: 38-42 It is clear from the message that if we have a choice between ministering to Jesus or hearing what he has to say, we should pick hearing what he has to say (which I covered in...

It is clear from the Bible that Jesus came to save all people. In Revelation it says there will be people from all nations, tongues and tribes in heaven.  Far right ideology is not compatible with the Bible and with Christianity. Here I'm talking about the far right ideology of white supremacy where its adherents believe that white people are superior to other races. This belief is clearly shown to be wrong in the Bible. After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. Revelation 7:9 We can see from the verse above that people from all nations, tribes and languages will know God.  Furthermore, if there was to be one race that is deemed special in God's eyes, it would be the Jewish people. They are God's chosen people. Jesus still came for all people - first for the Jews, then for the ...

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 ...

Most of the book of Proverbs was thought to be written by King Solomon, who was the wisest man who ever was or will be. The rest of its authorship is thought to be from other Jewish people as the accumulated wisdom of the people.  This book is very valuable. Not only does it contain wisdom that is available to all of us today, but also, the more I read it the more I see it as perhaps the most subversive book of the Bible, which I have written about here .  Many people don't always avail themselves of this source of wisdom, even in instances when they are seeking wisdom from other sources (e.g. self-help books, financial savviness books, etc).  The book of Proverbs does not need to be the only book we read to gain wisdom, but it should certainly be one of them! For where else can we get the words of the wisest man who ever lived, in addition to the accumulated wisdom of others? There are several things which are repeated multiple times in Proverbs. Since they are repeate...

This question had puzzled me for a long time. If Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived, why did he later stray from God? Surely being so wise, he could see that it was important to be close to God? Luckily, our pastor happened to work this question into a sermon.  Yes, Solomon was wise, but he was human just like the rest of us. All of us are temped to stray away from God. And all of us are able to resist that temptation - when we ask for help from God. In fact, the question of why Solomon strayed from God is not even the right question. In reality, we should be asking ourselves "If Solomon is so wise yet strayed from God, then how do we, as less wise people, avoid straying from God?" It is clear from the Bible that Solomon did not wake up one day and say "OK, from now on I'll disobey God." It wasn't sudden like that. It was a gradual slow ignoring of God, by degrees. He married wives who followed other gods, which influenced his views gradually. This w...

 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...

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...

Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, counseled against knee-jerk reactions. Reacting without thinking is not a wise way to live. Here are his sayings on that: Do not be quick to anger, for anger lodges in the bosom of fools. Do not say, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask this. Ecclesiastes 7: 9-10  This reminds me to pray, think, and read the Bible when any issue crops up. I'm not good at it - I still get angry quickly when I know that is not the best way. But I am trying, at least. I realize that knee-jerk reactions are literally the enemy of wisdom, as Solomon said. Mental shortcuts like that remove the opportunity to seek God in the middle of this problem. I find it helps me to think "everything is more nuanced than you think it is at first glance", and we do need God's guidance for that. God is the fount of wisdom, so our number one priority should be to seek Him and His solutions, not to give a knee-jer...

I was reading the book of Proverbs ( read here why I think it is the most subversive book of the Bible ). Much of the book of Proverbs is thought to be written by King Solomon. While I was reading this, several of the proverbs leaped out at me as being relevant to today's online misinformation. In these proverbs, Solomon promotes a thinking approach and cautions against carelessness. Let's take a look: A scoffer seeks wisdom in vain, but knowledge is easy for a man of understanding Proverbs 14:6     The simple believes everything, but the prudent looks where he is going. A wise man is cautious and turns away from evil, but a fool throws off restraint and is careless. Proverbs 14:15-16   The mind of him who has understanding seeks knowledge, but the mouths of fools feed on folly. Proverbs 15:14   A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion. Proverbs 18:2    All of the above proverbs can be well applied to tod...

I was pondering the question of whether someone could have true wisdom without knowing God. While I don't have all the answers, I am leaning towards a definite "no" to that question, and here is why. To be clear, I'm not suggesting that everyone who doesn't know God has a low IQ and everyone who does will have a high IQ. No. What I am saying is that wisdom comes from God, and it's virtually impossible to have true wisdom without knowing God. I'm not talking about purely book-learning here or ability to do math quickly. I'm talking about discernment as wisdom. The ability to know what to do in a given situation.  All the high IQ in the world will not always help someone to know what to do in a given situation. I'm not bashing people with high IQ's - their IQ is a gift they have been given, just as some people have been given the gift of beauty, and others the gift of charisma.  So, having separated discernment from IQ here, I'd like to keep...

Often in today's life, we have to decide which course of action to take, and during tricky situations it might feel like we are being torn in two different directions.  I'm not talking about the simpler case where one thing is good and the other is bad, and we need to withstand temptation to avoid going down the bad route.  No, instead I'm talking about being torn between two different things which are both good, but that are mutually exclusive (for example, that would require us to be in two different places at once). In this situation, it's even more frustrating to have that "caught in the middle" feeling because there isn't at first glance a strongly "correct" answer. When I was reading the Bible, I came across a clear occasion where Jesus had to discern between two opposing things also, which I'll illustrate below. Of course, since Jesus is the son of God, he has the advantage of perfect discernment, which we don't have. But we can fe...

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 book of Proverbs is the combined knowledge of generations of people, and much of it is the collected sayings of King Solomon, who was the wisest man ever to live. The Bible specifically says that no man wiser than Solomon has come before him nor will come after him. This is shown in the book of Kings, where Solomon asks God for wisdom. Here we see God's reply: God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you. 1 Kings 3: 11- 13 We see here than Solomon was granted wisdom by God. Assuming he is the wisest man ever to have lived, then if we desire to follow words of wisdom we should pay particular attention to the parts of the Bible that are attributed to Solomon. These writing...

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...

Often, people today seeking for writings and advice of wisdom tend to look toward those who lived within the past 50 years or so. They look for wise men in that range, perhaps feeling that anything prior to that might be "out of touch". But let's take a look at our future: in another 100 years, will people still think of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or Warren Buffet as intellectual giants? Will their names and their fame stand the test of time? Even if you think it's still possible they might still be heard of in another 100 years, how about in 500 years? 1000 years from now? How about 2000 or more? I doubt that any of these men, or for that matter any one of their contemporaries will even have been heard of 2000 years or more from today. Yet I can think of at least two who are truly visionary, truly wise, and their sayings and advice have proved to stand the test of time well beyond 2000 years. The first is Jesus, and the second is Solomon. There are others who are wise ...