Thinking about God, Jesus and The Big Questions

Some people think that just because the laws of nature exist, that this means there is "no room" for God to exist. In fact, they often see the idea of God existing as near-sighted. Instead, it's important to remember that God created the laws of nature . In fact, God states this very clearly in the Bible as far back as Deuteronomy in the Old Testament: And when you look up to the heavens and see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, do not be led astray and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples everywhere under heaven. Deuteronomy 4:19  In the above Bible verse, God cautions people against worshiping objects that He created.  Yet all the time, people get caught up in serving those objects instead of God himself. Some of these people think that it is shortsighted to believe that God exists. Rather, it is shortsighted to believe that God does not exist. If you found this post interesting, you may ...

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...

Human leaders are fallible and won't be able to lead once they die. This concept seems logical and common-sense, and besides that it is iterated in the book of Psalms: Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help. When their breath departs, they return to the earth; on that very day their plans perish. Psalms 146: 3 - 4 By contrast, God and Jesus are perfect leaders who are with us forever. Even the richest or most powerful man in the world is not a leader we should trust. Instead, we should put our trust in God and ask Him to lead us.  How do we do this? By reading the Bible and by praying, we get to know Him more and more. We can ask for wisdom, for discernment in knowing what to do in any particular situation. Guidance from God is far more useful and valuable than guidance from any human. Furthermore, I've explained why I believe that a human leader who does not know God cannot have true wisdom . Who are you following? If you found this po...

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...

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...

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...