Category Archives: Faith

Signs of the Times

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I saw something advertised on TV the other day that shocked me profoundly! I suppose it shows that I am disconnected from the times.

There was a commercial, the subject matter of the commercial was to be sure to get your annual STD checkup.

Annual STD checkup! The thought that a commercial could be targeting a set of people needing to be checked annually for STDs is quite amazing to me, and is indicative of where society has come. As we remove God more and more from our society, His guidelines for living are dismissed more and more as old fashioned, and outdated.

God calls sex outside of marriage sin. God’s plan for us sexually is for one man to marry one woman, and for that marriage to be honored until death. In fact the bible teaches that to have sexual relations makes the couple one flesh. Through sex a couple is bonded. God regards sex outside of these parameters as sin.

Sin has consequences! Eternal consequences and consequences that are evident in our daily lives. The consequences that come from sexual sin, show up in the form of STDs. The eternal consequences are much more severe! To be on the wrong side of God when He judges will lead to eternal separation from Him. He will send all people who have not followed His way to the place we call hell.

There are many who have lived a life of great sexual sin. Having had many sexual partners. Some of you have contracted some STD, or multiple STDs. You now also stand on the wrong side of God, as a sinner, an enemy even. An Enemy that He will judge guilty.

Hope

There is always hope. Jesus Christ, God’s own son died a terrible death. He was sacrificed for all of us. He was sacrificed for all our sins. We have to accept that Jesus died in our place, taking all the sin we have committed against God, and paying for that sin for us, in our place. Believe that that sacrifice is sufficient, that Jesus’ death is sufficient to erase that sin. God will accept the death of Jesus as sufficient payment for the sins we have done. Then after that forgiveness of the great debt of sin, God will accept us as His own children. That is called Grace!

After accepting Jesus’ payment of our debts, abstain from sexual immorality. Thank God everyday for His great grace toward us.

Three Lessons From The Temptation of Jesus

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Jesus had just been introduced by John the Baptizer as the Christ, God on earth, and the savior of mankind. The one that John had been telling everyone was to come. People had been flocking to John to hear his message, that all must repent because the kingdom of God was near at hand. John was considered a profit of God, or to put it another way, a messenger of God.

After John had declared Jesus to be the coming Christ, the book of Mathew states in chapter 4 verse 1: Then Jesus was let by the Spirit (the Holy Spirit) into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. The temptation of Christ was then intentional, for our benefit. This temptation is not merely written of so that we can not only see the reactions that Jesus had to these temptations, but where our minds should be when we experience the same temptations.

We are told that Jesus after fasting for 40 days and nights experienced these temptations. We can assume then that He was in a state of great need, and great weakness, desperate even.

Our Immediate Need

Our physical needs are the needs that we are most aware of. The pain of hunger is true and present. When we have not eaten for a while, we know without doubt that we have a need. In fact that need becomes actual physical pain. A gnawing pain, a constant reminder of our immediate need. This need becomes desperate, and people will be driven to do all sorts of things to satisfy this need. Finally this need if not satisfied will lead to death, it’s quite final.

Jesus says that this need is real, but there is another real need that we face, but more important than the need for food. He said people will not, future, live only by filling his belly. Jesus looks beyond the immediate, beyond the importance of this life, to the eternal life. What good is it to fill your belly for the moment without the word of God? Food will fill the momentary need, but only God can fill the eternal need.

The lesson is that we need to look to God in order to truly live.

Faith in God

We are continually testing. Testing our relationships. Testing ourselves. Testing God. We all do it. Oh Lord if you get me out of this situation, I’ll do thus and such. There are those who test God by handling of poisonous snakes. Some test God by doing quests. Some of us test God by comparing ourselves with others. At times we say to God, if you’re real why is this happening?

The devil quoted scripture to Jesus, saying didn’t God say that He would always protect you? If God said He would protect you, jump off this high point and let’s watch Him do what He said He’d do.

Jesus’ response, quoting scripture, it is written, you shall not tempt the Lord your God.

Don’t test God. Believe what He has said. This very emphatic statement is really strong. We are not to try to force God to prove himself to us. We are the created, we need to simply believe what He says to be true.

The lesson: we need to have faith in God to truly live.

Worship God

The devil is looking to Jesus to worship him. He is trying to buy the worship of the Christ. Is this not what he does to us? Worship the devil and you will be rich, he will give you the world! We have all heard the phrase “to sell ones soul to the devil.” That is exactly what he is always doing, bribing us to forget God and to worship him instead.

Jesus makes two statements in one here. He said “you shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.” The use of the two words worship, and serve are no mistake. You see, to worship is to serve. In other words the work you do is your worship. If your work is to achieve riches, then the worship is of the riches. If your work is to please God, then it is worship of God.

The lesson: Worship God by what you do.

Evolution Vs. The Bible

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We are being taught today that the universe and all that is in it happened by accident, and, that from that accident all life as we know it evolved. Those who hold to evolution also claim the Bible to be a fairy tale, a superstition advanced by a select group to deceive an manipulate the general population. We are being taught that science proves that evolution has occurred and therefore there is no God.

Is this all true?

Scientific Method

In order to understand what is going on in the world or universe around us there needs to be a method to gain that knowledge. With no method we can draw any kind of conclusion based on any reason which doesn’t have to be based in fact.

Wikipedia defines the scientific method this way. “The scientific method is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge.[2] To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry is commonly based on empirical or measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning.” click here for the full article.

Let’s make a simple definition for our purposes here. Science is a study of the world around us based on observable, measure-able evidence.

Evolution

For the purpose of this discussion I am more interested in the Evolutionary history of life, because this is where the scientific community most takes aim at the christian church.

Evolutionary History is defined in  Wikipedia as: “The evolutionary history of life on Earth traces the processes by which living and fossil organisms have evolved since life appeared on the planet, until the present day.” Complete article here.

For evolution to occur many years are required, and many accidents that cause change(evolution) to take place. The latest idea out there it seems is that several billion years ago stars exploded expelling stardust across the universe in which itself contained the basic elements for life. These elements then over billions of years established life in the universe as we know it, and possibly in other places unknown to us.

There are problems with any of this from the prospective of scientific method. First of all none of this is observable. There is also no way to measure either the explosion of the star or stars that “exploded” or the time needed for life to establish itself, or the accident needed to make the environment necessary to generate, then incubate life into existence. One quick thought on heat and life, don’t we use heat to destroy living organisms (sterilization)? Arn’t starts, by their very nature, Heat? In fact much greater heat that we would use for sterilization. We must then simply accept that this great accident actually happened. We must accept that out of the heat of a furnace protazoa emerged. We must accept that inspite of what we know of the destruction that occurs in an explosion, for the purpose of evolution, life emerged. Where did the stars that exploded come from? Did they evolve? According to evolutionists we must have “faith” in the scientific establishment, simply because they are smarter than us.

Radiometric dating is relied on for the establishment of the age of the earth and everything in it when it comes to evolution. The interesting thing with these methods is the sheer number of assumptions made in the theories used for these methods. The assumptions and exceptions by far out weigh the known facts when considering radiometric dating. After all we have at best a few thousand years of verifiable, datable, objects to test. Even when testing these verifiable objects multiple tests must be run to achieve the correct outcome. Who determines the correct outcome? There are papers on top of papers written concerning the fragility of these tests, and the ease of which the accuracy of these tests can be affected. So if we know the accuracy of a test done on an object of which we have a good idea of the age can be off, how can we be sure of the accuracy of a test done on an object that is unknown in origin? One must assume at that point that the tester must assume the basic age of an object then test to get the correct results. Bad science! Un measure-able. Un verifiable.

The fact of the matter is, you have to have great FAITH in the theory of evolution. Faith is the basis of religion. And so, I put to you that evolution is as much a faith based religion as any other faith based religion out there. It just so happens that many, not all, but many scientists are of the Evolutionist faith!

Defense of Evolution

In the history of mankind, religion has been used to force compliance of peoples all over this world. Most times the motive to force compliance of peoples is power/wealth. The religion of evolution is no different. The power struggle today is very evident. The pressures on our society are very evident. We are seeing evolution being taught in our schools as fact, not theory. In fact it’s interesting that Evolution is still described in articles as “The Theory of Evolution” but presented as if it is established as absolute truth. Dangerous!

Ridicule is heaped on any who dare express any other idea. Or even challenge simply the time evolution requires. Yet evolutionist wax eloquent on the idea of tolerance. Try to offer a differing view to any of them, and observe the “tolerance.” This is the same tactic used by many religions to force the community into compliance.

Conclusion

We have allowed this religion of Evolutionism to take our society, but there will be no taking it back. It’s up to you to decide for yourself if the religion of Evolution is for you, or not.

You must engage your mind. In the end you are responsible for your beliefs. Blind faith in anyone, or anything is a crap shoot at best. Information, knowledge is there for you to discover, don’t let others define you as a person. Don’t allow yourself to be carried away in a lie.

Your beliefs define you as a person!

The Gospel of Jesus Christ

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So what is the gospel of Jesus Christ? The simple meaning of “gospel” is good news. So the gospel of Jesus Christ can be called the good news of Jesus Christ. So what is this good news? The good news or the gospel is that because we as mankind is not good enough to be acceptable to God and only deserving of His punishment, Jesus made a way for us to be adopted as sons and daughters of God, not just accepted, but adopted!

Unacceptable

We, mankind are all unacceptable to god because we are imperfect. The moral law that God gave us simply proves our imperfection. when we compare ourselves against the law of God, or the ten commandments we see quickly that we fail on multiple or all points of the law. For myself I don’t make it past the very first commandment, Love the Lord your God with all your heart. My heart and mind are constantly drawn to other things or people casting God aside, failing to keep his law, condemned as guilty. I fail on all points of the law if it is interpreted in the fashion that Jesus says it should be applied. For He said in the sermon on the mount that to even think contrary to the law is to break or violate the law, thus failing to keep it. It is logical to conclude then that no person except God is capable of keeping the law.  we are all Unacceptable and therefore condemned as sinners. Deserving only the judgement of God.

Judgement

So we are all judged guilty. We are all rebelling against God and this is proved by the law given us by Him. We all also know this to be true instinctively. That is why we feel guilt when we do or think anything that is immoral, or sin.

God’s judgement for those who have sinned is death, and separation from Him for eternity. Hell is the place for which we are bound. We judge ourselves, we know our own guilt. There is no defense.

Substitution

From the beginning God has allowed for a substitute to die for the sins of another. For Adam and Eve He, God sacrificed lambs and as a symbol covered them with the skins of the animals. The animals bore the sin of Adam and Eve, the blood of the lambs was shed in substitution for the blood of Adan and Eve.

In the same way God has provided a substitutionary sacrifice in Jesus for all the world. He was judged guilty for our sin, and died as our substitute so that we can live, both now and forever with God.

One Requirement

There is only one requirement left to have the substitutionary death of Christ applied to anyone! Believe.

Yes that is the good news of Jesus Christ. Believe that He is the son of God who died as your substitute to with His blood purchase your forgiveness for all the sin you have done and will do.

Jn 3:16 Perhaps the most known scripture verse there is. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. That is the only requirement that God has for total forgiveness.

He doesn’t require that we change our lives to be saved from death. He doesn’t require us to give up any vises, bad habits to be saved. There is no ceremony to be done, no isles to walk, no service to do. Simply believe!

He will change our lives as we live believing Him, live by faith.

Free Will

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Okay, we all know that God is sovereign! He has the right and ability to rule over all of creation, to do with it as He wishes. After all most of creation was done by Him simply commanding, speaking it into existence. I say most because man was different, God formed mankind with his own hands, then breathed life into him. There is a clear distinction between the creation of man and all the rest of creation as it exists.

God created mankind in His own image. That doesn’t mean that we look like Him, but rather we are like Him in spirit. Things that set us apart from all other created living things. Creativity, Communication, Desire, Love.

Yes, mankind is God’s special creation, we also do things, act differently from all of creation. The Bible teaches that all of creation glorifies God, all of creation speaks to His existence. All of creation is created to do just this, all except man. We have been given a choice to decide weather or not we will gorily our creator, again a special privilege.

Adam and Eve were given a special place to live. In this special place were places two trees that were also special. One of the trees was forbidden to them for food. To eat the fruit of that tree would be to disobey God, to sin. This was the first choice given to mankind. It was a simple choice, to leave the fruit alone, or to eat it. It didn’t take long for a poor choice to take place. Was this God’s doing? Was it Eve’s doing? Was it Adams doing? We have been living with the consequences of that one bad decision for the rest of our history, and we will continue to live with it for the rest of history future, until God brings the history of earth to an end.

Genesis 3:1-3 The question is put to Eve do you eat of the forbidden fruit or not? Is God holding out on you? We like to blame Eve for this poor decision, but if you read on Adam must have been standing there with her and he offered no resistance to her trying it. The decision was made by both of them. The consequences of making a poor decision did not delay long in coming. God Put them out of the garden, killed animals in order to clothe them, and started the clock of death that would come. Did She exercise her free will to eat of the fruit, did Adam? Yes!

God sometimes hardens a persons will, usually to force a point to be clearly understood. We see this clearly in the case of Pharaoh while Moses was trying to get him to set the people of Israel free in Exodus. God hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that He, God, could show the entire world that He is who He says He is and will do what He says He’ll do.

We have the will to obey or not to obey God. Joshua near the end of his life told the people of Israel to make up their minds who they would serve. They had seen God work mighty works, but still some dabbled in sin. Joshua 24:14-15

We have the will to believe him or not to believe him. Jesus gives us the same teaching. John 3 Jesus explains to Nicodemus, a learned man in the scriptures, that one must believe on Jesus to attain everlasting life. This is your privilege, to believe on not to believe. There is no other created thing that has this privilege. Will you believe Him? Will you live?

Belief in God

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Belief in God

What is meant by the phrase believe in God? What is belief at all? We live in a time when we find it hard to “believe” what anyone has to say and this affects the entirety of our lives. What about Abraham, it is said about him in Genesis 15:6that he (Abraham) believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. What does this mean?

belief: a feeling of being sure that someone or something exists or that something is true

So let’s put this definition to work with God. Belief in God is a feeling of being sure that God exists, and that God is true. This characterised the life of Abraham. God told him to leave his country to go to a place that He(God) would show him once he arrived. Abraham did that, he picked up his entire family along with all his possessions and left. God told Abraham that he would have so many descendants that they would number like the grains of sand. Being Old, Abraham still believed God. Sure he made errors, really Abraham and Sarah tried to “help” God out, mistakes were made, and Abraham still believed God. Sure there were times of doubt, but he believed God. It’s hard for us to accept that God will do what He says He’ll do, but we can believe Him.

We have a term “system of belief” which refers to the core beliefs a person holds concerning life and all there is. Each of us has a system of belief, there is no exception to this truth. Some would try to remove themselves from having a system of belief because at it’s core this screams religion. The Atheist too has a system of belief, he/she believes there is no god, no divine influence on life as we know it. Therefore he/she tries to live life as if there is no God, no right or wrong, no definite truths. After all there is no God to which we are accountable. This kind of thinking is in direct contrast to the christian way of thought.

Each person holds his/her system of tightly, and we jealously guard against all those around us who would challenge this system. We all feel uncomfortable when our system is challenged, but it will be challenged. This is when our “belief” holds our world perspective together. We also have the tendency to be sure that our system is the only correct, logical system and we defend it as such. We tend to gather with people who share our beliefs and we strengthen each others beliefs, whatever they are. Christians call this fellowship or church.

My Belief in Jesus

I believe that Jesus Christ is God’s son, sent to die a sacrificial death to pay the debt of sin we all hold John 3:16. Jesus being God himself was able to die as our substitute because he was perfect and suitable to make payment for my great sin debt. God alone, Jesus Christ alone, was sufficiently good to pay the debt, anyone else, anything else is dirty before God (mares by sin) and therefore unacceptable as payment (sacrifice). I believe that simple faith in this sacrificial death is sufficient to make me acceptable to God, and able to approach Him as an adopted son, seen by him as perfect based on the payment that Christ has made on my part through his death. I believe that He desires all mankind to believe Him, believe Christ, because that is Gods way for us to be made pure (sinless) before God. I believe that those who believe Him will in-fact spend the rest of eternity with Him after death takes us from this world.

Proofs for my beliefs

So what is it that makes me sure of my beliefs? Lets look at a few of the simple truths that make me absolutely sure of my system of belief.

I know with out a doubt that I sin Romans 3:23. I know for a fact that when I do sin I feel shame even if no one sees me sin.

I am always impressed that each time I write the date, or take notice of the date, that I am in fact taking notice to and agreeing with the fact that Jesus Died a bad death just over 2015 years ago, that is what A.D. means, (After Death).

God’s spirit is ready to comfort me at all times John 14:26. This comfort comes most easily in extremely intense, impossible times. The comfort of God for example in the face of imminent death is not explainable except for Gods power in our lives. There are men women and children all over this world, but especially in the middle east at this time who, in the face of horrific death lay down their lives refusing to deny the existence of Jesus Christ. (This is not my situation) I live in a place where beliefs are challenged in other ways that are less extreme, but also true and I’m afraid more damaging.

Life for us is too plastic, we don’t face starvation, stoning, beheading. In fact we don’t even see death of our loved ones in the realty that is death! Everything is made pretty, hardships are removed from us in a way that insulates us from them. We complain about the difficulties we face, the lack of things usually, while in other parts of our country and world people face the growling of their children’s bellies, or the treat of death for following Jesus. I wanted once to take a photo of a person I know, and through the translator he said “don’t take a photo of me being so hungry.” He didn’t want the memory of him being hungry to be remembered. In that part of the world they rely on God each day to give them the things they need. I will tell you that when they have food they are grateful because they understand that it comes from the hand of God!

Where are the Atheists

I have never met an Atheist in places where life is a battle. I have only met atheists in 1st world countries where everything is easy to come by. The ironic thing is these are the countries that have benefited from a long history of Christian influence, and the prosperity that results from that influence. The communists have tried to rid their countries of faith, to make their countries atheist, but in every instance they have failed. I know one gentleman who spent his whole life up to one event convinced that he was atheist, trying to convince others that there was no God. One day he found himself floating in the Gulf Stream between the USA and the Bahamas after his boat went down under him, leaving him alone, drifting and afraid. It wasn’t long until his cry went out to the God who he had spent his life trying to deny. Great adversity strips away the arrogance that allows us to think we can deny God. Being alone in immanent danger has a sobering effect. That gentleman has walked with God ever since that event, because he found God when all his comforts were taken from him. He knows without a doubt that God is real, and that God cares for us.

Abraham’s Belief

Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. He simply had confidence that God would do exactly what He said He’d do. Abraham was so sure that God would do the things He said He’d do that Abraham acted on whatever God told him. Our actions come out of our system of belief, therefore our actions are a manifestation of that system of belief. Do you believe God? Do you believe Him enough to act on those beliefs?

True faith is not a complicated thing. It is not a hard thing to accomplish or attain to. It is the simple belief that God is God and He will do exactly what He says He will do!

A really interesting problem, for those who deny God is He is still there, and He is still God. The Bible teaches that one day every knee will bow to Him recognising Him as God. To not believe Him in this life will leave a person in a real pickle, there will be no do-overs.

Abraham

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God introduces us to Abram in the final verses of the 11th chapter to Genesis. No great pomp or circumstance just an introduction, who he is, who his family is, and where they were.

The first verse of chapter 12 finds God telling Abraham to leave his country and family and go, to a place that was not defined, but God would show him when he gets there. Not exactly circumstances that would excite the majority of us, but Abram does what God had asked him to do. God also told Abram that He(God) was going to make Abram a great nation that would be a blessing to the whole world. Through the lineage of Abram the whole earth would be blessed, but there were again no specifics given to Abram. He and Sarai, his wife were without children, but Abram was not bothered by these details. I would like to say that this is faith, faith in a God that Abram knew would do exactly what He said He would do. Lots of us believe that there is a God, but not so many of us are willing to act on that belief. We want a plan from beginning to end, with quantifiable goals along the way so that we can be sure the plan is working. That is not the way that God wants to interact with us. Faith is only real when we are able to act on a belief regardless of possible outcomes. Abram had no idea of where he is going, or how he will be perceived by others.

Abram and his household continued on until God appeared to Abram again, letting him know where to stop.

There is a saying “put your money where your mouth is.” That can be put as, you have faith, act on it! When we know what it is that God want’s of us we must act on that knowledge. to not act is to not really believe.

Abram was not a perfect man, but he was a man that believed strongly enough on God to do what he knew God wanted of him. We will take a look into his life to see his errors and then his faith. Each error is a moment that faith failed, failure of faith causes our focus to go to something other than God, some problem we have that at that moment obscures our faith. We will see that these errors are overlooked by God, and Abram picks up where he left off, believing God.