Friday, 24 October 2014

Evacuate

Evacuate?

The other day I watched a documentary called Evacuate Earth. It was a fascinating film that presented what could possibly be done if the earth was threatened by an object from outer space.
The premise was simply that we’d be searching the stars for an earthlike planet that we could go to should we find earth was in danger of being destroyed.
In fact the search for earth like planets is happening today.
Should such a cataclysmic even appear to be imminent. The powers to be would carefully select people from all over the world using genetic selection and other means, to go onto a large space craft for a journey that would at the minimum take a generation or more to that new earth.
I realized that the people making the movie were not Christians.
For me the premise that the human race would die out due to some cataclysm perhaps in theory is more than possible. After all our existence on this planet is defined by razor thin margins.
Still I do not believe for one second the human race would die out. Human beings while here on earth are have bodies of flesh and bone but that is not what makes up a man. Men and women were crated by God as eternal beings.  Let me quote loosely from Martin Luther King Jr who said,
“We thank thee, O God, for the spiritual nature of man.We are in nature but we live above nature....
Then, finally, help us to realize that man was created to shine like stars and live on through all eternity...”
King recognized the one thing all Christians and other faith groups know. First of all man is not just a corporeal being, but a spiritual being who is destined to live on through eternity.
A comet, asteroid, neutron star, nuclear holocaust, or for that matter a mass murderer, cannot sent people into oblivion.
To me the thought that all there is, is this life is very sad.
Every man, woman and child has so much potential. For it to be limited to a few years or decades or even just over a century seems such a waste.
I do believe the words of Martin Luther King when he said, mankind was created to live on like the stars through eternity.
I know to the unbeliever that may seem silly even stupid, it is never the less what I believe.
I have read the Bible with an open mind and truly believe what it says. The apostle Paul writing to Timothy wrote,
“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.  
But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life. 
                            1Timothy 1:15,16 
Eternal life to a Christian is a gift from God. C. S. Lewis said,
“The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.” 
                                           C.S. Lewis.
The Apostle Paul wrote,
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” 
        Romans 5:8.
Writing to the Ephesians Paul said, 
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—  not by works, so that no one can boast.” 
                                                                   Ephesians 2:8,9
When all is said and done however what will happen to mankind and each individual on this earth comes down to a matter of where you put your faith, in Science or in God.
The writer of Hebrews noting,
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” 
Hebrews 11:1
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
                                                                                      Hebrews 11:6
Think about it

Thursday, 23 October 2014

October 22nd 2014 Ottawa

October 22nd 2014 Ottawa

As I write this Canada’s capital has just been shocked by a radicalized individual who shot and killed a soldier on duty at the national war memorial in Ottawa then tried to get to others inside the parliament buildings.
Fortunately the man doing the shooting was shot and killed by the sergeant at arms before he could kill others.
This is the second attack on Canadian military personal in less than a week. A few days earlier a man deliberately attacked two soldiers in Quebec killing one of them.    The attacker in this incident was also killed.
My condolences and prayers go out to the families of those soldiers who have died.
Such attacks are done by men who are far from God. Men who harbour hate within their heart. Men who know nothing of honour. Men devoid of love.
Rabbi Abba Hill Silver during the dark days of world war two said,
“There is one other fundamental difference between love and hate.  Love is always a refuge.  Hate is never a refuge.  Only a mentally sick person can find refuge in his hates.  But love is the enduring sanctuary of life.  Life may rob you of many things.  It often does.  But it can never bereave us of love itself.  That remains.”
-Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, rabbinic leader, from a December 22, 1940, sermon,  
The men that killed those soldiers were no better than Adolf Hitlers, Gestapo.  The leaders of IS who inspired them, nothing more than modern day Nazis who murder innocent men women and children. Such men are far from God.
These murders deserve to be brought to trial and convicted of the crimes they are so guilty of committing and inspiring.
We however as civilized people should not stoop to their level. We should never hate.
Martin Luther King Jr. knew what it was to experience hate, yet he was able to say.
“We thank thee, O God, for the spiritual nature of man. We are in nature but we live above nature. Help us never to let anybody or any condition pull us so low as to cause us to hate.
Give us strength to love our enemies and to do good to those who despitefully use us and persecute us...
Keep us, we pray, in perfect peace; help us to walk together, pray together, sing together, and live together until that day when all God’s children, Black, White, Red, and Yellow will rejoice in one common bond of humanity in the kingdom  of our LORD and of our God, we pray.
                         Amen.
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Let us never hate. Let us hold the banners of Freedom, Justice, and Democracy high never for one minute letting them be tarnished by hate.
We need to pray for our brave men and women in the military as well as the first responders who risk their lives to keep us safe and free.
Pray for the protection of those who are fighting against the evil that IS and other terrorist groups around the world.
Pray for our political leaders that God will give them protection. That He will grant them wisdom in all their decisions.
Pray for peace.



Wednesday, 22 October 2014

Let Love

Let Love
“Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. 
Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.” 
                                                                                      Proverbs 3:3,4.
What amazing words no matter what you believe I think you can say these words are very true.
Someone showing true love cannot help winning favour in the sight of all people. Only someone with a twisted mind would turn against someone showing true love toward them.
The Apostle Paul writes,
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 
Love never fails....
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”  
                                                                                            1 Corinthians 13:4-8a,13
The kind of love described by Paul when writing to the Corinthians is precisely the kind of Love God wants true believers to show to all they come in contact with.
Back in the late sixties there was a musical that came out called Goodby Mr. Chips. The words to it’s theme tune while not from the Bible express what we as individuals should be doing.  

In the Morning of My Life

In the morning of my life
I will look to the Sunrise
At a moment in my life 
When the world is new.

And the Question
I shall ask only God can answer.
Will I be brave and strong and true,
Will I fill the world with love my whole life through?
Will I fill the world with love my whole life through?

In the evening of my life
I will look to the sunset
At a moment in my life 
When my life is through.

And the question I shall ask only I can answer 
Was I brave and strong and true.
Did I fill the world with love my whole life through?
Did I fill the world with love my whole life through?
                                                                                                        By Leslie Bricusse
                                                                                              From the Musical Good by Mr Chips

When you day come to stand before God will you be able to say you “I filled the world with Love my whole life through”?
Think about it

Tuesday, 21 October 2014

The Jesus Question

The Jesus Question

Here’s a question for those who do not believe Jesus is the Son of God, God incarnate.
Why would a man knowing claim to be the Son of God when he knew the penalty by law for saying such a thing meant death?
Jesus knew the law and still claimed to be the Son of God.
The Gospel of Matthew records,
“Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?”  
But Jesus remained silent. The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” 
“Yes, it is as you say,”Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy.  
What do you think?” “He is worthy of death,” they answered.” 
                                                                     Matthew 26:62-66
The Gospel of John records,
“As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!” But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.” 
The Jews insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.” 
                               John 19:6,7.
Let’s face it, someone trying to start a new religious or a social movement of any kind would be a lunatic to say something that would get him put to death.
C. S. Lewis an Oxford University intellectual, initially an atheist studied the Bible and Jesus. He came to this conclusion about Jesus,
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him(Jesus): I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” 
           C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Needless to say Lewis became a follower of Jesus.
To my mind Jesus is everything he said he was, the Son of God.
His call to each and every individual is to get rid of any preconceived ideas you might have or someone has place in your mind and read what the New Testament has to say about Jesus with an open mind. Make your own decision as to who he is.
It is my belief that if you do study the Bible with an open mind you will see Jesus for what He is the Son of God, the Saviour of mankind.
Think about it.

Monday, 20 October 2014

True Christians

True Christians
Over the centuries many have called themselves Christians that are not.
Simply because someone calls themselves a Christian does not make themselves a Christian any more than someone dressed as a fireman makes them a real fireman.
There are many people out there, some even preaching from the pulpit or in the media that call themselves Christians but are by no means Christian Christians.
Here’s something to think about concerning true Christians,
A true Christian will obey the words of Jesus,
they will  not judge,
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged.  
For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged,
 and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
Matthew 7:1,2
They will not judge others for any reason. I like what Tony Campolo said about this. He said,
“We ought to get out of the judging business. We should leave it up to God to determine who belongs in one arena or another when it comes to eternity. What we are obligated to do is to tell people about Jesus, and that's what I do.”
                                                      Tony Campolo
A True Christian will do to others as you would have others do to you.
Jesus saying,
“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you,
 for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” 
Matthew 7:12
A true Christian will love,
Love both God and His neighbour,
Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul 
and with all your mind.’  
This is the first and greatest commandment.  
And the second is like it:
 ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’  
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” 
Matthew 22:37-40
Will, Love their enemy and pray for their persecutors,
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’  
But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,  
that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. 
He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good,
 and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  
If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?
 Are not even the tax collectors doing that?  
Matthew 5:43-46
A true Christian will recognize that true love is as the  Apostle Paul wrote,
“Love is patient, love is kind.
 It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking,
 it is not easily angered,
 it keeps no record of wrongs.
 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 
Love never fails....
And now these three remain:
 faith, hope and love. 
But the greatest of these is love.”  
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a,13
A true Christian will even take into account the prayer of St Francis of Assisi making it the prayer of their heart.
"Lord, make me an instrument of your peace, 
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; 
to be understood as to understand; 
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive; 
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; 
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life."
                                                                                     The Prayer of St Francis of Assisi
Think about it.

Sunday, 19 October 2014

Love

Love
“There is one other fundamental difference between love and hate.  Love is always a refuge.  Hate is never a refuge.  Only a mentally sick person can find refuge in his hates.  But love is the enduring sanctuary of life.  Life may rob you of many things.  It often does.  But it can never bereave us of love itself.  That remains.”
-Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, rabbinic leader, from a December 22, 1940, sermon,    quoted in Therefore Choose Life: Selected Sermons, Addresses and Writings of    Abba Hillel Silver, Volume One, edited by Herbert Wiesner (1997)
Do you love? I don’t care who you are Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Atheist. If unconditional love is absent hate will abound.
The Nazis during world war two promoted hate, limited their love to a selected few, and it resulted in the greatest genocide in world history. Twelve million plus murdered in death camps in excess of 60,000,000, civilian and military dead in the world war that ensued.
To day as I write this IS militants, men without honour or love in their hearts are killing innocent men, women and children.
While IS is extreme I look around at society today and see at times love lacking.
I am a Christian and I look at some who call themselves Christian ministers and evangelist in the media slamming various groups for their lifestyle and I ask myself where is the love.
I see non-Christian groups Atheist in particular demanding certain religious symbols be taken out of public spaces because they are offended and have rights, and I ask where is the love.
I watched the news and hear of young people killing young people over nothing of importance.
Gang violence is becoming prevalent in all our major cities. Gangs hate. They limit their love to their own. They hate others to the point of being willing to kill.
Love is slowly it seems drifting away from segments of our society and there seems to be no solution.
I do believe however there is.
It seems to be as society here in the west has drifted away from the basic Judao-Christian teachings of loving others as you would love yourself, society has started to decline.
I look at Christians particularly in the Bible belt of the United States and some Churches here in Canada and see them becoming confrontational. While at the same time failing to meet the needs of people youth and others of the twenty-first century.
The churches that I see as succeeding, are those who realize that the message of the Bible is for today and are framing it in a relevant and meaningful way.
They are showing love to all. They are not imposing their faith on anyone but rather inviting people of all ways of life to come and see what Christ has for them.
They are presenting the gospel of Christ and saying this is what Jesus said, this is what we believe and giving them the opportunity to accept or reject that message.  
I believe that the principles of love for one’s fellow man stated within the Bible is the solution to many of man’s problems in the twenty-first century.
The Apostle Paul wrote many profound things. Writing to the Corinthians he said,
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 
Love never fails....
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”  
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a,13
Writing to the Romans he said,
“If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.  
Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.  
On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” 
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” 
                                                                      Romans 12:18-21.
If even just these two principles were followed by all people in the world to day, our society would be a much better place.
Think about it.

Saturday, 18 October 2014

Quiescence

Quiescence

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 
Love never fails....
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”  
                                                                                     1 Corinthians 13:4-8a,13.
Love is the essence of Christianity. You cannot be a Christian and hate you must love.
Jesus said,
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  
But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,  
that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  
If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?  
Matthew 5:43-46.
We must be different from the world. Our love should never be contingent on anything someone does or doesn’t do for us or to us.
God set the example by sending Jesus into the world while we were still sinners. The apostle Paul telling the Romans,
“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.  
Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.  
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:6-8 
Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 defines clearly what true love is,
Love is patient, love is kind. 
It does not envy, 
it does not boast, 
it is not proud.  
It is not rude, 
it is not self-seeking, 
it is not easily angered, 
it keeps no record of wrongs. 
Love does not delight in evil
but rejoices with the truth.  
It always protects, 
always trusts,
 always hopes,
 always perseveres. 
Love never fails...”
Is this the kind of Love you have?
Think about it.

Friday, 17 October 2014

Blameless

Blameless among

“The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.  
The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.  
So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.”  
But Noah found favour in the eyes of the LORD. 
This is the account of Noah. 
Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.” 
                                                                                                                                     Genesis 6:5-9
“Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.” Could God say this about you?
Noah judging by the account lived in a world of incredible sin. So much so God decided to wipe it out. Such a world may have been far worse than today. Yet Noah scripture tells us, walked with God.
Someone once told me our world is no different from the time of Abraham, Moses, David or any other society that has ever existed. There was sin all around. The only difference is sin is delivered to us in a high tech way.
Today in the twenty-first century we live in a world surrounded by sin. Not only that, but thanks to technology it comes directly into our homes.
As a result we need to turn to the Lord each and every day. To read the scriptures meditate on them. To spend as much time as we can in prayer.
We need to encourage our fellow believers in Christ to lift them up in prayer also.
We need to be aware of any sins we commit and turn to God and confess them as soon as we realize we’ve done them.
Christians do sin, we are not perfect. Just progressing.
John states,
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  
If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.” 
1John 1:9,10.
A pastor once told me that at the very least each night we should spend twenty minutes or half an hour alone with God. Asking him to search our hearts and show us where we have fallen short and where we could have done better.
At the same time we should be praising and thanking God for all he has done for us.
Scripture tells us Noah walked with God. This is what we should be doing.
We should be talking to God throughout the day also. Praising him and asking for his wisdom in all that we do.
Think about it.

Thursday, 16 October 2014

An Interesting thought

An interesting thought
Here’s something for you to think about from the Talmud it says,
“When a man appears before the Throne of Judgment, the first question he is asked is not, “Have you believed in God?”  Or “Have you prayed and observed the ritual?  “He is asked: “have you dealt honourably and faithfully in all your dealings with your fellow men?”
                                                                                                              The Talmud.
Logically to me it makes sense. When you’re before the thrown of God you can’t deny that he exists.
God already knows whether you’ve prayed and observed the ritual. He even knows if you’ve dealt honourably and faithfully in all your dealings with your fellow man by his standards
But he want’s your opinion. He wants to know if you feel you have dealt correctly with your fellow man. He wants if you will, you to have your say.
We have a very personal God. He wishes to get to know the individual on a personal level. He requires that all people, but believers in particular to deal honourably with those around us.
James writes,
“Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you.  
Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes.  
Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days.  
Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.  
You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.  
You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you.”
                                                                                                     James 5:1-6.
James make it very clear that God knows the wrongs that people commit and will punish them.
I firmly believe that Christians at all times must deal in an upright and fair manner with all whom we deal.
We must never take unfair advantage of anyone at anytime because God.
Sadly I have heard over the years people who will not deal with those who call themselves Christian businessmen because they do not deal honourably. Which tells me at the very least they are not truly committed to Christ or are not Christians at all.
My wife is fond of saying, if you have to say you’re a Christian even in advertisements for your business they you just may not be a good Christian at the very least.
Francis of Assisi said it best,
“Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words.” 
                                                                                  Francis of Assisi 
If you are people will notice the difference without you telling them.
Think about it.

Wednesday, 15 October 2014

A way of Life

A way of life.

“For this reason I kneel before the Father,  from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.  
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,  so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” 
Ephesians 3:14-19
This  prayer of Paul for the Ephesians is a prayer for all believers.
Christianity is not just a faith it is a way of life rooted in love. A love from God that we as Christians must show to the world at all times.
Pauls prayer is that we grasp how all encompassing  God’s love for us in Christ Jesus is. It is a love that surpasses all knowledge.
Understanding such love is what makes us better Christians. It’s what enables us to reach out in love and pray for even our worst enemies and persecutors.
In order to truly understand the depth of Gods love for us we must read the scriptures and study them in earnest.
We must pray believing that God will show us how to love the way He does. How to reach out to others and lead them to Salvation in Christ.
Francis of Assisi wrote,
The prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace, 
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; 
to be understood as to understand; 
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive; 
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; 
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Think about it.

Tuesday, 14 October 2014

On Jesus

On Jesus

Kenneth Scott Latourette, former President of American Historic Society
In A History of Christianity, wrote,
“It is evidence of His importance, of the effect that He has had upon history and presumably, of the baffling mystery of His being that no other life ever lived on this planet has evoked so huge a volume of literature among so many people and languages, and that, far from ebbing, the flood continues to mount.”
“As the centuries pass by, the evidence is accumulating that measured by its effect on history, Jesus is the most influential life ever lived on this planet. The influence appears to be mounting.”
“No other life lived on this planet has so widely and deeply affected mankind.”
I am not a great scholar by any means. I am a simple follower of Christ.
I know there are many people out there who deny there is a God and claim Jesus is a myth.
Still no credible historian today denies that Jesus walked the earth. Quite the contrary more and more archeology is slowly starting to prove more and more how accurate the gospels are.
Sir William Ramsay one of the greatest Archaeologist of the first half of the twentieth century was a liberal who tried to refute to validity of the gospel of Luke. Ramsay however became persuaded that Luke was a scholar of the first order.
He was so convinced that he became an evangelist making arguments for the teachings of Christ based on his readings of the Gospel and his archaeological findings.
Another reputable archaeologist Stephen Neil notes the point that Luke get's all of the titles correct in Acts, all the minor officials in every little localities, even titles which were thought previously to have been wrong archaeology has proven Luke right.
Those who deny that Christ existed are not objective. They are not looking at the evidence that is slowly accumulating from outside the bible by reputable historians and archaeologist both Christian and non-Christian.
Those same people who deny that Jesus existed would not deny Alexander the great existed yet the first records we have for Alexander was 300 years after he died.
It wasn’t until 1961 that archaeologist discovered Pontius Pilate’s name inscribed on block referring to him as prefect of Judea.
In 1990 that an ossuary (bone box) was discovered and has been authenticated with the name of Caiphas the name of the high priest was discovered.
World historian Will Durant notes that no Jew or Gentile from the first-century ever denied the existence of Jesus.
Here’s another statistic,
Within 150 years of Christ’s death there were the same number of secular writers who mention both Tiberius and Jesus.
 Thirty-six thousand complete and partial writings about Jesus have been discovered from the first century.
These are works from outside the bible, but from them you can reconstruct almost the entire new testament.
Such works are within living memory of Jesus which shows he existed.
Throughout history however there have be doubters the difference today is that those doubters have a high tech soap box to stand on.
There is one thing I am certain of in all of this. If I am right, which I am convinced I am, and Jesus and God truly exist, then I have no fears. For I will one day stand before Christ and meet him as my Lord and Saviour. If I am wrong I have lived a good moral and happy life.
To those who would doubt the existence of God and Jesus I would say if you are right you have nothing to fear.
But if you are wrong you have a big surprise coming and will one day prove right the words of Jesus who said,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 
John 3:16-18
Think about it.

Monday, 13 October 2014

Draw near to God

Draw near to God

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus,  by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body,  
and since we have a great priest over the house of God,  let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.  
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.  And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.”  
                                                                               Hebrews 10:19-24
Here is a call by the writer of Hebrews to draw near to God,
“...with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.  And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.”  ”
When we accept Christ into our lives we have our hearts cleansed from the guilt of sin. We are washed and renewed.
Our walk with Christ should be a daily walk. Each and every day we should draw closer to Jesus.
I live with Bipolar affective disorder (manic depression). There is no cure it can only be controlled by medication and even they are not a hundred percent effective. Many with the illness commit suicide. I admit I have contemplated suicide many times.
The thing that has prevented me from doing so is my relationship with Jesus Christ and Christian family and friends.
Each day I get up and am thankful that I have another day to be with my them and to serve my God.
In my darkest hours before the doctors got my medications right, a process that took a number of years I found that I had to draw very near to God.
I found myself constantly seeking God to deliver me from what I was going through. To show me how to live with this problem in my brain.
He did.
I had my family and friends their praying for me and encouraging me to continue on serving the Lord.
The illness far from killing me or putting me in an institution actually drew me closer than I have ever been to God.
Scripture says,
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” 
                                           Romans 8:28
I have found this to be true.
I today speak to secular and Christian groups about my experience with mental illness and am able to testify about the grace of God in my life.
I would not have been able to do this had I not in the darkest times of my life drawn close to my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
There is one other thing I must say in all of this. All those who come to the Lord need to lay a solid spiritual foundation.
In my early years as a Christian I was blessed to have some very good pastors and teachers who encouraged me to study the scriptures. Who helped me understand what it was to live a life for Christ.
It was this foundation that I believe saved my life as I was going through my mental health struggles and the other problems I’ve had in my life.
I learned as a young Christian that God was but a prayer away.
I am far from perfect. There are day’s I fall far short of God’s ideal for my life. Never the less I have always known beyond a shadow of a doubt that my Lord and saviour has always been there for me.
I strongly believe that God is there for all believers. That we need to go to Him not just in times of struggle but in good times.
I have never forgotten what God has done for me and I thank Him for all of it.
Dear Christian,
remember that no matter what you are going through God is but a prayer away and he will be there for you.
Think about it.