Angel assigned to us is our personal angel or guardian angel. They are our closest companion and guide us while we walk on earth. They help us through our transformation of birth and death, help us to carry out our divine plan, defend us and help to protect us in time of trouble and call the other angels when we need them.
HOWEVER, they will not interfere us many things unless if we ASK them to assist. When asking help from them, be precise and keep your intention pure and highest good.
Many of us lightworker have more than 2 guardian angels, assisting in healing, psychic etc. We are in tune with them and can feel their presence. The scent of flower and fluttering of their wings and sometime hear their beautiful music. If you fortunate enough, you may find feather when our celestial friend depart.
Here I leave you a prayers for your guardian angel to be nearer to you and assist in your life. You no longer to be Alone! May God Bless you!
Guardian Angel Prayer
by St. Gertrude
O most holy angel of God,
appointed by God to be my guardian,
I give you thanks for all the benefits
which you have ever bestowed on me
in body and in soul.
I praise and glorify you
that you condescended to assist me
with such patient fidelity,
and to defend me against all the assaults of my enemies.
Blessed be the hour in which
you were assigned me for my guardian,
my defender and my patron.
In acknowledgment and return
for all your loving ministries to me,
I offer you the infinitely precious
and noble heart of Jesus,
and firmly purpose to obey you henceforward,
and most faithfully to serve my God.
Amen
A Guardian Angel Prayer For Friends
~
Guardian Angel, watch over those whose names you can read in my heart. Guard over them with every care and make their way easy and their labours fruitful. Dry their tears if they weep; sanctify their joys; raise their courage if they weaken; restore their hope if they lose heart, their health if they be ill, truth if they err, repentance if they fail.
Monday, June 18, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Broken promises
Woke up this morning and felt that I was betrayed for without any reason?. I don't know why? I ask God, why I am feeling this way? He replied, this is how I feel if someone broke my commandments. Now I understand.. This is how He felt when we betrayed Him.
Every time we make promises. When we seal that promises just make sure you do it.
Deuteronomy 23: 21-23
“When you make a vow to the LORD your God, you shall not delay to pay it; for the LORD your God will surely require it of you, and it would be sin to you. 22 But if you abstain from vowing, it shall not be sin to you. 23 That which has gone from your lips you shall keep and perform, for you voluntarily vowed to the LORD your God what you have promised with your mouth.
Ecclesiastes 5:4-5
When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it;
For He has no pleasure in fools.
Pay what you have vowed—
5 Better not to vow than to vow and not pay.
We as a Christian have rules to guide us. It's the commandments that guide us and should be followed but we often led to temptation and fell. God do weep if we break His promises. He loves us so much and that why He sent Jesus to save us.
God's love extends mercy and forgiveness. You pray, confess your sin and ask for forgiveness. Then you correct it, do what God want you to do/what you promised Him. He forgives. We've all made mistakes big and small. God want us to confess with meaning not just words.
If we made mistakes please repent and don't repeat the same mistake as God love us..
It's a blessing to weep with you dear Lord as in, John 16:20 I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. Bless are those who people who mourn and weep.. Amen
Every time we make promises. When we seal that promises just make sure you do it.
Deuteronomy 23: 21-23
“When you make a vow to the LORD your God, you shall not delay to pay it; for the LORD your God will surely require it of you, and it would be sin to you. 22 But if you abstain from vowing, it shall not be sin to you. 23 That which has gone from your lips you shall keep and perform, for you voluntarily vowed to the LORD your God what you have promised with your mouth.
Ecclesiastes 5:4-5
When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it;
For He has no pleasure in fools.
Pay what you have vowed—
5 Better not to vow than to vow and not pay.
We as a Christian have rules to guide us. It's the commandments that guide us and should be followed but we often led to temptation and fell. God do weep if we break His promises. He loves us so much and that why He sent Jesus to save us.
God's love extends mercy and forgiveness. You pray, confess your sin and ask for forgiveness. Then you correct it, do what God want you to do/what you promised Him. He forgives. We've all made mistakes big and small. God want us to confess with meaning not just words.
If we made mistakes please repent and don't repeat the same mistake as God love us..
It's a blessing to weep with you dear Lord as in, John 16:20 I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. Bless are those who people who mourn and weep.. Amen
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Life as a bearer
In Galatians 6:2 we are told to bear one another’s burdens. Then in Galatians 6:5 we are told that each one should bear their own load. What does this mean?
The Sandfords describe burden bearing this way: “Burden bearing is predicated upon the capacity of our spirit to identify with another, to empathize, to share and shoulder emotional loads. In the same way that two physically can carry a log which one alone cannot lift, burden bearing takes one end of a load, and so enables a brother to survive and function. Whereas two must be in proximity to lift something physically, burden bearing requires no spatial nearness. We can feel, identify, share and pray about another’s burdens at whatever distance we may happen to be.”
Jesus Christ is the true burden bearer. His wounds is the witness of our sin. No other human can do this, but some do try. There is a place for picking up part of someone else’s load when they can’t to carry it alone, but there comes a time to put it down again. If we don’t it will damage us.
Burden bearer are born with this special gift not trained. They have ability to pick up others emotion load and carry it. They also know what the other people toughts and intention. Without proper guidance they will suffer and think their gift is a curse.
The gift of Burden Bearing is a powerful gift and the devil hates its operation in a self sacrificing cross bearing Christian. But, he will use it to spread stuff to others if he can’t destroy the Christian.
Also do not think it strange if you are despised by certain people; for this is some of the negative effects the demonic realm will try to project towards the Burden Bearer. Just know that you are in good company.
Isa 53:3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
How wonderful is it to become a burden bearer. All praise and glory be to God’s wonderful love, who is willing to weep with those who weep and is willing to help us carry the things that are too heavy for us, according to his wonderful love that was demonstrated through Christ’s death on the Cross, and this demonstration of love is what the Burden Bearer is called; to carry the heart of God by carrying his or her cross and interceding for the transgressions according to God’s will.
Thank you Lord for this gift..
The Sandfords describe burden bearing this way: “Burden bearing is predicated upon the capacity of our spirit to identify with another, to empathize, to share and shoulder emotional loads. In the same way that two physically can carry a log which one alone cannot lift, burden bearing takes one end of a load, and so enables a brother to survive and function. Whereas two must be in proximity to lift something physically, burden bearing requires no spatial nearness. We can feel, identify, share and pray about another’s burdens at whatever distance we may happen to be.”
Jesus Christ is the true burden bearer. His wounds is the witness of our sin. No other human can do this, but some do try. There is a place for picking up part of someone else’s load when they can’t to carry it alone, but there comes a time to put it down again. If we don’t it will damage us.
Burden bearer are born with this special gift not trained. They have ability to pick up others emotion load and carry it. They also know what the other people toughts and intention. Without proper guidance they will suffer and think their gift is a curse.
The gift of Burden Bearing is a powerful gift and the devil hates its operation in a self sacrificing cross bearing Christian. But, he will use it to spread stuff to others if he can’t destroy the Christian.
Also do not think it strange if you are despised by certain people; for this is some of the negative effects the demonic realm will try to project towards the Burden Bearer. Just know that you are in good company.
Isa 53:3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
How wonderful is it to become a burden bearer. All praise and glory be to God’s wonderful love, who is willing to weep with those who weep and is willing to help us carry the things that are too heavy for us, according to his wonderful love that was demonstrated through Christ’s death on the Cross, and this demonstration of love is what the Burden Bearer is called; to carry the heart of God by carrying his or her cross and interceding for the transgressions according to God’s will.
Thank you Lord for this gift..
Friday, June 8, 2012
Epilogue "Issues That Make Christians Squirm"
To become a genuine Christian is almost impossible
1. The standards required of a Christian are beyond me
Everyone who has missed the distinctive feature of Christianity feels this way. Non-Christian religions require their followers to reach a certain standard, but to become a Christian is to acknowledge that none of us can meet God’s requirements. Jesus has done it for us.
If you were drowning, would you refuse the help of lifeguards because you are not good enough at swimming? It’s precisely because you are not good enough that you need to be saved. And everyone who lets Jesus save them is a Christian.
A different view: People claiming inability to become a Christian usually think they are demeaning only themselves. What they are really asserting, however, is that Jesus is an inadequate Savior. Upon realizing how ridiculous that is, they yield to Jesus and let him transform their lives.
2. It costs too much to become a Christian
Offer me an ice cream for $500 and I’d refuse. It costs too much. Offer me a brand new car for $500 and I’d think it so cheap that there must be a catch. It’s not the cost that’s the real issue, it’s what’s on offer. The cost of becoming a Christian is so enormous that it is exceeded only by the benefits. Nevertheless, the rewards are so immense that the cost shrivels to insignificance. What’s in it for me?
The wonderful thing about becoming a Christian is that you never do it alone. You are entering into partnership with the One for whom nothing is impossible. He is always with you to comfort, encourage, strengthen, liberate, protect and to shower you with compensations for what you have left behind. Try as you may, you can sacrifice nothing for God. The most you can do is exchange fleeting pleasure for eternal joy. That’s not a sacrifice. It’s an investment.
God is a giver, not a taker. What he desires is like a perfect marriage. In every way we benefit from his proposal and God gets the raw end. But God is love. He wants this holy union more than we can imagine. Don’t break his heart by holding back.
True marriage costs. It involves total commitment of all that you have and all that you are. It is believing in someone so completely that you entrust your entire being to that person for life. The Lord is eager to be that devoted to you, but for marriage to work, the commitment must be mutual.
If a street kid married a millionaire, she would get his riches and he would get her debts. He would be tarred with her shame and she would gain his honor. For this to happen, she must turn from rival relationships and bind herself and her meager possessions to this man in marriage. Everything he has would become hers, provided she lets everything she has become his.
Similarly, if we entrust to God everything we have - our time, abilities, relationships and possessions - he will reciprocate, embracing us with divine extravagance. We hand our depravity to Jesus, relinquishing even our fondest sin. It becomes his. That’s what killed him. In return, Jesus’ sinless perfection envelops us, enabling us to be on intimate terms with the Holy God. (2 Corinthians 5:21) The culmination of this divine exchange of holiness for depravity will be seen when all evil is finally wiped off this planet - we will be spared and no one can accuse God of injustice or favoritism. He has borne the penalty himself.
In entering this love pact, we give God the right to do whatever he likes with our assets, but the Owner of the universe makes his riches available to us. (Philippians 4:19) We trade our talents, for his unlimited power; our attempts to run our lives, for his unrivaled wisdom. We give him our time on earth and he gives us eternity.
The following prayer corresponds to wedding vows in which you promise to love, honor and obey the Lord, thus making him your God. In turn, the King of kings makes you worthy of spiritual fusion with him and pledges to devote himself unreservedly to you. If the following accurately describes your feelings, you can make it your prayer by reading it to God.
Lord,
It’s hard to admit how sinful I’ve been. I have caused you grief, yet you sent your Son who gave his life and defeated death to secure my pardon. (Romans 4:24-25; 6:4-5; 1 Corinthians 15:3-8,14,17; Colossians 2:12; 1 Peter 1:3)
You have given yourself totally for me and I long to reciprocate. In response to your overwhelming love, I dedicate all I have to loving you. I yield to your loving protection and guidance. I surrender my sins to you, renouncing even those things that entice me. And in exchange I receive your pardon and purity and your empowerment to live a life worthy of you.
Thank you that we have now commenced a union that not even death can break.
The Lord of heaven and earth knows your secret thoughts. (Hebrews 4:13) If you prayed the entire prayer honestly, you have entered a new spiritual realm. That’s hard to believe. Everything seems the same. But not from heaven’s perspective. The spiritual contract is sealed.
The proof rests not in your feelings (such as whether you feel guilty or happy), but in the integrity of the Holy One. He has given his word (in the Bible) that whoever turns from sin and looks to Jesus for cleansing, has a radically new destiny. (John 3:36; 6:37; 14:6; Acts 4:12; Romans 6:11-18; Philippians 3:8,9; Colossians 1:20-22) God is no liar!
I’m not convinced
Our desperate need is not for clever arguments but for a powerful encounter with the living God. (1 Corinthians 4:20) And we need not more dramatic signs from heaven, but to act on what we already know.
The door to spiritual understanding is not human explanation, but supernatural revelation. It swings not on mind games but on a willingness to surrender our stubborn will to One who knows better than us. (John 7:17; 2 Corinthians 3:14-16; 4:3-4; 1 Corinthians 2:4-16; Luke 10:21)
Draw near to God and he will draw near to you, promises the Bible. (James 4:8) Until we respond to the light we already have, God is unlikely to squander further enlightenment upon us.
With insincere excuses we might even fool ourselves, but not the One who knows everything. We don’t decide how much evidence we need: God does. Neither do we have the final say as to when God will lose patience with us.
Right now God is offering the greatest conceivable experience with endless benefits. It’s our one hope and Scripture says he could withdraw it at any moment. (Romans 2:3-6; 2 Peter 3:9-11; Jeremiah 11:10-11)
It is understandable that you have a few doubts - this is all so new to you - but every moment you let a little doubt immobilize you, is an enormous risk. The stakes are so mind boggling that Christians are often reluctant to tell it as it is for fear of being labeled scaremongers. I, too, balk at it, but it is the plain teaching of Jesus that your need is desperate. The uncertainty of life and the reality of hell makes the time you remain undecided the equivalent of hugging a bomb that could explode at any moment. If you only knew, all that Jesus offers you would unashamedly beg for it.
A different view: Your reasons for not becoming a Christian may be more flimsy that you realize. Years ago, psychologists carefully explained to smokers the danger of smoking. They discovered that those who continued to smoke reported enjoying smoking more than before. Apparently, the discrepancy between their behavior and what they knew they should do, forced their minds to exaggerate the pleasures of smoking. Likewise, a reluctance to become a Christian could subject people to psychological pressures that distort their perception of the benefits or logic of remaining spiritually divorced from Jesus.
I’ll think about it
Good. If you are caught in a burning building, however, merely thinking about escaping will not bring you to safety. What is needed is not just thought, but action. The cold reality is that you are not guaranteed the next heartbeat. Do what you can now.
It is no use thinking, ‘I’ll enjoy my sin for as long as I can and when I’m old I will say I’m sorry.’ Do you really think you could fool God? Such a ploy proves you want your own selfish way, not heaven.
A different view: Scripture declares that our thinking on otherworldly matters will remain foggy until undergoing the spiritual transformation that only Jesus offers. Agree to be rid of your sin, just as Jesus agreed to be smeared with your sin. Trust God to treat you as being as sinless as Jesus, just as God treated the crucified Christ as being as sinful as you. Spiritually - not necessarily consciously - you will be instantly transformed. You then have the rest of eternity to think about it, pondering the marvelous implications of what has happened to you and rejoicing in its endless benefits.
If you have entrusted your life to Jesus as a result of reading this page, please contact hot@net-burst.net now so that We pray for you and do whatever I can to assist you further.
1. The standards required of a Christian are beyond me
Everyone who has missed the distinctive feature of Christianity feels this way. Non-Christian religions require their followers to reach a certain standard, but to become a Christian is to acknowledge that none of us can meet God’s requirements. Jesus has done it for us.
If you were drowning, would you refuse the help of lifeguards because you are not good enough at swimming? It’s precisely because you are not good enough that you need to be saved. And everyone who lets Jesus save them is a Christian.
A different view: People claiming inability to become a Christian usually think they are demeaning only themselves. What they are really asserting, however, is that Jesus is an inadequate Savior. Upon realizing how ridiculous that is, they yield to Jesus and let him transform their lives.
2. It costs too much to become a Christian
Offer me an ice cream for $500 and I’d refuse. It costs too much. Offer me a brand new car for $500 and I’d think it so cheap that there must be a catch. It’s not the cost that’s the real issue, it’s what’s on offer. The cost of becoming a Christian is so enormous that it is exceeded only by the benefits. Nevertheless, the rewards are so immense that the cost shrivels to insignificance. What’s in it for me?
The wonderful thing about becoming a Christian is that you never do it alone. You are entering into partnership with the One for whom nothing is impossible. He is always with you to comfort, encourage, strengthen, liberate, protect and to shower you with compensations for what you have left behind. Try as you may, you can sacrifice nothing for God. The most you can do is exchange fleeting pleasure for eternal joy. That’s not a sacrifice. It’s an investment.
God is a giver, not a taker. What he desires is like a perfect marriage. In every way we benefit from his proposal and God gets the raw end. But God is love. He wants this holy union more than we can imagine. Don’t break his heart by holding back.
True marriage costs. It involves total commitment of all that you have and all that you are. It is believing in someone so completely that you entrust your entire being to that person for life. The Lord is eager to be that devoted to you, but for marriage to work, the commitment must be mutual.
If a street kid married a millionaire, she would get his riches and he would get her debts. He would be tarred with her shame and she would gain his honor. For this to happen, she must turn from rival relationships and bind herself and her meager possessions to this man in marriage. Everything he has would become hers, provided she lets everything she has become his.
Similarly, if we entrust to God everything we have - our time, abilities, relationships and possessions - he will reciprocate, embracing us with divine extravagance. We hand our depravity to Jesus, relinquishing even our fondest sin. It becomes his. That’s what killed him. In return, Jesus’ sinless perfection envelops us, enabling us to be on intimate terms with the Holy God. (2 Corinthians 5:21) The culmination of this divine exchange of holiness for depravity will be seen when all evil is finally wiped off this planet - we will be spared and no one can accuse God of injustice or favoritism. He has borne the penalty himself.
In entering this love pact, we give God the right to do whatever he likes with our assets, but the Owner of the universe makes his riches available to us. (Philippians 4:19) We trade our talents, for his unlimited power; our attempts to run our lives, for his unrivaled wisdom. We give him our time on earth and he gives us eternity.
The following prayer corresponds to wedding vows in which you promise to love, honor and obey the Lord, thus making him your God. In turn, the King of kings makes you worthy of spiritual fusion with him and pledges to devote himself unreservedly to you. If the following accurately describes your feelings, you can make it your prayer by reading it to God.
Lord,
It’s hard to admit how sinful I’ve been. I have caused you grief, yet you sent your Son who gave his life and defeated death to secure my pardon. (Romans 4:24-25; 6:4-5; 1 Corinthians 15:3-8,14,17; Colossians 2:12; 1 Peter 1:3)
You have given yourself totally for me and I long to reciprocate. In response to your overwhelming love, I dedicate all I have to loving you. I yield to your loving protection and guidance. I surrender my sins to you, renouncing even those things that entice me. And in exchange I receive your pardon and purity and your empowerment to live a life worthy of you.
Thank you that we have now commenced a union that not even death can break.
The Lord of heaven and earth knows your secret thoughts. (Hebrews 4:13) If you prayed the entire prayer honestly, you have entered a new spiritual realm. That’s hard to believe. Everything seems the same. But not from heaven’s perspective. The spiritual contract is sealed.
The proof rests not in your feelings (such as whether you feel guilty or happy), but in the integrity of the Holy One. He has given his word (in the Bible) that whoever turns from sin and looks to Jesus for cleansing, has a radically new destiny. (John 3:36; 6:37; 14:6; Acts 4:12; Romans 6:11-18; Philippians 3:8,9; Colossians 1:20-22) God is no liar!
I’m not convinced
Our desperate need is not for clever arguments but for a powerful encounter with the living God. (1 Corinthians 4:20) And we need not more dramatic signs from heaven, but to act on what we already know.
The door to spiritual understanding is not human explanation, but supernatural revelation. It swings not on mind games but on a willingness to surrender our stubborn will to One who knows better than us. (John 7:17; 2 Corinthians 3:14-16; 4:3-4; 1 Corinthians 2:4-16; Luke 10:21)
Draw near to God and he will draw near to you, promises the Bible. (James 4:8) Until we respond to the light we already have, God is unlikely to squander further enlightenment upon us.
With insincere excuses we might even fool ourselves, but not the One who knows everything. We don’t decide how much evidence we need: God does. Neither do we have the final say as to when God will lose patience with us.
Right now God is offering the greatest conceivable experience with endless benefits. It’s our one hope and Scripture says he could withdraw it at any moment. (Romans 2:3-6; 2 Peter 3:9-11; Jeremiah 11:10-11)
It is understandable that you have a few doubts - this is all so new to you - but every moment you let a little doubt immobilize you, is an enormous risk. The stakes are so mind boggling that Christians are often reluctant to tell it as it is for fear of being labeled scaremongers. I, too, balk at it, but it is the plain teaching of Jesus that your need is desperate. The uncertainty of life and the reality of hell makes the time you remain undecided the equivalent of hugging a bomb that could explode at any moment. If you only knew, all that Jesus offers you would unashamedly beg for it.
A different view: Your reasons for not becoming a Christian may be more flimsy that you realize. Years ago, psychologists carefully explained to smokers the danger of smoking. They discovered that those who continued to smoke reported enjoying smoking more than before. Apparently, the discrepancy between their behavior and what they knew they should do, forced their minds to exaggerate the pleasures of smoking. Likewise, a reluctance to become a Christian could subject people to psychological pressures that distort their perception of the benefits or logic of remaining spiritually divorced from Jesus.
I’ll think about it
Good. If you are caught in a burning building, however, merely thinking about escaping will not bring you to safety. What is needed is not just thought, but action. The cold reality is that you are not guaranteed the next heartbeat. Do what you can now.
It is no use thinking, ‘I’ll enjoy my sin for as long as I can and when I’m old I will say I’m sorry.’ Do you really think you could fool God? Such a ploy proves you want your own selfish way, not heaven.
A different view: Scripture declares that our thinking on otherworldly matters will remain foggy until undergoing the spiritual transformation that only Jesus offers. Agree to be rid of your sin, just as Jesus agreed to be smeared with your sin. Trust God to treat you as being as sinless as Jesus, just as God treated the crucified Christ as being as sinful as you. Spiritually - not necessarily consciously - you will be instantly transformed. You then have the rest of eternity to think about it, pondering the marvelous implications of what has happened to you and rejoicing in its endless benefits.
If you have entrusted your life to Jesus as a result of reading this page, please contact hot@net-burst.net now so that We pray for you and do whatever I can to assist you further.
Issues That Make Christians Squirm! Part 3 By Grantley Morris
All religions are much the same
That’s what many religions teach, so you have nothing to lose by ignoring them and concentrating on Jesus, who declared that if you don’t surrender to him, you have everything to lose. (John 14:6; Acts 4:10-12) You and I are not in a position to claim to know more about spiritual reality than the greatest religious teacher earth has seen - Jesus. He upheld the Scriptures which insist that all other religions offend God. (Deuteronomy 32:16-20; Matthew 5:17-19)
To ignore glaring differences between religions might seem broad-minded. In reality it is about as conceited and narrow as a person could get. To assert that all religions are essentially the same would be to claim you are smarter than each of the billions of people who see the distinctive features of their religion as critical. You would be asserting that even though you are not an expert in their religion you know they are wrong - you know their religion is really no different. Jesus made Godlike claims of this magnitude but he backed them up by living a perfect life, walking on water, calming a storm, multiplying bread and fish, healing people born blind or deaf or crippled, rising bodily from the dead, transforming believers for 2,000 years, and so on.
Your decision about religion is as serious as a starving person deciding whether to risk eating something which might be deadly. To the casual observer, wild mushrooms are all much the same and who cares anyhow? But when there is nothing else to eat, it becomes rather important whether the variety you choose is poisonous. And if you eat nothing for weeks, indecision becomes as deadly as the worse decision.
New Agers and others mutilate all the unique features of Jesus’ teaching, distorting Christianity into a form of eastern religion and surprise, surprise, when comparing this grotesque perversion with other religions, it begins to look as if ‘all religions are much the same.’
What does it matter whether it’s Jesus you worship, or some other religion? It’s all religion. That’s equivalent to asking a wife, deeply in love with her husband, ‘What does it matter if it’s you that your husband has sex with, or a prostitute? It’s all sex.’ That’s the very analogy Scripture employs over and over, using such expressions as ‘playing the harlot’ for mixing true worship with another religion. To make the analogy even closer, involvement with another religion is like prostituting yourself to a carrier of the lethal AIDS virus.
One of the Bible’s most basic teachings is that followers of other religions have been enticed by deceptive spirits who are utterly opposed to the God who created us and loves us. (Romans 1:18-23; 1 Corinthians 10:20; 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12; 1 Timothy 4:1) Even the first two of the ten commandments - have no other gods, make no idols - show that God regards it as a grave offense to become involved in other religions. (Exodus 20:3-4) No matter how similar non-Christian religions are, their truths are laced with errors that entice their devout followers away from the true God. We despise this biblical revelation because it forces us to make a decision about religion. And it sounds narrow-minded, but Jesus affirmed that the way to God is narrow, and that few people go that way. (Matthew 7:14) Anyone really sincere, however, will seek truth no matter how unpalatable it seems.
To sit on the fence is a marvelous position. From the top of the fence you can look in any direction and watch life pass you by.
It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you’re sincere
What if you believe . . .
all you need for sky diving is a good umbrella
plumbers have better cures for constipation than doctors
red traffic lights mean ‘go’.
In the physical world, what you believe is critical. And the same God made the spiritual realm.
Try telling a victim of Hinduism that it doesn’t matter what you believe. Especially before Christian influence gained momentum in India, millions of Hindus sincerely believed that:
baby girls should be drowned in the Ganges so they can be reincarnated as boys
surviving widows should be cremated alive with their deceased husbands
the gross discrimination and prejudice of the Hindu caste system should be enforced
it is better not to relieve human suffering because that would be interfering with people’s karma.
‘It doesn’t matter what you believe,’ is the despairing cry of people whose beliefs have never brought them to spiritual reality. They are like people who have never won in their life, consoling themselves with the platitude that it doesn’t matter whether you win or lose. They are like people so out of touch that they answer multiple choice exams by guesswork and assume everyone else must do the same.
Find people who claim that sincerity is all that matters and try applying that logic to something they are passionate about, such as racism, rape, cruelty to animals, environmental vandalism, nuclear warfare, banning abortion. Suddenly they get hot under the collar. Suddenly it matters very much what you believe.
People apply this lack of logic only to things they could hardly care less about. Those who say all that matters is sincerity would like to include themselves among the sincere. Instead, they prove they have no sincere religious conviction. They are simply mouthing a lazy, potentially fatal excuse for avoiding life’s most important decision.
The genuinely sincere, would make seeking God their top priority. Instead, we bury our head in a thousand other activities and lame excuses for not confronting life’s most critical issue. We are like little children who have run away from home - hungry, tired and in danger, yet still hiding for fear of what mummy might do if she found us. The reality is that God longs to take us up in his arms, forgive us, and give us a life of fulfillment and challenge beyond our wildest hopes.
There are so many religions:
how could anyone know which is right?
Most religions say Jesus was a great teacher or prophet. So focus on that great teacher. Until you do, God will remain a blur.
Suppose I was off-color and two eminent doctors examined me. Dr A’s diagnosis was that I had a life-threatening illness, but treatment X would cure me. Dr B said it was only a cold and treatment Y would cure me. Dr A’s more drastic diagnosis doesn’t in itself mean he is right, but it means I’d be a fool not to give higher priority to checking out his claims.
Consider a worst-case scenario. Suppose another religion were right and instead of following that religion, I became a Christian. Many religions would say the Christian life is reasonably moral. So, according to them, although I would miss top spot, my life after death would be fairly comfortable. A few claim that if I ignored their religion, after death I’ll cease to exist. I can handle that. Some say I’d get another chance through reincarnation. That’s not too bad. But, relative to almost all religions, Jesus increased the stakes enormously. If he is right and I ignore him, the consequences are unthinkable. This man, renowned for his love, humility and honesty, warned that only by committing myself to him can I avoid an eternity of torment in hell. (Matthew 20:28, 25:32-34,41,46; John 3:16; 14:6) In addition, unlike most other religions, Jesus leaves his believers certain that they will enter heaven. Other religions typically place so many requirements on their adherents before they could be considered worthy of heaven that their followers endure a lifetime of uncertainty as to whether they have met those requirements.
You’re gambling with eternity. Jesus alone is the sinless Son of God who suffered an agonizing death so that you and I could escape eternal torment and enjoy heaven. Improve your odds on life’s most serious gamble by giving priority to weighing Jesus’ claims.
To determine if Jesus’ teaching is from God requires divine insight. Whether God grants a person this spiritual understanding hinges on a single factor. That critical factor, said Jesus, is your willingness to obey God. (John 7:17) Why should God bother to open your eyes to spiritual truth if you are unwilling to respond to that truth? Yet few of us are prepared to pay that price. It involves a willingness to relinquish our hopes and dreams for the future, to forego our pet sins and anything else God may ask. Such abandonment seems crazy until we consider who God is. The God who made and sustains the entire universe is the source of all knowledge, moral goodness and love. That means he is good, he is trustworthy, he has our best interest at heart, he is wiser than us and he loves us more than we love ourselves. Obeying God is the smartest thing anyone could ever do. Until we acknowledge this and are willing to obey God, we obviously don’t want God in our lives. (We might want him as our slave, or as a curiosity, but not as God.) If so, why should God waste time giving us the spiritual discernment to know whether Jesus is the only way to God? Until we rectify this we can expect God to let us remain spiritually confused, subject to the deceptive powers of anti-God influences, unable to determine which religion is right.
Even Hare Krishnas are more Christian than Christians!
Most Christians eat killed animals but, as Hare Krishnas point out, Jesus said ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ More accurately, Jesus said, ‘You have heard that people in the past were told, "Thou shalt not kill ..."’ (Matthew 5:21) Jesus was quoting from the Old Testament (Exodus 20:13) - the book he loved and frequently cited and affirmed to be the unique revelation of God. (Matthew 5:17-19; 22:29-32; 26:31; Luke 4:4-12; 16:31;22:37; 24:44-47; John 6:45) Over and over, that book records God commanding his people to eat the meat of sacrificial animals. (Exodus 12:3-8,24; Deuteronomy 12:20-22,27-28; 27: 7-10) And the more holy people (priests) were required to eat even more meat. (Leviticus 7:14-16,30-34; 8:30-31; 10:16-18; Deuteronomy 18:1-3) In fact, under Old Testament law, no vegetarian could belong to the people of God. (Numbers 9:11-13) (The point of animal sacrifice is that God was instilling the notion that an innocent must die for human sins. Ultimately, the innocent who dies for human sin must be human. That’s where Jesus fits in.) By quoting and exalting the book that emphasizes eating meat, Jesus was clearly speaking against murder - the killing of people, not animals. As would be expected, the rest of his life and teaching proves the same thing.
‘Eat whatever is set before you,’ Jesus ordered his disciples, knowing that their hosts, being Jewish, would be meat eaters. (Luke 10:1,5-7) Jesus spoke approvingly of a man who slaughtered a cow for a feast. In fact, he likened that man to God. (Luke 15:10,22-23) Christ ate meals hosted by all sorts of people. (Mark 14:3; Luke 5:27-30; 7:36; 11:37; 14:1; 15:2) Even in a nation of meat eaters his unrestricted diet caused a stir. (Luke 5:33; 7:33-34) He helped catch fish, (Matthew 17:27; Luke 5:4-9; John 21:5-8) cooked fish, (John 21:9-13) fed it to people, (Mark 6:41-43; 8:7-8) and ate it himself (Luke 24:41-43). He also ate the Passover meal in which the main dish was lamb. (Luke 22:7-8,15)
Followers of Jesus are not offended that their Savior ate meat because they know that, contrary to the claims of many religions, there is no spiritual link between animals and people. There is no such thing as reincarnation.
Yet Hare Krishnas, flying in the face of all the facts, misrepresent Jesus as supporting their views about animal life. This exposes the unfortunate lengths to which such religions will sometimes go to deceive.
That’s what many religions teach, so you have nothing to lose by ignoring them and concentrating on Jesus, who declared that if you don’t surrender to him, you have everything to lose. (John 14:6; Acts 4:10-12) You and I are not in a position to claim to know more about spiritual reality than the greatest religious teacher earth has seen - Jesus. He upheld the Scriptures which insist that all other religions offend God. (Deuteronomy 32:16-20; Matthew 5:17-19)
To ignore glaring differences between religions might seem broad-minded. In reality it is about as conceited and narrow as a person could get. To assert that all religions are essentially the same would be to claim you are smarter than each of the billions of people who see the distinctive features of their religion as critical. You would be asserting that even though you are not an expert in their religion you know they are wrong - you know their religion is really no different. Jesus made Godlike claims of this magnitude but he backed them up by living a perfect life, walking on water, calming a storm, multiplying bread and fish, healing people born blind or deaf or crippled, rising bodily from the dead, transforming believers for 2,000 years, and so on.
Your decision about religion is as serious as a starving person deciding whether to risk eating something which might be deadly. To the casual observer, wild mushrooms are all much the same and who cares anyhow? But when there is nothing else to eat, it becomes rather important whether the variety you choose is poisonous. And if you eat nothing for weeks, indecision becomes as deadly as the worse decision.
New Agers and others mutilate all the unique features of Jesus’ teaching, distorting Christianity into a form of eastern religion and surprise, surprise, when comparing this grotesque perversion with other religions, it begins to look as if ‘all religions are much the same.’
What does it matter whether it’s Jesus you worship, or some other religion? It’s all religion. That’s equivalent to asking a wife, deeply in love with her husband, ‘What does it matter if it’s you that your husband has sex with, or a prostitute? It’s all sex.’ That’s the very analogy Scripture employs over and over, using such expressions as ‘playing the harlot’ for mixing true worship with another religion. To make the analogy even closer, involvement with another religion is like prostituting yourself to a carrier of the lethal AIDS virus.
One of the Bible’s most basic teachings is that followers of other religions have been enticed by deceptive spirits who are utterly opposed to the God who created us and loves us. (Romans 1:18-23; 1 Corinthians 10:20; 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12; 1 Timothy 4:1) Even the first two of the ten commandments - have no other gods, make no idols - show that God regards it as a grave offense to become involved in other religions. (Exodus 20:3-4) No matter how similar non-Christian religions are, their truths are laced with errors that entice their devout followers away from the true God. We despise this biblical revelation because it forces us to make a decision about religion. And it sounds narrow-minded, but Jesus affirmed that the way to God is narrow, and that few people go that way. (Matthew 7:14) Anyone really sincere, however, will seek truth no matter how unpalatable it seems.
To sit on the fence is a marvelous position. From the top of the fence you can look in any direction and watch life pass you by.
It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you’re sincere
What if you believe . . .
all you need for sky diving is a good umbrella
plumbers have better cures for constipation than doctors
red traffic lights mean ‘go’.
In the physical world, what you believe is critical. And the same God made the spiritual realm.
Try telling a victim of Hinduism that it doesn’t matter what you believe. Especially before Christian influence gained momentum in India, millions of Hindus sincerely believed that:
baby girls should be drowned in the Ganges so they can be reincarnated as boys
surviving widows should be cremated alive with their deceased husbands
the gross discrimination and prejudice of the Hindu caste system should be enforced
it is better not to relieve human suffering because that would be interfering with people’s karma.
‘It doesn’t matter what you believe,’ is the despairing cry of people whose beliefs have never brought them to spiritual reality. They are like people who have never won in their life, consoling themselves with the platitude that it doesn’t matter whether you win or lose. They are like people so out of touch that they answer multiple choice exams by guesswork and assume everyone else must do the same.
Find people who claim that sincerity is all that matters and try applying that logic to something they are passionate about, such as racism, rape, cruelty to animals, environmental vandalism, nuclear warfare, banning abortion. Suddenly they get hot under the collar. Suddenly it matters very much what you believe.
People apply this lack of logic only to things they could hardly care less about. Those who say all that matters is sincerity would like to include themselves among the sincere. Instead, they prove they have no sincere religious conviction. They are simply mouthing a lazy, potentially fatal excuse for avoiding life’s most important decision.
The genuinely sincere, would make seeking God their top priority. Instead, we bury our head in a thousand other activities and lame excuses for not confronting life’s most critical issue. We are like little children who have run away from home - hungry, tired and in danger, yet still hiding for fear of what mummy might do if she found us. The reality is that God longs to take us up in his arms, forgive us, and give us a life of fulfillment and challenge beyond our wildest hopes.
There are so many religions:
how could anyone know which is right?
Most religions say Jesus was a great teacher or prophet. So focus on that great teacher. Until you do, God will remain a blur.
Suppose I was off-color and two eminent doctors examined me. Dr A’s diagnosis was that I had a life-threatening illness, but treatment X would cure me. Dr B said it was only a cold and treatment Y would cure me. Dr A’s more drastic diagnosis doesn’t in itself mean he is right, but it means I’d be a fool not to give higher priority to checking out his claims.
Consider a worst-case scenario. Suppose another religion were right and instead of following that religion, I became a Christian. Many religions would say the Christian life is reasonably moral. So, according to them, although I would miss top spot, my life after death would be fairly comfortable. A few claim that if I ignored their religion, after death I’ll cease to exist. I can handle that. Some say I’d get another chance through reincarnation. That’s not too bad. But, relative to almost all religions, Jesus increased the stakes enormously. If he is right and I ignore him, the consequences are unthinkable. This man, renowned for his love, humility and honesty, warned that only by committing myself to him can I avoid an eternity of torment in hell. (Matthew 20:28, 25:32-34,41,46; John 3:16; 14:6) In addition, unlike most other religions, Jesus leaves his believers certain that they will enter heaven. Other religions typically place so many requirements on their adherents before they could be considered worthy of heaven that their followers endure a lifetime of uncertainty as to whether they have met those requirements.
You’re gambling with eternity. Jesus alone is the sinless Son of God who suffered an agonizing death so that you and I could escape eternal torment and enjoy heaven. Improve your odds on life’s most serious gamble by giving priority to weighing Jesus’ claims.
To determine if Jesus’ teaching is from God requires divine insight. Whether God grants a person this spiritual understanding hinges on a single factor. That critical factor, said Jesus, is your willingness to obey God. (John 7:17) Why should God bother to open your eyes to spiritual truth if you are unwilling to respond to that truth? Yet few of us are prepared to pay that price. It involves a willingness to relinquish our hopes and dreams for the future, to forego our pet sins and anything else God may ask. Such abandonment seems crazy until we consider who God is. The God who made and sustains the entire universe is the source of all knowledge, moral goodness and love. That means he is good, he is trustworthy, he has our best interest at heart, he is wiser than us and he loves us more than we love ourselves. Obeying God is the smartest thing anyone could ever do. Until we acknowledge this and are willing to obey God, we obviously don’t want God in our lives. (We might want him as our slave, or as a curiosity, but not as God.) If so, why should God waste time giving us the spiritual discernment to know whether Jesus is the only way to God? Until we rectify this we can expect God to let us remain spiritually confused, subject to the deceptive powers of anti-God influences, unable to determine which religion is right.
Even Hare Krishnas are more Christian than Christians!
Most Christians eat killed animals but, as Hare Krishnas point out, Jesus said ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ More accurately, Jesus said, ‘You have heard that people in the past were told, "Thou shalt not kill ..."’ (Matthew 5:21) Jesus was quoting from the Old Testament (Exodus 20:13) - the book he loved and frequently cited and affirmed to be the unique revelation of God. (Matthew 5:17-19; 22:29-32; 26:31; Luke 4:4-12; 16:31;22:37; 24:44-47; John 6:45) Over and over, that book records God commanding his people to eat the meat of sacrificial animals. (Exodus 12:3-8,24; Deuteronomy 12:20-22,27-28; 27: 7-10) And the more holy people (priests) were required to eat even more meat. (Leviticus 7:14-16,30-34; 8:30-31; 10:16-18; Deuteronomy 18:1-3) In fact, under Old Testament law, no vegetarian could belong to the people of God. (Numbers 9:11-13) (The point of animal sacrifice is that God was instilling the notion that an innocent must die for human sins. Ultimately, the innocent who dies for human sin must be human. That’s where Jesus fits in.) By quoting and exalting the book that emphasizes eating meat, Jesus was clearly speaking against murder - the killing of people, not animals. As would be expected, the rest of his life and teaching proves the same thing.
‘Eat whatever is set before you,’ Jesus ordered his disciples, knowing that their hosts, being Jewish, would be meat eaters. (Luke 10:1,5-7) Jesus spoke approvingly of a man who slaughtered a cow for a feast. In fact, he likened that man to God. (Luke 15:10,22-23) Christ ate meals hosted by all sorts of people. (Mark 14:3; Luke 5:27-30; 7:36; 11:37; 14:1; 15:2) Even in a nation of meat eaters his unrestricted diet caused a stir. (Luke 5:33; 7:33-34) He helped catch fish, (Matthew 17:27; Luke 5:4-9; John 21:5-8) cooked fish, (John 21:9-13) fed it to people, (Mark 6:41-43; 8:7-8) and ate it himself (Luke 24:41-43). He also ate the Passover meal in which the main dish was lamb. (Luke 22:7-8,15)
Followers of Jesus are not offended that their Savior ate meat because they know that, contrary to the claims of many religions, there is no spiritual link between animals and people. There is no such thing as reincarnation.
Yet Hare Krishnas, flying in the face of all the facts, misrepresent Jesus as supporting their views about animal life. This exposes the unfortunate lengths to which such religions will sometimes go to deceive.
Issues That Make Christians Squirm! Part 2 By Grantley Morris
What’s in it for me?
You are right to reject a religion that’s a list of dos and don’ts, or a gathering of dour-faced, self-righteous Bible thumpers. Jesus would reject it too. Anything Jesus is involved in is vibrant, liberating, compassionate, powerful and supernatural.
People dismiss Christianity on the basis of an outsider’s glance, like a little boy certain he will always hate being kissed. Knowing Jesus is more wonderful than the uninitiated could dream.
All yearning is a yearning for Jesus, discovered someone enjoying the ultimate adventure. The love, excitement, challenge, fulfillment and understanding we crave are found in the One who made us.
Jesus likened the Christian spiritual experience to buried treasure. Millions walk past it, never suspecting the wonders that lie below the surface. Anyone who makes the discovery, however, would eagerly trade for it everything they had previously treasured, like trading trinkets for truckloads of diamonds.
To attempt description of the benefits of spiritual union with Jesus sounds as hollow and self-centered as listing receiving a gold ring as a benefit of marrying the most wonderful person. It’s like dissecting the most exquisite, priceless flower and offering the individual parts to the highest bidder. Moreover, it sounds like hype - just too good to be believable. This is to be expected. We were made to enjoy the God who made us, so it is hardly surprising that a relationship with him will fulfill our deepest longing. Nevertheless, it still sounds too good to be true.
Here’s a few of the consequences of being united to the One we were made for:
The excitement of living life on the edge, as God takes you beyond what you are humanly capable of.
Divine power to love the unlovable, to break destructive habits, to resist peer pressure and to control such weaknesses as temper, greed, and selfishness.
Being on the winning side - the obvious consequence of having in your life the God of infinite power and infinite wisdom.
The ultimate security of knowing you are forever loved and that nothing - not even death - can rob you of its endless joys.
The knowledge that you are of the greatest importance to the most important Person in the universe.
Having as your best friend the Person who not only sympathizes but knows your every weakness and triumph, your every thought, your every experience since the moment of your conception, your darkest secret, your fondest dream, and is committed to you with unswerving devotion.
A life that is highly demanding and challenging, with the greatest power in existence willing you and empowering you to achieve.
A brand new start in life.
The thrill of knowing you can now achieve things of eternal significance.
Involvement in the greatest conceivable good. Reaching your highest potential. Finding and fulfilling your reason for being born. Living life to the full.
Entry into the spiritual dimension. Supernatural dreams, visions, miracles, angelic visitations and other amazing spiritual experiences are possibilities.
Being at peace with God. No longer running from reality.
The lifelong opportunity to love and thank the Giver of every good and beautiful thing everyone has ever enjoyed.
The freedom to look in the mirror and know that no matter what your past, you are now pure in the eyes of the holy God.
Knowing that God is working within you and in your circumstances to make you more and more like Jesus.
Answers to prayer.
Joy and peace and fulfillment, each of which are so far beyond what anything else offers that it defies description.
Deliverance from the endless torment of hell.
Not even all God’s incomparable gifts, however, reach the ecstasy of enjoying and knowing intimately the most exciting Person in the universe. He is so special that falling in love with God is the inevitable consequence of truly knowing him.
You are right to reject a religion that’s a list of dos and don’ts, or a gathering of dour-faced, self-righteous Bible thumpers. Jesus would reject it too. Anything Jesus is involved in is vibrant, liberating, compassionate, powerful and supernatural.
People dismiss Christianity on the basis of an outsider’s glance, like a little boy certain he will always hate being kissed. Knowing Jesus is more wonderful than the uninitiated could dream.
All yearning is a yearning for Jesus, discovered someone enjoying the ultimate adventure. The love, excitement, challenge, fulfillment and understanding we crave are found in the One who made us.
Jesus likened the Christian spiritual experience to buried treasure. Millions walk past it, never suspecting the wonders that lie below the surface. Anyone who makes the discovery, however, would eagerly trade for it everything they had previously treasured, like trading trinkets for truckloads of diamonds.
To attempt description of the benefits of spiritual union with Jesus sounds as hollow and self-centered as listing receiving a gold ring as a benefit of marrying the most wonderful person. It’s like dissecting the most exquisite, priceless flower and offering the individual parts to the highest bidder. Moreover, it sounds like hype - just too good to be believable. This is to be expected. We were made to enjoy the God who made us, so it is hardly surprising that a relationship with him will fulfill our deepest longing. Nevertheless, it still sounds too good to be true.
Here’s a few of the consequences of being united to the One we were made for:
The excitement of living life on the edge, as God takes you beyond what you are humanly capable of.
Divine power to love the unlovable, to break destructive habits, to resist peer pressure and to control such weaknesses as temper, greed, and selfishness.
Being on the winning side - the obvious consequence of having in your life the God of infinite power and infinite wisdom.
The ultimate security of knowing you are forever loved and that nothing - not even death - can rob you of its endless joys.
The knowledge that you are of the greatest importance to the most important Person in the universe.
Having as your best friend the Person who not only sympathizes but knows your every weakness and triumph, your every thought, your every experience since the moment of your conception, your darkest secret, your fondest dream, and is committed to you with unswerving devotion.
A life that is highly demanding and challenging, with the greatest power in existence willing you and empowering you to achieve.
A brand new start in life.
The thrill of knowing you can now achieve things of eternal significance.
Involvement in the greatest conceivable good. Reaching your highest potential. Finding and fulfilling your reason for being born. Living life to the full.
Entry into the spiritual dimension. Supernatural dreams, visions, miracles, angelic visitations and other amazing spiritual experiences are possibilities.
Being at peace with God. No longer running from reality.
The lifelong opportunity to love and thank the Giver of every good and beautiful thing everyone has ever enjoyed.
The freedom to look in the mirror and know that no matter what your past, you are now pure in the eyes of the holy God.
Knowing that God is working within you and in your circumstances to make you more and more like Jesus.
Answers to prayer.
Joy and peace and fulfillment, each of which are so far beyond what anything else offers that it defies description.
Deliverance from the endless torment of hell.
Not even all God’s incomparable gifts, however, reach the ecstasy of enjoying and knowing intimately the most exciting Person in the universe. He is so special that falling in love with God is the inevitable consequence of truly knowing him.
Issues That Make Christians Squirm! Part 1 By Grantley Morris
There is no God
To see the logic of leaving God out of the equation, consider this:
Frog + Princess’s kiss = Handsome Prince (fairy tale)
Frog + Chance + Millions of years = Handsome Prince (science)
By definition, no one knows what lies outside their tiny circle of knowledge. To claim you know there is no God is to claim you have exhaustively searched every part of every universe and dimension with an infallibly accurate method of detecting every non-physical entity that could possibly exist. The claim that God has taken the initiative and chosen to reveal himself to some people is not nearly as unbelievable.
Don’t be like a blind person trying to convince himself that because he has never seen, everyone else claiming to see must be mistaken. In the realm beyond your present experience amazing things could dwell - even a God poised to shatter your insensibility to him.
Are you ready for the most daring adventure? Try saying this:
God, I would like you to show me if you exist. If you are God, you are so superior to me that I cannot put demands on you. Anything you choose to show me must be on your terms - your time and your method. I can understand you not showing yourself to people who have little desire to know you. I will demonstrate my genuineness by at least reading the material presented here, looking for clues that might help open me to your revelation. And why should you bother revealing yourself to someone who would continue to ignore you anyway? If you show me there is a powerful, caring God who made me and wants the best for me, I will give you your rightful place as God of my life by obeying and trusting your love and wisdom.
That prayer opens the most exciting possibilities in the cosmos.
Who made God?
Everyone is forced to conclude that there has always been something in existence, whether it be gas, God or a full-blown universe. Every physical thing we have ever observed tends to degenerate. There is even a scientific law - the second law of thermodynamics - that states this. So whatever has always existed must be radically different from anything we have ever seen - like God, for instance.
God, if he existed, would be impersonal
On the pretext of having a high view of God, people sometimes end up portraying God as sub-human - an impersonal force more akin to a machine or gravity than the Creator of us all. The secret attraction of this presumption is that it is easier to ignore a nebulous force than a God who thinks and feels and judges. If we can feel and love, our Maker can do all that - and more. If to some of us God seems impersonal, it suggests not the shallowness of God’s nature but the shallowness of our relationship with him. God is warm. His standards are granite. His heart is soft.
I hate God
You might have every reason to hate the person you think God to be, but is that ‘God’ real? Your anger feels justified. We can understand infinite wisdom, however, no more than a babe understands its mother. What if your resentment towards God is like that of a desperately sick child who bites his doctor, imagining the caring doctor to be the cause of his torment, rather than his only hope of recovery? What a tragedy if you let the simple fact that you don’t have infinite IQ rob you of your greatest source of comfort.
God weeps. No one in a lifetime has been so spurned, so misunderstood, so much hated without cause as God is every moment of every day by millions of people, each of whom he loves more than we could conceive. No one is touched as deeply by humanity’s anguish as its Creator. No one is as aware of suffering humanity as God is, and no one loves with the intensity that God loves. And your pain intensifies his pain.
Even when the cause seems beyond human influence, all heartache can be traced not to God’s will, but to rebellion against God’s will. Many things are murky or unknown to us - the view from eternity, the non-physical realm, the intricate chain reaction set off from person to person and generation to generation whenever anything happens. Relative to the all-knowing Lord, we are as short-sighted as King Midas, who wanted everything he touched to turn to gold. We have no idea of the full consequences of our wishes coming true.
We vainly pit our puny intellect against the Infinite Mind, using brain cells he gave us to try to out-think him. If God’s ways don’t always make sense to us it merely confirms that our combined brainpower couldn’t light a single galaxy. And too often we confuse a good life with a soft life. Too often virtue slips in our priorities. Of necessity, God’s love must be like that of a wise parent, focusing on long-term good, even at the price of tearing his own heart by infuriating the tiny minds of people he loves. His goal is the highest good for all humanity, not some short-term gain that fizzles or ends up robbing others.
Although we can gain a little insight into God’s wisdom, were all our attempts to fail utterly, we have the security of knowing that our sorrow plunges a knife into the heart of the all-powerful Lord. That’s the ultimate proof that secreted within the stupendous intellect of Almighty God is an ingenious, love-filled reason for allowing it.
If God made us, our moral failings are God’s fault
In other words, if we disobey God, it’s God’s fault.
If you object to God giving you the right to grieve him, then reject that right. Ask God to control you as a master controls a slave. Then let Jesus wipe clean your slate and spiritually remake you. Everyone will benefit.
To see the logic of leaving God out of the equation, consider this:
Frog + Princess’s kiss = Handsome Prince (fairy tale)
Frog + Chance + Millions of years = Handsome Prince (science)
By definition, no one knows what lies outside their tiny circle of knowledge. To claim you know there is no God is to claim you have exhaustively searched every part of every universe and dimension with an infallibly accurate method of detecting every non-physical entity that could possibly exist. The claim that God has taken the initiative and chosen to reveal himself to some people is not nearly as unbelievable.
Don’t be like a blind person trying to convince himself that because he has never seen, everyone else claiming to see must be mistaken. In the realm beyond your present experience amazing things could dwell - even a God poised to shatter your insensibility to him.
Are you ready for the most daring adventure? Try saying this:
God, I would like you to show me if you exist. If you are God, you are so superior to me that I cannot put demands on you. Anything you choose to show me must be on your terms - your time and your method. I can understand you not showing yourself to people who have little desire to know you. I will demonstrate my genuineness by at least reading the material presented here, looking for clues that might help open me to your revelation. And why should you bother revealing yourself to someone who would continue to ignore you anyway? If you show me there is a powerful, caring God who made me and wants the best for me, I will give you your rightful place as God of my life by obeying and trusting your love and wisdom.
That prayer opens the most exciting possibilities in the cosmos.
Who made God?
Everyone is forced to conclude that there has always been something in existence, whether it be gas, God or a full-blown universe. Every physical thing we have ever observed tends to degenerate. There is even a scientific law - the second law of thermodynamics - that states this. So whatever has always existed must be radically different from anything we have ever seen - like God, for instance.
God, if he existed, would be impersonal
On the pretext of having a high view of God, people sometimes end up portraying God as sub-human - an impersonal force more akin to a machine or gravity than the Creator of us all. The secret attraction of this presumption is that it is easier to ignore a nebulous force than a God who thinks and feels and judges. If we can feel and love, our Maker can do all that - and more. If to some of us God seems impersonal, it suggests not the shallowness of God’s nature but the shallowness of our relationship with him. God is warm. His standards are granite. His heart is soft.
I hate God
You might have every reason to hate the person you think God to be, but is that ‘God’ real? Your anger feels justified. We can understand infinite wisdom, however, no more than a babe understands its mother. What if your resentment towards God is like that of a desperately sick child who bites his doctor, imagining the caring doctor to be the cause of his torment, rather than his only hope of recovery? What a tragedy if you let the simple fact that you don’t have infinite IQ rob you of your greatest source of comfort.
God weeps. No one in a lifetime has been so spurned, so misunderstood, so much hated without cause as God is every moment of every day by millions of people, each of whom he loves more than we could conceive. No one is touched as deeply by humanity’s anguish as its Creator. No one is as aware of suffering humanity as God is, and no one loves with the intensity that God loves. And your pain intensifies his pain.
Even when the cause seems beyond human influence, all heartache can be traced not to God’s will, but to rebellion against God’s will. Many things are murky or unknown to us - the view from eternity, the non-physical realm, the intricate chain reaction set off from person to person and generation to generation whenever anything happens. Relative to the all-knowing Lord, we are as short-sighted as King Midas, who wanted everything he touched to turn to gold. We have no idea of the full consequences of our wishes coming true.
We vainly pit our puny intellect against the Infinite Mind, using brain cells he gave us to try to out-think him. If God’s ways don’t always make sense to us it merely confirms that our combined brainpower couldn’t light a single galaxy. And too often we confuse a good life with a soft life. Too often virtue slips in our priorities. Of necessity, God’s love must be like that of a wise parent, focusing on long-term good, even at the price of tearing his own heart by infuriating the tiny minds of people he loves. His goal is the highest good for all humanity, not some short-term gain that fizzles or ends up robbing others.
Although we can gain a little insight into God’s wisdom, were all our attempts to fail utterly, we have the security of knowing that our sorrow plunges a knife into the heart of the all-powerful Lord. That’s the ultimate proof that secreted within the stupendous intellect of Almighty God is an ingenious, love-filled reason for allowing it.
If God made us, our moral failings are God’s fault
In other words, if we disobey God, it’s God’s fault.
If you object to God giving you the right to grieve him, then reject that right. Ask God to control you as a master controls a slave. Then let Jesus wipe clean your slate and spiritually remake you. Everyone will benefit.
If there really were a God of love, the innocent wouldn’t suffer By Grantley Morris
Brilliant minds have reached this conclusion. It’s a time-bomb set to explode in Christians’ faces the moment they encounter personal tragedy.
To confront those who believe in a loving God we should first understand them. Let’s reduce their assertions to a few words.
Incredibly, Christians claim that only one innocent ever suffered! Few of us can face reality, they assert, unless Jesus cleanses our deeply suppressed but dirty conscience. They argue that only after that spiritual miracle dare we relax our frantic attempts to conceal and excuse and push from our minds the extent of our depravity. They say it is a devastating experience to have one’s supposed goodness exposed by God’s blinding purity. With every shred of pride within them shrieking in protest, Christians feel driven to a crushing conclusion: the moral gap between them and a serial killer is invisible, compared to the terrifying expanse separating even their best efforts from the infallible holiness of God. They even argue that there is a sense in which babies are morally corrupt! (See Are babies innocent?)
No clever argument, however, and no supposed spiritual experience can hide one unavoidable fact: a holy God would yearn to wipe out every cause of pain. And if he eradicated everyone who has ever caused pain by selfishness, cheating, lying, gossiping or hurtful remarks, who would be left?
‘Suffering is God’s fault!’ we sneer, conveniently forgetting times our anger, greed and lies hurt others. Naturally, there is a degree of hurt we deem excusable, and for some suspicious reason the hurt we have inflicted happens to fall within the standard we arbitrarily set. It is like failing an exam and then moving the pass mark to make our score look good. A holy God could not be partner to such hypocrisy. To wipe out some people who cause suffering and spare you and me would make God guilty of gross injustice. We have each added to humanity’s shame. If there is a God of love, the people he loves and longs to place in a pain-free world are the very ones who cause humanity’s suffering.
We will soon move on, but this question of innocence is central to the question of suffering. We are so far from being innocent that we owe our very existence to sin. If, for example, we traced our family tree far enough, we would probably each find an ancestor born as a result of sin - rape, unlawful incest, a despised pregnancy, and the like.
Then, having consigned everyone to the sin bin, believers back flip, seizing the pretentious assertions of a man renowned for humility. Christ claimed an existence independent of human ancestry. (John 8:56-59; 17:5) If true, and if he subsequently lived a perfect life, he alone could be innocent in every conceivable sense. And we know this man suffered.
He appeared as the uniquely perfect human who preached impossibly high standards, claimed they were God’s requirements and actually lived them. Turning the cheek, loving his enemies, just as he had preached, he yielded to abuse and torture, somehow absorbing within his mangled body the horrific consequences of all humanity’s sin.
Humanity can boast one perfect Person. (See Appendix) We killed him. Yet our only Innocent gladly suffered the injustice to free the guilty from suffering eternal justice. In this cataclysmic exchange, the Innocent and the guilty traded places, making it spiritually legal for his suffering to end your suffering. As incredible as it seems, this has ushered us to the brink of a new world where the longing deep within us will be met - deceit, abuse, and hurtful actions will be swallowed by goodness; misery will dissolve in endless joy.
But temporary earthly pain continues for a wonderful reason. A paradise of harmony, trust, openness and love would quickly spoil if just one of its citizens acted remotely like we presently behave. To enter a perfect world without shattering its perfection, would require a personality transformation more radical than ever seen on earth. Through Jesus’ intervention, God can perform this miracle and make us fit for such a world, but he won’t abuse us by forcing a personality change upon us against our will. We must be willing to let God take our pet sins from us and, in his unlimited wisdom and love, rule every part of our lives.
Humanity quivers on the brink of extinction, mesmerized by sin like serpent’s prey. Each moment that God suppresses his explosive urge to extinguish evil, is a moment in which billions of us have yet another chance to come to our senses and let Jesus deliver us from our infatuation with sin. But the end of this period of grace is hurtling toward us. Soon all suffering will cease. All wrongdoing will be destroyed, along with everyone still caught in its deadly embrace.
Are babies innocent?
In Australia, seemingly innocent rabbits are pests because their ancestors did something contrary to nature: they come to Australia with white settlers and became inhabitants of the Australian bush. Though cute, it is inevitable that as a baby feral rabbit matures it will damage the ecology. Likewise, claim Christians, when we were born we, too, were adorable and too weak and too dumb to sin, the darling of God’s heart, but it was inevitable that we would contribute to this world’s suffering - lying, cheating, slandering, etc - the moment we gained the strength and intellect to do it. That’s because our ancestors abused their God-given responsibilities. There’s no point blaming our ancestors or God, the argument goes. Had our ancestors been removed before genetically transmitting their predisposition to wrongdoing, we would never have been born.
To confront those who believe in a loving God we should first understand them. Let’s reduce their assertions to a few words.
Incredibly, Christians claim that only one innocent ever suffered! Few of us can face reality, they assert, unless Jesus cleanses our deeply suppressed but dirty conscience. They argue that only after that spiritual miracle dare we relax our frantic attempts to conceal and excuse and push from our minds the extent of our depravity. They say it is a devastating experience to have one’s supposed goodness exposed by God’s blinding purity. With every shred of pride within them shrieking in protest, Christians feel driven to a crushing conclusion: the moral gap between them and a serial killer is invisible, compared to the terrifying expanse separating even their best efforts from the infallible holiness of God. They even argue that there is a sense in which babies are morally corrupt! (See Are babies innocent?)
No clever argument, however, and no supposed spiritual experience can hide one unavoidable fact: a holy God would yearn to wipe out every cause of pain. And if he eradicated everyone who has ever caused pain by selfishness, cheating, lying, gossiping or hurtful remarks, who would be left?
‘Suffering is God’s fault!’ we sneer, conveniently forgetting times our anger, greed and lies hurt others. Naturally, there is a degree of hurt we deem excusable, and for some suspicious reason the hurt we have inflicted happens to fall within the standard we arbitrarily set. It is like failing an exam and then moving the pass mark to make our score look good. A holy God could not be partner to such hypocrisy. To wipe out some people who cause suffering and spare you and me would make God guilty of gross injustice. We have each added to humanity’s shame. If there is a God of love, the people he loves and longs to place in a pain-free world are the very ones who cause humanity’s suffering.
We will soon move on, but this question of innocence is central to the question of suffering. We are so far from being innocent that we owe our very existence to sin. If, for example, we traced our family tree far enough, we would probably each find an ancestor born as a result of sin - rape, unlawful incest, a despised pregnancy, and the like.
Then, having consigned everyone to the sin bin, believers back flip, seizing the pretentious assertions of a man renowned for humility. Christ claimed an existence independent of human ancestry. (John 8:56-59; 17:5) If true, and if he subsequently lived a perfect life, he alone could be innocent in every conceivable sense. And we know this man suffered.
He appeared as the uniquely perfect human who preached impossibly high standards, claimed they were God’s requirements and actually lived them. Turning the cheek, loving his enemies, just as he had preached, he yielded to abuse and torture, somehow absorbing within his mangled body the horrific consequences of all humanity’s sin.
Humanity can boast one perfect Person. (See Appendix) We killed him. Yet our only Innocent gladly suffered the injustice to free the guilty from suffering eternal justice. In this cataclysmic exchange, the Innocent and the guilty traded places, making it spiritually legal for his suffering to end your suffering. As incredible as it seems, this has ushered us to the brink of a new world where the longing deep within us will be met - deceit, abuse, and hurtful actions will be swallowed by goodness; misery will dissolve in endless joy.
But temporary earthly pain continues for a wonderful reason. A paradise of harmony, trust, openness and love would quickly spoil if just one of its citizens acted remotely like we presently behave. To enter a perfect world without shattering its perfection, would require a personality transformation more radical than ever seen on earth. Through Jesus’ intervention, God can perform this miracle and make us fit for such a world, but he won’t abuse us by forcing a personality change upon us against our will. We must be willing to let God take our pet sins from us and, in his unlimited wisdom and love, rule every part of our lives.
Humanity quivers on the brink of extinction, mesmerized by sin like serpent’s prey. Each moment that God suppresses his explosive urge to extinguish evil, is a moment in which billions of us have yet another chance to come to our senses and let Jesus deliver us from our infatuation with sin. But the end of this period of grace is hurtling toward us. Soon all suffering will cease. All wrongdoing will be destroyed, along with everyone still caught in its deadly embrace.
Are babies innocent?
In Australia, seemingly innocent rabbits are pests because their ancestors did something contrary to nature: they come to Australia with white settlers and became inhabitants of the Australian bush. Though cute, it is inevitable that as a baby feral rabbit matures it will damage the ecology. Likewise, claim Christians, when we were born we, too, were adorable and too weak and too dumb to sin, the darling of God’s heart, but it was inevitable that we would contribute to this world’s suffering - lying, cheating, slandering, etc - the moment we gained the strength and intellect to do it. That’s because our ancestors abused their God-given responsibilities. There’s no point blaming our ancestors or God, the argument goes. Had our ancestors been removed before genetically transmitting their predisposition to wrongdoing, we would never have been born.
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
GOD'S WISDOM vs man's wisdom
Read: 1 Corinthians 2:1-16
There are a lot of people searching for 'human wisdom'. Whether it is through the education system or human philosophy. Whatever it may be, it's all foolishness in God's eyes, as 1 Corinthians 3:18-20 says. That's not to say we don't bother with education, but just to recognize that Godly wisdom is more desirable. What should we be running after, and desiring above all else? Proverbs 8:10-11 speaks of God's Wisdom being better than rubies or pearls, and there is nothing to be compared. You cannot learn Godly wisdom in a University and get a degree in it. It can only come to a heart in right relationship with God, and seeking it. The Holy Spirit that dwells within us leads us into all truth. "For the [Holy] Spirit searches diligently, exploring and examining everything, even sounding the profound and bottomless things of God [the divine counsels, and things hidden and beyond man's scrutiny]." (V:10).
There were two things that were impressed upon me as a new Christian. The first was that the word of God, His teachings, is spiritually discerned. A person cannot possibly understand spiritual truths, unless they have the Holy Spirit within, teaching them the hidden meanings, (1 Cor.2:13-14). The human mind, no matter how intelligent cannot comprehend spiritual truths.
The second thing that was impressed upon me was that God raises up what the world considers foolish to shame the wise 1 Cor.1:25-28. This really stood out for me, as I was what the world would have considered foolish, not being well educated. But God chose me, and He chose you too. He can fill us with His wisdom and put worldly wisdom to shame. Let us desire and run after Godly wisdom. By doing so we will never be disappointed.
You may like to read the poem God's Wisdom; Man's Folly
© By M.S.Lowndes
There are a lot of people searching for 'human wisdom'. Whether it is through the education system or human philosophy. Whatever it may be, it's all foolishness in God's eyes, as 1 Corinthians 3:18-20 says. That's not to say we don't bother with education, but just to recognize that Godly wisdom is more desirable. What should we be running after, and desiring above all else? Proverbs 8:10-11 speaks of God's Wisdom being better than rubies or pearls, and there is nothing to be compared. You cannot learn Godly wisdom in a University and get a degree in it. It can only come to a heart in right relationship with God, and seeking it. The Holy Spirit that dwells within us leads us into all truth. "For the [Holy] Spirit searches diligently, exploring and examining everything, even sounding the profound and bottomless things of God [the divine counsels, and things hidden and beyond man's scrutiny]." (V:10).
There were two things that were impressed upon me as a new Christian. The first was that the word of God, His teachings, is spiritually discerned. A person cannot possibly understand spiritual truths, unless they have the Holy Spirit within, teaching them the hidden meanings, (1 Cor.2:13-14). The human mind, no matter how intelligent cannot comprehend spiritual truths.
The second thing that was impressed upon me was that God raises up what the world considers foolish to shame the wise 1 Cor.1:25-28. This really stood out for me, as I was what the world would have considered foolish, not being well educated. But God chose me, and He chose you too. He can fill us with His wisdom and put worldly wisdom to shame. Let us desire and run after Godly wisdom. By doing so we will never be disappointed.
You may like to read the poem God's Wisdom; Man's Folly
© By M.S.Lowndes
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
What bible taught us about blaming others
It has been said that a wise man learns from his mistakes; but a wiser man learns from the mistakes of others. One of the reasons that the Bible tells us of the failures, and not just the triumphs, of the men and women of faith, is that we are to recognize their mistakes, learn from them, and avoid them.
Children of the Lord do not live error-free lives. They make mistakes; sometimes far too many mistakes. But there are four common errors that Christians make; four mistakes that could be avoided by a better understanding of the Bible.
Abraham was the father of the faithful. See Romans 4:16. He is known throughout the scriptures as a man of faith. See Galatians 3:9; Hebrews 11:8. But Abraham committed each one of these four mistakes. If we can profit from the mistakes of others, perhaps we can avoid them. But if we refuse to learn from the past, we are condemned to repeat the errors of the past.
Abraham did not need a lifetime to mess up his life. He made all four mistakes in a short period of time. All four are recorded in the 16th chapter of Genesis.
I don’t say these are stupid mistakes. From God’s, perspective, they were certainly foolish. But from Abraham’s perspective – in the problems and difficulties of life, his actions seemed reasonable and plausible at the time.
So many times we make mistakes in our dealings with the uncertainties of life. Looking back, we see that our decisions were foolish. But at the time, they seemed so logical and right. We need to be able to avoid wrong decisions; instead of just being able to recognize them later.
In Genesis 16:1, we read that Sarah, Abraham’s wife, was barren. This was a grievous condition for her. Sarah’s barrenness was seen as a curse in her time. She was suffering emotional pain. Her marriage was unhappy. At this time, she was 75 years old. Her inability to conceive was a torment that she had lived with for a long time. Now it was medically impossible for her to bear a child.
Sometimes humans cook up schemes to remedy problems that are worse than the problems themselves. Both Abraham and Sarah committed the first common error: they let fleshly desire overrule good sense. In Genesis 16:1-2, Sarah gave Abraham her servant to be a second wife. Sarah wanted a child so bad, that she proposed that Abraham take a second wife and have a child through her. Today we would call that surrogate motherhood. It was a common practice among the heathen in the land of Canaan at the time.
But polygamy was not God’s intended plan for His people. In Genesis 2:24, God had only made one wife for Adam. A man was to leave his parents and cleave to his wife, not wives. Malachi 2:14-15 shows that monogamy was to protect a godly seed.
Yet polygamy and surrogate motherhood were accepted practices among the heathen in the land. Sarah’s proposal would not have raised an eyebrow at that time, in that part of the world. But they should not have come up with this scheme. They were abandoning their faith in God’s promise.
In Genesis 13:16, Abraham received the promise of seed. In Genesis 15:1-6, the promise was confirmed again, and Abraham believed God.
When people are desperate, or frustrated, they do strange things. Has desperation driven any of your decisions? A young person, seeking a spouse, may get desperate and just take anyone, rather than waiting for the spouse God wants them to have. Men and women are driven to sin by desperation in the boredom of what we call a middle-age crisis.
Sarah wanted this – so she could have a surrogate child. Abraham conceded to fleshly desires, too. An old man had reason to want to be married to a young, shapely wife with the intent of having relations to produce a child. And Abraham gave in to those desires. Genesis 16:2b.
Hagar’s pregnancy did not bring peace nor happiness. Verses 3-4. The character of the home changed. It wasn’t just Abraham and Sarah anymore; it was Abraham and Sarah and Hagar. The relationship of Sarah and Hagar changed, and the relationship of Abraham and Sarah lost something very valuable.
Unfaithfulness to your spouse in marriage cannot produce happiness. Sometimes there can be forgiveness and even reconciliation, but it is almost impossible to restore the trust and closeness in the relationship that existed when it was exclusive.
The problem: “Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.” Verse 2b. Husbands, you should listen to your wives, and wives should listen to their husbands – except when their counsel violates the Word of God. God spoke to Abram, not Sarah about leaving Ur. God told Abram, not Sarah, that he would have children. How could Abraham believe Sarah knew more about the will of God than he did?
Today, many Christians make the second mistake: they listen to the wrong counselors. Especially when they are wanting to act outside the permissive will of God, they ask or receive advise from friends who are weak in the faith or from those outside the church. Fallen men and women seek advice from those who will tell them what they want to hear, instead of those who will tell them what they need to hear.
Psalm 1:1 teaches to walk not in the counsel of the ungodly. But Proverbs 12:15 shows that there can be good counsel. Seek good counsel from godly men and women. Proverbs 20:5.
Abraham should have refused Sarah’s suggestion and reminded her of what God had promised. But in Genesis 16:4-5, Sarah fell into the 3rd mistake: blaming others. Neither Abraham nor Sarah recognized their own fault in this situation. Each sought someone else to blame. Most humans do this. Very few people can say: “I was wrong, please forgive me.” Every error has to be someone else’s fault.
Hagar had been elevated from slave to second wife. She no longer treated Sarah with the same honor and respect that a slave had to have toward her mistress. After all, she was able to conceive – a sign of God’s blessing that Sarah did not have.
Things did not work out the way Sarah thought they would. (They never do when we violate the revealed will of God.) So what did Sarah do? She blamed Abraham. Verse 5. And Abraham could just as well blame Sarah – but they both were at fault for failing to trust God.
It is a mistake to blame others for the things we bring on ourselves. When man fell in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3:12-13, Adam blamed Eve; and Eve blamed the serpent. The fault was not in others, they should have each accepted their own responsibility.
Jesus said that most humans are mote-hunters, with beams in their own eyes. Matthew 7:5. It is a sign of Christian maturity to accept responsibility for your own faults. When King David fell into sin in II Samuel 12:7,13, he did not blame Bathsheba, or anyone else.
At this point in the family crisis, Abraham should have taken charge of the situation, and implement the godly principles in his home that would have defused and resolved the problems. He was to be the head of his home. Abraham should have accepted responsibility for the wrong that brought on the situation. He should have said it was his fault for letting the thing happen. He did not have to consent to the scheme. He should have asked for forgiveness first, and then told Sarah that she was at fault, too. She brought it on herself. And he should have told Hagar that she should not have been in the position of second wife, but now that she was, she must still treat Sarah with the respect and honor that she is due.
Abraham should have administered righteousness in his home. Instead, he committed the fourth common mistake: he shirked his responsibility for the sake of peace. Genesis 16:6 shows that Abraham told Sarah: “Do whatever you think is right, dear.”
Shirking his responsibility was wrong. Hagar suffered for it. But it got Sarah off Abraham’s back. Peace purchased at the cost of shirking your duty is neither valuable nor lasting. Queen Esther could not shirk her duty. Esther 4:14, 16b.
In four verses, Genesis 16:2-6, Abraham committed all four mistakes. He let fleshly desires overrule God’s will for his life; he listened to the wrong person; he blamed others for the thing he brought on himself; and he shirked his responsibility for the sake of peace.
Please note that there are no mistakes from God’s point of view. Everything that happens is according to His plan. Everything is either His direct will, or it is in His permissive will. Abraham’s mistakes were part of the process the Lord was taking him through to mature him. He learned to trust the Lord because he got into trouble whenever he failed to believe God.
But mistakes have consequences. In Abraham’s case, there were major consequences that continue to trouble his family until today. If you can’t handle the consequences, then don’t make the mistakes.
Abraham had a child through his relationship with Hagar, Ishmael, progenitor of the Arabs. Genesis 16:7-12 shows us that he was a wild man, a donkey’s colt. His hand was to be against his neighbor. And his descendents, the Middle East Arabs, are still that way. The current trouble in the Middle East, the bloodshed between the Jews and the Arabs, is a continuing result of Abraham’s mistakes. Abraham’s mistakes were part of the plan of God; but they had massive consequences.
Despite his mistakes, God saved Abraham. Sarah also died saved. They are both in the Hebrew Hall of Fame – Hebrews, the 11th chapter. God can raise you above your mistakes, too. But part of growing in Christ is learning to avoid mistakes. Philippians 2:12-15 speaks of Christian growth, reaching the point of being blameless & without rebuke. Part of reaching that point is to avoid the common mistakes of life.
Thanks to pastor biker for sharing.
Children of the Lord do not live error-free lives. They make mistakes; sometimes far too many mistakes. But there are four common errors that Christians make; four mistakes that could be avoided by a better understanding of the Bible.
Abraham was the father of the faithful. See Romans 4:16. He is known throughout the scriptures as a man of faith. See Galatians 3:9; Hebrews 11:8. But Abraham committed each one of these four mistakes. If we can profit from the mistakes of others, perhaps we can avoid them. But if we refuse to learn from the past, we are condemned to repeat the errors of the past.
Abraham did not need a lifetime to mess up his life. He made all four mistakes in a short period of time. All four are recorded in the 16th chapter of Genesis.
I don’t say these are stupid mistakes. From God’s, perspective, they were certainly foolish. But from Abraham’s perspective – in the problems and difficulties of life, his actions seemed reasonable and plausible at the time.
So many times we make mistakes in our dealings with the uncertainties of life. Looking back, we see that our decisions were foolish. But at the time, they seemed so logical and right. We need to be able to avoid wrong decisions; instead of just being able to recognize them later.
In Genesis 16:1, we read that Sarah, Abraham’s wife, was barren. This was a grievous condition for her. Sarah’s barrenness was seen as a curse in her time. She was suffering emotional pain. Her marriage was unhappy. At this time, she was 75 years old. Her inability to conceive was a torment that she had lived with for a long time. Now it was medically impossible for her to bear a child.
Sometimes humans cook up schemes to remedy problems that are worse than the problems themselves. Both Abraham and Sarah committed the first common error: they let fleshly desire overrule good sense. In Genesis 16:1-2, Sarah gave Abraham her servant to be a second wife. Sarah wanted a child so bad, that she proposed that Abraham take a second wife and have a child through her. Today we would call that surrogate motherhood. It was a common practice among the heathen in the land of Canaan at the time.
But polygamy was not God’s intended plan for His people. In Genesis 2:24, God had only made one wife for Adam. A man was to leave his parents and cleave to his wife, not wives. Malachi 2:14-15 shows that monogamy was to protect a godly seed.
Yet polygamy and surrogate motherhood were accepted practices among the heathen in the land. Sarah’s proposal would not have raised an eyebrow at that time, in that part of the world. But they should not have come up with this scheme. They were abandoning their faith in God’s promise.
In Genesis 13:16, Abraham received the promise of seed. In Genesis 15:1-6, the promise was confirmed again, and Abraham believed God.
When people are desperate, or frustrated, they do strange things. Has desperation driven any of your decisions? A young person, seeking a spouse, may get desperate and just take anyone, rather than waiting for the spouse God wants them to have. Men and women are driven to sin by desperation in the boredom of what we call a middle-age crisis.
Sarah wanted this – so she could have a surrogate child. Abraham conceded to fleshly desires, too. An old man had reason to want to be married to a young, shapely wife with the intent of having relations to produce a child. And Abraham gave in to those desires. Genesis 16:2b.
Hagar’s pregnancy did not bring peace nor happiness. Verses 3-4. The character of the home changed. It wasn’t just Abraham and Sarah anymore; it was Abraham and Sarah and Hagar. The relationship of Sarah and Hagar changed, and the relationship of Abraham and Sarah lost something very valuable.
Unfaithfulness to your spouse in marriage cannot produce happiness. Sometimes there can be forgiveness and even reconciliation, but it is almost impossible to restore the trust and closeness in the relationship that existed when it was exclusive.
The problem: “Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.” Verse 2b. Husbands, you should listen to your wives, and wives should listen to their husbands – except when their counsel violates the Word of God. God spoke to Abram, not Sarah about leaving Ur. God told Abram, not Sarah, that he would have children. How could Abraham believe Sarah knew more about the will of God than he did?
Today, many Christians make the second mistake: they listen to the wrong counselors. Especially when they are wanting to act outside the permissive will of God, they ask or receive advise from friends who are weak in the faith or from those outside the church. Fallen men and women seek advice from those who will tell them what they want to hear, instead of those who will tell them what they need to hear.
Psalm 1:1 teaches to walk not in the counsel of the ungodly. But Proverbs 12:15 shows that there can be good counsel. Seek good counsel from godly men and women. Proverbs 20:5.
Abraham should have refused Sarah’s suggestion and reminded her of what God had promised. But in Genesis 16:4-5, Sarah fell into the 3rd mistake: blaming others. Neither Abraham nor Sarah recognized their own fault in this situation. Each sought someone else to blame. Most humans do this. Very few people can say: “I was wrong, please forgive me.” Every error has to be someone else’s fault.
Hagar had been elevated from slave to second wife. She no longer treated Sarah with the same honor and respect that a slave had to have toward her mistress. After all, she was able to conceive – a sign of God’s blessing that Sarah did not have.
Things did not work out the way Sarah thought they would. (They never do when we violate the revealed will of God.) So what did Sarah do? She blamed Abraham. Verse 5. And Abraham could just as well blame Sarah – but they both were at fault for failing to trust God.
It is a mistake to blame others for the things we bring on ourselves. When man fell in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3:12-13, Adam blamed Eve; and Eve blamed the serpent. The fault was not in others, they should have each accepted their own responsibility.
Jesus said that most humans are mote-hunters, with beams in their own eyes. Matthew 7:5. It is a sign of Christian maturity to accept responsibility for your own faults. When King David fell into sin in II Samuel 12:7,13, he did not blame Bathsheba, or anyone else.
At this point in the family crisis, Abraham should have taken charge of the situation, and implement the godly principles in his home that would have defused and resolved the problems. He was to be the head of his home. Abraham should have accepted responsibility for the wrong that brought on the situation. He should have said it was his fault for letting the thing happen. He did not have to consent to the scheme. He should have asked for forgiveness first, and then told Sarah that she was at fault, too. She brought it on herself. And he should have told Hagar that she should not have been in the position of second wife, but now that she was, she must still treat Sarah with the respect and honor that she is due.
Abraham should have administered righteousness in his home. Instead, he committed the fourth common mistake: he shirked his responsibility for the sake of peace. Genesis 16:6 shows that Abraham told Sarah: “Do whatever you think is right, dear.”
Shirking his responsibility was wrong. Hagar suffered for it. But it got Sarah off Abraham’s back. Peace purchased at the cost of shirking your duty is neither valuable nor lasting. Queen Esther could not shirk her duty. Esther 4:14, 16b.
In four verses, Genesis 16:2-6, Abraham committed all four mistakes. He let fleshly desires overrule God’s will for his life; he listened to the wrong person; he blamed others for the thing he brought on himself; and he shirked his responsibility for the sake of peace.
Please note that there are no mistakes from God’s point of view. Everything that happens is according to His plan. Everything is either His direct will, or it is in His permissive will. Abraham’s mistakes were part of the process the Lord was taking him through to mature him. He learned to trust the Lord because he got into trouble whenever he failed to believe God.
But mistakes have consequences. In Abraham’s case, there were major consequences that continue to trouble his family until today. If you can’t handle the consequences, then don’t make the mistakes.
Abraham had a child through his relationship with Hagar, Ishmael, progenitor of the Arabs. Genesis 16:7-12 shows us that he was a wild man, a donkey’s colt. His hand was to be against his neighbor. And his descendents, the Middle East Arabs, are still that way. The current trouble in the Middle East, the bloodshed between the Jews and the Arabs, is a continuing result of Abraham’s mistakes. Abraham’s mistakes were part of the plan of God; but they had massive consequences.
Despite his mistakes, God saved Abraham. Sarah also died saved. They are both in the Hebrew Hall of Fame – Hebrews, the 11th chapter. God can raise you above your mistakes, too. But part of growing in Christ is learning to avoid mistakes. Philippians 2:12-15 speaks of Christian growth, reaching the point of being blameless & without rebuke. Part of reaching that point is to avoid the common mistakes of life.
Thanks to pastor biker for sharing.
Monday, June 4, 2012
Happy birthday to my mother
Hi mom, thank you for caring me all this time. I would like to wish you happy birthday. All the hardship you endure, it's time for you to settle down and enjoy the fruit of happiness. I Love you mom for your 65th birthday. God always bless you. Amen.
A Prayer for a Mother's Birthday by Henry Van Dyke
Lord Jesus, Thou hast known
A mother's love and tender care:
And Thou wilt hear, while for my own
Mother most dear I make this birthday prayer.
Protect her life, I pray,
Who gave the gift of life to me;
And may she know, from day to day,
The deepening glow of Life that comes from Thee.
As once upon her breast
Fearless and well content I lay,
So let her heart, on Thee at rest,
Feel fears depart and troubles fade away.
Her every wish fulfill;
And even if Thou must refuse
In anything, let Thy wise will
A comfort bring such as kind mothers use.
Ah, hold her by the hand,
As once her hand held mine;
And though she may not understand
Life's winding way, lead her in peace divine.
I cannot pay my debt
For all the love that she has given;
But Thou, love's Lord, wilt not forget
Her due reward,--bless her in earth and heaven.
A Prayer for a Mother's Birthday by Henry Van Dyke
Lord Jesus, Thou hast known
A mother's love and tender care:
And Thou wilt hear, while for my own
Mother most dear I make this birthday prayer.
Protect her life, I pray,
Who gave the gift of life to me;
And may she know, from day to day,
The deepening glow of Life that comes from Thee.
As once upon her breast
Fearless and well content I lay,
So let her heart, on Thee at rest,
Feel fears depart and troubles fade away.
Her every wish fulfill;
And even if Thou must refuse
In anything, let Thy wise will
A comfort bring such as kind mothers use.
Ah, hold her by the hand,
As once her hand held mine;
And though she may not understand
Life's winding way, lead her in peace divine.
I cannot pay my debt
For all the love that she has given;
But Thou, love's Lord, wilt not forget
Her due reward,--bless her in earth and heaven.
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