101 Questions for Christians (Can YOU reply to these?)

I don’t think these questions should be unfamiliar to Christians. The answers and conversations surrounding these questions should be common amongst both new believers and mature believers, and both adult converts and those who grew up in Christian homes.

You might like to share these questions at a study group. Also, if any of the questions presents you with particular difficulty in answering then I urge you to start a conversation with other Christians about that question, and seek the answers together.

If you are not a Christian, but have Christian friends, you might like to challenge them to reply to  some of these!

Additional: These questions are not in any particular order and are not meant to make up a Catechism or curriculum.  They are merely written off the top of my head as a creative exercise.  There is no reason, other than for readability/reference-ability, why I have written every tenth entry in bold.

1. Why do you believe that God exists?
2. Why do you believe that the God of the bible is this God?
3. Why do you believe there is only one God?
4. Why do you believe that the bible is true and trustworthy?
5. Why would God make such a terrible world with disease and pain?
6. Why should anyone follow a God who lets bad things happen to good people?
7. Why should someone who is basically a good person be punished in hell for not believing in your God?
8. Why is it important to believe in the Trinity?
9. What is the meaning of life?
10. What if it doesn't make me happy to follow God?
11. How come there are so many denominations?
12. How do we know that we can trust the bible when there are so many different interpretations?
13. What about Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc?
14. There is no absolute truth! (Isn't there?)
15. What causes division in the church?
16. Is division in the church ever a good thing? Why?
17. Have the gifts of the Spirit ceased?
18. What was the biblical form for the gifts? (What did they look like in practice?)
19. Do Christians have to give 10%?
20. What about “prosperity preaching” - doesn't this prove Christianity is a scam to make money?
21. Are all homosexuals going to hell? 
22. Hell is going to be better than heaven! (Isn't it?)
23. Do babies and children that die go to heaven? 
24. What about people who never get the chance to hear the gospel - do they go to hell? (This doesn’t seem fair)
25. What is the gospel?
26. How does the gospel save people?
27. Does this mean everyone will eventually be saved?
28. Why eternal punishment? (and not just a short time)
29. What does it mean to be born again?
30. How does a person become born again?
31. How should we read the bible?
32. What is a study bible?
33. What is a bible commentary?
34. How does a Christian “hear” from God?
35. Why pray if God already knows what we will pray?
36. What is worship?
37. What is discipleship?
38. What is the difference between general and special revelation?
39. Does God know what I'm thinking? Explain
40. What is a miracle?
41. What is God’s purpose in miracles?
42. Can miracles be from the devil?
43. Can we make God bring a miracle by praying hard enough?
44. What does it mean to be holy and how does this apply to us and to God?
45. Do miracles depend upon our purity and sinlessness?
46. Do blessings depend upon whether we are sinful? (or have sinned)
47. Can we be perfect in this life (completely free from sin)?
48. How were people saved in the Old Testament?
49. What qualities should Christian leaders possess?
50. Why are there different versions of the bible?
51. What is the best version of the bible for me? (and why)
52. What is the difference between the Old and New Testaments?
53. Are the books of the bible in chronological order? Explain
54. What does the future hold? 
55. When do/did the “last days” begin?
56. What is God’s purpose in the suffering of his people?
57. What is the purpose of hell?
58. Who goes to hell?
59. What will hell be like?
60. What is the purpose of heaven?
61. Who goes to heaven?
62. What will heaven be like?
63. Is there any place other than heaven or hell where people might go when they die?
64. Do animals go to heaven?
65. What is the difference between Roman Catholicism and Protestant Christianity?
66. Why is Roman Catholicism wrong?
67. What was The Reformation?
68. What is the best way to know error or untruth when you see it?
69. What should you do if you find out you are wrong?
70. How do people identify their gifts from God?
71. How do they use their gifts from God?
72. What is the best form of church governance?
73. What is the difference between a biblical pastor and a biblical teacher?
74. Can we know for certain that we are saved?
75. How do we reach assurance?
76. Can we say if someone else is saved or not? Explain
77. Can we lose salvation having once had it? Explain
78. What does it mean that God is sovereign?
79. Do we have free will? Explain
80. If we don't have free will, does that make us robots? Explain
81. If we do have free will, does our decision to follow Jesus mean we are smarter than those who choose not to? Explain
82. Why is it important to have assurance of salvation as a Christian?
83. What is discipleship?
84. When is Jesus coming back?
85. What should help Christians to get through hard times?
86. What does it mean to worship in spirit and in truth?
87. What does Israel have to do with Christianity (both past and present Israel)?
88. Why did they sacrifice animals in Israel in the Old Testament?
89. Why has the sacrifice of animals ended and will never be needed again?
90. What does it mean to glorify God?
91. How should marriage glorify God?
92. What does it mean to be made in the image of God?
93. How does ‘being made in the image of God’ inform our stance on abortion, war, and euthanasia?
94. Can we earn our salvation? (Why/why not?)
95. What is the fall?
96. How does the fall explain so much of the imperfect world we live in?
97. How does creation demonstrate the existence of a Creator?
98. How does creation show the glory of the Creator?
99. Should we read all of the bible literally? Explain
100. How should Christians seek to make converts? (Methods, attitudes towards God, attitudes towards men)
101. How do we examine ourselves to see whether we are Christians or not?

Get talking!

Bicycle Radio NZ - How I became a Christian

Today's episode covers:

• My background and religious influences (or lack thereof)
• How I came to believe in God in a general sense
• How I came to believe in the Christian God

Bicycle Radio NZ - Friday, June 1st 2012 (episode 09) (right click to save)

Feel free to ask questions or comment below.  I will continue the story in future episodes.

Goals and Inspiration - finding the energy and purpose to have hope and drive

I look around myself daily and see many, many people who struggle through life.  They are unhappy more than they are happy, and their goals are rather simple and (can I say it without offending?) empty.

These people stumble into and out of relationships, stumble into and out of jobs.  They might start a family, work for years, make a bit of headway on their mortgage, and then "come to them self" after their prime has passed and wonder where their life went and whether it was worth it.  If any conscious direction exists, it has been set with a low bar, and even then it has not always been achieved.

So what is missing?
An ability to set goals?  Partly, but everyone can imagine them self as a hero, or just better than they are now.

A sense of accomplishment?  Maybe.  Significant achievement is addictive and until you establish a pattern here you don't know the feeling you are searching for.

Is it due to a lack of ability? I don't think so - my students do some amazing things and demonstrate some pretty incredible creativity and thinking, though inconsistently.

Maybe it is motivation, inspiration, purpose, and drive - the part of the formula that gives energy to the do-er and carries them through the low times with enough momentum to keep things moving forward.  This is a huge part of the puzzle that is missing for many people, young and old, rich and poor, all over the world.

Then, how can it be fixed?
Morality is needed.  An understanding of what is good, and what is evil.  What could lend more purpose than this?  We all want to do good, don't we?  That's why we root for the goodies in movies, and feel a sense of happiness and satisfaction when the baddies are overcome.  At heart, we all want to be the goody who is overcoming the bad guy.

But how do we know what is good and what is not?  As babies and small children, we have strong urges toward selfishness.  This is a useful survival mechanism perhaps, leading to getting fed, changed, and cared for.  As we grow up that selfishness becomes destructive - we engage in conflict with our surrounding peers, until we begin to understand that other people have a right to things that we want also.  We learn that our carers have authority and power that we don't, so we listen to them and learn from them - this usually shapes the rest of our morality.  But what shaped their morality?  How do we know what is truly right and wrong?  We need a lasting authority that cannot be argued with.

God (If you don't believe in God, just humour me for the sake of this).  What does God have to do with it?  What can a "mythical" being contribute to morality that you can't come up with on your own?  Well, a mythical being can't come up with anything since a myth doesn't exist.  But if God exists, He lends an enormous weight to any description of what is good.

Consider the attributes of a God...
...and not just any god.  Think of one who is truly big enough and powerful enough to make an entire universe.

God is eternal, existing forever into the past and forever into the future.  He knows the beginning, the end, and everything that happens in the middle; and He knows this for everything that has ever, or will ever, exist. Put it this way: God can see the eternal consequences of every single decisions that you will ever make, or could make.  When you die, there will still be consequences raging on for the things that you have done.

Now imagine that you were given a task to do that would accomplish something good from God (and of course God is the expert on "good", or He wouldn't be God), and something that would have lasting consequences until well after you pass on.  What if you had something so amazingly good to put your hand to that it would have positive eternal consequences?  Would that give you purpose?  Of course it would!  And God is the only one who can give you such a purpose because He is the only one who can say what will bear everlasting fruit.

What else?  God is powerful, able to create a universe just by speaking it into existence.  Let's add power to the mix then.  That could mean that God doesn't need us, lowly humans, to accomplish His purposes, but for a moment consider that He made us.  That means we are significant to Him in some way, and that He chooses to use us and work through us somehow.  So our hypothetical question now becomes, "What if you had a positive eternal purpose to try and accomplish, along with the power from God Himself to help you achieve that goal?"

With such a situation, there is no chance of losing.  You are creating something good, something lasting, and something that is sure to succeed.  It's never a cheap and easy victory though, because God loves us to struggle along the way, perhaps growing us during the process into something better.  But even though it seems hard or impossible at times, we can know that our purpose will never be foiled if God is for us.

If you're not convinced of the need for God, try to think how this works without Him.  Where is the absolute certainty that your purpose is good?  Where is the power to accomplish it coming from?  Where is the certainty of lasting effect?  And what prevents you from setting the bar too low and finding too easy victory that is unsatisfying?

What then?
If you're prepared to accept that an eternal and powerful being exists (who has a vested interest in humanity's success) then what?  How do you learn His purpose or His will for you?  Holy writings from God perhaps?  But which religion?

If you are considering these things then I suggest you start here.  The page leads you through some short articles that build the picture that many already possess.

And if you decide to go your own way, then all the best with that.  Even if you don't see the need for God, I hope you can take a few things out of this article anyway.  Namely, the knowledge of how to set goals in a way that will give you purpose and inspiration, i.e. Goals that are achievable, have a sense of good about them, and that have a long-lasting effect in your life and the lives of others.

Take care :-)

Sam

Unite My Heart

Psalm 86, a prayer of King David, is a favourite of mine.  It seems to sum up much of the Christian existence.  I often make verse 11 my prayer:

"Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name"

While some verses can seem a little presumptuous to pray, verse two for example says, "Preserve my life, for I am godly;" we should be aware that this is the direction of life of the Christian.  Everyone who is born again has been fundamentally changed into a new being - into one who can come before God to pray with the confidence of Christ who is the perfect and godly one in each of us.

Unfortunately, we do not often share this confidence with King David.  Our recent sin is fresh in our memory, and we do not feel holy.  Whether we have said words in anger, let our gaze linger upon something we shouldn't, or have harboured resentful thoughts, our own heart is betraying our new nature and our prayer lacks conviction because of our guilt.

In such moments we must take hold of forgiveness from the Father and have him unite our heart, lest we be like the kingdom divided against itself that will fall (Matthew 12:25).  Prayer is a part of this process, but the same verse 11 gives us further advice to achieve a united heart.

The first part, learning God's ways, and learning to walk in His truth, is the same thing as having a heart united and set upon Him.  The internal conviction is not separate from the external action.  1John 1:6 from the New Testament shows us that our actions, how we "walk", must match our words which claim fellowship.  If it is clear that our actions don't meet our convictions, we should be praying for something more serious than our walk with God - our souls are likely more in step with the world and our heart is united with the devil.

Before you can worry about becoming more like Jesus, you must first seek salvation from him.  Only then will your heart be freed from the devil to become new and holy, and then the battle with competing desires will begin.  You can be sure that you are saved if you long for your heart to be united, to walk in God's ways, and to live by His truth.  In a sense, the prayer for a united heart will only be truly complete when Jesus returns and our transformation is complete, but for now we can continue to strive, and pray, and enjoy each step of progress.

Pray, with David:

"Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name"

May God grant you to desire and to achieve this prayer.


Amen

How do we do this thing called life?

Just recently, a Christian friend posed the question above in a Facebook status update. I have no idea what led to the question being asked, but an air of frustration, or even desperation, seemed to come through. Whether I read the situation right or not, I always feel that such questions are deserving of careful consideration and genuine answers - especially coming from brothers or sisters in Christ.

Before I get to my reply, I want to dwell a moment on some of the other responses. I was struck in two ways by some of the comments. First was the manner in which the comments were made. Despite this being a serious existential question, it was treated to humourous responses, which did have an edge of seriousness but still failed to address the gravity of the question. Second was the actual advice offered which focused on material pleasure, presumably as a source of happiness, implying that we “do life” to get as much pleasure and happiness as we can.

Now, I don’t think that it is wrong to seek happiness, but the forms of pleasure that were mentioned the most (food, sex, drugs, and the like) do not bring any lasting happiness, and if taken to excess, or in the wrong way, are severely damaging. In fact, these things have a huge potential to hurt or to disappoint! I actually think that the pursuit of happiness (or joy) is part and parcel of our number one purpose. Even more, I believe that the pursuit of joy is a divine command that, if not obvious, is strongly implicit in a plain reading of God’s revelation to us in scripture (the bible).

So getting right to it, the answer that I offered my friend is below; and I would like to explain the answer in more detail, including how our happiness is fulfilled within this pursuit. Here’s my take on how we do this thing called life:

“Love God and love your neighbour. Easier said than done but the same One who commands also enables those who try in His name.”

If I was to quote the Westminster Catechism, a document based on the bible and designed to summarise and teach the Christian faith - completed in 1647; in the very first question and answer, you might see some of how I arrived at my response:

Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

In only a short (and hopefully obvious) step, we can see that to glorify God (or honour Him) is to keep his commands, and in this is the meaning of life and the way to “do” life. Jesus summed up all of God’s commands by telling us to love God and to love our neighbour (Luke 10:26-28). Basically, love everyone but love God first. It also seems obvious that if we keep the opposite of this, i.e. not loving God or others (which includes ambivalence), is a dishonouring of God and is where all that is called “sin” is rooted.

Knowing that we should love is one thing, but managing to do that successfully for the rest of your life is another. Nobody can do it perfectly. God knows this, but He has mercy on those who try and he does not count their mistakes against them. He even goes so far as to strike any past offenses (deliberate or not) from their record. Even though we cannot love perfectly, we are still expected to try, and God has said that He will help anyone who tries. Even more, he inspires us to want to love, shows us how to love, and makes it so that we can love.

The final part of my response is about trying “in His name”. This is crucial, because anyone who tries to love in their own name and power will be seeking their own glory. Unfortunately for every person on earth and who has ever lived, we cannot accomplish this. We are unable to love “in His name”. This is because everything that we do is ultimately to serve our own pleasure in life. As fallen human beings, we need fixing before we can operate outside of ourselves. God steps in and does the fixing, often when we least expect it. This fixing process has many stages, but begins with being re-created or born again, and then the ongoing work that keeps us improving in our ability to love is called sanctification.

I realise that it is a huge mouthful to swallow, the claim that everyone is self-serving until God steps in, but that is a topic for another time. Feel free to discuss it in the comments if you are moved to reply.

As a concluding comment, I want to contrast the happiness that comes from loving God alongside the happiness that comes from the material pleasures of this world. For happiness to last it must be grounded in something lasting. The main contrast here is that God is eternal and material pleasures can only last as long as we are alive to enjoy them, many of them passing in scattered moments during our lives anyway. This means, that the only happiness we can count on for ever, and in any circumstance, is grounded in God. This is the truth and the means to do this thing called life.

May God bless you with joy everlasting!

Amen

Annihilation: Is this a Biblical Doctrine?

The following is a response to Dr Glenn Peoples on his blog. Glenn believes that annihilationism is a biblical doctrine and I disagree. Annihilation doctrine says that there is no conscious everlasting punishment in hell and that everlasting refers to death being "without end". They believe that this doctrine is biblical and fulfills any requirements of justice and again, I disagree.

What I am impressed with is Glenn's ability to argue a point rationally and with clear reasoning. This alone is worth the time to engage with him I think. This is something that we need to promote in society.

A final note, and one that I hope will not see my points as taken any less seriously, I have trouble working out the proper usage of the terms annihilation and annihilationism! I hope I haven't been painful for anyone to read because of this.


Hi Glenn (and others)

I first want to say that, after discovering and reviewing some of the material on your site, I appreciate and am thankful for your focus on original thinking, and for your desire that people have a deeply personal understanding of important matters. Having said that, I disagree with your position on annihilation.

As time allows, I hope to engage with enough of the material that you (and others) reference in order to give your position a fair hearing. For now though, I want to raise two or three points. If these have been dealt with elsewhere, feel free to provide a link/reference so that I am not wasting your valuable time. Recently getting married has led me to appreciate others’ time much more, as the amount of my own that I have to devote to these issues has become much more scarce!

Firstly, I would like to mention Matthew chapter 11 as a passage that seems to have a lot more weight on the issue of degrees of punishment. Jesus says that it will be more tolerable for some. While I believe that this is not necessarily an argument for or against annihilation, it does seem to be much stronger than the passage you’ve used. I’ve also never come across Luke 12 as a passage with any real weight in the argument.

Second, I think that reducing the issue of punishment/reward to one of “having life or not having life” is overly simplified, and even misses the point when scripture refers to life and death in the context of eternity. If death is permanent and final, without the “spiritual” component of pain or torment, then the direct opposite of this would seem to be life without the spiritual component of joy and completed sanctification. The gains of salvation would seem to be reduced to mere immortality and the issue of what happens during that version of everlasting life seems separated from the biblical concept of everlasting life.

Finally, the position of annihilation seems to me to present a lower view of the majesty of God than that which I find presented in scripture. I don’t say that to offend, but to show that I do consider this an important enough issue for Christians to work out together. I am sure you have just as high a view of God as I do, but I do not think that annihilation supports such a high view. Justice, in at least part of the biblical sense of the word, has a clear meaning of balancing the books. The magnitude of the crime demands an appropriate magnitude of punishment. Not so much from the angle that sin is really bad, but because the sin (or any level) is against a really holy God; that is why conscious punishment without end makes more sense to me. I’ve totally understated just how bad sin is and more importantly just how holy God is, but hopefully I’ve still communicated that it is the holiness that I think demands a greater sense of punishment by those being punished.

The comparison to an earthly court, in particular life imprisonment versus the death penalty, has been used to try and justify annihilation as meeting the requirements of justice. I think this argument presents a misunderstanding of true justice and the role of the legal/penal system. Scripture offers us hope that true and ultimate justice will be served by God on Judgment day. Our earthly systems of justice attempt to copy this, not the other way around. As such, our earthly systems are limited to merely representing in a physical sense the death of the wicked. Because of this, we cannot properly relate a flawed, man-made, physical system to the perfect system administered by a perfect Creator. I could say much more on this but the hints are there enough for you to ponder this further.

Thank you for such an open and valuable forum on this, and other issues. I apologise for the lack of detail in my words. Time and mental energy being scarce, I hope you will forgive me.

Sam

You can read the full blog post and comments here: http://www.beretta-online.com/wordpress/2011/degrees-of-hell/

How to Take Over The World

A few weeks ago I was inspired. This inspiration led me to write the following. I'm sharing it now as an inspiration for you:

How to Take Over the World

Time: Saturday morning.  May 14 2011 10:32am.  
Location: Hamilton, New Zealand (Planet Earth)

Right now is when I decided to take over the world.

This seems like a laughable goal when the writer has already had to go back and correct three typos before reaching even 23 words of his master plan.  The truth is that I’m not sure at all of the details of my plan.  What I am sure of is my desire to cause a positive change, and my ability to use my creative potential to this end.  The only major unknown that I have no direct experience with is in scaling this up to include the entire world.  

Right now, I am buoyed up by a fresh confidence and mental focus that comes from a decade or more of wanting to see peoples’ lives improve.  This has created a foundation of behaviour and fertile soil for the seeds of a recent read, which has sparked these new heights of optimism that I feel at this moment.

Josh Waitzkin’s ‘The Art of Learning’ has blasted my mind and restored my confidence in making a difference in the world.  Set-backs are no longer negative, but instead provide cherished fuel for positive growth.  Far from the emptiness of blind optimism this, almost surreal feeling of reality in my decision for world domination, is a chance to combine rational processes to achieve concrete goals.

Recently, getting married and focusing on building a home life with wife, kids, and a dog, I had almost decided that the best way I could hope to cause positive change was by living this “classic” of lives perfectly.  This was in order to be the best example to the world that I could be.  A passive form of world domination, on a small scale, affecting those immediately around me.  

While this is a good and admirable goal, I am far from perfect, and will never be so golden in this life.  Others are better suited to having the “perfect” life.  I am better suited to being off balance and adapting myself.  I am good at applying principles, values, and foundational ideas to make decisions (sometimes instant) about how to deal with that off-balance-ness.  For years I have been building up a self-sufficiency, adaptability, and resilience to change that can cope with anything.  

Now it is time to put my experience into practice by seeking to improve the entire planet in a tangible and measurable way.

One thing I know, which will form the foundation of my strategies and actions, is that God is in complete control of everything which means that I have to first petition Him for success.  He not only wills everything to happen, both good and evil, but he maintains the energy that holds the physical universe together and which actively makes everything happen that will happen.  Knowing this, I have already accepted that I may fail and that this is a part of God’s plan (which is greater than my plan!).  On the other hand, if God has decided that I should succeed, then there is no stopping me.  Not even my by own foolishness, through regular typos, or because of the nastiest plans of even greater forces for evil within the universe.

So I pray like this:
Lord, for your glory, I ask that you would allow me to be a positive influence of change in the world.  The whole world.  Help me to improve peoples’ lives so that they can see what you have made possible for them in this life.  Give me all I need to accomplish this.  Amen.

Does God Whisper?

From www.str.org comes their bi-monthly journal called "Solid Ground".


The most recent issue of Solid Ground has an article on hearing from God.  An excerpt to pique your interest:


"The keynote speaker’s list of spiritual qualifications was not lengthy. There were no references to his academic letters, theological acumen, skill at biblical living, or personal holiness. Instead, he was simply introduced as “a man who hears from God.” It was the ultimate sign of spiritual competency. The implication for the audience was clear. He listens to God; they should listen to him."


The article can be viewed in full here



"Stand to Reason" is an organisation that...
...equips Christian ambassadors with knowledge, wisdom, and character.  An effective ambassador has three essential skills: 

1. Knowledge - an accurate grasp of the foundational precepts of the Kingdom
2. Wisdom -  skillful, tactical, fair, and diplomatic use of knowledge
3. Character - a mature expression of virtue, warmth, and personal depth

(taken from Stand to Reason's "about" page where you can also read more of their vision.

This is one of the top sites on the internet for any Christian.

How to Change?

“I often wonder how many people are stuck in their relationships in a cycle of repeating the same things over and over again. They repeat the same misunderstandings. They rehearse and re-rehearse the same arguments. They repeat the same wrongs. Again and again things are not resolved. Night after night they end the day with nothing reconciled; they awake with memories of another bad moment with a friend, spouse, neighbor, co-worker or family member and they march toward the next time when the cycle will be repeated.”

“All their commitments to change have been subverted by the one thing they seem unwilling to do: take the focus off the other and put it on themselves.”

“Change is all about measuring yourself against a standard, being dissatisfied with where you are because you see that you have fallen short of the standard, and seeking the grace to close the gap from where you are to where you need to be.”

“The Bible is God’s ultimate measuring instrument. It is meant to function in each of our lives as a spiritual tape measure. We can place ourselves and our relationships next to it and see if we measure up to God’s standard. God’s Word is one of his sweetest gifts of grace, and open eyes to see it clearly and an open heart to receive it willingly are sure signs of God’s grace as well.”

Source: ‘The Grace of Confession (Part One)’ by Paul Tripp - www.desiringgod.org

Reflecting on your state before God: Take a look at the fruit of the spirit and the works of the flesh.  List each one from Galatians chapter five and then assess yourself against them.  For each one, write specific examples where you fall short of being spiritual or where you find yourself committing sin.

Galatians 5:16-24  But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  (17)  For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.  (18)  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.  (19)  Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,  (20)  idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,  (21)  envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.  (22)  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  (23)  gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.  (24)  And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Lonely and Afflicted

Psalms 25:16-18  Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.  (17)  The troubles of my heart are enlarged; bring me out of my distresses.  (18)  Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins.

While my wife is away, in the quiet moments between the distractions I manage to find, I’ve been pondering loneliness.

All of the fears, bad memories, insecurities, idle (and often sinful) habits rise to the surface when we are alone.  Discipline takes a back seat and we search for comfort in lesser substitutes than the relationships which we’ve taken for granted.  Absence truly does make the heart grow fonder.  When we are no longer alone we remember the pain and try harder to love and to serve others.

During the pain it is good to pray for God’s grace to get through the affliction of loneliness and the trouble of one’s heart.  We know that God will give us grace as seen in the strength to get us through the distress.  As we realise that our lonely period is coming to an end and we are going to make it through, we can thank God more easily for his grace towards us in getting us through and in forgiving our sins.  We do not deserve the comfort that comes from above, yet it is a sign of the grace that covers our marred and blackened souls.

Thank you Lord Jesus.  Give us strength to endure and deliver us from loneliness.

Amen

It Is Not Good That The Man Should Be Alone

With my wife away for the first large chunk of time since we were married last year, I have come to reflect on the passage below from yet another perspective.  Initially I has considered it from the perspective of a single man, yet to find a wife.  Now I am a married man who has grown to rely on the presence of his wife and who has had that comfort and warmth taken all of a sudden.

At least my lovely wife will be back from the funeral in South Africa in two weeks, and we can speak on the phone or communicate via email.  If I am feeling miserable without her now, how might I feel if I was permanently left alone without her?  Needless to say, I have been constantly praying for her safe return since her departure!

Interestingly, we have a little doggy to keep me company but, as cute and distracting as she is sometimes, she is no substitute for the fullness of a “helper fit for [me]” that is my wife.

It truly is such that I am lamenting the separation of my flesh by the geographical distance.

God’s word proves true once again, and there is a comfort in His eternal promises that pain is not forever for His children.

Genesis 2:18-24  Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him."  (19)  So out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.  (20)  The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.  (21)  So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.  (22)  And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.  (23)  Then the man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."  (24)  Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Seeing God

In each Christian we should see a developing picture of God the father.  This is because we are becoming more Christ-like and Jesus was the exact representation of the father’s nature. This is how we glorify God, i.e. by displaying his image in ourselves.

If you do not see this nature within yourself, can you call yourself a Christian?

How can you develop this nature within yourself?

What does God do in your life, from day to day, week to week, year to year, to develop this godly nature in you?

Hebrews 1:3 He [Jesus] is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature,

Romans 8:29  For those whom he foreknew [believers/Christians] he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

2Corinthians 3:18  And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Romans 12:2  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 2:4  Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

Romans 5:3-5  More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, (4) and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, (5) and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

John 14:5-12  Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?"  (6)  Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  (7)  If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."  (8)  Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us."  (9)  Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?  (10)  Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.  (11)  Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.  (12)  "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.

Trust and Truth in Science and Religion

Some trust in Science, some trust in God, some trust in both.  There are truth gaps in both Science and Religion that force us to trust if we are to continue to live by it.  It is our past experiences within that realm that will inform us whether we can safely place our trust  there or not.  The same principle applies to human relationships, favourite authors, Internet providers, and a host of other fields with unknowns that we commit to based on what we already know about them.  For now, we will look at trust and truth in Science and Religion.


Is there enough truth for us to trust in what we trust in?
This is not so much a difficulty in the Science realm, because the scientific method is formed to be able to make rational sense of observation of the universe.  Any theory or hypothesis that does not square with experimental data is replaced with an updated one that does work.  It’s a clear and simple, common sense process of human exploration of the natural world.  It doesn’t always work though, as it relies on fallible people to spot the inconsistencies in a theory, and even then it might take a while for people to be willing to let that theory go, especially if they have been making good use of it for a long time.  This gives rise to the question, “How much truth has to be compromised before the trust is compromised?”

Take the case of the dinosaur bones found with blood cells preserved inside.  Actual dinosaur blood.  Read the journal article for yourself here (or here for one of the articles at www.creation.com)  It seems that any rational scientist would have to make a choice, assuming he or she holds to dinosaurs existing over 60 million years ago along with a much shorter decomposition rate for organic material.  The choice would be between which theory is wrong.  Either dinosaurs didn’t live that long ago, or blood cells decay at an impossibly slow rate under particular conditions.  Trust in that portion of science must drop away, otherwise enough trust has already been built up that the scientist would safely assume that more evidence will come to light to explain how both can work.

When it comes to the bible, people are not so willing to trust.  
If we start on the same grounds that we might start from with science, we can see that there is no difference in how we can apply our trust to the bible.  There are truth claims, some of which are obvious and easily believed and it is a wonderful resource of accurate wisdom about human nature and life principles that work.  

However, there are gaps and contradictions that don’t seem to make sense and there are claims that we can’t know anything about through “natural” means of knowing.  Yet the parts that we can believe should convince us that it is worth looking a little deeper before throwing the baby out with the bath water.  Some contradictions readily dissolve with the right context or understanding of how God is working through history.  Others are not so easy to deal with, much like the science situation above, and require a re-think of past ideas; yet there is no reason to think we should dismiss the lot.

God of the gaps
Scientists are quick to accuse believers of “invoking the god of the gaps” .  When things in the universe don’t stand up to the claims of the religion (a gap in knowledge) then a miracle or mysterious action of god is used to cover the gap.  God of the gaps can be seen as a faith that the gap is a part of god’s plan or something that we can trust Him about despite not understanding how it fits in with the rest of reality.

What many scientists don’t realise is that they use science itself as a god of their gaps.  Scientists will come across something such as the dinosaur blood cells discovery and then say that “science will discover something that explains this, it’s just a matter of time.”  This is essentially putting faith in science to cover a gap in knowledge (or a contradiction in current knowledge).

Both rely on faith/trust but for different reasons
Science builds our trust with accurate accounts of physical reality.  The bible builds our trust with accurate accounts (primarily, but not exclusively) of moral/philosophical reality.  These two different reasons make it hard to compare the trust that we place in each, but that does not mean that either is totally wrong.  When each encounters a truth that stretches the bounds of belief, the adherents to that field (science or a particular religion) must decide if that claim is too far out for that system to adopt.

As a final note, I have focused on the bible, and by implication Christianity.  This is because I am a Christian and have explored the claims of Christianity more than other religions.  After looking at the other major world religions (and some minor ones also) I decided that they didn’t match with reality enough to bother trusting.  In short, where a religion makes their god lower in stature than man or who requires sub-standard payment for mans sin, I don’t think it can be true.  That is another discussion for another time though.

Some useful links

http://carm.org/introduction-bible-difficulties-and-bible-contradictions

Reasons to trust the bible

13 Things that do not make sense (New Scientist)

God Exists Because...

Before I was a Christian, I philosophised with some of my fellow teenage smoking buddies that there must be a Creator of the universe.  Sharing a Marlboro on a random playground some time during a warm summer night, we reasoned it out very simply.  If things have causes, then there must be something that is the first cause.  That first cause that made time and space is outside of both, and is not bound by either of them to have a beginning moment or a beginning place.

Developing that further, if we (very reasonably) take the currently expanding universe as something that has a beginning, we have to wonder how that beginning came about.  It is more reasonable to think that a creative force did it than to think that it was caused by a mindless force.  A mindless force cannot be a first cause because it will just sit there mindlessly with no reason to do anything as wonderful as start a universe.  Complicating the argument with multiple universes and other rubbish ideas just shifts the first cause.  I say rubbish because they miss the point and just mess up the clarity of something simple, beautiful, and easy on the eye when you look at it under the correct conditions of mind.

Shape or Be Shaped, What’s YOUR Approach?

To everything there is a season, and sometimes you must do a bit of thoughtful shaping of your life.  What is much harder, due to the requirement of having to submit to another, is allowing yourself to be shaped.  I’m almost certain that the biggest reason we do not listen to other people’s advice is because we know that people are not perfect.  They can hurt us deliberately or even by accident.  It is possible for them to make mistakes even if their intentions are pure.  At the end of the day, it feels more comfortable, or safer, for us to do what we think is right.  At least then, if things go wrong, we can’t ruin our relationships with those who gave us faulty advice!  Right?  Wrong!

I want to offer a couple of thoughts on taking advice from others and taking risks.  I also want to share a way of allowing yourself and your life to be shaped by someone else, so that the only degree to which you will get hurt, is the degree to which you stuff things up yourself.

Advice on taking advice
If you are the sort of person who re-interprets advice according to what advice YOU would offer, then you will never get any benefit from the advice given.  Instead, you will merely alienate the advice-giver by showing them that you are not really listening to them.  This becomes a bigger problem when their re-interpreted advice does not work and you blame them for failure instead of blaming yourself.

You can also reduce your ability to have close friends if you will not allow them into your life enough that they can offer you advice that you will reasonably consider.  Imagine if you spent years and years giving a piece of advice to someone you loved, perhaps on relationships and how to recognise the wrong guy, but they never took your advice and continued to hurt themselves with bad relationships.  Surely it would hurt you to see them hurting themselves in this way when all it would take is for them to take a look at their history and see that they are not improving anything in their life in this area.  Maybe then they will be more likely to listen to you.

To be good at taking advice you need to be able to trust someone else.  

To be good at taking advice you need to be prepared to take a risk, perhaps even risk getting hurt.  The size of the risk will depend on how much hurt you think you can handle.  If you are resilient then you will be able to take bigger risks.

To be good at taking advice you need to be able to recognise your own limitations in understanding, and be able to accept that you will not always know what to do.

To be good at taking advice you need to be able to recognise when others can do better at what you are looking to take advice on.  This means you will have to be able to admit to yourself that someone else knows better than YOU.  This can be very, very hard sometimes, but gets easier with practice.

To be good at taking advice you need to have a good imagination to be able to put the advice into practice in your mind and think through what will happen if you follow it.  This means that you can better choose which piece of advice to follow if you have to choose between advices, and it will mean that you are better able to predict the risk of hurt in following the advice, better informing your defenses against bad advice.

To be good at taking advice you need to be able to understand that the best advice will not always be the easiest path.  Sometimes the best advice will be uncomfortable because it will force you to face your weakness and struggle through to overcoming it.

A final word in this section.  You should feel more comfortable taking a risk with someone closer to you a lot more than others.  This is because they will be more likely to have considered the risks to you themselves.  If they love you, they will not want to see you hurt and will only offer the best advice as they see it.  Someone close will not willingly give you bad or hasty advice.

The best place to get advice
The best place to get advice would be from someone who knows you perfectly.  They love you unconditionally, they know just how much hurt you can handle when they give advice you won’t like, and they will always give the absolute best advice for any situation.  The perfect advice comes from the perfect advice giver and is only limited by your ability to take their advice properly.

So where does this perfect advice come from?  If you know me, you will be aware that I only know of one perfect source of anything.  That perfect source of advice is God.  He has given us His Word (The Bible) as a source of perfect advice, dealing with every aspect of life.  All you have to do is look and listen with an open mind and an open heart.

God, in the bible, deals with topics such as:
Death, romance, love, relationships with family, law, justice, food, drink, alcohol, marriage, sex, parenting, what happens when you die, work, money, and much much more.

Unfortunately, people who are not good at taking advice will often read some instruction that God has given and then put their own spin on it, often totally countering the intention of the word.  That’s why there are so many ministries out there that place an unhealthy spin on giving to the church.  That’s also why there are groups that claim that you have to be a member of their church to be a true Christian.  

When dealing with advice from God, we have to take the time to really try and understand what He meant by what He said.  It is worth sitting and turning a verse of the bible over in your mind, reading and re-reading it, to work out just what it is trying to get across.  Sometimes the process is instant, but other times it may take years for the full meaning to work itself out in your mind.  That is the nature of good and perfect advice.  It comes to you at just the right time, when you need it the best.  Not necessarily when you think you need it the most.

To finish, I would like to ask you a couple of questions:
Can you trust the people closest to you, enough to take advice from them?  Do you trust that a perfect being (God) can give you the perfect advice, even if it doesn’t seem perfect to you?  I encourage you to have a browse through the bible and see what advice you can find to help whatever your situation is at the moment.  Perhaps you could even type in the topic you want advice on here at biblegateway.com

May all of the best advice come your way, and may you take it with wisdom and trust in the perfect advice giver!