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Archive for the ‘Me & The World’ Category

THE TERRIBLE GIFT

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 11, 2015| 18 Comments »

Terribleness Of The CrossMy first reaction when I read this graphic on an Internet atheism community?

Yes, it is TERRIBLE that Jesus of Nazareth (whom many people believe is God’s divine son) had to die on the cross for me and everyone else who believes in Him.

In fact, I’ll go further: absolutely HORRIBLE. Totally AWFUL. Overwhelmingly WRETCHED.

And for us humans, any parent that would send their child to be killed IS a terrible person.

But if you have any belief in a Creator, I think you’ll also agree that there’s a *universe* of difference between us insecure, greedy, self-centred, violent, lying human beings and the Maker of time, space and the cosmos.

Consider this:

Our Creator hates the wrong things we’ve done and the right things we’ve failed to do. Yes, *hates* it. And when this life ends, every one of us will be called on to account for our moral crimes.

I guarantee you, without a shadow of a doubt, that you will NOT be able to explain everything away. You will not have reasonable, viable excuses. It simply isn’t possible.

The thing is, God knows this. And because our Creator is just and loving,  He sought a solution that wouldn’t force Him to deny every person passage into Heaven (i.e., spending eternity in His presence).

The solution is hard, but Jesus accepted it. He paid the penalty for the wrong things I’ve done and the right things I’ve failed to do. And He paid the penalty for every other person who believes in Him and follows Him.

Now, when my life is finished and I appear before God, He won’t see my sins. All He will see is the perfection of His Son.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not suggesting that we can all do whatever we want, declare we accept Jesus’s sacrifice and now follow Him, and simply get off penalty-free. Our Creator has no trouble seeing through this kind of cynical arrogance.

In fact, one of Jesus’s earliest and most influential followers addresses this point: “So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we’ve left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there?”

If you’ve truly, honestly and seriously accepted the gift of Jesus, then your life will begin to change. You’ll want to be worthy of that gift; you’ll want to live your life so that you become an ambassador for Jesus.

You can be that ambassador because you don’t have to do it alone. In a mysterious way, Jesus comes to live in your heart and soul. Furthermore, you’ll want to surround yourself with other Jesus followers who will pray for you, encourage you and keep you accountable.

Interested? Yes or no, post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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YOUR PIVOTAL MOMENT

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 27, 2015| 8 Comments »

Jennifer Fulwiler atheism ChristianityFor life-long atheist Jennifer Fulwiler, the pivotal moment came when she held her first child for the first time.

“I looked down and thought ‘what is this baby’?” she recalled in a YouTube video. “From a pure atheist, materialist perspective, he is a collection of randomly evolved chemical reactions.

“I realized if that’s true, then all the love I feel for him is nothing more than chemical reactions in my brain. I looked down at him and I realized, ‘that’s not true’. It’s not the truth.”

Jennifer went on to research the world’s major faiths, but considered Christianity not worth the bother. Then her husband suggested she investigate Christianity because one of its most significant claims — that Jesus of Nazareth is God in the flesh — would be easy to disprove if it wasn’t true.

So she did. Jennifer discovered a world of deeply intellectual thinkers (like Thomas Aquinas and Augustine of Hippo) who were also serious Jesus followers.

Men like them made such a compelling, reason-based case for the life, death and resurrection of Christ that, in Jennifer’s words, “I started to think something world-changing happened in first-century Palestine.”

Jennifer realized that atheists “don’t have the lock on reason that I thought. Christians had all the knowledge of science, but they have the total picture of the human experience — love and triumph and hope. Christians could articulate that in a way that atheists couldn’t.”

The result of all this is Jennifer went from denying there is a creator, to becoming a serious follower of the man who many people believe is the Son of God.

Why do all this? Let me make it clear that following Jesus can be hard, especially when most of the world (sometimes including your family and friends) doesn’t follow Him and you can be mocked or even disowned for your beliefs.

As far as I’m concerned, the upside more than compensates. When I decided to follow Jesus, little things immediately changed (I stopped cursing and swearing) and bigger things followed (my wife and I have a firm commitment to donate regularly to charities and to our church).

In other words, like me, you’ll get a new perspective on life. The holy grails of our culture — gaining power and prestige, buying a bigger house, going on expensive cruises, having the latest iPhone — will start to look shallow and pointless.

You’ll start living for the approval of your creator, who the Bible says “loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in his Son would not be lost, but have eternal life.”

And as you start living for God and start attending a church regularly, you’ll be surrounded by others who are also in the midst of being transformed by following Jesus.

Finally, when this life is over, you’ll have real and solid hope that you won’t become nothing more than rancid worm food. You’ll become a citizen of Heaven.

Interested? Yes or no, post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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THE TRUTH OF MOTIVATION

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 20, 2015| 17 Comments »

TruthOfMotivation 6.15What’s your motivation to do good? I wondered about that after encountering this meme.

Is it true that people who follow Jesus of Nazareth — who many people consider to be God’s Son — do good only because of fear and a desire of eternal reward in Heaven?

Here’s the answer: Almost all Jesus followers are motivated by faith and trust in Jesus. In the primary source documents about His life on earth, Jesus told His followers stuff like this:

  • Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God.
  • Whenever you saw a brother or sister hungry or cold, whatever you did to the least of these, so you did to Me.
  • Be generous. Give to the poor.

It’s statements like these, and many more, that inspire millions of Jesus followers to fuel the work of organizations like Samaritan’s Purse, Compassion Canada, World Vision, Food For The Hungry, International Justice Mission, World Relief Canada and many more.

Most Jesus followers keep in mind this key statement, found in one of the primary source documents about Jesus: This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in Jesus, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.

Since God loves the world (and that means EVERYONE in it), then those who follow God’s Son should have the same attitude.

Is it true that atheists only do “the right thing” because “it’s the human thing to do”? Well, let’s look at the truth: figuring out what is right is very often like staring into a mud puddle. What’s right for one person (atheist or otherwise) is often quite wrong for another. Just a few bloodcurdling examples:

  • In Nazi Germany, the right thing to do was imprison, torture and exterminate millions of Jews, gypsies, Slavic people, homosexuals, Jesus followers and many other groups.
  • In 1994 Rwanda, the right thing to do, for thousands of Hutu people, was slaughter members of the Tutsi tribe. As many as a million died before the massacre ended.
  • During the 1970s in Cambodia, the right thing to do, for many thousands of members of the Pol Pot regime, was execute, starve and torture more than a million people.

When I consider all this, it makes sense to decide what is good or right by following the one person who always had (and has) it figured out: Jesus of Nazareth.

By following in Jesus and trusting in what He accomplished through His life, death and resurrection, you’ll find yourself doing good things. Why? Because when you believe in Jesus, your life will be, in a word, transformed. Now and for all eternity.

Interested? Post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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‘COMPLETE TRUST OR CONFIDENCE’

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 13, 2015| 2 Comments »

faithIf I’ve learned anything during my years of writing about faith, it’s that there are folks out there who absolutely DETEST that word.

Most of those people would vigorously agree with the graphic that inspired this essay, which I found on an Internet atheism community.

Maybe you’ve never given the word much thought, but now that you’ve read the graphic, you’re thinking “ya, it’s all about ignorance!”.

So let’s look at the word for a moment. The Pocket Oxford Dictionary defines faith as: 1. complete trust or confidence; 2. firm, especially religious, belief; 3. religion or creed; 4. loyalty, trustworthiness.

First off, I want nothing to do with “religion” and this blog explains why: http://wp.me/p2wzRb-eu.

Secondly, would anyone in their right mind credibly call someone like Henry Schaefer ignorant? Schaefer, a chemist, earned the 1979 American Chemical Society Award in pure chemistry. He also wrote Science and Christianity: Conflict or Coherence?

Here’s another person that no thinking person could ever label ignorant: Ard Louis teaches theoretical physics at Oxford, one of the world’s most prestigious universities. Before that, he managed to get rid of just enough ignorance to teach theoretical chemistry at Cambridge University.

What do Schaefer and Louis have in common? They follow Jesus of Nazareth, who many people believe is the Son of God. And there are many, many more Jesus followers who are making contributions in chemistry, physics, engineering and biomedical sciences.

Schaefer and Louis have what the Pocket Oxford calls “complete trust or confidence” in Jesus — His teachings, His death, His resurrection and the truth of what He said about His creator (who also happens to be your creator).

So what isn’t faith? A pastor at my church, Henry Shore, laid it out:

  • Faith is not a positive mental attitude.
  • Faith is not a belief in a force or in a formula
  • Faith is not psyching yourself up with wishful thinking
  • Faith is not believing I can accomplish anything if I put my mind to it.
  • Faith is not believing if I believe hard enough, like some TV preachers would have us believe, then it’ll become a reality.
  • Faith is not faith in our words, it is not faith in ourselves, it is not faith in faith.
  • True faith is in God. The focus isn’t on the faith; but on the object of our faith.

From a Jesus perspective, faith is having firm belief — based on a mix of evidence and belief — that there is a creator for all that you and I see and experience. And that creator offers you and me a gift: Jesus.

Look into that gift. Talk to knowledgeable Jesus followers about Him. Despite what your friends and family may tell you, this is important and serious stuff. And it’s good news.

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DEALING WITH HUMAN WEAKNESS

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 6, 2015| 1 Comment »

Albert Einstein God quoteDid Albert Einstein believe in God?

A quick Internet search reveals this question has been debated for many decades, even before the famed physicist (1879-1955) and secular Jew died.

According to Wikipedia, Einstein used many labels to describe his “religious” views, including agnostic (one who simply doesn’t know if there’s a God) and religious nonbeliever (which appears to be pursuing inner spirituality without any connection to a creator).

Whichever term you prefer, I get the feeling Einstein lived most, if not all, of his life as if there was no God. In other words, he likely had more in common with atheists than with people of faith.

All that said, what about the quote in the graphic that inspired this essay? In some ways, he and I are in absolute agreement.

I am weak. Just like every other person on this planet. Fear, mistrust and self-doubt are part of my makeup. Just as they are part of yours.

So rather than God being a product of my human weakness, God is the solution — but not the sort of distant, disinterested creator that Einstein may or may not have believed in. (Wikipedia’s Einstein entry indicates he once wrote, “I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this.”)

A creator who simply winds up the universe like a clock, then walks away and lets it run with no concern or involvement is not a creator I would bother with. Would you?

But a creator that inspired and energized the entire life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (whom serious Christians believe is God’s son)? Ah, that’s a God who’s making a difference in this broken world.

According to the Bible (which a majority of Christians take very seriously), that God offers this world a gift: Jesus, his life, teachings, sacrificial death and resurrection.

In ‘John’, one of four Bible accounts of Jesus life, a creator who cares about this world and everyone in it, “didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He [Jesus] came to help, to put the world right again.”

Because all of us are weak, because all of us do wrong and fail to do right, I call that good news. And by accepting the gift of Jesus, we accept a perfect, eternal source of energy, confidence and love to help us overcome our weaknesses.

In addition, we have the encouragement (and often, the example) of other Jesus followers. When I join them in church, in prayer/discussion groups, in trips to help people in the developing world, I benefit from (and help contribute to) a synergy: the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

Do you want to get in on this? Yes or no, type your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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CHURCH AND BEING HUMAN

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , on May 23, 2015| 16 Comments »

atheism humanityWhen I read this graphic on an Internet atheism community, I started searching my mind.

When was the last time anyone — even my wife — “demanded” I get up early every Sunday and go to church? I’m still searching and still haven’t found a single instance.

In my faith, Sunday church services are important because they bring together followers of Jesus of Nazareth (who many people believe is the Son of God) to:

  • strengthen each other;
  • learn together how to be better Jesus followers, and;
  • pray together and for each other and for a world that I think we can all admit isn’t doing very well.

So has it ever happened where one Jesus follower has demanded or “guilted” another into attending church services? I’m sure it has, but I’ll venture to write that those occasions are truly regrettable. No one should ever be forced to attend “religious” events. It should *always* be voluntary.

What about “overdressing”? Um, welcome to 1955; they want their suits, fedoras, dresses and white gloves back.

In a vast majority of North American churches, what you wear is pretty much irrelevant. The church I attend includes teens in jeans and T-shirts, seniors in suits and dresses, middle-aged men in cowboy boots and even recent African immigrants who love wearing their colourful ceremonial outfits. For many years, I haven’t gone to church wearing anything fancier than jeans and a golf shirt.

Are there churches where your clothing matters? Yes. But a majority of those churches are in decline; God doesn’t care what you wear to church, since He knows you inside and out and isn’t fooled by fancy and expensive outfits.

Apologize for being human? I suppose some people might think that’s what happens. But what really happens, in most churches, is people apologize for the wrong things they’ve done and the right things they’ve failed to do.

Let’s be plain here: in all the original source documents of His life, Jesus of Nazareth never once asked a single person to “apologize” for being human. And He still doesn’t today.

Bruxy Cavey, a Canadian pastor, tweeted this about our humanity: “I’m only human.” There is nothing “only” about being human.

Why did Bruxy tweet that? Because God made you and I and everyone else human. God made His Son human. So to “apologize” for that or feel bad about that is to insult our creator.

Finally, “nobody really knows where all this came from”? Well, where (and who) else would it come from but God?

In the end, while I very much appreciate the work done by dudes in lab coats (their work often tells me how God does stuff) I’d rather trust my creator. Because I love Him and follow His Son, I have a better life NOW. And I have ETERNAL life with Christ. Not even the most celebrated scientist can offer me that.

What are your thoughts? Post them below and let’s have a conversation.

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EMBRACING FREEDOM

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on May 16, 2015| 10 Comments »

Embracing FreedomSometimes, I’m amazed at all the things atheists and Jesus followers have in common. That was my reaction when I saw this graphic posted in an Atheist internet community.

I consider following Jesus of Nazareth (who many people believe is the son of God) to be freedom.

Freedom to wonder. I can wonder how God does stuff like creating planets, creating babies and creating the mysterious relationship between my free will and His will. I can wonder how Jesus was God AND human at the same time (this is a core belief for serious Jesus followers). I can wonder how He can (and does) love people who are simply beyond my pathetic ability to even tolerate.

Freedom to explore. I can explore science, just like atheists and just like Christian scientists such as Francis S. Collins (who helped map the human genome). I can explore different faiths and understand how they’re different from following Jesus. I can explore who and what God is, even as I know I’ll never get all the answers (and that’s OK).

Freedom to doubt. I can read parts of the Bible where people who feel abandoned by God cry out to Him. In one section, called Psalms, the writer states “Has our Lord rejected us forever? Will he never again speak to us? Has God forgotten what mercy is?” I can feel amazement that this is in the Bible — amazement and relief, because it means I’m NOT condemned if (well, when is more accurate) I ask the same questions.

Freedom to be me. A key part of following Jesus is that human beings are not only accepted, they are LOVED by God for exactly who they are. Right now. With all our faults, jealousies, doubts, fears, misplaced anger, pettiness, greed, self-centredness and ludicrous sense of entitlement.

How do I know this? Because one of the four original source documents of Jesus’ life says “God loved the world so much [and that includes you and me, with all our quirks and faults] that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him would not be lost but have eternal life.”

No one has “damned you into sin from birth”. It simply happened, whether you and I like it or not. We enter this world thinking only of ourselves; everything revolves around us. And to a certain extent, we carry at least some of that thinking right through to adulthood and old age.

Everything DOESN’T revolve around us. You and I are NOT God. And to the extent that we (encouraged by our culture) believe that we are, that is sin. Like it or not.

So I say, embrace reason. Embrace the God who wants to embrace YOU. Accept the gift He offers you — the Son who:

  • brought extraordinary ideas to the world (like loving your enemies);
  • died to make up for the wrong things you and I have done and the right things we’ve failed to do, and;
  • came back to life to prove He’s God and the Bible’s predictions about Him are true.

What do you think? Post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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WHO’S LOOKING FORWARD TO DYING?

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 2, 2015| 5 Comments »

Christianity death cultI think I need to do a search. I need to find all these Christians who are looking forward to dying. According to this graphic, the earth is apparently overwhelmed with suicidal followers of Jesus of Nazareth.

OK, so maybe I’m just having a little fun. But I have to wonder why anyone in the atheist community (which is where I found this graphic) could so thoroughly believe such a notion that they would create a graphic to tell the world.

While I’m sure there are some Jesus followers out there who want to die (perhaps a few on their death beds, for example), I’ve yet to meet even one of them.

In the meantime, what about “wasting their lives”? The Jesus followers who are still in the Nepal helping victims of the devastating 2015 earthquake are certainly doing something that most people would call productive.

Same for the Jesus followers who join Samaritan’s Purse around the world helping survivors of earthquakes, wildfires, volcanoes, tornadoes, floods, tsunamis and cyclones. Wasting their lives looking forward to death? Really?

Should I wonder about the Jesus followers who put their lives on the line (again with Samaritan’s Purse) fighting the deadly Ebola Virus in Liberia in 2014? Was that just a death wish?

Now, about the central figure of Christianity: was He a human sacrifice? In some respects, yes.

Most Jesus followers believe the original source documents that state God put His love on the line for us through Jesus (who many people believe is God’s Son).

A letter from one of Jesus’s first followers explains it like this: “Christ himself suffered when he died for you, and with that one death he paid for your sins. He was not guilty, but he died for people who are guilty. He did this to bring all of you to God.”

Nothing you or I can do will make up for the wrong things we’ve done and the right things we’ve failed to do. Nothing. Indeed, all of us go wrong every day, in ways we don’t see because we live in a world that suggests “if it feels good, do it” and “it’s only wrong if you get caught”.

The only difference between you and me is I’ve figured this out. I know I can’t come close to God’s standard of perfection. But because I follow Jesus, I don’t have to. Jesus did the heavy lifting for me.

Oh, one more thing. After doing that heavy lifting, He came back to life. Paul, an ancient missionary who spent much of his life telling people about Jesus, wrote a letter that says “But Christ really has been raised from death”.

In fact, that’s such a central part of following Jesus that in the same letter, Paul wrote “if Christ has not been raised from death, then your faith is for nothing; you are still guilty of your sins.”

Paul spent most of his life telling people this. And God worked through him to start churches and spread Christianity throughout the Mediterranean.

So much for a death cult, eh?

Does this make you rethink what you thought you knew about following Jesus? Yes or no, post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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THE MIX OF FAITH AND EVIDENCE

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on April 25, 2015| 14 Comments »

Faith and evidenceSo, who insisted that Christianity is built entirely on faith? That’s never been my viewpoint and I’m struggling to think of even one Christian who makes this notion their line in the sand.

And yet, someone in an atheist Internet community posted this graphic and figured it would cause lots of people to nod in agreement.

But making a statement in a graphic doesn’t make it true. It would be like me insisting all atheists are militant, arrogant and patronizing. Equally false.

Before I get going here, let me make it clear that faith is definitely a key part of following Jesus of Nazareth (who many people believe is the Son of God). In fact, one of Jesus’s ancient followers spells it out: “Whoever comes to God must believe that He is real and that He rewards those who sincerely try to find Him.”

But nowhere does any of the ancient source documents about Jesus claim that evidence is irrelevant. Indeed, evidence is mentioned at key points.

Consider the resurrection of Jesus, which is one of the most important parts of Christianity. In a letter from a missionary named Paul (who spent much of his life telling people about Jesus), he wrote that after rising from the dead, “Christ appeared to more than 500 other believers at the same time. Most of them are still living today, but some have died.”

That certainly reads like evidence to me, especially as the underlying message is ‘if you don’t believe me about the resurrection, then go ahead and investigate for yourself’. If following Jesus is built entirely on faith, why would any of his ancient followers make this statement?

Here’s another example, from one of the people Jesus personally trained to follow after Him: “We didn’t repeat crafty myths when we told you about the powerful coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Quite the contrary, we witnessed his majesty with our own eyes.” Again, more evidence.

The website FaithFacts.org has this take on the faith vs. evidence debate:
Blind faith is faith without evidence, which would be superstition. The Bible does not call us to blind faith. The Bible calls us to faith in evidence. We submit that various truth claims, including Christianity, should be evaluated on the evidence.

I can tell you, without any hesitation, that if I was called to follow Jesus based solely on faith, I probably wouldn’t be a follower today. I was presented with evidence, then asked to make a leap of faith based on that evidence and based on the logic of following Jesus. I made that leap and have never regretted it.

So, where do you stand? Does a mix of faith and evidence make sense to you when considering Jesus? If it does, have you done any research? You may have friends or family members who discourage checking out the claims of Jesus, but this is important stuff.

Do the work. And if you still have questions, check out the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry (http://carm.org/). Or email me at fdking@hotmail.com. I’ll do my imperfect best to help.

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THE GIFT OF UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 18, 2015| 28 Comments »

Bill Maher atheismFirst of all, “religion” certainly is dangerous, and for more reasons than Bill Maher lists in this meme. Like Maher (a well-known TV host/political commentator/atheist), I want nothing to do with “religion” and I explain why here: http://wp.me/p2wzRb-cP.

Now, what about “faith” (an entirely different thing) being dangerous? Are there people out there who believe their faith affiliation supplies all the answers to every question? Sadly, yes.

In my faith, saying Jesus of Nazareth — who many people believe is the Son of God — is the answer to everything is superficial and, in my opinion, shows a disturbing lack of thought.

(Then again, we live in a culture that discourages thoughtful living, so this shouldn’t be a surprise.)

I have all kinds of questions that following Jesus doesn’t answer:

  • Is there life on other planets?
  • If there is life on other planets, do they know about God?
  • Why is our world set up so people and animals kill and eat each other to survive?
  • When is Jesus going to return (as primary source Jesus biographies say He will)?
  • Why is spirituality so repugnant to some people and so welcome to others?
  • And finally, how did hip-hop ever become popular? 😉

What’s truly fascinating is that Jesus Himself didn’t know the answers to all the questions. Before He was crucified on a Roman cross, one of his followers asked when He would return. Jesus replied “No one knows when that day or time will be. The Son and the angels in heaven don’t know when it will be. Only the Father knows.”

Does this bother some Jesus followers? Probably. But it doesn’t bother me; serious Jesus followers like me believe He is God AND man and when He was physically on earth, Jesus set his Godhood aside. Thus the lack of knowledge about His return.

But what about my questions? There was a time when some of them, especially the third question, disturbed me greatly. I’m not nearly so disturbed today, but these unanswered questions are still important.

Our culture tends to suggest we can be God, with all the wisdom, all the technology and all the resources to command our lives and destinies. But my questions (which I don’t believe science can ever answer) are important and necessary because they remind me that God is God. And I am NOT.

So what about you; do your unanswered questions keep you from seriously investigating what it means to follow Jesus and be transformed by His love, His life, His death and His resurrection? Post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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