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Posts Tagged ‘Bible’

THE BIBLE’S ‘FAILURES’

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 17, 2015| 8 Comments »

Bible diversity intelligent happy tolerantAccording to this meme, found on an atheist website, I’m probably not “saved”.

Here I am, a follower of Jesus of Nazareth (who many people believe is the son of God) and yet:

  • I’m reasonably happy, however one would define that word and apply to our culture.
  • I’m intelligent enough to have graduated high school and earned a college journalism diploma & a university management development certificate.
  • I have yet to write a single word on this website, or during my 26 years in journalism, condemning diversity.
  • Mentally stable? There have been times when I was taking a mild anti-depressant, just like millions and millions of other people (it’s safe to write that some of them are atheists).

I guess following Jesus has failed to save other people like me, too. Churches all over the world are attended by black men and women, Asian men and women, African men and women, native North American men and women. And some of those people are gay and/or divorced and/or alcoholics and/or convicted criminals and/or mentally challenged.

Intelligence? Ooooo, lots of failures there, too. Among them are university professor and committed Catholic Brian Kobilka, an American Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry. There’s also Christian paleontologist Mary Higby Schweitzer and 2007 Nobel Prize Winner (for chemistry) Gerhard Ertl.

That’s just the beginning; Wikipedia lists more than 60 Jesus followers active in biomedical sciences, physics & astronomy, chemistry and engineering. Gee, I’d call that an EPIC failure on the part of Jesus. (Chances are, most of these folks are mentally stable, too.)

Beyond all this sarcasm, I hope it’s obvious to you that deciding to follow Jesus — His life and teachings, His sacrificial death (to make up for all the wrong things his followers have done and all the right things we’ve failed to do) and His resurrection — often helps people become happy, intelligent, tolerant of diversity and mentally stable.

Following Jesus helps us understand that God loves us, and everyone else on this planet, equally and beyond measure. That love comes not from what we’ve done or not done. It comes because that’s who God is.

Serious Jesus followers also understand that just as we have been forgiven much, we should turn around and forgive much in others.

There’s more: serious Jesus followers appreciate science because it helps us understand how God does stuff. Serious Jesus followers believe something that famed evangelist Billy Graham said: “It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to convict (people of their moral crimes), God’s job to judge and my job to love”.

Do we fall short of this? Absolutely. But most serious Jesus followers have it in our sights and strive after it daily. And doing that makes us better people.

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

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A GOD IN THE MIDST OF EVIL

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 10, 2015| 7 Comments »

God Auschwitz evilTake your pick: the Auschwitz concentration camp, 9-11 terrorist attacks, massacres in Las Vegas (2017), Connecticut (2012) and Norway (2011), barbaric ISIS warmongers.

These, and many other horrific examples of human evil, can serve as evidence of why there is no God. I certainly understand how people can adopt this viewpoint.

But I also understand that this is the path of least resistance; the conclusion any of us could jump to in the heat of anger and despair.

So I’m going to advance a very different proposition: there are Nazi death camps, vicious terrorists and rampaging “lone wolf” killers, so there MUST be a God.

How can that make sense? Let me explain:

1. The beautiful and terrible gift of freewill. We’ve been given it. And we spit on it. Every day. That absolutely includes ME, when I act as if there is no God and put myself in charge of me.

When you and I claim we know what’s best for ourselves, we open the door to greed, unbridled lust, petty self-centredness, intolerance and so much more. Like it or not, this path can lead all the way to unspeakable evil.

2. Who gave us that gift of freewill? Who else but God, the creator of this universe and the air you are breathing right now? Does that mean He’s responsible for when we do wrong and fail to do right? Not even a little bit. God doesn’t want goose-stepping robots; he wants people with freedom. No matter how painful this freedom has often been.

3. Who can we turn to when despicable evil happens? Two choices: God, who gave you air to breathe and free will to believe in Him; or turn away and rely on yourself.

Serious followers of Jesus of Nazareth (who many people believe is the perfect Son of God) believe this statement in one of the original-source biographies of His physical life on Earth: “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 him [Jesus], anyone can have a whole and lasting life.”

The news gets better. This same biography goes on to say: “God 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 came to help, to put the world right again.”

Notice how we haven’t been simply abandoned to free will and all its potential consequences?

In the midst of Auschwitz, Jesus was there, offering people hope of eternity in Heaven with Him, long after the suffering ended. And with that knowledge came His strength and a willingness for suffering people to forgive their Nazi torturers and escape the prison of rage and revenge.

In camps where refugees are still living with practically nothing, just so they could escape terrorists, Jesus is there, offering them more than blankets and food. Offering them His love and eternity with Him when this short life is done.

In the aftermath of massacres, Jesus is there, offering a community of believers who are, in their midst of their own imperfections, ready to provide physical and spiritual help. To be the hands of feet of their Lord and Saviour.

Getting in on all this is simple. Accept the gift of Jesus, whose sacrificial death makes up for all your moral crimes. Make Him your Lord and friend. Then watch as changes start to happen. Good changes. Changes that will take you into eternity.

Does this sound attractive? Yes or no, post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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WHAT DOES GOD WANT?

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 3, 2015| 9 Comments »

WhatGodWantsAfter reading this graphic, posted in an atheist internet community, I started thinking about the hundreds and hundreds of church services I’ve attended in my years on this planet.

I tried to find recall one occasion where a pastor or church leader “demanded” money from me or anyone else. Just one.

I’m still looking.

Am I saying it’s never happened? Not at all. I’m sure there are despicable hucksters out there, using “religion” (a nasty term that I would never use to describe a person of real, serious faith) to guilt people into financing their cadillacs and acreage estates. Indeed, turn on the TV any Sunday and you can watch some of them in action.

But let’s be realistic: these shameless fraud artists exist everywhere in this broken world. And it’s safe to write that some of them are atheists.

There’s another point being made in this graphic that can’t go unaddressed: the notion that somehow, tossing cash at a “religious” leader will somehow dispose of the “threat of eternal damnation”.

This makes sense only if you believe God is a greedy, small-minded, narcissistic hypocrite. And if that’s the case, why are you reading this essay?

Followers of Jesus of Nazareth — whom many people believe is the son of God — know that God doesn’t need us for anything. He WANTS us. And He wants us to:

  • Have wisdom. James, one of Jesus’s brothers, wrote “Do any of you need wisdom? Ask God for it. He is generous and enjoys giving to everyone. So he will give you wisdom.”
  • Live right. Another ancient writer puts it this way: “This is what He wants from you: Be fair to other people. Love kindness and loyalty, and humbly obey your God.”
  • Help those in need. An early Jesus follower wrote, “If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.”
  • Come clean on all the wrong things we’ve done and all the right things we’ve failed to do. An ancient collection short sayings says “Whoever hides their sins will not be successful, but whoever confesses their sins and stops doing wrong will receive mercy.”
  • Prosper. An ancient prophet noted, “I [God] have good plans for you. I don’t plan to hurt you. I plan to give you hope and a good future.”
  • Have a relationship with him. There are many, many ancient writers who addressed this. Here are just a few:
    “Come near to God and he will come near to you.”
    “God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him would not be lost but have eternal life.”

That last statement makes it clear how to have a relationship with God. Believe in His Son, follow His Son, trust in what His Son did for YOU (dying on a cross to make up for all the wrong things you’ve done and all the right things you’ve failed to do). Do that, and all the other things that God wants will start to come easier. And you don’t have to give anyone a single dollar.

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

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TO BE UTTERLY TRANSFORMED

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 29, 2014| 10 Comments »

repentedIs this offensive to you? The entire notion was certainly offensive to the person who posted the graphic on an atheist Internet community.

And I get it. We grow up learning concepts like “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth”. As kids we often hotly tell our parents “that’s not fair!!”. And as parents, we endlessly, sometimes obsessively, strive to treat our children with fairness.

So when people hear about others who seem to get away with murder, they rightfully scream and holler in protest. Like I said, I get that.

But consider the approach of Jesus of Nazareth, who many people believe is the Son of God. In one of the four original-source accounts of His life on earth, He says this to anyone willing to listen:

You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you, don’t fight back against someone who wants to do harm to you. If they hit you on the right cheek, let them hit the other cheek, too.

This is radical. This is upside down to how our culture thinks. In fact, for some people (such as the person who posted the graphic above), this is downright ludicrous.

Is it really?

If you believe there is a Heaven, don’t you want it to be far, FAR better than this world? Don’t you want it to be free of anger, resentment, jealousy, rage, greed, violence and ignorance?

If you do, then what about forgiveness? Don’t you want Heaven to be saturated — heck, OVERFLOWING — with forgiveness?

If you’re still with me, then a Heaven that is free of our human weaknesses and welcoming to all will absolutely include killers and their victims. In both cases, these people will have repented of their sins (however big or small we might consider them to be) and been utterly, utterly transformed through faith in what Jesus did for them.

What did He do? For those who have sincerely accepted the gift of Jesus, He allowed Himself to be sacrificed on a cross to make up for all (and I mean ALL) the bad things we’ve done and the good things we’ve failed to do.

For those who seriously accepted the gift of Jesus, God looks at us and DOESN’T see murder or greed or theft or fraud or lying or betrayal or self-centredness. He sees only the perfection of His Son.

So when the murder victims depicted in the graphic above get to Heaven and are directed to the person who shot them, they will ABSOLUTELY go over and do more than say “Hi”. They’ll hug that person with overflowing love.

And that person, utterly transformed by following Jesus, will absolutely hug those people right back. It will be a time of joy, of tears, of praise for their creator who wiped away every moment of fear, anguish, pain and sadness and replaced them with praise and gratefulness.

That’s a place I want to go. That’s a place I want YOU to go, so we can hug, high-five each other and spend eternity with our creator. Are you in? Yes or no, post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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FACING THE HARD QUESTIONS

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 22, 2014| 8 Comments »

mysteriousHave you ever encountered people of faith who think this way? Sadly, I have. I wouldn’t be surprised if they turned you off of considering a life of faith.

The frustrating thing is, many people of faith have not bothered to ask honest questions. Instead, if there are things they don’t understand, those things are just buried deep inside of them. And in turn, they want others to bury their questions, too.

And yet, the history is rife with people of faith asking God hard questions. Here are just a few from ancient writers:

  • My God, why did you dump me miles from nowhere?
  • Sometimes I ask God, ‘why did you let me down?’
  • I counted on you, God. Why did you walk out on me?

Probably the most amazing and poignant hard question for God came from the lips of Jesus of Nazareth, who many people believe is God’s son. When Jesus’s enemies succeeded in having Him put to death on trumped-up charges, one of His last statements (as He hung on a Roman cross) was this anguished cry: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”

Call me crazy, but I think if Jesus can ask a question like that, then so can His followers — or any other person, for that matter.

I showed the meme that inspired this essay to a pastor friend. Here is Ross Carkner’s thoughtful response:

God is not afraid of our hard questions, but I can’t say that we feel the same way about His answers. I believe we are very afraid of His answers.

The mystery is not so much that God cannot be understood, but why we expect who He is to fit within our own understanding. When we have hard questions, we seem to expect easy and simplified answers.

Part of the deep mystery of God is that His ways are not our ways. If we want to know God, we need courage to set our own understanding aside and trade what has previously been a mystery, for faith in Him.

Since I became a Jesus follower in my 40s, I’ve had hard questions. And they’ve never gone away. But I know enough about God — about what He’s done for me and everyone else willing to accept the gift of His Son — to set those questions aside.

Ross was a big help in this. A few years ago, he had the wisdom to tell me that when I’m through with this life, all those hard questions simply won’t matter. They’ll be utterly irrelevant in the light of eternity in the presence of Jesus.

Do you have hard questions? Are they the reason — or the convenient excuse — you have not truly checked out what a life of faith in Jesus is all about? Yes or no, post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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WILL TOMORROW BE LIKE TODAY?

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 15, 2014| 4 Comments »

HSBCWhenever I fly, I always enjoy seeing the unusual HSBC (Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) advertisements posted along the walls of the walkway into the plane.

This one struck a nerve. Why? On one hand, the statement is, in the broadest sense, true. Just think about all the changes that have happened in the last 30 years: iPods, internet commerce and media, iPads, “apps” on a “smartphone”, rear view cameras on vehicles, flat-screen TVs, Twitter and Facebook.

Together, these changes have created entirely new business models and changed the way many of us live. I can’t imagine what will happen in the next 30 years, but there are already entire teams of smarter people than me working on technologies and inventions that could make tomorrow “nothing like today”.

On the other hand, I feel quite safe in writing that in even more important ways, tomorrow will be exactly the same as today.

  • Human beings will still want and need love and sometimes do horrible things to get it
  • We will still be insecure and behave quite sadly to get others approval
  • People will still judge others on many ridiculous “criteria”, often without even knowing it.
  • Greed will still haunt us
  • We will still look to other people to bring us happiness and fulfillment — and still be let down many, many times.
  • Our egos will continue to rule over us, often convincing us to do and say ridiculous things.
  • Most human beings will still to be their own worst critics, driving us into depression and stunting our emotional growth.

All the technological, medical, scientific and psychiatric breakthroughs that humanity can ever hope to achieve will not alter those bullet points.

So what will? Let me be quite controversial and absolutely radical when I suggest this: a living, breathing relationship with your creator.

If you’re still with me, consider this: Loving God and having a daily connection to Him through Jesus of Nazareth (who many people believe is God’s son) has the potential to take all these bullet points off the table.

With God, you don’t have to do horrible things to be loved. You already are loved, beyond all measure. And the evidence is this: God offers Jesus  as a gift to you and every other person on this planet. No exceptions. All you have to do is accept the gift.

With God, you don’t have to feel better by judging others or looking to others for happiness. God has already done the judging. And every one of us has fallen short. That means the intrinsic value of a terrorist is exactly the same as that of a Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Furthermore, He spoke these words through an ancient prophet: “I am the Lord, and I don’t change.” That means the things I’ve just written about don’t change. God’s love is the same  yesterday, today and tomorrow. The gift of Jesus is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. And our falling short of God’s standard is the same for everyone, yesterday, today and tomorrow.

But when you accept the gift of Jesus, declare Him (in complete, sincere seriousness) to be your Saviour, leader and best friend, all the judgement disappears. God sees you as he sees His Son: Perfect in every way and ready to spend eternity in Heaven.

Does this sound attractive? Post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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WHEN LOVE LEADS TO LOVE

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 20, 2014| 3 Comments »

WhenLoveLeadsToLoveHmmm…before my wanderings into atheist internet communities, I’d never heard the notion that loving God means I have less love to give others.

Maybe that’s true for some unfortunate people, who are into “religion” and believe they should sit in judgement of others. But for most of the God-loving people I know, the reality goes something like this:

  • I love God, so I need to be more loving to homosexual people. That means speaking up whenever they are mocked, denigrated or unjustly criticized.
  • I love God, so I need to be more loving to homeless people.
  • I love God, so I need to be more loving to people who’ve been through the pain of abortion. (Ever met anyone who liked having an abortion? Me neither.)
  • I love God, so I need to be more loving to people who don’t care about the environment. (It’s God’s world, not mine, so I need to care about what we humans do to His planet.)
  • I love God, so I need to be more loving to people who are arrogant and pretentious.
  • I love God, so I need to be more loving toward people whose political views are diametrically opposite to mine. That means respecting and defending the values of democracy.
  • I love God, so I need to be more loving to Jewish people, Muslim people, Buddhist people and Hindu people. That means defending their right to worship without fear.
  • I love God, so I need to be more loving to atheist people. That means protecting their right to be atheists.
  • I love God, so I need to be more loving to people who oppose and mock or denigrate my faith.

People like me understand that we’ve been offered a great gift — Jesus of Nazareth, who many people believe is God’s son. Because we’ve accepted that gift, a perfect and holy God has hit the ‘delete’ key on all the wrong things we’ve done and the right things we’ve failed to do (like not loving others enough, for example).

Serious Jesus followers understand that the gift of Jesus is given out of unfathomable love. And that gift is offered to every person on this planet, no matter who they are, what they’ve done (or not done) and whatever faith they have (or don’t have).

How do I know this? Consider this excerpt from one of the four original source accounts of Jesus’s life: “God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him would not be lost but have eternal life. God did not send him to judge the world guilty, but to save the world through him.”

That’s why I have more love to give. You can have more love to give, too. Interested? Yes or no, post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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LOVE, NOT HURT

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 30, 2014| 11 Comments »

who's getting hurt? 8.14Sadly, there was a time when the message of this graphic (found on an atheism internet community) was very true.

Arrogance ruled the roost. Christians, often in positions of influence, sought to increase their power over people who, because they refused to believe the same thing, were obviously defective and could be treated like enemies.

Indeed, 500 years ago, ISIS (the murderous radical Islamic terrorist group) could just as easily have been Christian.

So this meme was correct. Was.

Things are very different today and pretty much everyone (except the creator of this graphic, perhaps) knows it. Maybe it’s because Jesus followers are not in positions of power. And that’s a good thing.

We all know power corrupts. The history of Christianity is certainly compelling evidence. Now, Jesus followers understand that God is primarily about love and love does NOT threaten or coerce. Love offers a gift.

That gift is Jesus of Nazareth, who many people believe is God’s son. Jesus – His teachings, His sacrificial death on a Roman cross and His resurrection – is offered to a world that I think we can all agree isn’t doing very well.

For much of my life, I thought I was was doing just fine without this gift. In fact, I believed what North American media, and most of my friends and colleagues, said about Jesus: nice guy (if he lived at all), but long gone and what does he have to do with anything?

He has everything to do with making people like me – and you, if you say yes to Him – more thoughtful, less greedy, more compassionate and less judgemental.

He has everything to do with seeing the things that our culture values in a new and discerning light – and discovering most of those things are trivial and ultimately irrelevant. Just think new cars, better smartphones, bigger TVs, yet another pair of shoes.

He has everything to do with feeling less lonely, less worried about the opinions of others and less concerned about what our culture defines as “success”.

He has everything to do with answering the most important questions of life: Why am I here? (To have a relationship with God through Jesus.) What happens when I die? (If Jesus is my saviour, then I’ll spend eternity in Heaven with Him because His death wiped away all my wrongs.)

Does this sound appealing? Yes or no, post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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BRAINWASHING? OR SEEING REALITY?

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 23, 2014| 3 Comments »

14+-+1-2Have you watched someone give their “testimony” on a TV show and describe being at their lowest point when they became a follower of Jesus of Nazareth?

Did you shake you head and have the same reaction as the words at the bottom of the graphic? Once, I would have been in your camp. After all, that is the easiest, fastest response, right?

So here’s a challenge: skip the path of least resistance, the path that our culture pushes us onto, and really think about this.

Perhaps someone said “I found God at the most vulnerable point of my life” because they suddenly realized that all the ‘stuff’ that’s supposed to be so, SO important is really trivial.

Maybe they realized that in the midst of their vulnerability, nothing that our culture offers us really changes anything. Self-help books can’t help. Friends sending out ‘positive vibes’ makes no difference. And drugs or alcohol will eventually leave them even worse off than before.

Perhaps they figured out that our culture’s focus on being self-reliant in everything just doesn’t pass the smell test. It’s not realistic.

Maybe their vulnerability has made them realize that dismissing/ignoring God and Jesus (who many people believe is His Son) is, in fact, brainwashing. And for the first time, they’re seeing life — and what could happen when this life ends — outside of our culture’s narrow and shallow confines.

I was in my 40s when I stepped off the path of least resistance and really thought about the how and whys of people deciding to follow Jesus. I wasn’t at the most vulnerable point of my life. In fact, I was doing just fine, by the standards of our culture. I had a decent career, parents who didn’t abuse me or abandon me, several meaningful romantic relationships, no serious diseases and a good future.

But I knew there had to be more to life than all this. I knew there had to be something deeper and something that would look beyond 80-odd years on planet earth. After much reading, a lot of thought and many debates with brave Jesus followers, I decided to become a follower of Jesus.

That decision had — and continues to have — a profound impact on my life. It greatly affected who I decided to marry and where I now work. It gave me hope — not in things or in people (the first is meaningless and the second will disappoint and hurt and abandon)  — but in a creator who offered me the gift of His Son.

I accepted that gift. Have you ever thought about doing the same? Yes or no, post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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WAITING ON GOD

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 16, 2014| 4 Comments »

WAITING ON GODHave you met anyone sitting around, drinking margaritas and watching awful TV shows because they have nothing better to do than wait for God to fix stuff?

Me neither. I suspect this graphic, found in an atheist internet community, is making an offhand reference to prayer. If I’ve learned anything from my interactions with atheist people, it’s that almost all of them believe prayer is an idiotic waste of time.

I’m not going to delve into prayer in this essay; you can read my thoughts on the subject here: http://wp.me/p2wzRb-9a

What I will write, however, is perhaps the reason this world is struggling is because people DON’T stop and wait for God to do something. Consider:

  • If we had stopped and waited for God to fix the problem, would organized crime have come to North America? I’m referring to prohibition in the United States during the 1920s. Human actions to reduce alcoholism not only failed, they created negative consequences that are still being felt almost 100 years later.
  • People brought rabbits to Australia and New Zealand for food. What followed was an explosive growth in the rabbit population to the point where they are now major pests in these countries.
  • Still in Australia, people introduced cane toads to control canefield pests. Bad idea. Canefield pests are still there and cane toads are now a major problem in their own right.
  • How often have people, through their governments, introduced rent controls to deal with sky-high rent increases? How often has that resulted in major shortages of rental units – making it nearly impossible for low-income people to find a place to live?

So it’s clear that ignoring God and doing things on our own often makes this world a WORSE place.

Sometimes, I’m guilty of this very mistake. Because I’m part of a culture that lives as if God and Jesus of Nazareth — who many people believe is His divine Son — don’t exist, I get sucked into that same thinking.

I forget to pray about things. I forget to wait on God — even though a wise ancient prophet tells me “The Lord is good to those who wait for him. He is good to those who look for him”. In case I didn’t get it the first time, another ancient prophet says “Be strong and brave and wait for the Lord’s help”.

Patience is a gift I’m continually learning as a follower of Jesus. There are other gifts, too: seeing beyond my ego to what’s truly important; understanding that this world is NOT how God wants it to be; and allowing Jesus to work in my life to make me more like the person He knows I can be.

Do these gifts sound appealing? Yes or no, post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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