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Posts Tagged ‘Frank King faith blog’

NOTHING TO PROVE

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 15, 2014| 11 Comments »

God all-powerful? 2.14Is God all-powerful?

You’d think I would know better by now. And yet, I naively continue to be amazed at how some folks seem to willfully delude themselves and work like there’s no tomorrow to stay ignorant.

This graphic is a case in point. It was posted on an atheism internet community; in my experience, most of the people in these communities know the Bible pretty well. Then someone uploads a graphic like this…..

First of all God IS all-powerful. Consider these excerpts from ancient prophetic writings:

  • Look! I am the Eternal, the God of all living things. Is anything too difficult for Me?
  • God doesn’t come and go. God lasts. He’s Creator of all you can see or imagine.
  • There are things about God that people cannot see—his eternal power and all that makes him God. But since the beginning of the world, those things have been easy for people to understand. They are made clear in what God has made.

Now consider the evidence of hundreds of thousands of years: all the bad things me, you and the rest of humanity have done (and the good things we’ve failed to do). Could there be a clearer measure of proof that God is serious about the gift of freewill?

Indeed, God could have stopped Roman authorities from putting Jesus of Nazareth (who many people believe is His divine Son) to death on trumped-up charges. But he allowed freewill to take its course.

In our day and age, God could have stopped terrorists from carrying out the 9-11 terrorist attacks. But once again, He allowed freewill to take its course. (You may not like that, but if He stopped that, then where would the limits on freewill end? I address that here: http://wp.me/p2wzRb-38.)

My point here is that God could easily force people to believe in Him. But what would be the point? To prove He’s powerful? Really? I don’t think the creator of time, space and the universe needs to prove a darn thing.

What He does want is for all of us to come to Him, through His son, because WE want to. Here’s how one of Jesus’s earliest followers put it: “God wants everyone to be saved and to fully understand the truth.”

The truth is this: “If you openly say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from death, you will be saved.” That’s from the same early follower.

Saved from what? From being judged on all the bad things we’ve done and the good things we’ve failed to do. When I decided to follow Jesus, His sacrificial death on a Roman cross cleaned my account with God. God no longer sees my mistakes, my pettiness, my times of thinking I can do everything without Him. He sees me as perfect – just like Jesus.

Does this make sense? Post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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FROM FAITH TO BLESSINGS

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 14, 2013| 14 Comments »

From faith to blessings 11.13Striking, angry, bitter words, aren’t they?

This graphic, posted on an internet Atheism community, certainly states an opinion very strongly. But exactly what is the creator of this meme raving about?

Wikipedia defines faith as “confidence or trust in a person, thing, deity or in the doctrines or teachings of a religion or view (e.g. having strong political faith). The word faith is often used as a synonym for hope, trust or belief.”

Does this sound like something worth throwing your time and energy into opposing? It certainly doesn’t to me.

But what about being gullible, having an absence of reason, etc.? Well consider this: I decided to follow Jesus of Nazareth — who many people believe is the divine son of God — at age 42, after reading many books from variety of perspectives, thinking long and hard about what I believed in and why, and having challenging conversations with several Jesus followers.

But if you are to believe everything in this graphic, then after all my deliberation, I made a choice to become gullible. I decided to throw away reason. Become dishonest and blind myself (to what, I’m not sure).

Are you really buying this?

I can imagine some opponents of faith saying it’s what people of faith do that’s so wrong, especially when they use their faith to back up their actions.

On this point, we absolutely agree. There’s nothing more wrong than blowing up a skyscraper, denying rights to women or bombing abortion clinics in the name of faith. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

That said, here’s a question for you: should all faith be detested because of the crazed actions of a fanatical few? I know how many atheist people would answer, but what about YOU?

Like it or not, it seems to me, faith is mixed into the fabric of our lives.

  • We place our faith in doctors without knowing if (or how often) they’ve been sued for malpractice.
  • We go on airplane trips, trusting in mechanics and safety inspectors (who are every bit as imperfect as you and me) to ensure the plane is safe.
  • We drive our vehicles over bridges every day, placing our faith in nothing more than steel, concrete and rebar, plus annual government inspections.

So, if you really want to detest faith, then you better not leave the house again. In fact, maybe you shouldn’t even live in a house. Despite all the building codes designed to ensure it was built to last, who knows when it could fall in on you?

My faith in Jesus means that without seeing Him, I know that He lived, died and came back to life – all for the benefit of people who believe in Him and trust Him with their lives.

Does this sound crazy? Jesus addresses that very question when, after his resurrection, he permitted a follower named Thomas to touch the wounds of his crucifixion.

“So, you believe because you’ve seen with your own eyes,” Jesus told ‘doubting’ Thomas. “Even better blessings are in store for those who believe without seeing.”

Do you want those blessings? Post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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PAINTING A PICTURE OF LIFE

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 30, 2013| 3 Comments »

paintingMy mother can paint a decent picture. Me? I understand things like perspective and lighting, but only through a camera lens.

Still, I’ve been painting a metaphorical picture for many years now. And often, I didn’t even know it.

My “paint and brushes” are selfishness, willful ignorance, irrational anger, ignoring the needs of others, and self-centred greed.

Each is just a smudge of color on a canvas. But after all these years, those smudges have created a large and unappealing picture of someone who, time and time again, falls short of who I’m meant to be and misses the mark of what I should be aiming at.

How can I fix this painting? Especially when I keep adding to it like a drunken shopaholic with a fistful of credit cards?

The answer is simple: no matter how hard I try, no matter how many self-help books I read and no matter how many reruns of Oprah “fix up your life” episodes I watch, I can’t.

But there is a solution, once I figured out who can help me. It’s God who created me (and you), who put all sorts of gifts inside me (and you), who knows the kind of person you and I can be and the sorts of things we can accomplish.

God also knows every smudge I’ve put on that painting and every smudge you’ve put on yours. And He’s the one who offers the simple, life-changing solution: a guy named Jesus. He turned the ancient world on its head with offensive ideas like loving your enemies, forgiving someone who hurts you or your loved ones, and having a real, day-to-day relationship with God.

When the Roman authorities of his day put Jesus to death, they didn’t know they were also making a way for everyone who believes in Jesus to have their lives turned around. His death was the payment I didn’t have to make to have my ugly painting turned into white, clean canvas.

Want some evidence? I found it the words passed along to us through an ancient prophet: “Though your sins are like scarlet, I [God] will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool.”

Just as important as making payment, Jesus’s death—and His resurrection, described by several ancient Jesus biographies—opened the door to eternal life with God for all who believe in Jesus. When my days on this earth are finished, it’s just the end of the opening credits; the glorious 3-D Imax movie hasn’t even begun yet.

Anyone can have this. No matter how big and ugly your painting is, by accepting and believing in what Jesus did, you can have a brand-new canvas that God can use to create a picture of love, grace and new life. So, why not put your paint brushes aside and join me?

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FINISHING WHAT HE STARTS

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 16, 2013| 5 Comments »

Finished“Be confident of this, that the One who began a good work in you will bring it to completion in Christ Jesus.”
–    A letter from Paul, a missionary, to one of the early groups following Jesus of Nazareth

A lot of people who believe there’s a God out there also believe this God has washed His hands of them.

I know I’ve had times in my life where this has happened; I imagine God saying “What? You’ve screwed up again? I’m so tired of having to deal with you…I’m out of here.” And with that, God throws in His spiritual towel and walks away.

Then I heard a pastor, Adrian van Giessen, talk about those words from Paul, one of the men most responsible for telling people about Jesus throughout the Mediterranean.

Adrian’s way of interpreting Paul was this simple: God finishes what He starts.

You and I may tire of something; we may decide all is lost and give up the ghost. But as Adrian put it, there’s not a quitter bone in God’s body.

This means no matter what we do, no matter how many times we screw up, no matter how often we repeat the same mistake, God doesn’t lose hope. He keeps His hard hat, work gloves and tool belt on; He keeps the plan He has for your life squarely in front of Him; and He never, ever gives up on you. Or me.

Now, some might examine their lives and declare God didn’t begin a good work in them at all, so there’s nothing to finish. When I’ve felt this way, I’ve looked to an ancient biography of Jesus for words you might have heard before: God so loved the world that He gave His only son and whoever believes in and seriously follows the son will go on living even after his or her body dies.

Notice the verse simply says ‘the world’, rather than ‘some parts of the world’? That means you and I are on the list of what God loves. So why wouldn’t He start a good work in you, too?

If you believe this, there is an important thing to do: stop dwelling on what happened to you in the past – including the stuff that makes you think God didn’t begin a good work in you – and simply co-operate with Him.

Read the words of Jesus, his followers and the ancient prophets; find out where God stands on the issues, discover how Jesus (who many people believe is His son) prayed to him and what are priorities to God. Then think about your plans, your actions, your thoughts, your strengths and weaknesses and try to put them through a God filter…is this what He wants for your life?

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WRITING A NEW BOOK

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 26, 2013| 3 Comments »

JudgingA friend posted this meme on her Facebook wall and it caused such an immediate, gut-level reaction that I downloaded it for a blog.

Two things struck me:

1. There’s a sad and ugly truth to these words. In our culture, most of us DO judge a book by its cover. All the time. And I’m as guilty of it as anyone. It’s like biting my lip or tapping my pen on the desk; it happens without me even knowing it. Some examples:

  • “Wow nice colour combination – and I don’t even know fashion” is what I sarcastically thought when I spotted a certain co-worker one day. (As if that one outfit is all I need to know about them.)
  • When I saw (and heard) a neighbour back out of his garage I’ll think, “Rap? Really? You listen to that manure on purpose??” (As if all rap is awful and that’s the only music they ever have on the car stereo.)
  • I’ll be walking by a group of teens at the shopping mall, hear them chatting and the first thing that darts through my head is “You kids must be truly vacant to be talking about TV garbage like ‘The Bachelor’.” (As if liking this one reality program makes them entirely brain-dead.)

That’s me; Sir Judge-A-Lot. And the title is accurate, even though – like most of us – I’ve often been on the receiving end of the hammer blow of false, superficial judgement.

2. There’s a truth that’s absolutely counter to all of this. Stay with me while I spell it out.

An ancient prophet wrote these timeless words: “God doesn’t look at what people see. People judge by what is on the outside, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

The message? My creator (and yours) has gone past the cover of the Book Of Me and read every word inside. And His judgements are more accurate than the finest Supreme Court justice.

For many of us, this isn’t good news. We hope others won’t notice the bad things we’ve done and the good things we’ve failed to do. But how do we get away from the all-seeing eyes of God?

In a word, we don’t. But there is a solution and it comes from God Himself. It’s Jesus of Nazareth, who many people believe is His son. God offers Jesus as a gift to everyone, no matter how poor our track record.

All we have to do is accept the gift. Make Jesus your friend – your savior – and God no longer counts your bad behavior and malicious thoughts against you. He sees you as He sees Jesus – perfect, without a blemish – and starts writing a new book. You’ll be amazed at what happens as that new book begins to unfold.

So, do you want the all-seeing eyes of God to see YOU in a new way? Yes or no, post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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THE LESSONS OF INTERNET EXPLORER

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 19, 2013| 12 Comments »

Religion-and-Internet-ExplorerDid you know Internet Explorer is out of fashion? I didn’t, but then again, I’m a Mac person and Internet Explorer hasn’t bothered with us for years.

But what about the points that people of faith apparently have in common with Internet Explorer? According to this graphic, posted on an Atheism internet community, people like me are dumb, frightened and unwilling to question anything they grew up with.

Let me present you with a very different point of view:

This dude went to church as a child, but at the age of 16, his parents told him and his two brothers they were free to continue with faith, or drop it.

The decision was unanimous. The entire family walked away from even the shallowest pretense of faith.

For this one dude, it never came to a point of becoming an atheist, but he did get very angry at God and figured people who followed Jesus of Nazareth (who many people believe is God’s Son) were either naive children or frightened seniors.

That kind of attitude made him unpleasant to be around. And he knew it.

Then the day came, at age 42, when he became willing to change, willing to download something new, willing to seriously investigate what was there when he started.

After much discussion with mature, respectful Jesus followers, much reading of a wide variety of books from several very different points of view and after much thoughtful consideration, he decided to become a Jesus follower.

That person is ME.

Do I have all my questions answered? Nope. Do I understand everything in the Bible? Hardly. In the end, when I’m finished with this life, will either of these points matter? Not even a bit.

Because I accepted God’s gift to humanity (Jesus), I also accepted that He sacrificed His life for all the bad things I’ve done and all the good things I’ve failed to do. My slate is wiped clean. And as a result, I’ll spend eternity with Him in Heaven.

Does that mean I can just walk away and do whatever I want? Not unless I’m seriously deluded. If I take God’s gift seriously, then I’m overwhelmingly grateful for what Jesus has done.

That gratefulness opens the door for me to welcome Him into my heart and soul. Now He’s working to make me a better person – to myself, to my wife and stepchildren, to my parents and to everyone who doesn’t share my trust and faith in Him.

That gift is waiting for you, too. No matter what you’ve done (or not done), no matter how much you struggle with life. Interested? Post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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PRAYER: DOES IT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE?

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 12, 2013| 4 Comments »

praying-hands-rt-hiPrayer is a big part of my life and I can easily construct and speak a tour-de-force that will tickle your ears and touch your emotions.

But do my prayers, and the prayers of everyone else, make any difference? For me, the answer is this simple: it depends.

Am I praying to obtain something? Is it something I need or something I want – and do I really know the difference?

Am I trying to change God or me?

Am I praying for someone? If yes, am I framing my prayer with the presumption I know what’s best for this person?

How am I approaching prayer? Am I desperate? Sad? Angry? Going through the motions?

Do I subconsciously think God is grading my effort – and His response (or lack thereof) depends on how I do?

When you consider just these questions, it’s no surprise that, in his wonderful book Prayer: Does it Make Any Difference?, Philip Yancey, writes “We who barely comprehend ourselves are approaching a God we cannot possibly comprehend. No wonder some Christians through the centuries have felt more comfortable praying to saints or relying on intermediaries.”

So why pray? For serious followers of Jesus of Nazareth (who many people believe is the Son of God), one answer is easy and simple: because prayer was a foundation of Jesus’s life. In the four original-source biographies of His life, more than a dozen prayers by Jesus are recorded. And if you read those prayers, you’ll quickly realize Jesus prayed like it made a huge difference.

Here’s another good reason: when we pray, we open ourselves up to hearing or sensing what God wants to tell us. The website allaboutprayer.org puts it this way:  “Prayer not only establishes a relationship with God, it is vital to maintaining our relationship with him.”

A relationship developed in prayer can have immense ramifications. According to the late author and Jesus follower Henri Noewen, “One of the discoveries we make in prayer is the closer we come to God, the closer we come to all our brothers and sisters in the human family.”

Of course, this can be scary because the potential is there to shake us out of our placid, comfortable lives. As Philip Yancey put it in another of his books, “Prayer is the act of seeing reality from God’s point of view.” And once we see that reality, we may never be the same.

In fact, if our praying is sincere, we can be transformed into more generous, loving and forgiving people who have a truer picture of who God is and what He wants to accomplish in this world.

And that means we can be more like Jesus.

Does this make sense? Post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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THE BURNING MAN

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 5, 2013| 7 Comments »

Keith Emerson Band“I’m running from the burning man inside me.”

From the first moment I heard this lyric, by singer/guitarist/songwriter Marc Bonilla, I was entranced by the imagery it presents.

The lyric is found on the CD Keith Emerson Band featuring Marc Bonilla. Some of you classic rock fans might recognize Keith Emerson as the keyboard genius with the 1970s progressive rock giants Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

But back to the lyric, which resonated in three ways:

1. The burning man image hit me because all of us have a burning man (or woman) inside us. Burning – or at least, smouldering – with passions like these:

  • Grudges we can’t (or won’t) release.
  • Bad habits we’ve lived with for so long that we don’t even recognize how destructive they are.
  • Attitudes that quietly, subtly poison us and our relationships.

2. We’re trying to run away from this burning man (or woman).

Somehow, during moments of clarity, we recognize at least some of the damage we’re doing to ourselves and those around us. We actually get it, that this burning man is making us miserable and, at some point, all this burning will hollow us out.

3. This burning man (or woman) is inside us. So I can run forever and not get away. I can travel in the fastest race car and it won’t make any difference.

I can even leave the planet on the space shuttle, but that burning man will still be with me. He’s a police sniffer dog I can’t shake, a shadow that never leaves me.

This might sounds hopeless to you, but it’s not, because there’s someone else who never leaves us. Consider these words from an ancient wisdom writer: “Your Spirit is everywhere I go. I cannot escape Your presence. If I go up to heaven, You will be there. If I go down to the place of death, You will be there.”

Sounds like the writer of this is talking about the ‘burning man’, right? But he’s talking about God, who created him, me and you. And he goes on to write, “You formed the way I think and feel. You put me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because you made me in such a wonderful way.”

This is good news, at least in my book. But how can this make a difference in our lives? I suggest the answer lies in seriously checking out Jesus of Nazareth, who many people believe is the Son of God.

I found that when I decided to believe in and follow Jesus, He came to live inside me. And the longer He lives inside me, the more space he takes up and the less space there is left for the ‘burning man’.

Eventually, if I’m serious about my faith, Jesus will have the run of the house and the burning man will be left in the basement, shivering, cold and powerless.

Does this make sense? Post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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WHEN DO WE NEED FORGIVENESS?

Posted in Me & The World, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 31, 2013| 4 Comments »

ForgivenessWhen I talk about spirituality with people, the conversation train often runs smack into a wall when the notion of forgiveness comes up.

It seems that, unless you’re referring to Criminal Code convictions, many folks don’t think they need to ask anyone, God included, for forgiveness.

“What have I done wrong that needs forgiving?” seems to be the prevailing point of view. “I’ve never broken any major laws. I’ve never robbed or beaten up anyone. Asking forgiveness is for people who’ve done bad stuff. Not for me.”

Well, I guess that depends on your point of view. And for many of us, me included, our viewpoint is often shaped by the world in which we live. Even though we often don’t realize it.

A quick example? Downloading music without paying for it. People do it all the time, including followers of Jesus of Nazareth (who many people believe is the Son of God). The rationale, technically speaking, is it’s not illegal and everyone’s doing it. So what’s the problem?

Well, having an affair on your significant other isn’t illegal, either. But would any of us ever figure it’s OK – even if they had an affair on us first?

As a person of faith, I know there are all kinds of things I’ve done and not done that require forgiveness. I ignore my wife or, conversely, overreact to something she’s said or done and become unreasonably upset. I don’t maintain steady contact with my brothers – neither do they, with me or each other, but that’s not the point, is it?

I can’t control others, but I can try to control myself. And when the inevitable happens and I fail to control myself adequately, I can turn to God for forgiveness and help. And, thanks to the death and resurrection of Jesus, forgiveness of ALL sins is possible for ALL people (in fact, read this blog for an example of incredible forgiveness: http://wp.me/p2wzRb-6K).

Why do I need forgiveness from God when it appears my poor actions weren’t against Him? Because He knows my potential; in fact, He put that potential in me (and YOU). And, more than anyone else (me included), He knows when and why I fall short.

I know this because an ancient writer put it this plainly: “You [God] formed the way I think and feel. You put me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because You made me in such a wonderful way. I know how amazing that was!”

For me, acknowledging the necessity for forgiveness, from people around me AND from God, is an important step in humility. It doesn’t mean I’m a wretched person, it just means I’m a work in progress. Are you? Post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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TAKING GOD TO TASK

Posted in In The News, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 8, 2013| 7 Comments »

George JonasIt’s one thing for me, a committed Christian, to try and explain/justify God. It’s another altogether when a self-confessed, “non-religious” major newspaper columnist like George Jonas tackles the topic.

In a 2013 National Post column, the veteran journalist (1935-2016) wrote about dreaming he was God and encountering a range of challenges from skeptics. Here’s an excerpt from one of those chats:

   Skeptic: “Aren’t you supposed to be omnipresent? I never saw you in Auschwitz, the (Soviet) gulag, Dresden (where so much Second World War bombing took place) or Katyn Forest (site of a Second World War massacre)…”

    Jonas: “You never looked for me. You were busy doing evil things.”

    Skeptic: “Why did you let me?”

    Jonas: “Has it occurred to you that you might have acted without my permission?”

Later, Jonas (still writing as God) noted: “Men doing fiendish things used to prove the existence of evil. Now it casts doubt on the existence of God. Once I punished men for being bad; now men punish me for it. ‘If we’re bad, God, you don’t exist.’ Talk about gall.”

To my sometimes-foggy brain, the insight shown here is impressive. We humans were given a mind-boggling gift  – freewill – then tested God by using it to crucify Jesus Christ, whom serious Christians believe to be His son. Not only did God prove freewill was for all time and space by doing nothing to stop this crucifixion, He restored Jesus for us by resurrecting Him.

(If you want powerful evidence for the resurrection, go to a website called biblegateway.com and, in the “passage lookup” section, type this:
1 Corinthians 15:6.)

Sadly, as Jonas pointed out, God’s gift of freewill hasn’t been enough for skeptics. Some may claim they haven’t done the evil that wracks the world, yet they must live with it. To that, I recall British writer G.K. Chesterton. When asked by a newspaper to write an essay on the theme ‘what’s wrong with the world?’, he responded with just this:

    Dear Sirs,
    I am.
    Sincerely yours,
    G. K. Chesterton.

He was what’s wrong with the world because of what he did and what he failed to do. I am what’s wrong with this world for the same reasons. And so are you.

That said, I am sure of this:

  1. For everyone who says the state of this world proves there is no god, just imagine how things would be if He weren’t involved. Would there ever have been peace in Ireland? Would apartheid ever have ended in South Africa? Would the Berlin Wall ever have come down?
  2. There is a price to be paid for the wrong things you and I have done, and for the right things we haven’t done. That price was paid by Jesus. If you believe this and make him your leader and best friend, then forgiveness – and the opportunity for a new, clean start – is yours. Just as it is already mine.

Does this make sense? Post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.

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