Today is the most dangerous time for a gay person to be alive

In the past gay people were hated, discriminated against, and sometimes physically attacked.  Today we live in a society which accepts being gay as normal and even allows persons of the same sex to get married.  In fact, it seems as if the reality is just the opposite of the title of this post.  If this life were the only one we had, that would be correct.  There is one problem.  We must all die.

It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.  (Hebrews 9:27)

Did Jesus claim to be God?

Many who deny the deity of Jesus say that he never claimed to be God.  It is true that there is no record of Jesus ever saying the words, “I am God,” but many of the things he said were in face assertions of his deity.

Some Important Things to Realize

Here is something I read on Facebook.

Some Important Things To Realize

by Lester Peoples

We are living today in a very different and complex World, being divided and strained to its limits by the very Adversary of God! His name was Lucifer, but today is known as Satan! I hear man’s words of deception say they believe everything is a god you want it to be. There is no hell, but it’s only a word, to scare man into submission into his New World Order way of thinking! God Almighty created hell for Satan and his followers calling him A Liar from the beginning, and the father of all lies! Every man shall be held in accountability as to his word and action as God has written in His holy Word, His bible. God places certain men in power and can remove them as well, at His desire. Ask Bibi, the leader of Israel today.

Why Christians oppose same sex marriage

Whenever someone opposes same sex marriage he is accused of hating gays and his opinions are often called hate speech.  Proponents of same sex marriage have attacked those who oppose it and have caused some to lose their jobs and have their businesses ruined.  Some people do hate gays but Christians who oppose same sex marriage do so because we care about gays and want to protect them the harm that they will experience.

To see why this is so we need to look at what the Bible says about marriage.  The first marriage was between the first man and the first woman.

Did Jesus claim to be God?

There is disagreement as to whether Jesus was God.  Some who deny his deity say that he never claimed to be God.  The fact is Jesus said several times in the gospels that he was God.

If you begin reading the gospels, beginning with Matthew, you will come to a section known as the Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew 5-7.  He stated three times in this sermon that he was God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:10-12)

He equated being persecuted for the sake of righteousness with being persecuted for his sake.  Only God, the source of all righteousness, could make such a claim.

The sense of smell

Psalm 115:5-7 describes some characteristics of idols, contrasting them with God.

They have mouths, but do not speak;
    eyes, but do not see.
They have ears, but do not hear;
    noses, but do not smell.
They have hands, but do not feel;
    feet, but do not walk;
    and they do not make a sound in their throat.

We all know that God sees and hears everything that happens and he has the ability to speak and act, but he has a sense of smell too.  The first mention of it is found in Genesis 8:20-22.

If God spoke to us audibly

There is disagreement about how God wants us to live.  If God would just speak to everyone in an audible voice that would eliminate all questions about God and enable us to serve him without any doubts or disagreements.

Or perhaps it wouldn’t.  The Bible records a time when a crowd of people did hear God speak.

“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.  Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”

 John 12:27-28

Everyone present heard the sound of the voice but not everyone understood it.

The Great War

For a long time after World War I the war was referred to by many as the Great War, meaning that it involved more nations and people than had any other war up to that time.  When an even greater war began in 1939 people stopped using this term and began calling it World War I and calling the new war World War II.  But there is another war going on right now which really does deserve to be called the Great War and most of the world is completely unaware of it.  Here is how it began.

You were blameless in your ways
from the day you were created,
till unrighteousness was found in you.
In the abundance of your trade
you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned;
so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God,
and I destroyed you, O guardian cherub,
from the midst of the stones of fire.
Ezekiel 28:15-16

This is addressed to the king of Tyre, but it obviously doesn’t refer to the human ruler but to Satan, who was the real ruler.

Earth 2.0

NASA scientists have discovered a planet they named Kepler-452b but which is also called Earth 2.0 because it is more like earth than any other planet yet discovered.  Because of its similarity there is speculation that it might contain life similar to that found on earth.

Dr. Jeff Schweitzer wrote an article in Huffington Post called Earth 2.0: Bad News for God in which he claimed that the discovery of life on this planet would be evidence that the Bible is not true.  Here is the link:  Earth 2.0: Bad News for God .

The article shows he hasn’t read the Bible very carefully.

Why Moses failed to free the Israelites

Nearly everyone knows how Moses freed the Israelites from Egyptian slavery.  Not many know that Moses had made a previous attempt to free them and had failed.

One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?”

He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?”

Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian.
Exodus 2:11-15

This appears to be nothing more than Moses seeing an act of cruelty and intervening but the New Testament gives more information.

Sand in the bread

Many people believe the earth is billions of years old; the Bible tells us that God created it in six days.  Some Christians try to reconcile these two beliefs by saying that the days of creation aren’t literal days but simply long periods of time.

The word “day” can mean an indefinite time period and it is used that way in the creation account.

These are the generations
of the heavens and the earth when they were created,
in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.
Genesis 2:4

Here the entire time of creation is called a day.  But what about the days in the first chapter?  Here is a description of the first day.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
Genesis 1:3-5

Each day included a period of light and one of darkness and consisted of an evening and a morning.  Only a literal day consisting of the time the earth turns once on its axis has these characteristics.

9/11

On September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked four airliners. Two of the planes were deliberately flown into the two towers of the World Trade Center, causing them to collapse. One was crashed into the Pentagon. The passengers on the fourth plane managed to overpower the hijackers and prevent them from carrying out their intended mission but the plane crashed, killing everyone on board. The total death toll from these events was almost 3,000.

People asked a lot of questions as a result of the attack. Many wanted to know who was responsible and what needed to be done to protect against future attacks. But the question in the minds of a lot of people was “Why did God allow these people to die?”

Your bucket list

Some people make a bucket list, a list of things they want to do before they die.  The name comes from the expression “kick the bucket”, a slang expression for dying.

If you are a Christian you don’t need to make a bucket list.  God has already made one for you.

We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:10

The purpose of these works isn’t to achieve salvation.  Salvation is a gift that God gives us by his grace and we receive it by faith.

By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9

We aren’t saved by our works but one of the reasons we are saved is to serve God by carrying out the work he has given us to do.

The Euthyphro dilemma

Plato wrote of a conversation between Socrates and a man named Euthyphro in which this question was raised: Does God command us to do things because they are good or are they good because God commands them?   Many people feel that either answer creates a problem.  If God commands us to do things because they are good that implies that there is a standard of goodness independent of God to which he must conform.  If the things God commands are good because he commands them then good and evil exist only because of God’s arbitrary decision to call certain thing good and others evil.  This problem is known as the Euthyphro dilemma.

Good things

All of us have asked God for something and not gotten it.  When this happens we generally believe that God hasn’t answered our prayer.  That isn’t necessarily the case.   Jesus said:

Which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Matthew 7:9-11

TANSTAAFL

TANSTAAFL – This stands for “There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.” This phrase probably originated at a time when it was a common practice for saloons to offer free food to anyone who bought a drink. The food wasn’t really free because the price the saloons charged for the drinks was high enough to cover the cost.

This statement is true in many areas of life.  Things that we are told are free really aren’t; we are paying for them in ways that aren’t apparent to us.

The country of the blind

There is a well known saying, “In the country of the blind the one-eyed man is king.”  But is it true?  What if there were a country where all the people were blind but had learned to cope with their condition and considered it normal?  How would they respond if someone who could see came into their community and told them what it was like to see?  Would they believe what he said or consider him a madman?

H. G. Wells wrote a story called “The Country of the Blind” which describes this situation.  Here is Wikipedia’s summary of the plot.

Why should we study the Bible?

Why should we study the Bible?  Second Timothy 3:16 gives us four reasons.

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.

The second elephant

Most people have either read this poem by John Godfrey Saxe or have heard the story that it tells.

It was six men of Hindustan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind)
That each by observation
Might satisfy the mind.

The Trinity reflected in human history

The Bible reveals that God is a trinity consisting of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  This is clearly taught in the New Testament but it can also be found in the Old Testament.