White, straight, Christian, Male

Are white, straight, Christian, Males the most discriminated minority these days?!? Probably not! but still!

SOOO I've never been called a racist... YET! But I must admit, Black people run a lot faster than white people! It's a fact! Is that racist?! I'm putting down white people no? Would I be called a racist if I said white people were better swimmers than black people? We normally think of racism as White people oppressing colored people! And History does show that that is how it normally goes! But today I feel that so many colored people get away with so many things I could not as a white person. So example! I spent some time in Haiti, where the population is mostly Black, every time I'd walk in the street, people would point at me and say "Blan Blan!" (WHite White!), even my name was "White".... "How are you doing white?"... I'd reply, "Dude! I'd get thrown in jail what for you just did!" I also remember when Obama was elected, i think yeah, cool a black president, but I was a little surprized at the celebration, because some of it was just for the fact that he was black... okay okay it's the first black american president, so it could be a celebration for the progress made in America since slavery, via Martin Luther King, to Obama as president, but then on the other hand, I was like... What if white people today would celebrate someone getting elected just because he was white! Racist or What!? In sports, I understand that the problem has often gone the other way, like the South African rugby team not letting black people play on their team! But black college football national championship... Really?? I don't really mind, I would feel awkward about having a "White college football national championship" today! It probably would be illegal any way, and I think it should be! But would you be called racist, if you suggested that idea?
BET: Black Entertainment Television... Yes! It is 2013! Could a white man pull that off with a WHite Entertainment Television in the USA?
 Sooo! Yeah, I am not complaining! And I do understand, that many black people still to this day get discriminated against, and get turned down for jobs because of their skin color, BUT! I feel like one could make a case, that Racism does go both ways!

Straight! I have nothing against people who are gay! We often don't agree on sexuality, the same way as I don't agree with Hindus about religion! Disagreement does not mean intolerance, it just means, difference of opinion! Deal with it! SOOO! If a homosexual would be denied entry to a concert for being Gay, that would be homophobic right?! Yes! Most definately! So how come straight people, get denied access to gay events!? (Yes it does happen! Okay, so I'm not saying gay is anti straight! Cos I know some gay clubs in Toulouse where everybody is welcome :) But I think equality should now work both ways!

Christian: I was wondering, why is it that anyone on the planet can trash Jesus as much as they want, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piss_Christ), and I am not allowed to complain about being hurt!? I have nothing against Islam, so don't get me wrong! But how come so many muslim's now live in Western countries freely, but Christians are not allowed to live in "Muslim" countries?! Why would I be sentenced to death for sharing my faith in some Muslim countries, but killing someone for what they believe is just unthinkable in the west? OH! I know because killing innocent people goes against my religion...!

Male: Okay I get it! Men have it better! But i could make a case for feminists being sexist! I feel like they are fighting so that women get treated exactly like men, when it is convenient for them, but why should not the opposite be true too! Not that I care, I love being a man! But hey why can women play on men's sports team but not the opposite!

ANd Nothing Else Matters

I've been studying a bit of church History, and I love it how, over all these years when it comes to the argument against Christianity, nothing has changed!
One big argument against Christianity or God, is that there is not enough proof, and because we have science, we are more intelligent, and no longer need to believe in the fairy tales of the Bible in this modern age! What church history has shown me, is that right from the start, those arguments have always been the same minus the "us being too modern"part. Since right from the start people have not believed, saying we do not believe because it is 2013 is a bad argument!

I'm thinking of the french philosophers, who wanted people to be educated (a bit like the protestant church who wanted Christian to read the truth for themselves), these philosophers were very much anti-church, reacting to the oppression and control of the catholic church from the middle ages.

I think a lot of the hatred towards the church is well justified. But imagine if the truth truly did existed, and someone would want to keep you from it, what better way than using something close to the truth, and using it for evil, to make sure no one wants anything to do with anything looking close to it! Would the truth be lost forever?
We love to say at church, that the first reason why people do not want to be Christians, is because of the Christians in the first place! And yes Christianity has been guilty of:

• killing innocent people
• torture
• hypocrisy
• sexism
• racism
• lying
• idolatry
• homophobia 

And that's all I can think of for the moment! But then again, both atheists and people belonging to other religions have also been guilty of all these things! So the point being if you thought being a Christian referred to people who think they are good people, you would do well in not wanting to join them, because History has shown that they have not been any better than the rest! But then again on the other hand, you would be wrong to not want to join Christianity, because of their evil deeds if they never claimed to be better than anyone else!
Wanting to do the right thing, is just something that everyone tries to do. And somehow, morality seems to be the first word we want to associate with a religion!

I heard this: Saints, are just sinners who fall down and get back up!
Saint does not mean better than, or without sin! The word means separate, or apart. And physically on Sunday mornings Christians or saints (those who set themselves apart!), set themselves apart in their churches.

The view outside the church: is that a good person, is someone who does bad things sometimes (hey! we're all humans!) but also does a lot of good, which should compensate the bad, making them good! If you can think of one person who has done something worse than yourself, you are probably a good person!

Inside the church: we see it as everyone does bad things, but we see sin, more like putting poison in a glass of water. You can add all the (good) fruit juice you want, but, the drink will still be deadly! We don't really believe in good people, but rather the Good Person (Luke 18:19), who has made us righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21), and pleads our case to God (1 John 2:1), aka JESUS. Christians live in the assurance that no sin is big enough for the Blood of Jesus which cleanses everything!

So, the difference between those on the inside and those on the outside of Christianity is the belief of what it takes to be accepted as good. The authority for truth on the outside is one's own mind. On the inside, Christians belief that the truth is defined by God. So it's not really about moral at all?!?

• I Have to ask: What is better?
•  to rely on our own understanding of Good and Bad, knowing that everyone has a different opinion, so the chances we are right aren't too high
• to believe that we cannot be right, being our own judge. But if a hypothetical all knowing God did exist, he would hold the truth

Those who want to be good in their own eyes, live trying to do good. Christian's accept that God through Jesus Christ sees them as righteous (2 Cor 5:21 again), and the theory is that out from knowing this "good news", a Christian, is born again, starts a new life (Rom 6:4) overflows with Joy, wants everyone else to share this joy (which explains why Christians annoy you by trying to share their faith with you!), but this joy should translate in Good works! A believer should see other people's needs as more important than his own, seeking to love everybody (Luke 10:25-37), and seeking love, joy, peace, ...

This life as a Christian has only been made possible by Jesus. If you think you are a good person, stop comparing you to other people than Jesus Christ, who lived the perfect life ( 1 Peter 2:22), this is the only way you'll see what God sees, and you will see how far from perfection you have fell. And it does not take much, it just takes one small lie, and you have missed the mark! It is only because of his perfect life, than he could purchase our sins, nothing else would have quite cut it. The story of Jesus is the story, of the perfect man, who took the punishment of those who deserved to be punished so that they would not be punished (1 Peter 2:24). The evil done by the church has nothing to do with Jesus. It's just man doing his own thing! Don't blame Jesus!

So, now to the topic of the moment!? What actually Matters?!
I heard this once: The difference between an atheist and a Christian is that the atheist is living his best life now, and a believer, believes this is as bad as it gets, and the best it still to come!

So what matters to a non-believers? Trying to forget that there is nothing more to life, than trying to enjoy the moment, because life is short, and we'll just die one day, and one day the earth will just get engulfed by the Sun and all will be lost anyway, no matter what you do with your life! You can be a billionaire, have the prettiest wife on the planet, have all the power in the world but So What!? - I dunno, it kinda sounds depressing!

If God created all things, including us, revealed himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ (Col 1:15), well if that really is true, how can life be the same! It changes everything, we go from being pointless products of evolution to being created carefully and specifically by God. The Bible says God prepares good works for us to do (Eph 2:10). Because God loved us, we love, because God forgave us, we can also forgive. That urge to want to do good, finally makes sense in Christ, because He died, and was then risen from the Dead, showing us that his sacrifice was truly accepted for us all. Nothing else than Christ puts all the dots together! (Col 1:17). If God does not exist how can you justify that rape, pedophilia, murder, gossiping are evil?

Belief in Jesus is all that matters, he has promised new life (Rom 6:4), our evil deeds have all been washed, the past, present, and future, accept the gift and rejoice, go make this news known, hug a friends, help those in need, to the Glory of God the Father, the God who is love, and rejoices with what is good! Jesus Christ is all! And nothing else matters.


some of the scriptures:

Luke 18:18

And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 19 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

2 Cor 5:21

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 

2 John 2:1

My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous.

Luke 10:25-37 - The Good Samaritan

25On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

26“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

27He answered, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’^c ; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^d ”

28“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

29But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35The next day he took out two denarii^e and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

36“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

37The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

1 Peter 2:22

 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.

1 Peter 2:24

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 

 Ephesians 2:10

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

What is the Way of Jesus?

If Jesus existed, you need to decide whether he was:

• Lord
• a liar
• a lunatic

This is what he claimed about himself:
John 14:6 

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

If  you are convinced Jesus is the only way, what does that even mean?

 "The way" often refered to a lifestyle in the Bible:

Deuteronomy 5

³² So you shall observe to do just as the Lord your God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right or to the left. ³³ You shall walk in all the way which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you will possess.

(Deut.31:29 as well and others...)

So if Jesus is the way, we need to live our lives through Jesus, in other words In Christ.

What does that mean?

• being through Jesus
• doing through Jesus

Being in Jesus

Once you believe, have faith in Jesus, and repent (turn from) the evil in your life, the Bible says :

through our faith we have become sons of God, and are wearing Christ (Gal 3:26-27), he now bears our sins instead of us (2 Tim 5:21), in Christ, there is no condemnation (Rom 8:1), and we have been reconciled to God (Col 1:22).

Galatians 3:26-27

26You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:21

²¹ He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Romans 8:1

1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus

Colossians 1:21-23

²¹ And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, ²² yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach

 Doing in Christ

Being in Christ, is something the Bible says we are, so we just let that be! But now practically what do we do? What is living the Jesus life style?

Whether we like it or not, we are all driven by something. Why do we get up in the morning? Some people have a hobby, and their whole life works around this hobby. Others live to work! Some to please others. Why do you live? Are you at the center of the plan you have for you life?

Our lives on earth are short! What meaning does anything from this world have, that could possibly make living worth while? How can you make your time count?

Food, sex, drugs, you will always want more, because they just can't ever satisfy you fully. Work, hobbies, money, will all pass away!

Doing in Christ is different. No one can just do it by himself. The Bible says:

Mathew 6

³³ But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 

Investing in anything else useless:

¹⁹ “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; ²¹ for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

You live for God, for God! As opposed to living for God, for yourself! Everyone lives for something, living Jesus' way, is living for God.

The Bible says everybody is a slave to sin! We are driven by money, sex, food, our "happiness", these things lead to nothing.
In order to truly live, you must realize you were not made to serve yourself. It's what we all believe, but why is there so much misery all around the place? Are we happy? Don't we all just have regrets?
The Bible says:

Mat 16:25

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.

 Jesus showed us the way - Philipians 2

⁵ You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.

⁶ Though he was God,
    he did not think of equality with God
    as something to cling to.
⁷ Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
    he took the humble position of a slave
    and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,
⁸     he humbled himself in obedience to God
    and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

⁹ Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
    and gave him the name above all other names,

 Conclusion

The way of Jesus means:

• You no longer live as a slave of sin, trying to please yourself, but willfully become the slave of God. (If you don't like the idea of being a slave, I think no matter who you are you serve someone or something whether you like it or not, only by serving God, you have the best master that could possibly be! Imagine a slave, serving a Master who only has his slave's best interest in mind?)
• Other people's needs all become more important than your own.
• Communication with God is important through prayer, meditation on the scriptures, meeting together with fellow slaves of God. 
• This way of living bears many fruit: (Galatians 5)
  

  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control  

  And becomes something you just want to share with the whole wide World, for the Glory of God!
   

Jesus is the only way!

As seen in a previous post, Jesus is either:

• Lord
• Lunatic 
• Liar

So how do you react when you hear, Jesus is the only way to God?

• Either, you believe he is Lord, and so you believe what he said! 
• Or you think he is either a liar or a lunatic, and you think that those who believe that he is the only way are just narrow minded!

A reaction to those who think that the Christian view is narrow minded is this?

So now what if you were hungry, and I told you, the only way to no longer feel this hunger, you must eat!
Would you also call me narrow minded?

Some problems have a view solutions. Some don't! God designed Man to eat food, to satisfy his hunger.
What if he sent Jesus to die to reconcile mankind to us? (Col 1:20).

If you have a better way to heaven, which is better than trusting your own good deeds, I am all ears! But if you don't, I do not see what you have to loose with Jesus' way, if you are concerned about your eternal destiny. 

How I see it this way, if there was another possible way, do you think Jesus would have went all the trouble to die!?! Would you get nailed to a cross just for fun?

The philosophy of the day (post-modernism), is that every body is allowed to believe what they want (I agree!), but they go further to say, that everyone is entitled to having their own truth ( I don't know what they are on about! "for me 1+1 is 2, but for you 1+1 is 3?!) Those who hold an absolute view, are saying like me, that you cannot just chose what is true, and for that we are being called intolerant, for disagreeing with someone else's view?

But do you realize what is a stake?!
If you have a tumor in your brain, and you have the choice between seeing, a brain surgeon, a postman, or a baker... well guess what! Only one can save you! You can tell me, that everyone can hold their own truth and the may choose the postman or baker to operate on them? But you cannot tell me that it is the best choice to being saved!

If i care about you, and you hold that the postman can save you, I will do everything that I can to remind you, that it is not true! What you believe is very important, you need to choose the only one that can save you! If i am right, and you you call me "narrow minded", or intolerant well guess what will happen to that tumor of yours?!

When I say Jesus is the only way, I mean it the same way. You can chose whoever you want, but I don't think you'll get the same result! If God made it that there is only one way, well there is only one way!

The choice often comes down to two! Do you accept the free gift Jesus wants to give you, to save you from the consequences of your sins, or do you choose to find another way. Do you chose to rely on yourself, thinking your good deeds will wipe away the bad? The Jesus solution just seems too good to be true! but, what other possibility is there??

How can I go to heaven, if God requires perfection?

In the previous post, I said that God was perfect, and the only chance of being with Him later is by being perfect as well! So the logical conclusion is that no one will go to heaven! Right?

You might get this feeling when you do something you think is bad, that if God existed, He would be disappointed. So you believe your role is to please him. I believe this desire we have to please God is real, and I believe it is how He designed us, to please and glorify Him.

What would give more glory to God. That you say: I have been reconciled to God, because of what I did, or because of what He did?
 
In the last post said that God did something, in order to make us perfect, before it happened, their was this promise in the Old Testament:

Psalm 32  

• 1 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity,

Is that a mystery or what?! How could my sins be covered? Can God freely look past by sins? Is there a price to pay?

Here's an extract from a fiction book that tries to explain it (the Shack)

“’…If you are able to judge God so easily, then you certainly can judge the world.’ Again she spoke without emotion. “You must choose two of your children to spend eternity in God’s new heaven and new earth, but only two.’
‘What?’ he erupted, turning to her in disbelief.
‘And you must choose three of your children to spend eternity in hell.’
Mack couldn’t believe what he was hearing and started to panic.
‘Mackenzie, I am only asking you to do something that you believe God does. He knows every person ever conceived and he knows them so much deeper and clearer than you will ever know your own children. He loves each one according to his knowledge of the being of that son or daughter. You believe he will condemn most to an eternity of torment, away from His presence and apart from His love. Is that not true?’
“I suppose I do. I just never thought about it like this. I just assumed that somehow God could do that. Talking about hell was always sort of an abstract conversation, not about anyone that I truly…’ Mack hestitated, realizing that what he was about to say would sound ugly, ‘not about anyone that I truly cared about.’

“’So you suppose, then, that God does this easily, but you cannot? Come now, Mackenzie. Which three of our five children will you sentence to hell?

‘I don’t want to be the judge,’ he said, standing up. ‘I can’t do this. I…will…not…do…this!’ Mack yelled.
‘You must,’ she whispered.
‘I can’t. I can’t. I won’t!’ he screamed. Finally he looked at her, pleading with his eyes. ‘Could I go instead? If you need someone to torture for eternity, I’ll go in their place. Would that work? Could I do that?’ He fell at her feet, crying and begging now. ‘Please let me go for my children, please, I would be happy to… Please, I am begging you. Please…Please…
‘Mackenzie…now you sound like Jesus. You have judged well…You have judged them worthy of love, even if it cost you everything. That is how Jesus loves. And now you know Papa’s heart,’ she added, ‘who loves all his children perfectly.’”

Here are some Bible verses:

John 3 ¹⁶ “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Colossians 1: 19 For in him (Jesus) all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

2 Corinthians 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

John 1:12  But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God

Ephesians 2: 8 For 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.

 Justice is getting what you deserve.
Mercy is not getting what you deserve
Grace is getting what you do not deserve.

Eg: If I kill someone I deserve death. (Justice), if I am not killed, I have not received what I deserve (Mercy), they have kept me alive, given me something I do not deserve (Grace).

God is perfectly Holy,  perfectly just, perfectly merciful, perfectly gracious, perfectly loving, He is Love (1 John 4:8).
So what happens to all the evil in the world if God is righteous and just? It must get what it deserves! The thing we do in our heads trying to outweigh our bad deeds with our good deeds does not work! If you do bad to one person and good to another, the good does not fix the bad! From the previous verses, this is what God did:

God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Through Jesus, God reconcile(d) to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. God made him who had no sin (Jesus) to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. What do we need to do? believes in him, because to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. By believing this, we have understood the reality, that we cannot save ourselves, and therefore are not trying to take the place of God. God gets the credit for saving us: For 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.

With all the previous post in mind I hope we can now establish the basics of the Christian Faith: 
  
We like to view ourselves as good people! To convince ourselves, we can always think of someone who has done something worse than us! This logic is terribly flawed, because God's standard is perfection, so even mother Teressa or Gandhi fell short! God decided to make a way. He sent His son, who was with him since the beginning of time, to become a human being, live the perfect life, in order to show mankind what it takes to be worthy of the presence of God. Jesus' mission, was to offer up his perfect life as payment for the sins of mankind. Jesus became sin, so that sin died on the cross. God sees our sins no more if we allow Jesus to justify us. Jesus is the only way to God.  

The Gospel Explained! Why Christianity is different and unique?

The last post was about the options we had for who we thought Jesus was:

• Lord
• Liar 
• Lunatic

If you say he is a good teacher, how do you deal with the teaching he gave about Himself:

"I and the Father are One" (John 10:30)

If this is not clear, the response we get from the crowd is that they wanted to kill him:

"We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” (John 10:33)

If you think Jesus was a good teacher, you have to take the first option, and acknowledge him as Lord?! Jesus did not leave us the option of thinking of him as just a good teacher with the claims he made about himself.

I will get back to why Jesus' nature is so important. And how it participates to the "best news ever", but more foundations need to be made to answer why study Jesus at all?

There are many religions out there. I know that just because something sounds good does not make it true. There's a saying "if something sounds too good to be true, then it probably is". Logically speaking if we compare all the religions, just because we prefer one, it does not make it true! But I believe that God being God, would not be satisfied with anything less than what is best. If we see a religion, as the organization of a set of beliefs in order to explain the world around, the best religion by God's standards should be the true religion, otherwise He would have made things differently. Another hypothesis I am making, is that the best God, would want to be known by those He created who are capable of knowing him.

So now, all we have to do is compare the religions, and weigh up the pros and cons!

Here are some things I want to look at:

• truth exists and it can be known. And so I believe that if your religion leaves the door for truths other than the truth it holds, it is a false religion, and does not hold the truth.

• If you believe in something, you must see it as unique, and see it as there is no other possible explanation. If any other way is possible, then your way is wrong! Every religion, will have an "edge", it's "thing", making it unique. I think the way to chose the right religion, is to show how the uniqueness of your faith makes it essential, and better than the other. Starting from the fact that the greatest God, has the greatest religion!

Bruce L. Shelley wrote:

Christianity is the only major religion to have as its central event the humiliation of its God.

The Bible teaches we are born with sin. I think this can be verified at observing how, you never have to teach a young child how to lie or disobey, he just does it! God is perfect and heaven is perfect, so the only way you can go to heaven is by being perfect. If you could go to heaven if you were not perfect, heaven would no longer be perfect. So to make this as simple as possible, God found a way of making you perfect, you just have to believe it, and remember it, and live accordingly!

Let's say you now die, you need to defend your case before God, so that he can decide whether or not you go to heaven or hell.

Here are the options:

• You try to convince God that despite the bad, you were still a decent person,and God owes it to you, to look past the bad and let you in.  

• You remember that only perfection gets you into heaven, you tell God that you have your place in heaven because He found a way of making you perfect

I've done surveys asking this question, everyone answers with the first option, without realizing what they are doing to the perfect, just, righteous God. I think Christianity is the Only Religion that offers the second option.

People react this way to it: "that is too easy, you can live the life you please and just throw those words at God once you die, and that is it". In answering this way, you just tell me that in your own eyes, you think you are better than other people, you look down on murderers, on thieves those you consider to be sinners. You think that you are good enough to go to heaven, you think you can save yourself. What if God was the savior, and in thinking you can save yourself, you are trying to take His place? You are committing the only sin that will send you to hell, self-centeredness, thinking you are God.

Let's consider the second option, see why it is so essential:

If your eternal state does not depend on your actions, it does not depend on you, and the pressure is off your shoulders. And another thing, nobody for as long as they live can be disqualified!

No matter what race you are, your age, your sex, no matter who you are

No matter what you have done, lied, murdered, raped, stole, God knows that we have all sinned in one way or another. We were born with different disadvantages, in different cultures and NO, sin is NEVER Justified, and we can ALWAYS say No to sin, and Yet we do it anyway! But God's standard is perfection, so no matter how good you are, that is not good enough, if you try to be good enough, you are just making God a liar. The Good News, is that God as made a way for all. It is THE way, only one response is acceptable, that you receive it openly.

This is the uniqueness of Christianity, while you are still alive God tells you that, he has made a way, and you can live the rest of your life with the hope of eternal joy in the presence of God. When other religions tell you to try as hard as you can, and after you die you will see if what you did was enough. Christianity says, what you do will never be enough. Just accept the free gift and rejoice, and share it with the World. I don't see any other possible solution.

Who is Jesus?

That is the question, depending on how you answer this question your life will be different if you are coherent with yourself.

The Bible gives these possibilities for that question:

As Jesus is healing, teaching:

• Jews were divided, over his miracles, and his teachings, some thought he was the Christ, others that he was insane, or just a liar

• John 7 ⁴⁰ When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.” ⁴¹ Others said, “This is the Christ.”  (...)

• John 10 ¹⁹ There was again a division among the Jews because of these words. ²⁰ Many of them said, “He has a demon, and is insane; why listen to him?” ²¹ Others said, “These are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

• John 27 ⁶² (...) the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate ⁶³ and said, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’

What we hear today are these possibilities about Jesus:

• He did not exist
• He did exist:
• told the truth about Himself
• was a lunatic and can't be held responsible for his lies.
• a Liar

The options people in the Bible had, are the same for us today, nothing is new! There is another popular option, about Jesus just being a good teacher and nothing else?

• Just a good teacher but C.S Lewis argues that that is not an option, he could not be just a good teacher, he he himself said he was the Son of God, so either he was who he said he was, or he was a lunatic, or a liar, but by his teachings and the claims that he made, Jesus crossed out the possibility of him being just a "good teacher".

The same way 2000 years ago people who heard about him, made a choice about who he was, so have you. Who do you think he was?

• Lord?
• Lunatic?
• Liar?

Welcome

I was watching a TV series episode, and then after a few minutes I just thought, what am I doing? Is there nothing better I can do with my time?! Through out the years I've had 'pen pawl' different people, different ages, different nationalities, most topics circulating around Jesus, the Bible, Christianity, God, and i found that those helped a lot to think about things, and make sense of the world we live, I think I know things that can change the world, and I want to start this blog to discuss these things. I want to use my time more wisely, and hopefully be able to help people get better understanding about the whole "Jesus" person/guru/religion or whatever gets associated with his name, and try and see what the truth is about Him, and what difference it makes today, and maybe together we can change the world?!

As I try to make this as simple as I can so that it can be accessible to everyone, I want you to know that I am interested in your whole life, as I believe God does too, I want to help you change what you know, how you think, how you act, and how you feel.

• Help people get to know God.
• Unravel the mystery, and try to explain Jesus 
• Change people's lives through what we are given in the Bible
• Understanding God's world view, and His will for things that affect us today
• I want to ask questions I don't yet know the answers to, I love it when people think! Maybe you can give me answers, or we can just speculate together...
• I want us to grow in deeper knowledge of our designer, and align our lives to live them as they were meant to be lived.
• I want my joy, and I want your joy, I want God to be glorified, and I believe that these three all go together.

 This is what I would like to achieve, I hope this blog will last longer than the previous one!


The more feedback I get, the more encouraged I am to write! If I feel like I can't make a difference, I might just go back to watching TV series!

love love love,

Julian