The Three Hardest Tasks

I remember someone asking in a letter about why people hold on to hate. I think it was with regards to slavery or something along those lines. It’s always the question. I think the reason we cling to our hates so stubbornly is that deep down we sense that once the hate is gone…we will be forced to deal with pain. We don’t like dealing with pain. That is why many will cling stubbornly to hate.

Remember that the three hardest tasks in the world are not physical or intellectual. They are moral: to return love for hate, to include the excluded, and to say, “I was wrong.” Only the Spirit of the living God can help a person with these three tasks. Left to our flesh and human nature…we are simply not capable. 1John 4:16 “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.”

Taste...see for yourself

“And no sneers at the limitations of logic either…amend the dilemma” – I. A. Richards.

Many probably experience the limitations of “logic and reasoning” when examining the ways of the living God (Christ Jesus). However, He is in no way committed to our “logical constructs”. We have been trained to build logical frameworks around everything. Think of the number of times you use…“If so-and-so then…” etc. When dealing with God our “logical constructs” are woefully inadequate. If we could dissect Him with logic…He wouldn’t be much of a God now would He? He has to be experienced to be believed. You cannot tell what goes bump in the night by reasoning alone. At some point you will have to abandon reason and go see for yourself. That is why we are exhorted to…“Taste and see that the Lord is good…” (Psalm 34:8).

We cannot put God in a box (logical framework). He is differently related to our “time and space” (but not cut off from it). This is why He can do anything including: “become man”, walk on water, transfigure…perform miracles. Best of all…He can lay down His life and take it up again. No one took it from Him (John 10:18). God is timeless…so that what “was”, “is now” and “will be”…all “happen at the same time” for Him. Time is really a mode of perception…not something that exists in-and-of-itself (now I know why He used parables!). C.S. Lewis puts it well: “The difference [God's] timelessness makes is that this now (which slips away from you even as you say the word now) is for Him infinite.” He is a Spirit…Spirit gives birth to Spirit. The flesh is confined to “this time and space” we call reality (more like Satan’s dream world). The Spirit…as God showed when He “became man”…is not. Don’t take my word for it. Read His…taste and see for yourself…Jeremiah 29:13 “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”

On your ‘Marx’, Get Set…

For as bats’ eyes are to daylight so is our intellectual eye to those truths which are, in their own nature, the most obvious of all – Aristotle.

Reasoning (to be valid) cannot be denied. Some say all human ideals are illusions and human loves are ‘biological by-products’. Besides reasoning, we also make moral judgements. We ‘ought’ or ‘ought not’ do this. No one pays attention to moral judgements, which can be shown to come from non-moral and non-rational causes. The Freudian and Marxist both attack morality on this ground.

They forget though that what discredits particular moral judgements must equally discredit moral judgement as a whole (or has basic philosophy been forgotten?). If the fact that men have such ideas as ‘ought’ and ‘ought not’, can fully explained by irrational and non-moral causes, then those ideas are themselves illusions. Here is their escape – all ideas are impulses, which we have been conditioned to feel. Yet, at the sight of social injustice they write like men of genius... proclaiming what is good (better pay) and denouncing what is bad (wuk-up culture).

This is strange though. Since their thoughts…are themselves the impulses by which nature has conditioned we Homo sapiens. It says nothing about any objective right or wrong – so why all the fuss? Maybe they forget that when they write, for that is their glory. To hold a philosophy, which excludes humanity; yet try desperately to remain human. Trying to escape from their difficulty…they flatly contradict themselves.

‘Opiate of the masses’? A true ‘Marx-man’ indeed…always off-target. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, comes to pass on this occasion, doesn’t it? That is how powerful the Word of God is. Just like He said in Isaiah 55:11. As the world turns…the web continues to be woven… http://www.religion-online.org/ …Go! Can’t run from the truth though…can we?

Come let us pray?

What could be wrong with “the coming together of different religions” for “witness to unity and development”? Actually a lot is wrong with it. The problem is – religions have contradictory claims. Christians are praying to God who is Jesus. Other faiths are praying to a God who is not Jesus. God cannot be Jesus and not be Jesus at the same time. Therefore we all cannot be praying to, serving, or worshipping God. At bare minimum, one of us must be wrong. It could be we are all wrong. But one thing that we can never say is that we are all right. Different faiths can never seriously say let us come together and worship the same God. Beliefs may be all equally valid in the sense that they are consciously held by sincere people, but they cannot be equally true if they are contrary beliefs.

Not participating in such an event (Inter-Faith Service) immediately would have branded the Evangelicals in the minds of some as some kind of religious fanatics, a group so blinded by their narrow-minded convictions that they have no tolerance for other beliefs. Pluralism in the religious arena is evil. The idea that it does not really matter what philosophy or religion you follow, as long as you have got God (or Gods in some cases) in there somewhere and you are following your religion sincerely then everything will be ok.

This “religious tolerant” view never encourages people to assess the truth value of their religious claims. It is saying do not think about those things, do not criticize and do not say others are wrong. If you subscribe to that then you cannot criticize even the assessment of your own spiritual claims. Religious truth claims must be challenged if we are to have any confidence that they are true.

We need to stop misleading people with words like “tolerance” and “open-mindedness”. They mislead because much of what passes for tolerance today is not tolerance at all, but actually intellectual cowardice. Some prefer hiding behind the myth of neutrality (religious pluralism) to intelligent engagement. It hinders us from dealing with the real issues facing society – what should we be encouraging as a society? The pluralistic idea behind an Inter-Faith service is false by its very nature. That is why it should be rejected, not encouraged. We can live, eat, work and play together…the one thing we cannot do though is say “Come...let us pray.”

The 'Free Ticket Letter'

“The soul is a spiritual thing, riches are an earthly extract, and how can these fill a spiritual substance? How man does thirst after the world, but alas, it falls short of his expectation. It cannot fill the hiatus and longing of his soul” – Thomas Watson.

I’m quite amazed at how many people actually buy into gambling. The Bible does not explicitly forbid gambling. However, there are several biblical principles that should make one think twice. Proverbs (28:20,22) warns of disaster for people who want to get rich quickly. In Proverbs (13:11) we learn that wealth that comes easily goes just as easily. Easy come… easy go. Worst of all it is addictive…right up there with deadliest vices. The moral high ground is often taken by claiming that we are supporting ‘worthy causes’. How comforting. Actually…people don’t gamble to support ‘worthy causes’…people gamble to support their own cause and win ‘nuff cash’. Quit pretending already. Gambling is really a secret tax on people who are bad at math.

It is cheap to play the odds. Thing is, we always (not sometimes) end up paying dearly chasing after what is cheap. Gambling can never do a better job than God in providing your needs (not to be confused with everything your heart desires). If we came from nothing…anything would go (including gambling, murder and theft). Anything doesn’t though…since we ‘ought not to’… say…gamble, murder or steal. Our morals come from an absolute moral wisdom (of God). Keep God out of the equation and you will always come up with the wrong answer. Thing is, so many are bad at math.

So you’re still thinking of all the things that you can do with that money? Well, I’m not a gambling man…but I bet it will (not might) turn into…“My God, look what all this money has done to me.” Who “owns” who? Something to think about as you stand in line to purchase that ticket.

Isn’t it always the Question?

If life were my favourite topic, I would try to secure eternal life. If it were truly my favourite topic, I would try to have it more abundantly. How? Simple, believe John 3: 16 with all your heart. But alas, my intellect will not allow me to accept that beautiful gift. Is that not for the “common man” who knows no better? What, abandon my intellect and believe in such fables and fairytales? It’s always the question, isn’t it?

Using the mere existence of causes for a belief as a way of raising a presumption that the belief is groundless, are we? Amusing at best. If the truth (Word of God) were groundless and based on no evidence, wouldn’t it be easily refuted? But alas, no refutations are forthcoming. All we are hearing is empty rhetoric, aren’t we? It’s always the question, isn’t it?

The enemies of the cross are standing, feet planted firmly in mid-air. They are thrown the eternal lifeline of the gospel of Jesus Christ (all praise and glory be unto Him). Alas, who would reach out of the darkness and hold onto this precious truth? C. S. Lewis once said, “A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, “darkness” on the walls of his cell.” Can a man ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Yes, very easily. After all…all nonsense questions are unanswerable. It’s always the question, isn’t it?

My blogs will pass away...but the truth that is in the Word of God however will never pass away. Then the curtain falls, true. But the show must go on. This begs the real question, Which show will you be watching for eternity? Now there is a serious question to ponder. Life, a fascinating topic indeed but it’s always the question, isn’t it? It’s always the question. No wonder there is http://www.christiananswers.net/