Saturday 8 June 2019

Some Food For Thought

Do you know that your suffering might have a great purpose for the sake of mankind and for the sake of God's glory?  What a privilege that would be to suffer for the sake of God. Give your suffering to God and see what happens.

Have you ever gone to buy something and before you do had look to see if it's what you want, and then gone to the frequently asked questions? Well below are a number of thoughts on five topics (frequently asked questions) by David Leatherman taken from his book 'Biblical Insights and Special Thoughts'.

THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST
AND HIS PRAYERS
    The passion of Jesus Christ can be easily summed up as follows:  Jesus' passion is that He came to reveal the nature of His Holy Father.  The question is this:  How did this passion manifest itself towards all of His creation, and specifically towards man?
     What was, and what are the aspects of the passion of Christ?  To understand the aspects of His passion, I must first define passion.  Passion is that property, emotion and zeal that is the very core of the driving force that defines and describes who we are, what we represent and what represents the calling of our creation.
Related image    If we are called to be like Jesus, then we must know His passion.  If we know His passions, then we can know what our passions are supposed to be.  These passions showed up in the prayers of Jesus.  Knowing the prayers of Jesus allows us to peek at the very heart of Jesus.  Prayer was the most intimate relationship Jesus had with His Father.  Our prayers should be the same.

SUFFERING - WHY?
        Maybe your suffering is for the sake of God.  You know Joseph's story of suffering for the sake of God's purpose.  It seems as though God accomplishes great life-altering events through the suffering of His chosen people.  Jesus is the prime example.  He suffered for or sin.  With that said, I am reminded of an event that probably caused the greatest growth in the spreading of God's Word, and it involved suffering.  It was the event of Stephen's death by stoning (Acts 7 and 8).  When Stephen reminded the Jews of their sin and hypocrisy, they stoned Stephen at the gate of Jerusalem.  The Pharisees did not want to be reminded of their sin and hypocrisy, so they stoned Stephen to death.  This was a significant event and what made it more significant was that Paul was there and gave approval for the stoning death of Stephen.

      The suffering and death of Stephen caused the church at Jerusalem to scatter.  When the church members scattered, they formed many other churches.  When they scattered, the cause of Jesus Christ grew greatly.  After Stephen's death, Paul was on his way to Damascus.  Jesus confronted Paul on that road.  Jesus renamed Saul to the name of Paul.  The rest of the event is well known.  God worked through Paul to write two-thirds of the New Testament.  Paul was also tortured and suffered greatly for the cause of Jesus.  Paul began to rejoice in his suffering for the cause of Jesus Christ. Here is the point:  If Stephen had not suffered and died for the sake of righteousness, where would we be today?  What Stephen did through suffering set the course for the future of all mankind.  Do you know that your suffering might have a great purpose for the sake of mankind and for the sake of God's glory?  What a privilege that would be to suffer for the sake of God. Give your suffering to God and see what happens.

EVOLUTION VS CREATION
        Evolution/Creation - a television editorial which dispelled the validity of creation and promoted the concept of evolution ignited my thought process.
        The fundamental driving force of evolution is survival - survival of the fittest.  If we are a product of evolution, then the essence of our existence would be centred around the rudimentary function of survival.  The essence of our existence would be to survive, even to the exclusion or extinction of all other elements of life, even animal life, or human life, which includes family members.  These characteristics are demonstrated in the animal wildlife kingdom.  Some animals will eat their own if they have to.  Pure evolution does not have to provide for self denial or self destruction, but, rather, for self absorption and survival.  
        With this in mind, an interesting question emerges:  If we are a function of evolution, where do self denial, compassion, faith, trust, and commitment even to death come from?  The answer to this question is obvious.  Evolution does not answer the dynamics of this question; only creation can answer this question.
        At our creation, God put within us the capacity for love. compassion, faith, trust, self denial and commitment, even to death.  By virtue of our creation, all of us have the potential for these God-given traits.  The energy source that dynamically empowers these traits is "God Within Us", through the Holy Spirit.  It is only when we accept a new life through Jesus Christ, and repentance for our former life, can we truly commit to something greater than our self.


Genesis 1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Scripture added).

  HELL
        Hell - a real physical place, not a state of mind, a real place known as the unseen underworld.  It is a real place where the body cannot and will not die, even though there is extreme torture.  The torture is described in scripture as pain that causes gnashing of teeth and a relentless fire and heat and a place where worms eternally eat the flesh.  Remember:  This is an eternity of torment.
 Jesus spoke clearly about hell.  While Jesus was clear about hell and the consequences, many theologians try to minimize hell and its consequences.  Jesus preached about hell as much, or more than, any other subject.  The New Testament gives over 60 references to hell, and the word "hell" appears 23 times.  The word "hell" appears 31 times in the Old Testament.

 God is a sinless God and lives in a place where sin cannot exist.  In the beginning, God created Adam and Eve and they were sinless and lived in a sinless place called Eden.  When Adam and Eve sinned, they became dirty, so God threw them out of His presence.  At some point, God made a provision for man to cleanse himself of sin so that man could once again be in the presence of God.  That provision was the blood of a perfect being, Jesus Christ.  He gave His blood so that man would not have to go to hell, but, rather, stand in the presence of our Holy God.  That is the reason we need to know that hell is real.  Jesus gave His life and blood so we would not have to go to hell, but rather go to heaven.

Do you believe heaven exists?  Do you believe hell exists?  If you really, really believe there is a heaven and a hell, how could you ever take a chance of going to hell when it is sure you can go to heaven?  God provided a way into heaven.  

DIRECT MY THOUGHTS
        If you are asking God to direct your path, you must be moving.  If you are not moving, how can God change your direction?  A person who is not moving has no direction, and, therefore, does not have a basis for change to start a new direction.  Keep moving toward what you know as God's righteousness and will for you, and He will move you, direct your path and charter your course to fulfil the calling of your creation.  Only then will you find total joy, peace and contentment.  This is how, I believe, the martyrs were able to willingly give their lives for the Namesake of our Lord Jesus.  The following scripture is a good example of the importance of moving so that God can direct your path:
                                            -- Isaiah 30:21 - "Whenever you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, 'This is the way; walk in it'."

You may or may not agree with what was said above by David, but whatever your standpoint I hope it's given you food for thought.

Blessings.




All the above are taken from the book "Biblical Insights and Special Thoughts: Authored by David L. Leatherman

1 comment:

  1. Much here to ponder and challenge what we think about these subjects, but one thing is clear; God is in full control and we need to accept this and walk like we believe it. He created all things and is in indeed in control of all things. Be blessed.

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