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If you really want to know God, you will find Him. Start with this: read through the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). These books are on the life and ministry of Jesus. Read the Psalms, they speak to God's character. Then read the book of Acts, the story of the growth of CHrist's Church. Then read Romans, the Christian's "consitution".Let me give you first some key verse on our need for Jesus.
Here is the simplicity of the gospel message:
1. We are all sinners: "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," (Rom 3:23, NIV). If you think that you are a good person. Great! But by who's standard? Yours? Your friends and family? Mine? Sure, you may be a good person according to those standards, but God's standards are the measure. Have you ever lied? Stolen something? Disobeyed your parents as a child? Used God's name as a cuss word? These four are but four of the ten commandments, GOd's standard for being good (Exodus 20). We are told that even if we break one of these moral laws we are guilty of breaking the whole law: "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it." (James 2:10, NIV)
2. Sin seperates us from God: "For the wages of sin is death," (Romans 6:23, NIV) Death is that seperation from God.
3. Sin bears consequences. The consequences of our sin is eternity in hell, a real place of eternal torment. Think of the worst possible tragidy you coul face in this life with all the horrors and nightmares that follow that situation. Hell is far worse than that. Again the wors of Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death," This death is a spiritual death and eternal torment in heaven.
4. There is a remedy for our sin. The next part of Romans 6:23 tells us, "but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." That free gift is the offer of salvation. This is how He offers you salvation: He died on the cross your place. We deserve to die for eternity for our sin, but God loves us so much that Jesus took our place on the cross. He became our scapegoat. But He didn't stay dead. He rose from the dead three days later. He conqueror sin and death. Hallelujah! Because of this He offers each one of us salvation.
5. You must choose how you respond. You can choose to reject this, or you can receive this gift of salvation. If you want to receive this gift of salvation you can pray and confess your sins to Jesus. You also need to place your faith in Him. 1John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to cleanse us from our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." That is a promise; if you confess your sins to Him we will forgive you. Romans 9:9-10 tells us, "That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved." There is the assurance for you. Will you delay your acceptance of Jesus' gift to you? I pray that you will not. If you want to talk furthar on this please contact me through my email at come2jesus@hotmail.ca.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Friday, June 10, 2011
Definition of Faith
I'm not sure that many atheist actually understand what faith is. Faith and belief are not the same thing. Faith is putting your belief into action. Here is an example. I believed that the chair I am sitting in, as I write, will hold my weight. But that isn't faith. When I move from believing to actually sitting in my chair, then I have moved from belief to action; I now haved moved into faith. The difference between atheists and Christians when it comes to faith is Christians place their faith in God (again acting on what we believe in God), whereas atheists place their faith into nothing. Having faith in nothing is like having a 10 ton boulder over your head and expecting it to stay suspended without anything holding it. Truly a scary place to be!
Monday, April 11, 2011
Reasons for the existance of God
There is no difference today and centuries gone by regarding the existance of God. I do have eight very good reasons for why God does exist and why we should follow Him.
The first reasoning is morality. There is no adequate explaination for absolute morals without refering to God. One might say, "Wait a minute there are no absolute morals." This is a lie and here is a test for this. Everyone in the world would agree that no one should ever be murdered. There should never be a cause or reason for a person to be murdered. Also everyone would agree that no one should ever be raped. Everyone would agree that their personal belongings should not be stolen by another person. We see that there are absolute morals. Since there are absolute morals they had to come from an absolute being of which humans are not. The Bible describes God as an absolute being therefore absolute morals come from God, thus showing that God does exist.
The second reasoning is through mathmatical probablity. I will use 0 for nothing and IN for infinity. Basically, the atheist is saying that 0 = IN. In other words from 0 you get 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.... Mathmatically this doesn't work because 1+1=2. 0+0 does not = 1.... So there has to be a cause for there to be 1 and on, because no number comes out of 0. Now if you have IN then you can have any number. The Bible says that God is infinite so IN represents God; therefore God exists and since God is infinite He can create all things. Mathmatically God exists and the probablity of the big bang and evolution is 0%.
The third line of reasoning is the use of history. Historical records do show that there has always be a belief in a deity and specifically the one true God, YHWH. Historical records also show that the Bible is the most realiable document available. This is because of the number of copies there are, how close they are in time to the autographs and the accuracy of those copies. The Bible has the most copies, with the oldest copies being the closest to the autographs and are the most accurate. The next closest book to this discription is the Egyptian book of the dead which doesn't even come close the number of accurate copies or even in regards to closeness of the autograph. When the Dead Sea Scrolls were found there was a copy of the book of Isaiah. The newest copies were compared to the Dead Sea copy of Isaiah and found them to be perfect matches in accuracy. This Dead Sea copy of Isaiah is only fifty years removed from the autograph. In addition to this we know that the oral tradition before the written word was carefully preserved so that there were no reconstruction of history. So it is clear that the Bible is accurate. The Bible is the inerrent Word of God and thus this again proves that God exists.
The fourth reasoning for the existance of God is miracles. I talked with several atheists and they all discount miracles. They either explain them away or just flat out don't accept them. However, they still have to accept that miracles do happen. Miracles do not have to be confirmed by the medical community, but there are records of such occurances. I know of people who had been diagnosed with cancer. When they came to the church, the church prayed for the healing of the cancer. Then next scan the person had showed that it was clear and there was no cancer to be found. I too, have experiance my own personal miracle healings. Despite the unacceptance of atheists for miracles, one truely cannot deny that they happen and in conjuntion with God speaking directly to people about these or prayers being offered up for these miracles.
The fifth reasoning is Prophecy. There are several prophecies through out the Bible and most of these prophecies have been fulfilled. There are some that are yet to be fulfilled but they have to do with the end of days. Some prophecies had to do with the coming of the Messiah which were fulfilled in Christ Jesus. Then there are other prophecies regarding earthquakes and many other such happenings. The fact that there was a great earthquake and several earthquakes of substantial size in the region is the beginning of the fulfillment of prophecies regarding there being a great increase of earthquakes. These prophecies show the truth and reliability of the Bible which also shows for God's existance because the of the Bible being God's Word.
The sixth reasoning is personal experiences. In Acts 9 we see the story of Paul's experience with meeting Jesus on his way to Damascus. There are many Christians who have stories of direct experiences with God. I have heard verifiable stories of Muslims who have seen and spoken to Jesus which cause them to believe in Jesus Christ and become His disciples. I have also had direct experiences with God. God spoke to me about lossing our daughter. Later that day my daughter passed away. God also spoke to me about how I would be leaving the ministry I was serving at. Three months later I was asked to resign. There are so many experience stories there are to many to count. A person may not accept these stories, but that doesn't make them false. Personal experience and testimony is proof that God exists.
The seventh reasoning has to do with the early Christians. For arguement let us say that the atheist is correct and that God doesn't exist. The question comes to mind, Why would the disciples of Jesus be willing to die for stomething that wasn't true? The answer is, they wouldn't. No one would be willing to die for something like the story of Jesus' resurrection if it weren't true, because they would have nothing to gain for it. But that is exactly what happened to all the apostles; they died for their teaching that Jesus existed and rose from the grave. Since they died for what they believed and taught and we eyewitnesses to the events described in the gospels, then God does exist.
The eighth reasoning is eyewitnesses. The twelve disciples and the apostle Paul were eye-witnesses to what the Bible discribes about Jesus. Then there are other historical people in the Old Testament who are witness and had encounters directly with God. Two such men were Moses and Elijiah. So we accounts of eyewitnesses.
Each of these eight reasonings are overwhelming evidence for the existance of God. Anyone who does not accept these as evidence for the existance of God is like the child who covers his eyes when the parent tells him not to throw his food across the table. The child may think the parent isn't there when the truth is the parent is still there and still speaking to the child about his actions.
The first reasoning is morality. There is no adequate explaination for absolute morals without refering to God. One might say, "Wait a minute there are no absolute morals." This is a lie and here is a test for this. Everyone in the world would agree that no one should ever be murdered. There should never be a cause or reason for a person to be murdered. Also everyone would agree that no one should ever be raped. Everyone would agree that their personal belongings should not be stolen by another person. We see that there are absolute morals. Since there are absolute morals they had to come from an absolute being of which humans are not. The Bible describes God as an absolute being therefore absolute morals come from God, thus showing that God does exist.
The second reasoning is through mathmatical probablity. I will use 0 for nothing and IN for infinity. Basically, the atheist is saying that 0 = IN. In other words from 0 you get 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.... Mathmatically this doesn't work because 1+1=2. 0+0 does not = 1.... So there has to be a cause for there to be 1 and on, because no number comes out of 0. Now if you have IN then you can have any number. The Bible says that God is infinite so IN represents God; therefore God exists and since God is infinite He can create all things. Mathmatically God exists and the probablity of the big bang and evolution is 0%.
The third line of reasoning is the use of history. Historical records do show that there has always be a belief in a deity and specifically the one true God, YHWH. Historical records also show that the Bible is the most realiable document available. This is because of the number of copies there are, how close they are in time to the autographs and the accuracy of those copies. The Bible has the most copies, with the oldest copies being the closest to the autographs and are the most accurate. The next closest book to this discription is the Egyptian book of the dead which doesn't even come close the number of accurate copies or even in regards to closeness of the autograph. When the Dead Sea Scrolls were found there was a copy of the book of Isaiah. The newest copies were compared to the Dead Sea copy of Isaiah and found them to be perfect matches in accuracy. This Dead Sea copy of Isaiah is only fifty years removed from the autograph. In addition to this we know that the oral tradition before the written word was carefully preserved so that there were no reconstruction of history. So it is clear that the Bible is accurate. The Bible is the inerrent Word of God and thus this again proves that God exists.
The fourth reasoning for the existance of God is miracles. I talked with several atheists and they all discount miracles. They either explain them away or just flat out don't accept them. However, they still have to accept that miracles do happen. Miracles do not have to be confirmed by the medical community, but there are records of such occurances. I know of people who had been diagnosed with cancer. When they came to the church, the church prayed for the healing of the cancer. Then next scan the person had showed that it was clear and there was no cancer to be found. I too, have experiance my own personal miracle healings. Despite the unacceptance of atheists for miracles, one truely cannot deny that they happen and in conjuntion with God speaking directly to people about these or prayers being offered up for these miracles.
The fifth reasoning is Prophecy. There are several prophecies through out the Bible and most of these prophecies have been fulfilled. There are some that are yet to be fulfilled but they have to do with the end of days. Some prophecies had to do with the coming of the Messiah which were fulfilled in Christ Jesus. Then there are other prophecies regarding earthquakes and many other such happenings. The fact that there was a great earthquake and several earthquakes of substantial size in the region is the beginning of the fulfillment of prophecies regarding there being a great increase of earthquakes. These prophecies show the truth and reliability of the Bible which also shows for God's existance because the of the Bible being God's Word.
The sixth reasoning is personal experiences. In Acts 9 we see the story of Paul's experience with meeting Jesus on his way to Damascus. There are many Christians who have stories of direct experiences with God. I have heard verifiable stories of Muslims who have seen and spoken to Jesus which cause them to believe in Jesus Christ and become His disciples. I have also had direct experiences with God. God spoke to me about lossing our daughter. Later that day my daughter passed away. God also spoke to me about how I would be leaving the ministry I was serving at. Three months later I was asked to resign. There are so many experience stories there are to many to count. A person may not accept these stories, but that doesn't make them false. Personal experience and testimony is proof that God exists.
The seventh reasoning has to do with the early Christians. For arguement let us say that the atheist is correct and that God doesn't exist. The question comes to mind, Why would the disciples of Jesus be willing to die for stomething that wasn't true? The answer is, they wouldn't. No one would be willing to die for something like the story of Jesus' resurrection if it weren't true, because they would have nothing to gain for it. But that is exactly what happened to all the apostles; they died for their teaching that Jesus existed and rose from the grave. Since they died for what they believed and taught and we eyewitnesses to the events described in the gospels, then God does exist.
The eighth reasoning is eyewitnesses. The twelve disciples and the apostle Paul were eye-witnesses to what the Bible discribes about Jesus. Then there are other historical people in the Old Testament who are witness and had encounters directly with God. Two such men were Moses and Elijiah. So we accounts of eyewitnesses.
Each of these eight reasonings are overwhelming evidence for the existance of God. Anyone who does not accept these as evidence for the existance of God is like the child who covers his eyes when the parent tells him not to throw his food across the table. The child may think the parent isn't there when the truth is the parent is still there and still speaking to the child about his actions.
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