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How Believing in God Changes Your Perspective on Time.

  When you have an awareness of the Divine your perspective on time changes. Uncertainty can be the cause of a lack of belief in God. In generations past our culture has had more of an awareness of God and lived with more certainty. The bible is not just a story book for the present moment, it contains the past, the present, and the future in it. The Holy Spirit can give us a perspective that holds the past, the present, and the future, and allows us to see God’s whole picture, despite what we may be feeling or experiencing around us or in our lives.   Trials and persecution can make it difficult to see the whole picture, but I believe that it’s a gift of God to live with this perspective. Unbelief can hinder us from “seeing it all” and insecurities and weaknesses can also disable us from living with this certainty. Also the fear of death, or impending doom, can erase God’s perspective of the future, because our minds get clouded with fear, and we are not able to perceive real...

Helping the Poor.

  Someone asked me recently to what extent do we help the homeless if we choose to invite them into our homes. Let’s assume you have a home, and that you are the owner of that home first! I want to quote Isaiah 58:6-7 “Is not this the fast that I choose:     to loose the bonds of wickedness,     to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free,     and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry     and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him,     and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?”  And Isaiah 58:10-12 “if you pour yourself out for the hungry     and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness     and your gloom be as the noonday. And the Lord will guide you continually     and satisfy your desire in ...

Time is Meaningful.

 There are many doctrines out there that have to do with time and its meaning. In some religions and cults, transcendence of time is the main goal. As we get older, we all naturally feel that time is more elusive and consequently more precious, so the focus becomes getting the most out of out time as possible. Jesus Christ lived in time, and he lived with the restrictions of time. Because Jesus is God, he was able to redeem time for us. Because of his life, death, and resurrection, he changed the course of time, this is why the early church was able to say they were living in the last days.  As Christians we remember the past, and anticipate the future, but the present is where the past and the future meet. God’s kingdom is always coming to us in the present, and its fulfilment will be in the present, not in the past. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, he transformed meaningless time to have meaning. Because of his death, Jesus Christ has given meaningless time meaning becau...

The Righteousness of Christ.

  The argument is: “Does the righteousness that we receive at salvation affect the soul or is it a positional righteousness alone?” If your faith doesn’t change you, then it’s possible that the Holy Spirit is not conforming you to the character of Christ. Part of sanctification is being made holy, but why do some people who call themselves Christians, show no real evidence of holiness in their lives? They are being taught that positional righteousness is all that matters, that God will not judge them on their sanctification. This teaching fails to promote the kind of character change that the Holy Spirit wants to accomplish in every Christian’s life, from the moment of salvation.   We are justified by faith, and not by works, but the point of the Christian life is not just to get a free pass to Heaven, it’s to be conformed to the character of Christ, while we are here on this earth, (Romans 8:29). While it is true that sanctification is progressive, we are not instantly made h...

Revisiting Trauma.

  There is something healing about the past if we revisit it in the proper way. Many of us have things in our past that we want to remain in the past, but some of us have trauma that is waiting to be healed. There are different causes of this particular trauma, some can be caused by our sins, but sometimes it is the sins of others that causes suffering. Mixed in with this trauma are good or positive experiences, which may no longer define who we are, but still have an effect on our psychology.   When we embrace negative trauma, the kind of trauma that is currently unwanted, when we embrace it in a positive way, we can learn from the mistakes we made and we can repent. Repentance can bring healing into your life, even if you were the cause of the trauma or you participated freely in it. The kind of trauma that is harder to heal, but not impossible is the trauma you experienced from an authority figure or people much older than you. Forgiveness helps to heal this kind of trauma ...

The Expendable Congregation.

  Have you ever been thrown under the bus? Not literally but metaphorically? This is precisely what is happening in many Christian congregations in North America and elsewhere. The way churches used to behave is radically different from the way churches are acting in the twenty first century. With the population growth and growth in congregations, the pastors in some churches feel overwhelmed and unable to pastor the congregation, so what many churches have done is limiting the ministry roles of pastors and delegating more responsibility to lay leaders and lay ministers.   At first this seems exciting to the laity because it gives us more of a responsibility within the church, and we feel more empowered as to the direction of our faith. However, what is the result of putting less pastoral responsibility on the pastor and more responsibility on the laity? I argue that when this happens in a church, the laity actually becomes expendable. When our pastors are overwhelmed with the...

Is God a Cosmic Vibration or the Absolute Creator?

  In Hinduism God is the manifested cosmic vibration that permeates and upholds all things. You need to attune your consciousness to this force through meditation if you want to experience God. God has manifested his being through creation, and our bodies, and part of realizing God is realizing this truth in Hinduism. But is God really a force that permeates this creation and our bodies, or does He live outside of this creation? Talking about God in Hebrews 7:26, the bible says; “For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.” Here the bible says that God is separate from sinners, yet God is absolute.   God is also sovereign, performing His will above the will of man. Read Ephesians 1:11 “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.” In Hinduism as well as Christianity we ar...

When We Build Only for this Life.

  Life is meaningless without faith, yet there are many people who see this life as their only hope. Hope comes from having a living faith in Jesus Christ and what the Bible promises us as eternal life, (John 3:16). Some people are deceived and believe that this life is all there is. They work for that which will ultimately perish in the end, and they do not store for themselves treasures in Heaven. They exclude themselves from the kingdom of God, and try to build their own kingdom here on earth. The Bible warn us not to be like these people because there is a Heaven and the Bible warns of eternal hell for those who live this way. They are enemies of the cross and their Creator. (Philippians 3:18, Romans 8:7-21).   Despite these warnings in the Bible, many are blinded to spiritual realities and will be shocked when they die. My prayer is that God would have pity on people like this. Faith is a gift, and comes to us when we absolutely trust in Jesus Christ for our salvation. We...