“Yes” was the answer! 

That is, we will be kind and compassionate to each other. Great! We are all made in the image of God, so all of us have the capacity to be kind and compassionate. No one group has the sole copyright or monopoly on this ability.

However, the back narrative is seen in the picture from the market with the Bible verse:  “… just as in Christ, God forgave you.” 

That really is the ultimate in kindness and compassion – Jesus coming to love us and give himself for us, so that we can be restored and reconciled to God.

This is through God forgiving those who have accepted Jesus as their substitute. Forgiven for their ignoring and previous rejection of God. And then changing, because they want to please their wonderfully kind and gracious God!

Great news!

Buddha’s main thesis? 

“We can eliminate suffering when we cease to desire.”   

From my reading over the years, that seems to encapsulate it. 

Certainly there are other major themes for all Buddhists, be they eastern or western/eclectic Buddhists.

However, does that theme seem to be a self-defeating argument – the desire to put down all one’s desires?

The eclectic western Buddhists in the market last Saturday disagreed with the original statement. 

I think that many of our desires are good God-given desires. If we run with those desires in the right context, then we can be quite happy. 

If my desires conflict with that, then it would be better to put them down…

That is especially if we want to please God, and do the right thing by our neighbor. 

Your thoughts? 

Mention of Hell…? 

That word can confront!

We know that some think they are already living in it. Strangely enough, such people seem to live in the comfortable West, from my observation.

What if Hell would be just in this life? What we do has consequences, so “yes”, it would be self-chosen, according to the choices we make. Or it could be due to circumstances outside our control, such as sickness, weather or accidents.

If Hell will be a reality in the life following this brief one, then what?

What could we do now to stop that being a personal horrible reality then?

Jesus rebuked Jewish religious hypocrites in front of him.

“You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to Hell?

Matthew 23:33 (NIV)(http://www.laridian.com)

Jesus spoke more about Hell in the Bible than anyone else and in a way that shows that he understood it to be a real and specific place of punishment away from God.

Someone told me the following…

Hell – Real, Terrible, Avoidable

Avoidable? By just being “good”, or religious?

Not according to the Bible. The only way is to be forgiven by God for the way we have rejected or ignored him in our lives, as well as rejected or ignored the only way we can be forgiven and brought into happy relationship.

That way is through Jesus, taking our shame, punishment, and God’s wrath against us on our behalf. He did that, rescuing us, but we need to fully accept it and then live it.

What do you think?

Negative consequences follow from our negative actions?

They usually do, but not always. For instance, sickness doesn’t necessarily follow, unless we have been adopting an unhealthy lifestyle.

It is to do with the law of cause and effect. You could even say cosmic justice. 

Most of us would like there to be such a principle in the universe, so that the Hitlers and the Stalins et al could be held responsible for their crimes. 

However, we would rather we ourselves were not hauled up to such a court!

The hidden evil – “the prince of this world”

There is also Satan, one of the leading powerful angels created by God. Angels, as well as people, were given free choice by God. Satan chose to rebel against his creator, and led a rebellion with about a third of the lesser powerful angels. 

God banished them out of his immediate presence, and they came to earth. Satan leads them in inciting and aiding people in rebelling with them against God. It is very interesting that Jesus called Satan, “the prince of this world”.

We can be the source of evil, along with Satan and ‘demons’. 

When asked about something similar, Jesus said,

“What comes out of a person is what defiles them. [21] For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, [22] adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. [23] All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

Mark 7:20 (NIV) (http://www.laridian.com)

We can choose to love and obey God, living to please him. Or we can choose to rebel, and live to please ourselves. God loves us enough to not force us to love him.

However, later, God will be God, and we won’t be. Now we can choose how to live, but then we won’t be able to choose the consequences. That’s when both justice and judgement will be displayed, and evil will finally be dealt with…

What do you think?

A great question!

Since everyone ends up dying, then it makes sense to ponder the question, don’t you think?

Benjamin Franklin apparently said: “… in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

Not everyone pays tax, but everyone gets to die!

So what happens next?

Nothing? Recycling? Come back as a unicorn? Heaven? Hell?

What have you decided? Is it a fixed thought, or waiting for more enlightenment?

I hope to end up in heaven. Not because I am any better than anyone else, but because I am forgiven by God. That happened when I accepted what Jesus did for me on the cross. He then came to life again, so I will be able to also. 

As well,  Jesus said,

“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. [13] … For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Matthew 9:12 (NIV) (http://www.laridian.com)

The patients who see themselves as being sick are the ones who go to the doctor. Those who think of themselves as being well, don’t, even though they really are sick. It parallels our perception of our actual spiritual state before God.

Forgiveness is the key to open the door to God’s heaven

In the same way, people who see themselves as needing God’s forgiveness, which is exactly what Jesus offers in full, are the ones who can go to heaven!

The Bible’s heaven promises to be wonderful, while Hell terrible. You could almost say that those who actually deeply love God go there, while those who don’t, find the other by default…

“What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard,

and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him—

1 Corinthians 2:9 (NIV) (http://www.laridian.com)

What do you think?