Random Thoughts on the Really Good News

If heaven is real, if it is the utopia that we hope for, if it is a place of eternal bliss in an immortal, powerful, spiritual body, then experiencing the uncertainty and trials that we face now is in fact a “light affliction” in comparison. "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." (2 Corinthians 4:17) The way our “affliction” is “working for us” is simply that in order for us to get to heaven, we must be born into this “present evil age” and go through some time in this hell of a world in which we live that ends for us all in death.  The path to heaven is through this "evil age" to be rescued AFTER we die to an "eternal weight of glory" . “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father…” (Galatians 1:3-5) It is God’s “...

"The Word became flesh...the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of GRACE and truth...The law was given through Moses; GRACE and truth came through Jesus Christ." (John 1:14-17 NIV) As righteous as the Law of Moses was, it came to us through Moses and the result was that it put us in bondage and we all die as sinners. "For when we lived according to the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the Law were at work in our bodies, bearing fruit for death. But now, having died to what bound us, we have been released from the Law, so that we serve the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code...the very commandment that was meant to bring life actually brought death" (Romans 7:6-11 NASB) Jesus came to earth with the GRACE of God, to save all sinners with the free gift of eternal life. "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord...as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall ...

"For the saving GRACE of God made its appearance to all humanity..." (Titus 2:11 CLNT) The "saving GRACE" of God is for ALL. It is NOT offered to mankind but has "appeared to all humanity" as a free gift.  And because it is freely given by GRACE, none of us sinners have any say in the matter... "...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:23-24) You will not find this truth in a church but you do find it in the Bible, and when you find it, and believe it, you start "training" to become a better person... " For the saving GRACE of God made its appearance to all humanity, training us that, disowning irreverence and worldly desires, we should be living sanely and justly and devoutly in the current eon..."  (Titus 2:11-12 CLNT) The knowledge and faith that we are saved as a free gift of God's gra...

"Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison" (2 Corinthians 4:16-17) All of us have an outer shell that is decaying. In other words, it is dying. And as we grow older our "outer man" will suffer all kinds of aches and pain. But it will only seem a "light affliction"  when we receive what has been promised in the next.  The promise of this  "sequel"  enables us not to lose heart as we see loved ones suffer, or experience affliction ourselves. "No trial has taken you except what is human. Now, faithful is God, Who will not be leaving you to be tried above what you are able, but, together with the trial, will be making the sequel also, to enable you to undergo it." (1 Corinthians 10:13 CLNT) So we just have to suck it up and trust that it is necessary to suf...

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth....The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen." (Genesis1:1 - Revelation 22:21) I enjoy reading the Bible and meditating on what it says. I cannot tell you why but it has been my passion for more than 40 years. It is is the most controversial and talked about book in the world.  Millions of people meet each week all over the world claiming to follow its teachings yet never seem to come to a consensus of what that teaching is. As much as I enjoy it, it has been time consuming for me to distinguish between what it actually says and what the church proclaims it to say.  And after all those years of study it is clear to me that the above verses, representing the first and last verses of the Bible, is what I want my grand kids to know for sure. 1.  God is the creator of all things 2.  The Grace of Jesus, the Son of God, is with all mankind. I do not want my grand kids to get their understanding of God and...

The church in which I was raised has a meeting each Sunday morning which is called “Sunday School”. It is assumed that we attend to study the Bible. However, the truth is that it is a place where the denominational beliefs are studied and various bible verses are read to attempt to prove that doctrine. This teaching method is true of every church group I have read about, whether Catholic or Protestant. We are not taught to think and reason with regard to the truth, but to simply believe what we are told is the truth.  "Thinking and reasoning" about what we read in the Scripture is very rare among Christians today. If people would actually think logically about what they are told is truth we could eliminate the horrible false doctrines in our churches. The following is an example: The doctrine of “substitution” is taught in most churches. We are taught that Christ Jesus is our substitute in regard to judgment for sin.  It says Jesus paid for sin so we do not have to pay fo...

"But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe." (2 Corinthians 4:3-4) Let’s be clear about some terms used above. 1. The "gospel" is the good news that there is life after death. 2. That good news is "veiled" to those who think in death they or others perish. 3. The term “perishing” means to die and stay dead. 4. Those "blinded" are those "who do not believe" that there is life after death for mankind. The good news was and will always be hidden (veiled) to those who do not believe in life after death (the gospel). They are blinded by the present age where life does in fact come to an end in death. They do not believe that there is life after death. The good news is also hidden to those of the various religions of the world. Though most adhere to some form or another of life after death, they limit the scope of that life...

“We have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God”. (2 Corinthians 4:2) Have you ever heard someone complain that “the preacher is just preaching what people want to hear”? Generally it is when the preacher is focusing too much on the love and grace of God and not enough on “hell fire and brimstone”.  Really? Now exactly how can someone overemphasize the love and grace of an omnipotent God who is characterized over and over as a FATHER - full of love, grace and mercy? “The LORD'S loving kindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail.  They are new every morning…Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever...I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels or principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor...

"Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." (2 Corinthians 3:17) Ponder the above outside of some religiously constructed box because the bible is not the instruction book for some religion, it declares itself to be the very word of God, and if it is, which I have chosen to believe, then we should let the words in it speak for themselves to us without commentary from religious gurus. So, “the Lord is Spirit” , and “He is not far from each one of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being . ” (Acts 17:27-28) So every day we are living and moving and having our being in God.  And where God is there is liberty - again - “liberty” , not bondage to some religious man made box of doctrines. “You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you...did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? ... It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of s...

“Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?”  (Romans 7:24) In the hilarious 1980 film Caddieshack, a mentally challenged greenskeeper played by Bill Murray summarizes his situation as follows: "I may not have all, or even some, of my ducks in a row, but they are in the same pond, which is nice, I've got that going for me"  As we watch someone we love, or experience for ourselves what getting older does to our bodies, we sometimes become depressed and find it hard to look for the good in it all.  In this temporary earthly “tent” in which we live, it is our destiny to struggle with sickness, pain and ultimately death. However, the bible promises us a new eternal “house” which will be ours at our resurrection from death. “For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” (2 Corinthians 5:1) It will be “glorious” , not “wretched...