WHY DO BAD THINGS HAPPEN?
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If you need an answer, be at Unit 11 on Sunday - 7pm. We're watching a DVD series over the next few weeks by PJ Smyth from God First church, in Jozi- 'Why do Bad Things Happen?'
Sunday, 31 July 2011
Why Do Bad Things Happen?
Sunday, 24 July 2011
Free, but living in slavery
Drew spoke last Sunday night about a family in America who lived for a hundred years in slavery after the emancipation proclamation was signed. They had legally been set free from their life of bondage and slavery, but they didn’t receive the message and there were no televisions in those days so they just carried on serving as slaves, until a hundred years later when they found out that they were, in fact, free.
Can you imagine that? Can you imagine living as a slave, working the ground with no freedom or light at the end of the tunnel, only to find out that you were free the whole time? It’s not that far fetched though, is it?
How often do you feel inadequate when you walk into church because you sinned the night before? Or because you did not have ‘quiet times’ with God that week? Or even because you haven’t been to church since you were in Sunday school? How long does it take you to put those feelings aside and worship God? Two or three songs? The whole service? Or do you brush it off and think, “Maybe I’ll do better next week.” ?
I’ve got to be honest here, this was the way I ran my life for a long time. If I was playing guitar in the worship band, I would make sure I was ‘in tune’ with God the day before. I would make sure I had a quiet time at least. This would be okay if my reason for doing so was that I could lead more people closer to Him, but it totally wasn’t – it was a matter of passing some religious test I had made up in my mind in order to meet the qualifications I felt were required to stand in front of the church and lead them into worship. And the litmus test was this – if I didn’t spend a set amount of time with God before that Sunday, I would feel completely unqualified to be up there and, distracted by that feeling, I would not worship God at all (Yip, I know…“performance junkie” alert). Man, I look at that paragraph as I write it and I think, “You fool!” How did you think that performing a little task like having a quiet time would qualify you to worship God? Is that what God asked for anyway?
Jesus talked about this topic with the performance junkies of His day. He said to them, “You diligently study the scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” It is not about you. It is not about your performance. It is not about how often you have messed up in the past. It is not even about how often you haven’t messed up. It’s about Jesus.
Stop. Read that again, because it is vital to your freedom. Don’t go on living a life of performance driven slavery when the emancipation proclamation has been signed on the cross.
Stu
Can you imagine that? Can you imagine living as a slave, working the ground with no freedom or light at the end of the tunnel, only to find out that you were free the whole time? It’s not that far fetched though, is it?
How often do you feel inadequate when you walk into church because you sinned the night before? Or because you did not have ‘quiet times’ with God that week? Or even because you haven’t been to church since you were in Sunday school? How long does it take you to put those feelings aside and worship God? Two or three songs? The whole service? Or do you brush it off and think, “Maybe I’ll do better next week.” ?
I’ve got to be honest here, this was the way I ran my life for a long time. If I was playing guitar in the worship band, I would make sure I was ‘in tune’ with God the day before. I would make sure I had a quiet time at least. This would be okay if my reason for doing so was that I could lead more people closer to Him, but it totally wasn’t – it was a matter of passing some religious test I had made up in my mind in order to meet the qualifications I felt were required to stand in front of the church and lead them into worship. And the litmus test was this – if I didn’t spend a set amount of time with God before that Sunday, I would feel completely unqualified to be up there and, distracted by that feeling, I would not worship God at all (Yip, I know…“performance junkie” alert). Man, I look at that paragraph as I write it and I think, “You fool!” How did you think that performing a little task like having a quiet time would qualify you to worship God? Is that what God asked for anyway?
Jesus talked about this topic with the performance junkies of His day. He said to them, “You diligently study the scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” It is not about you. It is not about your performance. It is not about how often you have messed up in the past. It is not even about how often you haven’t messed up. It’s about Jesus.
Stop. Read that again, because it is vital to your freedom. Don’t go on living a life of performance driven slavery when the emancipation proclamation has been signed on the cross.
Galatians 5 v1:“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not letyourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery”
John 8 v 34-36:Jesus replied, “ I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slavehas no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Sonsets you free, you will be free indeed.”
Stu
Wednesday, 20 July 2011
Monday, 18 July 2011
In all probability - Part I
To dispute that Jesus walked on the earth is tantamount to saying that social networking sites such as Facebook have not made a mark on your life. To dispute that Jesus was the Messiah prophesied about about 60 times in the bible is near unthinkable. It was through the fulfillment of prophecies in the Bible that Israel was told she would be able to recognize the true Messiah when He came. It's a wonder that many didn't know who he was when he rocked up on the scene. He was a pleb, an insignificant carpenter from Nazareth.
Today is not for prophesies. Today is for statistics and probabilities. Just like money, people understand numbers. So what exactly is probablility? It's an odd branch of mathematics also known as 'odds'. Ask the math minds of this year and they will tell you that it is the likelihood that a given event will occur. This applies as much to which horse will cross the finish line at the Durban July as it does to what you could have pulled out of a lucky packet when you were at school.
Some interesting odds and ends...
- Your chance of being struck by lightning in a year = 7 x 105 or 1 in 700,000
- Your chance of being killed by lightning in a year = 2 x 106 or 1 in 2,000,000
- Your chance of becoming president = 1 x 107 or 1 in 10,000,000
- Your chance of a meteorite landing on your house = 1.8 x 1014 or 1 in 180,000,000,000,000
- The chance that you will eventually die. No chance. Your odds are 1 in 1.
One of the most interesting probability studies that has been conducted was by a Dr. John Stoner. (seriously? Stoner? Ja.) This guy is the author of Science Speaks. Google him, he's legit. He applied the principle of probability, which states that if the chance of one thing happening is "1 in M", and the chance of another independent thing happening is "1 in N", then the chance that they shall both happen is "1 in M x N", as it pertains to fulfillment of Biblical prophecies.
To answer the question of what is the probability of one man fulfilling all of just eight prophecies, the principal of probability is applied. Therefore, multiplying all eight probabilities together (1 times 2.8 x 105 x 103 x 102 x 103 x 103 x 105 x 103 x 104) gives us 2.8 x 1028, or for simplicity sake 1 x 1028 or 1 in 0,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Too many noughts.
Now, there could be two possible ways that the prophets came up with these prophesies. They either received them directly from God or just wrote what they thought would happen. Given the time span between the prophesies and writings of the Old Testament and the fulfillment of them by Christ in the New Testament how can we even debate that the prophets were just guessing? To fulfill 8 prophesies it is staggeringly improbable, but 60 - next to impossible without divine intent.
Today is not for prophesies. Today is for statistics and probabilities. Just like money, people understand numbers. So what exactly is probablility? It's an odd branch of mathematics also known as 'odds'. Ask the math minds of this year and they will tell you that it is the likelihood that a given event will occur. This applies as much to which horse will cross the finish line at the Durban July as it does to what you could have pulled out of a lucky packet when you were at school.
- Your chance of being struck by lightning in a year = 7 x 105 or 1 in 700,000
- Your chance of being killed by lightning in a year = 2 x 106 or 1 in 2,000,000
- Your chance of becoming president = 1 x 107 or 1 in 10,000,000
- Your chance of a meteorite landing on your house = 1.8 x 1014 or 1 in 180,000,000,000,000
- The chance that you will eventually die. No chance. Your odds are 1 in 1.
One of the most interesting probability studies that has been conducted was by a Dr. John Stoner. (seriously? Stoner? Ja.) This guy is the author of Science Speaks. Google him, he's legit. He applied the principle of probability, which states that if the chance of one thing happening is "1 in M", and the chance of another independent thing happening is "1 in N", then the chance that they shall both happen is "1 in M x N", as it pertains to fulfillment of Biblical prophecies.
To answer the question of what is the probability of one man fulfilling all of just eight prophecies, the principal of probability is applied. Therefore, multiplying all eight probabilities together (1 times 2.8 x 105 x 103 x 102 x 103 x 103 x 105 x 103 x 104) gives us 2.8 x 1028, or for simplicity sake 1 x 1028 or 1 in 0,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Too many noughts.
Now, there could be two possible ways that the prophets came up with these prophesies. They either received them directly from God or just wrote what they thought would happen. Given the time span between the prophesies and writings of the Old Testament and the fulfillment of them by Christ in the New Testament how can we even debate that the prophets were just guessing? To fulfill 8 prophesies it is staggeringly improbable, but 60 - next to impossible without divine intent.
Wednesday, 13 July 2011
Unity
Have you ever considered what you would do if you had one day left to live? What if you knew, without a doubt, that this time tomorrow you were going to die? What would be foremost in your mind? Who would be foremost in your mind?
I guess most of us would change something about the way we lived today if we knew that we would not be here tomorrow, but the reason I bring this up is not to look at what we would do. I want to know what Jesus would do. Because I guess the question we are answering when we answer all of the above questions is this:
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We have a very unique perspective when we read about Jesus in his final week of life. He knew He was headed to Jerusalem to die, and He knew when His hour had come. So, by reading about his last week of life, we see what was most important to Him; what made Him tick. And we get the chance – an intimate opportunity – to hear His prayer in a garden where He knew He was about to be betrayed. Wow.
So what was on Jesus' mind?
The answer is mindblowing and simple. Jesus was praying for us.Jesus spent His last few minutes in the garden before he would be crucified praying about us – the guys and girls who would believe in Him through His disciples' message. So what did He pray for? What was the last thing on Jesus' mind before He stood up and went to where He knew Judas was waiting? What was the most important thing to Him when He prayed about us? Unity. Jesus wanted us 'to be one.' He wants us to be a family, united with each other. He wants us to have each others' back. He wants us to look out for each others' well being. If one of us is struggling, He wants us to take the load – financial, emotional – you name it, Jesus wants us to jump in there and bear it together. We see this in Acts – these guys sold their property and gave it to the elders of the church to be distributed where it was needed.
"Cool, Stu," I hear you say. "That's a nice concept, and I agree we should all like each other and get along. But I'm not going to go selling my property for the church – that's a bit extreme and I don't think God would ask me to do that". I hear you, and I agree that we need to use wise judgement when making these decisions. But check out the standard Jesus set for our relationship with each other – check out who He compared us to:
"...that all of them may be one, Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You"
Jesus wants us to be one in the same way that Him and God the Father were one. This is huge! In the trinity, Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit are all three distinct persons but also all one and the same God. In the same way then, Jesus wants us to be distinct people with personalities and character traits (and not clones) but to be so connected with each other that we are one church.
Man, I love our church. I love the guys and girls in it, and I love hanging out with them and worshiping God with them. And you want to know an amazing thing? God loves that too. WAY more than I or you do. It was the last thing on His mind before He died.
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