Attending Church one eventually hears the topic of sin. Sin is usually attributed to various things such as lying, greed, stealing, killing, etc; yet much like a doctor’s office they typically only provide solutions to fix the symptoms never really taking care of the root problem. So we ask for God’s forgiveness and close our eyes to the root problem. With this solution we seem good for the time being, but soon slip back into life sin. Unfortunately, until the root problem is understood the situation will not get better and our lives will continue to be in a repeating pattern.

               I’ve heard that traveling the world one can see a difference between affluent and poor people. The poor people always seem to be smiling and content with what little they have appreciating the simple things in life. There is little to worry about when one has nothing. Yet, affluent people on the other hand are often concerned and worried about what the future will bring. With wealth brings responsibility and the fear of loss. In one of the richest nations, the United States, people are in a continual state of consumption and personal achievement; never having enough. This life style can often breed greed, lying, cheating, stealing, envy, lust along with many other sinful ways. The Bible gives us guidance on how we should live. If we look carefully enough, we’ll even find the root problem to all sins which will aid us in living Christ like. 

               A rich man once approached Jesus and asked how he might obtain eternal life. Jesus told him to obey the Ten Commandments. Having kept all of the commandments the man wondered what he still lacked. Jesus told him that in order to be perfect the man would have to sell his possessions and give to the poor; after that he could follow Christ. When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he was very wealth. Jesus then said, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:16-24, NIV). This wasn’t necessarily about the money; it was more about living a selfless life.

               God’s ways are higher than mankind’s. God created this world not for his benefit, but for our benefit; God’s ways are selfless in nature. When Adam was created he was put on Earth to maintain it and to be its keeper. When Eve was put on this Earth, it was to help Adam and to be his partner. We were created with the original intent of living selfless lives. But then our human nature took effect, Adam and Eve wanted to acquire knowledge and be like gods thus eating the fruit. Many people would say that the sin was disobeying God and not following God’s orders. Yet if we look at the situation carefully the reason for the disobedience was the pursuit of personal gain, a self centered act thus detaching us from God’s intent and purpose. God’s purpose for us is to live a life of selflessness. Being self-centered is the root of all sins.

               Let’s handle the first objection, what if someone commits a selfless sin such as killing on someone else’s behalf? I believe that God would see the overall good in matter of a selfless act. For example, Moses killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew. Obviously Moses was forgiven and later used by God. Yet, it’s hard to imagine anyone killing anybody without some motive. Jesus obviously doesn’t condone killing while giving a selfless examples of turning the other cheek, loving your enemies, and praying for those that persecute you.

Jesus had been questioned in regards to which of the commandments was the greatest. Jesus first answered, “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind, and soul and next love your neighbor as yourself.“(Matthew 22:39, NIV). The only way this is possible is to live a life of selflessness. Jesus in his very nature was the perfect example of one who lived selfless life style; an example that we should all strive to follow. Note Romans 8:5, “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.” (NIV) “Put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.” (Colossians 3:5, NIV).

In short our sinful natures are a result of trying to fulfill our natural desires. We’ve heard of such things as the “Me generation,” and the pursuit of Happiness which is often equated to wealth and achievement. Children often start life care free and charitable but quickly become accustomed to our self-seeking life styles. The root of the problem is that we are naturally self-centered and without taking a conscious step into being selfless, society will continue living a downward spiral driven on ever expanding desires with a thirst that will never be quenched as we tear at one another to get ahead.

God intended us to be selfless, mankind chose to be selfish. Our pride and self consuming nature is the root of all sin.

It not that I fear vaccines, only those who are making the vaccines.

It must be noted that the Government does not have a clean record when it comes to faulty vaccines and often hides the negative impacts that have resulted. The weakened virus is typically the least of our worries in these shots versus the added chemical which are present. Who really wants a Mercury injected via a flu shot? For kids there are plenty of studies that show the adverse affects that can result. In my opinion mandating any shot is a violation against ones liberties. And if one attempts to keep their child at home in order to avoid getting the shot, law enforcement can be used along with Child Protection Services (CPS) to potentially take the kids away. Home school will soon be the only option. Our system is quickly removing our parental right to raise our children, and it doesn’t stop there…

More are forgoing vaccines for kids

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So where exactly was God when the Neumann’s gave up prayers for their daughter? Could God be absent? Jesus’ followers did see him leave ascending into the sky and were told that he’d return in the same way. Was this case a slap in the face to a God who is suppose to be omnipotent? If God knew that it would give him bad Public Relations (PR) and help the Atheist point of view, you’d think that he would have done a slight miracle of some kind. Unlike Job in the Bible these people has signs and could have prevented the death of their daughter.

“An expert on religion says the Neumanns may have become too focused on one way of thinking in their religious beliefs, and that may have ultimately contributed to their daughter’s death.”

ARTICLE: Expert On Religion Says Neumanns May Be Too Focused In Their Religious Thinking 

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Question: What do you think was the message of Christ?
Most would probably said that Christ came as a living sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. But now look at what Jesus said his message was…

Luke 4:43 “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also; for I was sent for this purpose.”

Luke 8:1 “¹After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God.”

Luke 9:11 “He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing.”

Mark 1:15 ”The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

Matthew 24:14 “And this good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world, as a testimony to all the nations.”

Matthew 6:9-10 “This then is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’”

Jesus’ message and Good News was about the coming of God’s kingdom through Jesus Christ.

 Man changed his message and I was told that I was wrong for agreeing with Jesus.

Omnipotent (Jer. 32:17,27), Omnipresent (Psalm 119:7-12), Omniscient (1 John 3:20)

Show me how Jesus is Omnipotent. How can this be possible when scripture clearly shows that he is in the flesh, yet has ascended into heaven and will return the same way he left? I guess it possible that the spirit of Jesus is with us, but then what about his physical body that is to return. If Jesus is here why does he let his people suffer? What if scripture is true and Christ is gone until his return as foretold in Revelations. The problem is that if Jesus isn’t omnipotent as the Bible shows, then the Trinity doesn’t hold up.

Acts 1:11  “They said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing here looking into the sky? Jesus, whom you saw taken up from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you saw him go.”

I had recently been talking with a friend about the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus and whether or not this showed a spiritual heaven; yet, I do not believe this is the purpose of the parable. The purpose of the parable is at the end of it. The parable is about a rich man that was captive by death and the other man was brought up by Abraham into what I would presume was heaven. That being said the man tries to negotiate with Abraham to warn his brothers to live right so that they could be saved from death. Abraham tells the rich man that his brothers can learn from Moses and the prophets. But the rich man exclaims that if a dead person were to raise from the grave that they would truly change their heart and believe. Metaphorically this is speaking of Christ and his resurrection; one would think that after this event all would truly believe. Yet Abraham makes a statement, that if people will not believe Moses or the prophets, then they still will not believe one who comes back from the dead. In the parable Jesus was making a statement about himself exclaiming that there will still be people who won’t believe, even after his resurrection and these people will truly be lost just as the Rich Man was. This is the point that Jesus was telling through the parable.

Maybe we should be more open to scripture.

There are many questions to be answered. The scripture says that God is spirit, yet could this be said because no one of that time saw God? Enoch walked with God Genesis 5:24, Abraham clearly saw God Genesis 12:7, Moses and the Elders saw God Exodus 24:11. Just because we or others haven’t seen God physically isn’t enough to believe that he is only in spirit. Doesn’t the Revelation say that God will live with his people? How can he live with his people if he’s not a physical being or some type of entity with a presence?

First I believe that one must realize that heaven is a physical place. Jesus was in a physical body upon his resurrection and ascended into the sky to be with his Father and God. In scripture sky and heaven are one in the same; this is the realm of God.

I’ve often been perplexed over whether God is a spirit or is a being or another dimension.

A spiritual heaven doesn’t make sense. Why would one die to be with the Father in a spiritual realm and then resurrect to be with the Son and away from the Father? The Bible says no such thing! When we are dead, we are but dust of the Earth until the resurrection where then Christ through the authority vested upon him by the Father will resurrect us to be with him. He will smite Satan and his Armies and then the Father will come and dwell with us and his Son. Note that scripture is clear that Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father. Let me paraphrase it as Jesus says in the Lord prayer, “Our Father who is in heaven… your kingdom is to come as your will, will be done on earth just as it is already done in heaven”. One of Jesus’ greatest messages is that the Kingdom is at hand, we just can’t see it as it is somewhere out there in space. Even Jesus said, I am not of this world. This should make this whole statement obvious.

The spirit or “breath of God” is given by God, also known as the breath of life. Upon death I believe it returns to the source, the Creator. The breath of God is what animates our soul. All living things are filled with the breath of life. I would believe that we all are of one spirit as that spirit comes from one source. Although, we can have a good or bad influence upon the spirit within depending on whether we chose the way of the world or the ways of God. He we pattern ourselves after Christ we will in essence have a Holy Spirit about us.

In regards to the questions…

Question: 1

I would question how would anyone explain Deut. 32:3-4 and 1 Cor. 10:2-4 if Jesus is NOT God. I have not found an explanation justifying how these verses could possibly be made to harmonize.

Answer: 1

In regards to the people that followed Moses, did they live forever or did they parish? The people did eventually parish. It says in 1 Cor. 10:4 “They drank from that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.” If they had truly drunk of Christ life giving water than they would have never died, thus this was speaking of Christ coming in the future resurrection where all will drink of the life giving water Rev 22:1. Thus when it says followed them; it meant to proceed after them. Jesus even said that he was spoken of by Moses.

Now let’s address Deut. 32:3-4 “The Rock! His work is perfect, for all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.” I don’t see a contradiction, the passage says that a God and not the God. There are many lords and gods but for us there is only One! The LORD of Lords and the God of gods. We must remember that god can also mean judge and Christ has been given all authority on earth and in heaven to judge. Of course this text can be written to try and give it a different meaning, but I don’t believe that we should try to do this when it is not concurrent throughout scripture. Scripture is clear that there is only One God and Father, and that Jesus sits at his right hand. I will add that v.18 does state that the Father was their Rock, thus showing that this is not a reference to Christ unless you were to believe that they are one in the same. Again I have to reference Isaiah 42:1 which clearly tells us that God planned to put his Spirit upon Christ. Unfortunately receiving God’s Holy Spirit doesn’t make one a litteral god or we’d all be gods; however receiving the word of God does give one the authority to judge as a god; meaning: one who passes judgement on mankind on God’s behalf. The best examples of this being Moses, Prophets, and Christ.

Question: 2

Also how would you explain the alpha and omega phrases in relation to Jesus and God being two or the same being.

Answer: 2

It must first be noted that Jesus didn’t know when he would return, only the father knew. The book of Revelation is message or truth about Christ that the Father revealed to him, so that he could show his servants what was to happen. Jesus’ sent his angel to show John what had been revealed to Christ’s by his Father. Thus the message is given by the Angel and speaks of both the Son and the Father. Note in Ch1 verse 4 “grace and peace to you from the One who is and was and is coming [the Father], and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ [the Son who is shown as a separate individual]. V6 “…He [Christ] made us to be a kingdom of priests who serve God his Father.” One should remember this is all being spoken to John by an Angel. V8 says, “The LORD God says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega.” You will find in Revelation that God the Father is referred to as: the One Seated on the Great White Throne, the Alpha and Omega. Christ on the other hand is the first and the last which could be explained in 1 Cor. 15:45 “The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.” Jesus being both the first and the last, being both living and a life-giving spirit. What gets me is Revelation 22:13 which I will agree is hard to ignore. This could be as I believe the Father speaking, yet then there is the common use of “first and last” which was used by Christ in Revelation 2:8. Thus my only explanation on this would be that “first and last” may have multiple possible uses. If this verse was to be believed as implied then we would have to believe that the Father and the Son are one in the same person and/or being which I feel in contrary to scripture.

Sincerely,

DoubtingFaith

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