Success Magazine Blog Religious News – Crosswalk
Most times the implications for Christians is that they should live a good life and the whole issue of intellectual pursuits will not help that. While there can be excess in terms of knowledge, I do believe that view is dead wrong.
Stay tune for more…
Well, this unusual to be writing a feast after and not during or starting. I was excited on my way to the feast in Ocho Rios Jamaica and during the time, I decided not to sign up for Internet Service at the Hotel.
In any case, the experience was good as usual to meet old and new friends plus the benefit of spiritual messages for each day. Overall, the messages were very good and will do another post with a summary of what was the general theme coming from the Jamaica site.
To summarize, the feast represents the end of the ages and God’s direct rule on the Earth. It represents a time of hope and mending all the conflicts that we have. For the non-Christian or non-religious this may sound far fetch but when you look at the direction the world is heading, there is a potential convergence of multiple destructive forces to this earth and civilization. These include nuclear war, weather changes, massive pandemics and many others.
Why will God make a difference directly and why not do it now? First God will restore equal footing to all in terms of opportunities by enforcing moral laws. He is not doing it now, since he needs for us to learn that without that we would have destroyed ourselves one way or another. We will still need to make our own choices ultimately but your bad behavior will not let others suffer as is the case today.
As the feast pictures, the kingdom of God will definitely be the ultimate social work in terms of ensuring that people in all locations have equal access to basic living conditions and not just one particular area thats prosperous and others left to scrape for the crumbs.
Well, it was an exciting time and also the future looks bright despite the challenges ahead. I will try to get some more posting on this during the week-end.
Found this article that introduces two really excellent books on theology. I am thinking of looking these myself.
Read the Article – Does God know the Future?
Enjoy
Today is the Sabbath, so this feeling came that I should discuss something that gets back to the basics of human existence and why God is important to us as human beings.
1. Introduction
I want to add a simple introduction, in order to set the context of this post. Basically, I want to approach this from two angles especially for people who are not specifically religious. One handle is someone is wealthy and success, the other handle is someone is poor and struggling in life. The Goal here is to get people to at least understand what is religion and why it is very important. Of course my bias is messianic or Christian in this case.
2. Why is there Human life?
This is an issue that has many books and discussions at different levels. There is no way to cover all the arguments in one blog post but on the other hand, I do think the reason is simple anyway, its just that we try to reason ourselves out of true facts. The fact is despite how educated you are, there is no factual evidence outside of the religious explanation of human origins. In fact many of the arguments put forward really create more questions and that’s why so many books and even more ignorance of our true purpose. Another simple thing to support the religious argument is that all human beings are related based on our DNA footprint. In simple terms any race can inter-breed with any other race. This means we have a common origin.
On the flip side, lets assume God made us, then what is the purpose? I believe that God made us to be a part of his family. In order to obtain that ultimate goal, we need to live moral and productive lives based on what he has provided to us in terms of guidance. Moral means to truly respect and follow God and care for our fellow man.
3. What good is there to follow God in my life?
This is an interesting question especially to look at from a successful persons view point. I am doing well in life and all is good, then why do I need to follow God anyway? There are multiple ways to answer this particular question but I will use a very simple and straightforward one. The answer is that without God, we are not fulfilling our true human potential. Now, you may say that religion does not really give a clear picture of what that is but that is not an excuse. If you accept then that some entity created us, then that entity would have a purpose for that creation. That same rule applies to us when we make things in business or our personal life. There is a purpose for the things you do and God has one for us.
When you follow God in your life based on the teachings of the bible, you can maximize life on both sides of the spectrum. This means that you become a very good citizen and there is no doubt in my mind that if you follow the principle of the bible that life will be better for you. For example, if you are very rich you will now be willing to help others in need and not just try to rip off peoples money. Your business partners following the same thing would be more trustworthy to you. This would in most cases lead to more business and also give a better sense your current life. Also when you focus on the ultimate goal for you as a member of God’s family, it shows that your short life is not limited at your passing away.
4. Why does God allow so much evil in the world?
Now, this is an interesting question and I am sure, it is of importance to all of us equally as we have seen the results of evil in this world at different levels. Now my way of describing the presence of evil is the issue of time and choice.
Time meaning, that God does not directly stop the effects of evil for a finite period of time but its clear from the scriptures that this would end at some point. See Revelation 21:4. But again, there is no evidence that God directly causes evil to come on people.
In terms of choice, the evidence is big that man from the first couple on earth have made choices that causes suffering on each other. To me if God was to intervene and stop suffering every time you made a mistake, we would not have learned anything as a race in terms of making right choices. Over the years, countries have been invaded, people enslaved, dangerous weapons developed and many others. Why should we blame God for that? The principles that God laid out for us does prove otherwise once followed.
5. Is religion an escapist concept?
I think indirectly, this is the one question that most people who are considered agnostic follow. The view that religion is focused on escaping the trials of this world with the expectation of life in another world to come. Let me break this down and refute it clearly.
Lets say God really created us and could pull the plug on any of us any time he sees fit, why wouldn’t you want to show appreciation for him? Then why couldn’t you show that appreciation in an organized setting by sharing with others.
In terms of the whole next world thing, its quiet clear that God wants us to be independent but moral beings. Therefore when a group of people come together to share and sharpen their moral focus around the purpose of human life, then to me that is not escapist, its about understanding purpose. Purpose is not to make a lot of money while that can be a side effect. Look at it this way, regardless of how much you have or know, someone now or in the future will make that look insignificant. Just the other day, Usain Bolt did 100M in 9.58 second, now consider that as a spirit being you could move to anywhere in the universe in less than a second. Thats just one small basic capability you would have as a Spirit being. The list could go on and on.
I have more areas to cover but that should do for now especially for a blog post. In the end, religion should be about appreciation for life and understanding purpose.
I really love this song, there is much deeper meaning than the words but its very inspiring to understand God’s love for us.
This shows why Christ is the new Torah in a sense, since he really shows how much God really love man in true practical terms, up close and personal. John 3:16 does say it..
I will have more on this soon..
This is a great article on John Calvin and Philosophy especially from the perspective that he accepted the philosophical thought process but not philosophy as a system of existence especially in the context of the reason for human life
Read the full article – John Calvin Views
I was following the news lately in regards to the arrest of a prominent professor at Harvard University. Now when you parse through the news on both sides, it seem to me that Ego was at play.
On one hand you have the police who in most cases when they suspect a problem tend to feel that arrest is the best way out or how dear you to even confront them. The other side is that you have a professor who is always on TV with documentaries, who seem to feel that he is above the law and no one should talk to him in this case.
When all is said and done, you have to blame the professor for something that could have turned out to be a non-event. Why bring up this issue of race when that is not even an issue in the case of a police investigating a break in. Just get to the point and leave it alone.
This is where following true Christian values could have helped. Even if the police have the wrong motive, you ignoring the assumptions and going along could make a far better impression than yelling out your rights.
Christ said that we need to be like little children to enter into God’s kingdom. Think about it. How many prominent people can act like children and put aside their status in society for a minute. You will always hear the proverbial statement “Do you know who I am” obviously when someone ask that question the best answer would be “you are apparently nothing” since not everyone knows who you are.
In the end, we need to develop a culture of love and that means to forgive even before we are offended. Nothing is wrong in pointing an issue in a civilize way, but shutting will not help your cause in the long run.
EFT has become a very popular means to eliminate fears and phobias. In fact its accuracy of success with these issues are much higher than with some other issues. God always tell us not to fear but sometimes we have residual issues in our sub-conscious mind to clean up.
Here is a great video you can use as introduction to the concept.
Here is another video that goes more into the use of EFT as well
Enjoy and research more on the EFT concept to help remove your fears.
Before I get into the article itself, I want to be clear this blog is not about advancing any racial agenda however, since society presents race in many ways as factors, it needs to be addressed in a religious context.
I ran into this article when searching on another topic and find it very shallow, misleading and most ignorant. Here – Read Article now
Now that you may had read the article, here are some facts we can establish here.
1. The Bible does not mention race in anyway. In fact, it seem only to use locations in respect to people.
2. Adam and Eve could have been Black, Chinese, Indian or European but there is no direct evidence what they were.
3. All Races would have interacted in the Middle East starting from the time of Nimrod, so its not logical to say one major race developed in isolation with no interaction with others.
4. Its very obvious that the Egyptians where mostly Negros (to borrow the term) and there are a lot of them in Egypt today anyway (in fact probably 50% of the population or more).
5. There are other Dark Skinned people in other geographic areas outside of Africa before Colonization. Explain that?
My view is simple and straightforward in respect to this topic. Even if Africans are unknown and undeveloped, the point is that they have proven to be Humans and as Christians we need to treat them as neighbors anyway. If we feel we have a better way in love, then go help and show it to them. Not just keep focusing on how intelligent you are and somehow you are closer to God than them.
What I found interesting is that some arguments say that Blacks came from Ham simply because he was cursed by Noah. However, since lots of early major civilizations came out of Ham, its hard for some to reconcile that. Could we really attribute civilizations to the black man?
The article is right about one thing, the word Africa is not attributed in the bible directly but you could apply that argument to the Americas and many other locations where the people that are majority now were no where close during the times when the bible was been written.
In summary and in love, God wants us to love and exhibit humility when we try to push down a race of people then we are contradicting that directive. Have you done what you can to help people that need it? What will you tell the messiah when he returns?
Here is another twist to the many explanations of Africans – Read here
This week-end we celebrate Shauvot otherwise called Pentecost by Christians.
This particular period is important in God’s plan of salvation but more so it points out God’s plan to empower man. Every time I think of it there are so many things one can achieve in this world if you put your mind to it but its only with God that you get the ultimate fulfillment of Life.
This Holy Day is generally associated with the giving of the Torah and Ruach Ha-Kodesh (Holy Spirit) to man.
These two elements used together can transform our lives significantly and bring out the true Spiritual man in us. We always look at God in terms of power, but do we look at God in terms being just simply a good Neighbor? That’s what we need to focus on really.
When we experience this empowerment it makes us want to share our story, help those in need and not look down on those who are less fortunate.
We could go on and on about what God has done to help us despite our failing him but the point here is that we should strive to leverage what God is doing for us in this Shauvot period and take our lives to the next level.
Here is a link to some traditional holy days. Please note that some of these are not based on the Torah but its a good guideline.
Enjoy and refresh your spirit in God.
