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Purpose of our earthly life

The purpose of our earthly life,                  

Do you know that there are some people, today, who do not believe that the earth is a sphere? And this in spite all the evidence to the contrary, including photos of our planet from space… 

And there are also many people today who do not believe that there is a God, a Creator, regardless of all the evidence there is around us. 

In spite of all the unbelievably complicated design that can be seen in everything that exists, they reject the idea of an intelligent, Sublime mind, a Creator! 

But, there are also some of us, who are honest enough with ourselves to recognize that there is a super intelligent Creator, who has created all there is for a good purpose.

(John 12: 45  ,  14: 9  ,  Colossians 2: 9)

And we need to know what that purpose is, in order to know how to live our life on earth! But first, we must determine who that the True God is! ( since mankind has invented many false God’s, many false religions..,

 Is it possible to know which is the true religion, the True God? Yes, it definitely is!

 Briefly: Only one religion can prove in an intelligent, logical, critical way that its founder truly came from God: The Judeo/Christian religion.

 For the sake of conciseness, I will quickly bypass Moses, and come straight to Jesus of Nazareth:

His apostles, (whose 2.000 years old writings  have been meticulously kept unchanged until today), claimed that they saw Jesus resurrected after his crucifixion and watched him- with their own eyes- ascend in the sky! (Luke 24: 51)

 If true, that would be the ultimate proof that Jesus truly came from God and knew what he was talking about, wouldn’t it?

 If, on the other hand, what the apostles wrote in the New Testament was a lie, (a lie that they themselves had created), they would definitely not have given their lives, all of them, for spreading such impossible, crazy claims. But history unequivocally testifies that the apostles did die, (after a long life of dreadful persecutions) a martyr’s death, each one of them.

Can we logically explain that twelve men were willing to suffer much persecution and give their lives for a lie that they had invented? No, that is for sure. Not if we are sincere with ourselves.

We therefore conclude that the writers of the New Testament truly saw Jesus resurrected, and that what he had told them was the Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth.  His resurrection proved it to them and their self-sacrificial lives, to us. (Acts 4: 29)

So, we can be assured that the God of the Bible is real.

We need to know, now,  what is the purpose of our existence on this planet!

Well, it transpires from God’s Word that our Creator spends much of his time observing each one of us:

 He made us, he says, much like himself, eternal beings, free to choose what kind of a person we want to be, and he needs to know where he should place each one of us for eternity…

 In his written Word, he says that he will assign a place near himself to anyone who seeks him and lives a selfless life, does what is good, just and loving in his eyes, and who submits to his Son, Jesus, above all. They will be his friends, his children, for ever…  (Psalm 53: 2  ;   John 4: 23  ;   Chronicles 16: 9)

In order to determine who is what, God puts us all through a variety of tests, of experiences, while on this earth, and watches out to see:

Will we seek in all circumstances, to please Him? (Matthew 6: 33.  ;  Luke 12: 29 – 34   )

Will we be loving to others and do to them as we wished they would have done to us, (if we were in their shoes), or will we live self-centered lives! (Luke 6: 31.  ;   Galatians 5: 14. ;  Leviticus 19: 18)

 And, most importantly, he watches to see if we will recognize and love his Only Son, Jesus Christ, for whose sake we actually were created! Will we love him, whole heartedly? Will we obey his commandments and stay faithful to him no matter how hard it may be?  (Matthew 7: 21  ;   Matthew 24: 13   ;   Matthew 10: 22)

 Depending on how well we pass these tests, our Creator will assign to each one of us, a place in eternity where we deserve to be, where we will fit in best… (2 Timothy 2: 20 – 21)

 We, humans, do likewise, don’t we?

 Animal lovers, for instance, do not want to have a disobedient, dangerous, unpleasant or dirty dog to live in their home, do they? No!

So, they observe the behaviour of every dog, and choose one that is affectionate, good natured, obedient, and clean so that it can live in its master’s house and lay at his feet… Other dogs, with less praiseworthy qualities, their masters will put them in the garden, or in the fields to look after the sheep… They love them all, but each dog is placed where it suits it best, depending on its character, the nature it has proven to have. (2 Timothy 2:20-21).

 As for the vicious and rebellious dogs, their masters will have them chained and caged, far away from themselves, so that they may scare away unwanted intruders…

 Well… God will do likewise:

 He will choose his faithful followers, (those who have sought to please him on this Godless earth), to live near himself, (in his Holy City, the New Jerusalem), forever.

He will have them washed clean of the guilt of their sins by the blood of Jesus, and they will enjoy the best there is in God’s Kingdom. (John 14: 2  ;   Revelation 21: 27  ;   Isaiah 65: 18)

 Others, (such as those who did good to God’s children in need, but did not belong to Jesus), will be “guests” on that new earth. They will live outside the city of God long and happy lives, lives as long as those of the trees, but sooner or later… they will die !  (Matthew 22: 2-14    ;   Matthew25: 31- 40   ;   Isaiah 65: 17-25)

 And some, (actually most), will be thrown outside of God’s heavenly kingdom altogether… in hell, for being wicked, rebellious and unrepentant, and most of all, for rejecting his very Son, who gave his life for them to be spared from going to such a terrible place. (Matthew 22: 2-14  ;   Revelation 20: 12-15  ;    21: 8.   ;    Isaiah 66: 4,  24)

 I, for one, want to live my eternal life as closely as possible to Jesus, for whom I know I was created. For that is where the wonderful God that I love will be!

That is also where the best people, the best living conditions, the best shows and all the excitement will be found, in God’s presence.

 Therefore, now, in this life, I do not seek so much to enjoy it, to live as happily as I can, but rather I strive to be as faithful as I should be to my loving God, who may put me through many tests, many disappointments and failures, who allows me to go through many deep sorrows and dark tunnels of despair. But, through all these sorrowful experiences, he transforms me into the kind of person he wants me to be, while also bestowing on me many unexpected blessings and some happiness…

Through all these experiences God gives us the opportunity to prove ourselves and improve our soul by letting it grow in faith, in holiness, in humility, kindness and faithfulness, all those qualities that he wants to develop in us. (Hebrews 12: 3 – 11)

 And one day… we will receive what we aspire for, and deserve. For it is written in the Bible:

 “God will judge everyone according to what they have done:

To those who, with persistence, kept on doing what is good and sought to receive honour, glory and immortality from God, he will give them, in the eternal life, what they have been seeking for.

But God’s anger and wrath will be poured out on those who choose to please themselves, and refuse to obey the Truth, but live instead lives of wickedness…”  (Romans 2: 6-8)

 

Where will God will be placing you for eternity?

 Won’t you try harder to please him, so as to, one day, live eternally in happiness, in his presence?

 

                                       

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For those who want to know more:

 

 A Glimpse of the life to come

After Judgement Day, and the destruction by fire of our universe, God will create a New Heaven and a New Earth.

He will then lower down from heaven a readymade city that he had built in advance, (the New Jerusalem), and place it on a mountain, his Holy Mountain, upon that New Earth. (2 Peter 3: 7 & 10.    ;    Revelation 21: 1,  10 – 11  )

God himself, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, will live there, together with all those who love and obey him. In his presence, love, happiness, goodness and beauty will be paramount… (Revelation 21: 3, 22   ;    22: 3 – 4   ;   Zechariah 2: 11)

 God will choose those with whom he is most pleased to become his closest friends: Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Daniel, David, the apostles and the likes of them… (I strive to be included in that number)

They will live near God’s house, sit with Jesus around his dining table and will help him rule and judge the universe. So the Bible says.  (Luke 22: 30  ,   John14: 2-3 )

 God will choose other of his faithful followers, who have lived less outstanding lives but whose names are written in the “Book of Life” and have been “washed by the blood of Jesus», to also live in the New Jerusalem, in dwellings that he has prepared for them for whenever they visit the City of God! (John 14: 2  ;   Revelation 21: 27  ;   Isaiah 65: 18)

 Their permanent home, however, will be in the countryside, on God’s Holy Mountain, where they will build farmhouses and will live peacefully and happily on them, forever and ever! (Isaiah 65: 21-24)

The Bible does not give much information about everything we would like to know, but, through the parable of “the Son’s Wedding” in Matthew 22: 2-14, we gather that in the Kingdom of God there will be: Citizens, (the “bride” of Christ) , and Non-Citizens, (the “guests”…)  (Matthew 22: 2-14)

 Those guests will be spread out on the rest of the surface of the New Earth that will be created, living in different nations, much like it is done here on earth. (Revelation 21: 24)

 The citizens, God’s children, will live on God’s Holy Mountain and will never suffer long or die. (Revelation 21: 1-4.   ;   Isaiah 11: 9 )

 The guests, however, will live among the nations; things there will be much as it is on our earth: people will work, have families, and when they sin, they will  suffer long for it. They will live as long as the trees do, but sooner or later they will die!  (Isaiah 65: 17-25)

 Animals will live on the New Earth also, wild and domestic animals alike, for they too have souls that will be judged by God. Each will be assigned where they will live..  Those animals whom God approves, he will renew them, just like us, and they will live happy and harmless lives on God’s mountain. All animals there will be vegetarians, lions and bears included…  (Genesis 9: 5  ;  Isaiah 65: 25 )

 Some of today’s “spiritual leaders” (that are followed, loved and admired by all here on earth), will be among the least important in heaven, whereas some of the most unappreciated individuals in this life will be among the greatest ones there… (Luke 13: 30)     Will I be one of them?

 And some people, actually many…, will be thrown outside of God’s heavenly kingdom altogether… in hell, for remaining unrepentant, wicked and rebellious, and most of all, for rejecting his very Son, who gave his life for us all to be saved, to be spared from going to such a terrible place.  (Revelation 20: 12-15  ;    21: 8.   ;    Isaiah 66: 4,  24)

 God will apparently enclose the souls of those condemned to hell into the body of worm-like creatures that will live in a deep valley on fire outside the New Jerusalem,  They will be a warning to all passersby… (I suppose they will be put into good use, eating all the rubbish that is thrown in it). (Isaiah 66: 24.  ;  Matthew 25: 41  ;   Revelation 20: 10 )

 As I have already mentioned, the purpose of God placing us here on our earth is for us to pass through a set of tests that will determine where we must spend eternity… (Revelation 20: 11 – 13)

 Let us make sure that we do not end up spending eternity in the wrong place.

The picture that I have described in this presentation is the one that I have reached by gathering all of the Bible’s “jig-saw” pieces on the subject together…

Others may see things differently.

 What matters, in the end of the day, is that each of us strives to enter God’s Kingdom where we will live eternally happy.

    Constantin Economides

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The Crooked Tree

When I was young and young, my parents often called me: “crooked tree”!

What they meant by this I am not sure, but it certainly referred to the fact that I was not like the others: I was difficult, unpredictable, even disliked.

That is how I am! At least, his is how society sees me: A crooked tree, a tree that has grown crooked. Instead of being straight like all the other trees in the forest, it grew crooked?

Why;

I can imagine that … as a seed that it originally was, it fell under a large protruding rock…

It began to rise straight, towards the sky, but when it reached the rising rock it was forced to grow parallel to the ground for several meters until it outgrew it, and then, the young tree turned again towards the sky and grew straight, tall and strong, different, but stronger from the other trees, since, from the beginning, it had to adapt and fight in order to survive, reach the height of the other trees in the forest, and finally see the light of the sun.

The loggers, wood-cutters, who were looking for trees that are straight by passed the crooked tree. They saw no use for it.

Until, that is, the chief engineer saw it! He saw it and was ecstatic! This tree was exactly what he was hoping to find!

His was building the strongest and largest ship of the royal navy, the king’s ship, and the shape of that tree was exactly what was needed to build its stern!

Something similar is also reported in the bible:

The Christ, the long awaited Messiah, was prophesied as being something like a crooked tree, more precisely a strange, peculiar rock that the builders of God’s temple found no use for it, and rejected it.

And yet, it turned out that this despised, crooked looking rock was the stone that was absolutely necessary to uphold all the building  the Temple of God, the cornerstone that would hold all the other stones into place!

Most of God’s Old Testament prophets, were despised and rejected by their contemporaries!

Jesus himself was despised, rejected and not recognized by the religious elite of his day!

So, let us also pay attention, not to criticise, ridicule and reject those who are different from others, who look like crooked sticks …

Their value could be much higher than ours!

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The Wretchedness of Mankind

«As men began to multiply on earth, God saw that mankind was becoming increasingly evil, that their hearts and thoughts were constantly after what is wrong and evil in God’s eyes!»

This passage is written in the very first pages of the Bible!

God had regretted that he made men on his earth not long after creating them!

He said: “I will wipe out the human race that I have created from the face of the earth, together with all animals and birds.

I regret I ever made them…”

“But then, God considered Noah: 

Noah was a very righteous man, the only blameless person there was, who lived just as God demanded it. 

And God decided to be gracious to him and let humanity survive through him…”   (Genesis 6: 5- 9)

Did you notice what terrible opinion God has of us, humans: “The thoughts of their hearts”, he said, “and their deeds are constantly after what is evil, bad in God’s eyes!”

And his opinion of us has not changed since then!

Throughout the Bible, God keeps on accusing us of being totally self-centred and downright ungodly. 

And for those persons who live in our times, he sayd: 

“In the last days people will above all love themselves and money! 

They will be proud, arrogant, and turn against God himself…They will be abusive, heartless, loving pleasure rather than loving God… 

They will appear to be good and just, but their wickedness will transpire and be made evident to all through their actions…”

 (2 Timothy 3: 1-5)

 And he adds:

“Man’s heart is not only utterly wicked, but also utterly deceitful! it fools them into thinking that they are good…”      (Jeremiah 17:9)   

We should therefore not trust our heart when it tells us, that in spite of all our faults, we are OK!

No. We are not OK.

If most of us have not done what we consider to be terrible sins during our lifetime, it is simply because we did not have the opportunity to do them, or perhaps we were too afraid to do the evil that we would have love to do, if we were given the chance…

Be honest with yourself, for a moment, and let your thoughts drift to where your heart’s desires really are, to what you would have done if you were given the chance, if you knew that you will not suffer any unwanted consequences…

If you can be honest enough with yourself you will have to admit that your heart is not as good as you think it is …

Yes, this is how God sees what’s in your heart… and mine:

It is utterly despicable!

Perhaps, then, you will realise that, just like myself, you badly need Jesus to come into your heart and life, for him to change it from the inside out, or at least that he may put in it the fear and dread of God, so that you may deny yourself and resist temptation if such opportunities were to ever arise…

God, of course will never condemn us for “what we would have done if it had the chance”… It would not be fair! 

He only needs to simply condemn us for the evil that we have actually done. 

And believe him when he says that there is enough of it to send you to hell!

However, for those of us who would allow Jesus to soften our hearts and transform us from within, God will choose to overlook our sins, and be gracious and forgiving to us, allowing us in his eternal kingdom.

Do not waste any time, therefore: Get on your knees and pray: Invite Jesus to enter your heart, to change it and rule it.

If you invite him, in all honesty, he will give you his Spirit that will change you from the inside out…

And you will not only change for the better, living a holy and loving life filled with good deeds, but you will also live, one day, forever near God, where happiness is paramount!

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Beware of false teachings

Beware of the insincerity and false teachings that exist in many of today’s churches!

Satan has infiltrated a good number of them and has altered some of their teachings to make them completely misleading.

They will offer you some truth as a main course, of course, but the desert…may be poisonous, deadly!

Let me give you an example:

The Seventh Day Adventist churches teach, (like all other churches do), the need to be loving and good.

They also give much emphasis on keeping the Sabbath holy, instead of Sunday, and not eating “unclean” food and some other of the Old Testament laws… which, according to the apostles’ writings, we have been “freed” from.

Indeed, the apostles insist that after Jesus’ crucifixion, we do not have to submit any more to the “Written Law” of the O.T., but to the Spirit of the Law, that the New Testament and the Holy Spirit teaches us.

But there is more:

The Adventists also reject other biblical truths such as the existence of man’s soul after death, or the existence of hades and hell that Jesus was talking so much about…

So things are getting more worrisome…

But Satan’s hand in their theology is made evident not so much in the main body of their teachings but in the “desert”, which they keep for the end! And it’s poison is deadly, and comes out straight from the Devil’s mouth:

It is all about the “Mark of the Beast” that Jesus himself warned us against in Revelation 13 and 14.

Against Jesus’ express and repeated warnings, they teach that there is no problem whatsoever in accepting and receiving a Mark from the Beast on our right hand or forehead, in the final, decisive test that God’s children will have to face.

In the Scriptures, God’s faithful children are clearly commanded to refuse to receive the Mark of the Beast on their hand or forehead.

If they accept it, Jesus says, they will not be allowed to enter God’s  in heaven but will be thrown with Satan in the lake of fire and sulfur…e

By not accepting this Mark, the coming ruler of this earth will make it impossible for us to buy or sell anything anymore, and we will submitted to hunger, persecutions, imprisonments and beheadings!

Nevertheless, we will have to stand their ground and refuse the Mark!

It will be the deciding test, that will separate the true followers of Jesus Christ from the mere religious church goers…

And yet, believe it or not, all Adventists are taught to accept the forbidden Mark of the Beast, when the time will come to receive it. And the time is now near…

They are taught not to take this prophecy literally but to interpret this passage, (contrary to all logic), as a law “forbidding their sabbath keeping”, something that they will never accept!

For them, choosing to hold services on Sunday instead of Saturday, is  the unforgivable sin that they must refuse to succumb to!

They are taught that they are free to accept the Mark of the Beast, (666), on their right hand or forehead in order to save their lives, even though Jesus warns us that all who do so will be tortured in the fire and sulphur.

This will be the final, ultimate test set by God, that will separate the saved from the unsaved, and they teach their adherents to disobey it!

Unbelievable but true: the poison that Satan has inserted in this church is in the pudding!

This is an example as to why we should beware of what church we join!

Such treacherous teachings are not being taught in the more established, traditional churches such as the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, but their theologies will also surprise any sincere Bible reader, as being a complete distortion of the “Way of Salvation” set by Jesus Christ himself!

Their belief of being saved by their church’s sacraments, (which, according to them, makes of them “Christians” when baptized by their priests, which imparts on them God’s absolution when they confess their sins to the priest, or grants them  total forgiveness of their sins when receiving the “Eucharist” from their priests, etc…), is a completely complete travesty of the Bible’s teachings, that results in a hopelessly derailed theology!

Keep well away from such churches also!

Much like the Adventists, other religious groups that emerged on the 19th century, such as the Jehovah Witnesses, have exploited the difficult theological concepts of the Bible so as to snatch some believers into their ranks and expose them to dangerous, if not deadly theologies that go as far as denying the deity and importance of the person of Jesus Christ himself, who played the key role for the salvation of mankind!

Beware of anything that tends to belittle or do away with Jesus Christ, who the Bible tells us, is “the Great God and Saviour” of mankind, as written in Titus 2: 13

Other church groups, such as the Prosperity Cults and the Charismatics, seek and focus on more earthly rewards and experiences: riches, happiness and so-called gifts and experiences of the “spirit” that are a result of much pretending and deceit from their part…

There is no room for self-deceit or pretending in the heart and spirit of a True Child of God!

I could be suggesting you some “safer” and more Bible-centred churches, but I refrain to do so for fear of being branded as belonging to one of them, which I do not!

I have chosen to ignore all human dogmas.

I have just been studying carefully and daily the bible for the last 50 years, completely independently from existent theologies…

Do as I did, and you will be safely guided by God’s Spirit in his Truth!

Constantin Economides

Website:  Danielle-Economides.com

YouTube:  Born to be a musician and a light to the world

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What God expects from his followers…

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How beautiful is the message that this song promotes: that of not ignoring those we see living in distress, and start whistling indifferently on our way past them…

That is, of course what God expects from his followers…

Many people try to please their Creator by going to church often, singing hymns, praying,  fasting and denying themselves – at times- of comfort and pleasurable activities.

All these religious efforts of ours are good and help us to keep ourselves closer to God and away from sin.

But God demands more from us.

In the book of Isaiah, our Lord tells us:

“Do you think that your prayers will be heard just because, from time to time, you pray, you fast and deny yourselves of a sort, when on other times you show no respect for others, but you take advantage and hurt whoever you can?

If you want to please me and cause me to pay attention to your prayers, then do not pretend to not see how hurtful, and unjust you are towards others…

Stop being nasty, even evil, towards the less fortunate.

Learn instead to share your food with those who are hungry.

Start bringing in your home those who are homeless, and  provide clothes to those who do not have enough to cover themselves…

If you do not hide yourself from those who need you, but help them,  then your life will be filled with light, and your health will be returned to you, and the Lord your God will protect you and answer your prayers.

Stop, however threatening and oppressing others, excusing  yourselves behind empty words…

Open your heart to those who are in need and bring joy to those who are in sorrow.

Then, the Lord your God will guide you in your life, and will satisfy your soul’s needs, and you will be like a garden through which runs a spring whose waters never fail.

You can read for yourself this passage in the Bible, in the book of Isaiah, chapter 58.

Many of us live in paradise, so to speak… Let us give a hand to lift others from the terrible life they found themselves in.

God will put such actions to our credit!

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Wisdom of Snakes

Yesterday, as I was going to the brook next to our mobile home to cut grass to feed our chicken with, I was THIS CLOSE to stepping on a very thick and dangerous viper…

I ran to my father for him to kill it, but by the time we got back to that spot the snake had vanished.

My father then told me:

Snakes know by  instinct that we humans hate them and want to kill them, and they hurry away whenever they see us. They never expose themselves unnecessarily to danger, but they crawl away from it as soon as they can.

That is their wisdom that was given them by their Maker, so that they may see another day…

And that is the wisdom that Jesus referred to when he told his apostles: 

“I am sending you in this society as sheep in the midst of wolves: Be therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves”

(Matthew 10:16).

And he went on to say:

I have no experience with pigeons and doves, and I cannot tell you what we are to learn from them, but I can tell you what God wants us to learn from snakes, that is… not to not expose ourselves unnecessarily to danger!

If you know that people want to harm you in one place, move to another place, if it is at all possible.

Do not tell yourself: “God will surely protect me, for I trust in him!”. No. Run away to a safer place, just as Jesus did whenever he learned that the religious or political rulers wanted to kill him before his time had come.

Similarly, do not allow yourself to be in a place or a situation where you know very well that you are in danger to fall into sin.

God urges us to avoid such a place or situation at all cost, because we are weak, and once near the fire, our spiritual determination to remain holy and pleasing to God starts melting away, by the heat of our fleshly desires and we will most probably give in to the lust or whatever else is tempting us.

“The spirit is willing to do the right thing in God’s eyes, but the body is weak”, Jesus told Peter and us all in Matthew 26:41.

I have done just that, my father said, ever since I committed myself to follow Jesus, 51 years ago, at the age of 23.

I have avoided being near women and lived much like a monk when I was without a wife (being single for some 20 years all in all) and because of this, I managed against all odds not to ever fall into this sin that I am particularly most weak: my attraction to women…

That is what my father told me.

I know he is right, and I intend to follow his example.

Let us all learn from the “wisdom of snakes” that Jesus told us about.

 

1 Peter 5:7-8

“Control your bodies and stay alert because the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Resist him, holding by all means to the faith.”

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“Stolen Car”

A very important and respected man bought himself a brand-new and very expensive Mercedes-Benz, but just a few weeks later, his cherished car was stolen!

Years later, a police car stopped in his yard, and in the back seat sat one of his son’s best friends.

The police officer told the startled man and his son, who stood at his side:

“This man at the back of my car says that he knows you very well!

A few days ago, he recklessly caused an accident, and practically destroyed your car that he was driving, as well as a very expensive Porsche, seriously injuring its passengers!

This man is now will spend many years in prison for the crimes he has committed, and he begged us to let him speak to you, to ask for forgiveness and leniency!”

The owner of the car approached the police car and spoke to his son’s friend:

“We cannot believe that it was who stole our car!

How could you have done that to us who have been so good to you?!

And now, after all the harm and pain you have caused to us and others, you ask for forgiveness and leniency!

OK, here is what we will do for you, for we do love you:

I will not accuse you of stealing my Mercedes:  

For legal purposes I will put the blame for its disappearance on my son, even though he will have to face much trouble because of this!

He asked me to also pay for the Porsche that you have destroyed, which you are in no position to pay yourself, thus avoiding prison time!

But you will have to pay for all the harm that you have caused to others: You will have to pay for whatever reparations and compensation they demand of you,

In this way, you will, at least, not end up in jail for a very long time.

Dear reader.

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Unity and Fellowship among the Believers

Unity, Fellowship and honesty among the Believers in Jesus

Jesus, knowing very well that he was about to be arrested and crucified, prayed to his Father.

He spoke out-loud of what worried him most, of what he feared would happen after his departure:

He pleaded for unity among his believers:

Father”, he said, “I pray for those who will believe in me through the message of the apostles that I am sending to the nations.

I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one… 

May they be brought to a complete unity, so that the world will realise that I truly was sent to earth by you…” 

This prayer is mentioned in John chapter 17:…..

The early Christians fulfilled Jesus’ prayer request and were united in spirit and purpose under the leadership of the apostles.

We, however, the followers of Jesus of the 21st century, we are anything but united!

We differ even on what are the essential requirements for a person to be saved!

Some maintain that we are saved by taking part in their church’s “sacrements”, such as taking communion, confession, and being baptised only in their particular church or supposedly in the Holy Spirit, or by keeping the Sabbath etc…

We proudly call ourselves Catholics, Evangelicals, Jehovah witnesses, Seventh day adventists, Charismatics, Orthodox, and a thousand more other names but not simply “Christians”, “followers of Jesus Christ”

No wonder that no one believes in our message anymore…

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God suffers when we do

God suffers when we do…

The whole world is heading for a time of big changes and much suffering… much suffering that has been predicted in the Scriptures and will be sent on mankind by an exasperated God who has tried everything else so as to change our ways of living and thinking and make good people out of us, worthy of entering one day his eternal kingdom.

I am concerned that people will blame our loving God and our Saviour Jesus Christ for all the evil and hurt that is decreed and that humanity will soon have to experience.

How can I begin to explain in a few words why God will bring about the terrible sufferings.

Wars, like the one which is now destroying the whole of Ukraine, and Israel.

Famines, like those who threaten to decimate Yemen’s or Afghanistan’s whole populations,

Earthquakes, like the one that toppled thousands of buildings on their sleeping residents recently in Turkey,

Deadly pandemics, that will kill millions, perhaps our loved ones too…

I am afraid that people will blame God for all of these calamities, and harden their hearts towards him, instead of blaming themselves for the evil they cause to others without remorse, and for the grief that they cause to our good and holy Creator by saddening and ignoring him.

I am afraid that they will not understand, as I do, that God suffers when we suffer, just like parents suffer when putting their children through a painful discipline, for its own good…

Yes, I want to convey to you all what I am learning from God’s Word and from my own experiences of emotional suffering which you do not know much about and could have considered to be insignificant if you did, but which nevertheless torture me deeply.

I plead with you:

Let us not blame God for the terrible things that may happen to us!

Let us rely on the fact that he most certainly loves us, as he says in the Bible.

He proved it by coming to earth himself, so as to suffer and die in order to be able to redeem us, pay for what needed to be paid so that we may escape much worse suffering after our death, by choosing to love him and submit to him!

There is no doubt that he truly loves us. He proved it by accepting to have his only Son crucified for his Justice’s sake, instead of damning us out of his kingdom.

Let us not blame him for what mankind brings upon itself!

Let us learn from our sufferings and let us love him, because he dearly loves us.

=====================If my neighbour or some friend of mine hurts my feelings in some way, I will get hurt, but I will soon get over it and go on living my life without him or her.

But if someone that I love very much hurts me, it will be entirely another matter: I will be totally devastated since I love them wholeheartedly and want them to remain in my life I will not be happy until that person stops hurting my feelings and responds to my love.

The same stands for our Creator! 

He loves us very very much, more than we can imagine or comprehend, and when we disappoint him and offend him by our attitude and actions, God finds himself terribly unhappy, one could even say: devastated. 

Even though God lives in heaven, in a wonderful place, surrounded by much beauty and happiness, he is heartbroken because of us, and will remains heartbroken until we change…

It is beyond my comprehension that God loves us so much but he clearly does so, and I have to keep on reminding myself of this. I need to be very careful not to hurt him…

And this stands for each one of us, his chosen children. We all live self- centred, selfish lives… and by doing so we keep on spoiling God’s happiness.

No wonder that his words, in the Bible, are full of reproaches, accusations, and exhortations and threats!

As long as we, his creation, remain un-repented and rebellious towards him, God cannot be truly happy himself, nor fulfil his plans of happiness and prosperity for all.

He has to put up with us and keep on trying to sort out the mess and unhappiness we are causing, even while he constantly bears a heavy heart because of our waywardness…

The repentance that he demands of us is not so much to stop hurting our fellow men in one way or another, but primarily to stop hurting him, our good God, by our attitude and our deeds.

This is why, it seems to me, Jesus taught us to pray: lmay your Kingdom come and your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven!”

Jesus wants to spare his Father of the unhappiness this world cause him as long as he won’t intervene and make an end to our rebellious ways…

Once we realise how hurt God is because of us, we would stop complaining to him whenever things do not work out well for us, for it goes without saying that we are not entitled to more happiness than he actually is bearing himself, because of us!

That means that deep sorrows, sent by him, are to be expected in our lives.

“Everything that comes our way in this life, good and bad, comes from him”, God says in the bible, in ……….. and “Blessed are those whom God brings on them sorrows, mourning, hunger and crying in this life”. 

( Matthew 5: …)

We may not like it, but he allows all that for our good, especially for those of us who respond positively to such treatment…Let us believe him when he says that he actually suffers and cries with us when he brings unpleasant experiences our way!

So, let us not blame him for our woes, but let us rather put the blame on man’s rebellion towards his Creator which forced him to resort to such necessary methods that cause us much suffering, even on his beloved children…

In the Old Testament, God often likens himself to a husband who profoundly loves his wife! When she stops loving him and trying to pease him…his whole world falls apart, and he lives with a broken heart, full of pain.

No wonder his feelings for his children fluctuate between expressions of love, and willingness to forgive us, but also with accusations, feelings of being let down, of anger, threats and wrath!

It is difficult to study seriously the Bible and not get affected by the many reprimands that God addresses to his children, particularly to his favourite, chosen people, the nation of Israel, and by extension also to us, followers of Jesus.

 

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Mark 9:42-50

We live in very permissive times, and Christians have been affected accordingly.

Today, church leaders avoid speaking about “holiness” so as not to put off and offend the few people that still attend their church.

Instead, they stress heavily on passages that refer to the forgiving Grace of God.

But let us not fool ourselves: The bible tells us clearly that holiness is a pre-requisite for anyone to enter God’s kingdom:    

Hebrews 12:14:     Strive to be holy, for without holiness no one will see God

Hebrews 12:10:     God disciplines us so that we can become holy as he is holy.

2 Corinthians 7:1:    Out of fear for God, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates our body and our spirit, that we may be holy!

So, let us ask ourselves:

Am I holy?

The answer that comes to mind is:

Can anyone be “holy” in this world? No one is perfect…

Indeed, no one is truly “holy” and perfect except God himself. Yet, one can still be considered to be holy without being perfect.

Let me explain this:

 

From studying the Holy Scriptures I have come to understand that to be “holy” means to be pure and separated for God’s sake from others, so that he will be pleased with us and make good use of us.

I understand the concept of being  “holy” much like that of being “aseptic”, “sterile”!

I think of myself as being some utensil that has been sterilised in a special hot oven and now it must be kept in a sterile condition waiting for the surgeon that needs it in order to operate…

Perhaps, on the day of the operation, it is not perfectly sterile: some germs or viruses may have creeped on it. It could, however, still be considered to be clean and sterilised enough for this particular operation.

For a more serious operation, it will have to be sterilised again, by putting it in an even hotter oven, and for a longer time, so that all impurities and viruses to be removed from it.

In the same way, I, as a born-again child of God, I have been cleansed of my sins on the day of my conversion, by the blood of Jesus Christ!  

I am holy and must be separated from the world’s ways, so as to follow and please my Lord.

With time, however, some sins will inevitably creep into my soul and life. If these sins are minor, not very serious in God’s eyes, I can still be considered to be “holy”, even though I am not perfect or sinless:

Though imperfect, God still lives in my heart and is pleased with me. But I must remain unpolluted by the world, “holy”.

When God commands us: “Be holy for I am holy” (1Peter 1:16, Leviticus 19:2), he is telling us to do our outmost in order not to allow sin, (at least wilful and serious sins) to enter into our soul and life and destroy the special relationship we are supposed to have with him.

For us to be holy, we must first of all learn to hate, really hate, sin, for the harm it does to ourselves and others.

Even though we oftentimes would love to indulge and enjoy doing just what suits us or pleases us, our hatred for sin should prevent us from…indulging!

We absolutely must do what is right in God’s eyes and he demands us to fight off sin and temptation by all means and with great determination:

And the words of Jesus, as recorded in Mark 9:42~50 tell us just how hard he expects us to fight off temptation and sin, and strive to be holy.

Let me read this passage to you, paraphrasing it and expanding it for clarity.

In Mark chapter 9 Jesus says:

“If your eye, or your hand, or any other part of your body leads you to sinning, cut it off from your body altogether so that you will not be thrown into hell because of it.

For ending up in hell is the most terrible thing that can happen to you: There, you will find yourself in the form of a worm, that never dies, and that suffers continually in an unquenchable fire…

Make sure that you do not end up there!

If you cannot fight off evil from your lives then at least tie a stone around your neck and throw yourself into the sea, so that you may not sin anymore.

At least you may then still have a chance of escaping going to that terrible place of punishment.”

 These words of Jesus are certainly harsh and very extreme: I do not think that there has ever been someone who has gouged out his eyes or cut off his genitals so as not to sin.

Our Lord used these harsh words to help us grasp better the point that he was making:

We must fear God and do absolutely whatever is necessary so as not to disobey him and cause his wrathful anger to fall on us.

And the least that we can all do is to make sure that we do not get into situations that will bring us closer into temptation.

We should avoid and run away from temptations…

We should be aware of our weaknesses and not allow ourselves to get anywhere close to the “fire” of temptation that will melt, weaken our resistance to sinning, and cause us to succumb to the temptation, whatever that may be.

Our Lord even taught us to pray about it:

“Heavenly Father…Help us not to expose ourselves to temptations, and deliver us from evil…”(Matthew 6:13)

Let me give you some examples, out of my own christian life and that of my father’s, on how to practically keep out of temptations:

After the six years that I spent in “primary school” I entered “high school” at the difficult age of 13! I soon realized that the teenagers attending there were influencing me to become much like they are, and not like what I knew God wanted me to be.

 I shared this with my father, and we decided that I should not go to school any more!

This I did, even though many problems did arise because of this decision: we were threatened and dragged into “courts of law” for many years… but I know that we did what needed to be done, what was right in God’s eyes, and because of this, I became a much more dedicated Christian than the other kids who stayed in school.

For the same reason, I also had to give up, my best and only friend that I then loved wholeheartedly.

Keeping myself well away from the world brought much depression and sadness in my life, but it helped me at least to escape from the many temptations and sins that others fell into.

And that is what is most important.

Let me tell you now about my father:

He is a truly dedicated follower of Christ, but he has two weakness, a small one, and a very big one.

His “small” weakness is that, when at home, he loses at times his temper and starts shouting, uses foul language and becomes unpleasant. It lasts for a minute or two, and

once “steam” has been let out, he becomes his good old self again.

Damage, however, has been done.

Because of his short temper, people avoid him and fear him, and both of his wives left him…

He has prayed about it, tried to stay calm, but any time that something would upset him, mostly when at home, his anger would still flare up.

Is it a sin? Perhaps.

But, as he says, it is un-avoidable: The very moment, for instance, that he bangs his head accidentally on something, he will automatically shout out loud and perhaps even turn around and hit the wall…

There is nothing that he can “cut out” of his body or of his habits so that this won’t happen again!

Of course, if a gun was pointed to his head, he would probably be able to control himself, but his frustration would probably find some other way to be expressed…

Let me tell you now about his “big weakness”:

My father is very attracted to beautiful women, or should I say any desirable woman…

When he was young, he was a womanizer until the age of 23. That is when he was abruptly touched by God’s Spirit and was born-again! From that moment, having decided to follow Christ, he knew that this sin that had truly enslaved him until then had to be cut out of his life at all costs.

So, on the very day of his conversion, he took the solemn decision to avoid from then on being in the presence of desirable women so as not to melt down by temptation and sin.

This, he did, and he now can boast that he lived a holy life for the last 52 years and never had sexual relations with anyone other that his two wives that he later married.

Even though he has lived, after becoming a follower of Jesus at least 15 long years without a wife, being utterly depressed and frustrated because of it, he nevertheless managed to subdue this great weakness of his by living like a monk!

He avoided getting close to women at all costs, and he fled each time some female would approach him, looking for trouble. He would literally open the door and run away from temptation as if chased by a lion!

Now, he hardly ever gets out of our house. He suffers terribly for not having a wife. He needs one, but doesn’t dare to look for one, out of fear that by doing so he may fall into temptations…

This is the kind of attitude that God expects each one of us to have!

If you are not prepared to cut out the members of your body that cause you to sin, as Jesus asked of us, then at least, do all that you must so that you will not sin.

Any person, for instance, who faces temptations of any kind in his work or in his environment, must be willing to give up his job, his leisure activities or any habit of his.

He just must not stay where he knows that he will be tempted!

Just like an alcoholic must stay well away from his drunken friends, from bars and even weddings parties and festivals where people drink, or else he will sooner or later, fall back into this bad habit and ruin his life.

It comes down to either changing completely one’s environment, one’s lifestyle, one’s friends and habits, or of cutting one’s leg and plucking out one’s eyes…

In one way or another we simply must live holy lives, lest our names will be blotted out of the Book of Life… as God says in the book of Exodus 32:33

“Whoever sins against me I will blot his name out of my book!”

Fear God! Tremble out of fear when tempted.

===================================/==========

In the Old Testament it is written that every sacrifice that is offered to God must be salted, and in the New Testament, Jesus told us that God’s children themselves must be “salted”,“baptized with fire”!

 

 

That is: they must experience and put up with many sorrows and calamities that God will bring into their lives, in order that they will be purified by them, by means of the pain the very pain that these calamities create in them, just as fire purifies gold!

 

Salt that is sprinkled unto an infected wound hurts, but it also kills all germs and helps it to heal!

Suffering, like salt, does us good, since it is the way that God uses not only to purify us, but also to determine who is truly a follower of Christ, and who is just a religious person.

For some people however, the sorrows and tribulations that God sends in their paths do not result in bringing about repentance and submission to his will.

For them “salt” does not improve them in any way, and they will be thrown into the fire…

Ας υπομείνουμε λοιπόν τις δοκιμασίες και τις θλίψεις που μας στέλνει ο Θεός διότι μόνον με αυτόν τον τρόπο θα γίνουμε τελικά αποδεκτοί από αυτόν.

Πρέπει να δεχόμαστε την σκληρή παιδαγώγηση που μας στέλνει ο Θεός για να μας καλυτερεύσει, και να μάθουμε να μην κάνουμε πια κακό ο ένας προς τον άλλον με τις αμαρτίες μας, αλλά να έχουμε ειρήνη μεταξύ σας.

Τότες θα εισέλθουμε μία μέρα, μέσα στην βασιλεία του Θεού…

Πρέπει να δεχόμαστε την σκληρή παιδαγώγηση που μας στέλνει ο Θεός για να μας καλυτερεύσει, και να μάθουμε να μην κάνουμε πια κακό ο ένας προς τον άλλον με τις αμαρτίες μας, αλλά να έχουμε ειρήνη μεταξύ σας.

So let us endure the trials and tribulations that God sends us because only in this way will we ever be accepted by him.

But we, believers, we must accept the hard discipline that God sends us to make us better and learn not to harm one another with our sins, so as to have peace among yourselves.

And one day…we will be allowed to enter into God’s eternal kingdom.

Every born-again Christian must be hard on himself: He must remove from his life everything, friends, associations and habits that lead him to sinning. That is:

A drug addict must cut his company.

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