“We are told to let our light shine, and if it does, we won’t need to tell anybody it does. Lighthouses don’t fire cannons to call attention to their shining- they just shine.”

The Trials [part 3]

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

In this third and final part, I want to just wrap up…

In the book of Matthew it says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs.  (11)  “Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of Me.  (12)  Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:10-12 HCSB)

As Christians, sometimes we expect things to get easier for us, since we are on God’s side…  We face Trials…  Besides persecution, I’m sure you can think of 100 other examples of types of trials we might face in life…  Why do we have to go through them in the first place?!

I dealt with that question a little bit previously in a post called The Suffering, but perhaps that is a question left to God.  Perhaps each time, there is a different reason with each person.  Perhaps there is only one reason.  I do not know exactly.  But what I do know is that there is a reason.  There is a hope at the end of all the trials, the suffering and the pain.  A true hope.  One that will not fail us.  One who knows and has felt all that we have been through…

At the end of time, billions of people were scattered on the vast plain before God’s Throne. Some shrank back from the brilliant light before them. But many other groups talked heatedly, not cringing with shame, but with belligerence.

“Can God judge us? How can He know about suffering?”, snapped a pert brunette. She ripped open a sleeve to reveal a tattooed number from a Nazi concentration camp. “We endured terror … beating … torture … death!”

 
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I overheard a friend recently say, “My young son asked me what happens after we die. I told him we get buried under a bunch of dirt and worms eat our bodies. I guess I should have told him the truth – that most of us go to Hell and burn eternally – but I didn’t want to upset him,” (…a quote he borrowed, I believe).
He was responded by a couple other people saying: “Sounds like you did the right thing… To tell you the truth, the first is probably more the truth than the later… at least that’s what I’m betting on…”

I got to thinking about these statements, (go figure), and about destiny.

Destiny…

What happens when we die?  Where do we go?  Do we in fact simply go back to the dust from whence we came?  Is that the end?  Is there something for us after we die?

Author Deepak Chopra said in one of his books,

“On the material level, both you and a tree are made up of the same recycled elements.  Mostly carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and other elements in minute amounts.  You could buy these elements in a hardware store for a couple of dollars.  The real difference between the two of you is between the energy and the information.  Your body is not separated from the body of the universe.  Because of the quantum mechanical levels, there are no well defined edges.  You are like a wiggle, a wave, a fluxuation, a convolution, a whirlpool, a localized disturbance in the larger quantum field.”
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ABC Nightline aired a debate on the 26th between author and philosopher Deepak Chopra and Bishop Carlton Pearson facing-off against Pastor Mark Driscoll (Pastor of the Mars Hill Church) and Annie Lobert (founder of a Christian ministry “Hookers for Jesus”) on the topic “Does Satan Exist?”
I’ve watched all of it now on the ABC website, and would suggest either watching it when you have a chance.

So, does Satan exist?  What do you think?
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Part I | Part 2 | Part 3

After thinking about Part I, I suppose it could take a whole book to get into “new age, humanistic, postmodern viewpoints, and even within the church” viewpoints and debates, so for now I shall do my best to not digress much, and just talk about Atheism. Try, I say… Let the games begin…

I am not here to critique books, and admittedly, I have not read any of these books yet, I intend to just show you the book, what it’s about, and at least one rebuttal from another source who has indeed read these books. This is simply to give you an idea of what is out there. Please, if you have read any of these, I would love your comments and thoughts, regardless if they agree with mine.

Let’s start with a few books:
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Original article here: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1686828,00.html

Ahh, the world never ceases to amaze me…  Time Magazine published an article in their December 3, 2007 issue titled, “Sunday School for Atheists.” 

As stated in the article, “…The lives of these young people would be much easier, adult nonbelievers say, if they learned at an early age how to respond to the God-fearing majority in the U.S. ‘It’s important for kids not to look weird,’ says Peter Bishop, who leads the preteen class at the Humanist center in Palo Alto.”  What?!  Can someone please tell me, since when, in this post-modern society we live in today, has being a ‘non-believer’ looked weird??!  I was really under the impression that now, more than ever in our lifetime, it’s almost preposterous for someone to believe in God.  At least that’s what general society is telling us more and more.  Our culture, as a whole, is now trying to push God out of everything in the United States, a nation that was founded on Christianity.  But let’s move on…

Humanist, or Humanism defined:
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