The God Hole

“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air; and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Genesis 1: 26-27

Man is unlike any other living thing on earth. He was a special creation of God. He was made in God’s image. He is a three-in-one being. He has a physical body. He has a spirit. He also has a soul.

Inside man God has place a hole that can only be filled by Him. You see this in every human society. In primitive societies they worship nature, the heavens, even rocks. In our modern American society we have been trying to replace our God hole with pleasures, money, drugs, etc.

News people are amazed that people would join a group like ISIS. I don’t see why they should be so surprised. We have tried to take God out of society. The God hole must be filled. ISIS tells potential followers that they are a spiritual group. Man must believe in something. ISIS simply fills that void.

When you understand the God hole, it is quite easy to understand why radical groups can be attractive to people. When will we understand that man must worship God?

The Greatest Gift

This time of year brings to mind the greatest gift ever given to mankind. Almost two thousand years ago, God came to earth. Jesus lived for about 33 years teaching man about what He expects. He then suffered a horrible death but miraculously arose on the third day to give man eternal life.

There were deniers from the very first. The Scribes and Pharisees paid the guards to tell people that His disciples stole His body. As the years have passed, more and more deniers have arisen trying to discount Jesus and His death and resurrection.

Today, we have people who even deny that Jesus existed. The simple fact is that we have more evidence that Jesus existed than we have that Julius Caesar or Homer existed. No one would claim these men didn’t exist.

Why is there such a concentrated effort to deny that Jesus existed? The answer is complex and simple. The simple answer is that the Devil tries to tell us that God’s word is a lie. It started in the Garden of Eden when he told Eve that God lied.  God said if they ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, they would die. The Devil, in the guise of the serpent, told her she would not surely die, but she would become like God. Of course, His word was true and they died spiritually and physically.

Today the cries are shriller. The Devil still wants man to believe God’s word isn’t true. Man also has a dilemma. If he admits that Jesus was real, then he must ask himself what will he do with Jesus.

All men know that there is sin in the world. The question is what to do about it. Many think the government is the answer. Others believe overcoming poverty and ignorance will defeat sin. All of these are doomed to failure because sin is a condition of the heart. Until the heart is changed sin will continue. Jesus brought us freedom from sin and death. That is why his death and resurrection are so important and why it is fought so vehemently.

The Name of God

Over the years, I have known a number of people from different faiths. I have also known those who professed to have no faith at all. In each case, I noticed something unusual.

When these people cursed, they used the name of my God in vain. They didn’t swear by their deities.  This always brought up some questions to me. First, why would a person who confesses that they do not believe in God swear at all? Why would you use an oath on a Being who doesn’t exist? Some atheists say God is a fantasy. If so, why don’t they swear by the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, or the Great Pumpkin?

If you believe in another faith, why would you swear by the name of my God? It took me a while to understand this phenomenon. The answer is quite simple. You do not swear if you use the name of a false God. If I say “Oh Zeus” or “For Thor’s sake”, I didn’t swear. These gods do not exist.

Isn’t it amazing that by the swear words others use they uphold the fact that my God is in fact the only God.

The Greatest Gift

“Then the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2: 10-11)

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

This is the season to celebrate the greatest gift ever given to mankind. The God who made all things left glory and came to be born to a poor Jewish girl. His stepfather was a carpenter who had to travel a great distance on foot with a pregnant wife because of a government decree. They came to their destination and found there was no vacancy. Out of kindness, a person allowed them to use a smelly stable. When God was born he was placed in a feeding trough.

The first people to come to the stable were shepherds. In that time, they were considered the lower element of society. They smelled and were considered no better than thieves. And yet, these were the men summoned by the angels.

To think, God Almighty came in such a way to save our lives from sin and death. What a great gift we have received.

Man's Wisdom vs. God's Wisdom

Over the years, I have been amazed at the things man has discovered. I was working in the computer field when they were huge and took up entire floors of buildings. We went from that to my iPad, which has much more capability than any of the computers I worked with. Unfortunately, man has allowed his acquisition of information to cloud his judgment on his place in the scheme of things.

God told us about this time in Daniel. “But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase”. (Dan. 12:4)  God told us that we would travel quickly from place to place and knowledge would increase. God knew thousands of years ago what would occur today, because He is an infinite being. Man is finite. He has a beginning and an end, but God is forever.

Man can learn some finite facts. He can manipulate things that exist, and he has a free will to choose what he will do and whom he will worship. Unfortunately, man’s increase in knowledge has come at a terrible price.

“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting.” (Rom. 1:28)

“Always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (2 Tim. 3:7).

Man has debased his knowledge. He thinks because he has learned a few finite facts he understands infinite knowledge. I liken man’s knowledge to a fine wood worker. He can take an expensive piece of wood and tell you all about its characteristics. He can then make it into something beautiful, but no matter how much a man learns about wood, he cannot make an acorn and have it grow into a tree.

I took a lot of chemistry in college. I was taught many things about atoms and atomic theories, but none of my professors could make a proton, a neutron, and an electron and put them together to make a hydrogen atom. Today we have much more knowledge than when I attended college, but no scientist could make a hydrogen atom from scratch. This is the difference between finite knowledge and infinite knowledge.

Man is a created being. He will never know as much as the maker of all things. The pot doesn’t know how the potter made it. Put your trust in the maker of all things.

Is Hell For Real (Part 2)

We have seen that the Bible makes it clear hell is a real place. This brings up a question. If God is a God of love, how could He make such a terrible place?

The answer is both simple and complex. Besides being a God of love, He is also a God who is holy and just. Because He is holy, no sinful thing can come into His presence.  We see how holy God is in Exodus 33:20 – "But He said, 'You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me and live.'"

God warned Adam in the Garden of Eden that if he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he would die. He didn’t believe God’s word. He ate it and died spiritually and physically. Man still doesn’t believe what God says. This is the reason people do not believe hell exists.

 You might say, "But I am a good person. Surely, God would not send me to hell." The answer to that is, what do you mean by “good”? Most people use their measuring stick to determine if they are good. God’s word is God’s measuring stick.

“As it is written: There is none righteous, no, not one.” (Romans 3:10)

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)

By God’s measuring rod all deserve to go to hell, but God is a God of love. He has made a way for all men to escape their deserved fate.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

Without Jesus, you go to your just punishment. When you accept Him as your Lord, He becomes your mediator with a holy God. Because of what He has done for us, we are united with a holy God, and we can enter into His rest.

 

 

Is Hell for Real?

Part 1

 

Today many believe that hell doesn’t exist. Many preachers do not talk about hell in their sermons. Some say it is a state of mind or that your life experiences can be like hell. So the question must be asked, is hell a real place or not? It is with a heavy heart that I must tell you it is as real a place as any you can think of. Unfortunately, the vast majority of mankind will spend their eternity there.

To understand hell we must go to the source of all truth – God’s word. Further, we will look at the ultimate spokesman – God’s son. In Matthew 18: 8-9 and Mark 9: 43-48 Jesus warns us that hell is such a terrible place that it is better to be maimed than to go to hell whole.

Some of you may be surprised that there are two hells. There is the current hell where the lost will go and there is a future hell where the lost will remain for all of eternity. We find this in Revelation 20: 11-15.  All the lost will stand before the great white throne of God. Death and hell will give up its dead and all the lost will be judged and thrown into the lake of fire.

The wonderful news is that God has given us a mediator who will stand for the righteous. They will escape this fate and spend eternity with God in everlasting joy. This is why this is called the good news.