Understanding Christianity

UNDERSTANDING CHRISTIANITY

 

Christianity is often included together with the other "World Religions", but in reality it is not a "religion" in the strict sense. A religion is a certain way of acknowledging and worshipping the "Higher Power" that people believe in. Their goal is usually to prove to this "god" that they love him/her or it. Some religions have many so-called gods, or goddesses, while others have only one "god". The followers of Mohamed, for example call their religion "Islam", and their "Holy Book" is called the "Koran", and their god is called Allah. And most other religions have their own Holy Books, and are founded by some person that is the center of their worship. On the other hand the followers of Jesus understand our "Religion" to be a "Relationship" with the one true Creator God, through His Son Jesus Christ. The name Christian comes from His name, and means a "Christ-In", or in other words someone who has received Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Jesus is the only religious founder who was dead, but rose again from the dead, and lives now forever with His Father God in heaven.

 

We have a "Holy Book" called the "Bible", that explains all about our universe, and what God expects of us as inhabitants of this Planet Earth. He knew we would need a manual to instruct us in spiritual things, so He chose certain men and women, and inspired them by His Holy Spirit to write 66 books over a period of time, which make up our Bible. It gives the answer to all of our questions, about creation, where evil came from, what is sin, and how can we be free from it, is there life after death etc? These are questions that we all need to have reliable answers for, and God's Word, the Holy Bible, has answers to every one!

 

We all need a Savior from sin, and Jesus came from heaven over 2000 years ago, He was the Son of God, but by the miracle of the "Virgin Birth", He became a human being, lived a completely "sinless" life, and died on the Cross of Calvary to pay the penalty for our sins. All we have to do is repent of our sins ask God to forgive us for our sins, and receive Jesus as our own personal Lord and Savior. We are then "born again", and are "adopted" by Father God into "His Forever Family". So belief in what Jesus did for us on the cross is our doorway into a "Relationship with God"! That's much better than any form of "Religion", I believe.

Sincerely submitted!

Dave Jamer.                                                                                                                                 20/04/12

Nature abhhors a vacuum

NATURE ABHORS A VACUUM

 

Apparently this statement is credited to the ancient philosopher Aristotle, who stated that based on his observation that "nature requires every space be filled with something, even if it is colorless, odorless air". As far as I know the study of science over the years has agreed with this conclusion. I think the same truth can be applied to the spiritual world, as well as the natural.

This is based on my understanding of scripture that I have gained from studying God's Word since becoming a follower of Jesus nearly 50 years ago. The Bible teaches clearly that we are born into this world with a sinful nature inherited from the first Adam, our first human ancestor. (Rom 5:12). All humans since him are hopeless sinners (Rom 3:10-23), and doomed for death (Rom 6:23).

 

Because of the foreknowledge of our Creator God, who knew this would happen, He already had a plan to correct this human dilemma. This plan included His only begotten Son Jesus to be incarnated into human flesh by way of the womb of a virgin Jewish maiden. As a perfect human without a trace of Adam's sinful nature, He would then die to pay the price to redeem mankind. After 3 days the Father would resurrect Him in a glorified body, and call Him back to heaven to sit at Father's side. (Ps 110:1). Then they would send the Holy Spirit to earth to take the place of Jesus, until the time appointed for Him to return to earth to receive the Church that He said He would build. (Matt 16:18) The Holy Spirit convicts humans of their sinful condition, and the truth that Jesus came to be their Savior. Then when they repent and accept Jesus as Savior they are "born again". At that moment the Holy Spirit moves into their human spirit, and they become a "new creation". (2 Cor 5:17). Or we might say they are then part of a completely "New Species" of beings, as members of "God's Forever Family"!

 

The Holy Spirit is meant to fill the space in mankind that was originally filled by our sinful nature, however if we don't continue to remain filled as Paul admonishes in (Eph 5:18), then the fleshly nature will creep back into occupy the space that we don't let the Holy Spirit occupy. We are then classed as "carnal Christians", (1 Cor 3:1-4), and not spiritual, because we are not completely filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit of God!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

 

 

BSOL

BSOL REVIVED

 

Back on Jan 1 2005, I suggested to our 6 grandchildren that we could start a "Bible Study on Line" (BSOL) if they were interested, since we all had access to email. They agreed, and for several years we continued; starting with a certain book of the Bible, I would start with a simple outline of each chapter and send it to each of them on Mon AM and suggest that they reply with questions or comments. Then we could discuss that chapter throughout the week by using the "reply to all" button, and we had the equivalent of a living room Bible study, but from different locations, as they were in different stages of their education at the time. This seemed to work quite well at the time, but as their lives got busier with their studies etc. we finally dropped it after a few years. Recently I have had the desire to start this up again, and make it available to anyone who is interested in knowing more about God's Word. I certainly don't consider myself any expert teacher of the Word, but I have been a committed member of various churches of different denominational backgrounds for over 50 years, and since suffering my first of several strokes on Dec 8, 1999, the same year I turned 65 in July, my life style changed quite drastically and I could no longer do the things I had previously enjoyed doing. So I made a choice to spend more time studying the Bible, and reading books about early church history, and how we worship God today, compared to the way they did in the book of Acts. Needless to say I have learned a lot about how church traditions and various doctrines have entered the "churches" since Jesus said in (Matt 16:18) "I will build My Church".

 

What we call "churches" today have little or no resemblance to the original gatherings to worship Jesus in the first couple centuries after Jesus was crucified, buried, and rose back to life 3 days later. Early church history explains how things changed drastically in the fourth century when Emperor Constantine joined the "Church" of the day to the mighty Roman Empire. The "Church of Rome" became the dominant leader in religious matters through the period known as the "dark ages", from 500 to 1500 AD. Any accurate historical account of these years tell the tragic story of this period of church history, and is available for anyone to see, but few people have ever bothered to read early church history. I had the time to do that after the forced change in my lifestyle after the first stroke, and it was quite amazing the things I learned, that I never heard in any of the churches I had attended.

 

What Jesus meant to be a "living organism", suddenly became a lifeless "organization" patterned after the Roman Empire, and similar to large corporations like GM or IBM, with their CEO's and regional managers etc. Jesus never came to earth to start another "Religion", but to open the door to a "Relationship" with our Creator God through His sacrificial death as the cross as the "Lamb of God". (John 14:6)!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                                                          11/01/14

The Army of God

THE ARMY OF GOD

A popular chorus back in the "charismatic renewal" days of the 60's and 70's, before some of you were born, came to mind last week and with it the following thoughts. First let me give you the words of this chorus.

"God's got an army marching through the land

Deliverance is their song, with healing in their hands Everlasting joy and gladness in their heart

And in this army I've got a part."

 

I'm not so sure that God has ever had an army, in the true sense of the word. We could sing the songs and pretend that we were, but when it came to going into battle against the enemy forces, many people went "AWOL"

(Absent Without Leave) in case you've never heard the term! Two of my brothers were involved in WW2, one in the RCAF, the other in the Merchant Marines. I was too young of course, but I heard lots of stories after the war ended with the celebrations of VE Day in 1945. I'm sure that God wants an "army" to do battle against His enemy Satan and his kingdom of darkness, but does such an army really exist? Consider what an army, or "armed forces", the more politically correct term used today, actually consist of. The methods of fighting a war have changed drastically since WW2, but the requirements for the armed forces involved has not changed much. Basic "boot camp" is still the starting point for new recruits, where they learn the difference between their old life as a civilian and their new life as a soldier. This includes, but is not limited to, learning to obey orders even if they don't make sense. Some day their life may depend on it! How many believers do you know that have learned to obey a command given by their leaders to do something that they don't understand the reason for? We live in a society that is very "independent", and accustomed to making our own decisions based on what is best for us, with no thought to how it might affect anyone else! This is definitely not allowed in an army setting. We must know our "superior officers", and obey their commands. One of the problems in the church today (who we consider to be God's army) is that they are not submitted to leadership who has been appointed by God to lead His people. We have more "self appointed" leaders today, or ones elected by a group of people, and not set in place by God. How can we consider this thing we call a church the "army of God"? How do you suppose God calls it? I expect He would use some other word, and perhaps we should too!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                    11/10/11