Skip to main content

Why it's hard to be a Christian - Posted 6 Jul 2011

Why it's hard to be a Christian - posted 6 Jul 2011


At first blush, it just doesn't make sense! In one broad stroke - it is too simple, too good to be true - is there a 
catch to it all?

Here's why

1. It is not about what we do to reach a higher being who is "up there" but what God has done, to become one of us, to reach all of us "down here."

2. In fact, it's not about what any of us do at all - It has all been done. All we need do is to accept that it has been done, or not. The doing is in the believing. Too good to be true? Well, some may say - I live a good life, I don't murder, steal, commit adultery, etc. Therefore, I'm better off than some, and not as good as others.

 Actually, there's only one standard, and we all don't cut it. Some others may say - wow, does that mean I can go on doing things that are not quite so right, and still get a straight ticket to heaven? Yes, and no. It goes like this - Suppose there is this delinquent who has been in and out of prison and reform centres, tried his "darndest" to change but nothing works. One day, he did a big one, and got into trouble big time. 

At the sentencing, the judge said that he can go off scot free as someone was prepared to go to jail for him and settle everything for him. It turned out to be his mother. Ask him again whether he will still continue with what he was doing.

3. If there is such a God, why does God allow evil and "good" people go to hell?

I believe God is love. You need someone to lavish your love on. God created angels ( who are servants of God ) and animals ( who serve mankind ). Love is a two-way relationship and God created man to pour out His love on. You cannot force someone to love you - it has got to be by choice. 

The problem of evil - God did not create evil , but He created an arch-angel who thought he wanted to be better than God, and became the nemesis of everything God  is not. God is good , the nemesis is evil; he stood for everything God was not. God is truth, he is a liar; God wants to bless, he wants to kill, steal, destroy.

 God did not create hell for people. It was intended for fallen angels. God did everything He could to save mankind to get them out of hell. Back to the analogy above - God came down in the form of man, through His Son, Jesus. He paid the ultimate price and penalty to save us - He was tortured and bled every drop of His blood and died for us. Do we and can we believe that?

4.  You say - if I see God, I will believe. Seeing is not believing - faith is.

More than 2,000 years ago, God came and lived and mingled with the people to reveal Himself. Many did not believe and could not believe. I choose to believe, because of the awesomeness of creation, of life itself, of miracles, ofthe lives of  people who have been transformed, of love, giving and receiving- the goodness of God. 

Everyone needs to have faith in something or someone. For instance, it takes great faith to do this: a person falls ill and a stranger attends to him; he scribbles something illegible on a scap of paper, the sick person takes it to another counter where another stranger dispenses stuff to him he has never heard of before, tells him he will get better if he follows the instructions on the bottles and packets, and this person actually believes all of it and does so. People do it all the time. 

It also takes great faith not believing there is a God, and to bank on that for all eternity. I believe we all live forever; our life here is a brief sojourn - the question is what next and which address do we move to.

5. How then should we live?
Paradoxically. We will reap what we sow. If we want wealth, sow seeds of wealth; want love, sow love; want relationships, be a friend...The things that can  be seen are temporal, the things that are not seen are eternal. 

Say what? There are treasures in heaven, big mansions, streets of gold, no more tears, reunion with loved ones that have passed on before. in the here and now, love our enemies, guard our tongues, no bitching, even for the more deserving. 

Embrace the miracles and blessings everyday that come along from a paradigm shift in our hearts, mind and body.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New Perspectives

  So What If The Day Started Badly This morning, as I was reversing my car out of the porch for a dental appointment, I drove right into a van who just happened to park in front of the house across the road, right at the very instant. The knee jerk instinct was to feel sorry and angry with myself at the same time. I said a little prayer for comfort and that the rest of the day would turn out better, with small mercies along the way. I also texted G, telling him what happened and that I was a little shaken by the incident, trivial as it was. The text came back " No worries". It was all the comfort I needed - no judgment, no reproof, just a quiet understanding and acceptance. The Rest Of the Day Got the tooth fixed, had my comfort food for lunch, left car with dented bumper with mechanic, took a bus to Ang Mo Kio library to while away the time. Along the way, discovered my favorite Yong Tau Foo franchise had moved to the food centre here, much nearer home, and also picked up a ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Teemo ( first posted on thebarefootfoodie.org on 7 Apr 2021 )

  Teemo APRIL 7, 2021 MY FURRY KIDS Teemo came into our lives on 9 March 2021 . His fosterer told us he is about 3 months old so this lucky boy will have two dates to celebrate – an “agak-agak’ birthday on 9 Dec 2020 and his adoption day in March. But first, here’s a long preface to where we got to be where we are. Don;t be fooled by my coyness I’ve always loved animals but since G developed allergies to cats and dogs, we stopped having them for goodness knows how long a deprivation dry spell. Things changed one day when a runaway or abandoned hamster found its way into our house. We took Hammie in and just as suddenly as he came, he became listless one day, developed a wet tail ( a fatal syndrome in hamsters ) and died. I was very upset and felt the loss deeply. G wanted to get me another hamster but since their lifespan is only 2 years, we decided to get bunnies instead. That was how Miu Miu ( the Brown ) and Prada ( the Black ) joined the family. Surprise, surprise, G is not all...
Post a Comment
Read more

Gnomes, Locks and Other Distractions – Wroclaw Part 1 ( first posted on thebarefootfoodie.org on 18 Oct 2016 )

  Gnomes, Locks and Other Distractions – Wroclaw Part 1 OCTOBER 18, 2016 BAREFOOT TRAVELS ,  EUROPE Wroclaw ( pronounced  rots wahv )   is a picturesque city in Poland known for its beautiful market square and many delightful pockets of quaint features. It is spanned by more than 100 bridges, and floats ethereally perched as a city on water. That aside, the real draw for us was the  legion of little people with larger than life personalities that add to the lure of this magical place – the gnomes ( or  krasnale  , in local parlance ) It started with a protest against the authoritarian regime by dissidents who cleverly used these whimsical figurines to register their discontent. How could the police make an arrest with something so nonsensical? And so it grew, until it acquired a cult status of its own in 2001 when the country became a democratic state, and an official statue of a gnome was erected on the city’s main street. It did not stop th...
Post a Comment
Read more