Random thoughts on Bible topics.
The accounts of the death of Jesus are surprising in just how weak he
seems to be. We know from his earlier miracles that he was capable of
so many things, and could defeat enemies, but yet here we see him as
defeated under the strength of the opposition. Of his crucifixion, it
The book of Zechariah starts with an appeal by God at around 500BC for
the people of Israel to return to him. For many years God had
persisted with those people even though they often failed to obey him.
But still, God continued with them, punishing them for their evil and
calling them to return to him. Without ever lowering His own
expectations, he continually reached out to them and reiterated that
they would eventually obey him and be blessed.
The first epistle of John quite strongly emphasises the importance of
having love for other people. It is placed as being one of the
central attributes that someone must have in order to even be able to
accept or to understand God. Modern society has a whole range of
understandings of what love is, or how it may be expressed. They may
vary among ideas that include lust, and simply making people happy.
The views of our society will affect our initial response, so we need
to take care to find the real interpretation.
One symbol used of God in the Bible is that he is ``light'' and that
his word sheds light to the world. Then equivalently, the lack of God
in one's life is equivalent to being in darkness. In 1 John 1:5 it
says that in God there is no darkness at all. This suggests that in
the symbol, among the world we can expect to see a mixture of light
and dark, and that mixing can give a false sense of security to
society as a whole.
2 Peter 3 contains a vivid image about how the heavens and earth will
pass away and be burnt up. The focus of the chapter is to demonstrate
the reality of it by using the great flood of Genesis as an example of
how something similar has already happened. This is a useful
reminder, but also the comparison can give some insight into the
nature of this destruction and what the new earth will be like.
The Christmas festival is a mixture of many traditions and ideas. In
recent times the principal figurehead has been Santa Claus, portrayed
as a likeable character who has the capability and willingness to give
gifts. Parents are encouraged to deceive their children into
believing that Santa Claus really exists, but in doing so, are they
teaching a false god to their children?
Does faith have anything to do with the
economy? This present crisis shows it does. Business “confidence”
is a measure of an economy. Kevin Rudd the Prime minister of
Australia describes the answer to Australian loss of confidence as a
need 'to move heaven and earth'. ... More