Does God exist? The following offers honest, straight-forward reasons to believe in God...
By Marilyn Adamson
Just once wouldn't you love for someone to simply show you the evidence for God's existence? No arm-twisting. No statements of, "You just have to believe." Well, here is an attempt to offer some of the reasons which suggest that God exists.
But first consider this. If a person opposes even the possibility of there being a God, then any evidence can be rationalised or explained away. It is like if someone refuses to believe that people have walked on the moon, then no amount of information is going to change their thinking. Photographs of astronauts walking on the moon, interviews with the astronauts, moon rocks...all the evidence would be worthless, because the person has already concluded that people cannot go to the moon.
When it comes to the possibility of God's existence, the Bible says that there are people who have seen sufficient evidence, but they have suppressed the truth about God. On the other hand, for those who want to know God if he is there, he says, "You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you." Before you look at the facts surrounding God's existence, ask yourself, If God does exist, would I want to know him? Here then, are some reasons to consider...
1. Does God exist? The complexity of our planet points to a deliberate Designer who not only created our universe, but sustains it today.
2. Does God exist? The human brain's complexity shows a higher intelligence behind it.
3. Does God exist? "Chance" or "natural causes" are insufficient explanations.
4. Does God exist? To state with certainty that there is no God, a person has to ignore the passion of an enormously vast number of people who are convinced that there is a God.
5. Does God exist? We know God exists because he pursues us. He is constantly initiating and seeking for us to come to him.
6. Does God exist? Unlike any other revelation of God, Jesus Christ is the clearest, most specific picture of God pursuing us.
to be continued and elaborated on at http://everystudent.com/sg/features/isthere.html...
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Who is Jesus? A quick summary on the life of Jesus Christ - and reasons to believe in him...
By Paul E. Little
It is impossible for us to know conclusively whether God exists and what He is like unless He takes the initiative and reveals Himself. We must know what He is like and His attitude toward us. Suppose we knew He existed, but that He was like Adolf Hitler--capricious, vicious, prejudiced, and cruel. What a horrible realisation that would be!
We must scan the horizon of history to see if there is any clue to God's revelation. There is one clear clue. In an obscure village in Palestine, almost 2,000 years ago, a Child was born in a stable. Today the entire world is still celebrating the birth of Jesus.
He lived in obscurity until He was thirty, and then began a public ministry that lasted three years. It was destined to change the course of history. He was a kindly person and we're told that "the common people heard Him gladly." And, "He taught as One who had authority, and not as their teachers of the Law" (Matthew 7:29).
It soon became apparent, however, that He was making shocking and startling statements about Himself. He began to identify Himself as far more than a remarkable teacher or prophet. He began to say clearly that He was God. ...
Jesus Christ - the Son of God?
As we face the claims of Christ, there are only four possibilities. He was either a liar, a lunatic, a legend, or the Truth. If we say He is not the Truth, we are automatically affirming one of the other three alternatives, whether we realise it or not.
(1) One possibility is that Jesus lied when He said He was God--that He knew He was not God, but deliberately deceived His hearers to lend authority to His teaching. Few, if any, seriously hold this position. Even those who deny His deity affirm that He was a great moral teacher. They fail to realise those two statements are a contradiction. Jesus could hardly be a great moral teacher if, on the most crucial point of His teaching--His identity--He was a deliberate liar.
(2) A kinder, though no less shocking possibility, is that He was sincere but self-deceived. We have a name for a person today who thinks he is God. That name is lunatic, and it certainly would apply to Christ if He were deceived on this all-important issue. But as we look at the life of Christ, we see no evidence of the abnormality and imbalance we find in a deranged person. Rather, we find the greatest composure under pressure.
(3) The third alternative is that all of the talk about His claiming to be God is a legend--that what actually happened was that His enthusiastic followers, in the third and fourth centuries, put words into His mouth He would have been shocked to hear. Were He to return, He would immediately repudiate them.
The legend theory has been significantly refuted by many discoveries of modern archaeology. These have conclusively shown that the four biographies of Christ were written within the lifetime of contemporaries of Christ. Some time ago Dr. William F. Albright, world-famous archaeologist now retired from Johns Hopkins University, said that there was no reason to believe that any of the Gospels were written later than A.D. 70. For a mere legend about Christ, in the form of the Gospel, to have gained the circulation and to have had the impact it had, without one shred of basis in fact, is incredible.
For this to have happened would be as fantastic as for someone in our own time to write a biography of the late John F. Kennedy and in it say he claimed to be God, to forgive people's sins, and to have risen from the dead. Such a story is so wild it would never get off the ground because there are still too many people around who knew Kennedy. The legend theory does not hold water in the light of the early date of the Gospel manuscripts.
(4) The only other alternative is that Jesus spoke the truth. From one point of view, however, claims don't mean much. Talk is cheap. Anyone can make claims. ...
Evidence from the Life of Jesus
First, His moral character coincided with His claims.
Second, Christ demonstrated a power over natural forces which could belong only to God, the Maker of these forces.
Third, Jesus demonstrated the Creator's power over sickness and disease.
Fourth, Jesus' supreme credential to authenticate His claim to deity was His resurrection from the dead.
Was Jesus' Resurrection Just a Story?
find out more at http://everystudent.com/sg/features/faith.html...
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More questions and answers.
Why is there so much suffering?
If God is good why does he allow so much suffering?
Why
Why do people get cancer? Why is there tragedy and death?
Is God a Good Director?
Is God directing this world very well? Questions to consider...
What Will Heaven Be Like?
Is it all just strumming harps and sitting on clouds?
Reincarnation, Karma & Life after Death
The problems of reincarnation and the law of karma.
Life after Death
How good do you have to be to get to heaven?
Why do I need God to be happy?
"I have found happiness in my life. Why do I need to derive a sense of purpose and happiness from the concept of a 'divine being'?"
Sunday, June 07, 2009
hello friends.
on thursday we left singapore for malaysia after a briefing and prayer in the conference room. andrew wah shared with us bout the attitude we have when serving. we should be faithful and willing. even if we meet setbacks and obstacles, we must have faith in god and keep on going. the results dont matter. we try our best to do god's will and not make excuses. and we have to commit everything to god
after a few hours we arrived in seri alam. we travelled in a convey of 5 cars. the people from the chinese ministry travelled in the bus. we arrived at the gospel centre. it had to be called a gospel center as they are not allowed to use "church". cus there are complicated things that i dont know about. we are not allowed to evangelise to the malays. so we look out for the chinese.
the gospel centre was a house. the houses there were cheap and big enough. chris took one room. the samuel (not samuel soon, another samuel from chinese service) and willis and andrew and lisen and justin and yaoqi took one room and me and marilyn and rebecca and andrea and annabelle and dawn and desiree and amanda and kimberly and baijia and huiqi took one room.
i was in the large room. there were three big mattresses and enough pillows for everyone. the guys had a small bed and a small mattress. they played taiti everyday night and the winner got to sleep on the bed. chris got a really hard mattress on a bed. its as good as sleeping on the floor, just that now theres a chance she might roll off.
after putting our bags and stuff down, we set off to the lanes in jalan rimbun in groups or 4 or 5 or 6. i was in a group with desiree and samuel and willis and another adult from the chinese side. we went to the fifth lane. i had to look out for the arabic words or malay clothes in the houses so as not to disturb the malays. haha. after that we gathered back at the house and then after another briefing we crossed the road and walkted to another jalan. but i forgot what jalan. so amnyway we walked and walked and braved the heat and the fierce faces. hahaha. of course it was really xing ku for everyone, we continued going and going, publicising for a party which we would organise on saturday. we had faith that god has seen our effort and hopefully some kids would go for the party. after that we went for dinner and showered then came down for a training session by yaoqi.
we learnt was that it is important to know what we believe because only with a true understanding of the true gospel then we will have true faith. false gospel = false faith and false faith doesnt really stand for a very long time. we have misconceptions about god, jesus, sin and our response. some people think that god is a puppet of our faith. like we ask him to do things for us. and we think that he is a forgiving old man. actually, god hates sinners and sin. he judges us. he determines our time and place and gives and sustains our life.
then the misconceptions of sin is that it is a personal inadequacy. eg. i sin when i cheat cus i'm not honest. but actually its i sin when i cheat cus i'm not honest but god is honest thus i'm sinning cus god is not sinful. you know. its like a dirty and smelly person going to a clean person. sin can be an offense to man or an offense to god.
jesus is not a super psychiatrist or a best pal. he is more than that. he is a prophet, a king a priest and a substitute for our sins. :D
our responses
we shouldnt be christians cus we are "born into it". we shouldnt be christians cus it is a ticket to heaven. we shouldnt be christians cus of our friends. but we should have obedience to death, and we should repent.
then yaoqi almost dropped the kaya.
then we had some fun and hen we went to sleep.
on friday, we woke up and had breakfast. we had milo and milo and milo and bread and milo and peanutbutter and butter and kaya. then we had our second training thingy. we learnt about nehemiah and the rebuilding of the city walls. when nehemiah faced an obstacle, the first thing he did was pray. he didnt like try to do what he can then when he saw that he couldnt savehimself then pray, but prayed before doing anything. yeah. then there was something about being on guard all the time. i'm edit this when i find someone's worksheet.
EDIT by desiree:
i remember something about the workers who were rebuilding the walls carrying their work materials in one hand and their weapon in another. so for us it's like in order to deal with opposition or difficulties in christian life, must keep our "sword" with us at all times (always be reading and meditating on God's Word), even when we're busy with ministry or work. and.. having a group of people that can warn and encourage and spur us on, like the jews who warned the builders that there was an attack on them coming.
/EDIT.
then after lunch we went out to tesco where we did street e in chinese. many of us couldnt find much epopel to talk to. and i only shared to one person. like me and desiree tried to share to these 2 girls. then halfway through i asked willis for help so he took over. so 2 tiumes half = 1. so i shared to 1 person. its not easy sharing in chinese. so i ate fries. after that we met each other at the supermarket and had some fun there. becky ran into a guy then he dropped his stuff and beckyt continued running and running and running. bad girl.. we tried to scare justin. justin had an eeyore for desiree. we tried to run behind him. but then he turned so we had to run in a circle and turn with him. hahahahahahahahhaha so funny. then we bought gum and cotton candy.
then we went back to the center then we went to a never visited before area. hahahahahaha this time becky joined my group. wahahahahahhahahaha so fun. ahhahahaha we rang the doorbell of a muslim house by accident. then me and becky ran away. so desiree stuck out her head and said "sala" HAHAHAA. then becky started laughing very very very loudly. hhahahahhahaha. that made it sound like a prank. bleagh. we didnt really achieve much. except we found a christian home and got encouraged. ahahhaa. that was the end of our publicity / door to door.
hahaha lisen said that when he did door to door with andrew, andrew was going to ring the doorbell of a muslim house. then lisen told him that it was a muslim house. but then andrew went to ring the door bell. and then a malay came out. then andrew asked "WHAT ROAD IS THIS?" HAHAHAHAHAHA.
oh and there were many big loud barking dogs. scary. ahhaha then yoaiq's group was walking past the gate. so everyone walked past and the dog was quiet. then yaoqi walked past and the dog started barking loudly and charging at the gate. hahahaha. quite funny.
then we went back to the house and bathed and ate something. no no we went to someplace and ate something. then someone took a photo of the girl's table (my table) then andrea got really angry and stuff but we didnt do anything.
then we went back and then we bathed and then we prepared for the carnival the next day. the marilyn rebecca andrea annabelle and willis did the puppet show ans they had alot of fun.... yeah. yaoqi acted as the father in the parable of the lost son. lisen was the lost son. i was the narrator. andrew was the bad friend. kim was the pig/cow. baijia and amanda were pigs too. samuel was the farmer cum servant. justin was the funny brother. hahahaha.
ok so next day was the carnival. rachel and jeffrey came to join us. we had alot of fun with the kids. wahahha. there were games and food prepared by uncle davi d. and more games and fun. we had lots of fun with the kids. too bad they forgot us the next day. boohoo. 3 new kids came i think. like three kids that came through our publicity. YAY. the kids were really happy and stuff. i painted justin's face and he painted mine. to be honest, both faces were nice. :D i know we all agree. hahahahahah. ok so after the kids left with their tattoos and balloons and face paint and everything, the guys plus chris and andrea had some fun stepping on balloons. hahah you know like you have the rubberband and the balloon on your foot and then you try to step on the balloon. ahahhaa. yeah that game. then we had some free time that was spent in attempts to do ballloon sculpting and some of us emo-ed and indulged in chicken porridge and some century egg thingy. and "spamwich"s. haha. this was when andrew fell asleep while doing something. hahahah. quite funny. after that we had a debrief.
we sat in a circle and we shared about some stuff. i guess everyone learnt something from this trip. huiqi and dawn thinks that we young ones have potential. and then someone said that the youths going for missiontrips were ggetting younger and younger. like they excepted jc1 and jc2 people to go but non went. >: ( but then the lower sec and andrea signed up. and that made chris happy. >: ) and then desiree thinks i'm mature. and huiqi can see that annabelle is growing. wahahhaah we have potential. muahahahahahaha.
after the debrief we went out for SUPPERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!! hahaha it was so fun. kim marilyn rebecca annabelle andrea rachel and i went in pastor kuoyung's car. hahahahah. we got to use the walkie talkie. we spent alot of time getting lost. which was great. hahaha. then we ate and ate and ate and i loved the mushrooms. oh oh oh and m y slipper broke ): ok then we went back in the car and i got to sit in the boot with becky and annabelle. marilyn couldnt sit with us cus she had a stomachache. hahaha then we decided to lie on the floor of the boot and then we started freaking out cus its was dark and we could only see half the sky and we were scared of a hand that appeared and cockroaches and moth balls. but god protected us and only the car got harmed cus we stuck our feet on the window at the back for all to smell. it was great fun but i guess we screwed the car cus annabelle opened this thing and then all the mothballs fell out and then we lay on pastor kuoyung's shoes and stuff like that. SORRY CAR. wahahahah after that we went to bathe and then played and laughed and got scolded by preacher wong. preacher wong is the person who runs the place. she's a strong strong believer who really sacrificed alot for god. we should learn from her. like the kids who goes to the nchurch. she took the time to go around and gather the kids and stuff liekt aht. she took the time to know the parents and tunderstand and stuff and its something that many of us wont do. we wouldnt give our lifes up to god (at least i'm not doing it. YET.) but every thing that preacher wong does is for god and its really cool. :) ok so anyway we got scolded by her cus her neighbours had complained about noise from the gospel centre and yeah they didnt wanna get closed down and stuff.
that night we all learnt valuable lessons from lisen. he taught us that p stands for potato chips and wtf stands for water the flowers. great isnt he?
next day. woke up. we were to lead sunday school. yaoqi told us just the ngiht before. wahahah. it was great fun. andrea had been rehearsing all night and morning but it still didnt work out. so yaoqi helped her. he's really good at letting people understand stuff. even in chinese. we learnt about salt and light. or the kids learnt about salt and light. all the kids were girls. hahah. we learnt that we shoudl be salt. must be useful if not we'll be thrown away and trampled. and we hafta be light that lets people see how to live and stuff. like in darkness everyone will look at the lgiht. we must live for god and let everyone see. hahaha. yeah. then after that we went out to await LUNCH!! then the kids shared some secrets with us about who they thought was handsome.hahahaha. then we took a photo and they left. then we packed up, cleaned up. and then they told us that we would go to jusco to shop for awhile. or rather they told us we might. but we didnt int he end. we were disappointed and yeah it made things worse when we drove pass jusco on the way back. but we went to the petrol kiosk and had our miny jusco there. i love chocolettes. they are ncie. hahahahahah. then we all went homehomehomehome
we learnt many stuffs. including how growing together is so important. lets hope that we can go again soon. maybe this december. hee. you old people can go plan for this again. ok? ok set. good.
JUEYING at 11:29 pm
God is perfect, we are sinful, so there is a great gap between us. We may try to feel better through work, relationships, sport or religion. But all our attempts fail, because we have ignored the real problem - turning our back on God.
Jesus took the consequences of our self-centredness by giving up his life on the cross. He proved he had broken sin's destructive power by rising from the dead. Jesus offers us freedom from guilt and a bridge back to God.
