The Greatest Time in History

It was President Barack Obama who called this time we live in, “the best time in human history to be born”, especially if you are in the United States. According to him “whether you live in downtown New York or (in my grandmother’s village) more than two hundred miles from Nairobi, you can hold in your hand more information than the world’s greatest libraries.

I couldn’t agree more. The amount of information we have today and the access to it is phenomenal! There is information for just about everything under the sun, from how to hurt others to how to heal. And this information is usually free! From the greatest classics to most recent literature, the internet is teeming with treasures!

But as wonderful as this sounds, it presents us with a problem. Seeing that we have tons of information out there, should we open ourselves to any and everything? Shouldn’t we be more discerning/wise regarding what we feed ourselves? What would you call a person who leaves a well prepared meal for rotten food in a bin? Mad would be a fitting name I suppose. But aren’t we like that many times? Don’t we feed our eyes and ears, the main portals to our hearts and souls, with filthy and worthless information that destroy us instead of help us. Don’t we spend time on indecent and unwholesome entertainment just for the fun of it?

RE: Why did God save Dr. Ken Brantly and not thousands of Africans from Ebola?

Recently there was an article by Michele Hanson questioning why God saved Dr. Ken Brantly but not the thousands of Africans who died from Ebola virus. There were different responses to it and in this note I wish to add my own perspective to this very controversial topic.

First, we must understand that Ebola is not the first large scale epidemic that has affected people, there was HIV and before that, Smallpox, as well as the Black Death in the Middle Ages. All of these diseases led to the deaths of millions of peoples in many countries. These diseases were spread aggressively mostly as a result of ignorance and fear. Due to desperation from their helplessness to stem the tide of these epidemics, people often became paranoid and resorted to measures that worsened the crisis. Unfortunately these issues are still reflected in some African countries where Ebola has struck. We hear stories of healthcare personnel attacked, Ebola patients abandoned to die, corpses not properly disposed of and inadequate medical resources. It is because of these reasons that diseases, which in better organized countries can be successfully contained, always prove to be very deadly in many poor countries, especially those in Africa.

Jonathan: When loyalty goes horribly wrong

The story of Jonathan in the Bible is one of great loyalty, friendship and courage. Jonathan was the heir to the throne, yet he recognised that God had anointed David, his father’s rival to be king. Instead of bitterness and jealousy, which King Saul harboured, Jonathan was a friend of David and protected him from his father’s schemes.

He also discouraged his father from attempting to kill David and tried speaking sense to the old man, but Saul was treacherous. He would feign repentance only to make another attempt at David’s life.

Jonathan was also a great soldier in his father’s army and won many battles for him. On one occasion, his quick thinking and courage, led to great victory for the Israelites who were outnumbered by the Philistine army. Unfortunately Jonathan was later killed in battle alongside his father, King Saul and his brothers. His death was tragic but I somehow feel it could have been avoided.

IDOLATROUS IMAGINATION

This is not my article, rather it is part of a sermon by Rev. Andrew Giffen of Kirkintilloch Baptist
Church. It is based on the story of the Golden Calf in Exodus 32.

The people of Israel created a golden calf because they wanted an image that their minds could grasp. They bowed down to the calf and worshipped it as if it were God. They knew that it was man-made and breakable. But that was exactly the sort of God they wanted –one they could control. The vast God reduced to something that could be imprisoned in a few ounces of gold. A shrunken powerless God who will do their bidding, protect them alone, and destroy their enemies.

But God instead commands his people to worship him as he is, not as they (or we) would like him to be. God forbids idolatrous imagination. For you see that is the fundamental problem,that the second commandment addresses. We don’t want God to create us – we want to create God. God in my image – not man in God’s image. We want a God we can control, manipulate, regulate. The default position for you and me today is to imagine God the way we want him to be, not the way he has revealed himself to be. For instance you might want a God who saves all people, who sends no-one to hell – so you create in your mind a loving God who is never angry.

A remnant still remains, don’t lose heart!

Have you ever wondered at the type of news we hear on almost daily basis? If its not accidents, its murders, immorality or some act of depravity. Because ‘bad news sells’, we are bombarded on every hand by such bad news that it can make even a saint give up on humanity! What a relief when we hear something good that restores our faith in people again.

Sometimes its not news, but people’s behaviours.We live in a very free society which encourages us to live according to how we feel. Morality is replaced with feelings: I feel, I want, I get. This drives us to indulge in acts that end up being detrimental to us and sometimes others. We are encouraged by others who tell us to live in the 21^st century and stop being outdated or ‘old school’. Any attempts to disregard such views is often met with jeers and sneers from friends.

The Secret of the Proverbs 31 Woman

The Proverbs 31 Woman is like an enigma, she seems to have it all. She is industrious, she is smart, she is a planner, she takes care of herself and her family, she brings honour to her husband and he in turn does not only love her, he and their children praise her. Wow! I’m sure all women want to know how she does it.

The secret of this lady is found towards the end of the chapter. It is in Proverbs 31:30, “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.”

The Golden Rule - Christianity is a Relationship!

We have all heard the famous command, “Love your neighbour as yourself.” But that statement is not complete as it is. There is an initial and fundamental part to it that is often ignored, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and then love your neighbour as you love yourself.”

You’re probably thinking the first part is not so necessary, we just need to love people as ourselves. But the truth is, we cannot truly love others or even ourselves unless we go back to the source of love - God.