Idols

The ten commandments can sometimes seem harsh, cold and judgemental. In fact I received a speeding fine this week, there were circumstances leading to this but the law does not care about these and rightly so! There is no grace in the law, like a over bearing teacher it sticks to the rules no matter what. This feeling, thought and notion then gets directed towards God, isn't he cold, judging and uncaring.
Take the first commandment for example "you are to have no other gods before me, to love God with all your heart soul and mind..." - doesn't this just speak of God as a dictator, jealous for his own attention? This needs to be broken down and therefore I want to look at what other gods are being referred to and then why we shouldn't worship them.
Initially you might think well I don't worship any gods, in fact I don't believe in god at all. The worship of other gods here is referring to anything you put in God's place to seek your pleasure and joy. What if it was taken away from you would cause your world to collapse, if you lost your job, your phone, your family? Where do you get your identity from? Let me ask it a different way, what in your heart if you had it would solve all your problems? We all walk through life thinking if I just get that job, just get husband, just have a child life will be sorted. These things in and of themselves are not bad, however when they are the end seeking of our heart, when we look for our satisfaction in them, then this is what is called idol worship. Is it money, sex, sport, the right body...we could go on.
Now the reason that God would forbid these things is that you were made to be in relationship with God, that longing in your heart has been put there by God. A toaster is made to toast bread, a chair to be sat in, a keyboard to be typed, you were made to be with God and you will not find your wholeness and being until you find him. Therefore God asking you to come to him is the most loving thing in the whole universe because that is what you are made for. The Bible says why do we dig out old toilets and drink water from broken cisterns when we have the stream of living water in God. So God is not cold, God is totally seeking after your happiness which is only found in Him.
The real message about God is that he loves you so much that he is prepared to come and die in your place so that you can have this perfect relationship. Through Christ we can be free of slavery to these idols, we don't need to seek our happiness in a bottle, in what people think of us it is all in him, now that is total freedom. He doesn't demand it and therefore has given us time on this earth to come to him. He has appointed a time when he will say that enough is enough....where do you stand? I know how alien this sounds, I used to be in the same boat, all I would encourage you to do is to investigate...georgeosborn@hotmail.com

If it works for you...

One of the common phrases given to me about my Christian faith is "if it works for you mate". There is a thought that you pick your faith based on what works for you, my motivation was seeking the truth and in the process I have found the ultimate joy!

I know for people who don't yet believe it is really confusing, what about all the other religions, what about evolution, what about aliens etc etc. Firstly all roads do not lead to the same place. All religions contradict one another and therefore each one is claiming to be the truth, so how do you know which is true? All require an element of faith, this simply means trust without knowing for 100% certainty.You are likely sat in a chair reading this and therefore you are putting faith in that chair that it will support you. You put faith into your partner that they will love and care for you based on past behaviour and words that have been spoken. Evolutionists have faith, atheists have faith, Muslims have faith, Buddhists and so on. Each person should evaluate the evidence, pray and make their decision, it is important to look at all the evidence. I am not going to go into the merits or otherwise of each belief but implore you to examine them all, I shall speak here of why Christianity is overwhelming for me....
Creation - look around you, this did not come about from an explosion, only look to the middle east at the moment and see that explosions do not create things they destroy them
Conscience - where does this come from if not from a moral being...God
Jesus Christ - a historical figure, miracles, healings, an event that can be tested in time
Resurrection - again a historical event that was witnessed by seperate groups of people over 500 in all...
Changed lives - new Christians at the time of Jesus completely swept over the land, people wouldn't have died for a lie (Jesus rose) people die for something they sincerly believe not a lie, so they claimed they saw Jesus alive and died for it time and time again. Millions and millions and millions of people since have had their lives transformed by a living God in the name of Jesus. Miracles.
Revelation in the Bible - the bible is an amazing book filled with prophecy upon prophecy, where Jesus was born, how he would die, what would happen to him, what he would say at his trial, who would come before him, what would happen to him on the cross, why he would come....and on and on....

Investigate it....please. - georgeosborn@hotmail.com

Intolerance, stress and hell - nice and light!

Well it was over a year ago that I last wrote...well ok a few days! I had a mixed Christmas, always feel a bit greedy and self-indulgent over Christmas.
I did hear a couple of funny comments over the festive period though. Two people I know said different comments although amounting to the same thing -
"Life is all about avoiding stress" said one friend...
"I like Christianity that makes me feel good, I don't like all this talk of hell.." (paraphrased from another friend)
So why do I find these interesting, I think because they both sum up the culture we live in in many ways. The first comment says the best life is the most comfortable stress free life, don't bother me, let me do exactly what I want to do, me me me.
The second comment in many ways is the same, I don't want to feel stress, I don't want to think about things that are uncomfortable, make me feel good, I want to be comfortable. Our society says that you cannot say somebody else is wrong, we will tolerate anything but that. The question has to be asked how is that tolerant, the old way of doing things was to say you can say anything you like and I will defend your right to say it although I may bitterly disagree with it. Now we say you can't say something that disagrees with other people, that is not PC - this is bizarre. In order to tolerate something you need to let it happen, you can't tolerate something that hasn't happened. This is the intolerance of todays tolerance! Rant over.
I would like to address the hell issue however, it is one that makes many uncomfortable. How can a loving God send people to hell, if God is love how can he hate people by sending them to hell, isn't hell just a bit harsh? There are a few questions there but I would like to try and answer them, with the awareness that this blog and little George (ok not so little) cannot adequately answer them, but here goes...
How can a loving God send people to hell - unfortunately we are all moral criminals, by that I mean we have broken God's law. We have all lied, taken God's name in vain, taken something that doesn't belong to us. God even says our thought life will be judged!! Imagine putting all your thoughts on public display for 24 hours eeek! Now I want you to imagine for a moment that someone you love is shot and murdered (heaven forbid) and they catch the criminal bring him to court and the judge says "because I am a loving guy, I am going to let you off you are free to go" you would be fuming, the reason is for the sake of justice that man must be punished. Now I want you to imagine that you are in the courtroom at the end of your life, God is bound by the same justice he cannot sweep your breaking of the moral law under the carpet, he must punish sin to remain just. Your good deeds do not make up for your crimes either, in the same way they don't in our courts. So there is a hell because God must be just, imagine also if God let liars, thieves and so on into heaven, it wouldn't be heaven it wouldn't be perfect. Now God has done the most amazing thing, he sent his son to die in your place, you're in that court of law and Jesus has paid your fine, God can legally dismiss your case! You must turn away from your sin (breaking the law) and make Jesus number 1 and he forgives you. Awesome, anyway getting sidetracked.
If God is love how can he hate people and send them to hell - hopefully the above has helped answer this question. However another illustration that helps show other situations where our love means we hate. You may love children and therefore hate abortion, you may love people and therefore hate murder. It is exactly because of his love why he must punish sin. In punishing sin it also shows God's worth, he is protecting his value. If he says it doesn't really matter if you ignore me or use my name as a cuss word or abuse people, he is then saying that he is not of value, he is not worth anything. Another illustration - let's imagine a stood on an ant and killed it, would I go to prison or be punished in anyway? No way, what about if I stood on a dog? I would probably get a few words from someone but no prison. What about if I killed a small child? I would definitely go to jail, be treated as scum by all of society. Why? Becuase that child is worth so much more than the ant and the dog, so the punishment shows the value we put on the victim or the crime. Which probably goes onto the next question...
Isn't hell a bit harsh - Above I have discussed that the punishment shows the value. This is really hard to put across in words. But the value of God is infinite, he is the highest being in the whole universe, he created all things, all the galaxies, the electrons, protons, sunsets, relationships, sex, laughter, we could go on and on...this is the complex bit, if you offend an infinite being we therefore deserve an infinite punishment. That's why say spending a 100 years in hell and then going to heaven simply wont cut the mustard. That's why offering GOd some good deed is such an insult to him, he is infinite, begining and the end, alpha and omega. If I said that the person who murdered the little girl gets 1 year in prison, you would be outraged and angry, now ask yourself why? She is worth more than that, insulting God or committing a crime against him personally (which is what our sin is) is of more offence than killing a million million little children. He is the most valuable thing in the whole universe! Does this help or not at all? georgeosborn@hotmail.com