Tag: God

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FROM LEFT TO RIGHT

Here’s one of those posts just crying out to be blocked and censored by social media giants! If you manage to read it, you’re probably quite lucky…

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How does a person go from being an a-moral, leftist communist in their thinking, to being a Trump-loving conservative? It’s easy, really…

ROOTS

I began my political understandings on the far left of the spectrum, in Britain. My dad, a wonderful Christian man, lived his early life in the days when unions were still struggling to win fair working conditions for working people, and his socialist views shaped mine. I was also influenced by my friends, still firmly entrenched in their way of thinking, and believing me now to be a brainwashed, “far-right” neo-nazi who isn’t worth knowing.

IRON LADY

In the eighties I witnessed Thatcher-“the iron lady”- come to power in the UK, and Reagan in the US. While I know now that they were both grossly misrepresented in most of our news media, as Trump is, Thatcher and her cabinet really were a band of cold, heartless, uncaring individuals. Even if their economy did pick the country out of a deep recession caused by socialist policies, they had no communication graces, and their snooty attitudes and some of their policies left a permanent scar on the British psyche. At that time and for years after I would rather be pulled around the streets by wild horses than vote Conservative.

THE MAKER’S INSTRUCTIONS

In the course of time, I became a Christian. My life was changed radically, because until then I was living with absolutely no thought of God but only how to get more stoned. I had no views on morality and no care for what might be right or wrong except for myself. I also moved to the US to live near relatives, and to be in a part of the world where there was space to breathe. It was there (here) that my Christian mind and heart developed, being shaped by Biblical Scripture and the few who were really preaching it. For a number of years I still saw myself as being completely “left” of any Republican ideals, including the claimed right to bear arms. I thought then that all guns should be illegal, and that no-one should be wealthy.

Cutting out the details and the process of my conversion, I find myself well and truly on the opposite end of the political spectrum in these times. Scripture and life have taught me a whole new way of seeing things. I now know that God made the world with a specific set of principles attached, and didn’t present them as being optional. For best results, follow the Maker’s instructions.

THE FAMILY

God designed the nuclear family (mum-dad-kids) as the basic building block of a safe, stable and functional society. Our society is crumbling partly because of its rejection of this fundamental fact. The “Left” of the political spectrum, in the vein of Carl Marx, wishes to see this unit destroyed or at least to be regarded as unhealthy and damaging. One of the instruments of destruction is the corruption of sexual expression, with the assertions that sex is love, and that any sexual preference is acceptable. This is encouraged through entertainment and fashion, and now politics also.

WORK

God instituted work and the enjoyment of its rewards. Whereas I once believed that those unwilling to work should be provided with all their needs and wants anyway, at the expense of the rich, I now realize that genuine hard work and enterprise should be rewarded with the wealth it creates. And it doesn’t only create wealth for the businessman (or woman) but for all he employs and for all who are paid by him for their services. Work builds our society and keeps us from wasting our time. It honors God who is a creator and a builder, and who has given us all the abilities we need in this world. It’s good for us all.

NATIONS, NOT WORLD GOVERNMENT

God divided the nations at Babel. He did not want to see a global or a “trans-national” community, which he knew would be united in opposition against him. In our world the Left wishes to have another go at building that tower to the heavens, and opposes the Christian gospel and faith in the Biblical God (any other god is just fine). It seeks global governance and power over every aspect of our lives, coercing us into believing and trusting in government, not God. The Left, along with its own father, wishes to take power from God, and to become god.

God set up borders between nations. He has no qualms about borders and territories, so long as we care for those who are genuinely in need. But God wishes us first to care for our own: 

If anyone does not take care of his own relatives, especially his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever (1 Timothy 5:8).

DEFENSE

Self-defense is not an ungodly concept. If we had no means of self-defense, we would be at the mercy of the ungodly, and of ungodly government, and may not be able to protect and take care of our own. We would actually be encouraging those who wish to take, kill and destroy. The police would simply show up to clean up the mess and perhaps blame the victims (does that sound familiar?)

DEATH

Life is of enormous value, and to take it-particularly to take it from those who are helpless and who just need a chance to come into the world like the rest of us did, is one of the most despicable practices on earth, yet is loved and defended by the Left. I could never vote Left again for that reason alone.

TAKING SIDES

The list does go on. The point is that once I came to know who God is, and to understand some of his principles, I came to realize that while God does not vote one way or the other, and while good and bad are found on both sides of the political divide, he is most likely to be found among those who honor his ways.

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I’M NOT JOINING THE MOVEMENT

There’s a movement away from scriptural authority: I’m not going with it…

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There’s a movement which asks the question, “Did God really say…?” (Genesis 3:1). Famous and not so famous ministers, including, unfortunately, those in a church my own family attends, are claiming that the Old Testament doesn’t really say what we think it says, but that some of the New Testament does. It can’t be trusted they say-if they ever mention it at all.

Oh really? That’s interesting, because the New Testament itself is filled with the defense of scripture, including the defense of what we have in the Old Testament. The two are inextricably linked. Jesus himself said to Satan, who was attempting to derail the Son of God from Scripture:

“It is written…” (Matthew 4:4).

There’s a train of unbelief and of calling God a liar. Its engine has always been Satan, and its cars consist of atheists and agnostics, and those wishing to rid the world of godly standards of morality. But joining the procession are many in the church who think they know better than God, and that God is incapable of speaking his mind, of having convictions, and of preserving his words. I’m not on the train, I’m not going to get on the train, and I’m not the slightest bit interested in going to the final destination of that train. Count me out.

In coming weeks I’m going to develop this topic.

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TRUSTING IN MAN (OR WOMAN)

I can think of several people within my extended family who are trusting in man. By “man” I mean the philosophies of fallible human beings…

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One is well and truly brainwashed and controlled by a large international cult, so that she has avoided all contact with her family for years, including her own mother. She is, effectively, “gone”, though certainly not unreachable by God himself. The question is, since God has given us free will (right-I’m not a Calvinist) whether she will ever respond.

Another, a born-again Christian for decades, has been following one particular televangelist-a man with a very colored reputation and some very dubious theology for several years, to the point that she now considers him to be infallible, and pressures the rest of her family to do the same. She is, to put it in simple terms, obsessed with him, and has abandoned her local church and her Christian friends. Other family members are ardent followers of other famous televangelists, and refuse to question their wealth-gathering tactics or their banal, un-Biblical theology.

One man who I grew up with, representing perhaps several others in my family, is so convinced of the theory of evolution ex-nihilo that he will not listen to a single word about a loving God. He cannot point to any evidence for his beliefs but he’s immovable anyway.

As I look around at the world, I see literally millions led in their political and religious thought by celebrities, who are now among the high-priests of modern day philosophy, along with angry atheists and a host of other “ists”, whose one common profession is that the God of the Bible is the one which should be ridiculed or ignored completely.

More immediately, many of us have found ourselves on the receiving end of an unfaithful lover or spouse, having once believed them to be the “right” one.

As I wrote in a post titled “Ex-ing the Experts”* my own conviction is that we should question everyone and everything. Yes, we have a lot to learn from others, but no human is infallible, and many are without doubt biased, twisted, or just plain wrong. I’ve been on both sides of faith, and now, certain that the God of the Bible is the One true God and the only One who is true and faithful, I agree with His word and guidance, and His only:

This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the LORD (Jeremiah 17:5).

*EX-ING THE EXPERTS:

https://nickyfisher.com/2017/12/30/ex-ing-the-experts/

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HOW AMAZING IS GOD?

How amazing is God? Nobody this side of heaven knows for sure. But one thing we can know is that no created entity is more amazing than its creator…

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I halted the business of my day yesterday for just a few minutes-just long enough to look into the stunning blue sky, where brilliant cumulus clouds were suspended over the hillsides. Tall grasses and wild flowers of all colors swayed gently in the breeze. One or two birds, living life to the utmost of their ability, sang their vibrant, jubilant little song. And it struck me that what I was looking at, in all its overwhelming glory, just represented a fraction of its creator’s glory, beauty, power and imagination.

If you want to get a glimpse of how great God is, look at what he has made, and know that He is even greater.

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WHO JESUS IS

There are as many views about who Jesus was and is as there could possibly be about anyone, are there not? He was “just a man”; he was “a revolutionary”; he was “not a real person”; he was “deluded”.

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This post will very briefly outline my own very firm conviction, after decades of serious consideration of the Bible in comparison to other faiths; of history and archaeology, and of my lifetime experiences. If you want a more detailed analysis, with scripture references, see the links below to my older posts*. This is a summary.

You could study the divinity of Jesus Christ in the Scriptures for the rest of your life, because the more you delve the more you can find to demonstrate the fact that Jesus Christ was and is no mere man, no mere prophet, and no mere avatar, guru, or ascended master. He’s is far more than all those things.

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The Bible asserts that God is our savior. However, it also states that Jesus Christ is our savior. It tells us that God is “the first and the last”, but it also states that the Son of God is “the first and the last”. In scripture, God is said to be our creator, but so is the Son of God declared to be our creator.

In scripture, God is the eternal One, and Jesus Christ is the eternal One. God is the Judge, and the Son is the Judge. God “treads on the waves of the sea” and Jesus Christ walked on water.

In identifying God, the Old Testament says he is “the one they have pierced”, and in the New Testament, Jesus Christ is the one who was pierced for our sins. God calls himself the “I AM”, and in the New Testament, Jesus Christ called himself the “I AM”.

God is the one who will “come”, and Jesus is the one who will “come”, in “power and great glory”.

In the New Testament, God raised Jesus from the dead, and Christ raised  himself from the dead. God is the giver of eternal life, and Jesus Christ is the one who gives eternal life.

God is our shepherd; the “King of Israel”, and “the King of the whole earth”. The Son also fulfills all these roles. Here’s an example:

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called ‘Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God…He will reign on David’s throne and  over his kingdom…” (Isaiah 9:6).

In time every knee will  bow to our God, just as every knee will bow to the Son, says the Bible. The Church (universal) was bought with the blood of God, just as it was bought with the blood of Jesus.

Ask yourself what man can do miracles. I mean real miracles, and not the fakers who are running around claiming to be healers. With a word Jesus Christ healed lepers, made the blind see, and raised the dead. Is that the work of a man? Jesus said he “came from heaven”. He is, according to the testimony of those who knew him, and of the ancient prophet Isaiah, God-made-flesh. He is “God with us”. He is, says Scripture, The one and only, and not just “a” Son of God. He was executed because he claimed to be God, which in the eyes of the religious leaders was an unforgivable blasphemy.

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Jesus stated plainly that he was One with the Father. The apostles called him God and “my Lord and my God”, and he did not correct them. Jesus accepted worship from them, something no man should do. Satan offered him the kingdoms of the world. Jesus called himself “Lord of the Sabbath”. He said that he was greater than Jonah and greater than the temple of God. He said that he is “The way, The truth, and The life”, and he said that he is “the bread of life”. He said even before Abraham was born-thousands of years earlier, he was the “I AM”.

In Jesus’ ministry he made plain that he was in all places, ie omnipresent, and omniscient. He healed all sicknesses and diseases. He had total power over the elements. He had power over death.

CONCLUSION

If you claim to be spiritual in your view of life yet fail to consider the person of Jesus Christ, you are missing out on the Spirit of God, our creator. If you claim the Bible at all as your guide yet reject the divinity of Jesus Christ, you are missing the entire point of it all: that God came to live in human flesh and to save us from our sin. If you are intentionally rejecting his divinity, you are dismantling the Scriptures which you claim as your inspiration and authority. John said of such deniers:

“Such a man is the antichrist-he denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also” (1 John 2:22-23).

We need to do exactly what Thomas did when he saw the risen Christ who had just walked into a locked room, and gently addressed Thomas’ unbelief:

“Then he said to Thomas, ‘Stop doubting and believe.’

“Thomas said to him, ‘My Lord and my God’” (John 20:26-28).

 

*FOR MORE DETAIL AND SCRIPTURE REFERENCES, FOLLOW THESE LINKS:

https://nickyfisher.com/2014/04/05/jesus-man-or-god-man/

https://nickyfisher.com/2014/04/12/jesus-man-or-god-man-part-2/

https://nickyfisher.com/2014/10/21/jesus-man-or-god-man-part-3/