Yesterday the news reports that “An imprisoned U.S. man whose infatuation with Canadian singer Justin Bieber included a tattoo of the pop star on his leg has told investigators in New Mexico he hatched a plot to kill him.”[2] it goes on to say that two others were convinced to do the nasty deeds and were told to kill two others and castrate them, getting paid $2500 per testicle.

Atheists don’t believe in evil deities influencing people?

How about another incident a while back where “a killer scattered gay DVDs, a Bible and party popper streamers over the body of a murdered vicar.”[3]

No god’s? Nothing to generate these occurrences? No evil, only humans doing their thing in this world? How can an Atheist say this is wrong? If there is no god, what makes their view of morality different from these people who planned to kill Bieber.

Surely these killers to be have to be given space since their view of morality is okay as well?

How can we explain the depths of depravity we see all around us? How do we explain the depths of depravity we see glimmering in our own hearts and minds? Do animals have this ability to do evil?

God said he created us in his own likeness “So God created man in his own likeness.  He created him in the likeness of God. He created them as male and female.” Genesis 1:27

Soon after this according to many Abrahamic faiths we develop the ability to understand good and evil.

 Animals don’t have this ability! Yet that ability the Christian bible tells us was gained due to the influence of Satan, God’s enemy in the form of a serpent.

Humans understand there is good and evil!

Even atheists seem to agree some things are good and some evil and we understand this as humans.

The problem is that when we start questioning atheists they cannot give us a solid understanding of how we determine what is good or evil. It varies depending upon the person asked.

For Christians there is no such variance! The bible is our measure and everyone is measured against the guidelines it gives us. This act planned against Bieber would be evil according to biblical standards.

Yet, so is thinking sexual thoughts of someone who is not our spouse! That is evil as well!

The measure is clear and yet we often fail to be as taken aback by what we consider “lesser evils” that we do than the horrible deed’s others do.

All evil is evil, and we do not deal with variations of shades of it. None of it is acceptable to God.

Atheists can do horrible things and lack moral judgement because they are not constrained by any rules in their minds.

They are their own rule makers. They control their own destiny in their minds. I am not saying ALL atheists do horrible things. Many can chose very similar moral values as Christians. The difference is they cannot argue that another atheist is right or wrong by agreeing or disagreeing with them. Evil has no defined point that atheists as a group can agree to. Evil does not really exist!

Yet God knows differently! Like defying gravity is an immutable law that can never be overcome, evil cannot be used to overcome good! Evil is certain to fall down and God will ensure it.

Jesus says ““What comes out of people makes them ‘unclean.’ Evil thoughts come from the inside, from people’s hearts. So do sexual sins, stealing and murder. Adultery, greed, hate and cheating come from people’s hearts too. So do desires that are not pure, and wanting what belongs to others. And so do telling lies about others and being proud and being foolish. All those evil things come from inside a person. They make him ‘unclean.’”[4] Mark 7:21

Those guys who planned to kill off Justin Bieber were part of this crowd of evil doers. Yet, so are we!

We are all sinners, every one of us! Each of us if put on the world stage and judged would be found guilty by God. Atheists who reject God exists will have no defense once they are faced with the reality of God.

God’s existence is the only true force countering evil that we as humans can subscribe to.

Today as we try to find our way through the maze of decisions of our lives, as we get buffeted by stresses and strains, enticed by evil, let’s remember that without Jesus we are lost, but with Jesus nothing can stand against us.

As we repent of our nasty, ignorant and selfish acts and turn to God, we overcome evil and at the same time make the world a little better place.

Let’s pray our atheist friends find this way to truth!

“One of the illusions of life is that the present hour is not the critical, decisive hour. Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. No man has learned anything rightly, until he knows that every day is Doomsday.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

All year we have been hearing that the Mayan Calendar comes to an end on 12/12/12 and many predicted this to be the end of the world.

Back in Jun I read an article referring to the possibility [1]. I have blogged before about the futility of such predictions. Jesus himself said we would not know the time when he would return to take us to heaven and that it is locked from human understandings. Yet so many people ignore this!

Here are a number of failed doomsday predictions I found on a site[2] and which I have summarised and paraphrased.

1.    In the English town of Leeds in 1806. It seems that a hen began laying eggs on which the phrase "Christ is coming" was written. It was a hoax but people believed it.

2.    A New England farmer named William Miller, after several years of very careful study of his Bible, concluded that God's chosen time to destroy the world could be divined from a strict literal interpretation of scripture. As he explained to anyone who would listen, the world would end some time between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844. He was wrong!

3.    Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon church, called a meeting of his church leaders in February 1835 to tell them that he had spoken to God recently, and during their conversation he learned that Jesus would return within the next 56 years, after which the End Times would begin promptly. He was wrong!

4.    In 1881, an astronomer discovered through spectral analysis that comet tails include a deadly gas called cyanogen (related, as the name implies, to cyanide). This was of only passing interest until someone realized that Earth would pass through the tail of Halley's comet in 1910. This came to nothing!

5.    In May 1980, televangelist and Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson startled and alarmed many when he informed his "700 Club" TV show audience around the world that he knew when the world would end. He was wrong!

6.    A San Diego UFO cult named Heaven's Gate concluded that the world would end soon. The world did indeed end for 39 of the cult members, who committed suicide on March 26, 1997. The rest of us survived!

7.    Y2K, Jan. 1, 2000 - As the last century drew to a close, many people grew concerned that computers might bring about doomsday. Heh! Heh! That was an amusing one that made a number of computer specialists a fair bit of cash. They must have thought they had made it to heaven, for the wrong reasons J

8.    Richard Noone, author of the 1997 book "5/5/2000 Ice: the Ultimate Disaster" (Three Rivers Press) predicted the Antarctic ice mass would be three miles thick by May 5, 2000 — a date in which the planets would be aligned in the heavens, somehow resulting in a global icy death. Aren’t we facing global warming?

9.    "The year 1999, seventh month / From the sky will come great king of terror." Many Nostradamus devotees grew concerned that this was the famed prognosticator's vision of Armageddon. It was not!

10.  According to God's Church minister Ronald Weinland, in his 2006 book "2008: God's Final Witness" (The-End.Com, 2006) he states that hundreds of millions of people will die, and by the end of 2006, "there will be a maximum time of two years remaining before the world will be plunged into the worst time of all human history. By the fall of 2008, the United States will have collapsed as a world power, and no longer exist as an independent nation." Really?

Haven’t we learned yet?

In Simple advice for end times. . . I have explained there is a direct statement in the Holy writings about end times that we need to understand and which says Heaven and earth will pass away. But my words will never pass away.  "No one knows about that day or hour. Not even the angels in heaven know. The Son does not know. Only the Father knows.[3] Matthew 24:35-36 NIRV.

 This means that we cannot know the time of the end of the world!

Obviously the Mayan “end time” believers have found out they were wrong, but typical of human nature they will rationalise this to explain their failures away and find another time to cling to that is equally meaningless. Futile though the activity is, people seem to be incapable of reacting to this correctly.

Why can we not simply believe God and do what he tells us to do, which is to live each day as if it could be our last. Let’s make each day special! Let’s discard the inane and worthless aspects of living and focus on the eternally important aspects.

I guess the question we all need to ask is “what is eternally important?”  

Those things God teaches us to do are eternally important! We as Christians are already living an eternal life right now on this Earth. The death we face at the end of this life is simply a transition, not a finality. We have started on this eternal life already, perhaps we should work on improving our skill at living it?

We want to get to living in the joy of eternity early don’t we? That comes from living in God’s will now.

There is no need for a Christian to wait until a doomsday to find answers. We have them now. The question we have to answer is what we are going to do with what we do know right now?

“My life has been shaped by the decision two people made over 24 years ago. They
decided to adopt a child. They got me, and I got a chance at the kind of life
all children deserve.” ― Karen Fowler

Adopted children and teens have a great desire to see their parents!

Working as we do with some wonderful teens that live in a group home away from their parents, my wife and I see the drive these teens have to be united with their parents and even with foster parents they have been with at an earlier stage in life. Perhaps they want parenting even more than those of us that have lives with and known our parents can understand.

That drive to be re-united motivates those separated from their parents continually!

This is the context in which I was reading this verse from the holy writings;

“But then the right time came. God sent his Son. A woman gave birth to him. He was born under the authority of the law. He came to set free those who were under the law. He wanted us to be adopted as children with all the rights children have.” Galatians 4:4-5 NIRV

God wants us to be part of his family!

We are part of God’s family through that gift Jesus provided to us of eternal life! We belong! Nobody can take that away from us. Unlike those orphaned kids that we know and love, our experience of orphans is different. We continually are in contact with God, he guides and helps us by the presence of Holy Spirit who is with us continually. He tells us he loves us all the time through his bible writings and Holy Spirits quiet voice in our conscience and intuition. God is there!

If we have a tough day, Holy Spirit consoles us! If we have an amazing day he is happy for us but warns us not to become proud and always look to the welfare of others. He is with us in the saddest moments in life, reassuring us! He is with us in the happiest, encouraging us!

It’s so simple and yet so complex! We are adopted with a Father that loves us so much, we cannot even understand the level of that love.

Isn’t that a wonderful knowledge? That Jesus can to earth to give us the right to have a special adopted status!