#Relief - Monday - The Daily Diary of a Bible Blogger

There are times in life when you think something is going to happen and you prepare yourself for it. It was a bit like that today for me. I really don't want to go into the details as it's far too personal and family related but I felt exactly like that earlier today. I had prepared my heart for bad news. I had prayed and asked the Lord to help me to have the right attitude, to behave in the right way and to see things from His point of view.

Having done all that it was such a relief to find out that the news wasn't bad after all. But the Lord had taughg me another lesson in the process!

Sometimes in life we have to learn lessons and some of those lessons can only be learned in the difficult times. Easy circumstances don't often teach important lessons.

It is even said about the Lord Jesus Christ that he learned obedience by the things which He suffered, Hebrews 5:8. This verse is not teaching for a moment that the Lord Jesus was ever disobedient. The Bible makes it very clear that the Lord Jesus Christ was in no way disobedient or sinful. He did not have the capacity to behave in that way being the Son of God. The verse is in fact teaching that the Lord Jesus had an experience on earth that could not have had when he was in heaven. As the eternal Son of the living God he had never been in a position where he needed to be obedient. Angels served him, he created the world, he upheld all things by his powerful word and he was in a position of ultimate authority. But having chosen to become a man he lived a humble life submitting to his Father's will (i.e. God's will) and doing those things which pleased His Father. His obedience took him to the very point of death, Philippians chapter 2, and as a result he laid down his life to pay the price for sin. He provided forgiveness and salvation for those who are prepared to repent of their sins and trust him for salvation. 

I'm just wondering if you are prepared to take seriously your sinful condition. Do you recognise that Christ died for your sins. Will you repent (to turn from your sin) and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, in other words trust Him to save and rescue you?

If you have questions or you would like to get in touch please contact me through www.seek the truth.org.uk

#Apple Story - Sunday - A Bible Blogger's Daily Diary

Some people call Ronald Wayne the most unfortunate man in the world. He was one of the three co-founders of the Apple Computer Company in America, but on April 14th 1976, only 12 day as after the Apple Companystarted, thinking that he didn’t fit in, he sold his 10% share for just over £500. That 10% share would now be worth £50 billion! He spent many years of his later life selling stamps, and struggling with his finances. How sad, but there is a decision that we can make that has to do with our future, that can have even greater consequences.

The Lord Jesus said, ‘what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?’, Mark’s Gospel in the New Testament, chapter eight verses 36 and 37. There is nothing more valuable to you than your soul and its eternal destiny. Even if you obtain all that you ever wanted, but have no thoughts and make no provision for your soul, beware! Your decision to reject Jesus Christ means that you will forfeit a place in heaven. 

Someone has calculated that the sum total of all global wealth is nearly £170 trillion. The richest person in the world, Bill Gates is worth nearly £56 billion. Even the 100th richest person is worth about £8 billion! These figures look impressive, but Jesus said that one human soul is worth more. He, the Son of God, died for our sins – ‘For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God’, 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 18.

‘Christ’s death on the cross is the basis on which God can forgive our sins, ‘not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world’, John’s first epistle, chapter two, verse two. Have your sins been forgiven yet? “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved’, Acts chapter 16 verse 31.

 

 

 

Nobody's perfect bar one - Saturday - The Daily Diary of a Bible Blogger

 I’ve been thinking recently about characters in the news, public figures. It’s sad to notice that so often people we once held in high respect end up having some part of their character exposed as being defective. Think of Lance Armstrong. A man who was outstanding and respected. He had overcome many struggles, difficulties and problems in life and yet there’s a whole area of suspicion over him in terms of being drug-fuelled in his ability to win sport.

Jimmy Saville, a man that who was given great respect in many ways and many opportunities to affect people’s lives and then you think about what he really was like.

There are others. I resist from mentioning names but it’s disappointing at the regularity of the downfall of those who were once respected.

My simple point today on this is. When we look at men and women we see people who are flawed and who will inevitably let us down.

BUT when you come to the life of Jesus Christ He is exemplary. The Bible says He is holy, He is harmless, He’s undefiled, He is different. The Bible says that He is the Lamb without blemish and without spot. The Bible says about Jesus that “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth” (1 Peter 2.22 – the Bible). The Bible says in Him was no sin. In fact the Lord Jesus actually refuted the accusations of men and said to them directly, point blank in their face, which of you convinces me of sin?

And that brings me to the point, of why is this true? It is true because He is God become man, born of a virgin, so He wouldn’t carry human guilt and sin. Miraculously conceived but naturally born. The Son of God (Jesus) came into the world (God was manifested in flesh) and the reason He came was so that He might deal with sin by his sacrificial death on the cross. He paid the price by suffering and taking the just judgment of God for sin. The purpose was that unjust people, like us, could be forgiven. The Bible says “He suffered the just for the unjust, so He might bring us to God”.

Jesus is just, we’re unjust, He’s right, we’re wrong, He’s pure, we’re dirty. He took our judgment, He paid the price, so that we could have forgiveness.

You might look at the great characters of society, politics and sport, scratch your head and say well they don’t seem to come up to the mark. But I want to tell you today about one who does. He will never fail nor be discouraged the Bible says. If you trust Him, if you confess your sin to Him (not to a priest nor a church or an organization), if you come to Him confessing in prayer your sin and asking for cleansing He will forgive. “He saves to the uttermost those that come unto God by Him”.

Look at  ‘Seek the Truth’ or Stephen Baker on YouTube, and look at some of the videos there and make use of them. We trust that they will be helpful. Thanks again for reading this.

To make contact or for more information visit www.seekthetruth.org.uk

Why do we have a keen sense of #justice? - Wednesday - The Daily Diary of a Bible Blogger

We now live in a society where the general opinion about whether things are right or wrong can at times be vague.

I believe that, in the Bible, God has given us clear information about what is right and what is wrong. There is a reality about things being just or unjust. Here are some things to consider:

·      Why do children cry “that’s not fair” or “it’s not right”!

·      Is there is an inbuilt awareness of fairness in a child!

·      Why is it common for people to have a really well developed

      feeling for what is right and what is wrong?

The Bible gives us the explanation. It teaches that God “has written His law in our hearts”. God gave us this inbuilt awareness of right and wrong. Holy scripture (the Bible) teaches that we have a conscience. It teaches that we have inbuilt knowledge within ourselves and a knowledge about ourselves. We automatically can clarify the reality of the rightness or wrongness of the things that we say, feel and do. This is what the word conscience actually means - a knowledge of ourselves.

For example, most of us feel impulsively that to tell blatant lies is wrong. We instinctively know that to remove property that belongs to someone else is wrong. The Bible teaches these principles but somehow we know them to be true! Is that significant or co-incidental?

The ‘ten commandments’ teach that you shouldn’t steal, you shouldn’t lie, and that you shouldn’t take somebody else’s wife and so on. The list defines prohibitions as well as teaching positive things that we should do. Things like loving God with all your heart and with all your soul and all your mind (and Jesus summarized the rest by saying “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” – Matthew 22:39).

You may say to yourself, “I’m not really sure why we all know those things?” Let me come back to what the Bible says - God has planted within us an awareness of right and wrong. Just look across society for a moment. People are very interested in equal rights and equal opportunities. We are very concerned that disabled people are cared for, that ethnic minorities aren’t disadvantaged, that there is religious freedom, freedom of thought and freedom of belief. We campaign for the rights of the unborn child plus we debate people’s rights for free speech. Public behavior is monitored ensuring that people do not overreach themselves and inflict damage on other people or their property. In all of this we try to balance the rights of a society to be free and yet free of criminal activities.

These things are right. I believe we are like this in society because God has implanted in us an awareness of things that are very important to Him - a consciousness of right and wrong and of the realities of living in a way that is fair and equitable. God describes Himself as just, as well as righteous, as doing right. He is a God of light; God is love, a God who is eternal and a God who is all-knowing!

We wouldn’t know these things if God hadn’t revealed them to us in the Bible. This is why the Bible is such a key book for us to read. In fact it is God’s message to humanity and it’s an amazing thing that we have it so freely available despite some societies today that still restrict access to the Word of God.

Let me leave you with a statement from the Bible, the Bible says this, “For Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God”, 1 Peter 3:18. This verse is saying that if God was being just, if God was being fair He would punish is for our sin, He would penalize us, He would judge us for breaking His law because we are guilty. But the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into the world and suffered for sins to bring us to God. He personally suffered the penalty for sin by dying for us. Three days later He was brought up back to life. His resurrection is sufficient evidence that the price for sin was fully paid. His resurrection establishes that you can take advantage of salvation. You do this by confessing your sin (to God, not a religious representative) and asking God to forgive you. You are effectively asking for God’s blessing upon your life.

I wonder if you would take advantage of a God’s offer of salvation today. Will you come to Him for forgiveness and rest upon Him for salvation? You can know what it is to be forgiven and saved.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved – the Bible, Acts 16:31

For more information please visit our webpage www.seekthetruth.org.uk

How do you know that #Jesus actually existed? - Sunday - The Daily Diary of a Bible Blogger

Of course the New Testament, which has proven to be a reliable historical record, attests to His life. 

On top of that, there are more than thirty sources outside of the Bible that attest to more than a hundred facts regarding Jesus’ life, teachings, crucifixion, and resurrection. 

Take, for example, Flavius Josephus, a first century historian. He affirms, not only that Jesus lived, but that He was “a doer of amazing deeds,” that “Pilate condemned Him to be crucified to die,” that He was a teacher who “won over many Jews and many of the Greeks” and that He was reportedly seen alive by His disciples after His crucifixion. 

A second extra-biblical source would be the Babylonian Talmud. This collection of ancient Jewish writings mentions Jesus, even saying that He was killed on the eve of Passover, just as the Biblical account describes. 

Other sources include the Roman historian Tacitus, the Didache, Pliny the Younger, Suetonius, the Gnostic gospels (e.g., the gospel of Thomas), etc. 

The Encyclopedia Britannica, fifteenth edition, devotes 20,000 words to the person of Jesus Christ and never once hints that He didn’t exist. 

The evidence is certain. Jesus of Nazareth was a real person.

Read our blog tomorrow to discover the evidence that Jesus made the most radical claims of any character of history.

More information and contact details can be obtained on www.seekthetruth.org.uk

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#TimeOut - Saturday - The Daily Diary of a Bible Blogger

How are you when it comes to taking time out? Are you good at switching off or do you always seem to be in work mode? I have to admit that I am not very good at switching off. I enjoy what I do and I find that it is easy to keep on going when I should be taking a rest.

Believe it or not the Bible establishes the premise of taking periods of rest. When God made the world he made it in six days and then rested on the seventh (Genesis 2:2, the Bible). Why do we keep on working? Why is there restlessness about us as humans? Is that we never feel that the job is really done properly? Or are we not satisfied with what we have done? Is there a guilt thing that makes us feel that we have never done enough? Do we have to impress others? Or satisfy our own demands? There is not one simple answer but a lot of the above will no doubt apply.

So how did God manage to rest after making this world? Well when God does a job he does it to perfection. He could not have improved on His creation. It was perfect and he was content and satisfied with what he saw on the dawn of creation.

You may at this stage be saying – it doesn’t feel or look like a perfect world to me! And you are right. This world is not perfect but the Bible teaches us that it was when God made it, in Genesis 1 we read that it was good, good and indeed very good. So what went wrong? Why do we have climate disorders, earthquakes and eruptions? Why do we kill each other, hurt each other and damage this world? Why does everything get old, wear out, decay? We are on a downward spiral and nothing can stop these natural processes. Or can they be stopped?

Let’s answer the first question first. Why? You maybe don’t like the answer but the Bible does offer an explanation. ‘By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin,' The Book of Romans 5:12, the Bible. The reason why the downward spiral exists is that everything that is not of God and blessed by God will ultimately fail. God created the universe for our good but good can only be effective in the hands of the creator, God. When we handle good we corrupt it and it is tainted with our fallen nature. We like the first man, Adam , have made our choices and we ‘all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God,' The Book of Romans 3:23, the Bible. God intended mankind to enjoy his blessings for ever free of corruption and death but Adam's acts of rebellion condemned us all as guilty before God. You may feel that this is unfair but these are the facts as revealed by God in His word, the Bible.

Can the downward spiral be stopped? The message of Christianity is this. The ‘Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world,' 1 John 4:14, the Bible. This is not climatic salvation, or economic salvation, or even ethical or moral salvation. All of those things will be effective in a future day but initially God offers personal salvation to individuals. The Lord Jesus Christ said (when in this world) ‘I have come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly,' The Gospel of John 10:10, the Bible. He claimed that if a person took on board what he said and trusted Him and believed that God had sent him that, that person would cross the line from death to life, they would be raised to everlasting life at the Day of Judgement, that they would be saved, The Gospel of John 3:36, 5:24, 11:25.

You might be asking how was all this possible? Was Jesus not just a good man? His claims are too great to be that of just a good man. He is either is the real thing or at best he was deluded and at worst a liar. Check it out, he claimed to come from heaven, he claimed to be equal with God, he claimed to fulfil Bible predictions, he announced that he would draw men to him upon dying, he predicted his own death and coming to life again after three days. These things are either true or false; there is not middle ground.

All I can say to you if you are reading this blog is go, check it out for yourself. Read the Bible. Listen what God has to say. Trust Him. Take Him at His word. If you do e-mail on stepcar61@gmail.com. I would love to hear from you.

Stephen