Is life just a game?

All photos courtesy of Unsplash 

Sports games and competitions are very important to many people. Still, others think they are only games and so don't get too serious about them.

It got me thinking! Is life just a game? From one angle, the answer is no, it is not, and it's a very serious undertaking. You only get one run of it, so don't mess it up. The Lord Jesus warned people about wasting their lives when He said, 'And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?', Mark 8. 36, NLT. You were created to know God, and without Him, this life and the next will be very pointless and hopeless.

Yet, there's a certain truth in the notion that life is akin to a game. Just as games are meticulously planned, so too is our life. The Bible teaches that our existence is not a haphazard occurrence, but a purposeful design. Each of us is a unique creation, born with the mission to know our creator, God. As Jesus said, 'I came that they may have life and have it abundantly' (John 10. 10).

What you are planning?

Have you got any plans? What about the holidays? Do you have any dates in the diary? These and many more questions are asked time and time again at this time of the year. The sun is out and it’s beginning to look like the winter is past and spring has come, so you can get your summer clothes out and plan. So, how are your plans going? For many people, the planning process and the expectation of holidays are almost as good as the holiday itself. I wouldn’t go that far, but I know what they mean. Anticipation and the prospect of getting away and enjoying the break can be very liberating.

Some people get to a stage in life when they feel they have nothing to look forward to. That is so sad, but I can see where they are coming from. If you think that this life is all there is, then it would be pretty logical to get depressed as you get older. Most of us accept that the ageing process will mean adjusting what we do to match our physical ability or energy levels. You can still live an interesting and exciting life if you keep the right attitude and take change in your stride.

Why does life hurt so much?

It’s our aim in this article to address some of the questions that people ask in life and to discover what the Word of God (the Bible) has to say about it. We place real confidence in the Bible because we have become convinced that the Bible is God’s communication to men and women and we wish people to benefit from what God has said.

I’m sure that most would agree that life hurts! That hurt can be caused by the normal progression from youth to old age and all the problems that come with ageing. Sickness also brings its heartaches! Natural disasters are devastating and destructive! To say nothing of the dreadful treatment that people endure at the hands of their fellow man. War and acts of terror produce unimaginable horrors. I’m sure that at times we all question why life is such a difficult and a hurtful experience.

Is there an appropriate response to this? The first thing I’d like to say is that “it's not personal”. What I mean is that we are not usually suffering as individuals because of something specific we have done. Before I go any further let me qualify that statement.  There are times in life when we do reap what we sow. There actually are consequences to our actions! But all the awful things that happen in the world are not usually the direct result of our personal actions.

My main thought when I say it’s not personal is this: ;people don’t die as a result of some sinful thing that they have done; old age doesn’t come because you did something wrong. The fact that we die, that we have sickness, that we grow old is explained to us in the Bible. The bible states that all of these conditions and circumstances exist because sin came into the world. As a result of Adam, the first man in the world, disobeying God the floodgates to all that was evil and damaging were opened. The fact that all of this is the result of the first man’s rebellion to God is explained by the biblical statement “by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin”,; Romans 5:12.

The Bible clearly teaches that God gave man a choice:

Obey Him,

Enjoy His presence,

Enjoy all that He created for him….

But, there is a but, God warned him that the day he ate of the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that he would die. And that is what happened! Adam didn’t die physically but he died as far as his relationship with God was concerned. He was dead spiritually. Sin, death, pain and suffering became the normal experience of life. He had to work by the sweat of his brow for everything. Childbirth became a painful experience for the woman and the earth was cursed. So life hurts as a result; a fact that we know only too well.

However, what is quite incredible about the biblical story of salvation is that God had already a plan in place. God’s plan to provide forgiveness and to offer salvation to men and women was devised long before time began, 1 Peter 1: 19,20.

God had always planned to send His ‘Son to be the Saviour of the world’. He made sure in the writings of the Old Testament, the first half of the Bible, that we would know Him when he visited earth. In the Old Testament, God told the prophets how to identify His Son. There were specific facts such as what family He would be born into, His distinctive and sinless lifestyle and His mode of death. Normally how people will die is an unknown fact but God was making a point in defining how Jesus would die in advance (see Psalm 22:16, Zechariah 12:10, Luke 2: 34,35 – all of these passages of scripture speak of crucifixion which at the time was unknown and of the piercing of the hands and feet of the Lord Jesus). All of this information was so that when He came we would know Him.

To me the greatest and most amazing thing about this whole thing is that God came to earth in person. He was a real but sinless man. He suffered, He hurt and He endured death to pay for our sin. God wants us to be forgiven therefore the price and the legal penalty for our sin was dealt with by the Lord Jesus Christ when He died upon the cross.

The Bible explains it like this:  “Christ died for our sins.”, 1 Corinthians 15:3, “He was despised and rejected of men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief”, Isaiah 53:3.

Today God offers us not hurt but forgiveness;

Today God offers us love.

The Bible tells us, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life”, John 3:16. The greatest proof of the love of God is that, “God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”, Romans 5:8.

I want to point you to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, if you pray to God, today, confessing your sins He will forgive you.

I trust that you will do this.

May God bless you!

This blog is written by Stephen at

I’ll get round to it someday!

How good are you at complaining. One man who was interviewed recently on television reminded us that whinging is different to complaining. Whinging is apparently just moaning but not doing anything about it. Formal complaining means that you are holding the service provider responsible for what they do or do not do and making sure that you get what you are paying for.

 

Once when coming back from a trip to Africa. En-route our cases stayed in Dubai while we flew to Lusaka. They caught up with us eventually, but we have a claim to lodge for extra expenses incurred because of an extra night that we stayed in Lusaka. Have I submitted it yet? I think you probably can guess the answer. 

Most of us feel that we deserve to get what we pay for. This is only fair, and it is our right but how many of us get round to complaining when things go wrong. The purpose for writing this article is not actually to encourage you to complain (not that it would be a bad thing) but to point out that most of us don’t get round to it very often. We mean to but we don’t quite get round to it. That’s true about a lot of things.

 

Think about this for example. How many of us have joined a gym and never used it? How often do we think about slimming but never quite get there? Or your mortgage – you know the rate could be lower but because of the hassle of changing provider we never get round to it. All these examples are about things that could improve our lives but we put off doing anything about. I want to ask you to consider another area of your life which we all tend to ignore and pretend that it’s too much hassle – that is your relationship or lack of one with God. We can all argue why we don’t think God is real but in our hearts, we know that God is there. Most of us live life as if it will never end and accuse people of being morbid who raise the issues of life after death. But we all know that we will die one day and to ignore the afterlife is fatal. You say if I’m wrong, I’m wrong but the reality is if you’re wrong you will be lost forever in a place you don’t want to be. 

The latter years of life - time!

Some people have good physical and mental health well into old age, but we are all different, and for many, these latter years can be a struggle. However, there are some advantages to growing older. I am writing to highlight these benefits to the individual and the wider society. 

Time to Think

In our busy lives, deep reflection often takes a backseat but taking time to think is crucial for effective decision-making, and certain jobs naturally provide more time for contemplation, such as those that involve long-distance travel. Unfortunately, some people choose to avoid deep thinking about life and continually focus on the day-to-day grind. The Bible encourages both the young and old to consider life’s deeper issues. The wise sage Solomon wrote, "Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth," and Paul the Apostle said, "Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel," Thinking is not wasted time if it leads to wise decisions and positive actions.

If you have not considered "the God question" or the afterlife, now may be the time to reflect on these matters before it's too late.

Time for Others

Everyone has the same number of hours in a day, but when you're busy, time often seems to slip away. This can be beneficial, especially if you enjoy your work, but it can also mean that those we love most are sidelined and must make sacrifices for us. One of the benefits of aging and slowing down is the opportunity to spend more time with loved ones—or at least to make the time spent with them more meaningful. As you become more aware of life’s brevity, your focus shifts to what truly matters.

What do you think about dying?

The subject of “assisted dying” has been exercising the minds of many people these days, writes Bert Cargill of St Monans Gospel Hall. Truly death and dying are serious subjects, but not just for discussion or decision by others in Parliament, but rather for each of us to prepare for it before it comes our way as it surely must. Death is one of the few certainties associated with life.

Unsurprisingly the Bible has a lot to tell us about death and indeed how to prepare for it. Of course it also tells us a lot about life and how to live it well for however many years we may be given. But uniquely and authoritatively its pages describe to us what comes next, after death. It unveils the beauty and bliss of heaven for all who have chosen Jesus Christ as their saviour from sin. It gives to believers the assurance of being with Him for all eternity freed from all the troubles of this life whatever these were. A Christian’s death is described as “dying in faith”, and “departing to be with Christ which is far better”.

Has the concept of truth fallen on hard times?

The concept of truth has clearly fallen on hard times.

Pilate posed one of the most profound and eternally significant questions in the Bible. He asked Jesus in His final hour, “What is truth?” It was a cynical response to what Jesus had just revealed: “I have come into the world, to testify to the truth.” Two thousand years later, the whole world breathes Pilate’s cynicism, with good cause.

So, what is truth?

Here’s a simple definition drawn from what the Bible teaches: Truth is that which is consistent with the mind, will, character, glory, and being of God. Even more to the point: Truth is the self-expression of God. That is the biblical meaning of truth.

The Old Testament refers to the Almighty as the “God of truth” (Deut. 32:4; Ps. 31:5; Is. 65:16). When Jesus said of Himself, “I am...the truth” (John 14:6), He was making a profound claim about His own deity. He was also making it clear that all truth must ultimately be defined in terms of God and His eternal glory. After all, Jesus is “the brightness of [God’s] glory and the express image of His person” (Heb. 1:3). He is truth incarnate—the perfect expression of God and therefore the absolute embodiment of all that is true.

Jesus also said that the written Word of God is truth. It does not merely contain nuggets of truth; it is pure and unchangeable truth that (according to Jesus) “cannot be broken” (John 10:35).

Of course, there cannot be any difference between the written Word of God (the Bible) and the incarnate Word of God (Jesus). In the first place, truth by definition cannot contradict itself. Second, the Bible is called “the word of Christ” (Col. 3:16). It is His message, His self-expression. In other words, the truth of Christ and the truth of the Bible are of the very same character. They are in perfect agreement in every respect. Both are equally true. God has revealed Himself to humanity through The Bible and through His Son. Both perfectly embody the essence of what truth is.

The Bible also says God reveals basic truth about Himself in nature. The heavens declare His glory (Ps. 19:1). His other invisible attributes (such as His wisdom, power, and beauty) are on constant display in what He has created (Rom. 1:20). Knowledge of Him is inborn in the human heart (Rom. 1:19), and a sense of the moral character and loftiness of His law is implicit in every human conscience (Rom. 2:15).

Those things are universally self-evident truths. According to Romans 1:20, denial of the spiritual truths we know innately always involves a deliberate and culpable unbelief. And for those who wonder whether basic truths about God and His moral standards really are stamped on the human heart, ample proof can be found in the long history of human law and religion. To suppress this truth is to dishonour God, displace His glory, and incur His wrath (vv. 19-20).

Still, the only infallible interpreter of what we see in nature or know innately in our own consciences is the explicit revelation of The Bible. Since the Bible is also the one place where we are given the way of salvation, entrance into the kingdom of God, and an infallible account of Christ, the Bible is the touchstone to which all truth claims should be brought and by which all other truth must finally be measured.

Truth also means nothing apart from God. Truth cannot be adequately explained, recognized, understood, or defined without God as the source. Since He alone is eternal and self-existent and He alone is the Creator of all else, He is the fountain of all truth.

There are serious moral implications whenever someone tries to dissociate truth from the knowledge of God. Abandon a biblical definition of truth, and unrighteousness is the inescapable result. We see it happening before our eyes in every corner of contemporary society. What we see today is a fulfillment of what Romans chapter 1 says always happens when a society denies and suppresses the essential connection between God and truth.

Truth is not subjective, it is not a consensual cultural construct, and it is not an invalid, outdated, irrelevant concept. Truth is the self-expression of God. Truth is thus theological; it is the reality God has created and defined, and over which He rules. Truth is therefore a moral issue for every human being.

How each person responds to the truth God has revealed is an issue of eternal significance. To reject and rebel against Jesus Christ, who is the Word of God, results in darkness, folly, sin, judgment, and the never-ending wrath of God. To accept and submit to Jesus Christ is experience the forgiveness and blessing of God, to know with certainty, and to find life everlasting.

Written by a guest blogger:

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Military Men who followed Jesus

My Bible reading this morning was about the conversion of a Roman Centurion. He was a most unlikely candidate to become a follower of Jesus (the term Christian was not used at that time, but that was what he became).

Roman Centurions (I am generalising now) were usually battle hardened, professional, cynical, and no nonsense type of people. Faith in the unseen or putting your trust in someone else wasn’t how they normally operated unless, of course, it was obeying your commanding officer. They usually liked to be in control, pragmatic and deal in realities i.e. things that could be seen, touched and controlled. Maybe you are like that and quite cynical about spiritual matters.

Before I talk about Cornelius, that was his name, let me tell you about another Centurion. The Gospel writer, Matthew, tells us about him. Jesus had just arrived in Capernaum when a group of men from a synagogue approached him asking him to come to this unnamed Centurion’s house to heal his servant who was dying. There are a couple of things that are usual about this story (read it in Luke 7:1-10 or Matthew 8:5-13). 

Is it the soft option to be a Christian?

Being a Christian is not necessarily an easy option. Believe it or not it takes backbone and courage to stick to what you believe when the majority of people disagree with you. It would often be easier to go with the flow and accept the status quo but to be truthful, that would be a betrayal of my conscience.

I often give public talks in Liverpool City Centre. Street preaching is not socially acceptable but it is legal as long as you don’t cause a breach of the peace or are inflammatory in the language that you use to express yourself. The downside is that you are exposing yourself to ridicule. If you take the liberty of expressing your views in public you have to be willing to listen to what other people have to say and be prepared to defend your viewpoint.

There is always a courteous way to present your point of view but it is important to be honest and above board so that people can trust what you say. In the holy scriptures, the apostle Paul was very keen to make it clear that he was never deceitful or crafty in the way he communicated the message of the gospel. This is what he says - ‘But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God,’ 2 Cor 4. 2.

Wisdom Literature

 

As anyone who reads this column knows, I love reading the Bible and believe it is the ultimate source of wisdom for every area of life. One section of the Bible comes under the heading of 'wisdom literature'. It starts with the book of Job, where the meaning and purpose of suffering are discussed. It's a thorny problem and one where glib answers are not appropriate. As Job struggles through circumstances that challenge every fibre of his faith, he asks many questions. This is normal and part of working through tough situations in life.

 

In Job chapter 28, he poses the question - Where can wisdom be found? This is still a relevant question. Look at all the intelligence in our nation. We live in a country with many universities, and over 45% of people in the United Kingdom have some form of post-secondary education, but wisdom often evades us. Ultimate wisdom is found in God and His Son, Jesus Christ. Daniel, one of the outstanding Bible characters, said, 'Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding; he reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him^[1]'.

 

In the same chapter, Job states that even in the early days of human history, humans had developed the ability to discover wealth and natural resources. They harnessed nature and found vast reserves of mineral and physical wealth. They surpassed all of the rest of the animal creation in this ability, but what is his point? 

Who am I?

There are many answers and very likely lots of them are true. You are the son or daughter of ‘so and so’. You are a man, woman, married, single, have children, no children, arty, musical, clever, practical - so the list goes on.

There are so many things that are different about each of us but we also have some common traits. We are all human. This covers a lot of ground. Our birth, our frailty, our fears, our flaws and mistakes, our hurt, our death.

Have you ever stopped to think why there are so many things we have in common? 

The Bible explains the reason. God created us in the first place ‘in his image’. This among other things gives us the capacity to be creative, think and make choices. The first man, Adam, made a choice to disobey one of the simple commands of God and as a result ‘sin came into the world’. This brings us to another common feature of humanity, we are mortal. We are naturally wayward, the Bible calls it sin. Let’s be honest, we all know that we disobey the law to varying degrees. That’s mans law, but we also disobey God’s law as well. The effect of sin on a day to day basis is the hurt, pain, aging and mistakes mentioned earlier. The ultimate common effect of sin in all of our lives is death. Death is an awful thing. It separates us from our loved ones, it causes pain and brings dark days into our lives. BUT, death also is the defining moment which seals our eternal fate. What we have believed in this life cannot be changed after death. Death is the gateway to the next world which the Bible describes as being one of two places, heaven or hell. Heaven being a place of conscious enjoyment and bliss, hell of conscious regret and suffering.

5 Reasons Jesus Rose from the Dead

In this article, I will share five reasons I believe Jesus' resurrection actually took place. 

You can remember these five reasons with the acronym:

R.I.S.E.N.

The first reason I believe Jesus' resurrection is a fact of history is… 

1. The RISE of Christianity in Jerusalem

It is an accepted historical fact that the Christian faith (a religion built upon the preaching of its leader's resurrection) originated in approximately A.D. 32, right in the very city of Jerusalem, where Jesus had been publicly crucified and buried. Historical sources outside the Bible have verified this. Now, this in itself is a good piece of evidence that the resurrection actually occurred. Why?

A message calling people to repent and put their faith in a risen man could never have gained any substantial following amongst the Jews if the tomb had not actually been empty and had the Jewish people not seen Jesus alive after His crucifixion.

'The message of a risen man could not have been maintained a moment in Jerusalem if the grave was still occupied,' Josh McDowell, A Ready Defense, 232.

Remember that Jesus' disciples did not run off to Athens or Rome to preach that Christ rose from the dead, where the facts could not be verified. They returned to Jerusalem, where they would have been quickly exposed and disproved—if what they were teaching was false. The critics could have exposed the disciples as liars, and Christianity would never have got off the ground. The local authorities could have said, “Hey! Here is the grave and the body!” and squashed the whole movement.

But that never happened! Not only did Christianity originate in Jerusalem, but it also thrived there!

Luke, whose writings have been confirmed by numerous extrabiblical writings and archaeological discoveries, tells us that 3,000 people believed the first post-resurrection sermon preached a few minutes’ walk from the tomb, Acts 2:41. Later in the same chapter in Acts 2, Luke says that the church was growing daily, Acts 2:47. By Acts 4:4, Luke declares there were 5,000 believers comprising the early Christian church in Jerusalem. By Acts 6:7, Luke just says the number of disciples “continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem". He was apparently losing count!

Not only did Christianity originate and flourish in Jerusalem, but it also triumphed over several competing ideologies and eventually overwhelmed the entire Roman Empire.

By the early fourth century, when the Roman emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, historians say there were around thirty million Christians, Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity, 156; Dinesh D’Souza, What’s So Great About Christianity, 297.

Here's a question for you. Is it reasonable to suppose that thousands of people within those early days following Jesus' death were actually deceived into believing a man rose from the dead? I don’t think so.

The best explanation for the immediate rise of the early church, right amid a community that had not only been hostile to Jesus but that demanded His crucifixion, is the resurrection. People had seen Jesus! Acts 1:3 says that Jesus “presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.” 

The resurrection catapulted New Testament Christianity into existence. So, the first reason I believe in Christ’s resurrection is the rise of Christianity in Jerusalem. 

2. The INCREDIBLE Persecution and Deaths Endured by the Disciples

When Jesus was arrested and led away to be crucified, the Gospels tell us that His disciples…

• fled in fear (Matthew 26:56)
• went into hiding (John 20:19)
• lost hope (Luke 24:21) 

A short time later, we read that something amazing happened. These same fearful men went through a dramatic transformation. Within a few weeks of Jesus' crucifixion, these same men were standing face to face with the people who had crucified their leader, preaching that Jesus was alive, telling people that they needed to turn from their wicked ways and know that Jesus was both Messiah and Lord, Acts 2:36-38. 

To prevent this belief from spreading, the same authorities who had Jesus crucified…   

     

• threatened the disciples
• flogged them
• beat them
• imprisoned them
• and forbade them to speak the name of Jesus see  Acts 4:16-18, 5:28.

So, what did the disciples do? They returned and said to the Jewish leaders, “We must obey God rather than men, Acts 5:29.”

After saying, “We must obey God rather than men,” they went on “rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name. Every day, in the temple and from house to house, they kept teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ, Acts 5:41-42.”

But their boldness had a cost.

Flavius Josephus, Eusebius, Tertullian, and other independent extrabiblical sources record for us that many of Jesus’ earliest followers, including the apostles, suffered intense persecution and even death for their ongoing belief and preaching that Jesus was Lord and had risen from the dead. These extrabiblical sources tell us that...

• Matthew was slain with a sword in a city in Ethiopia
• Mark died in Alexandria, in Northern Egypt, after having been cruelly dragged through the streets of that city. 
• Luke was hung upon an olive tree in the land of Greece
• John was tortured and banished to the Isle of Patmos, Revelation 1:9
• James, the brother of John, was beheaded in Jerusalem, Acts 12:2
• James the Less, as he’s called in Mark 15:40, was thrown from a pinnacle of the temple
• Philip was hung up against a pillar at Heiropolis in the province of Phrygia 
• Bartholomew was flayed alive
• Andrew was bound to a cross and left to die
• Jude was shot to death with arrows
• Matthias, the apostle chosen to replace Judas, was first stoned and then beheaded
• Barnabas was stoned to death by the Jews at Salonica
• Paul, after a variety of tortures and imprisonments, was finally beheaded in Rome 
• Thomas was run through the body with a spear in east India
• Peter was crucified upside down in Rome

All of this is very sobering, isn't it?

Here's a question for you. Were these men lying?

I find it very difficult to believe these men “made up a story” about Jesus and then spent years enduring persecution, imprisonments, and such, only to die these kinds of painful deaths. Nobody lies to get themselves into these kinds of predicaments! People lie to get out of these kinds of things!

Well, the fact that these men laid down their lives, unwilling to recant or admit falsehood in the face of beatings, stonings, and torture, is another reason I believe the resurrection actually took place.