Menu
Personal Blog entries
|
You are a professed Christian and believe that Jesus died for your sins. You have been baptized, read your Bible, go to church on Sunday and tithe as you feel you should. Yet when it comes to discussing your faith you are shy. You feel it best to suppress conversations about your faith rather than discuss it with friends or family. Christians are being intimidated by several sources to keep their faith to themselves. In a world of tolerance, it is very intolerant of a Christian worldview. Still, we are called to spread the Good News. When we try we find ourselves often on the defense of the conversation. We get peppered with questions and often we are not prepared to give a thoughtful answer for our faith as we are told (1Peter 3:15). It is a very uncomfortable place to be. So how do we do it? We need to prepare
0 Comments
Ever wish you could time travel? What era would you want to go to? Who would you want to meet? Most people will pick some significant time. They will also have a desire to speak with a historic figure to try and make sense of what occurred. Who are the historical figures you would pick? Personally, I am fascinated with the period after Jesus’s death and resurrection. Of course, time travel is not possible but we can look back in time and try to understand things a bit more through what people wrote down
Every parent can remember that first question every child asks, “Why?” Often the answer we gave our children had the exact same follow-up question, “Why?” Parents are often so frustrated they respond with “Because I said so” or some other imperative statement. We, from a very young age, begin to question. We search for answers to our questions. These questions are extremely important as they will frame the answers we get.
There was a game show when I was growing up called “To Tell the Truth”. Three people stood in front of a panel of judges. A biography of one of those three people was read. All three people acknowledged being the person described. Of course, only one person actually fit the bill. The other two pretended to be the person that the bio was being read about. Panelists got to ask questions to each contestant. Through those questions had to discover the person that matched the bio. The actual person had to tell the truth. Others would try to be convincingly untruthful. The imposters got a cash bonus for fooling the panelists. How can we tell who is telling the truth and who is trying to fool us?
Transformers, “more than meets the eye”, a tag line from a TV commercial from the 80’s about a robot alien race from another planet. They are mysteriously disguised as cars that change into robots when they spring into action to save the human race from another group of bad robot aliens. Today the Transformers are experiencing even more success as a movie franchise. They take two cool things cars and robots and combines them. With today’s engineering wizardry the toys and even costumes do a good job of allowing your imagination to run wild and take these concepts out of the cartoon and CGI (computer-generated imagery) world into reality. The transformation of Paul is just as fascinating and there may be more than meets the eye to it also.
Does this equation make any sense to you “Dε(z0) = {z ∈ C | |z − z0| < ε}” ? It is an advanced equation in calculus. It makes no sense to me as I never took calculus. If you understand it would you try to explain it to someone with no understanding of calculus? Most likely not. It will take years of study before they are able to understand it depending on their baseline knowledge. If one had no knowledge of math you need to start with the basics. Next study some advanced classes. After that algebra would be in order and maybe Geometry and some logic classes might help. Finally, of course, focusing on calculus. After years of studying, you might be able to understand what the equation is trying to express. I believe it is the same as our Scriptures.
After surviving the plane strike at the World Trade Center on 9-11, I fell into a fog for weeks, months and even the years that followed. The feeling and depression of survivors guilt is something that can’t be easily explained. The only people I have found that can relate are people that have also suffered from it, Vietnam Vets, crash survivors where others have died, other victims and so on. I guess first-hand experience is best to be able to relate to it. But even if you have not experienced it there is much one can do with good reason and results.
It seems everything you buy today has an add-on warranty. Typically, I don't buy these warranties. I see it as just paying more for the item. Plus I don't think I will ever be able to provide the proof of the extended warranty if the need arises. I will most likely misplace the receipt and I will be no better off for having paid extra. But there are people that do buy these things. They have a lack of confidence the product will hold up under the strain and pressure of use. Do I as a Christian need an extended warranty to hold up? At times I know I lacked faith and sorely lacked confidence in that faith. How can we have more confidence in what we believe?
I remember 9-11 like it was yesterday. There is a long personal story behind it, suffice to say I was in Tower 1 when the first plane struck the building. I often get the chance to speak about God’s grace that day and am glad to do so. My wife had a different experience. She woke to the sound of a ringing phone. My father wanted to know if I was at work. She responded yes and asked why. My father instructed her to turn on the TV. She began to watch the events of that day unfold. People began to show up at the door to comfort her and wait for any word on my fate. I was glad that I was not in her position. For a period of time, she did not know where I was or what was happening to me. For a few hours, she was a widow.
When I was young I remember that one of the three TV channels back then we had would show a movie in the late afternoon around 4:30. They were typically low budget movies like Godzilla, Godzilla vs Mothra, Godzilla and …… well at least those were my favorites. Around Easter, that channel would turn to more inspirational shows like the Ten Commandments, Ben Hur, King of Kings, The Robe and more. I enjoyed watching these inspirational movies and still do.
I was excited to see that the History Channel was doing a four-part series on Jesus. I anticipated this would be an inspirational series around the Easter Holiday like yesteryear. I hoped for a Biblical message. The show started out well. It depicted the story of Mary and Joseph. Mary learning she was chosen by God to bear His son. Her telling Joseph about what has been revealed to her and his wrestling with disbelief. Joseph than getting his own message and accepting Mary’s condition. I thought good. This is going in the right direction. I forgot that it was the History Channel doing the series. |
Author - Guy YasikaLooking to profess my faith to anyone that will listen. |
Proudly powered by Weebly